Book Description

This important new study in Canadian politics discusses the role of socialism in Canada. By means of comparison between the English-Canadian and the American political importance of socialism in Canada than the United States. In this section Louis Hartz's theory of "fragment" cultures is carried forward and applied to Canada. The remainder of the book is devoted to a detailed historical study of the relationship between the labour movement and the socialist parties in Canada. It starts in the early years of the century and follows the story through to its significant conclusion—the support (and formation) by many Canadian unions of a labour party. The brilliant analysis of Canadian politics in Hartzian terms restores ideology to a place in our political culture, and the meticulous, objective recounting of labour's involved in the formation of the NDP is a timely and valuable contribution to our limited understanding of how Canadian political parties "live and move and have their being." The main sources used by the author were correspondence, minutes, and other materials in the files of the NDP and the Canadian Labour Congress, and personal interviews with labour leaders and socialist politicians. (Studies in the Structure of Power: Decision Making in Canada No. 4.)