Social Democracy in Manitoba: A History of the CCF-NDP

Greg Turko is a policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

The social democratic movement in Manitoba had not built a consistent and material following prior to the Schreyer years. Nelson Wiseman, in this book, provides a discussion of why the social democrats in Manitoba did not enjoy the same success as did, for example, the CCF in Saskatchewan.

The reasons for this lack of success can be broken down into two broad categories — those reasons that arose from the circumstances and peculiarities of Manitoba politics and those that were largely the making of the social democrats themselves.

In the first category Wiseman places such factors as a strong representation of Ontario settlers in Manitoba, a group that saw the two-party political culture embracing Conservatives and Liberals and not the social democrats. In addition, Manitoba contained major anomalies in the area of constituency distribution. Rural areas, traditionally anti-social-democrat, were over-represented, while urban, pro-social-democrat areas were under-represented. On a more subjective level, the CCF was often viewed by the general public as nothing more than a communist organization, a perception reinforced by the Party’s strong ethnic-based support.

The CCF was not, however, entirely the victim of circumstance. The Party defended a number of positions and adopted a number of policies that did little to boost voter support. In 1940 the CCF participated in the ill-fated (for the CCF) “non-partisan” administration of Premier Bracken. The CCF gained little from this venture but in the process lost considerable Party unity and public credibility. Party unity was also squandered by the predominance of overly theoretical debates at the expense of the kind of organization and policy needed to win elections. The Party was, no doubt, international in its thinking, but this is not necessarily a characteristic that motivates voters to support political parties.

It was not until the Schreyer leadership that the Party was able to turn many of the difficulties it traditionally faced into positive factors. Party organization had been improved and focus had been turned to a “simple” and appealing voter theme — the good government of Manitoba. Schreyer himself used his rural, ethnic roots, his urban experience, and his winning style to propel the NDP into power.

Wiseman has done an excellent job of tracing the actions taken by the mainline parties to ensure that the CCF/NDP remained in obscurity.

If there is one criticism it would be that he has not devoted enough attention to the simple inappropriateness of CCF/NDP policy prior to 1969 and the Party’s apparent inability to present itself as a viable political force to more than a minority of the voters of Manitoba.