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Socialism in Canada has a long history as apolitical force in the country, along withconservatism andliberalism.[1]
In its early days, Canada'ssocialist movement gained momentum inWestern Canada. TheSocialist Labor Party was formed in 1898 in Vancouver. TheSocialist Party of British Columbia in 1901. TheSocialist Party of Canada was the first Canadian-wide basedSocialist party by native Canadians, founded in 1904. Later, theWinnipeg General Strike of 1919 andGreat Depression (1929–1939) are considered to have fuelled socialism in Canada.
TheSocialist Labor Party was Canada's first socialist party, formed in 1898 by Canadian supporters of the ideas of American socialistDaniel De Leon and theSocialist Labor Party of America.[2] It became a national party in the 1930s and had its headquarters inToronto. The party never won any seats. The party ran only a small number of candidates (listed below), all of whom placed last in their respective elections.[3]
TheSocialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led byE. T. Kingsley. It published theWestern Clarion newspaper. The party was founded at theSocialist Party of British Columbia's 4th annual convention in December 1904. It elected MLAs in BC, Alberta and Manitoba between 1904 and 1922. The SPC was instrumental in setting upOne Big Union in Canada.[4] The SPC strongly opposed Canada's participation inWorld War I. As a result of theRussian Revolution and theWinnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted toBolshevism and the ideas ofVladimir Lenin andLeon Trotsky. The party disbanded in 1925.[5]
TheCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was founded in 1932 as an agrarian socialist party. Its first platform was theRegina Manifesto, adopted in 1933. The CCF gained popularity among industrial workers throughout the 1930s. In 1944, theSaskatchewan wing of the party formed the first Socialist government in a Canadian province and stayed in power until1964.
TheNew Democratic Party (NDP) was founded in 1961, as a merger of the CCF and the interests of theCanadian Labour Congress. At the end of a five-day-long founding convention that established its principles, policies and structures,Tommy Douglas, the long-time CCFPremier of Saskatchewan, was elected its first leader.[6] While the NDP has never won a federal election, its provincial wings have taken power in six out of ten provinces since its inception. In the preamble of its original constitution, the NDP self-described as a socialist party. Since 2013, the party constitution states that "social democracy anddemocratic socialism are influences on the party".
TheSocialist Labor Party was Canada's first socialist party, formed in 1898 by Canadian supporters of the ideas of American socialistDaniel De Leon and theSocialist Labor Party of America.[7] It became a national party in the 1930s and had its headquarters inToronto. The party never won any seats. The party ran only a small number of candidates (listed below), all of whom placed last in their respective elections.[8]
TheSocialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led byE. T. Kingsley. It published theWestern Clarion newspaper. The party was founded at theSocialist Party of British Columbia's 4th annual convention in December 1904. The SPC was instrumental in setting upOne Big Union in Canada.[9] The SPC strongly opposed participation inWorld War I. As a result of theRussian Revolution and theWinnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted toBolshevism and the ideas ofVladimir Lenin andLeon Trotsky and moved to the Communist Party. The party disbanded in 1925.[10] Buta new party of that name was resurrected in 1931 and has operated to the present.
TheCommunist Party of Canada was founded in 1920 and is the oldest active socialist party in Canada, and the second-oldest active political party in Canada.
During the Great Depression, theCommunist Party of Canada experienced a brief surge in popularity, becoming influential in variouslabour unions and electing a singleMember of Parliament,Fred Rose. The Communist Party of Canada was created inGuelph,Ontario in 1921 by a group of Marxist activists led byWilliam Moriarty. During the early years of their existence, the party's membership faced persecution and arrest for their political activities. In 1935 the Communists gained notoriety by organizing a massive march of unemployed workers known as theOn-to-Ottawa Trek and before that organized the young inmates of the relief camps into theRelief Camp Workers' Union to resist the poor conditions of the camps. The On-to-Ottawa Trek never made it toOttawa; instead, it ended with theRegina Riot of July 1, 1935. The trek and the living conditions in the government's "relief camps" helped to discreditConservative Prime MinisterR. B. Bennett, leading to his defeat at the hands of theLiberals in1935. After the trek the communists were instrumental in organizing over 1,448 Canadians to fight in theSpanish Civil War
Joined by volunteers of other political stripes, the Canadian contingent known as theMackenzie-Papineau Battalion joined theInternational Brigades (a coalition of volunteers from many countries) to fight for the elected leftwing government of theSecond Spanish Republic against thefascist-supported insurgency of GeneralFrancisco Franco. The "Mac-Paps" fought bravely in many battles but were forced to leave Spain in 1938 by Prime MinisterJuan Negrín López along with the other foreign volunteers as it became clear that the war was lost. Of the nearly 1,500 Canadians known to have fought in Spain, 721 were verified as having lost their lives. The most famous Canadian to serve in theMackenzie–Papineau Battalion was Dr.Norman Bethune, a surgeon who would invent the world's first mobile medical unit. Dr. Bethune would later be killed during theSecond Sino-Japanese War, while aiding theChinese Communist Party. Today, he is a national hero in thePeople's Republic of China and is remembered as being a friend of Chinese leaderMao Zedong.
