BOOK REVIEW COMPTE RENDU Social Democracy in Saskatchewan: Tommy Douglas and the Prairie Revolution
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BOOK REVIEW COMPTE RENDU Social democracy in Saskatchewan: Tommy Douglas and the Prairie revolution A.W. Johnson assisted by Rosemary Proctor. Dream No Little Dreams: A Biography of the Douglas Government of Saskatchewan, 1944-1961. Toronto: Institute of Public Administration of Canada and the University of Toronto Press, 2004. Review by Desmond Morton ack in the 1980s, almost a quar- David Peterson called a snap election power in Ottawa? Rae and his candi- te r - c e n t u r y after I had aban- for September 6, 1990. Having rid dates had keynoted the pain that trou- B doned a fledgling career in the themselves of the Tories and learned bled enough voters to give the NDP a staff of the Ontario NDP for the securi- that Ontario Liberals brought no skill to ma j o r i t y . As a result, Rae’s new govern- ty and marginal relevance of academe, I the art of governing in hard times, a ment inherited a province with soaring suggested to some former colleagues surprising number of voters turned to unemployment, an unexpected deficit, that New Democrats might be interest- the NDP. Instead of retiring to private and the worst depression since the ed in studying the processes of govern- life after another widely predicted 1930s. Unfortunately, Rae’s new regime ment on the off-chance that they might defeat, Bob Rae found himself the was so busy puzzling over the govern- actually win the power they had pur- leader of a 74-person caucus, the first ment machinery they had unexpected- portedly been seeking since the party third-party government since the ly inherited that they had little energy was reorganized from the CCF in 1961. United Farmers won Ontario in 1919. A left over to do much with it. By the The suggestion was badly received. smart and self-confident politician who time they did, it was too late. I was firmly reminded that evidence had grown up in a civil service family, Hidden wherever Harvard Univer- that New Democrats were actually plan- Rae was not nearly as astonished by his sity keeps old dissertations was a docu- ning to become a government must be position as the scores of NDP candi- ment which just might have saved the electorally disastrous. Back in 1971, dates who had expected to return to Rae government. In Dream no Little when Stephen Lewis had led the their classrooms, nursing stations and Dreams, now published in a new, Ontario NDP, he had been billed in a union offices and who now found expanded and enhanced version, Al leaflet as a potential premier. The docu- themselves transformed into full-time Johnson explained how Saskatchewan’s ment had then greatly eased the labours politicians and even ministers. social democratic provincial govern- of fundraisers for Ontario’s seemingly- ment achieved a social revolution permanent Tor y government. The possi- he one certainty facing any new despite far worse circumstances than bility of socialists running Canada’s T government, especially one with a Bob Rae faced in 1990s Ontario. If there richest province, however inconceivable radical image, is that the promised land is a book of the year in Canadian public by any contemporary polling results, is unlikely to flow with milk and honey. policy history, this is the likely winner. opened corporate and private cheque Ontario voters had defeated the Liberals books with gratifying speed. The lesson because they were hurting. Premier hen the Co-operative was learned. If the NDP was to win, it Peterson, preoccupied with constitu- W Commonwealth Federation or must come as a complete surprise. tional blueprints, had apparently not CCF swept Saskatchewan on June 15, Indeed it did. Only a year or so noticed. As for Ontario Tories, how 1944, with 53.5 percent of the popular after I had withdrawn my suggestion, could they when Brian Mulroney held vote and 47 of 52 seats in the POLICY OPTIONS 89 JUNE-JULY 2004 Desmond Morton COMPTE RENDU legislature, the triumph could easily of the furious, continent-wide resist- — were not continued. Oil and gas have doomed the democratic left in ance of the medical profession. Wit h exploration, over some CCF objections, Canada. Saskatchewan was then the even greater originality, Saskatchewan were left to free enterprise. Public poorest province in Confederation in became the world pioneer of govern- enterprise was plainly never going to 1944. Its public service, untrained and ment-run, universal auto insurance, produce the profits to finance