Chapter Thirteen: Movements and Populist Revolts

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

William Aberhart would not have liked scouting much, even if it had been around when he was a boy. If he went into the woods, it was only to practice future sermons, inspired by the revival meetings of the day.

He never had many friends, simply because he was too domineering, and though he excelled at sports he was not a team player. His time spent alone was used in study, or teaching himself to play musical instruments.

He would have liked the way that the boy scouts became militarized though, because he liked everything to be mechanical. It was once said that as a teacher he made a good dog trainer, and while his students were expected to memorize their work, they were not really encouraged to think for themselves.

In 1903, Aberhart wrote that he thought of his classroom as a battlefield, and admired the organizational skills of Oliver Cromwell. However, Cromwell's skills were not in organizing, but in brutality, and some of that was used to keep the children in line.

My son was at Crescent Heights, and I consider that Aberhart had a complete disregard of other persons' rights. Students were almost always afraid of him, and I believe his teachers were half-afraid of him too ... his idea of education was simply, "drill things into people mechanically, make them memorize." My fundamental criticism of him is that he wasn't humanitarian enough. He was much too domineering, and he didn't treat people as human beings: they were just pawns in his scheme of things.

On one occasion, Aberhart struck down a boy for refusing to admit he had been impudent to a lady teacher. In considering Aberhart, you must never forget that his was the most violent temper it is possible for a human being to have, and the students at Crescent Heights suffered from that terrible temper for twenty years. Ask his admirers about the story, and see if they can explain away his treatment of that boy! (1)

I think it's important to study the youth movements of the day, because they played an integral part, not only in the social history of the period, but also in the mindset of future military, academic and political leaders.

And though they originally began as a "back to nature" movement, inspired by the naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, they took on a more regimental role, with emphasis on taking orders. They were no longer just scouts, but good future soldiers.

Though all this was recognised after a time, probably few people - even good judges-thought of the Boy Scouts as being of any material value in war-time; but they were quickly undeceived. In the first place, it is wonderful, when one considers how young the movement is, to note the number of ex-Boy Scouts who have found their way into the Army. Their Scout training is greatly in favour of their becoming good soldiers : all that is required is the military drill and a knowledge of the rifle.

It is noteworthy that men and boys who have been trained as Scouts are much quicker to settle down to their new life in the army. Precisely the same thing has happened abroad. Scouts are found in all countries, dressed in the same fashion, holding to the same Scout law, and striving after the same ideals. In Germany, which few of us at the present moment are inclined to take as an example. there are over 50,000 Boy Scouts. They have aided the authorities by acting as cyclist-messengers. (2)

There were a few random scout troops in Canada by 1907, but they did not become organized until 1910, on the advice of Baden-Powell.

But across Europe and even North America, movements like these were not only for the youth, though they usually made up the bulk of the memberships, but they provided an opportunity for intellectual debate as they became political vehicles for change.

And they also provided foot soldiers against the new enemy: Communism.

Chapter Thirteen Continued: The German Youth Movement

Source:

