Canada Since 1960, a People's History: A Left Perspective on 50 Years of Politics, Economics, and Culture ed. by Cy Gonick (review)

Canadian Dimension – Canada's premier magazine of left thought and politics – recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary and, to commemorate the occasion, the magazine's founder and editor, Cy Gonick, has provided an edited collection of more than two dozen reflections on Dimension's significance to the Canadian left. The book shows the impact of Dimension on not only the coverage and examination of Canadian left events, but as an influencer of multiple leftist ideas and concepts, along with being an indispensable forum for leftists of nearly all tendencies and contexts to converse and debate. Dimension, at day's end, was not simply meant to theorize about Canada's left, but about enacting change in the ways it best felt possible. If one thing draws the collection's chapters together, it is the perception – in the words of labour historian Bryan Palmer – that over the half-century Dimension has been "Canada's main forum for discussion, debate, and exchange of left-wing thought." (463)

Fittingly, the book is anchored with a comprehensive chapter by Gonick, who tells us of the haphazard early Dimension years through its development into a fully-fledged operation, along with how his own personal path to the left influenced his perception that, in the early 1960s, Canada was desperately in need of an unabashedly left magazine connected to struggles at home and abroad. This is where Dimension came in. Gonick's chapter is deeply informative and engaging, although it could perhaps be more concise and streamlined: some of the later pages could have been weaved into previous sections, and the chapter is harder to parse because it alternates between a chronological and thematic approach. Still, the chapter is still ultimately effective. Gonick's general argument – which is accompanied by his views on the various historical and contemporary left debates – is that Dimension has been a trailblazing publication on the Canadian left scene. Throughout, Gonick outlines the places in which Dimension broke ground, offering coverage of anti-colonial struggles, bringing radical French Canadian voices to English readers, making the cause of left nationalism a central one, and being an intellectual sounding board for New Leftists operating in communities, the labour movement, and both within and outside the New Democratic Party.

Beyond this, Gonick outlines that, while Dimension was initially dominated by a small team of largely white and male scholars, the magazine became increasingly effective at including the intersection of socialist and working-class politics with environmental, feminist, Indigenous, anti-racist, and lgbtq movements and schools of thought. Here, Gonick suggests that the marriage between socialist analysis and the experiences of marginalized peoples gave Dimension a character that few other sources offered in pre-internet Canada. While one might see the conflict of interest in Gonick celebrating the magazine that has in large part defined his legacy, Gonick would say that his children aside, Dimension "has been the one constant in my life." (18) I do not feel the claims are out of line in any substantive sense. Gonick never claims that Dimension has gotten every issue or prediction correct, nor that it lacks blind spots in its range of coverage and analysis, but he effectively demonstrates that the magazine has endeavoured to be a broad voice for Canadian leftists, beginning when few such venues existed beyond numerous sectarian options.

Beyond this foundation, the collection continues with pieces showing how Dimension has played a special role in illuminating aspects of the Canadian left, such the environment, French and English Canadian nationalism, the evolution of the labour movement, imperialism in Palestine and elsewhere, student politics, and the developing role of various marginalized populations. In this sense, each chapter leaps off of Gonick's introduction, offering its own perspectives. In many places, views and interpretations differ from Gonick's, but most every chapter holds that Dimension has been, and continues to be, an indispensable...