Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada by Trevor Harrison (review)

454 The Canadian HistoricalReview romanticism thatobscures itswarts.Much of it, the Labour partiesin particular,had no time for workersfrom otherthan Anglo-Celtic cultures. Forthe mostpart,womenwereintegrated onlyasdomestic managers in aworking-class variant ofmaternal feminism. And,in the end, the leadership of the movementlackedthe imaginationand energyto dealwith the challenges of massunemployment andstate andemployer hostility. Fortheauthor, thevitality hadbeenatthebase, wheredemoralization anddefeat wouldbealasting legacy formuchof the subsequent interwarperiod. Naylorhasthusgivenus a fine analysis of a fascinating, generally ignoredmomentin the evolution of Ontario's political cultureand a sensitive readingof classdynamics that wereplayedoutin industrial communities across thecountry. c•iG •o• YorkUniversity Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism andtheReform Partyof Canada. Tauvoa I4^RatSO•. Toronto: University ofToronto Press t995. Pp.xiv,325 . $55.00cloth,$t8.95paper Who saysCanadians are modest?Sociologist TrevorHarrisonintroduceshis bookby writing:'Whatreaders will find in thistext... and what I believe will standthe testof time, is a carefully textured and theoretically informedanalysis thatfocuses onthehistorical, social, and ideological forcesthat giveriseto changing political formations' {x). Theywill find a bit ofthisanalysis. Mainly,however, theywill find an intelligent rendering of recentCanadian political history with a focus on Preston ManningandtheReformParty.Recent journalist accounts of Reform byDonBraidandSydney Sharpe andbyMurrayDobbinare superseded by Harrison,who makesuse of surveydatato paint a clearerpictureof thecharacter andperspectives of partymembership andvoters. Yethisaccount, ashe recognizes, owes agreatdealtothese earlier works. Harrisondemonstrates that Reformmembersare self-consciously right of centreratherthan simplyopposed to the statusquo. Party voters meanwhile tendto 'havestrong assimilationist andanti-pluralist viewsregarding immigration, to believe thatsociety istoolenientwith criminals, andto bestrongly opposed to thenotionof "distinct society status"for Quebec'{2o7). They are alsolikely to opposegender equality andfull civilrightsfor homosexuals. In short,Reformmembersandvoters havea reasonable notionof the Reformmessage and supportit. BookReviews455 Buttheyhavelittleopportunity toinfluence thedirection of Reform policy, because Manningexercises absolute power. Harrison claims that thepartypractises 'plebiscitarian democracy' in whichthemembers are asked toapprove Manning's prescribed policies andactions, sometimes afterthefact.Harrisondealswith Reformin thecontext of 'populist' parties,but whathe saysof the make-upof the party(mainlyolder middle-class males) anditseconomic policy(ithasnoquarrel withany fractionof capital)makesonewonderif he is not barkingup the wrongtree.His attempts toapply theoretical categories associated with agrarianism underfinancial attack to a troubled postindustrial capitalismultimately prove unhelpful. MoreusefulareHarrison's attempts todemonstrate therelationship between Reform's riseandtheglobal riseof neoconservatism withits rejectionof the postwar'welfarestate'consensus. He successfully demonstrates thatthepartyformedbythese questionable populists was 'asmucha defensive reaction to theperceived gainsof theleft asit wasanattempt toinstitute a newpolitical regime'(xx3). Thededinein credibilityof BrianMulroney's Conservatives and the parallelrise in si)v support between the x984 and x988 elections spurredReform's founders to establish a credible newright-wing force. Therewerefour party founders:Manning, multimillionaireAlberta philanthropist Francis Winspear, right-wing Albertapublisher Ted Byfield,and Stan Roberts, a formerManitoba politician andgraincompany executive. Disillusioned by the existingpartiesbecause they were allegedly profligate whenin officeandcontrolled bycentral Canada, theysetout to founda new partywhichwouldbe staunchly conservative in economicmatters (thoughRoberts wasmoremoderate than the other three)andprovide theWestwith a clearvoice.Fromthe beginning Manningrecognized thatthisparty, whose initialslogan was'theWest wantsin,' wouldhavetocapture Ontariosupport if it wasserious about achieving power. Harrisonsuggests thatManninginvolved hiswestern supporters butlittlein hisplansfor eastward expansion. Harrisonnicelysumsup Reform's origins bysaying thattheparty 'aroseout of the general crisisof welfarestateliberalism andout of specific disenchantment withtheMulroney Conservatives' (z49). But, whilehe opposes Reform's returnto theideology of AdamSmith,he shares,perhapsunwittingly, their understanding of the economic problems facingCanada in thelatetwentieth century. He writesof 'the increasing fiscalcrisis of theCanadian state, brought aboutbydecliningrevenues andincreasingly social expenditures' (88).Hereindeed is a mantraof therightandmuchof theleftin recent years. ButStatisticsCanada demonstrated in a x99• studythatdecreases in corporate 456 TheCanadian Historical Review taxation ratherthanincreases in social spending accounted formostof thedeficit. A growing literature challenges whatHarrison labels 'deficit hysteria,' a hysteria heseems partly to share. Harrisonchides theMulroney Toriesfor not implementing tighter moneypolicies duringtheboomof thelate•98os (•56).He accuses them of having'overstimulated the economy duringa periodof economicplenty .'Plenty? In x989,theyearbefore recession struck, 7.5per centof Canadians wereunemployed. It is revealing that a liberally mindedauthorbelieves thatan economy with somanyalready unemployed needed a doseof monetarism to getitsdeficitdown. Theneoconservative concept ofthenon-accelerating inflationrateofunemployment , despiteits patentabsurdity, seemsto havea following well beyond itsorthodox monetarist adherents. In anyevent,theToriesand the Bankof Canadadid followHarrison'sprescription in x99o and brought abouta recession thatcreated thefrustrations thathelped to increase Reform'spolitical appeal. ^zvx• •x•cEz Athabasca Universit• Propert T and Inequalit], in Victorian Ontario:Structural Patterns and CulturalCommunities in the•87• Census. GOaDO•D^aaoc• and zE• sozxow. Toronto: University ofToronto...