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75-568: During the spring 1945 Ontario election , Premier George Drew ran an anti-Semitic , union bashing, Red-baiting campaign against the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation 's Ontario section (CCF). The previous two-years of anti-socialist attacks by the Conservatives and their supporters, like Gladstone Murray and Montague A. Sanderson, were devastatingly effective against the previously popular CCF. Much of

150-683: A Rhodes Scholarship during his first year at law school. The interviews for the Quebec representative were conducted in Montreal. The examining board included the then-president of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), Sir Edward Beatty . In response to a question about what he would do if he became prime minister, Lewis stated that he would nationalize the CPR. Despite this answer and his socialist views in general, his responses to

225-539: A Jewish Communist candidate. Whatever his reasons, he was soundly defeated. In the 1949 federal election , Lewis ran again in the Hamilton area, in the riding of Wentworth . He lost again, placing a relatively distant third. The 1945 defeats were partially the result of an alliance between the Liberals and the communist Labor–Progressive Party (LPP). The LPP focused in on CCF-held seats, deliberately splitting

300-540: A fair rate of return, and to make its contribution to the nation's wealth." This resolution allowed for a mixed-economy that left most jobs in the private sphere. Lewis did not share the desire of some members to keep the CCF "ideologically pure", and adhered to the Bundist belief that "it was better to go along with the masses in a not totally correct direction than to separate oneself from them and remain 'purist'." However,

375-492: A false thing even if, in the abstract, it is true ... When, in heaven's name are we going to learn that working-class politics and the struggle for power are not a Sunday-school class where the purity of godliness and the infallibility of the Bible must be held up without fear of consequences." David Lewis was the party's "heavy", which did not help his popularity among CCF members, but after witnessing what he considered to be

450-437: A government. Cripps, then a prominent barrister and Labour Party official, was grooming Lewis to be Prime Minister . Lewis's other choice was to return to Montreal and help build the fledgling Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), with no guarantee of success. A personal note from J. S. Woodsworth , dated June 19, 1935, asked Lewis to take this latter option; in the end, he did. Besides his political involvement, Lewis

525-488: A greater understanding of the Soviet Union; throughout his career, he would attack communism, but would always have sympathy for the 1917 revolutionaries. Also at McGill, Lewis met and worked with prominent Canadian socialists like F. R. Scott , Eugene Forsey , J. King Gordon , and Frank Underhill . He would work with all of them again in the 1940s and 50s in the CCF. With Scott's encouragement, Lewis applied for

600-613: A long time, he died in Ottawa in 1981. Lewis's politics were heavily influenced by the Jewish Labour Bund , which contributed to his support of parliamentary democracy . He was an avowed anti-communist , and while a Rhodes Scholar prevented communist domination of the Oxford University Labour Club . In Canada, he played a major role in removing communist influence from the labour movement . In

675-557: A member of the Union's Library Committee on March 9, 1933, and its treasurer in March 1934. After two failed attempts, he was narrowly elected president in late November 1934. He was president during the Hilary term , from the beginning of January until the end of April 1935. The Isis commented that "... David Lewis ... will be, beyond question, the least Oxonian person ever to the lead

750-662: A part in converting me to socialism. When Lewis came to Oxford, the Labour Club was a tame organization adhering to Christian activism , or genteel socialist theories like those expressed by R.H. Tawney in his book The Acquisitive Society . Lewis's modified Bundist interpretation of Marxism, which Smith labels "Parliamentary Marxism", ignited renewed interest in the club after the disappointment of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government . The Oxford newspaper Isis noted Lewis's leadership ability at this early stage in his career. In its February 7, 1934, issue, while Lewis

825-416: A party. An anti-Communist at a time when Canadian Communists were about to enter their heyday. A publicist seeking a unified voice for a party riven with dissent. An organizer whose leader, J.S. Woodsworth, really didn't believe in the organization, thinking that the CCF should remain a loosely knit, co-operative association and believed this so implicitly that when it came time to appoint Lewis full-time to