1. The Social Credit Movement in Alberta, By: John A. Irving, University of Toronto Press, 1959, pg. 22

2. Five Years on the Western Front: Boy Scouts in War Time, By Philip Gibbs, 1919

Table of Contents

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Table of Contents

Preface

My Grandmother Attended the Apocalypse and All She Got Was a Bias Cut Blouse

Introduction

Chapter One: Bold Moves

................... Family Affairs and Armed Citizens

Chapter Two: Bolder Moves

Chapter Three: Secret Moves

................... Family Burdens

Chapter Four: William of Mecklenburg

................... Saving His Soul

................... Political Climate

................... William and Louisa

Chapter Five: Spiritual Awakenings

....................Irvingites and Dispensationalism

....................A Conspiracy Unfolds

Chapter Six: William of Tuckersmith

...................Classrooms and Battlegrounds

.................. A Question of Faith

.................. Jessie

Chapter Seven: The Schicklgrubers of Austria

.................. Alois Schicklgruber-Hiedler

.................. Alois and Klara

Chapter Eight: Adolf of Braunau am Inn

..................Vienna Days

Chapter Nine: Leo of Kirchhain

..................A Budding Philosopher

Chapter Ten: The War Years

.................Heeding the Call of the Fatherland

.................A Reluctant Soldier

Chapter Eleven: Mutinies and Revolutions

................The German Revolution

Chapter Twelve: The Aftermath of War

...............The Aftermath of Defeat

Chapter. Thirteen: Movements and Populist Revolts

...............The Brown Shirts

...............The Black Shirts

.............. The Blue Shirts

...............The Green Shirts

Chapter Fourteen: Into the Darkness

..............The Power of the Mustache

..............A Star is Born

..............Aberhart and Manning Find Their Antichrist

BOOK TWO

From Movement to Political Party

Book Two: Introduction

..............Konrad and Adolf

..............Secret Societies

..............More About Secret Societies

Chapter Fifteen: Salvation and Shakespeare

..............Out of the Rubble Steps a Saviour

..............Ernest and William

..............Serious Premiers and a Beauteous Blonde

Chapter Sixteen: The Makings of a Political Party

..............Amed Intellectuals

..............The Beer Hall Putsch

Chapter Seventeen: Martians and Evil Bankers

..............Getting in the Race

..............A Divine Mission

..............Is This Fascist?

Chapter Eighteen: It Began at That Hour

..............Discovering Good Material

..............Houston Stewart Chamberlain

..............In Search of Utopia

Chapter Nineteen: Demagogs and Democracy

..............Near Victory for Fascist Fanatic

..............A Nation in the Grips of Fear

..............Trouble Brewing

..............Leo and Carl

Chapter Twenty: Mixed Blessings

..............Father Charles Coughlin

..............Henry Ford

..............Burning Bridges

Chapter Twenty-One: The Illuminati and Such

Chapter Twenty-Two: When the Canary Doesn't Sing

...............In the Aftermath

Chapter Twenty-Three: Joseph Goebbels

...............At a Crossroads

Chapter Twenty-Four: Reductio ad Hitlerum and Propaganda

..............Language Guidance

..............All Quiet on the Western Front

..............Controlling the Masses

..............Higher Education

..............Shoe Stores and Accurate News

Chapter Twenty-Five: Dishing News Out on Platters

..............Poets and Gesellites

Chapter Twenty-Six: Goebbels and Controlling the Masses

..............Propaganda and Public Enlightenment

..............Law, Justice and the Reichstag Fire

Chapter Twenty-Seven: One Awful Thing After Another

.............The Dictator of Alberta

.............Going Too Far

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

.............The State of Exception

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Social Credit and Anti-Semitism

..............Protocols of Zion

............. Edith Gostick

..............Ron Gostick

BOOK THREE

Ernest

Chapter Thirty: Ernest Manning Introduction

................Ernest and Muriel

Chapter Thirty-One: On Becoming Premier

............... Boom Times for Alberta

................Corporatist Conformism

................Flirting With Fascism

................Manning, Aberhart and Eugenics

................Ernest Manning and the Japanese Question

Chapter Thirty-Two: Creating a Theocracy

............... The Mark of the Beast

................Faith Feud of Ernest Manning and Tommy Douglas

Chapter Thirty-Three: Ernest Manning and Anti-Semitism

................John Horne Blackmore

............... Ernest Manning, Orvis Kennedy and the Communists

................Ernest Manning and Percy Young

................Solon Low and Anti-Semitism

Chapter Thirty-Four: From Darkness to Darker Still

................Continued: Norman Jacques

Chapter Thirty-Five: Exiles of War and American Politics

................The National Citizens Coalition

BOOK FOUR

Preston

Chapter Thirty-Six: Passing the Torch

...............National Public Affairs Research Foundation

...............Prepared for a World That no Longer Existed

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Keeping Step With the Times

...............Images of Our Time

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Politics of Hate

...............The Poisonous Mushroom

...............Droege and "Militant Conservative Activism"

