The .
1920's had been a dark period for radicals and unions within Canada; poverty and significantly lower wages for workers were prevalent, and .
apathy regarding these issues was rampant. When the depression wove its destructive web across Canada in the 1930s, proponents of capitalism .
were staggered, but their left-wing opponents were too busy coming to the aid of the victims of the depression, and could not deal with the .
capitalists effectively. When the CCF was officially formed in Calgary, they adopted the principle policy of being "a co-operative .
commonwealth, in which the basic principle regulating production, distribution and exchange will be the supplying of human needs instead of .
the making of profits." Meanwhile, in Eastern Canada, a group of scholars formed the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR), and gave the .
Canadian left a version of socialism that was related in some respects to the current social and economic situation in Canada. In 1933, the .
CCF had its first major convention in Regina, Saskatchewan, and the original policy platform first proposed by the CCF was replaced by a .
manifesto prepared by an LSR committee and originally drafted by a Toronto scholar, Frank Underhill. The Regina Manifesto, as it is known as .
today, put emphasis on "economic planning, nationalization of financial institutions, public utilities and natural resources, security of .
tenure for farmers, a national labor code, socialized health services and greatly increased economic powers for the central government." As a .
supplement to the feverish mood created by the convention, the Regina convention concluded by saying "no CCF Government will rest content .
until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full program of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in .
Canada of the Co-operative Commonwealth." . The CCF tried to garner more popular support later down the road, and after calling itself the .