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900-452: A political mentor. Baron Byng High School was predominantly Jewish because it was in the heart of Montreal's non-affluent Jewish community, and was ghetto-like because Jews were forbidden from attending many high schools. Besides poets, at high school, Lewis met Sophie Carson, who eventually became his wife. Klein, their mutual friend, introduced them. Carson came from a religious Jewish family. Her father did not approve of Lewis, because he

975-645: A purist." David would bring this philosophy to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and New Democratic Party (NDP); in clashes between the parties' "ideological missionaries and the power pragmatists when internal debates raged about policy or action", he was in the latter camp. When the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Soviet War were at their fiercest, in the summer of 1920, Poland invaded, and

1050-566: A radio speech (written by Lister Sinclair ) that accused Drew of running a political gestapo in Ontario, alleging that a secret department of the Ontario Provincial Police was acting as a political police spying on the opposition and the media. This accusation led to a backlash, and loss of support for the CCF, including the loss of Jolliffe's own seat of York South . This probably helped Drew win his majority, although in

1125-585: The shtetl he lived in until 1921. Svisloch was located in the Pale of Settlement , the westernmost region of the Russian Empire , in what is now Belarus . After World War I, it became a Polish border town, occasionally occupied by the Soviet Union during the Polish-Soviet War of the early 1920s. Jewish people were in the majority, numbering 3,500 out of Svisloch's 4,500 residents. Unlike many of

1200-422: The Ontario Provincial Police was acting as a political police – spying on the opposition and the media. It is my duty to tell you that Colonel Drew is maintaining in Ontario, at this very minute, a secret political police, a paid government spy organization, a Gestapo to try and keep himself in power. And Col[onel] Drew maintains his secret political police at the expense of the taxpayers of Ontario – paid out of

1275-541: The 1970s, archival evidence was discovered proving the charge. Of the 90 ridings, only 8 had two-way races; 47 were three-way contests, and the Labor-Progressives forced 30 four way races: The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party , led by George Drew , won a second consecutive term in office, winning a solid majority of seats in the legislature—66, up from 38 in the previous election . The Ontario Liberal Party , led by former premier Mitchell Hepburn ,

1350-594: The Bund's democratic principles, felt an affinity. Both the Bund and the Social Gospel were focused on the material present rather than the afterlife. Both called on people to change their environment for the better rather than hoping that God might do it for them. Social justice, the brotherhood of man, and moral self-improvement were common to both. It became obvious after the October 1937 Ontario election that

1425-524: The Bund's. Upon his 1935 graduation, the party offered him a candidacy in a safe seat in the British House of Commons . This left Lewis with a difficult decision: whether to stay in England or go home to Canada. If he had stayed in England, he likely would have been a partner in a prominent London law firm associated with Stafford Cripps and become a cabinet minister the next time Labour formed

1500-474: The CCF in the 1940 federal election in York West . He placed a distant third, receiving 8,330 fewer votes than the second-place Liberal candidate, Chris J. Bennett. Despite his poor showing in his first election, the party asked Lewis to run in the 1943 by-election in the Montreal, Quebec , federal riding of Cartier , made vacant by the death of Peter Bercovitch . Lewis's opponents included Fred Rose of

1575-470: The CCF leading nationally with 29 percent support, with the Liberals and Conservatives tied for second place at 28 percent. By April 1945, the CCF was down to 20 percent nationally, and on election day it received only 16 percent. Another factor in the CCF's defeat was the unofficial coalition between the Liberal Party of Canada and the communist Labor-Progressive Party . It guaranteed a split in

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1650-554: The CCF needed an image change; it was seen by the electorate as too far left. F. R. Scott pointed this out to Lewis in a letter, recommended moderating some of the party's policies, and advised that "... in the political arena we must find our friends among the near right." In August 1938, Lewis quit his job at the Ottawa law firm of Smart and Biggar to work full-time as the CCF National Secretary. His starting salary

1725-488: The CCF was as much a movement as it was a political party, and its own members frequently undermined it with radical proclamations. Lewis criticized the British Columbia CCF for such comments, saying "... what we say and do must be measured by the effect which it will have on our purpose of mobilizing people for action. If what we say and do will blunt or harm our purpose ... then we are saying and doing

