William Kashtan

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William Kashtan (1909-1993) became general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada in January 1965, several months following the death of Leslie Morris. The delay in his assuming the position was due to the opposition of Tim Buck to his appointment. Kashtan never succeeded in winning election to the Canadian House of Commons, and retired in 1988. He was an orthodox, pro-Moscow Communist and consistently supported the Soviet Union through various shifts in policy at the Kremlin. Kashtan opposed Eurocommunism in the 1970s when many other Communist Parties in the west embraced it.

In 1970, Kashtan spoke out against the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) group in Quebec, describing it as a terrorist organization and claiming that its methods were not consistent with genuine revolutionary behaviour.

In 1971 he asked James Gareth Endicott to resign as president of the Canadian Peace Congress accusing him of having anti-Soviet and pro-China views.

Kashtan retired as party leader in 1988 and was replaced by George Hewison. In the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hewison and his supporters attempted to move the Communist Party away from Marxism-Leninism in light of the failure of Soviet-style Communism. Kashtan came out of retirement to fight the changes.