The Regina Manifesto & Winnipeg Declaration of Principles

The Regina Manifesto (1933)

The original statement of purpose and beliefs of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the first Socialist party of Canada.

In 1932, the Canadian West had been hit hard by the dark days of the Great Depression. The fields were parched and dry. There were no jobs, and there was no money to be had.

Labour and socialist groups, political activists, and concerned citizens came together in a Calgary Legion Hall on July 31, 1932, to form a new political party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), and the roots of the Canadian social welfare system were planted. The founders wanted a political party that would promote universal cooperation for the common good. Members believed capitalism led to inequality and greed, and they wanted to hold governments responsible for social and economic planning to make things more even-handed. The party doctrine outlined radical economic, social, and political reforms and spoke about issues that still resonate as key election issues today. They understood then, as many of us do now, that politics are grounded in movements, and movements are pushed forward by citizens who hold a vested interest.

The first leader of the CCF party was already an outspoken Member of Parliament (Labour Party) by the name of James Shaver Woodsworth. Woodsworth identified that unemployment was not the fault of the individual, but rather that the system was to blame. He was able to explain the Depression in such a way that it took the burden from the unemployed and placed it firmly, and logically, on the government.

‘A severe condemnation still rests upon indifference... We have tried to provide for the poor. Yet, have we tried to alter the social conditions that lead to poverty?’ James Shaver Woodsworth (1932)

On July 19, 1933, the first convention of the CCF was held in Regina. People gathered together to imagine a better country, an economically sustainable, socially responsible, and equitable nation, and from that assembly, the Regina Manifesto was created and adopted. The 14 point programme pictured a socialized economy, and called for a National Labour Code that included the right for workers to unionize, health and welfare insurance to cover illness, accident, unemployment, and social programs like publicly-funded health care. Also included were universal pension, national labour standards, family allowance, a minimum wage, farm security, and the establishment of crown corporations to provide services that would encompass telecommunications, transportation, and energy.

In less than a single generation, the Regina Manifesto became the blueprint for Canadian social policy through what was left of the 20th century and defined those core values that many today recognize as what it means to be ‘Canadian’.

The Manifesto was, not surprisingly, met with a mix of cynicism, rebuttal, and uncertainty with regard to its goals, and of course, the associated costs.

In 1935, there were 5 CCF candidates elected to Parliament, which included the incomparable Thomas (Tommy) Clement Douglas, PC CM SOM (b. October 20, 1904, d. February 24, 1986). Douglas left federal politics to become Leader of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and then became the seventh, and first CCF, Premier of Saskatchewan, from 1944 until 1961. His cabinet was the first democratic socialist government in North America, and it introduced the continent's first single-payer, universal health care program.

The CCF became the New Democratic Party in 1961, and although the Party has never held national power, its policies and initiatives were adopted and implemented by federal governments over the years.

All these decades later, the Regina Manifesto remains as important a document today as it was in 1933 because, “The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability, and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. Power has become more and more concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists, and to their predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed.” This part of the second paragraph from the Manifesto could have been written last week, and there are a limited few of us today who would not agree with its words.

In the 5,000 words of the Regina Manifesto, we read an analysis of capitalism, government and public policy, the three foundations that define our lives. The Manifesto outlines solutions and suggests, with a thirst for social justice, the ways In which we can work to correct the roadblocks that prevent a good life for all. At the heart of this document lies the belief that we can do better, that we must do better, and that the pilot study of that will be for us to be inclusive in our journey toward that goal.