George A. Drew's Anti-Communist Tour of the USSR and The
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Document generated on 09/25/2021 2:34 p.m. Ontario History ‘No Sense of Reality’ George A. Drew’s Anti-Communist Tour of the USSR and the Campaign for Coalition Government in Ontario, 1937 Kirk Niergarth Volume 107, Number 2, Fall 2015 Article abstract In 1936 George Drew, future Premier of Ontario, was greatly concerned that a URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050636ar false and very dangerous impression of the Russian experiment in government DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050636ar was being spread in Ontario. So he traveled to Russia in 1937 where he confirmed his preconceived ideas with first-hand observation. For him, See table of contents toleration of domestic communism could lead either to the horrors of Stalin’s USSR or to the fascism of Hitler or Mussolini. Canada’s best option, he felt, was to follow Britain in ending partisan politics and establishing a “National Publisher(s) Government.” Thus, in the 1930s, he worked, unsuccessfully, to create coalition governments in Toronto and Ottawa. This article concludes that the lens The Ontario Historical Society through which Drew viewed the USSR can be reversed to gain insight into the Canadian political culture of which he was a part. The right-wing solutions that ISSN Drew advocated were conveyed to the public through international comparison and analogy based on Drew’s eye-witness account of his European 0030-2953 (print) tour. 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Niergarth, K. (2015). ‘No Sense of Reality’: George A. Drew’s Anti-Communist Tour of the USSR and the Campaign for Coalition Government in Ontario, 1937. Ontario History, 107(2), 213–239. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050636ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2015 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 213 ‘No Sense of Reality’ George A. Drew’s Anti- Communist Tour of the USSR and the Campaign for Coalition Government in Ontario, 1937 by Kirk Niergarth hen George Drew returned for historians what Drew actually saw in from the Soviet Union in the Soviet Union may be less signicant 1937, he pledged to tell Ca- than what he said he had seen. Wnadians the truth about the reality of Drew’s travelogue, which was given a conditions in the USSR. In the context great deal of space and attention in the of tours of the Soviet Union in the 1930s, press, used international circumstances, however, “reality” and “truth” were oat- comparisons, and analogies to advocate ing signiers. Hindsight has revealed that for right-wing policies in Canada. In the substance of George Drew’s eyewit- Drew’s eyes, the Soviet Union was the ness critique of Stalin’s USSR was sub- greatest threat to world peace: Canada stantially correct. Yet, as we shall see, the should re-arm to support Great Britain, then-future premier of Ontario’s reports which might be wise to ally with fascist about his tour are in several respects less Italy and Germany to resist the Soviet creditable than those of more sympa- menace. Domestically, unchecked com- thetic travellers, who, we can see in retro- munism endangered Canadian liberties. spect, conveyed fundamentally mistaken To meet this threat, inspired by Britain’s ideas about life in the Soviet Union. Is “National Government,” Drew advo- accurately describing an illusory experi- cated the merger of Ontario’s Conserva- ence more honest than dissembling to tive and Liberal parties. Parliamentary describe something true? Moral philoso- democracy would be preserved by turn- phers might pause over this question, but ing Ontario, essentially, into a one-party Ontario History / Volume CVII, No. 2 / Autumn 2015 OH autumn 2015.indd 213 08/09/2015 10:21:32 PM 214 ONTARIO HISTORY Abstract In 1936 George Drew, future Premier of Ontario, was greatly concerned that a false and very dangerous impression of the Russian experiment in goernment was being spread in Ontario. So he traveled to Russia in 1937 where he conrmed his preconceived ideas with rst-hand observation. For him, toleration of domestic communism could lead either to the horrors of Stalin’s USSR or to the fascism of Hitler or Mussolini. Canada’s best option, he felt, was to follow Britain in ending partisan politics and establishing a “National Goernment.” us, in the 1930s, he worked, unsuccessfully, to create coalition goernments in Toronto and Ottawa. is article concludes that the lens through which Drew viewed the USSR can be reversed to gain insight into the Canadian political culture of which he was a part. e right-wing solutions that Drew advocated were coneyed to the public through interna- tional comparison and analogy based on Drew’s eye-witness account of his European