The Social Credit Party of Canada (French: Parti du crédit social du Canada), was a conservative - populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement.

A Western protest movement: 1935–1961

When first formed in 1935, Social Credit took many voters from the Progressive Party of Canada and the United Farmers Movement. The party grew out of disaffection with the status quo during the Great Depression. The depression hit the party's western Canadian birth-place especially hard, and can be credited both for the creation of this party and the rise of a social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

In 1935, in the party's first election, it won seventeen seats, all but two of them in Alberta, where it won over 46% of that province's popular vote.

In 1939, Social Credit joined with former Conservative William Duncan Herridge and his supporters in the New Democracy movement. The Social Credit Party ran in the 1940 election under the "New Democracy" name, but reverted to "Social Credit" for the 1945 election.

Growth in Quebec: 1962–1972

Beginning in the early 1960s, there were serious tensions between the party's English and French wings. In 1961, Robert Thompson of Alberta defeated Real Caouette of Quebec at the party's leadership convention. The vote totals were never announced; many suspect that Caouette actually won more votes, but was rejected by the party's western leadership for fear that he would be a liability. Alberta Socred Premier Ernest Manning had previously told the convention that his province would never accept a francophone Catholic as the party's leader, leading to suspicions that the vote was fixed in Thompson's favour.

Caouette became the party's deputy leader after leading its Quebec wing to a major breakthrough in the 1962 election. 26 créditistes were elected from Quebec, while Thompson was responsible for a scant four Socred seats in rest of Canada, including his own. The linguistic imbalance caused severe tensions in the Social Credit caucus, as the Quebec MPs regarded Caouette as their leader. Also, Caouette and the other Quebec MPs remained true believers in social credit theory, while the English branch had largely abandoned the theory. The number of Socreds from English Canada was also declining. Thompson refused to stand down, and on September 9, 1963, the party split into an English Canadian wing and a separate French Canadian party led by Caouette - the Ralliement des créditistes.

Of the 20 Social Credit MPs from Quebec in 1963, 13 joined Caouette's Ralliement, five of the remaining seven ran in the next election as independents, and two joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

The English Canadian party, concentrated in Alberta and British Columbia, won only five seats in 1965. Party leader Robert Thompson was frustrated by the lack of support given to the federal wing, while the provincial Social Credit parties in Alberta and British Columbia ran powerful political machines and formed the governments. As well, Alberta Premier Manning was becoming concerned with the leftward trajectory of both the federal Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives and encouraged Thompson to try to bring about a merger of the federal Socred and PC parties. Negotiations failed but in 1967, with the support of both Manning and PC leader Robert Stanfield, Thompson ran in the next election with the PCs. Another MP left the party as well that year; Bud Olson defected to the Liberals.

In the 1968 election, Social Credit lost its last two seats in English Canada. The party would never elect another MP from English Canada, although Manning was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1970.

In 1971, the Ralliement and the English-Canadian Social Credit rump reunited into a single national party, with Caouette as leader.

Decline: 1972–1980

In the 1972 election, the Social Credit Party won 15 seats - all in Quebec - and 7.6% of the popular vote.

End of Caouette era

In the 1974 federal election, the Social Credit Party machine in Quebec began to fall apart. Caouette was suffering from a snowmobiling accident, and therefore the powerful voice that had carried Social Credit in prior elections was silenced. When he was able to speak, Caouette focussed his attacks on the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democratic Party, instead of the Liberal Party, which was Social Credit's main competitor in Quebec. Two weeks before the election was called, Caouette had informed the parliamentary caucus that he would resign as leader in the fall.

Party rallies faced declining, aging attendance. Feuding within the party had accelerated: Some ridings in Quebec had two Social Credit candidates, while others -- including the party's Levis stronghold -- had none. The provincial wing of the party had split in two, and had lost ten of its twelve seats in the 1973 provincial election. Many Social Credit MPs ran for re-election on their own strengths, making little mention of the party or its leader in their campaign materials. The party's support in Quebec was undermined by rumours that its MPs had made deals with the Progressive Conservatives during Caouette's illness.

