Manitoba Populism and the Farmers' Movement in the Provincial Elections of 1920 and 1922

Abstract

The Political landscape in Manitoba experienced mammoth changes from 1920 to 1922. In 1920 the Manitoba Liberal party under the leadership of T.C. Norris had been in power for five years. During this period, this government had compiled a list of liberal legislative achievements. Ironically, by the end of the first term the Norris government found itself in a badly weakened state. In the 1920 provincial election the Liberals were returned to office with only a minority and by 1922 they were ousted completely by a newly formed party with strong populist roots in the province. During this period, similar populist agitations were altering the political landscape all across the Canadian Prairies and the Great Western Plains of the United States. This study is concerned with the affect of these forces within the province of Manitoba and particularly the changes with the United Farmers of Manitoba (UFM). The UFM embodied the Manitoba incarnation of the populist movement, but its results contrasted greatly from those of similar political upheavals. Individual chapters are devoted to changes in legislative representation, party policy, and governmental pursuits. For chapter one, a collective biography was compiled of all the candidates in both the 1920 and 1922 Manitoba provincial elections in order to form some basis for a discussion about who the Manitoba populists were and why they acted the way they did. Chapter two examines the campaigns, strategies, and platforms of the Manitoba farmers' movement (which initially began with the Farmers' group in the Manitoba Legislature and later became the UFM in 1922) as well as all other opposition parties in the accompanying campaigns in order to try and understand the concerns of Manitoba populists. Finally, the legislative measures sponsored by the Farmers' group and later the UFM were examined during the two intervening sessions from 1920 to 1922.