John Boyko. Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation. Canada: Key Porter Books, 2010. 408 pp. $34.95, cloth, ISBN 978-1-55470-248-0.

Reviewed by Larry Glassford

Published on H-Canada (August, 2012)

Commissioned by Jane Nicholas (University of Waterloo/St. Jerome's)

"There is more to Bennett than the Bennett dian politics in the 1930s, stated categorically that buggy" (p. 25). In that simple sentence, John Boyko "as a politician he was a failure."[2] Robert Both‐ summarizes his purpose in writing this welcome well, Ian Drummond, and John English, in their single-volume biography of Canada's eleventh widely used narrative of Canadian history from prime minister, R. B. Bennett. He is appalled that 1900 to 1945, commented that "most Canadians generations of Canadian students are taught to seemed to feel cheated by Bennett and his prom‐ dismiss this remarkable Canadian as a kind of ises."[3] Boyko's own conclusion is diametrically cartoon capitalist whose chief claim to fame is the opposed to this widespread consensus. "Despite association of his surname with a horse-drawn, the storm of criticism and a near absence of cred‐ engine-less automobile, disabled by the hard eco‐ it," he asserts, "Prime Minister Bennett did a great nomic times of the 1930s. "The premise of this deal of good" (p. 17). Rather than cavalierly dis‐ book," Boyko explains, "is that the consensus missed, Boyko contends, "he should be celebrated about Bennett is fundamentally fawed" (p. 23). as an outstanding Canadian for his lifetime of dar‐ With energy and conviction, he sets himself the ing and enduring accomplishments" (p. 23). task of righting a historic wrong. Biography, for several decades an underval‐ The author is on solid ground when he notes ued and marginalized sub-genre within English- that "most historians have dealt with Bennett only Canadian historiography, is enjoying something of tangentially, and few have been kind" (p. 24). For a renaissance. Boyko's book joins a small but instance, John Herd Thompson and Allen Seager, growing shelf of volumes about R. B. Bennett that in their treatment of the interwar years for the mimics, to some extent, the evolution of historical Canadian Centenary Series, characterized his time biography itself. Three early entries were little in ofce with the revealing chapter title, "The Ben‐ more than fawning hagiographies: one, by An‐ nett Debacle."[1] Blair Neatby, in a book on Cana‐ drew MacLean, his one-time secretary, appeared H-Net Reviews while he was still in ofce; a second, by his long- er's rise to prominence in law, business, and poli‐ time friend, Lord Beaverbrook, presented a tics, noting both the strengths and the weakness‐ sketchy but afectionate portrait; while the third, es.[9] At about the same time, a slim volume of by a sometime Conservative member of the Alber‐ three essays, The Loner (1992), by Peter Waite, ap‐ ta legislature, Ernest Watkins, anointed Bennett a peared. As with Gray, Waite sought to portray the "great man," albeit a frustrated one, in a fairly real R. B. Bennett, warts and all. Noting in his in‐ shallow treatment of the Calgary-based lawyer, troduction that Bennett enjoyed "probably the business tycoon, and politician. worst reputation of any Canadian prime minis‐ In addition to the judgments of the more gen‐ ter," Waite nonetheless set out to portray "the per‐ eral histories, examples of which were cited earli‐ sonal side of R. B.'s life, his character, his er, the biographical debunkers of R. B. Bennett are ideas."[10] His Bennett comes across as fully hu‐ mainly represented by the several authors of col‐ man, wearing neither horns nor wings. The third lective biographies of the Canadian prime minis‐ component of this revisionist triumvirate is my ters. For example, the popular journalist Bruce own examination of the Conservative Party dur‐ Hutchison, writing in the early 1960s, encapsulat‐ ing Bennett's years of leadership, Reaction and ed Bennett's career in this phrase: "the ultimate Reform (1992).[11] While the book was initially drama of hubris and nemesis."[5] Bennett's own conceived as an institutional biography, Bennett faws, he contended, led directly to his downfall. featured prominently in it, just as he dominated Later in the decade another journalist, Gordon the afairs of Canada's national Conservative Par‐ Donaldson, continued the negative image. "While ty during his time as its chieftain. Like Gray and Bennett stufed down chocolates," he wrote, "fags Waite, I found much in Bennett's character and of revolt appeared in the west."[6] Not a pretty record to commend, and much to critique. sight. A generation later, the negative caricature Where does Boyko's book ft? Clearly he as‐ continued in the scholar Michael Bliss's 1990s pires to the balanced critique school, but often in compilation. "Soon after becoming prime minister spite of himself he veers sharply into something he reverted to his old form--erratic, emotional, in‐ approaching hagiography. Still, Boyko fairly sensitive, conceited, self-obsessed," Bliss stated. presents the case put forth by those who dispar‐ "He was a one-man band."[7] His judgment was age Bennett. This prime minister, he acknowl‐ echoed in a joint work by J. L. Granatstein and edges, was frequently ill-tempered, often lacked Norman Hillmer, which appeared soon after. patience, appeared overly sensitive to criticism, "Bennett utterly failed as a leader," they conclud‐ and on those rare occasions when he lost a battle, ed. "Everyone was alienated by the end--Cabinet, could be a very sore loser. He over-ate and under- caucus, party, voter and foreigner."[8] exercised, dominated conversations with his In the wake of the early hagiographic thesis, thundering verbosity, and made little allowance and this subsequent debunking antithesis, we also for those around him who were less task-oriented have a third approach, a revisionist attempt at than himself. All this Boyko concedes, but he also critical synthesis that acknowledges the faws in points to the other side of the ledger. Bennett was Bennett's character and record, but also seeks to intelligent, hard-working, generous, and coura‐ be fair, and apportion credit where credit is due. geous. He possessed a prodigious memory for James H. Gray, in R. B. Bennett: The Calgary Years facts, so excelled at public oratory that he earned (1991), dealt with the years leading up to his as‐ the nickname "Bonfre Bennett," and sought to sumption of power as prime minister in 1930. His live his life according to an admirable set of moral book chronicled the expatriate New Brunswick‐ principles learned from home, school, and church. Throughout his life, he gave wholeheart‐

