W. A. Kardash

William A. (Bill) Kardash (b. June 10, 1912 in Hafford, Saskatchewan, d. January 17, 1997) was a politician and member of the Manitoba legislature.

Kardash was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, having fought with the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. He was a member of the Communist Party of Canada and, after 1943 the Labour Progressive Party which was the legal front of the Communist Party after it was banned. Kardash became the first leader of the Manitoba LPP in 1943, and retained the position until 1948 when he resigned for health reasons.

In 1941 he was elected to the provincial legislature as a representative of Winnipeg's working class North End and was re-elected in 1945, 1949 and 1953. He was defeated in the 1958 general election, due in part to the pressures of the Cold War and due in part to the abolition of multi-member constituencies requiring him to contest a single-member seat for the first time.

The LPP's support base declined after 1945, and Kardash was the only candidate to run for the party in the Manitoba elections of 1953 and 1958. After his defeat, the LPP would never again elect a candidate to the legislature.

Kardash ran in Point Douglas in 1969 for the (renamed) Communist Party of Manitoba, but received only 421 votes.

Kardash remained active in Winnipeg's Ukrainian community for the rest of his life. In 1995, he attended a public dedication ceremony at the Ontario legislature which honoured the veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

After Kardash's death in 1997, the Manitoba legislature held a moment of silence in his honour.

External links

* [http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/3rd-36th/vol_068b/h068b_6.html Hansard] Condolences made in the Manitoba legislature on the death of Bill Kardash (part way down the page).