Political movement
The
Canadian social credit movement
is a
political movement
originally based on the
Social Credit
theory of Major
C. H. Douglas
. Its supporters were colloquially known as
Socreds
in English and
creditistes
in French. It gained popularity and its own political party in the 1930s, as a result of the
Great Depression
.
Federal politics
[
edit
]
The
Western Social Credit League
, an outgrowth of Alberta Social Credit, ran candidates in the
1935 federal election
taking many votes from the
Progressive Party of Canada
and the
United Farmers
movement. In the
1940 federal election
, Socreds ran with supporters of
William Duncan Herridge
as
New Democracy
, but reverted to the Social Credit name in subsequent elections with the
Social Credit Association of Canada
being officially formed in 1944. The party was generally fairly small, and gradually declined. The party won its last federal seats in Alberta in 1965. (SC MP Robert Norman Thompson (Red Deer) went on to be elected as a Conservative in 1968.)
[1]
In the 1960s, the
Quebecois wing of the party split off
to form the
Ralliement creditiste
. The two wings reunited in 1971. The party was left without any parliamentary seats following the
1980 federal election
, and thereafter declined into irrelevance, though it nominally continued to exist until 1993.
Alberta
[
edit
]
The ideology was embraced by the Reverend
William Aberhart
("Bible Bill"), who formed the
Alberta Social Credit League
in 1934. He added a heavy dose of fundamentalist Christianity to Douglas' social credit theory. Social Credit won the
1935 provincial election
in a massive landslide, and Aberhart became
Premier of Alberta
. His government was probably the only one in the world known to have adhered to the social credit ideology. In fact, following the
1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt
in which Aberhart's government was pressured to implement its fiscal program, he once tried to implement social credit by issuing "
prosperity certificates
" to Albertans. This measure was disallowed by the
Supreme Court of Canada
on the basis that only the federal government was authorized to issue currency.
Aberhart died in office in 1943, and was replaced by
Ernest Manning
. Although Manning had been an early supporter of Social Credit, he largely abandoned the theory while keeping the Social Credit name. He also purged the party of anti-Semites; although
antisemitism
had long been part of the party's populist rhetoric, it fell out of fashion after
World War II
.
The Alberta Socreds formed nine consecutive
majority governments
spanning 36 years, the longest unbroken run in government at the provincial level at the time. Largely due to Manning's ledership and to Alberta's powerful influence within the Canadian Social Credit movement, the Canadian social credit movement developed a strong social conservative tint.
The party lost its last MLAs in 1982 and never elected a member again. Although the party was no longer a significant force in Alberta politics, it had some support and briefly experienced a revival around 2005. However, in 2008, the party collapsed to only 0.2 percent of the vote, its worst showing since its founding in 1934. In 2017 it was renamed to the Pro-Life Alberta Political Association, which has only tenuous connections to its social credit heritage.
British Columbia
[
edit
]
In the 1930s and 1940s, the social credit movement in
British Columbia
was largely fractious, and made up of various small groups, the largest of which being the Social Credit League. The British Columbian movement was largely at odds with the Albertan wing and sought to distance itself from William Aberhart's religious preaching.
The effective death of the movement came when former Tory
W. A. C. Bennett
was elected leader of the League in 1951. Bennett joined in order to use the party as a political vehicle. He quickly jettisoned the original ideology, and reorganized the party into the conservative populist
British Columbia Social Credit Party
.
Social Credit's first government in British Columbia was a very small
minority
, but they were elected to a majority a year later. After the minority, and 20 years of majority government, the party was defeated by the
New Democratic Party of British Columbia
. The NDP served only one term in Government, before the Social Credit Party was returned to office for four more terms of majority government under W. A. C. Bennett's son,
Bill Bennett
. Bennett was succeeded by
Bill Vander Zalm
in 1986, but Vander Zalm was forced to resign in 1991 in favour of
Rita Johnston
.
The Social Credit government was defeated by the NDP in the
1991 election
, and was knocked down to third place. The party collapsed in the
1996 election
when it failed to win a single seat in the legislature, and received only 0.4% of votes cast. Many of the party's mainstream members left to join the
British Columbia Liberal Party
, which emerged in the early 1990s as the new "free enterprise" coalition opposing the NDP.
The party quickly dwindled into fringe status, and now only exists in desultory fashion. It ran only two candidates in the
2001 election
. The strongest candidate of the two, Grant Mitton, a former radio talk show host who received 17% of the vote in his
riding
, later left the party to form the
British Columbia Party
. It only ran two candidates in
2005
, none in
2009
, and one in
2013
. The party was de-registered shortly afterward. It regained its registration in 2016, but ran only two candidates in the
2017 provincial election
.
Quebec
[
edit
]
The movement also caught on in
Quebec
in part because of the work of
Louis Even
who translated social credit literature into French, wrote his own articles on the subject and published and circulated periodicals to promote social credit theories. He and
Gilberte Cote-Mercier
founded a
lay
Christian group called the "
Pilgrims of Saint Michael
", based in Rougemont, Quebec, that promotes social credit monetary policy coupled with conservative Catholicism. The Pilgrims publish
The Michael Journal
in English and
Vers Demain
in French. The group is nicknamed "the White Berets" for the headgear worn by members.
