Labour-Progressive Party
Encyclopedia
For the Labour-Progressive Coalition Government in New Zealand see the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand
The Labor-Progressive Party was the legal political organization of the Communist Party of Canada
between 1943 and 1959.
(MP) was elected under that banner, Fred Rose
, who was elected in a 1943 by-election in Montreal
and sat in the House of Commons
. In 1947, he was charged and convicted for spying for the Soviet Union
, and was expelled from the House of Commons.
Dorise Nielson was elected to the House of Commons in the 1940 federal election
from Saskatchewan
as a "Progressive Unity" MP, and declared her affiliation to the LPP when it was founded in August 1943. She was defeated in the 1945 election
when she ran for re-election as an LPP candidate.
, two LPP members, A. A. MacLeod
and J. B. Salsberg
, sat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
from 1943 to 1951 and 1955 respectively. The LPP also jointly nominated several Liberal-Labour
candidates with the Ontario Liberal Party
.
The Manitoba party had amongst its leading members Jacob Penner
who was a popular aldermen
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as W. A. Kardash
who was a Manitoba
Member of the Legislative Assembly
.
The party also ran candidates in Quebec general elections
from 1944 to 1956 as the Parti ouvrier-progressiste.
The leader of the party was Tim Buck
. Other prominent members were Margaret Fairley
, Stewart Smith
, Stanley Ryerson and Sam Carr
.
mining region of Alberta
and British Columbia
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/49/02langfo.html elected a number of its members to local city councils and school boards. In Winnipeg, Jacob Penner
was a long-time member of the city council while Joe Zuken sat on the school board. In Toronto, Ryerson, Carr and Charles Simms and Norman Freed served as aldermen while Smith was elected to the city's powerful Board of Control.
From 1944
to 1947, Helen Anderson Coulson sat on Hamilton's City Council
as an Alderman (from 1944-1946) and, after the 1946 municipal election
, as a member of the city's highest decision making body, the Board of Control. She played a significant role in the Stelco
Strike of 1946, and paid for her stances in the 1947 election, being shut out of the 4-person body after receiving the second highest number of votes in 1946
. She would unsuccessfully seek election numerous times over the next decade, most prominently opposing Mayor Lloyd Jackson in 1950.
, the Canadian Communist Party reversed its earlier position urging Canadian neutrality in World War II
and instead urged full support for the Canadian war effort. The party formed the "Tim Buck
Plebiscite Committees" urging support for conscription
in the 1942 referendum
. After the vote the committees were renamed the Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee
and were the main public face of the Communist Party and became the main wartime activity of the Labour-Progressive Party helping it raise its profile and encourage the federal government to release Communist leaders who had been detained early in the war.
as anti-Communist
sentiment increased in Canada
, particularly after the revelations of Igor Gouzenko
following his defection from the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. Gouzenko's revelations led to the downfall of Fred Rose. Nevertheless, the party continued to elect a handful of members to provincial legislatures, city councils and school boards across Canada well into the 1950s.
's Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
and the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary
, the first event shattered the faith many LPP members had in the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin
while the second caused many to doubt that the USSR had truly changed. Aggravated as well by revelations of widespread anti-Semitism
in the Soviet Union (a serious blow to Jewish members of the LPP such as Salsberg and Robert Laxer
), the party underwent a serious split with more than half of its membership including many in the leadership, including Salsberg, Stewart Smith
, Harry Binder, Sam Lipshitz and other prominent LPP leaders, ultimately leaving with the remaining party being a remnant of what it once had been.
The LPP had a youth wing, the National Federation of Labor Youth which had formerly been known as the Young Communist League. The NFLY was renamed the Socialist Youth League of Canada in the 1950s but became defunct later in the decade due to internal party turmoil.
Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand
The Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand was the government of New Zealand between 10 December 1999 and 19 November 2008.-Overview:The fourth National government, in power since 1990, was widely unpopular by 1999, with much of the public antagonised by a series of free-market economic reforms,...
The Labor-Progressive Party was the legal political organization of the Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
between 1943 and 1959.
Origins and initial success
When the Communist Party of Canada was banned in 1940, it refounded itself as the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP) in 1943 after the release of Communist Party leaders from internment. Only one LPP Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) was elected under that banner, Fred Rose
Fred Rose (politician)
Fred Rose was a Communist politician and trade union organizer in Canada. He was born in Lublin in what is now Poland, part of Russia at the time. He emigrated to Canada as a child in 1916. He became involved with the Young Communist League of Canada, and then joined the Communist Party of Canada...