1800-561: The CCF's National Chairman. The book's main argument was that national economic planning had proven itself during wartime with the King government's imposition of wage and price controls through the Wartime Prices and Trade Board . Lewis and Scott further argued that its wartime success could translate to peacetime, and that Canada should adopt a mixed economy . They also called for public ownership of key economic sectors, and for

1875-727: The CCF, he took the role of disciplinarian and dealt with internal organizational problems. He helped draft the Winnipeg Declaration , which moderated the CCF's economic policies to include acceptance of capitalism, albeit subject to stringent government regulation. As the United Steelworkers of America (USW)'s legal counsel in Canada, he helped them take over the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill). His involvement with

1950-470: The Commissioner found the information unconvincing, even though LeBel believed Dempster's interaction with Sanderson and Murray was inappropriate. Jolliffe's motives regarding his accusations, as well as his choice of words, would be questioned for many years afterwards. That would change. In the late 1970s, when David Lewis was doing research for his Memoirs he came across archival evidence proving

2025-514: The European left's self-destruction in the 1930s, he was quick to end self-immolating tactics or policies. He would tolerate some criticism of the party by its members, but when he believed that it rose to self-mutilation, he suppressed it ruthlessly. This was most apparent when Lewis attacked and discredited Frank Underhill and his handling of Woodsworth House. Early in Lewis's career, Underhill

2100-532: The House of Commons. Lewis placed fourth. The sizable Jewish vote mostly went to Rose. The leftist "common front" punished Lewis by supporting Rose, who was seen to be of the community; Lewis lived in Ottawa at the time. It took Lewis many years to recover from this campaign, and its reverberation coloured Lewis's decision on where to run. The Canadian federal and the Ontario elections of 1945 were possibly

2175-527: The Jewish community; it functioned both as a political party and labour movement. Lewis spent his formative years immersed in its culture and philosophy. The Bund's membership, although mostly ethnically Jewish, was secular humanist in practice. Moishe and David were influenced by the Bund's political pragmatism, embodied in its maxim that "It is better to go along with the masses in a not totally correct direction than to separate oneself from them and remain

2250-596: The Labour Club's membership by three-quarters by the time he left. In accordance with Bundism, Lewis rejected violent revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat . The Bund insisted that the revolution should be through democratic means, as Marx had judged possible in the late 1860s, and that democracy should prevail afterward. Influenced by Fabianism , Lewis became an incrementalist in his approach to replacing non-socialist governments. As Lewis biographer Cameron Smith points out: So what he ended up with

2325-564: The NDP's national leader and served from 1971 until 1975. After his defeat in the 1974 federal election, he stepped down as leader and retired from politics. He spent his last years as a university professor at Carleton University and as a travel correspondent for the Toronto Star . In retirement, he was named to the Order of Canada for his political service. After suffering from cancer for

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2400-452: The NDP's national leader in 1971, he and Stephen became one of the first father-and-son-teams to simultaneously head Canadian political parties. David Losz was born in the Russian Empire sometime after Svisloch 's first snowfall in October 1909 to Moishe Losz and his wife Rose (née Lazarovitch). His official birth date of June 23 was the one he gave the immigration officer when he arrived in Canada. Lewis's political activism began in

2475-473: The National Secretary of the CCF. As Smith puts it: Into this political whirlwind stepped David. A centralist in a nation that was decentralizing. A socialist in a country that voted solidly capitalist. A campaigner for a party with no money, facing two parties each of which was big, powerful, and affluent. A professional, in a party of amateurs who mostly thought of themselves as a movement, not

2550-502: The OPP, Ontario Civil Servants, were keeping files on MPPs were not allowed. The hearings began on 20 June 1945, at Toronto's City Hall's third-floor courtroom. Jolliffe would act as his own counsel throughout the commission, but was assisted by fellow CCF lawyer, Andrew Brewin . The crown prosecutor was Joseph Sedgwick. Over the next month, both Jolliffe and Brewin were able to establish, from several eyewitnesses, that agent D-208, Dempster,

