A moot point considering the Communist Party was outlawed in the US.

In Canada it was not formally outlawed, hence communist sympathizers were not totally driven underground, which gave the RCMP an easier task of keeping tabs on members of the party and (if anyone is naive enough to think there was a secret ballot in this country) to keep lists of citizens who voted for them or attended functions or meetings. Not good if one sought a career in the Civil Service or military, two areas off limits to those with questionable political leanings.

Many of the early left wing, labour unions and other citizens, demanding social justice, but put off by the dogma and stridency of the Communist Party in Canada, found an alternative voice in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Party (CCF), (the Socialists) which served as a kind safety steam valve to disarm the more radical Left. The CCF eventually transformed into the present day New Democratic Party, not in any way to be confused with the Democratic Party of the US.

Although this party has formed the government a number of times Provincially, first under Tommy Douglas of the CCF in Saskatchewan (and much to the surprise of some, the world didn't fall apart), it has never been able to win a majority of seats in a Federal Election.

However, it did, as the CCF, manage to hold the balance of power in a minority Federal government at one time, and had enough of the popular vote once, that a Universal Medicare system was finally adopted by the powers that be, to appease the growing Left.

Also, sometimes throwing a bone of social justice to the socially and economically disenfranchised of one's country, works just, if not more effectively, than the hammer.(the CCF was once considered the "conscience of parliament", particularly under such statesmen as Stanley Knowles).

The CCF/NDP is still viewed by a lot of the power brokers of this country as the "Red Menace" when in effect, it saved their bacon from the "real thing".

I post this to point out that there were paths, other than that of the "hammer", taken in other countries, which curbed communism, while still maintaining what is perceived as democratic freedoms in North America.