The Great Dominion: Winston Churchill in Canada, 1900-1954 (review)

This is a big book (some might say too big), weighing in at 440 pages of text. Who would have believed that there was this much left to say about Britain's fabled prime minister; a Web search yielded more than six million hits in .07 seconds! However, there is, and David Dilks says it very well; in fact exhaustively. There need not ever be another book written on the subject of Winston Churchill and Canada. Churchill's connection with the senior dominion began with his first trip in 1900, and it was in Winnipeg in 1901 that 'he heard the news of Queen Victoria's death' (1). On his final visit, his ninth, in 1954, he implored Canadians not to forget 'that little Island … which played so great a part in your early days' (2). In between, all sorts of things happened to Winston Churchill and to Canada.

The book is designed as a collection of documents from participants connected with Churchill's visits to Canada. Quoted throughout are, among others, chunks of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's diaries, documents from the Public Record Office, Churchill's letters to his mother or his wife, and other relevant papers. As a result, it adopts an unusual format, a necessity given the rather disjointed nature of the subject. It leaps as best it can from 1901 to 1929 to 1932 through a number of other chapters to eventually hit 1954, covering only those years (or months) when Churchill was in Canada. For all of these 'gaps,' Dilks makes a good effort to connect them with context through narration and analysis, filling in the main events of the Anglo-Canadian relationship as well as of Churchill's own personality and his life and times in England, between visits. The approach, while at times a bit irritating, was necessary, given the structure and subject of the book.

As one would expect, the largest part of the book is taken up with the Second World War – more than 230 of its pages. Dilks makes some mention of Canada, and how it was changed by the war, but the reader looks in vain for a Canadian perspective. There are a few, including references to Mackenzie King's diary, Jack Pickersgill's The Mackenzie King Record, and John Holmes's The Shaping of the Peace, but none of Jack Granatstein, Terry Copp, or others who have studied the period. However, this is a minor quibble, given the topic under discussion.

The first of this section, entitled 'The Atlantic Charter: August 1941,' enmeshes Canada as the action in the chapter occurs before the United States enters the war. It bristles with intrigue: Did Churchill slight Mackenzie King when the latter refused to attend a Commonwealth prime ministers conference? How and when would the US become involved? How could King encourage Franklin Roosevelt to do the right thing? Why did the Canadian prime minister not 'like' Churchill? The narrative ends with Churchill embarking on the Prince of Wales for a meeting with Roosevelt off Newfoundland. The former's thought about King was that 'it would be a pity if … [he] join[ed] us in [Newfoundland]' (156). This meeting led, of course, to the Atlantic Charter.

Finally, in a section that does not really include Canada or Canadians other than in a supporting role, the reader makes way through to "Quadrant" (1943) and "Octagon" (1944), the two wartime conferences held in Quebec City and starring Churchill and Roosevelt. Mackenzie King had no role to play, other than, as he was to later say, 'as a general host, whose task at the Citadel was similar to that of the General Manager of the Chateau Frontenac' (274). Again, there is much intrigue, disagreements are aired in the documents, and the general state of the Anglo-American relationship is probed. However, that said, as noted above, there is precious little on Canada.

This is an interesting book and essential reading, I would think...