Socialist Party of Canada (in Manitoba)
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The Socialist Party of Canada was a revolutionary Marxist organization, founded in 1904 as a merger of the Socialist Party of British Columbia and related groups in Manitoba and Ontario, Canada.
Although strongest in British Columbia, the SPC was also a credible force in Winnipeg: one member was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the provincial election of 1920.
During its early years, the SPC in Winnipeg was a rival to the larger, reformist groups such as Arthur Puttee's Winnipeg Labour Party from which many Manitoba Socialist Party members had split. It was active in the local trade unions, and participated in the city's elections.
The party ran John Donald Houston in Winnipeg for the federal election of 1908; he finished third, behind the Liberal and Conservative candidates. Richard Rigg ran for the party in the 1911 federal election, with the same result.
In the provincial election of 1910, the SPC ran candidates in three of Winnipeg's four ridings. They finished a distant third in all three, and may have been responsible for the defeat of reformist Manitoba Labour Party candidate Fred Dixon in Winnipeg Centre. This brought about a backlash from Winnipeg's unions, which weakened the party. Some of its members joined the Social Democratic Party of Canada, which was stronger in Winnipeg than in any other western Canadian city.
In the provincial election of 1914, the SPC ran George Armstrong and Bill Hoop as candidates for the two Winnipeg Centre seats, but allowed the SDP a clear berth in Winnipeg North. Both SPC candidates again finished a distant third in their ridings; this time, Armstrong was unable to prevent Dixon from being elected.
The party was further marginalized in the provincial election of 1915, running no candidiates aside from Armstrong, who again placed third against Dixon. Subsequent events, however, would briefly revitalize the party's fortunes in the city.
In 1919, the city of Winnipeg was shaken by a General Strike, which pitted unionized and non-unionized workers against the city's employers. The strike was suppressed by violent means, but labour radicalism within the city was significantly increased.
For the provincial election of 1920, the SPC, SDP and reformist labourites forged an electoral alliance to contest Winnipeg's ten seats (which were determined by preferential balloting). The Labour list received more votes than any other party, and won four seats in the Legislature. Armstrong was elected, along with three candidates from the other parties.
This proved to be the party's greatest success in Manitoba. In 1921, the SPC lost many of its members to the newly-formed Workers Party (which was the legal wing of the Communist Party of Canada) and ceased to function as a viable organization. Armstrong again ran for the SPC in 1922 (seemingly in cooperation with the Independent Labour Party), but was defeated. The party formally dissolved in 1925.
In 1945, a revived SPC ran James Milne in Winnipeg for Manitoba's provincial election. Milne claimed that neither the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation nor the Labour Progressive Party was serious about eroding capitalism and poverty. He was defeated, and the party does not appear to have participated in any further Manitoba elections.