Progressive Party of Canada

Progressive Party of Canada
Parti progressiste du Canada
Former federal party
Founded1920 (1920)
Dissolved1930
Succeeded byUnited Farmers of Alberta,
Liberal-Progressives,
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
IdeologyAgrarianism[1]
Progressivism
Left-wing populism
Social democracy
Political positionCentre-left
ColoursGreen

The Progressive Party of Canada, formally the National Progressive Party, was a federal-level political party in Canada in the 1920s until 1930. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces, and it spawned the Progressive Party of Saskatchewan, and the Progressive Party of Manitoba, which formed the government of that province. The Progressive Party was part of the farmers' political movement that included federal and provincial Progressive and United Farmers' parties.

The United Farmers movement in Canada rose to prominence after World War I. With the failure of the wartime Union government to alter a tariff structure that hurt farmers, various farmers movements across Canada became more radical and entered the political arena. The United Farmers movement was tied to the federal Progressive Party of Canada and formed provincial governments in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. It rejected the National Policy of the Conservatives, and felt that the Liberals were not strong enough proponents of free trade and were too strongly tied to business interests. Generally, farmers groups formed alliances with Labour and socialist groups though, in power, they became closer to the Liberals causing ruptures in several provinces between United Farmer governments and their organizations.

  1. ^ Tony Fitzpatrick; Huck-ju Kwon; Nick Manning; James Midgley; Gillian Pascall, eds. (2006). International Encyclopedia of Social Policy. Routledge. pp. 15–17. ISBN 978-1-136-61004-2.