, who was elected in a 1943 by-election in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and sat in the House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. In 1947, he was charged and convicted for spying for the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and was expelled from the House of Commons.
Dorise Nielson was elected to the House of Commons in the 1940 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1940
The Canadian federal election of 1940 was the 19th general election in Canadian history. It was held March 26, 1940 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 19th Parliament of Canada...
from Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
as a "Progressive Unity" MP, and declared her affiliation to the LPP when it was founded in August 1943. She was defeated in the 1945 election
Canadian federal election, 1945
The Canadian federal election of 1945 was the 20th general election in Canadian history. It was held June 11, 1945 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada...
when she ran for re-election as an LPP candidate.
Provincial campaigns
In OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, two LPP members, A. A. MacLeod
A. A. MacLeod
Albert Alexander MacLeod, widely known as A.A. MacLeod and familiarly as "Alex", was a prominent member of the Communist Party of Canada and, later, of its legal group the Labor-Progressive Party...
and J. B. Salsberg
J. B. Salsberg
Joseph Baruch Salsberg was a Canadian politician, long time Communist and activist in the Jewish community.-Early life:...
, sat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
from 1943 to 1951 and 1955 respectively. The LPP also jointly nominated several Liberal-Labour
Liberal-Labour (Canada)
The Liberal-Labour banner has also been used several times by candidates in Canadian elections:In the early twentieth century when the idea of trade unionists running for elected office under their own banner gained ground, several working class candidates on the provincial or federal level were...
candidates with the Ontario Liberal Party
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
.
The Manitoba party had amongst its leading members Jacob Penner
Jacob Penner
Jacob Penner was a popular socialist politician in Canada. Penner was born and raised in a Mennonite family in Russia and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1904. In 1908, he met his wife Rose Shapack, a Jewish Russian immigrant, during an address by Emma Goldman at the Winnipeg Radical Club...
who was a popular aldermen
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as W. A. Kardash
W. A. Kardash
William A. Kardash was a politician and member of the Manitoba legislature.Kardash was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, having fought with the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion...
who was a Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
Member of the Legislative Assembly
Member of the Legislative Assembly
A Member of the Legislative Assembly or a Member of the Legislature , is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to the legislature or legislative assembly of a sub-national jurisdiction....
.
The party also ran candidates in Quebec general elections
Quebec general elections
This article provides a summary of results for the general elections to the Canadian province of Quebecs unicameral legislative body, the National Assembly of Quebec...
from 1944 to 1956 as the Parti ouvrier-progressiste.
The leader of the party was Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...
. Other prominent members were Margaret Fairley
Margaret Fairley
Margaret Adele Keeling Fairley was a Canadian writer, educator, and political activist.She was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, UK and died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada....
, Stewart Smith
Stewart Smith (politician)
Stewart Smith was a long-time leading member of the Communist Party of Canada. He also served on Toronto City Council for a period in the 1930s and 1940s....
, Stanley Ryerson and Sam Carr
Sam Carr
Sam Carr was an organizer for the Communist Party of Canada and, its successor, the Labour-Progressive Party in the 1930s and 1940s. He was born Schmil Kogan in Tomachpol, Ukraine in 1906 and immigrated to Canada in 1924, living in Winnipeg and Regina before settling in Montreal in 1925...
.
Municipal strength
The LPP had strong pockets of support in working class neighbourhoods of Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg as well as in the Crowsnest PassCrowsnest Pass
Crowsnest Pass is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border.-Geography:...
mining region of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/49/02langfo.html elected a number of its members to local city councils and school boards. In Winnipeg, Jacob Penner
Jacob Penner
Jacob Penner was a popular socialist politician in Canada. Penner was born and raised in a Mennonite family in Russia and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1904. In 1908, he met his wife Rose Shapack, a Jewish Russian immigrant, during an address by Emma Goldman at the Winnipeg Radical Club...
was a long-time member of the city council while Joe Zuken sat on the school board. In Toronto, Ryerson, Carr and Charles Simms and Norman Freed served as aldermen while Smith was elected to the city's powerful Board of Control.
From 1944
Hamilton, Ontario municipal election, 1944
The 1944 Hamilton municipal election was held on December 4, 1944 to select one Mayor, four Controllers, and sixteen members of the Hamilton City Council, as well as members of the local School Board.-References:...
to 1947, Helen Anderson Coulson sat on Hamilton's City Council
Hamilton City Council
The Hamilton City Council is the governing body of the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.The current council consists of the mayor plus fifteen councillors, one elected from each of the city's wards. The incumbent council was elected in a municipal election on November 13, 2006...
as an Alderman (from 1944-1946) and, after the 1946 municipal election
Hamilton, Ontario municipal election, 1946
The 1946 Hamilton municipal election was held on December 9, 1946 to select one Mayor, four Controllers, and sixteen members of the Hamilton City Council, as well as members of the local Board of Education.-Election campaign:...