2625-571: The Public Funds.... Jolliffe's inflammatory speech became the main issue of the campaign, and dominated coverage in the media for the rest of the election. Drew, and his Attorney-General Leslie Blackwell vehemently denied Jolliffe's accusations, but the public outcry was too much for them to abate. On 26 May 1945 during his own radio speech, Drew announced that he would be appointing a Royal Commission to investigate these charges. Jolliffe's CCF and Mitchell Hepburn 's Ontario Liberal party wanted

2700-953: The Red Russian Bolshevik army counter-attacked. The Bolsheviks reached the Svisloch border in July 1920. Moishe Losz openly opposed the Bolsheviks and would later be jailed by them for his opposition. When the Polish army recaptured Svisloch on August 25, 1920, they executed five Jewish citizens as "spies". Unsafe under either regime and with his family's future prospects bleak, Moishe left for Canada in May 1921, to work in his brother-in-law's Montreal clothing factory. By August, he saved enough money to send for his family, including David and his siblings, Charlie and Doris. David Lewis

2775-518: The Society. In appearance, background, and intellectual outlook he is a grim antithesis to all the suave, slightly delicate young men who for generations have sat on the Union rostrum ..." Sophie Carson had accompanied Lewis to Oxford, and they wed on August 15, 1935, shortly after their return. The wedding took place in his parents' home; though a rabbi officiated, most traditional Jewish practices were not observed. In 1935, David Lewis became

2850-643: The USW also led to a central role in the creation of the Canadian Labour Congress in 1956. The Lewis family has been active in socialist politics since the turn of the twentieth century, starting with David Lewis's father's involvement in the Bund in Russia, continuing with David, and followed by his eldest son, Stephen Lewis , who led the Ontario NDP from 1970 until 1978. When David was elected

2925-482: The board's cross-examination satisfied them that he was not a communist, and they awarded him the scholarship. When David Lewis entered Lincoln College , Oxford , in 1932, he immediately took a leadership role in the university's socialist-labour circles. Michael Foot , the future leader of the British Labour Party, mentioned in an interview that Lewis was, the most powerful socialist debater in

3000-432: The burden to be placed on private companies to demonstrate that they could manage an industry more effectively in the private sector than the government could in the public sector. The book also outlined the history of the CCF up to that time and explained the party's decision-making process. By Canadian standards, the book was popular, and sold over 25,000 copies in its first year of publication. Lewis first ran for

3075-799: The charge. Due to Lewis's discovery, Drew's son Edward, placed extremely restrictive conditions on his father's papers housed in the Public Archives of Canada that continue as of 2013. As Lewis pointed out in his memoirs, "We found that Premier Drew and Gladstone Murray did not disclose all information to the Lebel Commission; indeed, they deliberately prevaricated throughout. The head of the Government of Ontario had given false witness under testimony.... The perpetrator of Ontario's Watergate got away with it." Former Ontario CCF and Ontario NDP leader, Donald C. MacDonald attempted to get

LeBel Royal Commission - Misplaced Pages Continue

3150-522: The communist Labor–Progressive Party . It was a vicious campaign, immortalized by A. M. Klein in an uncompleted novel called Come the Revolution . The novel was broadcast in the 1980s on Lister Sinclair 's Ideas programme on CBC Radio One . If the Communist rhetoric could be believed, "Lewis was a Fascist done up in brown." Rose won and became the only (as of 2013), Communist, to sit in

3225-444: The dance hall where Joyce was speaking and having groups of two and three of them leave at a time, making much noise on the creaking wooden floors. They were successful in drowning out Joyce, and he did not complete his speech. Afterward, a street fight erupted between Joyce's Blackshirt supporters and members of the Labour Club, including Lewis. Lewis prevented the communists from making inroads at Oxford. Ted Jolliffe stated "there

