Politicians for Peace: A New Global Network of Legislators Working for Human Survival

P.F. McKenna was librarian at the Police Academy, Brampton, Ontario.

Douglas Roche, the Member of Parliament for Edmonton South since 1972, was recently appointed as Canada’s second Ambassador for Disarmament. The contents of this book reveal why Mr. Roche is an appropriate choice for such an appointment. He has outlined the efforts made to form and to strengthen the membership as well as the goals and objectives of an organization called the Parliamentarians for World Order (PWO). This organization, founded in 1977, counted among its earliest members David MacDonald (Secretary of State in the Clark Government) and Mark MacGuigan. Mr. Roche proceeds to outline in some detail the growth and development of PWO over the next few years. In December of 1980 the author was elected International Chairman of the organization; this book is essentially a record of his observations and activities on behalf of PWO. The basic thrust of this movement for world order includes action on a number of fronts. The group is pledged to pursue comprehensive disarmament, development that will stabilize and equalize the world economic order, and the reform of the United Nations so that it can become a more forceful voice in international affairs.

Mr. Roche employs a fairly low-key, almost conversational, style throughout this work and portrays the efforts of a number of parliamentarians who are earnestly committed to the goals of PWO. The awesome magnitude of the threat that nuclear weapons pose to humanity is sufficient cause for men and women to seek political means whereby these weapons can be banished from our lives. The efforts of an organization like PWO constitute an eminently noble enterprise. No sane person could possibly deny that the desire to see the world totally free of nuclear weapons is anything but a benefit to all of mankind. However, the aims of any group that espouses a policy of disarmament must be moderated and informed by the harsh realities of international politics. The process will be painfully, even maddeningly, slow. It may also give the prudent man pause to reflect on the fact that of the 550 members of PWO, only two politicians from the Soviet Bloc have signed the group’s “Call for Global Survival.” The good is not always the possible and, while our convictions may prove that we are well-intentioned, they cannot prove that we are right. Mr. Roche gives in this work an open and frank account of his views and of PWO’s efforts. He also provides his readers with some brief but interesting profiles of a number of international politicians who share his steadfast convictions.