A Life on the Fringe: The Memoirs of Eugene Forsey

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of History at York University and author
of Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy.

Eugene Forsey, who died in 1991, had a long and productive life. This
book title, however, is accurate—socialist politics put him on the
fringes during his early and middle years, and his independence and
outspokenness guaranteed that he would remain there even after Pierre
Trudeau elevated him to the Senate. Forsey was never a comfortable party
man. He was furious at the tactics used by the ccf against his great
friend, the former Tory Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, in a Toronto area
by-election in 1942, and he said so. He was outraged when the ndp
endorsed special status for Quebec, and he quit the party. And he fought
against some of the Trudeau government’s policies just as hard. His
tongue and sharp pen enlivened public debate in Canada for a long time,
and the chapter on Quebec in his memoirs is one that will continue to do
so. This is the most important single statement on our current crisis in
print, one that ringingly affirms Canada’s existence as a nation, even
if Quebec is so foolish as to go its own way. For this, and for much
more, this book deserves a wide audience.