...............Sunshine Boys and a Flash in the Pan

...............From Partisans to Pioneers

...............Happy Shoppers and True Nazis

...............Odonists and the Western Guard

...............Ann Farmer and Going Legit

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Reform Party and Francis Winspear

Chapter Forty: Western Alienation and the Myth of the National Energy Program

................John Diefenbaker and the National Energy Board

Abe Lincoln, Preston Manning and the Reform Movement

...............Preston Manning and a House Divided

Preston Manning, Newt Gingrich and a Republican in the House

BOOK FIVE

Stockwell

The Health, Wealth and Stealth of Right-Wing Coalitions

..............Health Coalitions

..............Roots of Change

..............Religion vs Knowledge

..............James Lunney and Quackery

The Strange Case of James Keegstra

..............Justinas Pranaitis and The Talmud Unmasked

BOOK SIX

Stephen

Peter Mackay and the Death of the Tory Party in Canada

..............Ernest Manning and the NCC

..............The Fraser Institute's Role

..............Conrad Black and Media Manipulation

..............David Frum and Winds of Change

..............Craig Chandler and the Roots of Change

..............The Creation of Stephen Harper's Sandbox

Preston Manning, Morton Blackwell and a Questionable Youth Movement

..............Ann Coulter and Tom Tancredo

............. Stirring it Up at the University of Manitoba

..............Peter Kent and York University

..............The Tangled Web at Carlton University

..............Reviving Mike Harris

..............Give me Liberty or Aaron Lee-Wudrick

............. Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe

..............Dalhousie and Jared Taylor

Tom Lukiwski and the Real Saskatchewan Scandal

.............Tom Lukiwski, Grant Devine and the Religious Right

.............Sex, Lies and Videotape

.............From Mouseland to Dirty Rats

Hero or Villain: Understanding Jason Kenney

.............Educating Jason Kenney: St. Ignatius Institute

.............Educating Jason Kenney: Between Life and Death

.............Jason Kenney and the Pyramid Scheme

.............Jason Kenney Finds His Calling Through Incarnation

.............Jason Kenney Broadens the Tent

.............Holy CCRAP! If He Shakes Your Hand Count Your Fingers

STEPHEN HARPER AND THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

How Stephen Harper and the Theo-Cons Helped to Engineer an Election

Dirty Deeds and the Selling of Souls

Is Money Corrupting Religion?

Creationism vs Evolution: A Misguided War

Gary Goodyear and the Harper Government's Attack on Science

Should Plato's Books be Burned or Just Banned?

Theodore Hertzl and the State of Israel

...............John Hagee, Israel and the Persecution of Christians

...............John Hagee and Christians United For Israel

...............The Not so Invisible Hand of John Hagee

Desert Stream and Living Water Ministries

Spanking and Dominionism

Catechism and the Indoctrination of Children

From Tommy Douglas to the Exclusive Brethren: What a Journey

Attack on KAIROS Reflected New Direction for Aid Agencies

................ The American Enterprise Institute

.................Jason Kenney and the NGO Monitor on a Rampage

RANDOM BUT RELATED STORIES

Extremism

From Douglasite to Opus Dei and Only Took 63 Years

Konrad Heiden, Nazis and Social Credit

Stephen Harper, William Aberhart and Waiting for the Rapture

Stephen Harper's Homophobia Runs Long and Deep

Roots of Reform, the NCC, Racism and Ethnic Indigestion

Neoconservatism

How to Create a Business-Financed Propaganda Infrastructure

The Fraser Institute: From Chickens to Iron Ladies

Cyrus Scofield Meets Leo Strauss in a Continuing Struggle Between Good and Evil

Controllong the Ignorant Masses With Leo Strauss and Homiletics

True Blue Aberhart, Not Tory-Blue Sir John A MacDonald

Anthony Peter Panayi, AKA: Tony Clement

Murder, Gun Control and Stepsons

Fate Brings Anthony Panayi to Canada With Fateful Consequences

Why Do Neoconservatives Hate Nelson Mandela?

