Chapter Thirty-Three: Ernest Manning and Anti-Semitism

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

"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." (1)

When Ernest Manning took over the premiership after Aberhart’s death in the spring of 1943, he was well aware of Social Credit’s anti-Semitic elements, which had become entrenched in the Social Credit movement.

Throughout the Second World War, party literature increased it's alarms over a Jewish conspiracy, especially since Major Douglas's views were becoming more erratic. As David Elliot states: "Douglas was extremely anti-Judaic in the tradition of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. His conspiracy ideas became more pronouncedly paranoid as time progressed and there developed a great similarity between Douglas's and Hitler's analysis of economics and banking... He further claimed that no politician could "hope to attain office except by permission of Finance, " finance being a common epithet in Anti-Semitic literature, referring to international Jewish bankers, whose power was more imagined than real." (2)

And at a time when they should have been alarmed by news of the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, the Canadian Social Crediters instead believed that the stories were fabricated to further the aims of the Jewish world plotters. As a result, they were vehemently opposed to the acceptance of Jewish refugees. This prompted accusations of Nazism by both the media and their political opponents, forcing the new Premier, Ernest Manning to take a stand.

With an election looming, on March 2, 1944, he issued a public statement in which he “unequivocally” repudiated anti-Semitism within the Alberta Social Credit movement, though his statement only brought more confusion over his party's position.

It has been brought to my attention that an erroneous impression has been created in certain quarters that the Social Credit movement is anti-Semitic. Nothing could be further from the truth ... Social Credit is not opposed to any religion or race, as such. It is only when the adherents to any religion, or the people of any race take collective action as a group to attack the principles of Christianity and democracy which are fundamental to Social Credit that conflict arises ... In exposing and opposing the conspiracy of individuals and corporations seeking to impose a state of financial and economic dictatorship upon all nations the advocates of Social Credit consider it most important that the facts of the case be placed before the people irrespective of the color, race or creed of the conspirators. (3)

In other words, while denying the party promoted anti-Semitic views, he still believed that Jews were the “enemy” of Christianity and democracy. He then went on to compare Social Credit’s battle against the international financial conspiracy with the fight against Nazism. He argued that, because Nazi Germany attacked Christianity and democracy, this necessarily brought it in conflict with Social Credit, ignoring the fact that they were murdering Jews.

According to Canadian Jewish Congress official, Louis Rosenberg:

“Evidently the leader of the Social Credit Party in Alberta does not like to be called an anti-semite, although he has done nothing to repudiate the repeated anti-semitic remarks which appear regularly in his official paper Today and Tomorrow and the anti-semitic statements made by the Social Credit members in the House of Commons ... the only difference between blatant anti-Semites in the Social Credit movement and “more circumspect and careful men” like Manning and the late Aberhart was that the former invoked the word “Jewish” in their fulminations about the international financial conspiracy, whereas the latter “use the same arguments and the same phraseology but omit the word Jewish, leaving their true meaning to be understood.” (3)

Sources:

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

2. Anti-Semitism and the Social Credit Movement: The Intellectual Roots of the Keegstra Affair, By: David Elliot, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 1985

3. FROM FATHER TO SON: CANADIAN JEWRY’S RESPONSE TO THE ALBERTA SOCIAL CREDIT PARTY AND THE REFORM PARTY OF CANADA By: Janine Stingel

Chapter Thirty-One Continued: Boom Times for Alberta

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

After taking Aberhart's place, upon his death in 1943, Ernest Manning would call an election for the following year, which he won handily, despite the fact that the CCF was advancing from Saskatchewan, hoping to make inroads after Tommy Douglas took the province by storm.

The Invaders Repelled. Fresh from its triumph in Saskatchewan, the socialist C.C.F. invaded neighboring Alberta. Ever since the late William ("Bible Bill") Aberhart dazzled Albertans with the promise to pay them $25 a month for life, the Social Creditors have ruled the province. Last week businessmen and bankers who once fought "Bible Bill" supported his successor, 35-year-old Ernest Charles Manning. The result: Social Creditors, 47; C.C.F., 2; Independents, 3; Veterans' candidate, I; with Social Creditors leading in the four remaining ridings. Said an Albertan: "We didn't want to swap a light case of chickenpox for a bad case of smallpox." (1)

A more sombre character, Manning lacked the charisma of William Aberhart, but he sent out signals that he would still be just as authoritarian. And rather than simply fight "the big shots", he made an attempt to work with them on many things.

This didn't mean that he was completely abandoning Social Credit principles, but when his 1946 Bill of Rights was turned down by the Supreme Court:

Spare, intense Premier Manning took the court's decision in silence. Eleven years after the late William ("Bible Bill") Aberhart swept into power on a pledge of $25-a-month-credit-to-every-Albertan, the provincial government was still Social Credit in name only. (2)

And they would remain Social Credit in name only; but the following year, they would find themselves in a position where they no longer needed these cockamamie schemes.

They struck oil.

Manning Gets Down to Business:

On February 13, 1947, Leduc Alberta struck liquid gold and the world took notice, especially the oilmen of Texas. But Manning had a problem. His caucus still expected him to embrace Douglas's theories, especially now that they had the means to fulfill them.

L. Denis Byrne*, who had been with them since the backbenchers revolt, completed what what was called the Byrne Report.

In it was repeated the notion that there was "a plot, world-wide in scope, deliberately engineered by a small number of ruthless international financiers", most of whom were Jewish. It proposed a new voting system in which voters would state their choices publicly, and be taxed only for those government programs they supported during the election. Political parties were to be abolished in favour of "leagues of electors", and all farmland was to be appropriated by the government.

Manning, took this as "a direct challenge to his leadership, a shot across the bow" and quickly introduced a resolution in the legislature to "condemn, repudiate, and completely dissociate" the legislature from "any statements or publications which are incompatible with the established British ideals of democratic freedom, or which endorse, excuse, or incite anti-Semitism or racial or religious intolerance in any form". (3)

In November 1947 he announced that the Social Credit Board would cease to exist effective March 1948, and in February 1948 he asked for and received Byrne's resignation as deputy minister of Economic Affairs.

Alfe Hooke was in London recruiting immigrants, when he got the word:

It was about this time I received disquieting news from Premier Manning. The acting Minister of Economic Affairs, in my absence, was the Honourable N. E. Tanner, Minister of Lands and Mines. It was to him that the Deputy Minister, Mr. L. D. Byrne, would have to report the various operations of the Department of Economic Affairs and again it was he from whom the Deputy Minister would receive instructions. Mr. Byrne was still the Technical Adviser to the Social Credit Board and Mr. A. V. Bourcier, as Chairman of the Board, would work in close contact with Mr. Byrne. This, then, was the chain of command.

