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The Letters of Graham Spry (Re- Recommendations, However, Were Adopted Gina: Canadian Plains Research Only After Eighteen Months of Frantic Lobbying Centre 1992)

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The Letters of Graham Spry (Re- Recommendations, However, Were Adopted Gina: Canadian Plains Research Only After Eighteen Months of Frantic Lobbying Centre 1992) 168 left history unclear from this argument whether Hufton could make it past the Personnel Department. would agree that it was during the French One might add in this regard that being a Revolution that citizenship became based on socialist never helped either. Political activist the exclusion and subordination of women. Graham Spry's career is a case study in this One of the most interesting aspects of the sort of irony. As this book clearly demon- book is Hufton's discussion of the mythology strates, Spry was one of the most diligent, of women and their combined roles in the perceptive, and capable Canadians of the French Revolution. On the one hand, women twentieth century. Yet because of his political were viewed as dangerous. The Republican leanings and despite his accomplishments - fathers claimed that women's political asso- the greatest of which was persuading R.B. ciations and protests were inappropriate and Bennett's free-enterprise government to cre- unnatural and that thev should have been con- ate a nation-wide public broadcasting system tent with their domestic role as Republican - he remained penniless and unemployable mothers. Active female participation in the in Canada. He had no choice but to leave the Republic was rejected, their citizenship was country if he wanted to find work. "Here I never seriously considered, and in 1793 am," he wrote late in 1937, "the nationalist women's clubs were outlawed and attendance working for Americans and in England. And at Assembly meetings was prohibited. On the here I am the socialist serving the biggest of other hand, when women tried to retain their big business." connection to the church, one of the few areas Spry was born into a well-placed Ontario where they could be active on some level, military family in February 1900. He was functioning at appropriate levels of femininity gifted in many respects, not the leastof which (through charity work, teaching or socializ- was his ability to teach himself French. Lan- ing), they were immediately labelled "coun- guage remained a special interest, and throug- ter-revolutionary" and blamed for the failure hout his career he promoted harmonious of the Republic. Women during the revolu- relations between Canada's two main linguis- tionary period were in a terrible bind: try to tic groups. Awell-rounded student, he went to participate actively in the Republic and you Oxford in 1922 as Manitoba's Rhodes scholar were seen as a threat, don't participate and risk and there came under the same Fabian influ- being held responsible for the downfall of the ences as Frank Underhill, Eugene Forsey, and Republic. Women were viewed as violent pro- King Gordon (with whom he later wrote So- testors or religious fanatics; even as they were cial Planning for Canada). After university denied citizenship or permitted active partici- Spry went to work for the International La- pation they continue to be blamed for the bour Organization in Geneva and later the failure of the Republic. According to this logic Association of Canadian Clubs in Ottawa. As women risked being blamed for the backlash national secretary of the Association he against them. It is this mythology and legacy played a principal role in planning a coast-to- that Hufton claims kept women out of the coast radio broadcast for Canada's Diamond public, political sphere for so long in France Jubilee in 1927. He became fascinated with and that continues to have ramifications for radio's potential: in the right hands the me- women in the public sphere today. It is also dium could promote a sense of Canadian na- this discussion that I find most new and inter- tionhood; but in the wrong hands - those of esting about Hufton's book. private owners who would do anything for profit - it would degenerate into another Daniella Sarnoff vehicle for the spread of American culture and Boston College for "selling cakes of soap." The Aird Commis- sion on Radio Broadcasting (1929) later for- Rose Potvin, ed., Passion and Convic- mally suggested public radio for Canada. Its tion: The Letters of Graham Spry (Re- recommendations, however, were adopted gina: Canadian Plains Research only after eighteen months of frantic lobbying Centre 1992). by the Canadian Radio League (CRL) under the joint leadership of Spry and Alan Plaunt. Ever the cynic, Paul Goodman once stated Afterwards, Spry became immersed in the that, in all likelihood, few great men [sic] burgeoning socialist movements of the 1930s. Reviews 169 At one time his Toronto office was the point worst, this failing misrepresents much of his of convergence for the League for Social Re- most important work, namely the behind-the- contruction (LSR), the Cooperative Com- scenes lobbying he must have engaged in as monwealth Federation (CCF) of Ontario, part of his CRL activities. As well, the close Canadian Forum magazine, and the socialist relationship with his friend and colleague newspaper The New Commonwealth. Alan Plaunt appears here merely as sporadic As a biography-substitute, Passion and promissory notes between debtor and creditor. Conviction offers an informative and novel Quite simply the two men dined together view of the early days of the Ontario CCF, its nearly everyday during their radio campaign leadership problems, and the issues that were and therefore had little cause to describe their under discussion in the mid-1930s. Spry was activities in written form. one of the CCF's first candidates, running Throughout the book, Potvin attempts to (and losing) in a 1934 by-election. Unfortu- stress Spry's contentedness with his life and nately, none of his letters or notes deals with the absence of bitterness and remorse. How- this event or the 1935 general election, and ever, a tone of sadness pervades. She notes the therefore this important phase in Spry's life tragedy in the fact that what Spry wanted most andinCanadian political history is given short he never got: a chance to serve Canada in shrift. Further research would certainly show Canada. But clearly he did serve Canada in that there is much more to the story. But Potvin Canada. His work with the CRL shaped Ca- does provide a telling glimpse into the circle nadian broadcasting; several generations have of friends who founded the LSR and CCF out not entirely undone what Spry and Plaunt of a sense of disappointment when the "old accomplished in that busy year and a half. He idea of a left-wing Liberal party, so freely was also an important part of the generation promised in private conversations," failed to that brought Canadian socialism to bud. take shape. Her book is also the fullest and Knowing what we know about Spry's charac- most colourful account to date of the CRL's ter, it is likely that he held it all together thrifty and effective lobbying effort. through the difficult early years. However, Potvin came to write this book through her what is most clear from Passion and Convic- research on Canadian broadcast policy as well tion is that Spry represents a vanished type: a as a brief friendship she and Spry enjoyed late Canadian committed to public service, willing in his life. Shortly after his death in 1983, to work exceedingly hard for a better nation Irene Biss Spry asked Potvin to write her and not simply for personal advancement and husband's biography. But interviews with profit. This collection is a good start but a friends and colleagues and the nature of thorough and critical biography of Graham Spry's personal papers convinced Potvin "that Spry still awaits. the biographical form was not the best to tell Graham's story." She therefore decided to David Kirnmel craft it in the subject's own words. "My job," York University she writes, "was simply to select the material, put some order into it, and introduce it with Donald Harman Akenson, God? Peo- background information here and there." But ples: Covenant and Land in South Af- this approach does not always suffice. In ad- rica, Israel, and Ulster (Montreal and dition to letters, Spry wrotediaries, unfinished Kingston: McGill-Queen's Univer- memoirs, articles, speeches, and reports, all of sity Press 1992). which would further elucidate the story of his life. Potvin intermittently draws on these ad- Donald Akenson's latest book, God k Peoples, ditional sources, but her reliance on the corre- is timely, ambitious, and tough to review. The spondence is still too great. She herself author, who teaches history at Queen's Uni- acknowledges certain "glaring omissions" in- versity, admits as much at the outset: herent in collections of letters. For example, As even a glance at the table of contents absent from this "biography" is the inter- makes clear, this book is a study in analogi- change between family and friends as well as cal history. Either the reader will be con- others who, because of their physical near- vinced that the ancient Hebrews had a dis- ness, never exchanged letters with Spry. At its tinct and robust way of constructing their .
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