"Building the Co-operative Commonwealth": Essays on the Democratic Socialist Tradition in Canada

George Brandak was Curator of Manuscripts and the University of British Columbia Library.

This book contains twelve essays on various aspects of the democratic socialist tradition in Canada that have been somewhat overlooked. The essays were initially papers presented at a conference, sponsored by the Canadian Plains Research Center in June 1983, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Regina Manifesto. Alan Whitehorn presented a critique of the “protest movement becalmed” model used in analysing the history of the CCF-NDP and pleaded for a better balance in future historiography. It is expected that an essay be included on the Regina Manifesto of 1933, and M. Horn, a scholar of the League for Social Reconstruction, does not disappoint. Horn concludes that the Regina Manifesto was not rigidly doctrinaire but was born of mutual accommodation among farmers, trade unionists, and intellectuals, who did not always agree. Following on this theme was David Walden’s essay on the political philosophy of J.S. Woodsworth, which emphasized his concern for conditions of people in his society. It was perhaps the sense of immediacy and practical concern in Woodsworth’s political philosophy, Walden concluded, that made it truly distinctive, because it enabled him both to achieve many of the goals which he pursued so relentlessly and to make a lasting contribution to Canadian socialism. In another essay relating to Woodsworth, Thomas Socknat discusses the pacifist background of the CCF. It asserts that the political heritage of the post-1930s CCF and the NDP that followed was deeply rooted in the pacifist tradition.

In addition to a national focus, three essays concentrate on the CCF as a government in Saskatchewan and three others on the CCF in different regions of Canada — Maritimes, British Columbia, and Alberta. Christina Nichol’s essay on the B.C. CCF, 1945-50, is particularly interesting as it explains how the CCF, in its efforts to replace the Communist Party as the party of the worker in B.C., had to sacrifice its socialist foreign policy objectives. The article also discusses the long-term misfortune that fell on the party owing to its decision to befriend the national labour movement and its American allies. Jean Larmour’s “The Douglas Government’s Changing Emphasis on Public, Private, and Co-operative Development in Saskatchewan, 1944-61”; Ian MacPherson’s “The CCF and the Co-operative Movement in the Douglas Years: An Uneasy Alliance”; and Jim Pitsula’s “The CCF Government in Saskatchewan and Social Aid, 1944-64” are solidly researched papers with firm conclusions rather than laudatory narratives that are typical for conferences presented in praise of an event.

A conference to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Regina Manifesto is dependent on the papers sent to it that eventually become published essays. It is unfortunate that no papers were presented on the CCF in Ontario or Quebec, or the native and ethnic role within the CCF; reference to the labour movement’s involvement in the CCF is scanty with the exception of Nichols essay. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to find two essays on the role of women in the CCF. Joan Sangster concentrated on the role throughout Canada, 1933-40, and Georgina Taylor studied Saskatchewan CCF-NDP woman candidates in provincial and federal elections, 1934-1965. Like the other essays, they are well footnoted. A stylistic irony is that many of the Party faithful who may wish to read this book will be unable to do so because the print is too small for their aging eyesight. Those persons with thick glasses or good natural eyesight should find it an informative read. The editor concluded a solid introduction stating that the contributors have provided a reappraisal of some of the considerable research already completed on the CCF-NDP, and have marked out new and profitable avenues for future scholarship. I concur.