A New Endeavour: Selected Political Essays, Letters, and Addresses

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Why would anyone want to read F.R. Scott’s political essays? Scott, after all, was a man who never held or even ran for public office, and, moreover, who championed that most lost of causes — the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/New Democratic Party (NDP) in Quebec.

For some, the answer may lie in the fact that Scott, who died in 1985, was one of Canada’s foremost poets (see The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott, McClelland and Stewart, 1981). Indeed, the title of this book, A New Endeavour, is taken from a line in a poem he wrote in 1938 (p.xi). To better understand his poetry, one must appreciate the political thought which underlies much of it.

Between 1927 and 1968, Scott was also a professor of constitutional law at McGill University with a life-long interest in civil liberties (see his Essays on the Constitution, University of Toronto Press, 1977). The book under review also complements that work in that it reveals a man who took his legal interests into the political sphere.

In spite of the fact that this book, unlike the two aforementioned titles, did not win a Governor General’s award, it still stands on its own.

Although Scott was uninterested in running for public office, he contributed significantly to the development of many of his party’s positions, including the Regina Manifesto. Historians will look at this review of Scott’s writing, which includes 29 pieces written between 1931 and 1971, for guidance about the development of his party.

Scott often faced fire for his political views from the authorities at McGill: it was only in 1964, when he had retired from active participation in the NDP, that the University appointed him Dean of Law. Editor Horn’s introduction, which reflects the York University historian’s well-known interest in academic freedom, is also a substantial piece of work in its own right and will make this book particularly appealing to academic readers.

The text does of course suffer from a few minor problems, including a couple of embarrassing typographical errors. That said, this book stands as a serious piece of work, which deserves a wide and respectful audience including lovers of Scott’s poetry, lawyers, Canadian historians, and academics in general.