Communist Party of Canada

History

Origins (1921–1928)

Between May 23 and 25, 1921, local communists and socialists held clandestine meetings in a barn behind a farmhouse (owned by Elizabeth Farley) at 257 Metcalf Street, then in the outskirts of Guelph, Ontario. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer, working undercover, attended the meetings. His report states that delegates attended from "Winnipeg, Vancouver, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Sudbury and Regina" and that Soviet Russia had offered to provide funding for the group. In addition to Guelph resident Fred Farley, a member of the United Communist Party of America, the attendees named in the RCMP report included Thomas J. Bell (a lithographer born in Ireland), Lorne Cunningham (an alderman), Trevor Maguire (one of the few in the group who was born in Canada) and Florence Custance (a teacher from Toronto). The group was "incessantly praising the Soviet Government of Russia, and urging the overthrow of the Government of Canada", according to the police report.

The Communist Party of Canada (CPC) was subsequently founded on May 28, 1921. Many of its founding members had worked as labour organizers and as anti-war activists and had belonged to groups such as the Socialist Party of Canada, One Big Union, the Socialist Labour Party, the Industrial Workers of the World, and other socialist, Marxist, or Labour parties or clubs and organizations. The first members felt inspired by the Russian Revolution, and radicalized by the negative aftermath of World War I and the fight to improve living standards and labour rights, including the experience of the Winnipeg General Strike. The Comintern accepted the party as its Canadian section in December 1921; thus, the CPC adopted an organizational structure and policy similar to other communist parties at the time.

The party alternated between legality and illegality during the 1920s and 1930s. Because of the War Measures Act in effect at its time of creation, the party operated as the "Workers' Party of Canada" in February 1922 as its public face. The following month, it began publishing a newspaper entitled The Worker. When Parliament allowed the War Measures Act to lapse in 1924, the underground organization was dissolved and the party's name was changed back to the "Communist Party of Canada".

In Alberta, miner Philip Christophers, who would become a founding member of the Workers' Party in 1922, was elected to the provincial legislature in 1921 as a Dominion Labor Party candidate; he was re-elected in 1926.

Great Depression (1929–1938)

The stock market crash in late 1929 signalled the beginning of a long and protracted economic crisis in Canada and internationally. The crisis quickly led to widespread unemployment, poverty, destitution, and suffering among working families and farmers. The general election of 1930, brought to power the R.B. Bennett Conservative government which attacked the labour movement and established "relief camps" for young unemployed men.

The CPC made a systemic critique of the depression as an alleged crisis of capitalism. It was also the first political party in Canada to call for the introduction of unemployment insurance, a national health insurance scheme, universally accessible education, social and employment assistance to youth, labour legislation including health and safety regulations, regulation of the working day and holidays, a minimum wage for women and youth, and state-run crop insurance and price control for farmers.

The party's offices were raided by the RCMP. Further, eight party members were arrested, including Buck and Tom McEwen, under Section 98 of Canada's Criminal Code, which outlawed advocacy of force or violence to bring about political change. The party and the Workers' Unity League (WUL) launched a campaign calling for their release and presented a petition with 450,000 signatures to Prime Minister R. B. Bennett in November 1933. They demanded the release of the prisoners, an investigation into Buck's attempted murder, and the repeal of Section 98. After the prisoners were released a rally was held in Maple Leaf Gardens in 1934, with 17,000 in attendance and 8,000 unable to attend due to there not being enough space. Eight Men Speak was created based on the events.

Although the party was banned, it organized large mass organizations such as the WUL and the Canadian Labour Defence League, which played an important role in historic strikes like that of miners in Estevan. From 1933 to 1936, the WUL led 90% of the strikes in Canada. Already, conditions had taught social democrats, reformists, and the communists important lessons of cooperation. In 1934, in accordance with the re-examined position of the Comintern, the CPC adopted a strategy and tactics based on a united front against fascism.

In the prairies, communists organized the Farmers Unity League, which mobilized against farm evictions. They rallied hundreds or thousands of farmers into demonstration Hunger Marches that encountered police brutality. In 1936, James Litterick was elected as an MLA for Winnipeg, the first CPC member to be elected to Manitoba's legislature. In the legislature, Litterick advocated shifting the tax burden from working people to corporations, increasing unemployment relief, creating jobs through public works and infrastructure spending, and establishing public health insurance.

