Neil Reimer

Who was Neil Reimer?

Neil Reimer was an activist, trade unionist and former political figure in Canada.

After leaving the University of Saskatchewan in 1942 at the age of 19, Reimer went to work at the Consumers Co-operative Refinery, in Regina, Saskatchewan. He immediately joined a Congress of Industrial Organizations union organizing drive at the refinery. In 1950, he became an organizer for the CIO's Oil Workers International Union and was sent to Alberta to organize workers in that province's booming petrochemical industry.

In 1951, Reimer became the Canadian director of the OWIU. Under his stewardship, the union grew from less than 1,000 members to more than 20,000 by 1961. In the 1981 union gained independence from its American parent to become the Energy and Chemical Workers Union and, in 1992, merged with two other unions to become the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

Reimer was elected as a vice-president of the Canadian Congress of Labour in the 1950s and remained on the executive of it and its successor, the Canadian Labour Congress, until 1974.

In 1961, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress founded the New Democratic Party. In January 1962, the Alberta New Democratic Party held its founding convention and elected Reimer as its first leader. The Alberta CCF had lost its remaining two seats in the 1959 provincial election and received only 4% of the vote. Under Reimer's leadership the NDP gained in popular vote to 9% in the 1963 election and just short of 16% in the 1967 election but was unable to win any seats in either contest. Reimer retired as NDP leader in 1968 relinquishing the position to Grant Notley.