 there have been various groups in canada that have nominated candidates under the label labour party or independent labour party or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. these were usually local or provincial groups using the labour party or independent labour party name, backed by local labour councils (made up of many union locals in a particular city) or individual trade unions. there was an attempt to create a national canadian labour party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, but these were only partly unsuccessful. a number of local labour parties and clubs participated in the formation of the communist party of canada in 1921. the independent labour party, the canadian labour party, the dominion labour party and other labour groups helped found the co-operative commonwealth federation (ccf) in 1932. ==members of parliament== the first labour member of parliament (mp) was arthur puttee who founded the winnipeg labour party, and was elected to the house of commons from winnipeg, manitoba in a 1900 by-election and kept his seat at the 1900 federal election held later the same year. other mps elected under the "labour" or "independent labour"label include: *ralph smith, a miner, ran as an independent labour candidate in vancouver in the 1900 federal election but took his seat in the canadian house of commons as a liberal. he was subsequently re-elected as a liberal in the 1904 and 1908 before being defeated in 1911. *alphonse verville was elected as a labour candidate in the 1904 federal election in maisonneuve, quebec. he grew close to the liberals through subsequent elections until he ran and was re-elected as a laurier liberal in the 1917 federal election. * john wilfred kennedy was elected as a united farmers of ontario-labour mp for glengarry and stormont in a 1919 by-election. he was re-elected as a progressive mp in the 1921 federal election and was defeated in 1925. *william irvine, a close friend of j.s. woodsworth, represented calgary, alberta as a labour mp from 1921 to 1925 and as a united farmers of alberta mp from 1926 to 1935. he was a founding member of the ccf and sat as a ccf mp from british columbia from 1945 to 1949. *joseph shaw also represented calgary, alberta as a labour mp from 1921 to 1925 and also sat as a liberal mp from 1926 to 1930. * [[
Labour_history_of_Canada Socialist_parties_in_Canada