Socialism in Canada has a long history and along with conservatism and liberalism is a political force in Canada.[1]
In its early days, Canada's socialist movement gained momentum in Western Canada. The Socialist Labor Party was formed in 1898 in Vancouver. The Socialist Party of British Columbia in 1901. The Socialist Party of Canada was the first Canadian-wide based Socialist party by native Canadians, founded in 1904. Later, the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and Great Depression (1929–1939) are considered to have fuelled socialism in Canada.
The Socialist Labor Party was Canada's first socialist party, formed in 1898 by Canadian supporters of the ideas of American socialist Daniel De Leon and the Socialist Labor Party of America.[2] It became a national party in the 1930s and had its headquarters in Toronto. 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]
The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the Western Clarion newspaper. The party was founded at the Socialist 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 up One Big Union in Canada. [4] The SPC strongly opposed Canada's participation in World War I. As a result of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. The party disbanded in 1925.[5]
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) was founded in 1932 as an agrarian socialist party. Its first platform was the Regina Manifesto, adopted in 1933. The CCF gained popularity among industrial workers throughout the 1930s. In 1944, the Saskatchewan wing of the party formed the first Socialist government in a Canadian province and stayed in power until 1964.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) was founded in 1961, as a merger of the CCF and the interests of the Canadian Labour Congress. At the end of a five-day-long founding convention that established its principles, policies and structures, Tommy Douglas, the long-time CCF Premier 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 and democratic socialism are influences on the party".
The Socialist Labor Party was Canada's first socialist party, formed in 1898 by Canadian supporters of the ideas of American socialist Daniel De Leon and the Socialist Labor Party of America.[7] It became a national party in the 1930s and had its headquarters in Toronto. 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]
The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the Western Clarion newspaper. The party was founded at the Socialist Party of British Columbia's 4th annual convention in December 1904. The SPC was instrumental in setting up One Big Union in Canada. [9] The SPC strongly opposed participation in World War I. As a result of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and moved to the Communist Party. The party disbanded in 1925.[10] But a new party of that name was resurrected in 1931 and has operated to the present.
The Communist 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, the Communist Party of Canada experienced a brief surge in popularity, becoming influential in various labour unions and electing a single Member of Parliament, Fred Rose. The Communist Party of Canada was created in Guelph, Ontario in 1921 by a group of Marxist activists led by William 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 the On-to-Ottawa Trek and before that organized the young inmates of the relief camps into the Relief Camp Workers' Union to resist the poor conditions of the camps. The On-to-Ottawa Trek never made it to Ottawa; instead, it ended with the Regina Riot of July 1, 1935. The trek and the living conditions in the government's "relief camps" helped to discredit Conservative Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, leading to his defeat at the hands of the Liberals in 1935. After the trek the communists were instrumental in organizing over 1,448 Canadians to fight in the Spanish Civil War
Joined by volunteers of other political stripes, the Canadian contingent known as the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion joined the International Brigades (a coalition of volunteers from many countries) to fight for the elected leftwing government of the Second Spanish Republic against the fascist-supported insurgency of General Francisco Franco. The "Mac-Paps" fought bravely in many battles but were forced to leave Spain in 1938 by Prime Minister Juan 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 the Mackenzie–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 the Second Sino-Japanese War, while aiding the Chinese Communist Party. Today, he is a national hero in the People's Republic of China and is remembered as being a friend of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
By the end of World War II, the Communist Party began to lose its momentum. Its only elected federal representative, Fred Rose, was accused of being a Soviet spy. Rose was expelled from parliament, imprisoned for four years, and then followed at every job site by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). He eventually left for Poland with the intention of returning to clear his name but the government revoked his Canadian citizenship in 1957, preventing his return.
By a wide margin, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a democratic socialist political party from the Prairies with its origins in the Christian left and the social 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 many labour unions.
Led by Tommy Douglas, the Saskatchewan CCF was elected to power during the 1944 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 the election of 1941 and in Ontario during the province's 1943 election. In 1944, 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 the 1945 federal election. This surge in popularity translated into only modest gains for the party. (Under the First-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 Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to introduce welfare state policies. 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 the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP is more moderate and social-democratic than its predecessor, the CCF. The Regina Manifesto of the CCF called for abolishing capitalism while the NDP merely wants to reform capitalism. They are generally perceived as being responsible for the creation of universal healthcare, pensions, a human rights code and for the development of Canada's social safety net in general.[12] In the past, the NDP has formed provincial governments in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. The NDP government created a public auto insurance company upon taking power in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia. At present only British Columbia has a New Democratic government, while the NDP is the official opposition in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Yukon.
At the federal level the NDP has held strong influence over various minority governments, in particular a Liberal minority led by Pierre Trudeau from 1972–1974 during the 29th Canadian Parliament. During this period, due to the unpopularity of the first phase of the National Energy Program and the need to maintain confidence 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, called Petro Canada.[13]
The NDP has also held influence over other Liberal-led minority governments during the Lester B. Pearson government (1963–1968) and the Paul 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 of Quebec, the NDP has been considerably less popular, but recently, in the May 2, 2011 Canadian 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 the 41st Canadian Parliament.
For most of the late 20th century, the strongest social-democratic party in Quebec has been the sovereigntist Parti 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 include Socialist Action (Canada) the International Socialists (Canada), Socialist Alternative (Canada), Spring, the Communist League (Canada), Autonomy & Solidarity,[15] and the London Project for a Participatory Society,[16] among others.
Leftist parties that have held seats in the House of Commons of Canada and provincial legislatures.