Tony Panayi Continued: Tory Youth and Right-Wing Politics

Tony Panyi Continued: A Shake Up in the Legislature

Tony Panayi Continued: A Party Self Destructs

Tony Panayi Continued: Ontarians for Responsible Government

National Citizens Coalition and Other Right-Wing Groups Help Mike Harris

Mike Harris and the American "Common Sense" Revolution

Tony Clement Takes on the Reform Party

Mike Harris and Ontario Under Corporate Rule

A Clever Distraction: "Any Palladini is a Pal of Mine"

Tony Clement and 101 Things to do With Cat Food

Tony Clement: You Want to Sell What?

Two-Tier Tony Clement and the Gutting of Healthcare

How Mike Harris Stole the 1999 Ontario Election

Tony Clement, Jim Flaherty and the Adams Mine Scandal

Tony Clement Gives Away Natural Resources to Bust Union in Sudbury

Tony Clement, Unions and the National Citizens Coalition

The Social Credit Party and the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

The Social Credit Party was the forerunner to the Reform Party of Canada, and ultimately the Conservative Party of Canada, under Stephen Harper.

Born out of the deplorable economic and social conditions of the Depression, Social Credit became as much a religious crusade as a push for economic reform.

But it also had a dark side.

Originating in England; the brainchild of arch-antisemitic Major C. H. Douglas, the necessity for change was inspired by a book that was being distributed at the time, Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

According to Janine Stingel "Social Credit was wholly dependent on an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory." (1)

For populist parties to succeed they must find a common enemy and a common cause; and in the 1930's that common enemy became the banks, and the cause an alternative financial system.

Eventually those horrible banks were believed to be part of a larger conspiracy of the Jewish people to take over the world.

Anti-Semitism in Canada in the 1930s and 1940s involved an image of Jews as international conspirators, secretly plotting world domination through an inchoate combination of international banking, communism and Zionism. In the mythology, based on the forged but widely circulated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jews thus posed a threat to national sovereignty, property, peace and prosperity.

Anti-Semitism was not a coincidental adjunct to this right-wing populist movement, but resided at the core of a paranoid vision of bankers and money-lenders swindling honest Canadians out of the wages of their toil. Depression-era Alberta was fertile ground for such a message, particularly when it came through the medium of a popular radio-preacher turned politician, "Bible Bill" Aberhart.

"Alberta thus became home to the only North American jurisdiction with a government that officially endorsed anti-Semitism." (2)

William Aberhart and Anti-Semitism

It is widely believed that while Aberhart adopted, or at least attempted to adopt, the economic theories of Major Douglas, he did not buy into the rampant anti-semitism. Like Stephen Harper, he was able to play the role of the moderate. However, evidence suggests otherwise.

Aberhart's positive statements about Jews were balanced by equally negative statements. During a lecture at the Calgary Prophetic Bible Conference in 1922, Aberhart explicitly opposed Zionism and argued that because Jews had not accepted Christ they would never succeed in regaining the Promised Land of
Zion: "

The JEWISH RACE must yet acknowledge that the CHRIST who was crucified to the CROSS of Calvary was the SON of GOD, their MESSIAH. Until they will acknowledge that they must expect the curses of the world and can not expect the Blessings of GOD." In other sermons Aberhart criticized the Jewish nation for its sinfulness, including the sins of selfishness, hypocrisy, usery, violence, injustice, and discontent with wages.He viewed Christianity as a war against the Antichrist and suggested that when Armageddon came, most Jews would be duped by the Antichrist, believing him to be the Messiah. (3)

And though proven to be a forgery, the Protocols were often referenced around the world.

Despite conclusive proof that the Protocols were a gross forgery, they had sensational popularity and large sales in the 1920's and 1930's. They were translated into every language of Europe and sold widely in Arab lands, the United States, and England. But it was in Germany after World War I that they had their greatest success. There they were used to explain all of the disasters that had befallen the country: the defeat in the war, the hunger, the destructive inflation... (4)

Henry Ford printed them in his newspaper, the Social Credit parties of Quebec and Alberta published them in their literature and Social Credit MP for Wetaskiwin, Norman Jaques, tried reading the Protocols in the House of Commons.

