The Cold War in the Programs and Activities of the Left-wing Political Parties and Trade Unions in Canada (1956-1962)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show the ideological transformation of the left part of the Canadian political spectrum from the post-stalinist shifts till the Cuban missile crisis. The presented material can be used in further studies of the Cold war from the ideological approach. The results of the study can contribute to the better understanding of the Cold War history in Canada, regarding the global confrontation as a conflict of not only the superpowers but also the ideas. The article is also a case study of political parties, making an account of factors which caused organizational instability and changes in their ideological orientation. The main results: it has been found that there was a significant right-wing ideological shift in the Canadian Labour movement and Social Democrats as well. On the other hand, our study shows how the Communists were able to keep their ideological background stable and overcome the organizational weakness of 1956-59, even if the price was paid in losing some people the among their ranks. 
 The article shows a wide range of factors that influenced that drift. Concise conclusions: It is shown that overall the Canadian left were weakened during this period. The most powerful leftist party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, has shown a denounce of some Marxist theses in the 1956 conference, and that led it to further centrist transformation, united with the labour movement in this drift. The Cold war influenced this shift in many cases, as the Left program documents consistently show the distancing from the communist regimes which are claimed as totalitarian. The Communist Party of Canada was left as a one, and reasonably weak, pro-soviet power, remaining somewhat orthodox in its doctrinal ideological beliefs. Their activities were crippled as well due to societal opposal to them as a rival Cold war side. Originality and scientific novelty of the current article are based on the fact that, for the first time, the attempt has been made to give an account of program changes of the Canadian Left while considering the factors which led to them (or their absence). For the first time there has been made a comparison of those changes which gives us possibility to characterize Canadian political climate during the subsequent period.