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The Progressive Party of Canada, formally the National Progressive Party, was a federal-level political party in Canada in the 1920s until 1930. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces, and it spawned the Progressive Party of Saskatchewan, and the Progressive Party of Manitoba, which formed the government of that province. The Progressive Party was part of the farmers' political movement that included federal and provincial Progressive and United Farmers' parties.

The United Farmers movement in Canada rose to prominence after World War I. With the failure of the wartime Union government to alter a tariff structure that hurt farmers, various farmers movements across Canada became more radical and entered the political arena. The United Farmers movement was tied to the federal Progressive Party of Canada and formed provincial governments in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. It rejected the National Policy of the Conservatives, and felt that the Liberals were not strong enough proponents of free trade and were too strongly tied to business interests. Generally, farmers groups formed alliances with Labour and socialist groups though, in power, they became closer to the Liberals causing ruptures in several provinces between United Farmer governments and their organizations.

Origins

The origins of the Progressive Party can be traced to the politics of compromise under Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The most important issue to farmers in western Canada at the time was free trade with the United States. The National Policy implemented by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald in the 1890s forced farmers to pay higher prices for equipment and to sell their produce for less. After World War I, however, neither of the major political parties supported free trade.

At the turn of the century voters in Western Canada began to consider an influx of radical political ideas. From the United States came Progressivism and the Non-Partisan League. From Britain, the new immigrants brought Fabian socialism. This mix of ideology and discontent led to discussion of forming an independent party, especially in the "Grain Growers' Guide", a magazine of the day. The first organizations of agricultural protest were farmers’ organizations: Manitoba Grain Growers' Association, Alberta Farmers' Association, and the United Farmers of Alberta. The first big activity was the farmers' march on Ottawa in 1911.

After World War I, farmers' organizations across Canada became more politically active and entered electoral politics on the provincial level. The United Farmers of Ontario ran in the 1919 provincial election and, surprisingly, won. The emergence of the UFO exemplified the scope of farmer politics. It was not just western opposition to the tariff and eastern economic power, It was an occupational or class movement with a realistic chance at federal political influence.^[2] Over 1919 and 1920 several federal by-elections were won by "United Farmers" candidates.

In June 1919, Thomas Crerar, Minister of Agriculture in the Unionist government of Robert Borden, quit the Borden cabinet because Minister of Finance Thomas White introduced a budget that failed to sufficiently reduce the tariff. Saskatchewan farmer leader and independent MP John Archibald Maharg withdrew his support from the government and joined Crerar, as did eight other Unionist MPs from the west. This loosely-organized caucus proved to be the beginnings of the Progressive Party.

Owing to the movement's outgrowth from a variety of provincial farmers' organizations, agrarian leaders were divided on an appropriate federal political strategy. Henry Wise Wood, president of the United Farmers of Alberta, opposed turning the farmers' political movement into a formal Third Party. His political experience in the U.S., rooted in observation of the Populists of the 1890s, led him to believe that the social friction caused by such a third party would lead to the destruction, through splintering of the farmers movements in general. Wood argued the Canadian farmers' movement should remain a grassroots democratic organization, or "economic solidarity group". Philosophically, he advocated for cooperative democracy against the autocratic and corrupting tendencies of competitive party politics. Wood's theory of group government was considered revolutionary at the time, with critics accusing his collectivism as introducing "Sovietism" to Westminster responsible government.^[3]

The struggle between Wood's "group government" faction, and agrarian leaders including Crerar who advocated a more traditional party-centric approach to federal politics, troubled the party throughout its existence. In their first formal caucus meeting on March 3, 1920, Crerar and eleven allied MPs established the National Progressive Party of Canada with Crerar as its first leader.^[4] The name of party was referred by Michael Clark two days later in the House of Commons.^[5] Nevertheless, Crerar was unable to secure support among members of the Canadian Council of Agriculture for the establishment of significant party structure; thus, the party had no formal national organization, with the Canadian Council of Agriculture itself providing a minimal degree of structure.^[6] Crerar formally served as parliamentary leader of the Progressives until the provincial organizations accepted his endorsement as national leader by the Canadian Council of Agriculture in 1921.^[7]

The new party won 58 of the 235 seats in the 1921 general election, despite the lack of national party structure. Owing to the anti-party character of the Progressives, individual candidates' campaigns were strictly independent of the national organization, and no financial, organizational, or strategic support was provided under a policy of "constituency autonomy".^[6] Support for reforming the National Policy was a common denominator, but even this was not universal within the party. Given the autonomy of individual members and lack of formal party organization, some argue that the Progressives are better termed a "movement" rather than a party.

