Social Democratic Party of Canada (in Manitoba)

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When the Social Democratic Party of Canada broke away from the Socialist Party of Canada in 1911, many Winnipeg SPC members joined the new organization. The new party's platform was written by three residents of the city (Richard Rigg, Herman Saltzman and Jacob Penner), and it has been estimated that nearly 20% of the SDPC's total membership lived in Winnipeg during the early 1910s.

The Social Democratic Party was a social democratic political party in Canada founded in 1911 by members of the right wing of the Socialist Party of Canada, many of whom had left the organisation in May 1907 to form the Social Democratic Party of British Columbia. These members were dissatisfied with what they saw as that party's rigid, doctrinaire approach. As opposed to the Socialist Party of Canada, the SDP allowed minority language groups ample room for self-determination, which led to a perception that the ethnic groups were more dominant than the overarching SDP. When the authorities cracked down on ethnic groups during the 1918 wave of repression, many of these individual ethnic chapters were shut down.

Socialist Party of Canada political party of Canada, 1904–1925

The first Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) existed from 1904 to 1925 led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the Western Clarion newspaper.

Jacob Penner Canadian politician

Jacob Penner was a popular international socialist politician in Canada. A founder of the Social Democratic Party of Canada and the Communist Party of Canada, Penner was elected to the Winnipeg city council in 1933. He would remain at that post until 1960, becoming the longest serving elected Communist city council member in North America.

The party was more pragmatic than the SPC, and cooperated with reformist labour groups. It benefited from the relative weakness of the SPC in Winnipeg following the provincial election of 1910. The SPC had contributed to reformist Fred Dixon's defeat in this election, and was shunned by many in the city's trade union movement as such.

Frederick John "Fred" Dixon was a Manitoba politician, and was for several years the dominant figure in the province's mainstream labour and Georgist movements.

In the provincial election of 1914, the SDPC ran Arthur Beech and Herman Saltzman as candidate's for Winnipeg North's two ridings. Both candidates were defeated, due in part to the SDPC's insistence that further immigration to the city be curtailed in a time of high unemployment (Winnipeg North was home to many recent immigrants).

The party fared better in the election of 1915, when Richard Rigg was elected for Winnipeg North's second seat. Rigg had defended the city's immigrant population in the past, and was elected despite strong SPC opposition. Beech finished a close second in the other Winnipeg North seat. Both of the SDPC's candidates were also endorsed by the Labour Representation Committee, a reformist organization.

Richard Arthur Rigg was a Methodist minister and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1915 to 1917, and is notable as the first member of the Social Democratic Party to serve in that body.

Rigg did not remain in parliament long, resigning in 1917 to contest Winnipeg North at the federal level. This time, he was endorsed by reformist labourites and Liberal supporters of Wilfrid Laurier because of his opposition to conscription. Support for the war was strong in western Canada, however, and Rigg was defeated by a supporter of Robert Borden's Union government.

Wilfrid Laurier 7th prime minister of Canada

Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh prime minister of Canada, in office from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911.

Robert Borden 8th prime minister of Canada

Sir Robert Laird Borden, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.

Labour radicalism in Winnipeg increased after the General Strike in 1919. In the following year's provincial election, the Dominion Labour Party, SPC and SDPC were able to present a united slate of candidates in Winnipeg, running a combined total of ten candidates for the city's ten seats (which were determined by preferential balloting). John Queen was the sole Social Democrat on the ballot, and was declared elected to the legislature.

John Queen was a Manitoba politician, and the second parliamentary leader of that province's Independent Labour Party. He also served as the 33rd Mayor of Winnipeg on two occasions.

The SPDC joined the Federated Labour Party in 1920. Queen was re-elected as an "Independent Workers" candidate in 1922, and became leader of the province's Independent Labour Party caucus the following year.

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