3300-499: The date was later fixed for June 11. When the 1945 Canadian federal election was set for the same date, the Ontario date was accelerated by one week to June 4, in order to separate the two campaigns. The Drew government called the election in an attempt to get a majority government . By exploiting increasing Cold War tensions, the PC Party was able to defeat Jolliffe's CCF by stoking fears about communism. Jolliffe replied by giving

3375-634: The election suspended until the Commission tabled its report, with Hepburn going as far as sending Drew a personal telegram stating he would stop campaigning if the commission were held immediately. Drew ignored these requests and continued to hold the election on its original date, despite it being many months before the Commission's findings would be made available. Jolliffe's CCF went from 34 seats to 8, and he even lost his own seat in York South Drew, with his attack campaign, successfully drove

3450-410: The full programme of socialized planning". Lewis, federal leader M.J. Coldwell, and Clarie Gillis would spend the next 19 years trying to modify this declaration, finally succeeding with the 1956 Winnipeg Declaration . At the 1944 CCF convention, Lewis won a concession "that even large business could have a place in the party – if they behave." Rather than opposing all private enterprise, Lewis

3525-470: The job of the national secretary [in 1938] he resisted, fearing the CCF would lose its spontaneity. That Lewis not only survived but prevailed is a testament to his skill and perseverance. Most of the founders of the CCF – including Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas , M. J. Coldwell , and Stanley Knowles , – were informed by the Social Gospel , to which Lewis, with his Marxist socialism balanced by

3600-608: The left-of-centre vote. Lewis ran in Hamilton West instead of the CCF-friendly Winnipeg North riding that had elected CCF and Labour Party candidates since the 1920s and had a substantial Jewish population. Historians and activists disagree on Lewis's reasons for doing so, but Caplan suggests that the shock of the Cartier election probably made him reluctant to fight another intense campaign against

3675-588: The libelous advertisement campaigns against the CCF in newspapers and bill-boards, with information gleaned from Dempster's briefings. Jolliffe presented several witnesses that claimed to have seen these documents. But Jolliffe could not produce the actual letter, and Drew would deny ever writing it. Justice LeBel heard final arguments on 20 July and began writing his report. On 11 October 1945 Justice LeBel issued his report that essentially exonerated Drew and Blackwell. Due to Jolliffe presenting only circumstantial evidence that linked Drew to Dempster, Murray and Sanderson,

3750-569: The most crucial to Canada in the 20th century. They took place at the beginning of the welfare state , and the elections would set the course of political thought to the end of the century and beyond. The year was a disaster for the CCF, both nationally and in Ontario. It never fully recovered, and in 1961 would dissolve and become the New Democratic Party. As NDP strategist and historian Gerald Caplan put it: "June 4, and June 11, 1945, proved to be black days in CCF annals: socialism

3825-400: The most infamous incidents in 20th-century Canadian politics. As can be discerned from the previous description, the 1945 campaign was anything but genteel and polite. Jolliffe replied by giving a radio speech (written with the assistance of Lister Sinclair ) that accused Drew of running a political Gestapo in Ontario. In the speech excerpt below, Jolliffe alleged that a secret department of

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3900-513: The other shtetls in the Pale, it had an industrial economy based on tanning . Its semi-urban industrial population was receptive to social democratic politics and the labour movement , as embodied by the Jewish Labour Bund . Moishe (or Moshe) Losz was Svisloch's Bund Chairman. The Bund was an outlawed socialist party that called for overthrowing the Tsar , equality for all, and national rights for

3975-409: The place. I don't think with any rival ... He had a very powerful influence indeed amongst students, partly because he had so much more experience than the rest of us but partly because he had brilliant debating powers. I mean one of the best I've ever heard. If you talk of tough political debates, well, he was absolutely unbeatable ... I knew him [at Oxford] when I was a Liberal [and] he played

4050-660: The report reopened when the new evidence became public in 1981. He was still a member of the Ontario Legislature, and asked the Attorney General Roy McMurtry to reopen the Commission on 2 December 1981. McMurty refused to reopen the case, because almost everyone involved was dead and the commission already made its ruling in 1945. 1945 Ontario general election George Drew Progressive Conservative George Drew Progressive Conservative The 1945 Ontario general election