I received a telegram from Premier Manning informing me that the government, upon the recommendation of Mr. Tanner, had found it necessary to ask for Mr. Byrne's resignation and pointing out that as Mr. Ansley, Minister of Education, and previously Chairman of the Social Credit Board, had supported the recommendations of Mr. Byrne to the Cabinet, it had become necessary for the Premier to ask for his resignation also. Two or three days later a letter arrived from the Premier verifying the telegram and explaining that it was obvious that a conflict of policy existed between Messrs. Byrne and Ansley on the one hand and the remainder of the Cabinet on the other.

Naturally, this news was, to say the least, disconcerting to me, as I had absolute faith both in the knowledge and integrity of Mr. Byrne and Mr. Ansley. I was sure that any recommendations which would be made would be made in good faith and entirely in keeping with Social Credit policy, but because I had not seen the Byrne report and its recommendations, I was certainly in no position to know what stand I might have taken personally had I been in Edmonton at that time. I must say that I felt sorry for both these men, as I knew that both were dedicated to the Social Credit cause. (4)

And there in lay the problem. Ernest Manning was no longer "dedicated to the Social Credit cause." And while many believe he was motivated to end the rampant anti-Semitism that defined the party, it was more about his leadership being questioned at a time when he had an opportunity to finally run a province with money.

Texas of the North

A tall, feathery column of black spray shot into the air and a throaty roar echoed over the grainfields outside Edmonton. Within minutes, a bumper-to-bumper line of cars was moving out of the city along the westbound Jasper highway, heading for the new Acheson oilfield, seven miles away. There a crowd gathered to relish a familiar but stirring sight. Alberta's newest oil well was blowing in wildly, gushing up 200 feet and spitting blobs of copper-black crude for half a mile around.

Rampaging wells and eager people are signs of the times in booming Alberta. All Canada has expanded amazingly since World War II; discoveries of iron ore, nickel, copper, uranium and titanium are cracking open a dozen new frontiers. But the biggest boom of all is in Alberta's oil, the most significant new find on the continent since Texas' Spindletop roared in, 50 years ago. (5)

And with all that good fortune and cash, Manning was able to put the province on the right path, adopting a sound, if somewhat regressive policy of pay as you go. Not that it was a bad thing. All too often leaders spend like crazy during boom times leaving nothing for those periods of "bust".

Social Crediters called for stricter adherence to the old creed two years ago, Manning sternly read them out of the party. The government-run University of Alberta no longer studies Social Credit as a political theory. From a hot-eyed economic reform movement, the Social Credit Party has changed into one of Canada's most conservative provincial governments, with a strict pay-as-you-go tax policy and a debt-retirement program.

Alberta's oil policy, bossed by Mines Minister Nathan Tanner, a Mormon bishop in private life, is a model arrangement between government and industry. Since 93% of all oil rights in Alberta are owned by the province, there is little of the feverish scrambling for land or the cutthroat competition that marked the oil booms of Texas and other areas where mineral rights were privately owned.

And yet that's exactly what we're dealing with now. Almost all of our resources are now privately owned. And it began for Alberta, when Manning eventually sold out, embracing a "free market" policy, long before the rise of neoconservatism.

Continued: Corporatist Conformism

Footnotes:

*The Author, L. Denis Byrne had a long association with Canada. Sent by C. H. Douglas to advise the Aberhart Social Credit Government in Alberta, Mr. Byrne was a major figure in the historical struggle that took place against the forces of International Finance and International Revolution. He later became the British Trade Commissioner in Edmonton, retiring in 1971. In 1970 the Queen honoured him with the Order of The British Empire. He wrote a piece of the Right-Wing Australian League of Rights, Race, Culture, Nation: The Policy of Satanism, so was still pretty bizarre.

Sources:

1. Canada at War: THE DOMINION: Two Elections, Time Magazine, August 21, 1944

2. Canada: ALBERTA: Blue Skies, Time Magazine, December 30, 1946

3. The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning Story, By Brian Brennan, Fifth House Ltd., ISBN 978-1-897252-16-1

4. 30+5 I know, I was There, A first-hand account of the workings and history of the Social Credit Government in Alberta, Canada 1935-68, by Alfred J Hooke, Douglas Social Credit Secretariat

5. CANADA: Texas of the North, Time Magazine, September 24, 1951

Chapter Thirty Continued: Ernest and Muriel

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

Muriel Aileen Preston was born on March 30, 1911 in Saskatoon, the daughter of William Preston and Mary Hutchinson.

Her father was born in 1871 at Quernmore Parish, Lancashire, England and emigrated to Canada in 1906. Her mother was of Scottish descent, but born in Ontario in 1881. By the time of the 1916 census, they had settled with five-year-old Muriel in the small municipality of Sewell, near Saskatoon. (1)

On April 14, 1916, William enlisted with the 210th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His occupation was given as musician and clerk. On November 29, 1916, he was discharged, being declared unfit for duty. I suppose his age was a factor.

At the time, William and Mary were separated and Muriel was placed in several convents, while her mother took a variety of teaching jobs across the West. It was at the Sacred Heart Convent in Calgary that Muriel was taught to play the piano and she would become an accomplished musician, a trait no doubt passed on from her father. (2)

In 1923, Mary Hutchinson Preston, joined the congregation of the Westbourne Baptist Church in Calgary, where William Aberhart was then acting as a lay preacher. Though often criticized for never speaking of baptism, and being far too fond of railing against the devil, his Bible classes were immensely popular, and by the time that Mary joined, he was virtually in control of all aspects of the church. (3)

She was then teaching at Riverside school and her students would go on to Crescent High where Aberhart was acting principal. By then Muriel had joined her mother and it was Aberhart who encouraged her to begin playing "sacred" music. In 1925, when the regular organist at Weybourne moved to Vancouver, Muriel, though only 14, was given her job. (4)

Then when the Calgary Prophetic Institute was opened, Muriel would become the musical director. It was here that she met her future husband, Ernest, who would become the institutes's first graduate.

Muriel Aileen Preston would marry Ernest Charles Manning, on April 14, 1936, twenty years to the day when her father walked out on the family to join the CEF. Premier William Aberhart, gave the bride away.

