Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is a Canadian federal political party whose platform is the promotion of socialism. Its orientation is Anti-Revisionist (or Stalinist).
"The Internationalists" were founded in 1963 by Hardial Bains as a Maoist student group. In 1970, this organization became the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), of which Bains was leader until his death in 1997.
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.
The CPC-ML differentiates itself from the Communist Party of Canada (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.
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.
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 anti-war movement.
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 Canadian election and 1980 Canadian election, running under the slogan "Make the rich pay". Its slogan in the 2004 Canadian election was "Annexation no! Sovereignty yes!"
Since 1997, the party's leader has been Bains' widow, Sandra L. Smith.
Election results
| Election
| # of candidates nominated
| # of seats won
| # of total votes
| % of popular vote
|
| 1974
| 104
| <center> 0
| <center> 16,261
| <center> 0.17%
|
| 1979
| <center> 144
| <center> 0
| <center> 14,231
| <center> 0.12%
|
| 1980
| <center> 177
| <center> 0
| <center> 14,697
| <center> 0.13%
|
| 1993
| <center> 51
| <center> 0
| <center> 5,202
| <center> 0.04%
|
| 1997
| <center> 65
| <center> 0
| <center> 11,468
| <center> 0.09%
|
| 2000
| <center> 84
| <center> 0
| <center> 12,081
| <center> 0.09%
|
| 2004
| <center> 76
| <center> 0
| <center> 9,065
| <center> 0.07%
|
The party also nominated candidates in several by-elections:
1980: 1
1995: 2
1998: 1
