Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a24008e5bf9297fe

Jump to content

Labor-Progressive Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Labor-Progressive Party
Parti ouvrier-progressiste
Former federal party
AbbreviationLPP
LeaderTim Buck
FounderTim Buck
FoundedAugust 1943 (1943-08)
DissolvedJune 1959 (1959-06)
Preceded byCommunist Party of Canada
Succeeded byCommunist Party of Canada
Youth wingNational Federation of Labor Youth
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
National affiliationCommunist Party of Canada
Most MPs2 (1943—1945)

The Labor-Progressive Party (LPP; French: Parti ouvrier-progressiste) was the legal front of the Communist Party of Canada and its provincial wings from 1943 to 1959.[1][2] It was established amid World War II after a number of prominent Communist Party members were released from wartime internment, with Communist Party general secretary Tim Buck serving as the LPP's leader.[3][4] The LPP had one elected member of parliament during its history, trade unionist Fred Rose, who won the 1943 Cartier federal by-election in the Montreal riding. The party also saw provincial- and municipal-level victories, particularly in Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.

Origins and initial success

[edit]
Fred Rose re-election poster (1945)

In the 1940 federal election, the Communist Party led a popular front in several constituencies in Saskatchewan and Alberta under the name Unity, United Progressive or United Reform and elected two MPs, one of whom, Dorise Nielsen, was secretly a member of the Communist Party.[5]: 49–81 [6][7]

After the Communist Party of Canada was banned in 1940, under the wartime Defence of Canada Regulations, it established the Labor-Progressive Party (LPP) as a front organization in 1943 after the release of Communist Party leaders from internment.[8][1] Nielsen 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.[5]: 157–189 

Only one LPP Member of Parliament (MP) was elected to the House of Commons under that banner, Fred Rose, who was elected in a 1943 by-election in Montreal, sitting with Nielsen. Rose was re-elected in 1945.[2] Rose was charged and convicted in 1946 for spying for the Soviet Union, and was expelled from the House of Commons in 1947.[2][9]

The leader of the party was Tim Buck.[1] Other prominent members were Margaret Fairley,[10] Stewart Smith,[11] Stanley Ryerson[12] and Sam Carr.[13]: 387 

While "labour" is generally spelled with a 'u' in Canadian English, and English in the former British Empire, the Labor-Progressive Party used the American spelling[14] as did the Australian Labor Party.

Provincial campaigns

[edit]

In Ontario, 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. Alexander Parent, who was also president of UAW Local 195, was elected as the Liberal-Labour MPP for Essex North in 1945. In January 1946, Parent announced he was breaking with the "reactionary" Liberals and sat the remainder of his term in the legislature as a Labour representative while voting with LPP MPPs MacLeod and Salsberg.[15][16] He did not run for re-election in 1948.[17][18][19]

The Manitoba party had amongst its leading members Jacob Penner who was a popular aldermen in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as Bill Kardash who was a Manitoba Member of the Legislative Assembly.[20][21]

The party also ran candidates in Quebec general elections from 1944 to 1956 as the Parti ouvrier-progressiste.

Municipal strength

[edit]

The LPP had strong pockets of support in working-class neighbourhoods of Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg as well as in the Crowsnest Pass mining region of Alberta and British Columbia[22][23][24] elected a number of its members to local city councils and school boards.[23][25] In Winnipeg, Jacob Penner was a long-time member of the city council while Joe Zuken sat on the school board.[23][26] In Toronto, Charles Simms and Norman Freed served as aldermen while Smith was elected to the city's powerful Board of Control.[27][11]

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.[28] She played a significant role in the Stelco Strike of 1946,[29] 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.[30] She would unsuccessfully seek election numerous times over the next decade, most prominently opposing Mayor Lloyd Jackson in 1950.[31]

Dr. Harry Paikin was elected a school trustee on the Hamilton Board of Education in 1944 and remained in office for more than four decades, until his death in 1985,[32] including ten years as chair.[citation needed]

World War II

[edit]

Following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Canadian Communist Party reversed its earlier position urging Canadian neutrality in World War II[3]