Muriel and Ernest would have been married for almost 60 years when he passed away in February of 1996. She died on April 21 , 2006 , at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, Alberta , at the age of 95.

The couple raised two sons, Keith and Preston. Keith was injured at birth but led a productive life, and Preston would go on to found the Reform Party, where another young man would assume the role of his lieutenant. A role that his father had played for William Aberhart.

His name was Stephen Joseph Harper.

Chapter Thirty-One: On Becoming Premier

Sources:

1. "Census returns for 1916 Census of Prairie Provinces." Statistics of Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm T-21925 to T-21956. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.; Census Place: Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 03A; Roll: T-21944; Page: 66; Family No: 803

2. The New Canada, By Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, Pg. 7-8

3. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 29

4. She's Seen Depression, War, Oil's Great Cycle, By David Bly, The Calgary Herald

Chapter Thirty-One: On Becoming Premier

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

In the spring of 1943, William Aberhart was showing signs of fatigue. Deciding to take a vacation to Vancouver for rest, he ended up having to be hospitalized, where he died on May 23.

There is a lot of speculation as to what may have caused his health to deteriorate so quickly, many believing that stress may have been a factor. Indeed it would appear that he was engaged in some kind of controversy, again concerning church finances. In a letter to Vernon Barber, the man making the accusations, Aberhart writes:

You say I have defrauded the people by taking their money under false pretences. I have never received money from the people for preaching the Gospel and so how could you make that charge? Any preaching I do is done gratis and how do you make out that I have sold my birthright for a mess of pottage.

Two days before that Aberhart had written to a colleague, saying that he was too weak to attend church that Sunday. There is a hint of this controversy, when he says: "I thought I would let you know early so that you could prepare yourself for the ordeal." (1)

However, the official cause of death was sclerosis of liver, and since he never drank alcohol may have been what is known as non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis, where fat gets deposited in the liver leading the liver to becomes inflamed, ceasing to function.

Ernest Manning was a pall bearer and also delivered the eulogy. Whatever the ordeal was that had upset William Aberhart so, he took it to his grave.

The Passing of the Torch

Aberhart had been like a father to Ernest Manning, and when he first arrived as a student to the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute, the two had been almost inseparable. Ernest became the family chauffeur, and had acted as unofficial deputy premier since their huge victory in 1935.

When he married Muriel Preston, it was Aberhart who gave the bride away, and when son Preston was born, William Aberhart became his godfather.

Therefore, he seemed like the natural successor and former Social Credit MPP, Alf Hooke describes the passing of the torch.

Although Ernest Manning was only thirty-four years old, it seemed to the vast majority of the Social Credit members of the Legislature that he was the natural successor to Mr. Aberhart. After all, he had been tutored at the Bible Institute, had lived in the Aberhart home and had become well known throughout the Province for his Sunday radio broadcasts, in association with Mr. Aberhart, as well as having held for eight years the position of first Acting Premier.

Mr. Manning was chosen at a caucus of the Social Credit members which saw Mr. Solon Low also nominated. While the vote was never made public, I can relate at this date that Mr. Manning received all but two of the votes. Naturally the vast majority of the members had expected a Manning acclamation and it was a great surprise when Mr. Fred Anderson, M.L.A. from Calgary, arose in his place and nominated Mr. Low. As a matter of fact, it seemed to surprise even Mr. Low. Mr. Manning has stated to me since that his ballot was cast in Low's favor; however, Mr. Low likewise assured me that his ballot was cast for Mr. Manning, which simply leaves one to wonder.

Mr. Manning retained the Aberhart Cabinet, Mr. Low becoming Minister of Education, in addition to the post he had previously held as Provincial Treasurer. Mr. C. E. Gerhart from Coronation, and father of the present Attorney General, was sworn in as Minister of Municipal Affairs, and I became Provincial Secretary, assuming the post Mr. Manning himself held from 1935. I was succeeded as Chairman of the Social Credit Board by Mr. R. E. Ansley who had previously been a Board member. Shortly after Mr. Ansley was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Education and Mr. A. V. Bourcier succeeded him as Chairman of the Board and William Tomyn was added to the Board. The new Premier assured the people of the Province that it was his intention to carry on in the footsteps of his predecessor and that the battle for monetary reform would continue to be waged.

It was most interesting at that time to see the change in attitude of the public toward the Social Credit government. Countless people who had bitterly opposed Mr. Aberhart expressed themselves as being prepared to support Premier Manning. It seemed in many cases that personal pride had prevented them from expressing similar support for Mr. Aberhart, even though they knew that his program was working in the interests of the common people of this province. Mr. Manning had assured the people in no uncertain way that the long range program of Mr. Aberhart would be continued with renewed vigor, when in a public address on June 11, 1943, he said: "As long as my colleagues and I have anything to do with the government of this Province, we will see to it that Alberta continues to lead the world in the great fight to secure for every man, woman and child complete and permanent freedom from fear and worry and from social insecurity.

We are determined to continue to do everything in our power to break this vicious money monopoly in accordance with the mandate given to us by the citizens of Alberta in 1935 and again in 1940. We will never give up until effective control of the monetary system has been restored to the democratically elected representatives of the people themselves and is being used to provide every man, woman and child with sufficient purchasing power to enable them to enjoy a secure standard of living commensurate with the productive capacity of the country of which they are citizens." (2)

The following year an election was held, which resulted in a landslide victory. Many attribute this success to Ernest Manning, but Alf Hooke saw it differently.

The election of 1944 saw the Social Credit forces returned to power with a membership of fifty-one to five in the opposition. The credit for this landslide has been often given to Mr. Manning and his Cabinet, but when we realize that Mr. Aberhart had left the scene only a year before, the correct assumption is that the people of Alberta had voted overwhelming confidence in the Aberhart program, which Mr. Manning had vowed to continue. (2)

Manning did keep to his promise to try and continue Aberhart's program, but found that it was more difficult than he had imagined"

During the regular session of 1946 an act known as the Alberta Bill of Rights was passed. It represented an all-out effort to establish Social Credit financial proposals in the Province. It provided for a guaranteed income of not less than $600.00 a year to all Alberta citizens between the ages of nineteen and sixty. Part One of the Act outlined those rights which democracy guarantees to every individual, while Part Two was devoted to the methods of making Part One operative. Provision was made in the bill for its submission directly by the government to the Supreme Court of Alberta for a ruling on its validity. This was done before the bill was to become law. (2)

But once again the Supreme Court decided that Social Credit's attempt to undermine Canada's banking system, was not constitutional.

