Old Man Ontario: Leslie M Frost

Gerald J. Stortz is an assistant professor of history at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

Old Man Ontario is the latest offering in the Ontario Historical Studies
Series, which includes biographies of some of the province’s premiers.
Graham, who died just before the book’s completion, taught history at
Queen’s University. He has produced a work that, by virtue of its
subject, will elicit much interest and comment. As the title suggests,
Frost, who was from Lindsay, epitomized the stereotypical values of
small-town Ontario—so much so that even while attacking his cabinet
scandals in the late 1950s, the opposition paid tribute to his basic
integrity. Some of his homespun quality can also be discerned in the
terrible spelling errors made in letters sent, indicating that they were
personally composed. He was, however, no country bumpkin, but a shrewd
politician who directed the legislature in an often extraparliamentary
fashion through the use of skilled advisers such as the legendary A.D.
MacKenzie.

Old Man Ontario is extremely finely crafted in the literary sense; the
photographs add greatly to the text. It is a most welcome addition to
the burgeoning amount of material on Ontario’s history and will be
consulted for many years to come.