Communist Party of Canada
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Communist Party of Canada
Active Federal Party
Founded
May 1921
Leader
Miguel Figueroa
President
Miguel Figueroa
Headquarters
300 - 279 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 5J9
Political ideology
Communism
International alignment
Solidarity Network
Colours
Red, Yellow
Website
http://www.communist-party.ca/
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. It is a minor
political party without elected representation at present in either the federal Parliament or
in any provincial legislature.
Contents
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1 History
o 1.1 Origins
o 1.2 Expulsion of factions
o 1.3 Great Depression
o 1.4 Labour-Progressive Party
o 1.5 Collapse of the Soviet bloc and party split
o 1.6 Reconstituted party
o 1.7 2005 split
2 General Secretaries of the CPC
3 Central Executive Committee
4 Election results
o 4.1 By-elections
5 See also
6 External links
[edit]
History
[edit]
Origins
The Communist Party was organized with great secrecy in a barn near the city of Guelph,
Ontario, in May 1921. Many of its founding members had belonged to groups such as the
Socialist Party of Canada, One Big Union, the Socialist Labor Party, the Industrial
Workers of the World, and other socialist, Marxist or Labour parties or clubs. The party
was founded as the Canadian section of the Comintern, and was thus similar to
Communist parties around the world.
The party alternated between legality and illegality during the 1920s and 1930s. It was
initially illegal, and created the Workers' Party of Canada in 1922 as its public face. The
CPC was legalized in 1924, and the Workers' Party ceased to exist.
In 1922-24, the provincial wings of the WPC/CPC affiliated with the Canadian Labour
Party, as part of a "united front" strategy against the capitalist classes. The CPC came to
dominate the CLP organization in several regions of the country; the CLP itself, however,
never became an effective national organization. The Communists withdrew from the
CLP in 1928-29, following a shift in Comintern policy.
[edit]
Expulsion of factions
From 1928 to the mid-1930s, supporters of Leon Trotsky, such as Maurice Spector, the
editor of the party's paper The Worker and party chairman, were expelled. Jack
MacDonald, who had supported Spector's expulsion, was removed as the party's general
secretary for factionalism, and was ultimately expelled with the support of the majority of
party members. MacDonald was also a Trotskyist and joined Spector in founding the
International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) Canada, which was part of Trotsky's
International Left Opposition. Also expelled were supporters of Nikolai Bukharin and Jay
Lovestone's Right Opposition, such as William Moriarty. J.B. Salsberg was initially
sympathetic to the Right Opposition but quickly recanted, allowing him to remain in the
party.
Tim Buck replaced MacDonald as party general secretary in 1929, and remained in the
position until 1962, steering a course of unswerving loyalty to the leaders of the Soviet
Union.
[edit]
Great Depression
In 1931, eight of the CPC's leaders were arrested and imprisoned under Section 98 of
Canada's Criminal Code. The party continued to exist, but was under the constant threat
of legal harassment, and was for all intents and purposes an underground organization
until 1936.
Although the party was banned, affiliated groups such as the Workers' Unity League, the
Relief Camp Workers Union, and the National Unemployed Workers Association played
a significant role in organizing the unskilled and the unemployed in protest marches and
demonstrations and campaigns such as the "On to Ottawa Trek". Party members were
also active in the Congress of Industrial Organizations attempt to unionize the auto
sector.
The party also mobilised the 1,500-man Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion to fight in the
Spanish Civil War as part of the International Brigade. Among the leading Canadian
Communists involved in that effort was Dr. Norman Bethune, who is known for his work
with the Chinese Communist Party.
The Communist Party opposed Canada's entry into World War II until the 1941 invasion
of the USSR and the collapse of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. During the Conscription
Crisis of 1944, the CPC set up "Tim Buck Committees" across the country to campaign
for a "yes" vote in the national referendum on conscription.
The party's first elected Member of Parliament (MP) was Dorise Nielson. Nielson was
elected in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 1940 under the popular front Progressive
Unity label.
