The B.C.-CCF was formed in late 1932 shortly after the formation
of the national CCF party. In November of the following year the B.C.
party ran in its first election and secured sufficient support to become
the official opposition. The party's executive, spurred by the prospects
and hopes of its eventual election as government and in response to its
need for a moderate image, selected a retired Anglican minister as House
leader.
The choice of Robert Connell as House leader was not, however, unanimous.
Die hard socialists with different interpretations of society and
the role the party should play in achieving social change, fought Connell*s
leadership and received sufficient support to mount an intensive intraparty
campaign of harassment and criticism.
Connell's critics were successful, as a result, in making his leadership
intolerable and the subsequent weight of circumstances led him to
imprudently reject party convention decisions because they favoured his
left wing opponents. This action both isolated him from the rank and file
and gave his critics, then in control of the party's executive, an excuse
to expel him for his treachery and apostasy. His leadership ended less than
three years after it had begun and he became one of three B.C. party leaders
dethroned during this period by his party. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41944 |
| Date | January 1973 |
| Creators | Wickerson, Gordon Stanley |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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