Even and Cote-Mercier also founded the
Union des electeurs
in 1939 as a provincial party based on social credit theories and recruited
Real Caouette
to the movement. Even and Armand Turpin ran federally as
New Democracy
candidates in the
1940 federal election
, but none was elected. The movement was able to win a post
World War II
by-election
under the
Union des electeurs
label, with Caouette being sent to the
House of Commons of Canada
. The Union broke with the
Social Credit Party of Canada
in 1947 over
Ernest Manning
's rejection of more orthodox social credit economic theory and his purge of anti-Semites from the social credit movement. The Union held more orthodox views in line with
C.H. Douglas
's original economic and political philosophy including a rejection of party politics in the belief that it should be replaced by a non-partisan "union of electors" in which elected officials would implement the popular will.
Caouette ran for re-election as a
union des electeurs
candidate and lost his seat in the
1949 federal election
. Caouette continued to run in elections unsuccessfully through the 1950s over the objections of Even and Cote-Mercier and split with them on May 4, 1958 to form
Ralliement des creditistes
as the Quebec wing of the
Social Credit Party of Canada
with himself as leader. It achieved a major breakthrough in the
1962 federal election
, and remained in the House of Commons under various names until 1980.
Social Credit was never able to form a provincial government in Quebec due to the near dominance of social conservative votes by the
Union Nationale
party from the 1930s into the 1960s. The Social Credit Party, however, soon became a major contender in Quebec for seats to the federal
Parliament
in the 1960s. Although BC and Alberta would elect a few Social Credit
Members of Parliament
(MPs) in that decade, it would be Quebec that maintained the party's national presence after 1962. Social Credit remained dominant in the other two provinces in provincial elections.
In the
1962 election
, Social Credit won 26 of 75 seats in Quebec, beating the
Progressive Conservative Party
. They continued to finish in second place in terms of federal seats from Quebec until their last MPs fell with the minority government of
Joe Clark
in 1980. The most Social Credit ever captured in terms of the Quebec popular vote was 27.3% federally, and 11.2% provincially.
The Quebec wing of the movement broke from the rest of the party in 1963 to form its own Quebec-only federal Social Credit party, the
Ralliement des creditistes
. As a social conservative party, the party generally attracted voters who supported of the
Union Nationale
in provincial elections.
The party formed a provincial wing in 1970, the
Ralliement creditiste du Quebec
, which benefited as the UN declined after the death of
Premier
Daniel Johnson
in 1968.
The growth of
Quebec separatism
stymied the rise of the provincial Creditistes. Although
Parti Quebecois
is a
social democratic
party, it drew nationalist voters away from the Creditistes.
In the
1970 provincial election
, the Liberals took 72 seats, followed by the Union Nationale with 17, and
Ralliement creditiste du Quebec
with 12. The party was riven by internal dissent for the remainder of its history, capturing two seats in the
1973 election
, and only one in the
1976 election
, the last time a
creditiste
was elected to the Quebec
National Assembly
.
New Brunswick
[
edit
]
While Social Credit never won any seats in the
New Brunswick
Legislature, it won 3.1% of the vote in the
1948 provincial election
, the party's first. Social Credit also ran candidates in
1952
and
1956
winning 0.5% and 1.6% of the vote respectively.
Manitoba
[
edit
]
In
Manitoba
, the party was able to win a few seats in the Legislature, and was the
third party
in each at various times. From 1936 to 1940, the party supported
John Bracken
's
minority government
, and in 1940 it joined Bracken's
coalition government
.
Of the ten elections from 1936?1973, the party won seats in seven. In the
1936 provincial election
, Social Credit finished third, and in the
1941 provincial election
, it tied for third. However, Social Credit never won more than 14% of the popular vote.
Saskatchewan
[
edit
]
In
Saskatchewan
, Social Credit won seats in the Legislature in two elections ? 2 seats in the
1938 election
, and 3 in the
1956 election
. In 1956, the party held
third party
status. Social Credit was never able to win more than 16% of the popular vote.
Ontario
[
edit
]
In
Ontario
, the party unsuccessfully ran candidates in most provincial elections from 1945 until 1975, never obtaining electoral support beyond a negligible level.
The party faced serious divisions in the 1940s, 1960s and early 1970s due to attempted takeovers by fascist groups and was put in trusteeship by the federal party in 1972 when the fascist
Western Guard
succeeded in taking control.
The party continued as a registered party into the 1980s, not running candidates in the 1977 election and running only 5 candidates with interim leader
John Turmel
in the 1981 election. It was defunct by 1985.
Other parties
[
edit
]
Other political parties have also promoted social credit principles, including
John Turmel
's
Christian Credit Party
and
Abolitionist Party of Canada
, and the short-lived
Canada Party
. The
Global Party of Canada
also appears to promote social credit economic policies.
The western reform movement largely replaced the socreds, and used the
Reform Party of Canada
as its political vehicle.
Stephen Harper
's insistence on targeted tax credits, including the idea of handouts to pay for child care, may have some roots in the Social Credit's monetary policies.
The
Canadian Action Party
had
monetary reform
policies in its platform, but was not considered to be a social credit party.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Mardon.
Who's Who in Federal Politics from Alberta
.
External links
[
edit
]