William Arthur Kardash was a politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1941 until 1958.
15 Facts About Bill Kardash
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Bill Kardash served as Winnipeg MLA from 1941 to 1958, as Worker's Candidate at first, then as a representative of the Labor-Progressive Party.
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Bill Kardash was among the handful of Communists elected in Winnipeg between 1927 and 1983.
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The youngest child of Ukrainian Canadian parents Danylo Bill Kardash and Ulyta Byck, he was born in Hafford, Saskatchewan, north of Saskatoon, and educated at Hafford High School.
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Bill Kardash was a member of the Communist Party of Canada and, after 1943, the Labor-Progressive Party, which was the legal front of the Communist Party after it was banned.
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Bill Kardash became the first leader of the Manitoba LPP in 1943, retaining the position until 1948 when he resigned for health reasons.
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Bill Kardash was the first national chairman of the LPP.
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In 1940, Bill Kardash married Mary Kostaniuk, with whom he had two children, Ted and Nancy.
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Bill Kardash was the only candidate to run for the LPP in the Manitoba elections of 1953 and 1958.
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Bill Kardash's defeat was due in part to the pressures of the Cold War, as well as the abolition of proportional representation and multi-member districts.
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In 1948, Bill Kardash became general manager of the People's Co-operative Dairy, Fuel and Lumber Yards in 1948, retiring in 1982.
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Bill Kardash served as president of the board of directors for the co-operative until the business was sold to its employees in 1993.
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Bill Kardash ran in the new Point Douglas constituency in 1969 for the Communist Party of Manitoba, but received only 421 votes, coming in last in a four-candidate race won by Donald Malinowski of the NDP.
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Bill Kardash remained active in Winnipeg's Ukrainian community for the rest of his life.
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Bill Kardash's wife, Mary, was a longtime communist activist and school trustee in Winnipeg.