Grant Notley: The Social Conscience of Alberta

D.M.L. Farr is a professor emeritus of history at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

Grant Notley was a lonely figure in the politics of Alberta. He spent
all his life working for the CCF/NDP movement as an organizer and party
leader, and, after 1971, as its first full-term member in the Alberta
legislature. At the time he was killed in an airplane crash in October
1984, he was leader of the Opposition in Alberta—an opposition that
consisted only of him and one other NDP member.

This biography is a full, almost too detailed account of Notley’s 23
years in political life: the financial and recruiting problems he faced;
the people he worked with (and against); the policies he pursued. The
author, who was Notley’s legislative assistant and then Provincial
Secretary of the Alberta NDP from 1973 to 1975, is well placed to write
about his leader. He undertakes the task dutifully, recognizing not only
Notley’s determination and commitment to the socialist cause but also
his shortcomings. It was Notley’s lot to raise the banner of social
reform in a province dominated during his lifetime by two powerful
conservative administrations: Social Credit under Ernest Manning and the
Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed. In the face of these
commanding leaders and their overwhelming popular support, there was
little room for a socialist alternative. Yet Notley soldiered on and
came to earn a grudging respect from the people of his province for his
hard work, integrity, and social consciousness.

One closes the book with a sense of how the fortunes of politics favor
some and deal sternly with others. Notley was an exact contemporary of
Joe Clark in Alberta politics. One went on to high recognition
nationally and internationally; the other ploughed a lonely furrow in a
corner of Canada. Yet their merits and their visions were comparable. To
compare their careers leads to sobering reflections on fate and the
destiny of individuals.

This book is not a page turner. It is carefully researched and
painstakingly presented, but Notley comes across less as a human being
than as a driven political organizer. There is a good bibliography
(though the reference notes leave something to be desired), some
forgettable photographs of Notley and his associates, and a serviceable
index.