[edit]
Labour-Progressive Party
The party was banned in 1941, and thereafter ran candidates as the Labour-Progressive
Party until 1959. Several party members were elected at various levels:
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Fred Rose was elected to represent a Montreal riding in the Canadian House of
Commons as an LPP MP, and was then revealed as a Soviet spy by Igor
Gouzenko.
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.
W. A. Kardash and James Litterick were Manitoba LPP Members of the
Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
A.A. MacLeod and J.B. Salsberg were LPP members of the Ontario legislature.
Stanley Brehaut Ryerson and Stewart Smith were LPP Toronto aldermen.
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 Communist Party member he was a supporter of the party and a
member in all but name.
Nikita Khrushchev's 1956 Secret Speech exposing the crimes of Josef Stalin and the 1956
Soviet invasion of Hungary shook the faith of many Communists around the world.
Many, perhaps most, members of the Canadian party left, including a number of
prominent party members. Many ex-Communists joined the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation and its successor, the New Democratic Party (NDP). Some
joined the Liberals. The Soviet Union's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia caused more
people to leave the Canadian Communist Party.
[edit]
Collapse of the Soviet bloc and party split
In common with most communist parties, it went through a crisis after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, and subsequently split. The reformist group led by George Hewison, which
held a narrow majority on the Central Committee, argued for the reorientation of the
party away from the official doctrine of Marxism-Leninism. The minority group on the
CC, led by Miguel Figueroa, Elizabeth Rowley, and former leader William Kashtan
resisted and, after being defeated at the party's 1990 convention and expelled from the
party, took the CPC to court. Owing to the inner-party conflict, membership of the party
fell by half, leaving it with several hundred members.
As a result of an out-of-court settlement, the Hewison faction left the Communist Party in
1992, and the Marxist-Leninist forces, led by Miguel Figueroa and Elizabeth Rowley
assumed the "Communist Party of Canada" name. The former Communists retained the
Cecil-Ross Society as a political foundation to continue their political efforts. They also
sold off the party's headquarters at 24 Cecil Street, having earlier liquidated various
party-related business such as Eveready Printers (the party printshop) and Progress
Publishers. The name of the Cecil-Ross Society comes from the intersection of Cecil
Street and Ross Street in Toronto where the headquarters of the party was located. The
Cecil-Ross Society took with it the rights to the Canadian Tribune, which had been the
party's weekly newspaper for decades, as well as roughly half of the party's assets. The
Cecil-Ross Society ended publication of the Canadian Tribune and attempted to launch a
new broad-left magazine, New Times which failed after several issues and then Ginger
which only published twice. The Young Communist League ceased to function at this
point as most of its members either left with the majority or dropped out.
[edit]
Reconstituted party
The minority reconstituted itself as the official Communist Party of Canada but had
deregistered and its assets seized by Elections Canada when it failed to run more than
fifty candidates in the 1993 general election. The party launched a legal challenge that
went to the Supreme Court of Canada (Figueroa vs. Canada; named for the current party
leader Miguel Figueroa). With lawyer Peter Rosenthal representing the CPC, The
Supreme Court of Canada ruled the law (originally put in place by the Mulroney
government) as unconstitutional. 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.
The CPC publishes a fortnightly newspaper called People's Voice.
The Communist Party is one of two Communist parties in Canada, the other is the
Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). The CPC-ML was founded in 1963 as
the Internationalists, an anti-revisionist Maoist party rejecting the reforms of Nikita
Khrushchev. Today, the CPC-ML is known during elections as the "Marxist-Leninist
Party".
The CPC is active in several trade unions, particularly the Canadian Union of Public
Employees and various buildings and trades unions. They have also been active in the
movement against the war in Iraq. A conference was held in 2004 to strike a preparatory
committee to refound the Young Communist League of Canada.
