Up to and in the 1960s

Nanaimo & Newcastle
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.

CCF founded in BC
In British Columbia, a provincial section of the CCF was also founded in 1932, and faced its first electoral test the following year. In 1933 the BC CCF elected 7 MLAs and became the Official Opposition. But disagreements over the best course for achieving progress, led almost immediately to a split in the party. Those who followed a cautious social gospel approach were outnumbered by those who emphasized a more socialist, class approach to politics. The split cost the CCF the role of Opposition in 1937, but in 1941 they once again became the Official Opposition. For the next 20 years the CCF would be a powerful voice for both democratic socialist ideals and practical ideas like Medicare.

1952: Missed it by that much!

A new (democratic) party is founded

The foundational roots of the BC NDP
Bob Strachan, a Carpenters’ Union leader and MLA for Cowichan-Newcastle, was the unanimous choice to lead the BC NDP. While some criticized the NDP for abandoning the CCF’s call to replace capitalism with a more humanitarian democratic socialist society, the party leaders didn’t hesitate to campaign proudly and call themselves socialists. And while that terminology has mostly fallen away, even today the constitution of the BC NDP offers a clear commitment to making life better for everyone through “the application of democratic socialist principles to government and the administration of public affairs.”

A decade of big ideas

Change in the air