2 H-Net Reviews edly to numerous charities, quietly subsidized the lumber town that was Ottawa in 1911, when Ben‐ education of a number of promising students, and nett stepped down from the train as a freshly personally sent gifts of money to numerous needy elected member of Parliament from the West (p. individual Canadians. Not everything Bennett 80). Similarly, the reader experiences the excite‐ tried worked out, the author agrees, but he cor‐ ment and pandemonium of a crowded Winnipeg rectly emphasizes that Bennett served as prime amphitheater as the convention chair announced minister during the fve worst years of the Great to thousands of assembled delegates that R. B. Depression. He was unable to solve it, that is true, Bennett had been elected their new leader. "Up‐ but then neither was any other world leader. roarious applause met each candidate who What he did do was keep the good ship "Canada" worked, one by one, to get to the microphone to afoat in stormy seas. Along the way, signifcant withdraw in the old tradition of making the vote legislation was passed that permanently changed unanimous. Even greater applause washed over Canada for the better. Boyko mentions in particu‐ Bennett as he slowly weaved his way through the lar the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the people and heavy tables and chairs to the front of Bank of Canada, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and un‐ the crowded platform to accept his prize. He employment insurance. So passionately does this shook every hand until he fnally stood in the author argue the case for Bennett that we should cramped space between the tables and the crowd‐ perhaps classify his position as neo-laudatory. "All ed foor. He beamed out at the cheering crowd of this means that he was an efective leader," from behind a large pie-plate-sized microphone Boyko argues. "It does not mean that he was al‐ that was hooked up to transmit his words to a na‐ ways a nice guy" (p. 22). tional radio audience. There was no lectern" (p. There is much to commend in this political bi‐ 156). ography. The author's prologue begins with a deft At other times, Boyko plays the informed Creightonian passage in which Boyko imagina‐ teacher (and quite honestly, since that is his voca‐ tively describes for the reader how Bennett might tion), patiently providing the needed context so have appeared on the streets of London, England, that today's readers might understand how Cana‐ during World War II. "The clothes told the tale of a da was diferent seventy-fve or a hundred years still fercely independent and well-to-do gentle‐ ago. For instance, English Canada was a much man. The pinstriped suit with high-waisted pants, more "British" environment back then, as Boyko swallowtail jacket falling to tails, stif collar, and explains (p. 74). Moreover, when the economic bold tie spoke of another era" (p. 15). Virtually crisis struck Canada in the 1930s, governments anonymous in his adopted country, this solitary were hamstrung not just by ingrained laissez- man had held the highest elective ofce in his na‐ faire economic ideas, but also by an acute absence tive land of Canada, a short decade earlier. It is of the kind of statistical data about the economy one of several narrative touches employed by the and business cycle which are taken for granted to‐ author to engage his reader in something more day (pp. 216-219). Bennett's Canada-First tarif in‐ than an expository essay. John Boyko lets it be creases, he shows, took place within an interna‐ known that he has a story to tell, and for the most tional world of protectionism and economic na‐ part, he tells it well. tionalism (pp. 222-225). Many of Boyko's imagina‐ Other passages told with a you-are-there fair tive comparisons both teach and entertain. "The include compelling descriptions of the cow town St. Lawrence River was the frst trans-Canada Calgary, at the time of Bennett's arrival from his highway," he rightly notes, paying homage to native New Brunswick in 1897 (pp. 41-42), and the Creighton's Laurentian theme. The lunacy of ex‐ cessively tight money policy he sums up in this