social selected by party patronage, had nei- sold with the annual registration plates. programs. Other accomplishments, ther taste nor talent for innovation. If While CCF politicians and from education to rural electrification, a government’s solvency is measured Saskatchewan’s own people share a took time and patience. So did the evo- by whether it can market its bonds, substantial part of the credit, Al lution of a professional and highly Saskatchewan was broke. The province Johnson explains the role of govern- competent public service. Part of that owed Ottawa for seed grain supplied ment, whether ministers, career civil process was the education leave at H a rvard that allowed Hidden wherever Harvard University keeps old dissertations Johnson to produce the ear- was a document which just might have saved the Rae lier version of this book. government. In Dream no Little Dreams, now published in a That interlude prepared new, expanded and enhanced version, Al Johnson explained Johnson for his role in the CC F ’ s climactic struggle for how Saskatchewan’s social democratic provincial government universal health insurance, achieved a social revolution despite far worse circumstances described here from an than Bob Rae faced in 1990s Ontario. If there is a book of the in s i d e r ’ s perspective. year in Canadian public policy history, this is the likely winner. Critics will complain that Johnson is too close to after the 1937 drought killed the servants or young men and women his subject and too close to Douglas wheat crop. Mackenzie King had cut like himself, drawn to a remote, and the CCF to be a critic of their style Saskatchewan some slack as long as it impoverished Canadian province to of government. His book may not voted Liberal; with the CCF in power, fulfil their own radical ideals. Growing commend itself to Danny Williams in Ottawa simply held the province’s up in Regina in the 1940s, I remember Newfoundland, Gordon Campbell in transfer payments. Yet the CCF had George Cadbury or Morris British Columbia or Jean Charest’s campaigned on a detailed program of S h u m i a t c h e r, chiefly because they Liberals in Quebec City. Even there, often costly and controversial reforms. were regularly reviled in the Leader Post however, Johnson’s description of how The stage was set for the kind of bitter and at Liberal rallies in the armouries to move a government in a fresh direc- disappointment that Canadian voters across from our house. Johnson tion has relevance, enriched by Al these days experience all too often. describes Cadbury ’s contribution to Johnson’s lifetime experience in both Instead, with no particular magic the Economic and Advisory Planning Ottawa and Regina. Dream No Little beyond Premier T.C. Douglas’s inspira- Board, or EAPB, the researc h - b a s e d Dreams will not be the last word on tional optimism and the solid core of prairie prag- With no particular magic beyond Premier T.C. Douglas’s matism that permeated inspirational optimism and the solid core of prairie pragmatism the cabinet, caucus and the CCF cadres, that permeated the cabinet, caucus and the CCF cadres, Sa s k a t c h e w a n ’ s CCF gov- Saskatchewan’s CCF government survived for twenty ernment survived for remarkably innovative years. twenty remarkably inno- vative years. Except in its first term it guide for Douglas and his Cabinet and S a s k a t c h e w a n ’s experience of social faced an active opposition and unend- the major check on Joe Phelps, his rad- democracy, but nowhere to date have ing criticism from the province’s daily ical and sometimes uncontrollable more complex questions found clearer newspapers. Never a “have” province, minister of natural resources, and or more persuasive answers. Saskatchewan pioneered universal hos- S h u m i a t c h e r ’s role in giving pital insurance in the CCF’s first four- Saskatchewan a pioneering Human Saskatchewan native Desmond Morton, a year term. Building on free care for Rights Act. graduate of NDP back rooms, is the tu b e r culosis and mental illness, with founding director of the McGill Institute specific experience of universal health ver time, the CCF grew less radi- for the Study of Canada and Hiram Mills insurance in the Swift Current district, O cal. Early experiments with pub- Professor of History at McGill University. Douglas and his successor, Woo d r o w lic ownership — a box factory, a He is the author of 36 books. Lloyd, pioneered Medicare in the face woollen mill, a sodium sulphate plant [email protected] 90 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2004.