Reaction and Reform: The Politics of the Conservative Party Under RB Bennett, 1927-1938

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

Reaction and Reform represents the most thorough account available of
the politics and organization of the federal Conservative Party under
the leadership of R.B. Bennett. Glassford has combed newspapers, party
records, and private correspondence to produce a detailed history of the
problems and opportunities that faced the party. He begins with an
analysis of the forces at play in the 1927 convention that chose the
Calgary lawyer as leader. The book then describes the party’s
organization, finances, and policies as it moved from opposition to
government. It looks closely at the differences between the party’s
election campaigns in 1930 and 1935, the first producing a decisive
victory, the second an equally decisive defeat. According to the author,
Bennett was both the principal architect of victory and the figure
largely responsible for the party’s humiliation at the polls in 1935.

The principal theme of the book, however, is the pull between reform
and reaction as the Conservatives struggled to define policies to meet
the onslaught of the Great Depression. Glassford sees Bennett as having
a foot in both camps, boldly striking out to create the Bank of Canada
and the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, yet concerned above all
with the goals of a balanced budget and the preservation of a sound
credit rating for Canada on international bond markets.

Glassford’s study is nicely complemented by Peter Waite’s The Loner
(1992). Waite focuses on Bennett the man and political leader over his
lifetime; Glassford concentrates on the context in which the leader
operated during the high point of his career.

The work is buttressed by 11 tables and a full listing of notes and
sources. The style is lively—even colloquial at times—and the
exposition clear. A valuable addition to the literature of Canadian
politics.