Social Democrats of the North: Ernest Winch and Harold Winch
Meet the radical father-son duo who became two of British Columbia’s left-wing pioneers.
Meet the radical father-son duo who became two of British Columbia’s left-wing pioneers.

The League for Social Reconstruction was a group of socialist thinkers, brought together by the crisis of the Great Depression, that laid the intellectual foundations for modern Canadian social democracy.

Rather than treating feminism and social democracy as separate projects, Agnes Macphail understood both as essential to building a more democratic and equal society.

This Scottish-born preacher turned politician helped lay the foundation for early social democratic electoral success in Alberta and across Canada.

A pioneer of Canadian prairie socialism, E.A. Partridge was a radical farmer who organized Saskatchewan grain growers in the face of rampant price fixing.

Amidst working-class poverty and the upheaval around the First World War, Olivar Asselin emerged as one of Montreal’s most famous journalists who advocated for Quebec’s working poor.

With Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government still a few seats short of a majority government, working-class Canadians should start asking NDP leadership candidates how they would wield the balance of power.

Reflecting on the ONDP government led by Bob Rae from 1990 to 1995, it is clear that the success of today’s ONDP depends on its ability to deliver on substantive reforms that materially benefit Ontario’s diverse working-class.

Ed Broadbent and his co-authors spoke at the Toronto Reference Library to launch their new book on Canadian social democracy.