Elected to office

The Progressive Party is commonly perceived as a western protest party, but in fact more Progressive MPs were elected in Ontario (with a sitting provincial farmers' government) than in Alberta in the 1921 election. The party had strong support among western voters, although they were few when compared to the number of seats in Ontario. All the MPs from Alberta were either United Farmers of Alberta candidates who were allied to the Progressives (and included in the totals recorded above) or Labour – no Conservatives or Liberals were elected in that province that election. Ten UFA MPs were elected, the other two seats in the province were taken by Labour candidates. Alberta had elected a UFA government prior to the 1921 federal election.^[8]

The Progressives won 24 of the 81 seats in Commons from Ontario; however, the party viewed this as a disappointing result. Despite finishing second in seat count, there were not enough Progressive and farmer MPs to safely secure the balance of power against the narrow Liberal minority government.^[9] The Progressives received significant support in the Maritime provinces, but obtained only one seat in New Brunswick. It also got five seats in British Columbia. In addition to their power in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, farmers' parties were significant presences in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but this failed to translate into seats in the House of Commons.^[10]

The Progressives were divided over what to do following the 1921 election. A significant group of ex-Liberals, including Crerar, supported forming a coalition government with the Liberals. This was resisted by Montreal interests in the Liberal Party and by radical Progressives, including the UFA MPs. These followers of Wood wished to remain a decentralized party with each individual member simply representing his constituents, supporting the Liberal government in what it did in their mind right and opposing it in what it did wrong. The two groups agreed to refuse the position of Official Opposition, normally accorded to the party with the second-largest number of seats, and this was passed on to the third-largest party, the Conservative Party.

Demise

Crerar attempted to introduce certain attributes of a standard party to the Progressives, including Parliamentary Whips and a national party organization. These efforts were resisted, however, and in 1922, Crerar resigned as leader. He was replaced by Robert Forke, another ex-Liberal who agreed with Crerar on most issues. The Progressives proved unsuccessful in Parliament and lost much of their moderate support in eastern Canada. While in the 1921 election Crerar had toured across the country, Forke abandoned everything east of Manitoba.

As well, the UFA MPs, other farmer MPs and the three Labour MPs in the House of Commons (J. S. Woodsworth, William Irvine and Joseph Shaw) joined together in the Ginger Group, breaking from Forke's leadership.

In the 1925 election, the Progressives lost almost all of their Ontario members, but were still moderately successful in the west, holding many of their seats in Alberta.

This left the party dominated by the radical United Farmers of Alberta MPs. Forke resigned as Progressive house leader on June 30, 1926, one day after Mackenzie King resigned as Prime Minister. Forke and most of the Manitoba Progressives made a deal with the Liberal Party and ran as Liberal-Progressives in the 1926 election prompted by the fall of the interim Conservative government of Arthur Meighen. The Liberals formed a stable minority government following the 1926 election with the support of the seven elected Liberal-Progressive MPs. Forke entered the Mackenzie King cabinet as Minister of Immigration and Colonization.

The Alberta UFA MPs dropped the Progressive label. Identifying themselves as parliamentary representatives of the United Farmers of Alberta, 11 UFA MPs were elected in the 1926 election and nine in 1930 – most of whom were members of the radical Ginger Group faction of left wing Progressive, Labour and United Farmer MPs. Most sitting UFA MPs joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party, and all the UFA MPs were defeated at the polls in the election of 1935 by the Social Credit Party of Canada political landslide.

In addition to Alberta electing nine UFA MPs in 1930, three MPs were elected as Progressives in the 1930 election. The three include Milton Neil Campbell and Archibald M. Carmichael of Saskatchewan and Agnes Macphail of Ontario (who was known as a proponent of the United Farmers of Ontario). Macphail successfully ran for re-election as a United Farmers of Ontario–Labour candidate in the 1935 election but was defeated running under the same banner in 1940.

Legacy

After the collapse of the party, most Progressive voters returned to the Liberal Party. The Liberals had always viewed the Progressives as simply "Liberals in a hurry", and for a large group of the party's supporters, this was true. The most important example of this return to the Liberals is T. A. Crerar, who served with the Liberals for decades, first as a cabinet minister and then as a Senator.

The more radical of the progressives split two ways. The Ginger Group was a faction formed in 1924 by radical Progressives and were later joined by several Labour and independent MPs. They would eventually form the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (the forerunner of the modern New Democratic Party).

Others, especially the radical populists, would later turn towards Social Credit ideology, forming a definite line of western protest that continued to run through the Reform Party of Canada to the present day Conservative Party of Canada. The CCF and Social Credit had their roots in the United Farmers movement, from which a large number of MLAs were elected in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Manitoba, and which formed governments in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. In Manitoba, the United Farmers of Manitoba changed their name to the Progressive Party of Manitoba after coming to power in 1922.

The Conservative Party received the least of the Progressive's spoils, inheriting little more than the name, in 1942. Its first leader after amalgamation was John Bracken, who was then serving as the Progressive Premier of Manitoba.

More important than these effects on individual parties, the Progressive Party also had a great effect on Canada's governmental system — it was the most successful early example of a third party in Canada. Despite Duverger's law of political science, the Canadian Parliament has always had a third, and sometimes a fourth or even fifth, party present ever since. The Progressives thus served both as a model and a cautionary tale for those that followed after.

Party leaders

• Thomas Crerar 1920–1922
• Robert Forke 1922–1926

Election results

Does not include MPs elected as United Farmers, Labour, Independent, Independent Progressive or other designations who may have been part of the Progressive Party caucus. (see United Farmers of Alberta)

Progressive MP Agnes Macphail was re-elected in the 1935 federal election as a United Farmers of Ontario–Labour candidate but was defeated running under the same banner in the 1940 federal election.^[11]

Combined Progressive/United Farmer/Labour results

1921

1925

Notes:

* not applicable – the party was not recognized in the previous election

**Robert Henry Halbert was elected as UFO in 1921, ran for re-election as a Progressive in 1925 but was defeated.

1926