The Cooperative Commonwealth
Federation (CCF) and the New Democratic Party (NDP): their Failure
in Quebec, 1932-1997
Damien-Claude
Bélanger,
Département dhistoire,
Université de Montréal
Formed
in 1932, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a democratic socialist
party, sought to end the Great Depression through a vast platform of constitutional
centralisation, social programmes and nationalisation. After the thirties and
the Second World War, the CCF embarked on a slow march towards the political mainstream,
gradually becoming a centre-left party. Indeed, in 1961, the CCF was replaced
by the New Democratic Party (NDP), in an attempt to make political inroads in
Ontario and Quebec, by moderating its platform and forming a broader power base
. Although the 1961 reorganisation of the moderate Canadian left would lead to
a noticeable shift towards the political centre and mainstream for the CCF-NDP,
thus increasing its share of the federal vote in every province except Saskatchewan,
and enabling it to score certain new provincial political successes, the party
has consistently failed to achieve power on the federal level, and to gain wide
acceptance in Quebec. Indeed, both factors are intimately related as
Quebec has tended to support the winner in federal elections, and it is difficult for
a party to form the Federal government if it is shut out of Quebec.
Canadian
historians and political scientists have frequently reflected on the ongoing and
historical inability of the CCF-NDP to elect a federal government. Unlike the
Labour party in the United Kingdom, the CCF-NDP has not been able to marginalise
the Canadian Liberal Party and usurp its political power base, despite conclusive
polling data which has shown that since 1945, Canadian public opinion and New
Democratic policies have often converged on significant issues. The
causes of this continued failure are both institutional and political. The CCF-NDP
has never been favoured by our electoral system: single-member district plurality
(SMDP). This system awards a parliamentary seat to any candidate who obtains the
largest share of the vote in a particular riding, whether or not the majority
of ballots has been received. Thus, SMDP rewards parties who have solid regional
bases or important national support by amplifying their
share of seats beyond their share of the vote. Indeed, the parties that come to power in Ottawa
generally obtain a larger percentage of seats than they received of votes. In
1997, for example, the Liberal Party formed a majority government with less than
forty percent of the vote, and the Bloc Québécois received a majority of Quebecs
federal seats with a similar share of support. While SMDP has favoured both the
Liberal and Conservative parties in their quest for power, and has provided regionally
based parties such as the Bloc Québécois or Social Credit with a larger share
of seats than votes and thus of political importance, it has consistently hampered
the national CCF-NDP. Although it historically has enjoyed a regional power base
in the West, particularly in Saskatchewan, the CCF-NDP has traditionally obtained
diffused national support that has failed to translate into political gain and
stature. In the 1965 general elections, the NDP received 17.9 % of the vote but
only 7.9 % of seats. This pattern has dogged the CCF-NDP in federal elections
from 1935 to 1997 and will most certainly continue in the near future. This
inability to obtain a share of seats consistent with its share of the vote has
hampered the political prospects of the CCF-NDP, particularly in Ontario. Moreover,
since the 1930s, the Liberal Party has been able to consistently neutralise the
CCF-NDP by implementing its own series of progressive social legislation. Indeed,
faced with a left-wing challenge to its power, the Liberals, from King to Trudeau,
have sought to integrate popular New Democratic proposals into their own political
platforms. This political flexibility has allowed the Liberal Party to appear
as the « safe » alternative to the perceived radicalism of the CCF-NDP, while
capitalising on the popularity of the latter partys proposed social programmes
by copying them. However,
the CCF-NDPs continued failure to achieve power in federal politics is intimately
tied to its powerlessness in making significant inroads in Quebec. Indeed, it
has never had a single member elected in a general election in Quebec. Historically,
most majority governments have benefited from Quebecs tendency to vote
as a bloc. In Canadian politics, Quebecs
large number of seats is frequently the key to forming a government. Several
factors have combined to block CCF-NDP success in Quebec. Overall, the party has
been plagued by the same problems in Quebec as in English Canada. However, the
CCF-NDP has also suffered from specifically québécois issues. During the 1930s
and 1940s, the Roman
Catholic Church denounced the Co-operative
Commonwealth Federation as being socialist, atheistic and a threat to Quebecs
traditional social order. Thus, voting for the CCF became almost a sin for Catholics.
In 1934, the Church felt sufficiently threatened by CCF « radicalism » to actively
foster the writing and diffusion of a manifesto, the Programme de restauration
sociale, that sought to offer a Christian alternative to the Regina Manifesto,
the CCFs first electoral blueprint. However,
while some historians and political scientists have seen Episcopal disapproval
as the root of CCF-NDP failure in Quebec, the partys problems have run much
deeper. Indeed, ecclesiastical condemnations did not prevent Wilfrid Laurier from
receiving massive support from his home province in the 1896 elections. Historically,
francophone Quebecers have been very reticent to support third parties which do
not come from French Canada. In this sense the CCF-NDPs problems are similar
to those that were faced by the Progressive Party, the Reconstructionist Party
or the Social Credit, until it gained a French-Canadian wing led by the charismatic
Réal Caouette in the 1950s. The CCF-NDP, born largely out of Western radicalism,
has always been perceived as being a party of English Canadians. With political
platforms which often called, either explicitly or implicitly, for the invasion
of provincial prerogatives through constitutional centralisation or the use of
the federal governments power to spend, the CCF-NDP has been seen as a party
which would erode Quebecs provincial autonomy. Provincial
autonomy was for a long time, and remains
currently, a potent force in Quebec. Moreover, the party has never been able to
attract well-known francophone spokesmen from Quebec, intensifying its « foreign
» image in the province. While Frank Scott, one of the CCFs chief ideologues,
was a Quebecer and spoke French, as an anglophone his appeal among francophones
was somewhat limited. The electoral system has largely contributed to maintaining
the English-Canadian image of the party in Quebec. Indeed, the CCF-NDP has received
some support in Quebec. However, the votes it has garnished have tended to be
diffused. In the 1988 general elections, the party obtained 14 % of Quebecs
ballots but was unable to elect a single Member of Parliament. Thus, the system
of SMDP has insured that the CCF-NDP has never been able to elect a Quebecer in
a general election. This has consistently blocked the party from obtaining higher
profile Francophone leaders, and thus of increasing its visibility in French-Canada,
as well as achieving greater success nationally. The Party can hardly claim to
be a credible national party without representation from Quebec. In turn, this
hampers its chances of success in the rest of the country. Overall,
CCF-NDP policies, and the lack of Francophone leaders, have given Quebecs
electors the impression that it is insensitive to the provinces particularism
and aspirations, despite serious efforts made during the periods of leadership
of David Lewis and Ed Broadbent. Indeed, all of the partys overtures to
French Canada seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Furthermore, since the 1960s,
left wing voters and intellectuals in Quebec have tended to support Quebec independence,
making the NDP even less attractive to those from whom it might potentially draw
support. Overall, the CCF-NDPs
inability to successfully connect with Francophone Quebecers has seriously hampered
its political progress. In effect, from the creation of the party in 1932 to the
election of 1984, with the notable exception of the 1958 general elections, Quebecs
voters remained, federally, solidly Liberal. Our electoral system, clerical influence
and unpopular policies have all contributed to making the CCF-NDP a marginal force
in Quebecs federal political arena.
©
1999 Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College
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