3 H-Net Reviews ironic yet apt way: "to get a loan you needed to Many of the errors above, taken separately, prove you did not need one" (p. 296). Boyko deftly are not outlandish. Some of these below are. Jim‐ utilizes modern communication concepts to illu‐ my Gardiner is wrongly identifed as the premier minate some of Bennett's public image difculties. of Manitoba, not Saskatchewan (p. 323). John As problems with the relief camp strikers grew, Brownlee is identifed as Alberta's Conservative the author accurately notes that "Bennett was los‐ premier, when he led the United Farmers party ing control of the narrative" (p. 321). Further‐ (p. 191).The fnance minister, Edgar Rhodes, is more, the prime minister's vividly candid pledge prematurely appointed to the Senate (p. 305) .The to apply the "iron heel of ruthlessness" to law- pro-Liberal Globe newspaper is identifed as breaking demonstrators provided a "sound bite" "staunchly Conservative" (p. 157). Arthur Meighen that would come back to haunt him, ever after (p. is identifed as a sitting MP in the House of Com‐ 324). mons in 1927, when in fact he had lost his seat in Alas, the balance sheet on this biography is 1926 (p. 146). A party caucus at which interim not uniformly positive. There are a troubling leader Hugh Guthrie was chosen is misidentifed number of examples that speak to sloppy editing, as happening in October 1927, when in fact that and a rush to publish. Given that Peter Waite's was the date of the convention which selected long-awaited full-scale biography was expected to Bennett as permanent leader. The author has appear shortly, one can understand the drive to Mackenzie King resigning as PM in 1926, then re‐ be out in print frst. (As it turned out, Waite's new questing the dissolution of Parliament, when it book In Search of R. B. Bennett did not appear for was the governor-general's denial of the latter two more years.)[12] Some of the errors are mi‐ which precipitated the former (p. 140). The nor. For example, the surnames of the four co-au‐ Beauharnois funding scandal is inaccurately iden‐ thors of a book cited in endnote 12 (p. 468) are in‐ tifed as an issue in the 1930 election, when it did accurately combined into two names. An abbrevi‐ not surface for another year (p. 198). Ottawa na‐ ated reference to a work by "Gordon," cited in tive Charlotte Whitton is wrongly identifed as an endnote 21, is not preceded anywhere by the full Alberta social worker (p. 316). The 1935 federal reference (p. 469). The publication dates of books budget defcit is given as $17 million, which is published by James Gray and myself are of by a represented as "the highest in the Bennett years" year in the text (pp. 23-24), though they are accu‐ (p. 384). Sadly, this too is factually incorrect. The rately rendered in the bibliography. A sharp-eyed budget defcits for the previous three years were, editor would have improved the following fawed respectively, $114 million, $221 million, and $134 phrases: "iron ore and other such products" and million.[13] Publishing gremlins can sneak into "grain, wheat, and corn" (p. 281) The relief camps any publication. However, the magnitude and fre‐ were apparently set up to "provide work for the quency of the factual errors and editing slips in employed [sic] single men" (p. 313). There is an in‐ this book seriously detract from the author's consistency four pages apart as to the dating of avowed mission to straighten out the misinterpre‐ the fve New Deal radio broadcasts (pp. 368, 371). tation of Bennett's life and career. Reference is made to "the Marketing Act and the There are some prominent topics about Natural Products Marketing Act," though it was which Boyko might have had more to say. In the just one bill (p. 373). Finally, I cannot resist cor‐ preface to his biography of Bennett's Calgary recting Boyko as to the origins of my own book on years, James Gray mentioned two legislative Bennett. It was based on my doctoral dissertation, achievements by Bennett that caught his atten‐ not my master's thesis (p. 24). tion, and made the controversial Calgarian an at‐ tractive subject for a book. These key measures