World War II (1939–1945)

Although the CPC had worked hard to warn Canadians about what it considered to be a growing fascist danger, the CPC saw the opening of World War II not as an anti-fascist war but a battle between capitalist nations. This was due to the Soviet Union having signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany.

The CPC's opposition to World War II led to it being banned under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act in 1940 shortly after Canada entered into the war. In many cases communist leaders were interned in camps, long before fascists. As growing numbers of CPC leaders were interned, some members went underground or exile in the United States. Conditions in the camps were harsh. A civil rights campaign was launched by the wives of many of the interned men for family visits and their release.

Dorise Nielsen was elected to Parliament of Canada in the 1940 election, the only woman to do so, with the support of the CPC as a part of the Progressive Unity's popular front. Nielsen kept her membership in the party a secret until 1943. In the 1940s, 30% of members in Toronto, and 70% in Montreal, were Jewish.

With Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the party argued that the nature of the war had changed to a genuine anti-fascist struggle. The CPC reversed its opposition to the war and argued the danger to the working class on the international level superseded its interests nationally.

In Ontario, A. A. MacLeod and J. B. Salsberg were elected to the legislature in the 1943 Ontario general election as Labour candidates while the Communist Party remained illegal, and subsequently represented the newly formed Labor-Progressive Party. MacLeod was re-elected in 1945 and 1948, while Salsberg was re-elected in 1945, 1948 and 1951. Salsberg played a role in the adoption of Ontario's 1944 Racial Discrimination Act, having pressed for legislation in response to racial and antisemitic discrimination, including restrictions against Jews and Black people at public swimming pools.

Fred Rose was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for Cartier in a 1943 by-election and was re-elected in 1945. During his time in Parliament, he introduced proposals for federal health insurance and legislation against racial and religious hatred.

Cold War era (1945–1991)

The CPC remained banned. However with the entry of the Soviet Union into the war and the eventual release of the Canadian party's interned leaders, Canadian communists founded the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP) in 1943 as a legal front; thereafter, the party ran candidates under that name until 1959. At its height in the mid-1940s, the party had fourteen sitting elected officials at the federal, provincial and municipal level. Several prominent elected party members were:

Dorise Nielsen, a Saskatchewan MP elected as a Unity candidate in 1940, declared her affiliation with the LPP when it was formed in August 1943 and ran unsuccessfully for re-election as an LPP candidate.

Mary Kardash and William Ross were LPP and then Communist school trustees in Winnipeg.

Jacob Penner and Joseph Zuken were popular aldermen in Winnipeg. Zuken was an LPP school trustee before succeeding Penner on city council by which time the LPP had changed its name back to the Communist Party of Canada.

Bill Kardash and James Litterick were Manitoba LPP Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Kardash was first elected in 1941 as a Workers Party candidate while the CPC was banned and was re-elected as a Labor-Progressive in 1945, 1949 and 1953 before being defeated in 1958.

Alexander A. Parent was an LPP member and president of UAW Local 195, elected as the Liberal-Labour MPP for Essex North in 1945. Broke with the Liberals in 1946 and spent the remainder of his term as a Labour MPP working with the two LPP MPPs, MacLeod and Salsberg. He did not run for re-election in 1948.

Stanley Bréhaut Ryerson, Sam Carr, Charles Simms and Norman Freed were LPP Toronto aldermen while Stewart Smith was elected to the city's Board of Control, Edna Ryerson, Elizabeth Morton and John Boyd were elected to the School Board in 1944.

Harry Rankin sat on Vancouver's city council on behalf of the Committee of Progressive Electors which he helped found in the late 1960s. Though not officially a CPC member he was a fellow traveller.

Recent history (1992–present)

The renovated party, although with a much smaller membership and resources, now faced further challenges and threats to its existence. Changes to the Canada Elections Act, introduced by the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney and passed by Parliament in the spring of 1993, required that any political party which failed to field 50 candidates in a general federal election would be automatically deregistered and its assets seized. The CPC was not in a position to run 50 candidates in the 1993 federal election (it fielded only eight candidates during that election); therefore, its assets were seized and the party was deregistered. The CPC had sought an interim injunction to prevent its imminent de-registration; however. this legal action failed.