By the end ofWorld War II, the Communist Party began to lose its momentum. Its only elected federal representative, Fred Rose, was accused of being aSoviet spy. Rose was expelled from parliament, imprisoned for four years, and then followed at every job site by theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). He eventually left forPoland with the intention of returning to clear his name. However, the government revoked Rose's Canadian citizenship in 1957, preventing his return.
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By a wide margin, theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), ademocratic socialist political party from thePrairies with its origins in theChristian left and thesocial gospel, became the most influential socialist party in Canada. It was formed by the merger of several farmer and labour parties, mostly of western Canada. The CCF gained support among farmers on the Prairies as well as from manylabour unions.
Led byTommy Douglas, the Saskatchewan CCF was elected to power during the1944 Saskatchewan election. Douglas governed Saskatchewan until 1961. As of 2019, this party is an important force in the politics of the province.
The CCF also has become the official opposition in British Columbia during theelection of 1941 and in Ontario during the province's1943 election. In1944, it took a quarter of Alberta votes.[11]
At the federal level, opinion polls initially indicated a dramatic surge in support for the CCF prior to the1945 federal election. This surge in popularity translated into only modest gains for the party. (Under theFirst-past-the-post voting system, the CCF got about half the seats that it was due proportionally.) But its visibility is widely believed to have inspired Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King to introduce welfare state policies.[weasel words]Gad Horowitz and some other political scientists see the CCF and the early democratic socialist movement as mainly a Christian and European Canadian movement.
In 1961, the CCF joined with theCanadian Labour Congress to form theNew Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP is moremoderate andsocial-democratic than its predecessor, the CCF. TheRegina Manifesto of the CCF called for abolishingcapitalism while the NDP merely wants to reform capitalism. They are generally perceived as being responsible for the creation ofuniversal healthcare,pensions, a human rights code and for the development of Canada'ssocial safety net in general.[12] In the past, the NDP has formed provincial governments inAlberta,British Columbia,Yukon Territory,Saskatchewan,Manitoba,Ontario, andNova Scotia. The NDP government created apublic auto insurance company upon taking power in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia. At present British Columbia and Manitoba have New Democratic governments, while the NDP is the official opposition in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Yukon.
At the federal level the NDP has held strong influence over variousminority governments, in particular a Liberal minority led byPierre Trudeau from 1972–1974 during the29th Canadian Parliament. During this period, due to the unpopularity of the first phase of theNational Energy Program and the need to maintainconfidence of the House of Commons, the Liberal Party acquiesced to an earlier NDP proposal to create a national petroleum company, forming a state-owned oil company, calledPetro Canada.[13]
The NDP has also held influence over other Liberal-led minority governments during theLester B. Pearson government (1963–1968) and thePaul Martin government (2004–2006). Their self-stated goal is to one day form a federal government on their own and introduce social-democratic policies.
In the province ofQuebec, the NDP has been considerably less popular, However, in the May 2, 2011Canadian Federal Election a record number of NDP Members of Parliament were elected, including 59 of the 75 available seats in Quebec. The party was the Official Opposition in the41st Canadian Parliament. However since then, the NDP has seen its support decline.
For most of the late 20th century, the strongest social-democratic party in Quebec has been thesovereigntistParti Québécois. Like the NDP, the Parti Québécois is generally considered to be "social democratic".[14]
Many socialists in Canada have attempted to organize outside of the framework of parliamentary politics, to pursue conceptions of socialism that are more radical than the social-democratic politics of either the CCF or the NDP.
Some of the radical socialist organizations operating in Canada today includeSocialist Action (Canada) theInternational Socialists (Canada),Socialist Alternative (Canada),Spring, theCommunist League (Canada), Autonomy & Solidarity,[15] and the London Project for a Participatory Society,[16] among others.
Leftist parties that have held seats in theHouse of Commons of Canada and provincial legislatures.
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