Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada - Definition and Overview

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (CPC-ML) is a Canadian federal political party whose platform is the promotion of socialism. Its orientation is Anti-Revisionist (or Stalinist).

The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. Elections Canada, the Canadian government agency that oversees elections and political parties, claimed that, in order to avoid confusion among voters, it could not allow registration of names that could cause confusion for voters with other parties. In this case, Elections Canada argues that allowing the party to use its preferred name could cause confusion with the Communist Party of Canada (CPC).

History and ideology

Hardial Bains founded the party in 1961 after he was denied a membership in the Communist Party of Canada. It was initially a Maoist student group, and went by the name "The Internationalists". In 1970, it became the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Bains was leader of the CPC-ML until his death in 1997. Bains' personal politics became the driving force behind the CPC-ML. Its ideological trajectory followed his own from Maoism through to the Stalinism of Albania's Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania.

The CPC-ML differentiates itself from the CPC, claiming that the CPC's theory and practice are revisionist. Historically, the CPC supported the USSR in the Sino-Soviet split, while the CPC-ML supported the People's Republic of China. It continued to uphold China as a model for socialism until shortly after the death of Mao Zedong. Subsequently, the CPC-ML looked to Enver Hoxha's Albania as a model of socialism until the collapse of Communism in that country in 1992.

During the 1980s, the CPC-ML adopted a slogan of, "We are our own models," and began to seek a new ideological approach. Because of differences in theory, the CPC and CPC-ML have routinely been at odds on many matters. During the late 1970s and through at least the early years of the 1980s, the CPC-ML routinely attacked members of the CPC on the streets of Toronto and "punished" them for their beliefs.

Current position

Today, the CPC-ML tends to be supportive of North Korea, though it does not promote Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il in the manner that it promoted Hoxha and Mao in previous years. The CPC-ML has developed a more independent line since the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

On January 1, 1995, the party put forward a broad program of work for the current period, which it has named the Historic Initiative. This was further elaborated during its Seventh Congress.

Since 1997, the party's leader has been Bains' widow, Sandra L. Smith who has used her late husband's personal fortune to continue the work of the CPC-ML.

The CPC-ML is active in several trade unions, particularly the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the United Steel Workers of America. It has also been active in the movement against the war in Iraq.

The party, if elected, would establish a Citizen's Committee for Democratic Renewal, or CCDR, that would nominate candidates for federal office. This would remove the process from the control of each political party's riding association, and establish what they see as a more equitable approach to the issue of democracy.

Electoral activity

The party has run candidates in Canadian federal elections since 1972 with the number of candidates in any one election ranging from as few as 51 and as many as 177. Most of its candidates have run in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It was most prominent in the 1979 federal election and 1980 federal election, running under the slogan "Make the rich pay".

Its slogan in the 2004 federal election was "Annexation no! Sovereignty yes!"

The party also nominated candidates in several by-elections:

1980: 1

1995: 2

1998: 1

External link

The Marxist-Leninist Homepage (http://www.cpcml.ca/)

Federal Political Parties of Canada
Liberal	Conservative	B.Q.	N.D.P.
Not represented in the House of Commons
Action	C.H.P.	Communist	Green
Libertarian	Marijuana	Marxist-Leninist	PC Party
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See also: Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (in Manitoba)