Duff Pattullo of British Columbia

David E. Smith is a political science professor at the University of
Saskatchewan and author of Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal.

This is an important biography of a semi-important politician: Duff
Pattullo, member of the B.C. legislature (1916-45), and last Liberal
premier of the province (1933-41). Although overshadowed by the clutch
of demagogic eccentrics who led some provincial governments in the
1930s, his “Little New Deal” policies (captured best in the phrase
“socialized capitalism”) and his disputes with Mackenzie King have
long suggested Pattullo a subject worthy of study.

Fisher meets the challenge on two counts, portraying Pattullo first as
prodigal and speculator, ever with an eye on the main chance, and,
second, once secure in political office, as proponent of reform
Liberalism and advocate of western regionalism.

Despite his thorough research, Pattullo remains at the end of the
biography an elusive figure. His evident strengths do not sit well with
his obvious failures, among these an aborted state health insurance
scheme that 59 percent of the provincial electorate supported in a 1937
referendum.

The great value of this study lies in the regional perspective it casts
on national events (the Rowell-Sirois Commission, for example) that led
Canada to wartime (and postwar) centralism. The depiction of Pattullo as
the lone holdout against mainline party coalition is also remarkable.
This last controversy led to his resignation as Liberal leader in 1941
and set in train the polarization of B.C. politics that continued for
the next half-century.