After the vote the committees were renamed the Dominion Communist – Labour Total War Committee[3][33] and were the main public face of the Communist Party,[3] and became the main wartime activity of the Labor-Progressive Party, helping it raise its profile and encouraging the federal government to release Communist leaders who had been detained early in the war.[citation needed]

Cold War

[edit]

The LPP faced repression during the Cold War as anti-Communist sentiment increased in Canada,[34][35] particularly after the revelations of Igor Gouzenko following his defection from the Soviet embassy in Ottawa.[13] Gouzenko's revelations led to the downfall of Fred Rose.[2] Nevertheless, the party continued to elect a handful of members to provincial legislatures, city councils and school boards across Canada well into the 1950s.[36][37][26]

1956–1957 crisis

[edit]

An almost fatal blow for the party was the crisis that enveloped it following Nikita Khrushchev'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 antisemitism 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 United Jewish Peoples' Order, which had been one of the largest organizations allied with the LPP, broke with the party in December 1956 as a result of Salsberg's revelations after his fact-finding mission to the USSR to investigate reports of systemic antisemitism and repression of Jewish culture.[38]

Decline

[edit]

The LPP last ran a federal candidate in a December 1958 by-election and ran nine candidates in the 1959 Ontario election. Shortly thereafter, it renamed itself the Communist Party of Canada once again.[1]

The LPP had a youth wing, the National Federation of Labour Youth which had formerly been known as the Young Communist League.[39][40] The NFLY was reorganized as the Socialist Youth League of Canada in 1957 following defections from the Communist movement.[41]