, as a member of the city's highest decision making body, the Board of Control. She played a significant role in the Stelco
Stelco
US Steel Canada is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.-History:Several existing smaller steelworks combined and were incorporated as the Steel Company of Canada in 1910. Charles S...
Strike of 1946, and paid for her stances in the 1947 election, being shut out of the 4-person body after receiving the second highest number of votes in 1946
Hamilton, Ontario municipal election, 1946
The 1946 Hamilton municipal election was held on December 9, 1946 to select one Mayor, four Controllers, and sixteen members of the Hamilton City Council, as well as members of the local Board of Education.-Election campaign:...
. She would unsuccessfully seek election numerous times over the next decade, most prominently opposing Mayor Lloyd Jackson in 1950.
World War II
Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet UnionOperation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, the Canadian Communist Party reversed its earlier position urging Canadian neutrality in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and instead urged full support for the Canadian war effort. The party formed the "Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...
Plebiscite Committees" urging support for conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
in the 1942 referendum
Referendums in Canada
National referendums are seldom used in Canada. The first two referendums saw voters in Québec and the rest of Canada take dramatically opposing stands, the third saw most of the voters take a stand dramatically opposed to that of the politicians in power....
. After the vote the committees were renamed the Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee
Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee
The Dominion Communist-Labor Total War Committee was a front organization of the then-banned Communist Party of Canada. The Committees originated as the "Tim Buck Plebiscite Committees" which were organized by the party in 1942 to campaign for a "yes" vote in the 1942 referendum on conscription...
and were the main public face of the Communist Party and became the main wartime activity of the Labour-Progressive Party helping it raise its profile and encourage the federal government to release Communist leaders who had been detained early in the war.
Cold War
The LPP faced repression during the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
as anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
sentiment increased in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, particularly after the revelations of Igor Gouzenko
Igor Gouzenko
Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defected on September 5, 1945, with 109 documents on Soviet espionage activities in the West...
following his defection from the Soviet embassy in Ottawa. Gouzenko's revelations led to the downfall of Fred Rose. Nevertheless, the party continued to elect a handful of members to provincial legislatures, city councils and school boards across Canada well into the 1950s.
1956-1957 crisis
An almost fatal blow for the party was the crisis that enveloped it following Nikita KhrushchevNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution or Uprising of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
, the first event shattered the faith many LPP members had in the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
while the second caused many to doubt that the USSR had truly changed. Aggravated as well by revelations of widespread anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in the Soviet Union (a serious blow to Jewish members of the LPP such as Salsberg and Robert Laxer
Robert Laxer
Robert M. Laxer was a Canadian psychologist, professor, author, and political activist.Laxer was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1915 and graduated from McGill University with a B.A. in 1936 and an M.A. in 1939. Laxer joined the Communist Party of Canada during the Great Depression...
), the party underwent a serious split with more than half of its membership including many in the leadership, including Salsberg, Stewart Smith
Stewart Smith (politician)
Stewart Smith was a long-time leading member of the Communist Party of Canada. He also served on Toronto City Council for a period in the 1930s and 1940s....
, Harry Binder, Sam Lipshitz and other prominent LPP leaders, ultimately leaving with the remaining party being a remnant of what it once had been.
Decline
The LPP last ran a candidate in 1959. Shortly thereafter it renamed itself the Communist Party of Canada once again.The LPP had a youth wing, the National Federation of Labor Youth which had formerly been known as the Young Communist League. The NFLY was renamed the Socialist Youth League of Canada in the 1950s but became defunct later in the decade due to internal party turmoil.
See also
- Association of United Ukrainian CanadiansAssociation of United Ukrainian CanadiansThe Association of United Ukrainian Canadians is a national cultural-educational non-profit organization established for Ukrainians in Canada...
- Federation of Russian CanadiansFederation of Russian CanadiansThe Federation of Russian Canadians is a left-leaning cultural organization for Russian immigrants to Canada and their descendants.It is the successor of the Russian Farmer-Worker Clubs which were closed by the government at the beginning of World War II as a suspected subversive organization due...
- United Jewish Peoples' OrderUnited Jewish Peoples' OrderThe United Jewish Peoples' Order is a secular socialist Jewish cultural, political and educational fraternal organization in Canada. The UJPO traces its history to 1926 and the founding of the Labour League...