[edit]
2005 split
In 2005, the Parti communiste du Québec split into two rival groups, both of which claim
to represent the party. The national committee of one group, led by André Parizeau, voted
unanimously to separate from the CPC in June 2005. The Communist Party of Canada
had previously expelled Parizeau, and does not recognize the legality of his group.
The split followed a lengthy dispute between Parizeau and the Central Executive
Committee of the CPC. In November 2004, Parizeau introduced a series of amendments
to the CPC program "Canada's Future is Socialism". According to a letter from Ontario
leader Elizabeth Rowley, these amendments called on the party to expand its support for
Quebec nationalism.
The Communist Party of Canada, according to a 2005 release, supports the right of
"national self-determination, up to and including separation". It does not support the
fragmentation of Canada, however, and has called for "a new, democratic constitutional
arrangement based on the equal and voluntary union of Aboriginal peoples, Québec, and
English-speaking Canada". Many in the national party executive considered Parizeau's
amendments as reflecting a narrower view of Quebec nationalism.
Parizeau's amendments were rejected by the Central Executive Committee by a vote of 71; Parizeau himself was the only member to vote in favour. The National Executive
Committee (NEC) of the Quebec Party also rejected Parizeau's amendments by a vote of
4-2.
In January 2005, Parizeau wrote a letter to PCQ members declaring that the party was in
crisis. Describing the four NEC members who opposed his amendments as a "Gang of
Four" and a pro-federalist faction, he summarily dismissed them from office. In turn,
Parizeau's opponents called for the CPC to suspend him from office pending an
investigation into his activities.
This controversy came to a head at the PCQ convention of April 2005. After delegates
voted 16-14 to expel one of the four suspended NEC members, Parizeau's opponents
staged a mass walkout from the convention hall. The seventeen delegates who stayed
voted to establish a new National Committee and Executive, consisting entirely of
Parizeau's supporters.
On April 27, 2005, the Central Executive of the CPC voted to expel Parizeau for
"factional activity and the pursuit of a right opportunist line", declared that the expulsions
from the PCQ were illegal, and affirmed the authority of the previous National Executive
Committee. This decision was confirmed by the party's Central Committee at a meeting
held on June 18-19, 2005.
Parizeau's group published a letter of withdrawal from the CPC on June 15, 2005. In this
letter, the CPC was accused of holding "des idées chauvines vis-à-vis du Québec"
(chauvinistic ideas relative to Quebec). The CPC has rejected similar accusations from
Parizeau in the past, and now holds the position that Parizeau's group has no legal
authority to use the PCQ name. Parizeau's opponents in the PCQ have remained active in
Quebec, participating in the province's May Day parades and starting a new periodical,
entitled Clarté. Parizeau's group publishes a separate newspaper called La voix du peuple.
The legal ownership of the PCQ name has not yet been resolved.
The CPC's account of this situation is available online [1]), as is the June 2005 letter from
Parizeau's PCQ group ([2]).
[edit]
General Secretaries of the CPC
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Jack MacDonald 1921-1929
Tim Buck 1929-1962
Leslie Morris 1962-1964
William Kashtan 1965-1988
George Hewison 1988-1992
Miguel Figueroa since 1992
[edit]
Central Executive Committee
The Communist Party of Canada's 33rd convention held in 2001 elected the following
members to its leading body, the Central Executive Committee: Miguel Figueroa (general
secretary), Liz Rowley (leader of the Communist Party of Ontario), Dan Goldstick, Helen
Kennedy, André Parizeau (leader of the Parti communiste du Québec), Darrell Rankin
(leader of the Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba), and Kimball Cariou (editor of
People's Voice) [3].
British Columbia Communist Party leader George Gidora was elected in place of Helen
Kennedy at the party's 34th convention, held in early in 2004. All other incumbent
members were re-elected to their positions. Sam Hammond, Chair of the Central Trade
Union Commission and CC member, was subsequently added to the CEC. Parizeau was
removed from office in 2005 (see below).
There is also a larger body, the Central Committee, which is elected at convention and
meets in intervening years. The Central Committee nominates the members of the Central
Executive Committee (what would be called the Politburo in other Communist parties)
and the composition of the CEC is ratified by convention.