Another grandiose Social Credit idea turned out last week to be bankrupt. In Alberta's Supreme Court, Chief Justice Horace Harvey and his four colleagues ruled that Premier Ernest Charles Manning's sweeping "Bill of Rights" was unconstitutional. The court's reason: Alberta's brand of Social Credit would infringe on Dominion control of banking.

That was something many Albertans had muttered when the Bill of Rights was passed by the provincial legislature last spring. But the Social Credit government, which decided to have the court pass on the bill before it was put into effect, waved the rumblings aside: the people should not concern themselves with the means but with the end.

On paper, the end looked wonderful. Alberta's Bill of Rights guaranteed the fundamental rights of worship, speech, lawful assembly, and a few more. Among the added starters: 1) a minimum income of $600 a year to every adult Albertan, 2) a pension for all from 19 to 60 years who were unemployed or unemployable; 3) all the necessaries of life and education for those under 19; and 4) retirement benefits for folks over 60.

With such provisions Alberta's Supreme Court found no inherent fault, although Justice Harvey found some parts of the bill incomprehensible. But Premier Manning and his Social Creditors came a legal cropper on their means of financing the benefits. They proposed to set up a five-man Board of Credit Commissioners to estimate the value of all the "assets" of the province (mountains, rivers, forests, etc.), developed or undeveloped. All this blue-sky calculation would add up, Premier Manning and friends reckoned, to the grand sum of $231 billion. To this figure they proposed to add the "capitalized productive capacity" of the 800,000 people of the province.

Against that impressive fund of social credit, the Government would issue credit certificates to pay for the benefits, keep paying out of the central control credit fund until purchasing power balanced goods and services available.

The next clause in the Bill added the final touch in the legislation story of Alice in Bankerland. By this provision all credit institutions (except the Bank of Canada, trust and insurance and mortgage companies) would have to get a provincial license to do business in the province. That did it. The court ruled: provinces cannot infringe on control of banking.

Spare, intense Premier Manning took the court's decision in silence. Eleven years after the late William ("Bible Bill") Aberhart swept into power on a pledge of $25-a-month-credit-to-every-Albertan, the provincial government was still Social Credit in name only. (3)

Then on February 13, 1947, an event would take place that guaranteed the death of the Social Credit ideology, and make Ernest Manning the best friend big business ever had.

Ninety feet up on the monkey board, a derrick man and his three hustlers cut their rig into the central Alberta plains of Leduc. A hard northwest wind blustering through a foot of snow doesn't stop the crew from digging down to the pool of crude. ... After 133 fruitless attempts, an Imperial Oil rig smacked Leduc's huge reserve ... Oil spewed and burst into a fetid ring of smoke, like a bomb exploding. The find was as rare as gold nuggets. (4)

What followed was a U.S. invasion that would help to shape Alberta for decades.

Continued: Boom Times for Alberta

Sources:

1. Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning, By Lloyd Mackey, ECW Press, 1997, ISBN: 1-55022-299-6, Pg. 28

2. 30+5 I know, I was There, A first-hand account of the workings and history of the Social Credit Government in Alberta, Canada 1935-68, by Alfred J Hooke, Douglas Social Credit Secretariat.

3. Canada: ALBERTA: Blue Skies, Time Magazine, December 30, 1946

4. Striking Oil in Alberta, CBC Archives

Chapter Thirty-One Continued: Manning, Aberhart and the Stain of Eugenics

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

Francis Galton, a half cousin of Charles Darwin, was the first to establish the "science" of eugenics. In 1869, his book, Hereditary Genius, became the basis for the study of genius and greatness, the notion being that if animals could be bred to produce the best stock, why not people.

The book helped to launch a popular movement, that eventually spread to Canada. Surprisingly the feminists were the first to promote sterilization to prevent birth defects, and two of the biggest supporters were Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy.

Indeed, Murphy set aside her more celebrated battle to obtain recognition of women as persons under the law to tour Alberta in 1926 with fervent speeches and films taken from the province’s mental institutions. “We protect our public against diseased and distempered cattle,” she wrote in one of her many articles. “We should similarly protect them against the offal of humanity.” Mesmerized, women’s groups lobbied hard for legislation and in due course the United Farmers of Alberta government drafted the Sexual Sterilization Act. Under its provisions, an appointed board would be granted authority to order sterilization of any person suffering from mental defect ... (1)

In 1928 a four-member Eugenics Board was set up in Alberta and another soon followed in British Columbia. Initially, sterilizations could only take place with the consent of the patient, but in 1937, William Aberhart and Ernest Manning changed that.

The Social Credit government of William Aberhart, which came to power in 1935, and was keen on speeding up the works, expanded the board’s powers in 1937 by dispensing with the need to acquire consent for sterilization from mental defectives; five years later, another Social Credit majority broadened the net to include some individuals with epilepsy and Huntingdon’s chorea.

But even as Aberhart, the young Ernest Manning, and other Social Credit members were registering their endorsement of eugenics, other observers, such as the future NDP leader Tommy Douglas, were repudiating it in the wake of revelations from Germany, where thousands of mentally retarded citizens were being sterilized and later gassed, in the service of Nazi aster-race theories. It was the start of the Holocaust. By the late forties, in the forum at Nuremberg, the civilized world had judged forced sterilization a crime against humanity. (1)

And the place where the majority of these sterilizations took place was at the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives, in Red Deer.

Later court cases by individuals who had been stripped of their ability to procreate, revealed the horrors that took place at the facility, and the Alberta government was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation. But it would appear that Manning was already aware that there was a problem, but ignored it.

In early 1952, a poignant ten-page letter landed on the desk of Premier Ernest Manning. Penned by a middle-aged Calgarian, it described in detail wheat had befallen the correspondent’s sixteen-year-old son, who was a resident of the Provincial Training School. It seemed that, a few weeks earlier, staff members had caught the boy talking alone with a female student behind one of the buildings. This was forbidden. The boy was according bundled off to one of the school’s quiet rooms, and there, a day later, an attendant had found him, lying dazed in a great pool of blood amid a litter of shards from an earthenware chamber pot.

The teenager was rushed to a Red Deer hospital, where he was treated for a five-centimeter deep wound to the groin. A week later he was still pale and weak from loss of blood. School authorities, however, brushed off the incident, intimating that the boy, “a confirmed masturbator,” was himself to blame. The father had a different theory. His son was a severe epileptic. With its chronic staff shortage, he suggested, the school had failed to detail someone to keep an eye on the boy. Locked in a hot, stuffy room alone, he had suffered a major seizure.

