Fifty Mighty Men

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

This book is a reissue (because of the author’s 80th birthday) of one that was first published in 1958 and reissued in paper in 1975. The only addition to the text is a four-page introduction by R.H. MacDonald, the executive editor of The Western Producer. In effect, this introduction is a brief biography of the author, who, as well as being Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, has been a profession of animal husbandry and general manager of the Beef Producers’ Council. He is also a compassionate westerner.

In the book, MacEwan describes in biographic form 50 men who in his view are historically important in the development of the three prairie provinces. Some of these men, like Father Lacombo, Palliser, Henday, Riel, Dumont, and R.B. Bennett, are well known actors in Canadian history.

Many others do not have national reputations; one would suspect they did not have regional ones either, prior to the first publication of MacEwan’s work. One such is Peter J. McGonigle, who was not even a man, but rather was the creation of Bob Edwards, the editor of the Calgary Eye Opener, who himself is the subject of a chapter.

Although readers may find MacEwan’s style to be somewhat maudlin, this is not an excuse not to read this book. It is written in a rather “folksy” style. The historian may take exception to the author’s statement made when writing of Bennett: “That must be left to the writers of history and they’re never in a hurry.” However, if it were not for authors like MacEwan, much of our history would be left unwritten.

The importance of Fifty Mighty Men is that Canadians, and not just westerners, can come to know characters like Sam Livingstone, the first resident of Calgary; N.F. Davin, the founder of The Regina Leader;Crowfoot, Chief of the Blackfoot; Thomas Spence, President of the Republic of Caledonia; or John McDougall, who founded the Methodist mission at Morley.

This reviewer agrees with R.H. MacDonald when he writes of the impact of MacEwan’s book: “MacEwan helped shatter the colonial state of mind of Western Canadians who had assumed that nothing worthwhile could originate in their own land, that all heroes were foreigners, that nobody worth writing about — let alone reading about — had dwelt in their midst.”

For far too long, Canadians have been educated on American popular history. What authors like MacEwan have proven is that we do have our own popular history. Incidentally, he published ... And Mighty Women Too in 1975.