Liberal Progressive

Liberal-progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no Liberal-Progressive party: it was an alliance between two separate parties. In Manitoba, a party existed with this name.

With the Progressive Party of Canada's 1921 electoral breakthrough, Canadian federal politics operated under a "three party system" for the first time. The Liberal Party of Canada under William Lyon Mackenzie King tried to deal with this situation by co-opting the Progressives, offering to form a coalition with them. The Progressive Party refused. But by 1926, the party had split and some Progressives decided to support the Liberals, running as liberal progressive or Liberal-Labour-Progressive candidates or similar variations. This phenomenon occurred particularly in the 1925 election and the 1926 election. A number of Liberal Progressive Members of Parliament became full-fledged Liberals in the 1930s. There was one Independent Liberal-Progressive candidate in 1925.

In the 1925 election, only one candidate ran under the Liberal Progressive banner. He was unsuccessful.

In the 1926 election, a total of 11 candidates ran as Liberal Progressives: eight in Manitoba (the entire Progressive contingent who had decided to nominate joint candidates with the Liberals), all of whom were elected, and three unsuccessful candidates in Ontario. A ninth Manitoba Liberal-Progressive, Robert Forke who was the group's leader, was acclaimed in a by-election later in the year and was appointed to the Cabinet. These candidates were not opposed by the Liberal Party in the election and ran with the understanding that they would sit with and support the Liberals in the Parliament and attend Liberal caucus meetings. Mackenzie King's Liberals alone did not have a majority of seats in the House of Commons after the 1926 election, but were able to form a minority government (that was for all intents and purposes a majority government) with the support of the Liberal-Progressives in the house. This government lasted for four years. The Liberal-Progressives also had their own caucus meetings (in addition to attending Liberal meetings) and developed their own politics on certain issues, particularly in relation to agriculture. For example, they were critical of the 1927 federal budget for not reducing tariffs, a long time Progressive demand.

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