But nobody adhered to the message of the Protocols like Adolph Hitler.

To what extent the whole existence of this people is based on a continuous lie is shown incomparably by the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion, so infinitely hated by the Jews. They are based on a forgery, the Frankfurter Zeitung moans and screams once every week: the best proof that they are authentic. What many Jews may do unconsciously is here consciously exposed. And that is what matters. It is completely indifferent from what Jewish brain these disclosures originate; the important thing is that with positively terrifying certainty they reveal the nature and activity of the Jewish people and expose their inner contexts as well as their ultimate final aims. The best criticism applied to them, however, is reality. Anyone who examines the historical development of the last hundred years from the standpoint of this book will at once understand the screaming of the Jewish press. For once this book has become the common property of a people, the Jewish menace may be considered as broken ... (5)

When Preston Manning later tried to tap into the success of the Social Credit Party, that ran Alberta for almost four decades, he stated:

As I grew up, I learned that the "prairie populism" with which I was familiar—the Social Credit movement in Alberta—was not an isolated political aberration, but part of a much broader political tradition ... Years later, I developed a more objective view of populism, including a healthy fear of its darker side and a more realistic assessment of its potential as an agent for political change. (6)

He may have developed a 'healthy fear', but it did not stop him from bringing in the extremist elements when he launched his Reform Party. In fact at their first assembly, they adopted a motion to allow Right Wing fringe groups to join them, including Doug Christie's Western Canada Concept (Stockwell Day's father was a close friend of Christie's and a member of the WCP), a separatist party. (7)

When it was learned that several neo-Nazi groups had infiltrated the party, who coincidentally also followed the Protocols of Zion, Manning would simply say that "a bright light attracts bugs."

But as my own late father might say; "so does shite."

Sources:

1. Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit and the Jewish Response, Janine Stingel, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-2010-4, Pg. 13

2. CANADIAN SOCIAL STUDIES VOLUME 38, NUMBER 1, FALL 2003, By Peter Seixas

3. Social Discredit: Anti-Semitism, Social Credit and the Jewish Response, Janine Stingel, Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press ISBN 0-7735-2010-4, Pg. 20-21)

4. Holocaust Years: The Nazi Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945, Nora Levin, Pg 19

5. Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler, Translated by Ralph Mannheim, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943

6. The New Canada, Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 7

7. Of Passionate Intensity: Right-Wing Populism and the Reform Party of Canada. Author: Trevor Harrison Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-8020-7204-6, Pg. 115-116

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuation:

* Henry Ford and "Bible Bill" Discover the Protocols

* Father Charles Coughlin and William Aberhart

* Major Clifford Hughes Douglas and the Protocols of Zion

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twenty Four Continued: Shoes Stores and Accurate News

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

In April of 2006, Time Magazine ran an article entitled Controlling The Message.

George Bush was in his sixth year as President of the United States and most Americans now realized that under Bush they had all but lost their personal freedoms, and were in the process of fighting to get them back.

But the Time article was not about George Bush.

Nor was it about Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney or even Ari Fleischer.

It was about Stephen Harper.

Four years ago, Time Magazine recognized that what was happening in Canada was troubling and newsworthy.

They spoke of secret cabinet meetings, and while legally the government must announce these, Harper would wait until the meeting was well underway before meeting his legal obligations. And in describing one of those announcements:

...the veiled wording of the advisory--"There will be a Government media availability, today in the foyer of the House of Commons"--was almost Soviet in
its stiff obfuscation. (1) (my emphasis added)

And:

"Canadians should be worried when they see the government trying to exert such an unprecedented level of control." ... Alasdair Roberts, a Syracuse University public-policy professor, asks, "How can the average Canadian make a judgment about whether their government is being well run if they don't have access to the information?"

