{{More citations needed|date=May 2014}} {{Infobox political party | name = Reconstruction Party of Canada | native_name = | _subheader = Former&nbsp;federal&nbsp;party | logo = | leader = | president = | chairman = | chairperson = | spokesperson = | leader1_title = Founder | leader1_name = Henry Herbert Stevens | foundation = 7 July 1935<ref name="tce"/> | dissolution = 1938<ref name="LOP"/> | merger = | split = Conservative Party | headquarters = | ideology = Keynesianism<br />National conservatism<br />Isolationism | position = Centre-right to right-wing | national = | international = | student_wing = | youth_wing = | membership = | membership_year = | colours = | colors = | colorcode = #66CC00 | blank1_title = Fiscal policy | blank1 = | blank2_title = Social policy | blank2 = | seats1_title = Seats in the House of Commons | seats1 = | seats2_title = Seats in the Senate | seats2 = | seats3_title = Seats in Legislature | seats3 = | website = | country = Canada | state = Canada | parties_dab1 = List of federal political parties in Canada | elections_dab1 = List of Canadian federal general elections | footnotes = }} thumb|right|Henry Herbert Stevens

The '''Reconstruction Party''' was a Canadian political party founded in 1935 by Henry Herbert Stevens, a long-time Conservative Member of Parliament (MP).<ref name="Wilbur1964" /> Stevens served as Minister of Trade in the Arthur Meighen government of 1921, and as Minister of Trade and Commerce from 1930 to 1934 in the Depression-era government of R. B. Bennett.<ref name="Wilbur1964" /><ref name="tua">{{cite web |title=Stevens, Henry Herbert |url=https://archives.trentu.ca/index.php/stevens-henry-herbert |website=Trent University Archives |access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>

He was Chairman of the Price-Spreads Commission in 1934. Stevens argued for drastic economic reform and government intervention in the economy. He quit the Bennett government and formed the Reconstruction Party when it became evident that the Tories would not implement the proposals of the Price-Spreads Commission.<ref name="tce"/><ref name="tua"/>{{Additional citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The party was also isolationist:<ref name="tce"/> it opposed Canadian involvement in a European war and opposed the League of Nations sanctions against Fascist Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

The Reconstruction Party nominated 174 candidates in the 1935 federal election. It won more votes nationally than the other new parties. The Liberal vote was 2,076,394, the Conservatives 1,308,688, and that for the Reconstruction Party 389,708; while the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Social Credit parties garnered 386,484 and 187,045 votes respectively.{{copyvio inline|date=February 2024}} Many of the votes that the party won were taken away from the Conservative Party. In 48 ridings, the margin of victory for the Liberal candidate over the Conservative candidate was less than the number of votes received by the Reconstruction Party candidate.<ref name="tce"/>{{Additional citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Despite receiving 8.7% of the vote, the party won only one seat in the House of Commons of Canada - H. H. Stevens in the Kootenay East riding. The Reconstruction Party came to an end when Stevens rejoined the Conservatives in 1938.<ref name="tce">{{cite web |title=Reconstruction Party of Canada |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/reconstruction-party-of-canada |website=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=8 May 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

The party had a short-lived provincial wing in Alberta. The Alberta wing ran one candidate in the 1935 Alberta provincial election and picked up 192 votes.<ref name="tce"/><ref>{{cite web |title=1935 Alberta Election |url=https://canadianelectionsdatabase.ca/PHASE5/?p=0&type=election&ID=625 |website=Canadian Elections Database |access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>

==Party program== Fifteen points summarized the "New National Policy of Reconstruction and Reform": * a pledge to youth, * a system of public works, including the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway, * a national housing program; and * in order to balance the budget, a Reconstruction government would administer federal taxes "through a single set of auditors" and would invite the provinces to cooperate in the system that would divide the returns on "an equitable and agreeable basis."{{copyvio inline|date=February 2024}}

==See also== * List of federal political parties in Canada

==References== <references> <ref name="LOP">{{cite web |title=Profile – Reconstruction Party |publisher=Library of Parliament |url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/Parties/Profile?partyId=7061 |access-date=20 February 2024 }}</ref>

<ref name="Wilbur1964">{{cite journal |first=J. R. H. |last=Wilbur |title=H. H. Stevens and the Reconstruction Party |date=March 1964 |journal=Canadian Historical Review |volume=45 |number=1 |pages=1–28 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |doi=10.3138/chr-045-01-01 |url=https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/chr-045-01-01?journalCode=chr |url-access=subscription }}</ref> </references>

{{Canadian federal political parties}}

Category:Federal political parties in Canada Category:Political parties established in 1934 Category:National conservative parties