Liberal-Labour (Canada)

rdf:langString Liberal-Labour (Canada)

rdf:langString The Liberal-Labour banner has been used several times by candidates in Canadian elections: In the early twentieth century when the idea of trade unionists running for elected office under their own banner gained ground, several working class candidates on the provincial or federal level were elected on a Labour ticket. Once elected, in the absence of an organized Labour Party, an MP elected on a Labour ticket would often support, or join, the Liberal Party of Canada and would often be described as "Liberal-Labour" At other times, the Liberal Party, particularly under William Lyon Mackenzie King would try to co-opt the trade union vote by running Liberal supporters as Labour or Liberal-Labour candidates. These would be official or unofficial "fusion" candidates who would run in the absence of a straight Liberal candidate. * Ralph Smith was a miner who won election to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in 1898 on a Liberal-Labour platform. In the 1900 federal election he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal-Labour candidate defeating the official Liberal candidate. He immediately joined the Liberal Party caucus of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and subsequently ran and won re-election as a straight Liberal against Conservative and Socialist opponents. * Alphonse Verville was president of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada when he was elected as a Labour candidate in a 1906 by-election in Maisonneuve. Verville was elected by defeating a Liberal opponent, however, in subsequent elections the Liberals ran no candidate in Maisonneuve and threw their support to Verville who would generally support Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals in the House of Commons of Canada. In the 1917 federal election on conscription, Verville ran and was re-elected as a Laurier-Liberal. * Malcolm Lang, who was elected as a Labour Party of Canada Member of Parliament in the 1926 federal election, failed to get re-elected as "Liberal-Labour" in the north-eastern Ontario riding of Timiskaming South in the 1930 federal election. * Humphrey Mitchell was elected as a Labour MP in a 1931 by-election in Hamilton East. He was unopposed by the Mackenzie King Liberals and generally voted with the Liberal caucus while having a poor relationship with other Labour MPs in parliament. He refused to join the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation when it was formed the next year and, in the 1935 federal election ran for re-election as a Labour MP. The Liberals supported Mitchell unofficially and did not run a candidate against him. The CCF, however, did stand a candidate in Hamilton East resulting in the labour vote being split and Mitchell's defeat at the hands of a Conservative in a year where the Conservatives lost dozens of seats. Mitchell returned to parliament during World War II as a Liberal MP and cabinet minister. * From 1949 to 1965, William Moore Benidickson represented the north-western Ontario riding of Kenora-Rainy River as a Liberal-Labour Member of Parliament. Benidickson was elected as a Liberal MP in the 1945 federal election, but ran subsequently as "Liberal-Labour" as the result of an informal electoral pact between the Labor-Progressive Party (i.e., the Communist Party of Canada) and the Liberal Party of Canada (see also Ontario legislature, below.) Benidickson was succeeded in that riding by John Mercer Reid, who was elected as a "Liberal" in 1965 but then sat as a "Liberal-Labour" MP from the 1968 federal election until the 1972 federal election, when he changed his designation back to "Liberal". In the 1988 federal election, Liberal candidate Bob Nault identified himself as "Liberal-Labour" on some of his literature (particularly those distributed at plant gates) in his successful attempt to defeat NDP incumbent John Parry who had defeated Reid in 1984. Nault was officially listed as a straight Liberal on the ballot and in his official designation when he became an MP. * In the 1935 federal election, three candidates ran in Quebec ridings, placing last in each case, and drawing no more than 1.5% of the vote in each case. In all three ridings, at least one other candidate ran as a "Liberal". * In the 1945 federal election, one candidate ran as a "Liberal Labour" candidate in the Quebec riding of Mercier, placing last in a field of seven, with 345 votes, 1.0% of the total. * In the 1949 federal election, one candidate ran as a "Liberal Labour" candidate in the Quebec riding of Stanstead, placing last in a field of four, with 433 votes, 2.6% of the total.