Darrell Rankin

Darrell Rankin
Born	February 14, 1957 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Occupation	activist, politician

Darrell T. Rankin (born February 14, 1957) is a Canadian peace activist and communist politician. He was briefly the leader of the Communist Party of Canada - Ontario (CPC-O) in 1995, and has led the Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba (CPC-M) since 1996. His partner, Cheryl-Anne Carr, is also active with the Communist Party.^[1]

Early life and career

Rankin (actual family name Renka, of Ukrainian ethnic origin) was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, and became involved in radical left politics through an early opposition to the Vietnam War. His grandparents were active in the Communist Party of Canada, which Rankin joined in 1978. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Alberta.^[2]

He lived in Ottawa, Ontario from 1983 to 1995, and was a leading figure in the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Ottawa Disarmament Coalition.^[3] A newspaper report from 1986 listed him as an articling lawyer, although it is not clear if he continued in this direction.^[4] He participated in protests against the Gulf War in 1991.^[5]

CPC-O leader

In 1992, a majority of delegates at the Communist Party's national convention voted to abandon Marxism-Leninism and pursue a social democratic alternative. Rankin was a part of the minority group led by Miguel Figueroa that opposed the change, and continued to support traditional communist principles. The party split, and the minority group won the rights to the Communist Party name through an out-of-court settlement.

Rankin was appointed as interim leader of the Communist Party of Canada - Ontario in April 1995, and led the party in the 1995 provincial election. The national party had fallen to only 500 members in this period, and the Ontario party ran a low-profile campaign with only five candidates and an $8,000 budget.^[6] Rankin challenged New Democratic Party Premier Bob Rae in York South, and focused on issues such as health, education, social programs and full employment.^[7]

In June 1995, Rankin contributed an article entitled "Observations on the setbacks to Socialism" to the Communist Party discussion journal The Spark! (which is not to be confused with the Trotskyist organization of the same name). The piece examined recent events in Eastern Europe, including the fall of the Soviet Union.^[8]

CPC-M leader

Rankin moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1995, after the Ontario election. The Communist Party of Canada - Manitoba had been without effective leadership for several years, and Rankin was chosen as the party's provincial organizer before the year was over. He coordinated the CPC-M's 75th anniversary banquet in early 1996, and was elected party leader later in the year.^[9] He has led the party in the 1999, 2003 and 2007 provincial elections.^[10]

In January 2004, Rankin was challenged for the CPC-M leadership by Paul Sidon. He received 79% of delegate support, against 21% for Sidon.

Rankin is a founding member of Peace Alliance Winnipeg and a member of the No War Coalition (Manitoba). He helped organize protests against the 1999 Kosovo Conflict, the 2001 NATO invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He wrote an article for The People's Voice supporting Slobodan Milosevic's policies in Kosovo in order to protect Serbians from Albanians in the region whom Rankin labelled as 'Fascists.' ^[11] He also writes occasional articles for People's Voice, the newspaper of the Communist Party.^[12] In November 2007, he organized a party at Winnipeg's Ukrainian Labour Temple to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.^[13]

Rankin has campaigned for public office several times, although he has never been elected. IN March 2006, he was the leader of Communist Party of Canada's Peace and Disarmament Coalition.^[14] He is not related to Naomi Rankin, the leader of the Communist Party of Canada - Alberta.^[15]

Table of offices held

• The CPC-M had been without a leader since at least 1990, and possibly longer.
• It is not clear if the CPC-O had a recognized leader between 1992 and 1998, apart from Rankin's short tenure in 1995. Hassan Husseini was chosen as leader in 1998.

Electoral record

Manitoba general election, 2007: Point Douglas
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	George Hickes	2,665	66.36	−8.50	$12,892.59
	Liberal	Mary Lou Bourgeois	591	14.72	+0.49	$11,443.44
	Progressive Conservative	Alexa Rosentreter	481	11.98	+3.21	$1,180.30
	Green	Kristen Andrews	213	5.30	–	$84.55
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	66	1.64	−0.49	$373.89
Total valid votes			4,016	100.00
Rejected and declined ballots			29
Turnout			4,045	40.16	−0.08
Electors on the lists			10,073

Canadian federal election, 2006: Winnipeg North
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Judy Wasylycia-Leis	15,582	57.18	+9.02	$53,357.55
	Liberal	Parmjeet Gill	5,752	21.11	−15.44	$64,979.49
	Conservative	Garreth McDonald	4,810	17.65	+5.38	$5,321.33
	Green	David Carey	779	2.86	+0.82	$397.50
	Christian Heritage	Eric Truijen	207	0.76	+0.22
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	123	0.45	+0.02	$295.28
Total valid votes			27,253	100.00
Rejected ballots			137
Turnout			27,390	50.91	+3.78
Electors on the lists			53,805
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

Canadian federal election, 2004: Winnipeg North
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Judy Wasylycia-Leis	12,507	48.16	+1.53	$34,948.23
	Liberal	Rey Pagtakhan	9,491	36.55	+0.04	$61,961.93
	Conservative	Kris Stevenson	3,186	12.27	−2.56	$9,148.61
	Green	Alon Weinberg	531	2.04		$2,287.45
	Christian Heritage	Eric Truijen	141	0.54		$1,000.00
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	111	0.43		$654.58
Total valid votes			25,967	100.00
Rejected ballots			128
Turnout			26,095	47.13
Electors on the lists			55,372
Percentage change figures are factored for redistribution. Conservative Party percentages are contrasted with the combined Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative percentages from 2000.
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