tour. Résumé: En 1936, bien avant de devenir premier ministre de l’Ontario, George Drew était fort préoccupé par le sentiment qui se répandait en Ontario eners le système expérimen- tal du gouvernement russe. Craignant la fausseté et les dangers potentiels de cette idéologie, il eectua, en 1937, un oyage en Russie, lors duquel il conrma ses appréhensions. Selon lui, la tolérance du communisme domestique pouvait mener soit aux horreurs de l’URSS de Staline, soit au fascisme d’Hitler et de Mussolini. La meilleure option pour le Canada était d’imiter la Grande-Bretagne et de mettre n aux politiques partisanes pour établir un « gouvernement national ». Il tenta donc, à la n des années 30, de créer un gouvernement de coalition à Toronto et à Ottawa, mais sans succès. Les solutions de droite de Drew étaient transmises au public par les comparaisons et les analogies internationales basées sur sa pro- pre expérience lors de sa tournée européenne. Cet article conclut qu’en examinant l’attitude de Drew eners L’URSS, il est possible de mieux comprendre le climat politique canadien auquel il appartenait. state. Ottawa might then follow suit. If to create coalition governments feder- eliminating competition between politi- ally and provincially.1 As part of this cal parties seems, from the perspective of campaign, Drew’s travelogue reected the present, a strange way to oppose Sta- political ideas he had developed before linist Communism, Drew was far from he departed on his trip. For Drew, as it the only proponent of the idea. In the was for many western visitors, a visit to 1930s, he was only one of a number of the USSR only amplied but did not al- inuential political and business leaders ter the ideological trajectory of a political who actively, if unsuccessfully, worked journey begun at home. e lens through 1 is campaign gathered momentum in 1934, driven principally by Edward Beatty of the CPR, but was closest to achieving success in Ontario in 1937. See Don Nerbas, Dominion of Capital: e Politics of Big Business and the Crisis of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, 1914-1947 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013): 105-106, 135-47, 196-98. See also, John T. Saywell, ‘Just Call Me Mitch’: e Life of Mitchell F. Hepburn (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 329-32, 341-43. OH autumn 2015.indd 214 08/09/2015 10:21:32 PM george a. drew’s anti-communist tour 215 which Drew viewed the Soviet Union al Organization [CIO] gained members can be reversed to gain insight into the in Ontario. He urged authorities to “take Canadian political culture of which he an uncompromising stand against the was a part. inroads of an organization which is an What led a conservative, anti-com- exact counterpart of the Soviet in Russia munist such as George Drew to visit the and is directed by men who have actually USSR? In 1930s Canada, the Soviet Un- gone to Russia to study their organiza- ion was the subject of much debate, a de- tion methods.”3 In July 1937, Drew de- bate in which those who had visited the cided to undertake his own travel study USSR spoke with special authority. e in the USSR. Apparently, his experience success or failure of communism in the matched his expectations perfectly and USSR mattered to both those on the Le completely. He returned having wit- and on the Right for reasons less connect- nessed rsthand the failure of the Soviet ed to international relations than to do- experiment. “In a nutshell,” he wrote to a mestic political possibilities. What rami- friend, “I doubt if ever since Man le the cations did the Soviet experience—in cave state has civilization been reduced terms, for example, of state planning, so- to such an appalling condition.”4 cial security, and gender equality—have A signicant number of Canadians for Canada? In February 1936, writing were among the roughly 100,000 inter- to another supporter of “National Gov- war international visitors to the USSR ernment,” CPR president Edward Beatty, who attempted to read the results of Drew explained that he was “greatly con- the “Great Experiment” with their own cerned about the eect of the attitude of eyes.5 Drew’s hostility to the USSR—be- papers like the Toronto Daily Star which fore, during and aer his journey there— are giving a false and what may conceiv- dierentiates him from the majority of ably be a very dangerous impression of visitors from Western nations who were the Russian experiment.”2 A year later, most oen, at least initially, sympathetic Drew had progressed from concern to to or curious about “actually existing alarm when the Committee for Industri- Communism.”6 Historians who have 2 Library and Archives Canada, George Alexander Drew Fonds, MG 32 C3 [Drew Papers] V.23, F.88, “Beatty, Sir Edward, President CPR,” Drew to Beatty, 23 February 1936.