The Ginger Group was not a formal political party in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, but a faction of radical Progressive

Progressive Party of Canada

The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...

 and Labour Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 who advocated socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

. The group is said to have taken its name from Ginger Goodwin, a United Mine Workers

United Mine Workers

The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...

 organizer. Ginger was shot dead outside Cumberland, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 by company-hired private policemen on July 27, 1918. His murder sparked Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's first general strike

General strike

A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

. The term ginger group

Ginger group

A ginger group is a formal or informal group within, for example, a political party seeking to inspire the rest with its own enthusiasm and activity....

 also refers to small group with new, radical ideas trying to act as a catalyst within a larger body.

The Ginger Group split with the Progressive Party in 1924 when Progressive leader Robert Forke

Robert Forke

Robert Forke, PC was a Canadian politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Brandon in 1921. In 1922, he replaced Thomas Crerar as leader of the Progressive Party of Canada...

 proved too eager to accommodate the Liberal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...

 and agreed to support the government's budget with only minimal concessions. J. S. Woodsworth

J. S. Woodsworth

James Shaver Woodsworth was a pioneer in the Canadian social democratic movement. Following more than two decades ministering to the poor and the working class, J. S...

, using his right as the leader of the Independent Labour MPs, moved a stronger amendment to the budget based on demands the Progressives had made in earlier years but had since abandoned. The Progressive and Labour MPs who broke with their Progressive colleagues to support Woodsworth became the "Ginger Group". and was made up of United Farmers of Alberta

United Farmers of Alberta

The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...

 MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

s George Gibson Coote

George Gibson Coote

George Gibson Coote was an accountant, bank manager, farmer, and Canadian federal politician.-Political career:...

, Robert Gardiner

Robert Gardiner (Canadian politician)

Robert Gardiner was a farmer and federal Member of Parliament from Canada.Gardiner first ran for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons for the Progressive Party of Canada in a by-election on June 27, 1921...

, Edward Joseph Garland

Edward Joseph Garland

Edward Joseph "Ted" Garland was a farmer, diplomat and a Canadian federal politician.-Political career:...

, Donald MacBeth Kennedy

Donald MacBeth Kennedy

Donald MacBeth Kennedy was a farmer as well as a provincial and federal level Canadian politician....

 and Henry Elvins Spencer

Henry Elvins Spencer

Henry Elvins Spencer was a Canadian politician.Born in England, Spencer worked as a printer and publisher in Paris from 1906 to 1907 before emigrating to Canada in 1908. Settling in Alberta, he worked as a farmer. From 1917 to 1921, he was the provincial secretary of the United Farmers of Alberta...

 as well as United Farmers of Ontario

United Farmers of Ontario

The United Farmers of Ontario was a political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century.- Foundation and rise :...

 MP Agnes Macphail

Agnes Macphail

Agnes Campbell Macphail was the first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, and one of the first two women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario...

. The group was later joined by Labour MPs J.S. Woodsworth, William Irvine, Abraham Albert Heaps

Abraham Albert Heaps

Abraham Albert Heaps was a Canadian politician and labour leader.Born in Leeds, England, Heaps immigrated to Canada in 1911 and worked in Winnipeg as an upholsterer. He was one of the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and was a Labor alderman on the Winnipeg City Council from 1917...

 and Angus MacInnis

Angus MacInnis

Angus MacInnis was a socialist politician and Canadian parliamentarian.MacInnis, a trade unionist who had served for five years as a Vancouver Alderman, was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1930 election as an Independent Labour Member of Parliament. He joined the Ginger Group...

, independent MP Joseph Tweed Shaw

Joseph Tweed Shaw

Joseph Tweed Shaw was a Canadian politician. He served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1921 to 1925 as an independent Member of Parliament , and later became leader of the Alberta Liberal Party.-Early life:...

 and Progressive

Progressive Party of Canada

The Progressive Party of Canada was a political party in Canada in the 1920s and 1930s. It was linked with the provincial United Farmers parties in several provinces and, in Manitoba, ran candidates and formed governments as the Progressive Party of Manitoba...

 MPs Milton Neil Campbell

Milton Neil Campbell

Milton Neil Campbell was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Mackenzie from 1921 to 1933, in the Canadian House of Commons....

, William John Ward

William John Ward

William John Ward was a Canadian farmer, politician, insurance agent, and real estate agent from Dauphin, Manitoba. A member of the Ginger Group, he joined the Progressives in 1921, was a Liberal Progressive from 1926 - 1935, a Liberal from 1935 to 1957, and an Independent Liberal from 1957 to his...

 W.C. Good and Preston Elliott

Preston Elliott

Preston Elliott was a Canadian farmer and politician from Ontario. Born in Chesterville, Ontario, he served in the Canadian House of Commons for the Dundas electoral district as a Progressive. Elected in 1921, he was defeated in 1926 as a Progressive and in 1935 as a Liberal. He was a member of...

.

Members of the Ginger Group played a role in forming the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 1932, with Woodsworth becoming the new party's leader.

The name Ginger Group was also used to refer to a group of Conservative MPs who, in 1917 opposed Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Robert Borden

Robert Borden

Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...

's use of the Military Service Act

Military Service Act (Canada)

In Canadian history, the Military Service Act was a 1917 Act passed by the Canadian government to effort needed more soldiers, so on April 20, 1918, an order-in-council was passed that removed exemptions from the Military Service Act. This left farming operations across Canada short of much-needed...

 to introduce conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 during the Conscription Crisis of 1917

Conscription Crisis of 1917

The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:...

.