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Miguel Figueroa (born 1953) has been the leader of the Communist Party of Canada since 1992. Figueroa was born in Montreal and has been a member of the CPC for more than 25 years. He has held many positions within the CPC, including party organizer in Vancouver and leader of the party's Atlantic branch in Halifax. While leader of the Atlantic branch, Figueroa would chair an organizing committee that signed up 800 part-time seasonal professors and teaching assistants at Dalhousie University that would become the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The implosion of the Soviet Union led to internal party weaknesses within the CPC. Under the leadership of, the then, general secretary George Hewison (1988-91), the leadership and a segment of the general membership of the CPC began to abandon Marxism-Leninism as the basis of the Party's revolutionary perspective and ultimately moved to liquidate the Party itself, seeking to replace it with a left, social-democratic entity.
The protracted ideological and political crisis created much confusion and disorientation within the ranks of the Party, and paralysed both its independent and united front work for over two years. Ulitmately, in 1991, the Hewison-led majority in the party voted to liquidate the Communist Party and transform it into the Cecil-Ross Society which was to be a publishing and educational foundation. A large number of party members, led by Figueroa and Elizabeth (Liz) Rowley, resisted this turn and split with the Hewison group in order to relaunch the Communist Party of Canada taking advantage of the fact that the Hewison group had abandoned the name.
A convention was held in December 1992 in which delegates declared themselves to be the continuation of the Communist Party (thus the meeting was titled the 30th CPC Convention) and rejected the changes instituted by Hewison by reaffirming the CPC as a Marxist-Leninist organization. Since the old party's assets remained the property of the Hewison-led Cecil Ross Society, the CPC convention decided to launch a new newspaper, the People's Voice, to replace the old Canadian Tribune. The convention elected a new central committee with Figueroa as the Party's leader. The new party was smaller than the old one and had lost a number of assets, including the party's headquaters at 24 Cecil Street in Toronto. Accordingly the CPC was not in a position to run 30 candidates in the 1993 Canadian election required to maintain party status. As a result the newly relaunched CPC was deregistered by Elections Canada and its remaining assets seized by the government. A prolonged legal battle, Figueroa v. Canada ensued resulting in a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2003 which overturned portions of the Elections Act and guaranteed the right of small parties to run in elections. Earlier in the legal battle, the party had its deregistration overturned and its seized assets restored.
Figueroa has run in 5 Canadian general elections:
- Canadian federal election, 1984: Figueroa ran in the riding of Vancouver East, and finished last with 259 votes. Margaret Mitchell of the NDP won.
- Canadian federal election, 1988: Figueroa ran in the riding of Halifax, and finished 5th in a field of 7 candidates with 151 votes. Mary Clancy of the Liberal Party of Canada won.
- Canadian federal election, 1993: Figueroa ran as an independent in the riding of Parkdale--High Park, and finished 9th out of a field of 11 with 105 votes. Jesse Flis of the Liberals won.
- Canadian federal election, 1997: Figueroa ran as an independent in the riding of Davenport, and finished 7th in a field of 8 with 194 votes. Charles Caccia of the Liberals won.
- Canadian federal election, 2000: Figueroa ran in the riding ot Toronto--Danforth, and finished 9th in a field of 10 with 129 votes. Dennis Mills of the Liberals won.
- Canadian federal election, 2004: Figueroa ran in the riding ot East York-Beaches in Toronto, and finished 7th in a field of 8 with 62 votes. Maria Minna of the Liberals won.
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