The writer took the opportunity to unburden himself to the premier about other disturbing school practices, clearly confident that the Christian preacher whose “National Bible Hour” broadcasts echoed over the airwaves each Sunday would be sympathetic. “It is easy to love children that are clever,” he concluded sadly, “but I think it takes grace to love these unfortunate ones.” Manning’s two paragraph reply is preserved in the provincial archives. Promising vaguely to improve educational facilities in the school, the premier sided squarely with the school’s administration. “I feel that the staff of the Training School is doing everything possible within existing facilities to give proper care to the youngsters at the Training School.” (1)

The school did not improve and the complaints continued. Then in 1960, Manning surprised everyone by sending his own son to the facility.

Then, around 1960, the premier committed to its care his eldest son, Keith, who was afflicted with both epilepsy and arrested mental development as the result of a birth injury. The Mannings had spent much time and money chasing a cure and had finally sent the boy away to a New York State school. But according to Preston Manning’s autobiographical reminiscences in The New Canada, American medical care for Keith had stretched the Manning family budget to the limit. The Red Deer school offered welcome relief.

And there, in Pine Villa, in the Small Boys section of the school, the premier’s son, then a young man, was ensconced, to be treated “like royalty,” according to Glen Sinclair, who roomed next to him for a time. It was one of the more cynical chapters in the training-school saga. Everyone seemed to know who Keith was, showering him with privileges and the small acts of kindness so notably missing from the other’s lives. While everyone else slept four to a bedroom, Keith got a special double room, number ten Pine Villa, and was permitted to pick his own roommate. As a rule, personal possessions were discouraged; Keith was free to keep games, snacks, and even a typewriter in his room.

School officials frowned on family visits, but Keith’s parents dropped in at least once or twice a month on their way to Calgary for the premier’s weekly “Bible Hour.” They often took him along for a day trip. Instead of continual chores, Keith, in his late teens or early twenties, got piano lessons. More enviable still, Keith, who had an explosive temper, was handled with kid gloves. “They’d take him out for a walk and try to calm him down,” recalls a former resident, Donald Passey, who ended up at the school despite a recent test that indicated he has an IQ of 113. “Or they’d go to his room and try to discuss things with him.” In contrast, Passey remembers being disciplined by a staff member who pinned him to the wall and slapped and punched him; another resident lost part of his finger when an employee deliberately kicked a door shut on it. Even the most profoundly impaired children were sometimes beaten.

Keith Manning remained at the school for several years. Just how far the red-carpet treatment went to protect him from the Sexual Sterilization Act is unclear. He married in late middle age, though he remained childless, and succumbed to a brain tumour in 1986 while living in a nursing home in Edmonton. Preston Manning has firmly declined to be interviewed about his brother.(1)

Preston does mention his brother in his book, stating that he resented that he was unable to play with him and also complained that he always lived in fear that his brother would have a seizure when they were together. He does, however, praise the religious community for embracing his brother and treating him as an equal. (2)

When the Conservatives beat out the Social Credit party in 1971, the first bill they passed was the Alberta Bill of Rights, and with it the repeal of the Sexual Sterilization Act. In its forty-four years in force, 4,278 sterilizations had been authorized. A study by a law professor at the University of Alberta suggested a consistent bias against minority groups: Indians and Metis, predictably, but also Poles, Ukrainians, and other eastern Europeans.

Another dark stain on the history of the Social Credit party.

Continued: The Stain of the Japanese Question

Sources:

1. Alberta Barren: The Mannings and forced sterilization in Canada, By Heather Pringle, Saturday Night Magazine, June 1997

2. The New Canada, By Preston Manning, 1992, MacMillan Canada, ISBN: 0-7715-9150-0, pg. 14-15

Michael Ignatieff Has Nothing to Worry About. It's Deja Vu All Over Again

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

In June of 2005, Bourque News, the source for all political gossip, reported that there were some behind the scenes machinations to remove Stephen Harper as leader of the Reform-Conservative party and have him replaced by Ontario MPP, Jim Flaherty.

Bourque has learned that longtime Ontario Cabinet Minister and two-time provincial leadership contender Jim Flaherty may well be positioning himself for an early opportunity to unseat Stephen Harper, the disappointing Conservative Party incumbent, increasingly seen as a lame duck leader who’s political capital may well have expired .... Sources tell Bourque that failed retail heiress Nicky Eaton hosted a swish gathering at her country estate in Caledon for Flaherty’s intimates to discuss a bid for Harper’s job.

Present and accounted for included Tony Clement, recently disclosed as a recipient of Liberal CabMin Belinda Stronach’s largess, the surprisingly ambitious Mulroney Senator appointee Consiglio DiNino, and our old friend Tom Long, the Gaspesian Undertaker and defrocked Tory “strategist”. It is also understood that close supporters Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord, and former CA leader Stockwell Day may also be quietly testing the leadership waters. (1)

The Globe and Mail was reporting:

Political knives are out for Stephen Harper as his federal Conservatives sink deeper in the polls, and the sharpest weapons are being brandished by members of his own party. “There is a lot of discontent with the turn of things. People are saying it’s time to replace the leader,” said one key Conservative organizer in Toronto who, like many others, asked not to be named because it could hurt his status in the party.

... a recent poll puts the Conservatives eight percentage points behind the Liberals and suggests that six in 10 Canadians have a negative view of Mr. Harper, he can be unseated only if he decides to step aside. ... behind the scenes, party members from coast to coast are pointing fingers and asking why opinion surveys have the Tories battling for third place nationally when the Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal should still be tarring the Liberals with the stigma of corruption.

Dissatisfaction with Mr. Harper’s leadership “started expanding with the Belinda [Stronach] defection and then it continued to expand when we didn’t get our [confidence] vote passed [on May 19] and a lot of people in the party are tired of waiting,” said one organizer, who also asked to remain anonymous. “This guy was supposed to be the answer, and, instead of being 20 points up in the polls which should be happening with the way things are in the Liberal Party, he’s eight points down in the polls. Like, what the hell?”(2)

And with Senator Eaton now lambasting Harper's attack on freedom of the press, maybe Michael Ignatieff's job is safer than Stephen Harper's. I mean Senator Eaton is the same Nicky Eaton who was parading Jim Flaherty around as a replacement for Harper.

