Publisher's Synopsis
Third parties have been a strong feature of Canadian, particularly western Canadian, politics ever since the end of the First World War. Yet not all third parties are the same. This is a fact that continues to intrigue scholars. Why, for instance, did the CCF come to power in Saskatchewan but remain weak in Alberta, where the Social Credit was long the dominant party? And why did the CCF, reconfigured in the 1960s nationally, and subsequently in Saskatchewan as the New Democratic Party (NDP), continue to be the most powerful (and usually governing) party there, while Social Credit in Alberta disappeared as an electoral force decades ago?
