Quill & Quire
At first glance, there is something almost reassuringly Canadian about the fact that R.B. Bennett, who was prime minister during the worst years of the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1935, has mostly avoided the full-length biographical treatment. It plays into the notion that we are less in thrall to our political leaders than our American neighbours (or maybe our leaders are just less enthralling).
The real reason for the lack of a Bennett bio, which is explained early on in John Boyko’s mostly valiant effort, may be that Bennett burned his most interesting papers. Bennett, who is portrayed here as awkward and prudish, never married and had no children, so there are no heirs or grandchildren to speak to. As a result, the two most striking personal details Boyko mentions are the speculation that Bennett’s bachelorhood was the result of a painful medical condition affecting his genitalia, and that the portly Bennett ate a pound of chocolate crèmes almost every night.
Boyko has better luck taking the measure of the public figure, drawing on newspaper accounts of Bennett’s career, other details in the public record, and Bennett’s frequent correspondence with his boyhood friend, Max Aitken, better known as Lord Beaverbrook. The author tries, with considerable success, to build a case that the one-term prime minister is more significant to the country’s history than his limited legacy suggests.
The Conservative (who was actually more liberal, in modern terms, than Mackenzie King, his Liberal counterpart) was responsible, to varying degrees, for the creation of The Bank of Canada and the Canadian Radio Broadcast Commission, the forerunner to the CBC. Boyko’s attention to Bennett’s diligence and determination in creating these institutions is a good antidote to the “Bennett buggies” that most of us learned about in high school history classes.
At the same time, Boyko’s desire to burnish Bennett’s reputation leads to at least one disturbing conclusion. He contends that Bennett’s decision to violently crush the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek, which was mounted by striking workers protesting the conditions in federal relief camps, was ultimately correct, but offers little justification.
Still, Boyko’s Bennett remains a worthwhile contribution to the literature on our country’s political leaders.
Review
Praise for Into the Hurricane: Attacking Socialism and the CCF (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 2006): “Into the Hurricane is a brilliant and refreshing account of the troubling lengths to which power elites sought to suppress the CCF’s vision of a more equitable Canada.” - Jack Layton, Leader of Canada’s NDP.
“?a tremendous accomplishment which reflects pain-staking research and excellent writing?” - James Struther, Trent University “
? an intriguing book?a remarkable story..” - Ken Rockburn, Talk Politics, CPAC
“After reading his latest work?it becomes clear that Boyko could also make a living as a commentator on the current political climates of both Canada and the United States.” - Chris Kirkland, Planet S: Saskatoon’s City Magazine Praise for Last Steps to Freedom: The Evolution of Canadian Racism (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing, 1995 and reprinted in 1998).
“It is excellent?” - Boyce Richardson, Canadian Forum Praise for Politics: Conflict and Compromise (Oxford University Press, 1990)
“Offers an easy-to-read, informative introduction to various aspects of politics.” - Saskatchewan Education
Book Description
In the late 1920s, Canada’s economy was showing all the signs of a full-fledged depression. Life savings were evaporating, unemployment was up, and exports were dramatically down. Riding on the popularity of his promise to “blast” Canada’s way into world markets?and thus stop the economy’s downward spiral?Richard Bedford Bennett defeated William Lyon Mackenzie King at the polls on July 28, 1930, and assumed the leadership of the country. Over the next five years, however, Bennett’s name became synonymous with the worst of the depression?from Bennett buggies, to Bennett tea, to Bennett-burghs. Eighty years later, he is widely viewed as a difficult man, an ineffectual leader, and a politician who “flip-flopped” on his conservative beliefs in exchange for popularity.
In Bennett:?The Rebel Who Challenged a Nation?John Boyko offers not only the first major biography of the man, but a fresh perspective on the old scholarship. Boyko looks at the prime minister’s sometimes controversial and often misunderstood policies through a longer lens, one that shows not a politician angling for votes, but rather a man following through on a life-long dedication to a greater role for government in society and the economy. It is easy to understand why Bennett has been so misunderstood. It is not often, after all, that a conservative prime minister finds himself to the left of his liberal opposition, but that it exactly where Bennett landed. Bennett’s New Deal?a series of proposals that included unemployment insurance; the establishment of a minimum wage and limits on work hours; an extension of federally backed farm credit; fair-trade and anti-monopoly legislation; and a revamped Wheat Board to oversee and control grain prices?was certainly a departure from the conservative politics of the day. The same could be said for his creation of the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission. Citing primary and secondary source research, Boyko effectively argues that Bennett’s achievements were not a departure at all, but rather consistent with the beliefs he held for most of his life. Boyko explores the origins and hardening of those beliefs as he details Bennett’s birth (into relative poverty) in Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, his stunning success as a corporate lawyer and financial entrepreneur in Calgary, his years in politics, and his eventual retirement in England. As he ranges through the ups and downs of his subject’s career, Boyko also invites his reader to compare the challenges faced by Bennett to those faced in Canada’s more recent history: the threat of coalitions, parliaments being prorogued, and governors general being asked to decide the fate of the nation. Nearly every other Canadian prime minister finds his or her way into the analysis, with Bennett’s beliefs and actions measured against theirs. The result is a political biography as current as today’s headline. Meticulously researched and well told,?Bennett:?The Rebel Who Challenged a Nation?stands among other first-class biographies of this country’s political greats. As Canada faces its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Bennett’s is a life and a career that deserves contemplation.
