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The Diefenbaker Moment by Cara Spittal a Thesis Submitted In The Diefenbaker Moment By Cara Spittal A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Cara Spittal (2011) Abstract Cara Spittal The Diefenbaker Moment University of Toronto Graduate Department of History For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 This thesis locates John G. Diefenbaker’s electoral triumphs in the general elections of 1957 and 1958 and his subsequent world tour within the context of the revival of Conservative nationalism in the postwar period. To make his case against a Liberal government that had been in power for twenty-two years, Diefenbaker had to engage the public in a response to political events based on an appreciation of an abstract and not quite palpable threat to democracy and a national way of life. He did so by harnessing the persuasive techniques of public relations and the new medium of television—a powerful combination that Diefenbaker knew could most effectively tell and sell a national narrative. The signature he settled on was the “New National Policy.” The choice harkened back to a discourse of Conservative nationalism that spoke of the antiquity of his party ideology and rediscovered the heroes who founded the nation. The “New National Policy” was a therapeutic ethos designed to assuage voters’ fears about mass consumption, continentalism, communism, and the end of empire: it ensured that the greatness of events and men of the past could guarantee the ideas and values of the present; it was gendered in its construction of patriotic manhood, exalted motherhood, and icons of nationalist ideology; it was transnational in scope; it told of a relation of cause-and-effect that resembled a theory of history more than a blueprint for public policy; it was fashioned to disarm critical analysis because it conformed to the structures and traditions of storytelling and the clichés of historical memory. ii This thesis makes three interrelated arguments. First, it argues that the systems of values and meanings on which Diefenbaker drew cannot be understood by analyzing his personal foibles or tracing his rise and fall through a series of events. Partisan narratives are built out of the dialectical interchange between warring political ideologies and are stories fitted to character, circumstance, and experience. Second, it suggests that Diefenbaker was a transitional figure whose vision, message, leadership style, and public relations campaign seemed to best fit the barely discernable dimensions of the political and cultural change of the immediate postwar decades. Finally, by examining resurgence of Conservative nationalism in the context of imperial decline, it seeks to show that partisan narratives in English Canada in the 1960s cannot be understood outside of the larger transnational contexts in which they emerged. iii To my parents JOAN AND PAUL SPITTAL iv Acknowledgments It must be said that I have spent long hours babbling about “the Diefenbaker Moment” to more than a few weary listeners. Friends and family have listened patiently, colleagues have offered advice, and librarians and archivists have handed me wonderful, dusty books. To all I am deeply grateful. For teaching me the craft of history I thank Robert Bothwell, whose patience and perseverance, keen advice and kind words have helped me beyond measure. I could have asked for no better mentor. For pouring over these pages and telling it to me straight, I would like to thank Steve Penfold, Margaret MacMillan, and Norman Hillmer. Although he retired well before I finished the project, Paul Rutherford’s comments have shaped it from beginning to end. A special thanks must also go out to the Larkin Group—Alison Norman, Susana Miranda, Denis McKim, Nathan Smith, and Ariel Beaujot—for reading and commenting on my work in its earlier forms. I am very appreciative of friends and colleagues who have read the conference papers and workshop material that helped shape this project and whose criticism has helped me immensely: Julie Gilmour, Adam Chapnick, Janine Rivière, Jen Polk, Pete Vronsky, Daniel Macfarlane, Shirley Tillotson, Janet Guildford, Heather Metcalfe, and Stu Henderson. I must also thank the Toronto Area Women’s History Group for their friendly advice and encouragement and for pushing me to figure out how to write about gender. I owe a great deal to Keith Hart for letting me use his office at the “CBC Archives” and to Ira Basen for taking the time to share with me his research and expertise. Thanks to Doug Vaisey at Saint Mary’s University for locating the most obscure and difficult to find references. While I visited archives across Canada and in Britain researching Diefenbaker and his times, I must thank the staff at the Diefenbaker Canada Centre, in particular. Thank you, Rob Paul, for helping me dig up great material and then