Federal election results

[edit]
ElectionLeaderCandidates Seats wonVotes%Rank
1945[i] Tim Buck
68 / 245
1 / 245
111,892Increase 2.13 Increase 6th
1949
17 / 262
0 / 262
32,623Decrease 0.56 Decrease 8th
1953
100 / 265
0 / 265
59,622Increase 1.06 Increase 7th
1957
10 / 265
0 / 265
7,760Decrease 0.12 Steady 7th
1958
18 / 265
0 / 265
9,769Increase 0.13 Increase 6th
Notes
  1. ↑ 1945 results compared to 1940 Communist Party of Canada result.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Labor-Progressive Party". Search Research Collections. McMaster University Libraries. Retrieved July 27, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Anctil, Pierre (Spring 2022). "Fred Rose, l'émissaire de Moscou". Cap-aux-Diamants (in French) (149): 14–18 – via QUESCREN.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Frazer, Chris (1996). "From Pariahs to Patriots: Canadian Communists and the Second World War". Past Imperfect. 5: 3–36. doi:10.21971/P7NK5Z.
  4. ↑ "Chronologie parlementaire depuis 1764 (1943–1945)". Assemblée nationale du Québec (in French). Retrieved July 27, 2026.
  5. 1 2 Johnston, Faith (2006). A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0-88755-690-6.
  6. ↑ "Dorise Winnifred Nielsen fonds [textual record, graphic material]". Collection Search. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  7. ↑ Shute, Dan (2025). "Brown, Walter George". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Communist Party of Canada fonds [multiple media]". Collection Search. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Privileges and Immunities – Rights of the House as a Collectivity". House of Commons Procedure and Practice. House of Commons of Canada. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Margaret Fairley Papers". Discover Archives. University of Toronto Libraries. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  11. 1 2 "Smith, Stewart". Search Research Collections. McMaster University Libraries. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Monthly Intelligence Report, 1 September 1944". R.C.M.P. Security Bulletins: The War Series: 149. September 1, 1944.
  13. 1 2 Royal Commission to Investigate the Facts Relating to and the Circumstances Surrounding the Communication by Public Officials and Other Persons in Positions of Trust of Secret and Confidential Information to Agents of a Foreign Power (1946). Report of the Royal Commission Appointed under Order in Council P.C. 411 of February 5, 1946 (PDF) (Report). Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty.
  14. ↑ "A Better Canada to Fight For, to Work For, to Vote For – Electoral Program of the Labor-Progressive Party". Socialist History Project. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Parent Quits Liberal Party", Globe and Mail, 14 January 1946: 8
  16. ↑ "Breaks With Liberals", Toronto Daily Star, 2 February 1946: 6
  17. ↑ Canadian Press (June 5, 1945). "How Ontario Electors Voted in all 90 Ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. p. 5.
  18. ↑ Canadian Press (June 8, 1948). "How Ontario Electors Voted in all 90 Ridings". The Toronto Daily Star. Toronto. p. 24.
  19. ↑ Canadian Press (November 22, 1951). "Complete Ontario Vote". The Montreal Gazette. Montreal. p. 4.
  20. ↑ "William Arthur Kardash (1912–1997)". Memorable Manitobans. Manitoba Historical Society.
  21. ↑ "MLA Biographies – Deceased". Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014.
  22. ↑ Fournier, Marcel (1989). "Fred Rose: Notes pour une biographie". In Comeau, Robert; Dionne, Bernard (eds.). Le droit de se taire: Histoire des communistes au Québec, de la Première Guerre mondiale à la Révolution tranquille. Montréal: VLB éditeur. pp. 273–297.
  23. 1 2 3 Epp, Stefan (Spring 2010). "'Fighting for the Everyday Interests of Winnipeg Workers': Jacob Penner, Martin Forkin and the Communist Party in Winnipeg Politics, 1930–1935". Manitoba History (63). Manitoba Historical Society.
  24. ↑ Langford, Tom; Frazer, Chris (Spring 2002). "The Cold War and Working-Class Politics in the Coal Mining Communities of the Crowsnest Pass, 1945–1958". Labour/Le Travail. 49: 43–81.
  25. ↑ "Canada at War: Ontario: Red Controller". Time. January 22, 1945.
  26. 1 2 Goldsborough, Gordon (January 18, 2026). "Joseph "Joe" Zuken (1912–1986)". Memorable Manitobans. Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  27. ↑ "Anti-Communist Ballot Cuts Out All but Two". The Globe and Mail. January 2, 1948 – via Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History.
  28. ↑ "Controller Henderson Heads Field With Anderson Second". The Hamilton Spectator. December 10, 1946.
  29. ↑ Gonick, Cy (2001). A Very Red Life: The Story of Bill Walsh (PDF). St. John's, Newfoundland: Canadian Committee on Labour History. p. 176. ISBN 1-894000-05-6.
  30. ↑ "Swing To Right Defeats Helen Anderson For Controller". The Hamilton Spectator. December 4, 1947.
  31. ↑ "Mayor Jackson Coasts To Win Over Coulson". The Hamilton Spectator. December 7, 1950. p. 19.
  32. ↑ "Dr. Harry Paikin Award of Merit". Ontario Public School Boards' Association. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  33. ↑ Kealey, Gregory S.; Whitaker, Reg, eds. (1993). R.C.M.P. Security Bulletins: The War Series, Part II, 1942–1945. St. John's, Newfoundland: Canadian Committee on Labour History. p. 52. ISBN 0-9695835-0-8.
  34. ↑ Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing (1991). Reforming Electoral Democracy (PDF). Vol. 1. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada. p. 229. ISBN 0-660-14245-7.
  35. ↑ Clarke, Frank K. (Spring 2002). ""Keep Communism Out of Our Schools": Cold War Anti-Communism at the Toronto Board of Education, 1948–1951". Labour/Le Travail. 49: 93–119.
  36. ↑ "Joseph Baruch Salsberg". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  37. ↑ "MLA Biographies – Deceased". Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Government of Manitoba. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  38. ↑ Gerald Tulchinsky, Family Quarrel: Joe Salsberg, the 'Jewish' Question, and Canadian Communism Archived February 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Labour/Le Travail, 56 (Fall 2005)
  39. ↑ Guard, Julie (2024). "The National Federation of Labor Youth and the Candy Bar Kids: Radical Youth, Popular Protest, and the Red Scare in Postwar Canada". Labour/Le Travail. 93: 135–163. doi:10.52975/llt.2024v93.008.
  40. ↑ "History". Young Communist League of Canada. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
  41. ↑ "Young, Winston - Interview". Collection Search. Cecil-Ross Society Oral History Project. Interviewed by Stow, Rick. Library and Archives Canada. November 10, 1996. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Labor-Progressive_Party&oldid=1366520962"