Manitoba general election, 2003: Point Douglas
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	George Hickes	2,877	74.86	+21.52	$10,189.54
	Liberal	Mary Lou Bourgeois	547	14.23	−7.12	$7,991.06
	Progressive Conservative	Wyatt McIntyre	337	8.77	−10.79	$10.68
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	82	2.13		$376.06
Total valid votes			3,843	100.00
Rejected and declined ballots			55
Turnout			3,898	40.24	−18.84
Electors on the lists			9,687

Canadian federal election, 2000: Winnipeg North Centre
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Judy Wasylycia-Leis	14,356	58.39	$54,041.14
	Liberal	Mary Richard	6,755	27.47	$48,194.97
	Progressive Conservative	Myron Troniak	2,950	12.00	$4,320.59
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	525	2.14	$263.77
Total valid votes			24,586	100.00
Rejected ballots			481
Turnout			25,067	51.95
Electors on the lists			48,254
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

Manitoba general election, 1999: Burrows
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Doug Martindale	5,151	66.34		$21,056.00
	Liberal	Mike Babinsky	1,849	23.81	–	$24,553.70
	Progressive Conservative	Cheryl Clark	724	9.32		$11,879.28
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	41	0.53		$0.00
Total valid votes			7,765	100.00
Rejected and declined ballots			55
Turnout			7,820	65.63
Electors on the lists			11,916

Canadian federal election, 1997: Winnipeg Centre
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Pat Martin	10,979	40.89	$48,662
	Liberal	David Walker	9,895	36.86	$47,283
	Reform	Reginald A. Smith	3,095	11.53	$3,175
	Progressive Conservative	Campbell Alexander	2,442	9.10	$6,171
	Independent	Greg Krawchuk	148	0.55	$163
	Marxist–Leninist	Glenn Michalchuk	136	0.51	$11
	Ind. (Communist)	Darrell Rankin	108	0.40	$1,913
	Ind. (Ind. Libertarian)	Didz Zuzens	44	0.16	$0
Total valid votes			26,847	100.00
Rejected ballots			374
Turnout			27,221	57.00
Electors on the lists			47,753
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

Ontario general election, 1995: York South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Bob Rae	10,442	41.24	$39,100.07
	Progressive Conservative	Larry Edwards	7,726	30.51	$28,482.21
	Liberal	Hagood Hardy	6,025	23.79	$42,578.22
	Family Coalition	Don Pennell	305	1.20	$4,210.68
	Green	David James Cooper	219	0.86	$1,046.57
	Natural Law	Bob Hyman	176	0.70	$0.00
	Independent	Kevin Clarke	170	0.67	$1,164.66
	Libertarian	Roma Kelembet	153	0.60	$819.58
	Communist	Darrell Rankin	105	0.41	$59.00
Total valid votes			25,321	100.00
Rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			388
Turnout			25,709	69.13
Electors on the lists			37,192

Canadian federal election, 1993: Calgary Southwest
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Reform	Preston Manning	41,630	61.22	$59,445
	Progressive Conservative	Bobbie Sparrow	12,642	18.59	$61,978
	Liberal	Bill Richards	11,087	17.36	$60,511
	New Democratic	Catherine Rose	1,099	1.62	$4,791
	National	Lea Russell	910	1.34	$2,580
	Green	Sol Candel	301	0.44	$6,216
	Natural Law	Ida Bugmann	249	0.37	$0
	Independent	Miel S.R. Gabriel	57	0.08	$218
	N/A (Communist)	Darrell Rankin	28	0.04	$1,422
Total valid votes			68,003	100.00
Rejected ballots			137
Turnout			68,140	70.81
Electors on lists			96,213
Source:Thirty-fifth General Election, 1993: Official Voting Results, Published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Financial figures taken from official contributions and expenses provided by Elections Canada.

All electoral information is taken from Elections Canada, Elections Ontario and Elections Manitoba. Provincial election expenditures in Manitoba refer to individual candidate expenses. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.

Footnotes

1. "The Communist Party: Darrell Rankin", Party leaders, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 10 May 2007, accessed 26 October 2007.
2. Election 2000 entry: Darrell Rankin, Globe and Mail, online report.
3. "Handful hold low-key protests", Toronto Star, 11 February 1989, A11.
4. Abby Deveney and Jacquie Miller, "First rooms open in new courthouse", Ottawa Citizen, 18 August 1996, C2.
5. "Protesters condemn ground attack", Ottawa Citizen, 25 February 1991, C1.
6. John Gray, "Liberal numbers don't add up in attack on NDP expenditure", Globe and Mail, 16 May 1995, A6.
7. Nicolaas Van Rijn, "Meet the people who want your vote", Toronto Star, 5 June 1995, A12.
8. Darrell Rankin, "Observations on the setbacks to Socialism", The Spark! No. 6, 1995.
9. Holli Moncrieff, "Volunteers needed for Earth Day events", Winnipeg Free Press, 3 April 1996, p. 1.
10. "Communist party plans to field five in election", Winnipeg Free Press, 22 March 1999, A8.
11. Kevin Rollason, "No bombs in Kosovo, activists say", Winnipeg Free Press, 23 March 1999, A3; Kevin Rollason, "War in Afghanistan draws critics", Winnipeg Free Press, 24 March 2002, A4; Alexandra Paul, "Threats to Iraq all about oil,say protesters", Winnipeg Free Press, 19 January 2003, A5.
12. For instance, Darrell Rankin, ""No!" to Privatized Health Care", 16–31 January 2006 (Volume 14, No. 2).
13. "Communists celebrate", Winnipeg Free Press, 12 November 2007.
14. Darrell Rankin, "Humanity needs a strong peace movement", Political Affairs Magazine, 18 March 2006.
15. Brian Laghi, "Moscow not on the North Saskatchewan", Edmonton Journal, 15 January 1995, B2.