Reconstruction Party of Canada

The Reconstruction Party of Canada was a Canadian political party that was active during the mid-1930s. It was mainly a federal party that contested the 1935 election. It also had a short-lived Alberta wing that contested the 1935 Alberta election. It was one of four new political parties created in Canada during the Great Depression. (The others were the Social Credit Party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and Quebec’s Union Nationale). The right-wing party was isolationist, favoured workers’ rights and opposed the power of big business. It was founded by longtime Conservative Party MP and Cabinet minister Henry Herbert Stevens, who was known for his anti-immigrant views. The party won only one seat in 1935 — the Kootenay East riding that Stevens had held for years. The party was dissolved when Stevens rejoined the Conservatives in 1938.

Creation

H.H. Stevens had been a lifelong Conservative. He was also a prominent Cabinet minister in the governments of Arthur Meighen and R.B. Bennett. But he clashed with Bennett on the matter of price-fixing. Stevens argued that it helped powerful companies and corporations but hurt small business owners. To placate Stevens, Bennett created a committee to investigate price-fixing and named Stevens its chair. But Bennett disagreed with Stevens’ proposed solutions. Their relationship broke down and Stevens launched his own party on 7 July 1935.

Platform

The party’s aim was to re-establish Canada’s industrial, economic and social life. The party’s manifesto proposed to regulate big business and give more support to Canadian workers. Ironically, these positions would later be advanced by the left-leaning New Democratic Party (NDP), the successor to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).

Stevens also advocated for programs modelled after US president Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. These included a public works program and a Federal Trade and Industry Commission to resolve industrial and commercial disputes. Stevens proposed protections for farmers, higher taxes on higher incomes, and eliminating the national debt by exploiting Canada’s vast natural resources, notably gold and oil. Most of these ideas are today more closely associated with the political left than the right.

1935 Federal Election

The Reconstruction Party fielded candidates nationwide in 1935. It garnered 389,708 votes representing nearly 9 per cent of the popular vote. The party finished third, ahead of the other two new federal parties formed during the Depression. However, roughly 90 per cent of its support came from east of Manitoba. The party won only one seat — the riding of Kootenay East, which Stevens had held since 1930. Most of the party’s support came from former Conservative voters. The Reconstruction Party split the vote in dozens of ridings.

Though it was somewhat successful in its first and only federal contest, the party was ultimately too closely linked with Stevens. When he rejoined the Conservative Party in 1938, the Reconstruction Party was dissolved.