Unlikely Tory: The Life and Politics of Allan Grossman

James G. Snell is a history professor at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

Unlikely Tory is an important biography of a leading Ontario politician of the post-World War II era. Basing his book largely on the private papers of Allan Grossman and on extensive interviews with a considerable number of his political colleagues (though not with his opponents), Peter Oliver, professor of history at York University, effectively depicts Grossman’s political career from a sympathetic viewpoint.

The first chapters describe the life of an immigrant, Eastern European, Jewish family in working-class Toronto. The emphasis on Grossman’s early years in the Jewish ghetto of the city is not only interesting (the reader in fact yearns for more) but basic to the development of two of the book’s basic themes.

The first of these is the Toronto ethnic communities and their changing relations with the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and its Governments. Grossman’s role is shown to be crucial in making party leaders aware of the needs of these increasingly important elements in Ontario society. This is true not just of the Jewish community but also of such diverse other groups as Ukrainians, Portuguese, and Hungarians. And yet, one of the basic questions is not addressed as fully as one might wish: why was it that these early, ambitious spokesmen for the Toronto Jewish community (such as Grossman, Nathan Philips, or Eddie Goodman) found the provincial Conservative Party an attractive vehicle for their aspirations?

A second theme examines Grossman as a force for progressive political change. This is particularly well examined in his various cabinet portfolios, such as Correctional Institutions in the 1960s. In this context, as well, the author presents useful information regarding the relationship between a minister and the civil service, though perhaps not typical of that relationship.

Finally, the book examines the interaction between Grossman and the changing urban community. Much interesting material is presented, but this theme is not as convincingly handled; this is especially true of Grossman’s confrontations with the urban activists of the 1960s and early 1970s.

As one of the first historians to examine our recent political past, the author had a difficult but very useful task. It is one that he handles ably and successfully.