Fascism in Canada

Fascism in Canada (Template:Lang-fr) consists of a variety of movements and political parties in Canada during the 20th century. Largely a fringe ideology, fascism has never commanded a large following amongst the Canadian people, and was most popular during the Great Depression. Most Canadian fascist leaders were interned at the outbreak of World War II under the Defence of Canada Regulations and in the post-war period, fascism never recovered its former small influence.

The Canadian Union of Fascists, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was modeled on Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Its leader was Chuck Crate. The National Social Christian Party was founded in Quebec in February 1934 by Adrien Arcand. In October 1934, the party merged with the Canadian Nationalist Party, which was based in the prairie provinces. In June 1938, it merged with Nazi groups from Ontario and Quebec (many of which were known as Swastika clubs), to form the National Unity Party.

Eugenics, a controversial theory of genetic quality improvement formulated in the US that later became central to Nazism, found a friendly reception in Canada in some provinces, such as Alberta, where, under a Social Credit government, alleged mental defectives and other 'non-producers' were involuntarily sterilized to prevent the birth of more similar people. Social democrat Tommy Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan, wrote his 1933 master thesis paper endorsing some of the ideas of eugenics, but later abandoned and rejected such notions.

See also

• Neo-Nazism in Canada
• Christie Pits riot
• John Ross Taylor
• Ernst Zündel
• SS St Louis
• Fascism in North America

External links

• Fascism article from the Canadian Encyclopedia