4125-611: The source material for the anti-CCF campaign came from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)'s Special Investigation Branch's agent D-208: Captain William J. Osbourne-Dempster. His office was supposed to be investigating war-time 5th column saboteurs. Instead, starting in November 1943, he was investigating, almost exclusively, Ontario opposition MPPs, mainly focusing on the CCF caucus . The fact that Jolliffe knew about these 'secret' investigations as early as February 1944 led to one of

4200-556: The vote, and declared a "Liberal–Labour" coalition on May 29, 1944. They declared open warfare on the CCF in 1944, with spokesman John Weir stating in the LPP's Canadian Tribune newspaper that "a resounding defeat of the CCF at the polls must be [their] the main objective." The Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) supported the CCF, but the Trades and Labour Congress (TLC) refused to officially endorse them. This lack of unity between

4275-520: The voter turn-out up, thereby driving the CCF's percentage and seat totals down. Drew appointed Justice A.M. LeBel as the Royal Commissioner on 28 May 1945. His terms of reference were restricted to the question of whether Drew was personally responsible for the establishment of "a secret political police organization, for the purpose of collecting, by secret spying, material to be used in attempt to keep him in power. Wider questions like why

4350-520: Was " That this House will under no circumstances fight for its King or Country " and was so controversial that it was news around the British Empire and beyond. Lewis again spoke for the "Aye" side. They won overwhelmingly and caused a newspaper uproar throughout the Empire. The Times of London entered the fray by pooh-poohing those who took the Union and their motion seriously. Lewis became

4425-537: Was $ 1,200 per year, a low sum of money, even at that time, for a job with so much responsibility. As National Secretary, Lewis emphasized organization over ideology and forging links to unions . He worked to moderate the party's image and downplay the Regina Manifesto 's more radical language, which seemed to scare off moderate voters. The offending language included "No CCF government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation

4500-529: Was Canadian humorist and noted Conservative party proponent, Stephen Leacock , whom Lewis liked more for his personality than for his discipline and economics. In his third year, Lewis founded The McGilliad campus magazine. It published many of his anti-communist views, though the December 1930 issue included an article he wrote expressing his approval of the Russian Revolution and calling for

4575-633: Was a Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950 and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. In 1962, he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP), in the House of Commons of Canada , for the York South electoral district. While an MP, he was elected

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4650-458: Was a difference between his speeches at the Union and his speeches at the Labour Club. His speeches at the Union had more humour in them; the atmosphere was entirely different. But his speeches at the Labour Club were deadly serious ... His influence at the Labour Club, more than anyone else's, I think, explains the failure of the Communists to make headway there. There were so many naive people around who could have been taken in." He increased

4725-421: Was a modified Bundist interpretation of Marxism. Call it, if you will, Parliamentary Marxism. It was a Marxian analysis of economics and a parliamentary approach to politics. And if David were forced to choose, he would have chosen Parliamentary over Marxism. Lewis was a prominent figure in the British Labour Party , which, in emphasizing parliamentary action and organizational prowess, took an approach similar to

4800-568: Was a native Yiddish speaker and understood very little English. He learned it by buying a copy of Charles Dickens ' novel The Old Curiosity Shop and a Yiddish -English dictionary. A Welsh teacher at Fairmount Public School, where Lewis was a student, helped him learn English but also passed on his Welsh accent. Lewis entered Baron Byng High School in September 1924. He soon became friends with A.M. (Abe) Klein , who became one of Canada's leading poets. He also met Irving Layton , another future prominent Canadian writer, to whom he acted as

4875-437: Was a recent immigrant to Canada, and in Carson's father's opinion had little to no possibility of success. After high school, Lewis spent five years at McGill University in Montreal: four in arts and one in law. While there, he helped found the Montreal branch of the Young People's Socialist League . He gave lectures sponsored by this anti-communist socialist club, and was its nominal leader. One of his favourite professors

