United Reform

The United Reform Movement or United Reform was an attempt in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, to create a left wing farmer-labour coalition.

Clergyman Walter George Brown won election to the House of Commons as a United Reform Movement candidate in a 1939 by-election in the riding of Saskatoon City, and was re-elected in the 1940 general election with the endorsement of the National Government party (as the Tories were called in 1940). He died on April 1, 1940, five days after being re-elected.

The URM recruited Agnes Macphail, a long time Member of Parliament (MP) who had been defeated in the 1940 election to run in the by-election to fill Brown's vacancy. MacPhail had been an MP since 1921, first as a representative for the Progressive Party of Canada and since 1930 as a United Farmers of Ontario-Labour MP, although she was active with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In deference to her nominators, she ran as a "United Reform" candidate in the August 1940 by-election, but was defeated by the Conservative candidate.

There was also a "United Reform" candidate in the Saskatchewan riding of Weyburn who ran in the 1940 general election. As he ran against Tommy Douglas of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and had the profession of company manager, it is unlikely he had any connection with Brown's United Reform Movement.

See also