A prolonged ten-year political and legal battle, Figueroa v. Canada (AG) ensued, which won the support of widespread popular opinion, reflected in a number of members of parliament openly supporting the challenge and other small political parties joining the case, most notably the Green Party. Never before had a single court challenge resulted in legislative action on three separate occasions to amend a standing law. Bill C-2 (2000) amended the Canada Elections Act to (among other things) remove the unconstitutional seizure of party assets for failure to field 50 candidates in a general election and provided for the full refund of candidates' deposits. The party had its deregistration overturned and its seized assets restored. Bill C-9 (2001) reduced the threshold from 50 to 12 candidates for the party identifier to appear on the ballot. After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously to strike down the 50-candidate threshold as unconstitutional, the Chretien government was forced to introduce and pass Bill C-3 (2003), which scrapped the rule altogether for party registration. This victory was celebrated by many of the other small parties – regardless of political differences – on the principle that it was a victory for the people's right to democratic choice.

During this time the, CPC began to reorganize its Quebec section, the Communist Party of Quebec (Parti communiste du Québec or PCQ). The CPC also began periodically publishing Spark!, a journal for Marxist theory and discussion. In 2001 the party adopted a comprehensive update to its party programme and renamed it "Canada's Future is Socialism".

The CPC reinvigorated its long-standing involvement in and contribution to the labour movement and support of trade union organizing and campaigns, in the civic reform movement, and in a number of social justice, anti-war and international solidarity groups and coalitions. The YCL was reestablished in 2007. It has since set up local branches in a number of cities across Canada and held several central conventions.

Quebec and the national question

The Communist Party of Canada began organizing in Quebec upon its founding. Many important leaders of the CPC including Annie Buller, William Kashtan, Fred Rose, Madeleine Parent, and Léa Roback hailed from Montreal, and Norman Bethune joined the party in Montreal. The Quebec district fought hard battles against the Duplessis regime, which made the party illegal using the Padlock Law, and to organize the unorganized. The election of Fred Rose in Cartier was a major boost to the Quebec communists and reflected the support of the CPC among working-class people in the city.

For some time the party had been struggling to develop its policy on the national question in Canada, which had changed considerably since the party's formation. As early as the 1930s the CPC recognized Quebec was a nation; by the late 1940s, the party began to advocate for Quebec's right to self-determination. In the 1950s and 1960s, the party clarified this position, becoming the first party to advocate for a democratic solution to the national question and a new "made-in-Canada" constitution that would guarantee sovereignty for Quebec, up to and including separation. While supporting the right to separate, the communists opposed the secession of Quebec from Canada, proposing a new equal and voluntary partnership between what was then commonly called French and English Canada.

In the late 1950s, the party finally overturned the Padlock Law, giving new energy and hope to the party despite difficult times with the Khrushchev revelations and the continued pressure of the Cold War. Moving to better put into practice what it saw as a deeper political understanding of the national question, the CPC in Quebec re-organized as the Communist Party of Quebec (Parti communiste du Québec or PCQ) in November 1965, reflecting what it now termed the multi-national reality of Canada as "a state with more than one nation within its borders". The PCQ emerged as a "distinct entity" of the CPC, with shared membership and, at the same time, full control over its policies and administration including its own constitution.

With the Quiet Revolution, Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and later the October Crisis, the party's position on the national question became the subject of broad debate across the country, and influenced the agreement of the Canadian Labour Congress to work with the Quebec Federation of Labour on an equal and voluntary basis. The communists called for workers sympathetic with independence movements to unite on a common, immediate class-based programme of common struggle with English-speaking Canadian workers. The PCQ helped re-launch Montreal's mass May Day demonstrations and advanced many unique policies including the idea of a federated party of labour, which proved its prescience with the formation of Québec solidaire. The federated party of labour proposal was endorsed by the late 1960s by most trade union centrals, but the project was eclipsed by the emergence of the Parti Quebecois.

Membership

The CPC had a membership of about 4,500 people in 1925, consisting mainly of miners, lumberers, railway workers, farmers, and garment workers. Party membership soared in the 1940s, peaking at just under 20,000 in January 1946. However, during this time, the CPC's membership in Quebec only amounted to several hundred members.