4 H-Net Reviews were: frst, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act, this afectionate relationship in their own books, which involved the federal government in assist‐ without hinting at anything like "scandal." Again, ing western farmers to reclaim their wind-blown it is unfortunate that Boyko fails to justify the farms from dust bowl conditions; and second, the lurid language, and also regrettable that he does establishment of the Canadian Wheat Board to not refer in his endnotes to Waite, whose research collectively market prairie grain. Boyko does not unearthed the bulk of the correspondence be‐ even mention the former, and deemphasizes the tween Bennett and Colville.[14] latter, which is generally grouped by other schol‐ Boyko makes frequent comparisons between ars with the CBC and Bank of Canada as lasting events in Bennett's day and events from our own Bennett legacies, even by those who are among era. For example, he draws a parallel between his harshest critics. On the debit side of the Ben‐ Bennett's campaign in 1898 for election to the nett ledger, section 98 of the Criminal Code, which Northwest territorial assembly and Barack Oba‐ was controversially used by the Bennett govern‐ ma's contest with John McCain for the U.S. presi‐ ment to prosecute vocal critics of the status quo, dency in 2008 (p. 46). Later, he compares the does not merit a listing in the index, although it is questionable use of prorogation by the Alberta briefy mentioned in the text (pp. 324-325). Fur‐ provincial Liberals in 1909 to similar actions by thermore, Boyko wrongly attributes its legislative the Harper Conservatives in 2008 and 2010 (p. 70). origins to the King government, when it was While writing about the rise of protectionism in clearly the handiwork of Arthur Meighen. This the early 1920s, Boyko throws in a reference to a confusion makes it easier for the author to de‐ meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, scribe Bennett as a politician of the left in 1935, Switzerland, in 2009 (p. 131). Bennett's successful an assertion that most historians, including this 1930 campaign slogan, "Canada First," is paral‐ one, fnd dubious, the New Deal legislation not‐ leled to Obama's "Yes We Can" in 2008 (p. 199). withstanding (p. 411). Bennett's response to the economic crisis of the Boyko repeats the gossip that two of Montre‐ 1930s is compared to the reactions of Canadian al's, and Canada's, wealthiest plutocrats--Sir Ed‐ and world leaders to the Great Recession of 2008 ward Beatty and Sir Henry Holt--ofered the for‐ (p. 296). He notes similarities in the selfsh busi‐ mer cabinet minister, Harry Stevens, who had ness leaders that Bennett targeted in his New Deal publicly split with Bennett $3 million (a fabulous radio broadcasts of 1935 and the Big Three auto sum in 1935) to start a new party, but he does not executives of 2008 who rode in private jets to cite his source (p. 358). This is unfortunate, be‐ Washington to plead for a public bailout (p. 373). cause it was precisely wealthy industrialists like As a technique for connecting events of the past Beatty and Holt that Stevens had targeted in his and present such comparisons may have some pro-small-business crusade. Such an ofer, if au‐ merit, but by the same token, as the events of thentic, would cause a major reassessment of the 2008-10 recede into the past, these juxtapositions motives of all three men. In another chapter, the become less and less efective. The book's useful author falls into sensationalist language, referring shelf life could well sufer as a result. to a "sex scandal brewing" (p. 257). This certainly It is ironic that Boyko refers disparagingly at gets the reader's attention. In reality, all he is re‐ one point to the "clumsy metaphors" that fre‐ ferring to is a brief Edwardian-style romance be‐ quently adorned the oral and written submissions tween the bachelor prime minister and a high-so‐ to the Royal Commission on Banking and Curren‐ ciety widow from Montreal, Hazel Colville, whose cy (p. 301). In this book, he shows himself to be no family was well connected within the Conserva‐ slouch in the murky, even earthy, metaphor de‐ tive Party. Both Waite and Gray had mentioned

