The social and political unrest which followed the First World War was not confined to urban workers. Western farmers and farm labourers too were ripe for protest. At war's end, the demand for grain dropped and prices for wheat and other cereals dropped accordingly. Yet many western farmers had overextended themselves during the war to produce as much as they could for the war effort. They had bought new equipment and purchased more land at high interest rates. When the post-war depression hit, western farmers began to organize themselves politically in order to create parties that would truly reflect their economic and political needs.

In December 1920, the National Progressive Party was created and other provincial parties soon followed. In the 1921 Alberta provincial election, the United Farmers of Alberta swept the election with a majority. Farmer candidates also did well in the provincial election of Manitoba in June 1920. The National Progressive Party obtained the support of these farmer groups when it ran candidates in the 1921 federal election.

During the 1921 federal election, the Progressives showed that they were not a traditional political party. They campaigned to get representation in Ottawa for farmers; they did not campaign to get a Progressive Party elected to government. Yet they nearly obtained what they did not desire, winning enough votes to form the official opposition in the House of Commons. It was certainly a House of Commons unlike any other before. The Progressives not only included farmer candidates but also a young school teacher from Ontario, Agnes Macphail, who became Canada's first female Member of Parliament. Even labour had its spokesmen in the House. As William Irvine (one of two Labour members in the House) informed the Speaker at the beginning of the session, "I wish to state that Mr. Woodsworth is the leader of the Labour group ... and I am the group."

Despite its electoral successes, the Progressive Party was hopelessly divided on whether it should act as a true political party, applying pressure on the governing party, or whether it should merely have members in the House representing different economic groups in society. Although they were the second largest party in the House of Commons and therefore had the right to form the official opposition, the Progressives yielded the honour to the Conservative Party. It has been said that many Progressives did not want to oppose the Liberals, they just wanted to reform them  -  they were "Liberals in a hurry." In contrast, other Progressives had no interest in playing party politics as they wanted to eradicate party politics.

By not forming the official opposition, the Progressives denied themselves the influence necessary to change the party system to their wishes. By the mid-1920s, the farmers' movement had lost its momentum in federal politics. The Progressives had blossomed nearly overnight, but they had neither the leadership nor the program for a permanent place in the political spectrum. By the federal election of 1925, the Progressive Party was in disarray and its number of seats declined dramatically. In many respects, the Progressives had attempted the impossible  -  they had attempted to reform the party system without becoming involved in that system. Yet they were the first real western party in Canadian politics to gain enough seats to form the official opposition. Canadian politics would never be the same again.