The Social Credit Party won eleven seats, which was considered a success in light of the divisions that plagued their campaign. Ending up they also retained official party status in the House of Commons; rules provide for automatic recognition of parties that hold at least twelve seats, but they do not state specifically that a party with less seats is not to be recognized. The Socreds failed in their attempts to convince Independent MP Leonard Jones to join their party solely for the sake of getting official recognition. Despite the Socreds' almost complete absence of political compatibility, the Speaker of the House of Commons, with approval from the Liberal government, decided to recognize the party anyway.

The provincial party, on the other hand, continued to face problems after the 1974 federal election as former federal Liberal cabinet minister Yvon Dupuis became leader, which alienated many of the party's members who still believed in social credit theories

Leadership turmoil

The decline of the party accelerated after Caouette's death in 1976. A 32-year-old Quebec MP, André-Gilles Fortin, was elected to replace Caouette on November 7, 1976. Social Credit was dealt a further blow when Fortin was killed in a car accident on June 24, 1977, after serving only eight months as leader. Réal's son, Gilles Caouette, was named acting leader five days after Fortin's death.

In 1978, Socreds elected Lorne Reznowski as their leader, in an attempt to revive the party outside of Quebec. Reznowski, an anglophone Manitoban, presented himself as a candidate in the October 16, 1978 by-elections and fared extremely poorly (1,204 votes, only 2.76% of the 43,572 valid votes in the riding of Saint Boniface), which prompted him to resign quickly thereafter. He was replaced as acting leader by Charles-Arthur Gauthier.

Roy's leadership

Popular provincial créditiste Fabien Roy was drafted to lead Social Credit just before the 1979 election. Under Roy, the party won the tacit support of the separatist Parti Québécois, which formed the government of Quebec. Social Credit attempted to rally the separatist and nationalist vote: Canadian flags were absent at its campaign kick-off rally, and the party's slogan was C'est à notre tour ("It's our turn"), which was reminiscent of the popular separatist anthem Gens du pays that includes the chorus, "C'est à votre tour de vous laisser parler d'amour". The party focused its platform on constitutional change, promising to fight to abolish the federal government's never-used right to disallow any provincial legislation, and stating that each province has a "right to choose its own destiny within Canada".

Support from the Parti Québécois was not welcome by everyone; for instance, Gilles Caouette publicly denounced what he called "péquistes déguisés en créditistes" (Péquistes disguised as Socreds). While the party did manage to somewhat increase its vote in Péquiste areas, it also lost many votes in areas of traditional Socred strength, with the end result being a drop from eleven to six seats and a slightly reduced share of the popular vote compared to the 1974 election. (See also: Social Credit Party candidates, 1979 Canadian federal election.)

Clark minority government

Joe Clark's Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government after the election. The Socreds had just enough seats to give the Tories a majority in the House had the two parties formed a coalition government or otherwise agreed to work together. Prime Minister Clark, who declared that he would govern as if he had a majority, refused to grant the small Social Credit caucus the official party status it wanted, let alone form a coalition or make concessions to the party in order to gain its votes. Clark convinced one Socred MP, Richerd Janelle from Lotbinière, to leave the party and join the government caucus. In December 1979, the remaining five members of the Social Credit caucus demanded that the Conservatives amend their budget to allocate the controversial gas tax revenues to Quebec. Clark refused and the Social Credit caucus abstained in a vote on a Motion of No Confidence, causing the Conservative government to fall.

The abstention by Social Credit on the important budget vote (while the Liberals and NDP voted to bring down the government) contributed to the growing perception that the party had become irrelevant following the death of iconic leader Réal Caouette. The resulting February 18, 1980 election not only defeated the Clark government but wiped out the Socreds. Social Credit's popular vote collapsed and the party ended up without any MPs in Parliament.

The death of the Social Credit candidate in the riding of Frontenac, Quebec, resulted in the postponement of the election in that riding to March 24, 1980. Fabien Roy sought to return to the House of Commons in that by-election, but lost to the Liberal candidate. Roy resigned as leader on November 1, 1980. The party would never again win a seat in the House of Commons.

Denouement: 1981–1993

After Fabien Roy's resignation, the party chose Martin Hattersley in 1981 as interim leader over Alberta evangelist Ken Sweigard. Hattersley was an Edmonton lawyer and former British army officer.

