Miguel Figueroa

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Miguel Figueroa (born 1953) has been the leader of the Communist Party of Canada since 1992.

[edit] Early political career

Figueroa was born in Montreal, and has been a member of the CPC since 1977. He has held many positions within the CPC, including party organizer in Vancouver from 1978 to 1985, and leader of the party's Atlantic branch (based in Halifax) from 1986 to 1992. While leader of the Atlantic branch, Figueroa chaired an organizing committee that signed up 800 part-time seasonal professors and teaching assistants at Dalhousie University, ultimately leading to membership in the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The implosion of the Soviet Union led to internal party weaknesses within the CPC. Under the leadership of general secretary George Hewison (1988-91), the leadership of the CPC and a segment of its general membership began to abandon Marxism-Leninism as the basis of the Party's revolutionary perspective, and ultimately moved to liquidate the Party itself, seeking to replace it with a left, social democratic entity.

The protracted ideological and political crisis created much confusion and disorientation within the ranks of the Party, and paralysed both its independent and united front work for over two years. Ultimately, the Hewison-led majority in the party voted to abandon Marxism-Leninism. An orthodox minority, led by Figueroa and former leader William Kashtan, resisted this effort and, after being defeated at the party's 1992 convention, were expelled from the party. As a result, they took the Communist Party to court. An out-of-court settlement resulted in the Hewison leadership relinquishing the name "Communist Party of Canada" to the minority, while taking most of the old party's assets to the Cecil-Ross Society, a publishing and educational foundation previously associated with the party.

A convention was held in December 1992 in which delegates declared themselves to be the continuation of the Communist Party (thus the meeting was titled the 30th CPC Convention). Delegates rejected the changes instituted by Hewison by reaffirming the CPC as a Marxist-Leninist organization. Since most of the old party's assets were now the property of the Hewison-led Cecil Ross Society, the CPC convention decided to launch a new newspaper, the People's Voice, to replace the old Canadian Tribune. The convention elected a new central committee with Figueroa as the Party's leader.

The new party, with only a few hundred members, was much smaller than the old one and had lost a number of assets, including the party's headquarters at 24 Cecil Street in Toronto. The CPC was not in a position to run fifty candidates in the 1993 federal election, the number required to maintain official party status. As a result, the newly-relaunched CPC was deregistered by Elections Canada, and its remaining assets were seized by the government. A prolonged legal battle, Figueroa v. Canada ensued, resulting in a Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 2003 that overturned a provision in the Elections Act requiring fifty candidates for official party status (the number had been increased by an act of parliament in the intervening years). Earlier in the legal battle, the party had its deregistration overturned and its seized assets restored.

Figueroa has run in five Canadian general elections and at least two provincial elections:

Preceded by
George Hewison		 General Secretaries of the Communist Party of Canada
1992-present		 Succeeded by
incumbent

[edit] Electoral record

2006 federal election: Davenport
Party Candidate Votes % Expenditures
     Liberal (x)Mario Silva 20,172 51.87
     New Democratic Party Gord Perks 12,681 32.61
     Conservative Theresa Rodrigues 4,202 10.80
     Green Mark O'Brien 1,440 3.70
     Communist Miguel Figueroa 172 0.44
     Canadian Action Party Wendy Forrest 122 0.31
     Marxist-Leninist Sarah Thompson 103 0.26
Total valid votes 38,892 100.00
Total rejected ballots 240
Turnout 39,132
2004 federal election: Beaches—East York
Party Candidate Votes % Expenditures
     Liberal (x)Maria Minna 22,494 47.93 $70,615.94
     New Democratic Party Peter Tabuns 15,156 32.29 $55,897.43
     Conservative Nick Nikopoulos 6,603 14.07 $21,870.38
     Green Peter Davison 2,127 4.53 $231.75
     Marijuana Daniel Dufresne 365 0.78 $0.00
     Ind. (Global Party) Edward Slota 80 0.17 $408.47
     Communist Miguel Figueroa 62 0.13 $490.30
     Marxist-Leninist Roger Carter 46 0.10 $15.53
Total valid votes 46,933 100.00
Total rejected ballots 204
Turnout 47,137 64.02
1993 federal election: Parkdale—High Park
Party Candidate Votes %
     Liberal (x)Jesse Flis 22,358 54.36
     Reform Lee Primeau 6,647 16.16
     Progressive Conservative Don Baker 5,668 13.78
     New Democratic Party David Miller 3,855 9.37
     National Stephen A. Biega 1,320 3.21
     Green Richard Roy 430 1.05
     Natural Law Wanda Beaver 371 0.90
     Libertarian Haig Baronikian 264 0.64
     Ind. (Communist) Miguel Figueroa 105 0.26
     Abolitionist Thomas Earl Pennington 60 0.15
     Marxist-Leninist André Vachon 53 0.13
Total valid votes 41,131 100.00
Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 416
Turnout 41,547 66.37