Women made up 12 to 15% of the CPC's membership from 1934 to 1938, rising to 28% by 1951.

According to Canadian historian Ivan Avakumović, the CPC had 1,500 to 3,000 members during the 1960s. The United States Department of State meanwhile estimated the CPC's membership to be approximately 3,500 in the mid-1960s.

Publications

The CPC publishes the biweekly newspaper People's Voice, which has been in circulation since 1993. The party's previous newspapers include The Worker, Canadian Tribune, and The Tribune.

Additionally, the CPC's British Columbia section published many newspapers of its own, such as the B.C. Worker's News (1935–1937), People's Advocate (1937–1940), Vancouver Clarion (1940–1941), Pacific Advocate (1942–1945), and Pacific Tribune (1946–1992).

Allied organizations

Historically, the CPC has had allied organizations which were affiliated with the party until the late-1920s, when these affiliates were hitherto understood to be largely following the party's direction. These groups often originated from left-wing labour and socialist movements that existed prior to the creation of the Communist Party and operated political and cultural activities among various immigrant groups, published magazines and operated their own cultural centres and meeting halls. From the 1920s through the 1950s the largest immigrant groups represented in the party were Finns, Ukrainians and Jews who were organized in the Finnish Organization of Canada (founded in 1911 as the Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (known as the Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association until 1946) and the United Jewish Peoples' Order (known as the Labour League until 1945) respectively.

Also active in the 1930s and 1940s were the Hungarian Workers Clubs, the Polish People's Association (formerly the Polish Workers' and Farmers' Association and later known as the Polish Democratic Association after World War II), the Serbian People's Movement and Croatian Cultural Association (formerly the Jugoslav Workers' Clubs) and the Carpatho-Russian Society. The Russian Farmer-Worker Clubs were formed in the early 1930s but closed by the government under the Defence of Canada Regulations at the outbreak of World War II. When the Soviet Union became Canada's ally in 1942, they re-appeared as the Federation of Russian Canadians. The German Canadian Federation was formed during World War II and the Canadian Slav Committee was formed in 1948 in an attempt to put party-aligned cultural associations for Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Yugoslavs, and Carpatho-Rusyns under one umbrella.

The Society of Capartho-Russian Canadians re-formed and, in 1950, acquired a hall at 280 Queen Street West in Toronto which it continues to operate into the twenty-first century.

The UJPO broke with the party in 1956 during the period of the "Khrushchev revelations" and allegations of antisemitism in the Soviet Union following a visit to that country by J. B. Salsberg.

Later allied organizations include the Greek Canadian Democratic Organization formed by leftist emigres who had fled the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and the Portuguese Canadian Democratic Association which was formed by left-wing emigres who had left Portugal in the 1960s and early 1970s when it was still ruled by a right wing dictatorship. The Portuguese association was outspoken in its support of the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Provincial sections

The Communist Party of Canada has provincial sections which contest general elections at the provincial level. In most provinces the provincial section's name is in the format "Communist Party of Canada ([Province])". Active provincial sections exist in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec; the party was previously active in Saskatchewan as well.

denotes a defunct provincial section.

Leadership

Party leaders

The following is a list of party leaders since 1921. The party leader was known as the "General Secretary of the Communist Party of Canada" from 1921 to 1992.

Chairmen

The Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada was a largely ceremonial position which existed from 1921 to 1973. The following is a list of known party chairmen.

Central convention

The party holds a central convention in Toronto every three years, in which delegates from party clubs across Canada elect the party leadership. Delegates elect the members of the Central Committee who in turn nominate the members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC). The composition of the CEC is then ratified by the delegates to the convention through a simple majority.

Election results

At its height in the mid-1940s, the CPC had 14 sitting elected officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, including federal Member of Parliament Fred Rose, who was elected in 1945, the year in which the CPC's proportion of the federal election vote was its highest ever at 2.13%. In the 1953 federal election, the CPC ran 100 candidates, its most ever; however, it only received 1.06% of the national vote. Those 100 candidates encompassed seven provinces and included 22 women, as well as 11 young adults.

Notes

Percentage of the popular vote

Average number of votes per candidate