COMPTES RENDUS the Life and Times of Dalton Camp
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James Ferrabee COMPTES RENDUS The life and times of Dalton Camp Geoffrey Stevens, The Player: The Life and Times of Dalton Camp, Toronto, Key Porter Books, 2003. Review by James Ferrabee n the mid-1950s there was little dian politics on the provincial and For the next 30 years he was an observ- hope a Conservative Government federal scene. er rather than a participant, turning to I would or could be elected in In all, Camp watched over and writing columns for the Toronto Star Ottawa. By 1955, the Liberals had directed 28 elections. His helped create and participating in debates about pol- ruled with little effective opposition and fertilize several Tory dynasties on itics on TV, radio and in public debates. for 20 years. It felt like 40 years. Who the provincial scene, including Robert He was, in short, “a player” which is was going to stop them? Stanfield’s in Nova Scotia (11 years), also the title of Geoffrey Stevens superbly At universities, Canadian history Richard Hatfield’s in New Brunswick (16 researched and cogently written biogra- texts read like a slightly revised ver- years), William Davis’ in Ontario (14 phy of Camp. Not everyone, including sion of the history of the Liberal Party. years) and Duff Roblin’s in Manitoba (11 many who were deeply involved in poli- No one found that strange. The pre- years). He helped direct John Diefenbak- tics in the 1960s and 1970s, will want to eminent historian was A.R.M. Lower er’s campaigns in 1957, 1958, 1962 and read it. Camp’s name still evokes curses of Queen’s University, the author of 1963, before becoming president of the from those who will never forgive him the definitive book on Canadian his- Progressive Conservative Party of Cana- for stabbing “Dief the Chief.” Camp was tory, Colony to Nation. It was clear, da, from which post he forced Diefen- sensitive to those feelings until the end of even to unsophisticated undergradu- baker’s resignation in 1966. The bloody life, only 18 months ago. ates reading Lower, that prosperity beheading profoundly changed Canadi- was equated with the Liberals in an politics. From then on, party leaders tevens recounts a life in politics but power. Tory governments, on the in Canada were periodically obliged to S also an extraordinary life outside pol- other hand, brought misery. test their leadership at a party conven- itics. Camp covered a wide canvas in his Along came Dalton Camp, who tion, usually after a general election. It public and private lives. The radio debate had spent his formative years in the was a large step forward in democratiz- with Eric Kierans and Stephen Lewis on United States and his university years ing political parties. Peter Gzowski’s Morningside every in Canada as a Liberal. One of his “Any public man ought to be Tuesday morning in the 1980s and early first jobs in politics was to work on accountable, first to his conscience, 1990s became one of the most popular the re-election of the McNair Liberal and, of course, he must be accountable segments on CBC radio. government in New Brunswick in to his country, but in the course of his “It was unlike any other political 1948. His second job was to work for duty, he must accept his responsibility panel on radio or television, then or the defeat of the McNair government to his party,” Camp said in a major now,” says Stevens. “There was no by Conservative Hugh John Flem- speech to the Empire Club in Toronto shouting, no partisan posturing and ming in 1952. He was on the winning just before the fateful party meeting. It no pompous banalities. The three pan- side both times. In the next 40 years, was the high point of Camp’s last pub- elists demonstrated that intelligent he engineered tidal changes in Cana- lic involvement in politics, and his last. discourse and informed opinion, vig- 112 OPTIONS POLITIQUES DÉCEMBRE 2003 – JANVIER 2004 The life and times of Dalton Camp BOOK REVIEWS orously expressed, do have a place on serve as a tour through the years attracted scores of previously uncommit- the airwaves of the nation.” 1952 to 2002 in Canadian politics. ted young people who became involved Camp was a loner, as Stevens Stevens catches the flavour of the in public life because he made them points out. His favourite song was “My times — even if it often is a bitter believe that they, too, could make a dif- Way,” by Frank Sinatra, and he lived flavour — because he lived and ference. In the process he raised the level that song. To the astonishment of his worked through it as a journalist and of politics in Canada.” That is quite an friends and his grown up family, he left commentator himself. achievement, which even his political his first wife in the 1970s and acquired Camp never made it to the top opponents would not deny. a second wife, by whom he had a sixth rung, though he harboured ambitions child. There were other women and to be prime minister himself. But he James Ferrabee covered Canadian politics every detail of these relationships is had an abiding influence on Canadian through the 1960s, 1970s and part of chronicled by Stevens — sometimes politics nonetheless. For a start, he the 1980s for Southam News. He is con- more than one wants. revived the Conservative Party as a tributing editor of Policy Options. The end result, though, is an viable and credible political force in [email protected] His on-line column illuminating biography that could Canada. And, as Stevens put it, “He appears monthly at www.irpp.org Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. Review by Leigh Turner ccording to Robert Kagan, engage in unilateral actions against The opening words of Kagan’s Americans and Europeans have “rogue states,” remains inside a violent, work capture the core message of his A travelled divergent roads since anarchic Hobbesian world. If the Cold book. Europe, he insists, seeks to the collapse of the Soviet Union and War was an era when “the West” held inhabit the paradisiacal realm of a cos- the establishment of the European together, integrated in part by a com- mopolitan, liberal-democratic order Union. Europe, Kagan argues, has mon ideological opponent and military governed by treaties, deliberative bod- emerged into a political paradise much threat, the post-Cold War era witnessed ies, and international law. The US, in like the stable, civilized world order of a profound rift in the “transatlantic contrast, the only hyperpower capable perpetual peace envisioned by alliance” between the United States and of waging war in almost any setting Immanuel Kant. America, in contrast, Europe. Kagan writes that “on major and on numerous fronts simultaneous- with its massive defense budget, capac- strategic and international questions ly, plays the sheriff outside paradise in ity to launch military operations today, Americans are from Mars and the unruly Wild West of rogue states around the world, and willingness to Europeans are from Venus.” unwilling to submit to international POLICY OPTIONS 113 DECEMBER 2003 – JANUARY 2004.