The Sound of One Voice: Eugene Forsey and His Letters to the Press

Although [Eugene Forsey] wrote letters to nearly every major newspaper in the country, his preferred target was the Globe and Mail. According to [Hodgetts]'s best count, it received 375 letters. And although Forsey's interest ranged widely and changed over time, his constitutional expertis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLabour Vol. 50; no. 50; pp. 330 - 332
Main Author Wright, Donald
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Committee on Canadian Labour History 22.09.2002
Canadian Committee on Labour History
Subjects
20th century
Canada
Canadian history
Correspondence
Eugene Forsey
Forsey, Eugene A
History
Industrial relations
Metric system
Reviews/Comptes Rendus
Sovereignty
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Summary:Although [Eugene Forsey] wrote letters to nearly every major newspaper in the country, his preferred target was the Globe and Mail. According to [Hodgetts]'s best count, it received 375 letters. And although Forsey's interest ranged widely and changed over time, his constitutional expertise inevitably brought him back to the prerogatives of the governor general, the future of the Senate, the role of the judiciary, and the place of Quebec in Canada. Hodgetts's decision to arrange Forsey's letters thematically is defensible but ultimately disappointing. If you want Forsey's opinion on the past tense of the verb "to fit," then it is easily enough found in the chapter dealing with his ongoing defence of the English language. But at the end of the day, after reading letters arranged by theme, you do not get a sense of change over time. And that's too bad. Because an understanding of change over time is necessary to a deeper and fuller understanding of Forsey and of the country. For example, Forsey started out a socialist and ended up a Liberal senator. For his part, Frank Underhill founded the League for Social Reconstruction in the 1930s and went on to become Curator of Laurier House in the 1950s. Reading Forsey's letters chronologically might have cast light on what was really part of a larger pattern among members of the Canadian left: their tendency to migrate to the centre over time. Moreover, Hodgett's running commentary throughout the letters provides useful context but it also distracts. At times I wanted less Hodgetts and more Forsey.
Bibliography:content type line 1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:0700-3862
1911-4842
DOI:10.2307/25149296