In the May 4, 1981 by-election in Levis, Quebec, the party nominated Martin Caya. Caya placed 6th in a field of seven candidates, winning 367 votes (1.1% of the total), ahead of renegade Socred John C. Turmel. Turmel, running as an independent, won 172 votes.

In the August 17, 1981 by-election in Quebec, party president Carl O’Malley placed 5th in a field of eight candidates, with 92 votes (0.2% of the total). Turmel won 42 votes, placing last.

Hattersley resigned in 1983 when the party would not drop from its membership three outspoken Albertans accused of anti-Semitism.

In June 1983, Sweigard was elected interim leader by means of a telephone conference call of 19 party executive members, with nine votes to five votes for party vice-president Richard Lawrence. Quebec party member Adrien Lambert was nominated, but could not be reached by telephone. He nonetheless won two votes.

When the call began, two candidates were in the race: professional gambler John Turmel of Ottawa, and tractor dealer Elmer Knutson of Edmonton, the founder of West-Fed, a western Canada separatist movement.

Turmel's candidacy was rejected on the basis that his membership had been suspended. Turmel subsequently formed the Christian Credit Party, and later, the Abolitionist Party of Canada, both based on social credit principles. Knutson failed to win endorsement because he was not well known by the members of the executive. Knutson subsequently quit the party to form the Confederation of Regions Party.

The meeting decided to appoint an interim leader until a leadership convention could be held in September 1983. This convention was deferred until June 1986, and Sweigard remained as interim leader until that time. Also in 1983, Manning retired from the Senate after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, ending the Social Credit's representation on Parliament Hill.

In the 1984 election, the party nominated 52 candidates in 51 ridings, and collected a total of 17,044 votes (0.13% of votes cast in all ridings). Two candidates ran as Social Credit candidates in the BC riding of Prince George-Peace River. The party's strength remained in Quebec and Alberta, but also ran candidates in BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick. See also: Social Credit Party candidates, 1984 Canadian federal election.

* In the 1940 election, W.D. Herridge ran a group of 17 social credit candidates as members of a party called New Democracy. In addition to the official Social Credit party, they won 3 seats and received 73,083 or 1.59% of the national vote.

** In the 1965 and 1968 elections, Quebec social crediters ran separately as the Ralliement des créditistes.

Where did the Socreds go?

Quebec Social Credit supporters were mostly social conservatives and Quebec nationalists, while western Canadian supporters were mostly socially conservative populists.

With the collapse of Social Credit in western Canada in 1968, many former members of Social Credit, including a number of MPs, joined the Progressive Conservatives. After the collapse of the party in Quebec, many of its supporters supported Brian Mulroney in his "great coalition" of western populists, Quebec nationalists, and Ontario fiscal conservatives.

Mulroney's coalition fell apart in the 1993 election. Most of the great coalition's western support left the party to form the Reform Party of Canada (later the Canadian Alliance). The Quebec nationalist wing of the party left to form the Bloc Québécois.

Western social conservatives would likely have been attracted to the PC and Reform parties or the Christian Heritage Party. Quebec nationalists probably moved first to the PC Party and then Bloc Québécois. The true believers in social credit monetary theories continued to promote their beliefs through the short-lived Canada Party in the 1993 election and subsequently in the Canadian Action Party.

There have been discussions by the Alberta Social Credit Party to re-start the federal party, but ideological differences between monetary reformers and social conservatives in the party have thus far stalled such efforts.

Leaders of the Social Credit Party of Canada

*John Horne Blackmore (1935–1944)
*Solon Earl Low (1944–1961)
*Robert Thompson (1961–1967)
*Alexander Bell Patterson (1967–1968) acting leader
*Réal Caouette (1971–1976)
*André-Gilles Fortin (1976–1977)
*Gilles Caouette (1977–1978) acting leader
*Lorne Reznowski (1978)
*Charles-Arthur Gauthier (1978–1979) acting leader
*Fabien Roy (1979–1980)
*Martin Hattersley (1981–1983)
*Ken Sweigard (1983–1986)
*Harvey Lainson (1986–1990)
*Ken Campbell (1990-1993)

See also

Category:Social Credit
Category:Federal political parties in Canada