And the Religious Right in Canada love Flaherty. Charles McVety has been a long time supporter, since Flaherty is a declared anti-abortion and just weeks before his "coming out" party, he spoke at a rally against same-sex marriage.

Pro-family leaders including Campaign Life Coalition President Jim Hughes, Dr. Charles McVety of Defend Marriage Canada, Jim Duffy of Witness, Jewish leader Joseph Benami made brief remarks ... Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament Jim Flaherty and Saskatchewan Federal Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott also addressed the crowd. (3)

And so far he's given them everything they wanted: an end to a national day care plan, funding for religious schools, censorship. What more could they ask for? (A lot more, trust me, and he will be just as good as Harper at giving in to their demands)

No, Michael Ignatieff has nothing to worry about. The press may be questioning his future, just as they did Harper's in 2005, and his poll numbers are currently stronger. Harper had his party at 23% and his own rating was just 14%.

Sources:

1. Flaherty Plotting to Overthrow Harper? Bourque Newswatch, June 13, 2005

2. Stephen Harper: On His Way Out?, Globe and Mail, June 14, 2005

3. Faiths Unite vs Same-Sex, Canada, com, June 24, 2005

Chapter Thirty-Two Continued: The Mark of the Beast

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

Antichrist pacing to and fro. Laughs exultantly.

ANTICHRIST: What more could I wish for? It’s only a matter of time now and not long at that. The whole world will soon be at my feet. What fools those Jews were to agree to assist me to this throne of Russia. I do not need their support any longer. Tomorrow I will break my covenant with them. Their religious ceremonies must cease. I will not tolerate such stuff in my realm.

Enter false Prophet. Salutes Antichrist.

ANTICHRIST: What brings you here to me, sir?

FALSE PROPHET: I come to make you a proposition. You already know something of my origin and my purpose in being in this world. There is a work that we can best accomplish by working together.

ANTICHRIST: You interest me. What is your proposition?

FALSE PROPHET: It is this. You well know, my Lord, that the day is fast coming when you will be the supreme ruler of this world. Already you have more power than all the governments of Europe and Asia, together. Your word is law. The kings of this earth tremble at your smallest command. Their thrones will soon be yours. But there is one thing that will always hinder your progress as long as it is allowed to exist. That thing is true religion. As long as people retain even the thought of God, their allegiance will be divided between yourself and Him.

ANTICHRIST: I realize that well enough. That is why I propose to banish religion from the earth. I will not allow the name of God to be mentioned under penalty of death. Just give me a little longer. Tomorrow I intend to break my covenant with those Jews and cancel all their religious rights. Once they are exterminated, what religion there will be left in this world will not be difficult to eradicate.

FALSE PROPHET: My Lord, I highly commend your actions, but why not go a step further still? I suggest not only the annihilation of all worship of God but propose to introduce a new form of worship in which you yourself will take the place of God. In that way man’s natural tendency to worship will be gratified and you will be exalted to a position never before held by a man. I have full control over the apostate religions that at present are worshipping our adviser, Diabolos, and a multitude of his demons. I propose turning all apostate religions into one great channel with yourself as the object of worship.

ANTICHRIST: I like well your proposition. We have all the power of the Devil behind us. We can accomplish our ends without difficulty. Militarism will be the order of the day. Deception shall be our weapon where force is unwise, until we get complete control. Let us proceed with care and the whole world will soon be out our feet.

FALSE PROPHET: One thing we have to consider. Some will refuse to worship you. How can we prevent them from evading us?

ANTICHRIST: That will not be hard. *We will soon have full control of the trade and commerce of the world. We will then make the people swear their allegiance to us and bow down and worship before they will be allowed to buy or sell. When they do, we will brand them like cattle, and no one will be allowed to buy or sell unless they have our mark upon them. We will do away with any who refuse.

FALSE PROPHET: Then our last difficulty is solved. The future is open before us my Lord. Woe to him who opposes or dares to cross our path. Now let us launch our great campaign. You complete your world conquest and cease not until the last king has thrown his crown at your feet. I will see that apostate religion keeps pace with your advancements. Meanwhile we will complete all details of our plan and when we meet again it will be to make dreams come true.

Image, False Prophet, Antichrist, Guards and so forth. Long blast on cornet.

FALSE PROPHET: Here ye all this proclamation and decree hereby issued by the command of the Antichrist, the supreme ruler of this world. (Reads decree concerning worship of image, receiving of mark, etc.) At the sounding of the trumpet this decree shall immediately become law, and woe to any who refuses to worship the image of the greatest man this world has ever seen. (1)

The above is an excerpt from a play written by Ernest Manning and William Aberhart in 1931. Using students from the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute, they performed it at high schools and church halls, and it is said, scared people half to death.

Based on the popular novel by Sydney Watson: Mark of the Beast*, Manning and Aberhart clearly wanted to scare their audiences into accepting Christ, then and there. In one scene a young girl claims that she goes to church and reads the Bible, but was told that wasn't good enough, and the Antichrist did away with her entire family.

This play was not written for entertainment but was a form of fear mongering.

There has been a lot of debate over the religious fanaticism promoted by Aberhart and Manning, and what kind of influence it had on future generations in Western Canada. James Keegstra, the Alberta school teacher who for 15 years taught his students that the Holocaust was a Hoax, attended the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute. His parents were also devout Social creditors and anti-Semites.

Ron Gostick, whose mother was a Social Credit MLA, was one of the largest distributors of hate literature in North America.

Stockwell Day's religious fanaticism, may have also come from his parents, who were not only members of Social Credit, but his father once ran for the party against Tommy Douglas.

The Bible broadcasts of Aberhart and Manning played for decades, to a wide audience. To suggest that they didn't have an impact would be naive. And the brand of Christianity they taught often bordered on the occult.

Ernest was there during the darkest days of Social Credit, when his government was being compared with Nazis and called fascists. The social credit board distributed antisemitic material and as a result, they were often taken to task by the Jewish community.

Manning would later "purge" the party of the anti-Semites, but it was mainly for political expediency, since they were starting to demand that he adhere to social credit principles. And in fact, while his caucus was stripped down, anti-Semitism would continue to define this party for many years. (2)

In a revisionist history Ernest Manning has been made to look like Ward Cleaver, but there was definitely a dark side to him.

Continued: Faith Feud of Ernest Manning and Tommy Douglas

Footnotes:

*Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, authors of the popular Left behind Series, that is now the blueprint for the Religious Right and Christians United For Israel; also claim to have been influenced by Sydney Watson's apocalyptic novels.

