is a provincial political party in
Alberta ,
Canada .
The party was created some time around 1930. The party has been a very minor force in Alberta's traditionally conservative provincial politics, it achieved its best results in the 1940s with a couple of distant second place finishes. In those elections, it called itself the "Labour Progressive Party" because the name "Communist" had been banned by the federal government. The party started using the Communist name again in 1963.
The Communist Party first ran in the
Edmonton by-election of January 9, 1931. It contested two more by-elections after that, including the infamous October 7, 1937
Edmonton by-election in which the short-lived and also communist
Peoples Candidate Party won 10,000 votes and finished second. Jan Lakeman from the Communists finished third. The party has not contested another by-election since.
While the Communist Party had marginally better results under the old
Single Transferable Vote system that Alberta used between 1926 and 1959, its candidates rarely ever made it past the first vote transfer.
The Communist Party was less successful than other left wing parties in the province, such as the Labour Party and the
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation . In the
1975 Provincial Election , the Communist Party split the far left wing vote with the
Constitutional Socialist Party .
The Communist Party did not run in the 1967 and 1971 elections. In Alberta, political parties do not lose registration as long as financial statements are filed with
Elections Alberta . The party has managed to run at least one candidate in every general election since 1971.
In recent years, the Communist Party has not been able to attract more then a couple candidates with vote totals that rarely top 100.
The Alberta Communist Party is a full provincial wing of the federal
Communist Party Of Canada .