[edit]
Election results
Election # of candidates nominated # of seats won # of total votes % of popular vote
1930
6
0
4,557
0.12%
1935
13
0
27,456
0.46%
1940*
9
0
14,005
0.36%
1945**
68
1
111,892
2.13%
1949**
17
0
32,623
0.56%
1953**
100
0
59,622
1.06%
1957**
10
0
7,760
0.12%
1958**
18
0
9,769
0.13%
1962
12
0
6,360
0.08%
1963
12
0
4,234
0.05%
1965
12
0
4,285
0.06%
1968
14
0
4,465
0.05%
1972***
n.a
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1974
69
0
12,100
0.13%
1979
71
0
9,141
0.08%
1980
52
0
6,022
0.06%
1984
52
0
7,551
0.06%
1988
51
0
7,066
0.05%
1993****
n.a
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
1997****
n.a
n.a.
n.a.
n.a.
2000
52
0
8,779
0.07%
2004
35
0
4,564
0.03%
2006
21
0
3,022
0.02%
[edit]
By-elections
The party has also nominated candidates in numerous by-elections:
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August 9, 1943** - 1 elected
o Vanier - 19 030 total votes - 5 789 votes received - 30.42%
March 31, 1947** - 0 elected
o Cartier - 24 704 total votes - 6 616 votes received - 26.78%
October 24, 1949** - 0 elected
o Greenwood - 23 398 total votes - 189 votes received - 0.81%
o Laurier - 10 877 total votes - 713 votes received - 6.56%
June 19, 1950** - 0 elected
o Cartier - 17 920 total votes - 3 913 votes received - 21.83%
October 16, 1950** - 0 elected
o Welland - 40 172 total votes - 1 616 votes received - 4.02%
March 22, 1954** - 0 elected
o Verdun - 25 098 total votes - 2 180 votes received - 8.69%
November 8, 1954** - 0 elected
o Trinity - 14 479 total votes - 953 votes received - 6.58%
o York West - 27 583 total votes - 282 votes received - 1.02%
o St. Antoine—Westmount - 23 478 total votes - 224 votes received - 0.95%
o St. Lawrence—St. George - 11 739 total votes - 277 votes received 2.36%
October 24, 1955** - 0 elected
o Spadina - 19 603 total votes - 3 894 votes received - 19.86%
December 15, 1958** - 0 elected
o Trinity - 11 791 total votes - 488 votes received - 4.14%
May 24, 1977 - 0 elected
o Langelier - 18 291 total votes - 166 votes received - 0.91%
o Louis-Hébert - 42 578 total votes - 1 021 votes received - 2.40%
o Témiscamingue - 21 033 total votes - 495 votes received - 2.35%
o Terrebonne - 45 401 total votes - 290 votes received - 0.64%
o Verdun - 25 710 total votes - 97 votes received - 0.38%
October 16, 1978 - 0 elected
o Burnaby—Richmond—Delta - 47 883 total votes - 339 votes received 0.71%
o Broadview - 20 026 total votes - 204 votes received - 1.02%
o Hamilton—Wentworth - 42 951 total votes - 301 votes received - 0.70%
o Parkdale - 17 476 total votes - 190 votes received - 1.09%
o Rosedale - 32 325 total votes - 120 votes received - 0.37%
(*) A ninth candidate, Dorise Nielson was a member of the Communist Party but ran and
was elected as a Progressive Unity candidate.
(**) The Communist Party was banned in 1941. From 1943 until 1959 they ran
candidates under the name Labour Progressive Party.
(***) In 1972 the party ran its candidates as independents. It is unknown how many party
members ran in that election.
(****) The party failed to register at least 50 candidates in time for the 1993 election. As
a result the party was deregistered and its candidates ran as independents. Party status
was not regained until prior to the 2000 general election. It is unknown how many party
members ran in the 1993 and 1997 elections as independents.