...Peter Murdoch of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union says the new policy "smacks of totalitarianism." (1)

When Adolf Hitler was first named Chancellor of Germany he had limited powers imposed by President Von Hindenburg, but Joseph Goebbels wasted no time. He immediately seized control of all newspapers and other media outlets. He had been named Minister for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda and set up office in the Leopold Palace on Wilhelmstrasse, just across from Hitler’s offices in the Reich Chancellery. As one fan of Gobbels put it:

It takes only five minutes to walk from Postdamer Straße 109 in Berlin to the Wilhelmplatz. Five minutes from the more than modest first business office of the newly-named National Socialist Gauleiter of Berlin, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, to the Leopold Palace, the current headquarters of the Reich Ministry for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda. It took Dr. Joseph Goebbels six and one half years to cover the distance.

The official building he took over, the old Leopold Palace, had long been the seat of the Press Office of the Reich government. It was dark and musty. Dark carpets and curtains carried the dust of years. ... After Dr. Goebbels had been in office for a few days, the dusty old hangings had been removed from the majority of the rooms, and simple, but friendly furniture filled bright rooms. When Dr. Goebbels spoke for the first time to representatives of the German press in the Garden Room of the Leopold Palace, no one failed to see that the evil spirit of a press hostile to the people had been forever driven out. (2)

Until bombed during the war, that would be propaganda central for the Nazi government, where everything from literature, music, film, radio, newspapers - all media and entertainment, would be controlled.


The Shoe Store Project

In 2007, Tonda MacCharles in the Ottawa Bureau of the Toronto Star, unearthed secret plans for a special media centre, dubbed the "Shoe Store Project". At the time Harper's staff had been working quietly, to restore an old shoe store into a controlled environment for government messaging.

The Prime Minister's Office, which has long had a rocky relationship with the national media, has been working on a secret project to build a new, government-controlled briefing room at the cost of $2 million, documents obtained by the Star show. ... The result would be a little fancier than the National Press Theatre and, most important, give the PMO a lot more control over who gets in and, quite possibly, what gets filmed and broadcast....

Since the Conservative government's relationship with national media is already fraught with tension over curtailed access to ministers and Harper, the project was clearly deemed highly sensitive ... A hand-drawn sketch of the PM's renovated shoe store/press theatre indicates a space for "maybe permanently installed cameras with feeds to media."That could put the news cameras in the hands of government-employed camera operators, not independent photojournalists
employed by the television networks. (3) (Emphasis mine)

Once the media got wind of the project it was axed, but now just a few short years later, the PMO staff are taking their own photographs, writing their own copy and creating their own video. Messrs Goebbels and Hitler would be impressed.

Matthew Brett of Global Research is not:

Not surprisingly, the Globe and Mail and other news organizations ran a press release from the PMO's office verbatim, with no critical commentary, analysis or insight. The state of media today is such that copy-pasting a press release from the PMO and slapping it on the front page of a national daily newspaper is accepted practice. Indeed, Conservative strategist Tom Flanagan writes that “compared to most countries with which I have any familiarity, the Conservatives in Canada actually have friendly media to work with.” The ‘Propaganda Model’ is more than alive and well, but sometimes without even bothering to ‘filter’ news content. (4)

"His full conquest of the masses came only after [he] had silenced oppositional opinion and had acquired total control of the media." Konrad Heiden of Adolf Hitler

This is the last entry of this little interlude, and I will now return to the history of the Reform-Conservative movement. However, I will have a lot more on this subject later in the book.

Sources:

1. Controlling The Message, Time Magazine, By Steven Frank, April 3, 2006

2.Dr. Goebbels and his Ministry, by Hans Fritzsche,Verlag Max Steinebach, 1934, pg. 330-342

3. PM plans own media centre: Secret $2M project to build new briefing centre would supplant nearby National Press Theatre, By: Tonda McCharles, Toronto Star, October 15, 2007

4. Canadian Politics: The Newly Benevolent Stephen Harper, by Matthew Brett, Global Research, March 14, 2010