4950-679: Was a secular Jew, as was Moishe. However, his maternal grandfather, Usher Lazarovitch, was religious and, in the brief period between May and August 1921 before David emigrated, gave his grandson the only real religious training he would ever receive. David did not actively take part in a religious service again until his granddaughter Ilana's Bat Mitzvah in the late 1970s. In practice, the Lewis family, including David, his wife Sophie, and their children Janet, Nina, Stephen, and Michael, were atheists. The family came to Canada by boat and landed in Halifax , Nova Scotia in Autumn 1921. They then went by rail to Montreal to meet Moishe Lewis. David Lewis

5025-412: Was active with the Oxford Union , probably the most prestigious and important debating club in the English-speaking world. His first debate, in January 1933, was on the resolution "That the British Empire is a menace to International good will"; Lewis was one of the participants for the "Aye" side. They lost. The February 9, 1933, debate brought Lewis some level of early prominence. The resolution

5100-425: Was concerned with preventing monopoly capitalism. He passed a resolution reading "The socialization of large-scale enterprise, however, does not mean taking over every private business. Where private business shows no signs of becoming a monopoly, operates efficiently under decent working conditions, and does not operate to the detriment of the Canadian people, it will be given every opportunity to function, to provide

5175-438: Was effectively removed from the Canadian political agenda." The anti-socialist crusade by the Ontario Conservative Party , mostly credited to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) special investigative branch's agent D-208 (Captain William J. Osborne-Dempster) and the Conservative propagandists Gladstone Murray and Montague A. Sanderson, diminished the CCF's initially favourable position: the September 1943 Gallup poll showed

5250-435: Was held on June 4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the province of Ontario . The Legislature was dissolved on March 24, 1945, upon the government's failure to defeat a non-confidence motion . The election call was delayed in order to implement new legislation relating to the collection of votes from servicemen and women overseas, but

5325-552: Was one of his mentors; this did not matter when Woodsworth House was stricken with financial difficulties in the late 1940s. Lewis was quick to blame and then discharged Underhill and the rest of the Woodsworth executive of their responsibilities. It was an unfortunate event that cost the CCF in the academic and intelligentsia world. To sum up Lewis's reign, discipline and solidarity were paramount. There had to be limited to discussion and tolerance of dissenting views. In 1943, Lewis co-wrote Make This Your Canada with F. R. Scott, then

5400-503: Was president, they wrote of the club: "The energy of these University Socialists is almost unbelievable. If the Socialist movement as a whole is anything like as active as they are, then a socialist victory at the next election is inevitable." In February 1934, British fascist William Joyce ( Lord Haw Haw ) visited Oxford. Lewis and future Ontario CCF leader Ted Jolliffe organized a noisy protest by planting Labour Club members in

5475-721: Was reduced from 34 seats to 8. Two seats were won by the Labor-Progressive Party on its own with the re-election of A.A. MacLeod and J.B. Salsberg . The LPP contested a total of 31 ridings under the leadership of Leslie Morris who was defeated in the Toronto riding of Bracondale. There were 36 seats that changed allegiance in the election. Ten candidates who were not incumbents had served as MPPs prior to 1943: David Lewis (Canadian politician) David Lewis CC QC (born David Losz ; June 23 or October 1909 – May 23, 1981)

5550-644: Was returned to the role of official opposition with 11 seats, plus 3 Liberal-Labour seats that it won, out of 6 contested, in coalition with the Labor-Progressive Party (which was, in fact, the Communist Party ), in an effort to marginalize the CCF. The three new Liberal-Labour MPPs were James Newman of Rainy River , Joseph Meinzinger of Waterloo North and Alexander Parent of Essex North . The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), led by Ted Jolliffe ,

5625-413: Was spying on the CCF. What they could not prove, because they did not have access to the information in 1945, that Drew was directly in written correspondence with his supporter M.A. (Bugsy) Sanderson suggesting that he would finance any lawsuits or other charges stemming from the information provided by Dempster in his advertisements. Sanderson was, in late 1943 to 1945, along with Gladstone Murray, leading

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