From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Canadian social credit movement was a Canadian political movement originally based on the Social Credit theory of Major C. H. Douglas. It reached its height of popularity in the 1930s, as a result of the Great Depression.
When first formed in 1935, Social Credit took many voters from the Progressive Party of Canada and the United Farmers Movement. The party grew out of disaffection with the status quo due to the Great Depression that hit western Canada especially hard.
In its first federal election it won seventeen seats, all but two of them in Alberta with over 46% of that province's popular vote.
In 1939, Social Credit joined with former Conservative William Duncan Herridge and his supporters in New Democracy running in the 1940 election under that name but reverting to Social Credit for the 1945 election.
Never taking more than 31 seats, Social Credit was never seen as a serious threat to government. The party had a major breakthrough in Quebec in the 1962 election returning 26 MPs from the province led by Réal Caoutte while only electing four MPs from English Canada. This imbalance caused severe tensions in the Social Credit caucus and in 1962 the party split into English Canadian wing and a separte Quebec party led by Caouette - the Ralliement des Creditiste. The English Canadian party lost its last MPs, from Alberta, in 1968 and the Quebec Creditistes gradually declined until the 1980 federal election when it failed to win any seats and dissolved.
Quebec Social Credit supporters were mostly social conservatives and nationalists, while Western Canadian supporters were mostly socially conservative populists.
After the collapse of the party most of its supporters went on to support Brian Mulroney in his 'great coalition' of western populists, Quebec nationalists, and Ontario fiscal conservatives. Other supporters of Social Credit went on to support the New Democratic Party
Mulroney's coalition fell apart in the 1993 election. Westerners went on to form the the Reform Party of Canada, and the Canadian Alliance while nationalists in Quebec supported the Bloc Quebecois.
The ideology was embraced by the Reverend "Bible Bill" William Aberhart, who formed the Social Credit Party of Alberta based on Douglas' ideology and Christian social values. He was elected Premier of Alberta in the 1935 provincial election. His government was probably the only one in the world that adhered to the Social Credit ideology. In fact, he once tried to issue Albertans with "Prosperity Certificates", although this measure was disallowed by the Supreme Court of Canada. Aberhart died in office, and was replaced by Ernest Manning, who discarded the theory and attempted to purge the party of anti-Semites, but kept the Social Credit name.
Social Credit had 9 consecutive Majority Governments spanning 36 years, one of the longest spans of a single party in government in Canadian history.
The Social Credit movement in British Columbia was largely fractious, and made up of various small groups, the largest of which being the Social Credit League. The British Columbian movement was largely at odds with the Albertan wing, and sought to distance itself from William Aberhart's religious preaching.
The effective death of the movement came when W. A. C. Bennett was elected leader of the League in 1951. Bennett joined in order to use the party as a political vehicle and was quick to dump the original ideology, and reorganize into the conservative populist Social Credit Party of British Columbia.
Social Credit's first government in BC was a very small minority, but they were elected to a majority a year later. After the minority, and one consecutive majorities, the party was defeated by the NDP, which had one term in Government, and was followed by four more majorities for Social Credit, finally ending with the 1991 election.
The movement also caught on in Quebec in the 1960s, and although a Social Credit provincial government would never be elected due to the Union Nationale's near dominance on social conservative votes from the 1930s into the 1960s, the Social Credit party soon became a major contender in Quebec for seats to the federal parliament. Though B.C. and Alberta would elect a few MPss over the years, it would be Quebec that maintained the party's national presence after 1962, while the other two provinces held its base of provincial power.
The Quebec wing of the movement broke from the rest of the party in 1963 to form its own Quebec-only Socred party, the Ralliement des Créditistes. As a social conservative party, Social Credit generally attracted supporters of the provincial Union Nationale in federal elections and benefitted on the provincial level as the UN declined after the death of Premier Daniel Johnson in 1968. The growth of Quebec separatism stymied the rise of the Creditistes due to the Parti Quebecois' attraction to nationalist voters from the right and left despite the PQ's own social democratic leanings.
In the 1970 provincial election, the Liberals took 72 seats, followed by the Union Nationale with 17, and Social Credit with 12. They captures 2 seats in the following election, and 1 after that. Federally, in 1962, Social Credit took 26 of 75 seats in Quebec, beating the Progressive Conservatives. They continued to finish in second place in terms of federal seats from Quebec untill their last MPs fell with the minority government of Joe Clark in 1980. The most Social Credit ever captured in terms of the Quebec popular vote was 27.3% federally, and 11.2% provincially.
While never electing any MLAs, Social Credit captured 3.1% of the vote in New Brunswick in 1948. In both Manitoba and Saskatchewan the party elected a few MLAs, and was the third party in each at various times. From 1936 to 1940, the Manitoba Social Credit party supported John Bracken's minority government and in 1940 it joined Bracken's coalition government.
In Saskatchewan, Social Credit elected MLAs in two elections - 1938 (2 MLAs) and 1956 (3 MLAs) - in which the party took third party status. Social Credit never was never able to top 16% of the vote.
In Manitoba, Social Credit had a longer run. The 10 elections from 1936-1973 saw seven of them yield Social Credit MLAs. In 1936, Social Credit finished third, and in 1941, they tied for third. However, Social Credit never topped 14% here.Canada
Alberta
British Columbia
Quebec
Other Provinces
