Socialism in Canada
As a result of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) was founded in 1961, as a merger of the CCF and the interests of the Canadian Labour Congress.
At the end of a five-day-long founding convention that established its principles, policies and structures, Tommy Douglas, the long-time CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, was elected its first leader.
As a result of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and moved to the Communist Party.
During the Great Depression, the Communist Party of Canada experienced a brief surge in popularity, becoming influential in various labour unions and electing a single Member of Parliament, Fred Rose.
The Communist Party of Canada was created in Guelph, Ontario in 1921 by a group of Marxist activists led by William Moriarty.
The trek and the living conditions in the government's "relief camps" helped to discredit Conservative Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, leading to his defeat at the hands of the Liberals in 1935.
After the trek the communists were instrumental in organizing over 1,448 Canadians to fight in the Spanish Civil War Joined by volunteers of other political stripes, the Canadian contingent known as the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion joined the International Brigades (a coalition of volunteers from many countries) to fight for the elected leftwing government of the Second Spanish Republic against the fascist-supported insurgency of General Francisco Franco.
The "Mac-Paps" fought bravely in many battles but were forced to leave Spain in 1938 by Prime Minister Juan Negrín López along with the other foreign volunteers as it became clear that the war was lost.
The most famous Canadian to serve in the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion was Dr. Norman Bethune, a surgeon who would invent the world's first mobile medical unit.
Today, he is a national hero in the People's Republic of China and is remembered as being a friend of Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Rose was expelled from parliament, imprisoned for four years, and then followed at every job site by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
But its visibility is widely believed to have inspired Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to introduce welfare state policies.
[12] In the past, the NDP has formed provincial governments in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.
The NDP government created a public auto insurance company upon taking power in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia.
At present only British Columbia has a New Democratic government, while the NDP is the official opposition in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Yukon.
During this period, due to the unpopularity of the first phase of the National Energy Program and the need to maintain confidence of the House of Commons, the Liberal Party acquiesced to an earlier NDP proposal to create a national petroleum company, forming a state-owned oil company, called Petro Canada.
