He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1929 to 1945, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of John Bracken and Stuart Garson.
He trained as a shoemaker with his father and followed that trade until 1893 when he moved to Manitoba and entered business as a merchant.
[2] He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in a by-election held on June 22, 1929, following the death of former Conservative leader Richard Gardiner Willis.
Welch was narrowly re-elected in the 1932 provincial election,[1] defeating a Liberal-Progressive candidate by only 55 votes.
Welch was chosen as one of his party's cabinet representatives, and was named a minister without portfolio on November 4, 1940.