John Horne Blackmore (March 27, 1890 – May 2, 1971) was a Canadian school teacher and principal and Canadian politician. He was one of the first elected members and leaders of the

Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada (french: Parti Crédit social du Canada), colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadi ...

, a political party in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

that promoted the

social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

theories of monetary reform.

Life and career

Born in Sublett,

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

, he immigrated to Cardston area as a child. He was brought up in a Mormon household. He attended the UofA and Calgary Normal School. Blackmore was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1935 election as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

representing Lethbridge,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. The Social Credit movement had swept to power in Alberta in the 1935 Alberta provincial election just weeks earlier. He was chosen the party's parliamentary leader. He formed the material he was saying in speeches into book form, and Money the Master Key was published in 1939. The book describes "Money Power" - "the Designing Will that pulls hidden strings." (p. 12) In 1939 Social Credit merged into William Herridge's

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...

movement with Herridge acknowledged as the new party's leader. However, Herridge himself failed to win a seat in the 1940 federal election.In the subsequent parliament Blackmore acted as leader of the elected New Democracy MPs, all Social Crediters. Blackmore served as party leader until 1944 when Social Credit held its first national convention and acclaimed as leader Alberta MP Solon Earl Low. Blackmore retained his Lethbridge seat until he was defeated in the 1958 election in which Social Credit lost all of its MPs. (Progressive-Conservatives took all the Alberta seats although getting less than 60 percent of the votes cast in Alberta.) Blackmore was the first

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons. He was excommunicated by

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

in 1947 for "teaching and advocating the doctrine of plural marriage" at secret meetings in southern Alberta. At such meetings, men debated whether Mormon leaders were wrong to have renounced

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, ...

's revelation regarding

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

. Though not a polygamist himself, Blackmore urged Parliament to repeal the anti-polygamy law and succeeded in removing specific references to Mormons in the law. His nephew,

Winston Blackmore Winston Blackmore (born August 25, 1956) is the leader of a polygamous Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint religious group in Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada. He is described as "Canada's best-known avowed polygamist". He has 150 children with h ...

, is the leader of Canada's largest polygamist group and was charged by the RCMP with polygamy in 2009. He challenged the law's constitutionality. Blackmore was criticized for his views on Jews, and the Encyclopaedia Judaica said he "frequently gave public aid and comfort to anti-Semitism". In 1953, it was reported that Blackmore was distributing the anti-Semitic ''

Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...

'' from his parliamentary office. Blackmore is a relative of author Flora Jessop and her sister, Ruby Jessop.Bramham, Daphne (03/12/2005). "Escape from Polygamy". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 08/02/2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blackmore, John Horne 1890 births 1971 deaths People from Cassia County, Idaho Antisemitism in Canada Anti-Masonry Canadian anti-communists Canadian Latter Day Saints Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta New Democracy (Canada) candidates in the 1940 Canadian federal election New Democracy (Canada) MPs People excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints People from Cardston County Mormon fundamentalists Protocols of the Elders of Zion Social Credit Party of Canada leaders Social Credit Party of Canada MPs American emigrants to Canada