figuring out where it came from when I forgot to record all of the reference numbers. I am indebted to my interview subjects for taking time out of their busy schedules to help me present a fuller picture of Diefenbaker and the immediate postwar period. Conducting the interviews was both fun and instructive—thanks especially to Minister Marjorie LeBreton for the friendly encouragement and the root beer; Preston Manning for showing me the emotional and tribal aspects of partisanship; and Joe Clark, Flora MacDonald, Senator Hugh Segal, Duff Roblin, Tom Kent, Pat MacAdam, and Peter C. Newman for answering my follow-up emails. Before I was able to complete this project, one of my most lively subjects, Doug Fisher, passed away on 18 September 2009. This project would not have happened without him and all other witnesses to “the Diefenbaker Moment.” Financial support for a doctoral dissertation means a great deal. This project was funded in part by fellowships and scholarships from the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). I would like to thank the friends whose care has sustained me along the way. I have thanked them before and will surely thank them again. They have helped me to see sense where it is to be seen and to know nonsense for what it is: Alana Samson, Ola Szczecinska, Christina Harrison, Betty Little, Yen Tran, Aldona Wiacek, and Sarah Amato. Special thanks must be extended to my brother, Robert, and Gran and Buddy. I also thank my parents, Joan and Paul Spittal, to whom this project is dedicated. They have supported me v emotionally and financially, and I only wish I could thank them better. Finally, I thank Bobby (Physics) Adamson, for all those things that matter most. vi Table of Contents Abstract ii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Introduction: The Diefenbaker Moment 1 1: Nation, History, and Narrative: The Origins of Conservatism 18 and Liberalism in English Canada 2: Tories versus Grits: Myth and Ideological Style 58 3: Selling the Drama: Diefenbaker and the Politics of Persuasion 101 4: Destination “One Canada”: Myth, Ideology, and Conservatism 145 on the New Frontier 5: Conservative Womanhood: Feminism, Conservatism, 203 and “the Diefenbaker Moment” 6: Diefenbaker and the “New Commonwealth” 245 Conclusion 300 Bibliography 316 vii Introduction—The Diefenbaker Moment There is a memo buried deep in John G. Diefenbaker’s private papers, no doubt written on his whistle-stop tour of Canada during the federal election of 1957, which I have kept constantly in mind from the beginning of my research into his life and times. Diefenbaker was known for assembling and reading speeches from loose leaf scraps of paper that he crammed into file folders and pulled out at the last minute, depending on the mood of the crowd. 1 On some bits of paper there were quotations attributed to Edmund Burke on history, tradition, and the moral moorings of “the good society.” On others there were statistics about the extent to which wheat farmers were struggling to make a living in the Prairies. Yet the memo entitled “Colony or Nation?” was marked by a striking sense of urgency, as if the nation’s very existence hinged on the delivery of its contents. 2 There is good reason to believe that the contents of the memo were recycled hundreds of times as Diefenbaker crisscrossed the country delivering one barn-burning speech after another. By the late 1950s, the Liberal party was being attacked from both sides of the political spectrum for its “laissez-faire” policies of economic integration with the United States and what many viewed as a cunning strategy to slowly expunge Canada’s Commonwealth ties. The Liberals were being criticized, too, for being the kind of technocratic managers who were willing to bypass the parliamentary process in order to implement their continentalist agenda. 3 Sensing a turn in the tide that would embrace Conservative nationalism, Diefenbaker sought to re-polarize politics along ideological lines. “I have spoken of our New National Policy and our heritage,” he 1 For first-hand accounts of Diefenbaker’s speak-making techniques, see Dick Spencer, Trumpets and Drums (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 1994), pp. 1-3; Dalton Camp, Gentlemen, Players, and Politicians (Toronto: Deneau and Greenberg, 1970), 188; Thomas Van Dusen, The Chief (Russell, ON.: Castor Publishing, 1968), 10; Interviews with Dick Spencer, 24 May 2007 and Tom Van Dusen, 4 December 2006. 2 “Colony or Nation”: JGDP MG 01/XII/A/380.2. 3 For example, see Eugene Forsey, “Creeping Republicanism,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Talks and Public Affairs, 14 January 1955: Glenbow: M1744; Robert Bothwell’s interview with Walter Gordon 3 February 1977: U of T Archives B1979-005/002; Peter Stursberg’s interview with Merril Menzies, 24 January 1974: LAC MG 31/D 78/Vol.
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