Canada today is most clearly a socialist nation, but without delving back to the earlier part of the 20th Century it is not apparent why. Was the culprit imported egalitarian ideals from Europe? Perhaps the transformation of a lingering admiration of authoritarianism from the rule of the Queen? Or did this force- consisting mostly of force, come from a closer source? Surely the neighbour to the South, with it’s republican and market based institutions had no part in the matter. Surely America is blameless. As we shall see, this simply is not so. Between 1898 and 1915, over one million farmers came to Canada from America, moving mostly to the western provinces. Many of these farmers were enamored and associated with socialist groups in the United States. They were wheat farmers and felt slighted by the railroads and banks, feeling that the market was working against them. For roughly two decades they organized into a rabble of splintered groups comprised of farmers, socia...
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