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Newfoundland People's Party,
Talk:Newfoundland People's Party
Newfoundland People's Party was a political party in
Newfoundland and Labrador before it joined
Canada.
The party was created by
Attorney-General Edward Patrick Morris in 1907, when he split from the ruling
Liberal Party to found his own political vehicle. The party tied with the Liberals in the 1908 election but, when no party was able to form a government, new elections were held which the People's Party won with 26 seats to 10 for the Liberals.
Prime Minister Morris and the People's Party were re-elected in the 1913 election, winning 16 seats compared to 7 for the Liberals and 8 for the
Fisherman's Protective Union led by
William Coaker.
In 1917, a wartime crisis over
conscription resulted in Morris inviting the opposition parties to join in a
National Government, which ruled for two years. Morris retired at the end of 1917, and was replaced as People's Party leader by Sir
Michael Patrick Cashin.
Cashin's government was defeated in the 1919 election by
Richard Squires and his
Liberal Reform Party (a merger between the Liberals and the FPU). In opposition, Cashin changed the name of the party to the
Liberal-Labour-Progressive Party, which disappeared after the 1923 election. Some members of that party joined
Albert Hickman's new
Liberal-Progressive Party, and others joined with Tories to form the
Liberal-Conservative-Progressive Party.
Although not a sectarian party, the People's Party and its immediate successor had their support concentrated among
Catholic voters, particularly on the south coast of the island.
See also:*
List of Newfoundland Prime Ministers*
List of Canadian political partiesCategory:Political parties in the Dominion of Newfoundland