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History of the Socialist Party of Canada by J History of the Socialist Party of Canada By J. M. Milne with Wrigley’s assistance, as the Canadian Socialist. In Originally published in 1973. This edition published by the October he changed the name to Western Socialist, later pur- Socialist History Project, with permission from the Socialist chasing a Nanaimo paper, The Clarion, and merging the two Party of Canada. together with a Strike Bulletin of the United Brotherhood of The Socialist History Project, launched in June 2004 by Railway Employees, as the Western Clarion, which made its South Branch Publishing, aims to recover the experiences, first appearance on May 8, 1903. ideas, analyses and insights of a century of revolutionary The United Brotherhood of Railway Employees was at socialism in Canada, and make it available on the web. that time on strike through the west. Explaining the inclu- The project is not affiliated to any political organization sion of the Strike Bulletin in the merger “it was felt that an or tendency. For more information, visit our website: overlapping of work existed, and the UBRE possessing no www.socialisthistory.ca mail privileges was shortened in its range of influence”. It was also hoped “to establish in the Western Clarion a labor paper that will do full justice to the labor movement indus- Background trial and political”. A circulation of 6000 copies three times Socialism in Canada had its origin in Ontario, the industrial a week was guaranteed. heart of the country. It came to the fore in the 1890s. The Western Clarion and its several forerunners was The Socialist Labor Party, an offshoot of the SLP of the not owned or in any way controlled by the Socialist Party. United States, appeared in the early 1890s, established They were, like many workers’ journals during the pe- several sections in the eastern provinces, in Winnipeg and riod, privately owned. The Western Socialist, for example, Vancouver and contested elections after 1898 in Ontario “Published weekly in the interests of the Socialist move- constituencies. The party is still active, with membership ment in Canada”, was owned by Pettipiece and “Endorsed mainly in Ontario, and taking part in election campaigns. by the Socialist Party of British Columbia, Fisherman’s In 1898 the Canadian Socialist League was formed by Union of BC, American Labor Union, Western Federation former members of the Socialist Labor Party, with a branch of Miners, with which is affiliated every miner’s union in in Montreal. By January 1902 over sixty branches existed BC” (Western Socialist, January 3, 1903) in various parts of the country, including New Brunswick, Similar endorsations were recorded in the Western Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, [1] but mainly Clarion. The two journals however expressed broadly the in Ontario and British Columbia. Out of this movement views of the Socialist Party of BC and its successor the grew the Socialist Party of Ontario, the Socialist Party of Socialist Party of Canada, except that all sides of theoretical Manitoba and the Socialist Party of British Columbia. controversies within the Party were usually reproduced, Socialism to this point was a mixture of reformism, often in explosive terms. Christian brotherhood and not much else, and only at the The Socialist Parties of Ontario and Manitoba were turn of the century did the studies of Marx and Engels show not as fortunately situated in the matter of publications. noticeable influence. The influence was meager but at times There was no journal giving either its exclusive support. brought surprising clarity. In Ontario there were journals that sometimes favored the Party and in Manitoba the Party was assigned a column in Journals The Voice (published weekly in Winnipeg by A. W. Puttee), Among the early founders of Socialism in Canada was G. which otherwise supported all efforts to establish a labor W. Wrigley who helped to establish in Toronto in 1897 the party. The Ontario and Manitoba parties therefore turned Citizen and Country, a social reform weekly “which gradu- gradually to the BC journal as their official organ, a condi- ally developed into an avowed Socialist paper” (Western tion that helped to bring some uniformity in the views of all Clarion, July 3, 1903) As organizing secretary Wrigley three parties. helped to expand the Socialist League. He then moved west and became active in Vancouver and Victoria in the newly founded Socialist Party of British Columbia. Returning Socialist Party of Ontario The Socialist Party of Ontario was born at a convention of later to Toronto his activities continued as a member of the the Ontario Socialist League held on Thanksgiving Day Socialist Party of Canada. 