5 H-Net Reviews partment. Political power, we are informed, is Bennett's undoubted accomplishments while in "less a bookstore than a library" (p. 166). Every ofce are convincingly laid out, even as his per‐ political party, we are told, "needs a good spank‐ sonal foibles are acknowledged. Boyko is dead-on ing from time to time" (p. 160). The Canadian in his insistence that there was, and is, a lot more economy of the 1930s was apparently in need of a to R. B. Bennett than the Bennett buggy, Bennett "fnancial laxative" (p. 297). Mackenzie King's fail‐ blankets, and Bennett boroughs, even if he is not ure to create a central bank in 1923 is compared the fnest prime minister in our history. The old to a baseball player, perhaps the Mighty Casey, stereotype of a do-nothing fuddy-duddy whose who "watched the fastball coming down the mid‐ sole policy for national recovery was to jack up dle and let it sail by" (p. 295). A few pages later, he tarifs in a vain attempt to "blast a way" into employs another sport analogy, referring to Ben‐ world markets he lays to rest. Had he added just nett's "dream team of one-armed economists" one qualifying word to the book's subtitle, the who supported his banking ideas (p. 299). The ironic nature of this millionaire politician's re‐ meeting of R. B. Bennett and the leader of the re‐ forming zeal and lasting impact on Canada would lief-camp strikers, Slim Evans, is rendered as have been crystal clear. The amended title would "high noon" (p. 397). Bennett's split with H. H. read "R. B. Bennett: The Establishment Rebel Who Stevens is described as "eyeball to eyeball" (p. Challenged and Changed a Nation." 356). A few pages later they are "two bulls in the Notes barnyard" (p. 360). Elsewhere, he cautions princi‐ [1]. John Herd Thompson with Allen Seager, pled leaders to look away "even when the siren Canada, 1922-1939: Decades of Discord (Toronto: song of expediency ofers the feeting popularity McClelland & Stewart, 1985), 253-276. of an easy battle easily won" (p. 313). And surely Bokyo is communicating tongue-in-cheek when [2]. H. Blair Neatby, The Politics of Chaos: he dismisses Franklin Roosevelt as "America's R. Canada in the Thirties (Toronto: Macmillan, 1972), B. Bennett" (p. 260). Boyko's writing style is delib‐ 53. erately colorful, but there can be too much of a [3]. Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and good thing. The point is this: a little too often the John English, Canada, 1900-1945 (Toronto: Univer‐ author's easy eloquence crosses the line into sity of Toronto Press, 1987), 266. forced rhetoric, and it detracts from the underly‐ [4]. Andrew D. Maclean, R. B. Bennett: Prime ing message. Minister of Canada (Toronto: Excelsior Publish‐ Boyko's central theme remains clear, howev‐ ing, 1935); Lord Beaverbrook, Friends: Sixty Years er. R. B. Bennett was a great prime minister--not a of Intimate Personal Relations with Richard Bed‐ perfect human being, but a superbly capable po‐ ford Bennett (London: Heinemann, 1959); and litical leader. Canada, in the author's view, was Ernest Watkins, R. B. Bennett: A Biography (Lon‐ fortunate to have this man in power during the don: Secker & Warburg, 1963), 252. frst and worst half of the 1930s. Not only did he [5]. Bruce Hutchison, Mr. Prime Minister, steer the ship of state away from impending disas‐ 1867-1964 (Toronto: Longmans, 1964), 237. ter, but he set a course for the future that led to [6]. Gordon Donaldson, Fifteen Men: Canada's growing economic prosperity and greater social Prime Ministers from Macdonald to Trudeau justice. Ultimately, then, our judgment on the val‐ (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1969), 141. ue of his biography will be determined by the skill with which he has made his case. Here Boyko is to [7]. Michael Bliss, Right Honourable Men: The be commended. The challenges facing Canadians Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to during the Great Depression are clearly described. Mulroney (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1994), 113.

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[8]. J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1999), 113. [9]. James H. Gray, R. B. Bennett: The Calgary Years (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991). [10]. P. B. Waite, The Loner: Three Sketches of the Personal Life and Ideas of R. B. Bennett, 1870-1947 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), xiii-xiv. [11]. Larry A. Glassford, Reaction and Reform: The Politics of the Conservative Party under R. B. Bennett, 1927-1938 (Toronto: University of Toron‐ to Press, 1992). [12]. P. B. Waite, In Search of R. B. Bennett (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012) [13]. Glassford, Reaction and Reform, 127. [14]. Gray, R. B. Bennett, ix; and Waite, The Loner, 73-81.

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Citation: Larry Glassford. Review of Boyko, John. Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation. H-Canada, H-Net Reviews. August, 2012.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=36639

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