Sources:

1. Aberhart of Alberta, By L.P.V. Johnson and Ola MacNutt, Institute of Applied Arts Ltd., 1970

2. Beyond the purge: Reviewing the social credit movement's legacy of intolerance, By Janine Stingel, Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, Summer, 1999

Chapter Twenty-Nine Continued: Ron Gostick

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

Ronald A. Gostick (1918-2005) was the son of Edith Gostick, one of the first Social Credit MLAs. Like Preston Manning and Stockwell Day, he grew up in a household where the party was not only discussed but lived.

Gostick attended Crescent Heights High School when William Aberhart was principal and his mother, like Ernest Manning, was an insider who spent most of her time promoting Social Credit and defending her boss.

Her son also grew up listening to anti-Semitic rants from both parents, and developed a narrow view of the world, based on religious prejudice. Convinced that not only were the banks ruining Canada, but also that his Christian fundamentalist faith was under attack, he became one of the largest distributors and publishers of hate literature, from his home in Flesherton, Ontario, where he had moved after serving in the army during WWII.

Many historians will gloss over William Aberhart's bizarre religious beliefs, which were denounced by his mainstream religious contemporaries; without wondering how those beliefs affected future generations.

James Keegstra grew up in a social credit home and even attended the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute, and Stockwell Day's fundamentalism borders on extremism. Preston Manning has stated that he learned from the ugly side of this movement:

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. (1)

And yet, like Stephen Harper, he tapped into the "darker side" for political gain.

Ron Gostick would mentor people like Paul Fromm, teaching future generations to hate, based on his fundamentalist beliefs. Yet in today's world if he set himself up as a member of the Religious Right, he would be able to get away with saying many of the things he said, without the anti-Semitic overtones.

To do that he would just have to call himself a Christian Zionist and become a 'friend of Israel'. As one pastor in Jerusalem recently stated:

"It's the worst kind of anti-Semitism. At the end, these Evangelicals say that all the Jews will be dead except those who become Christians. But in the meantime, the Israelis are happy to fill their hotels with them and use their help to get American weapons." (2)

It might do some of these religious zealots some good to read a bit of hate literature. I think they'd be surprised to see how their views differ little from those of people who were once arrested for saying the same things, they now get away with.

Sources:

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

2. An Evangelical at Armageddon, By Tim McGirk and Tel Meggido, April 07, 2008

Chapter Twenty-Nine Continued: Edith Gostick

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

Edith Gostick was one of the first Social Credit MPPs, elected to the Alberta legislature during their landmark victory of 1935. She had been an early member of the New Age Club, once of the more elite of the Social Credit study groups, and indeed was one of the few wealthier members of the party, who along with Ernest manning was classed as a petite bourgeoisie.(1)

She was one of the more zealous social credit pioneers, said to be matched only by Aberhart himself, for it's staunch defense.

Travelling across the province she would become known for her boundless enthusiasm and energy. Edith was also responsible for rallying women to join the party and became the scourge of political opponents for her visceral attacks. (2)

Gostick (shown seated above) would become the librarian for the party, where she handled publications, including their vast collection of anti-Semitic material. When Aberhart tried to license newspapers, as part of his battles with the press, Edith denounced the media as "the mouthpiece of the capitalist system".

She also claimed that reporters and editors were paid for "misinforming the public." When she lashed out at one, the Hill River Times, they countered by saying that "licensing will be the first step to ending freedom of speech." (3) They fought it and won.

Gostick would have two sons, William and Ronald, and growing up in a home where anti-Semitic rhetoric was the norm, the latter would become one of the largest publishers of hate propaganda in the country. He too would join the Social Credit Party.

Sources:

1. The Calgary Working Class and the Social Credit Movement in Alberta, 1932-35, By Larry Hannant, 2005

2. The Social Credit Movement in Alberta, By: John A. Irving, University of Toronto Press, 1959, Pg. 185

3. High River and the Times: an Alberta community and its weekly newspaper, By Paul Leonard Vois, The University of Alberta Press, 2004, ISBN-10: 0888644116, Pg. 110

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Social Credit and Anti-Semitism

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

"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." William Aberhart (1)

The Social Credit philosophy was based almost entirely on the notion of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, inspired by the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It's founder Major Clifford Douglas preached that banks and indeed the entire monetary system was controlled by Jewish financiers, who were intent on destroying Gentiles.

However, many historian believe that Aberhart himself was not antisemitic, and yet he once stated:

Personally, I have little doubt that in working through Jews, the Jewish financial group has sacrificed its own people on the altar of its greed for power and this group is preeminently responsible for the poisonous anti-Semitism which is rampant in the world today. (2)

I don't think he was virulent, but it was there none the less. He often quoted Henry Ford and invited Father Coughlin and Oswald Mosley to write for his Social Credit newspaper. He even visited Coughlin his first year in office.

And the Social Credit Board had one of the largest libraries of anti-Semitic material in the country.

In 1943 when Ernest Manning had taken over on the death of Aberhart, the Social Credit Board, now tying Communism with Judaism, prepared a report, which said in part:

If international finance and socialism are travelling in the same direction is it possible that socialism is promoted by the money power to hasten the completion of their plot for world domination? Not only is it possible, but there is a fund of evidence which leads to the inevitable conclusion that there is a plot, worldwide in scope, deliberately engineered by a small number of ruthless international financiers. (2)

Manning would later purge the party of Douglasites (those who adhered to Douglas' policies and social credit principles, including anti-Semitism), but not for humanitarian reasons. Oil had been discovered in Alberta, and with the die hards still pushing for monetary reform, Manning was moving toward capitalism.

Sources:

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

2. A Trust Betrayed: The Keegstra Affair, By: David Bercuson and Douglas Wertheimer, Doubleday Canada, 1985, ISBN: 0-385-25003-7, Pg. 34-38

Chapter Twenty-Five Continued: Poets and Gesellites

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

The relationship between Major Douglas and William Aberhart was deteriorating and it was becoming clear that the new Alberta premier was over his head.

Douglas declined an invitation to come to Alberta to help straighten things out, partly because Aberhart refused to cover his expenses.

