The Honourable Member for Vegreville: The Memoirs and Diary of Anthony Hlynka (review)

Members of Parliament come and go and, once departed, disappear from public sight, most deservedly so, regardless of political affiliation. A very few should not be so soon forgotten, among them Anthony Hlynka, the Social Credit mp for Vegreville, Alberta from 1940 to 1949. Born in western Ukraine, a member of the 'first wave' of Ukrainian immigration to this country, Hlynka was a supporter of the Ukrainian National Federation and an ardent anti-communist. The only Ukrainian-Canadian mp during and just after the Second World War, when Ukraine's fate was debated in the international arena, as was that of many thousands of Ukrainian Displaced Persons (DPS), Hlynka became a spokesman for Ukrainian independence. That pretension would, more than once, expose him to the vituperation of a Ukrainian-Canadian Left still enraptured, and in some cases bankrolled, by Moscow, and to the complementary bigotry of those who resented this 'uppity' foreign fellow rising in Parliament, advocating for issues they neither appreciated nor understood. The latter bunch included bigots given to wondering if Ukrainians are 'white people.'

Against such slanderers Hlynka railed consistently, and often effectively, insisting upon official recognition of the contributions Ukrainians had made to nation-building, protesting the forcible repatriation of refugees under the terms of the now-infamous Yalta Accord, and championing the resettlement of these exiles in Canada. Such causes made him enemies. But his eventual loss of his Vegreville seat was also precipitated by the alienation of his Ukrainian constituents, many more interested in the parochial than the global and so put off by Hlynka's intense focus on 'overseas' issues. Hlynka was voted out, in 1949, and replaced by another Ukrainian Canadian, Lawrence Decore, a Liberal, to whom he lost again, in 1953. For a man with such a powerful sense of his own importance, these defeats were bitter. Estranged from the community, he died young, aged fifty, and was soon thereafter forgotten.

Hlynka's role might have been more fully appreciated if his papers had not been held back for nearly a half-century. For everything there is a season and interest in yesteryear's politicians, however honourable the causes they championed, or disreputable their opponents, is limited to a few, plus family, unless the parliamentarian was exceptional. This volume, a selection of translations from Hlynka's diaries, of his speeches, and of articles published in contemporary newspapers, sets out to recover Hlynka for history. It would be surprising if that were achieved. The book suffers for not having an index, a startling oversight given its compilers' stated intention of making Hlynka's story better known. Furthermore, the bibliography is dated and the footnoting is sometimes partisan. Reading through this collection does, however, rekindle memories of a time when the Ukrainian-Canadian community was invigorated by the presence of a few great men (and women!). Arguably, Anthony Hlynka was one of them, even if not the most important lobbyist on behalf of the 'third wave' of refugee Ukrainian immigrants to Canada – my parents among them. As such this book deserves its place on the shelves of those who should be grateful to Hlynka for doing what he could when the need was acute, knowing his own career would suffer because of what he stood up for. If nothing else, perusing the materials compiled here underscores that Hlynka was not only a good Canadian but also a good Ukrainian, and reminds readers that there is no contradiction in being both, even at the same time.