Two miners’ union-backed Labour MLAs were elected in Nanaimo in 1890 and the first declared socialists were elected in British Columbia in 1903. James Hawthornthwaite won in Nanaimo City, and Parker Williams was elected in nearby Newcastle. They were joined by a Labour MLA from Slocan, William Davidson. Try as they might, from then until 1932 there were never more than three socialists elected at once to the BC Legislature. Similar results across the country led to a decision by the many small democratic socialist, social democratic and labour parties to unite in one national movement. In the depths of the great economic depression that began with the stock market crash in 1929, delegates met in Calgary in 1932 and founded a new movement, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation(CCF). The following year, the subsequent convention in Regina adopted a radical program that came to be known as the Regina Manifesto. It promised that no CCF government would rest until capitalism had been replaced with a co-operative commonwealth where everyone had a share in the good life, and goods and services would be produced on the basis of need, rather than profit.
Nanaimo & Newcastle
