[1] The party was founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the summer of 1934 as the British Empire Union of Fascists by Canadian supporters of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists after BUF member Hubert Cox visited the city in June 1934, claiming to be Mosley's representative.
The first leader was Howard Simpkin, a former lieutenant to Canadian Nationalist Party leader William Whittaker who led a group of people breaking away from the CNP, objecting to the party's racialism, declaring that "anti-semitism was a symptom of Germany not of Fascism", and advocated a more economic-oriented program instead built around the fascist economic policies of Mussolini's Italy such as corporatism.
[2] The new party attracted around 200 people to its inaugural meeting on June 28, 1934, to hear Cox and Simpkin address the crowd.
[4] In Toronto a young high school student Charles "Chuck" Crate joined the party after contacting the British Union of Fascists and being put in touch with CUF.
[8] The party's platform was described as consisting of the "abolition of provincial governments and private monopolies, with a closer co-operation with Great Britain and the Empire".
[11] Meanwhile, Arcand's rally officially launching the National Unity Party of Canada drew a crowd of around 2,500 to Massey Hall on July 4, 1938.
[11] The CUF was banned on June 4, 1940, under the Defence of Canada Regulations[16] and formally dissolved itself, telling its members to obey the law but to work for a negotiated peace.