Ginger Group - Definition and Overview

The Ginger Group was not a formal political party in Canada, but a faction of radical Progressive and Labour Members of Parliament who advocated socialism. The group took its name from Ginger Godwin, a United Mine Workers organizer. Ginger was shot dead outside Cumberland, British Columbia by company hired private policemen on July 27, 1918. His murder sparked Canada's first general strike.

The Ginger Group split from the declining Progressive Party in 1924, and was made up of United Farmers of Alberta MPs G.C. Coote, Robert Gardiner, E.J. Garland, D.M. Kennedy and Henry Spencer as well as United Farmers of Ontario MP Agnes Macphail. The group was later joined by Independent Labour MPs J.S. Woodsworth, William Irvine, A.A. Heaps and Angus MacInnis, as well as a number of Independents.

Members of the Ginger Group played a role in forming the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 1932, with Woodsworth becoming the new party's leader.

See also

• List of Canadian political parties