CANADS'S THIRD PARTY
Weaver, Robert L.
Canada's Third Party THE THIRD FORCE IN CANADA: The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. 1932-1948. by Dean E. McHenry. University of California Press. 351 pp. $3.50. Reviewed by Robert L....
...The outline of The Third Force in Canada is intelligent and clear...
...The CCF has won the support of one of the two major labor congresses, but it is not dominated by the unions...
...The CCF has made no headway in French Canada, and it is inconceivable that a party committed to social democracy could form a national government without substantial support from Quebec...
...It is a pity that Dean McHenry did not see fit to write more bluntly about such problems as these, especially since some reservations are in a rather curious way implied in certain parts of his book...
...The book shows very well what positive ingredients go to make up an organization of this type...
...The party has paid too little attention to foreign policy, and has done little to interest its members in leftist organizations other than the Labor Parties of the Commonwealth and Scandinavia...
...Reviewed by Robert L. Weaver THE WORK of an American social scientist...
...This is probably the only kind of moderate third party which would stand much chance of success in Canada or the United States...
...As a Canadian, I cannot help finding the circumstances of the book's publication rather sadly ironical, though of course this does not mean that I am any the less grateful for it...
...While the book is a scholarly study, it has been written with a minimum of footnotes and jargon and should certainly appeal to most laymen interested in politics...
...The Third Force in Canada has obviously been aimed primarily at an American audience...
...Then Dean McHenry describes the structure of the party organization, both at the national and the provincial levels...
...The Third Force in Canada, however, is unfortunately too optimistic a book, and McHenry has not been sufficiently outspoken about certain negative aspects of the CCF...
...At the same time, as a glance at its bibliography will show, it should also serve a useful purpose in Canada, where there has been a dearth of comprehensive material written about the CCF...
...The first chapter is a brief survey of the circumstances which led to the formation of the CCF...
...The CCF has a good record on civil liberties, in a country where civil liberties groups are not very effectively organized...
...The CCF has committed itself to a detailed program, but it has not become doctrinaire...
...On some issues (like the Atlantic Pact) CCF leaders have tried to choke off discussion within the party in an effort to save themselves from possible embarrassment...
...Towards the end of the book, McHenry describes the CCF as "a new progressive party, democratic in organization and aspiration, socialist in policy, and pragmatic in tactics...
...It has made headway in some rural areas...
...Its members in Parliament have made themselves widely respected, not least by virtue of the best attendance record in the house...
...outlines the role of the CCF in Parliament, and the part it has played in the various elections since 1932...
...devotes a chapter each to the CCF provincial government in Saskatchewan and to overall party policy, and, finally, assesses the CCF's future prospects...
...It is anti-Stalinist, and has done much to disprove the Stalinists' claims that they are legitimate representatives of the working class...
Vol. 14 • June 1950 • No. 6
