Headed by pioneer Canadian socialist Ernest Burns, the SDPBC was a key constituent group behind the formation of the Social Democratic Party of Canada in 1911.
[1] In an effort to unify these scattered forces, a unity convention was held and the Vancouver-based Socialist Party of British Columbia (SPBC) was founded.
[5] At the 1904 convention of the SPBC this organisation expanded its horizons, christening itself the Socialist Party of Canada (CPC), although remaining in practice a British Columbia-dominated group.
[6] This move to the left created a new layer of discontent, however, as so-called constructive socialists sought to shift the organisation's orientation from largely ineffectual radical propaganda to electoral politics.
It was this disagreement over the programme and policies of the CPC which fueled a 1907 split and the formation of a new organisation known as the Social Democratic Party of British Columbia.