1903, at which the League changed its name to the Socialist In 1902 R. P. Pettipiece, who had been publishing a min- Party of Ontario. The new Party got off to a good start ers’ journal in the BC interior, the Lardeau Eagle, expressing numerically, the convention being attended by about fifty the views of the Socialist League, disposed of the Eagle and delegates from Toronto, St. Thomas, London, Guelph, Galt, bought an interest in the Citizen and Country. He moved this Paris, Preston, Orillia, Manitoulin Island and Mt. Forest. journal to Vancouver and published it, starting July 1902, It also started well ideologically, a convention resolution History of the Socialist Party of Canada • J.M. Milne 2 reading: to be applied to the reduction of taxes on property, but to be applied “We, delegates of the Socialist League of Ontario, and comrades wholly to the increase of wages and shortening of the hours of labor of unaffiliated throughout the province, in convention assembled, affirm the employees and to the improvement of the service. our belief in the materialist interpretation of history ‘that in every 2. The education of all children up to 16 years of age, and state historical epoch the prevailing mode of economic production and and municipal provision for books, clothing and food. The establish- exchange, and the social organization necessarily following from it, ment of Provincial Colleges for the education of both sexes. form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be 3. No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until 16 explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch’ and years of age. The penalty for infringement by employers to be impris- declare our allegiance to the program of international revolutionary onment. socialism as the only class conscious movement, to attain this desired 4. Eight hours or less to be the normal working day, or not more end we declare our aim to be the organization of the working class than forty-four hours per week and a minimum wage to be fixed in and those in sympathy with it into a political party, with the object of all trades and industries by legislative enactment. Imprisonment to be conquering the power of governments and using them for the purpose the penalty for employers and employees infringing the law. of transforming the present system of private distribution into a col- 5. The establishment of a public employment bureau. The provi- lective ownership by all the people.”[2] sion of useful work for all unemployed at current wages. The convention came to the conclusion: 6. The establishment of adequate pensions for aged and infirm “While accepting many so-called reform measures, such as direct workers. legislation, proportional representation, public ownership of public 7. Equal civil and political rights to men and women. Abolition utilities, etc., as democratic and therefore Socialist, we recognize the of financial and property qualifications for candidates and electors at fact that when administered by a capitalist government they can at all elections. Canvassing to be made illegal. Election days to be legal best be but palliatives and, therefore, set our faces rigidly against any holidays. alliance or fusion with any independent or so-called reform party ad- 8. Abolition of the Senate, establishment of initiative and refer- vocating any or all of those or other demands that do not include the endum, proportional representation, and right of recall of representa- aims and purposes as herein declared, but shall pledge our represen- tives by their constituents. tatives to vote for any and every measure that shall be for the better- 9. The establishment of an exclusively national currency and the ment of the working class in field and factory.” extension of the Post Office Banks so that they shall absorb all private The continued acceptance of reform measures, though institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit. “rigidly” qualified, would come into conflict with the aim All fire, life and other insurance to be operated in the interests of the of collective ownership and give the Party some troubled whole people. times, an experience not unknown to other parties aiming 10. No further alienation of Dominion or Provincial lands. Grants to end and mend the existing form of society. to be revoked when conditions of grant have nor been fulfilled. Land to be leased only until such time as it is utilized by the community. Socialist Party of Manitoba 11. All revenue to be raised by taxation on land values, by cumu- The Socialist Party of Manitoba was founded in 1902. lative income taxes, and by inheritance taxes. Its program and constitution appeared in The Voice of 12. Municipalization and public control of the liquor traffic. November 7 of that year. The program reads: 13. The establishment of free public hospitals, convalescent “Object homes, medical services and dispensaries.” The Socialization of the means of Production, Distribution and The Party in Manitoba clearly had some distance to Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of the travel on the road to Socialist understanding, evidenced entire community and the complete emancipation of Labor from the further by the Party candidature in the Winnipeg civic domination of Capitalism.
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