COMMUNIST PARTY (ALBERTA)

'Communist Party of Alberta' is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada.

Contents

History

Party leaders

Election results by year

General elections

By-elections

External links

History

The party was created some time around 1930. The party has been a very minor force in Alberta's traditionally conservative provincial politics, it achieved its best results in the 1940s with a couple of distant second place finishes. In those elections, it called itself the "Labour Progressive Party" because the name "Communist" had been banned by the federal government. The party started using the Communist name again in 1963.
The Communist Party first ran in the Edmonton by-election of January 9, 1931. It contested two more by-elections after that, the last of which was a by-election held on October 7, 1937 in the Edmonton electoral district in which Jan Lakeman Leader of the Communists finished third. The party has not contested another by-election since.
While the Communist Party had marginally better results under the old Single Transferable Vote system that Alberta used between 1926 and 1959, its candidates rarely ever made it past the first vote transfer.
The Communist Party was less successful than other left wing parties in the province, such as the Labour Party and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. In the 1975 provincial election, the Communist Party split the far left wing vote with the Constitutional Socialist Party.
The Communist Party did not run in the 1967 and 1971 elections. The party has managed to run at least one candidate in every general election since then. In recent years, the Communist Party has not been able to attract more than a couple candidates with vote totals that rarely top 100 in each electoral district contested.
The Alberta Communist Party is a full provincial wing of the federal Communist Party of Canada.

Party leaders

★ Jan Lakeman 1930 - ?

★ Naomi Rankin 1992 - Current

Election results by year

General elections

'Election'	'Affiliation'	'# of Candidates'	'Votes'	'Pop. %'	'Best Candidate'	'Votes'	'District'
1935	Communist	9	5,771	1.91%	Jan Lakeman	1,096	Edmonton
1940	Communist	1	1,067	0.35%	James McPherson	1,067	Edmonton
1944	Labour Progressive	30	12,003	4.26%	William Teresio	999	Vermilion
1948	Labour Progressive	2	1,372	0.47%	Bernard Swankey	856	Pincher-Creek Crowsnest
1952	Labour Progressive	2	1,132	0.38%	Bernard Swankey	824	Edmonton
1955	Labour Progressive	9	3,420	0.90%	William Harasym	947	Edmonton
1959	Labour Progressive	4	884	0.21%	William Tuomi	251	Edmonton Norwood
1963	Communist	4	527	0.13%	Dan Gamache	215	St. Paul
1975	Communist	14	768	0.13%	Neil Stenberg	116	Redwater-Andrew
1979	Communist	7	357	0.05%	William Tuomi	80	Edmonton Highlands
1982	Communist	8	389	0.04%	Naomi Rankin	66	Edmonton Highlands
1986	Communist	6	199	0.03%	Naomi Rankin	51	Edmonton Highlands
1989	Communist	2	82	0.01%	Naomi Rankin	55	Edmonton Gold Bar
1993	Communist	1	47	0.005%	Naomi Rankin	47	Edmonton Strathcona
1997	Communist	1	61	0.01%	Naomi Rankin	61	Edmonton Riverview
2001	Communist	2	117	0.01%	Naomi Rankin	76	Edmonton Centre
2004	Communist	2	98	0.01%	Bonnie-Jean Collins	56	Calgary East

By-elections

'Date'	'District'	'Candidate'	'Votes'	'%'	'Placement'
January 9, 1931	Edmonton	Jan Lakeman	813	4.68%	4th out of 4
November 16, 1931	Red Deer	F.G. Bray	261	6.68%	4th out of 4
October 7, 1937	Edmonton	Jan Lakeman	1,779	5.72%	3rd out of 5

External links

★ Communist Party of Alberta