He really had no idea how to go about adopting Social Credit principles, so he sought the advice of Eugene Sydney Woodward, a former grocery store owner and alderman in Victoria, British Columbia. (1)

He was then living in Vancouver where he ardently studied the economic principles of Silvio Gesell. Woodward had also been in contact with the poet Ezra Pound, a devout social credit follower who offered to come to Alberta in Douglas's place. However, after hearing of the mess that Aberhart was making of things, he declined. (2)

One of Silvio Gesell's ideas was that money should depreciate the same way that goods do, and then people would be more encouraged to spend it, which would keep the economy going. And it was based on this notion, that the Alberta government began creating Prosperity certificates which were dubbed "funny money".

They began paying wages and overdue accounts with the paper money they had simply created, so that when the recipients took the certificates to the bank, they naturally wouldn't honour them.

The Alberta government had also defaulted on their bond and were being sued. They were forced to raise and create taxes, but were still in serious trouble.

Aberhart was also becoming more confrontational and irrational, refusing to deal with anyone. If they crossed him he attacked them on his radio program, and many in the religious community complained that his broadcasts had become almost exclusively political, interjecting government positions with scripture. He was out of control.

And his new 'scrip' system was creating chaos. Wholesalers and department stores refused to accept it though Aberhart did make a few concessions, allowing them to trade it for cash to pay out of province suppliers, and also allowed residents to pay their sales tax with it.

However MLAs were frustrated, because this had nothing to do with social credit principles. The principles they had campaigned on. But when one voiced his displeasure he was thrown out of caucus.

Several of the M.L.A.s got together and contacted Douglas to intervene, but he said he would only do so if Aberhart was removed from office. To quiet the dissent, Aberhart agreed to start a registration program for future dividends, that required citizens to sign a cove­nant ''to co-operate most heartily'' with the Alberta government. A second requirement was that citizens exchange their Canadian currency for "Alberta Credit" and that they make no claim upon the government that they be paid in Canadian currency for their "Alberta Credit," nor were they to use "Alberta Credit" in the pay­ment of taxes, licenses, or fines until the government changed its policy.

Along with the registration covenant, citizens had to complete other forms disclosing all of their assets, liabilities, sources of income, and other personal informa­tion. Special registration forms were designed for farmers and merchants; farmers had to sell 50 per cent of their produce in exchange for "Alberta Credit. Fine print on the forms indicated that in order to retain the right to obtain dividends, citizens would require the permission of the local manager of the State Credit House if they desired to leave the province for more than one month (3)

The authoritarian, even totalitarian overtones of this program brought immediate cries of "fascism" from many of Alberta's leading citizens. The "League of Freedom'' was formed by F. Sorry, an Edmonton bookstore-owner, to fight the proposed registration program, after he had been told by an M.L.A. that if he refused to sign, he could lose his business license.

"The Alberta Social Credit government proved to be a total failure so far as monetary reform was concerned ... He [Aberhart] revealed himself to be incompetent as an economic reformer, though a successful demagogue." (2)

Sources:

1. Eugene Sydney Woodward, 1880-1970, UBC Library, 1993

2. Pound in purgatory: from economic radicalism to anti-semitism, By Leon Surette,University of Illinois Press, 1999, ISBN-10: 0252024982, Pg 33-34

3. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 243

Chapter Twenty: Mixed Blessings

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

If the German industrial and financial sector was worried about the success of Adolf Hitler, their Canadian counter parts were just as concerned with the election of William Aberhart.

In Alberta it was freely predicted that Messiah Aberhart will never be able to make Social Credit work unless he makes himself a Dictator. Canadian jurists meanwhile believed that Social Credit as proposed in the Province of Alberta is contrary to the North America Act" which is the fundamental law of Canada's Constitution. Being unconstitutional it should present the Government of Alberta with insuperable problems leading to a stalemate. Last week this thought kept holders of Alberta bonds from dumping them overboard. All Canada's great banks and nationally spread industries held emergency directors' meetings. Rich Albertans, as soon as election returns were known, began rapidly transferring their funds from the province to Montreal and Toronto. (1)

He was proposing controversial changes to the way that Alberta did business, so reaction to the Social Credit victory was mixed.

The St. Catherines Standard claimed that, "The whole thing is a chimera, a nightmare that passeth all understanding."'

The Montreal Star reported:

They have voted for an untried man and a policy whose workings he ostentatiously refused to explain before polling day. He was reported as saying that it was not necessary for the electorate to understand electricity and yet they turned it on. Thus they could turn on his social credit scheme, and he would guarantee that the light would come.

So they took his word and turned it on. They are in frame of mind to try anything once. It is a dangerous frame of mind, but it is a mental condition that our public men may well heed

And even the religious fundamentalists were not entirely thrilled:

The Toronto-based Pentecostal Testimony wrote: "Personally, we question whether the movement, however commen­dable, can ever attain its ends. We are rather inclined to believe conditions now extant are indicative of the end times... and we feel that only the Millen­nium can bring about a reign of justice and equity. (2)

And international papers were just as critical:

The Philadelphia Record remarked: "The Alberta experiment ought to settle finally whether the Social Credit theory is economic hogwash, or something smarter and more genuine than most people suspect", and the Boston Herald: "Alberta goes crazy", while the Chicago Daily Tribune simply asked: "Greetings to the Canadians. Who's loony now?"

Time magazine ran a full story, suggesting that his success came about because of the $ 25.00 a month he promised to every "legitimate" citizen of Alberta.

Canadians boast the greatest per capita wealth in the world, $3,148. Even more blessed is the Province of Alberta, with $3,518 per head. Yet Depression has hit Alberta hard. For years its breezy, two-fisted, hospitable citizens have been feeling poorer & poorer. Galavanting to the polls last week, they raised merry Empire hell by turning over their province to a Bible-babbling high-school principal who promises to crack open Alberta's frozen wealth and pay dividend" of every at bona least fide $25. citizen a "monthly dividend" of at least $25.

... When returns began to trickle in, when Montreal's rock-ribbed conservative Place d'Armes — Canada's financial centre — learned that 57 of the 63 seats in Alberta's Legislature had been won by henchmen of Social Crediteer Aberhart their astonishment was as vast as their dismay. Only a very few Canadian tycoons took a calmer off-the-record view. Sniffed one: "Social credit is interesting and the sooner it fails in Alberta the bigger the lesson to the world will be."

Social Credit Is What? Few Alberta voters seemed to know much about Social Credit last week, merely having faith in Messiah Aberhart's assurances that it is not Communist, does not seek to abolish private property or Capitalism and is a positive sock at "The Bankers."

After pious rejoicing at the Prophetic Bible Institute and devout singing of Our God, Our Help in Ages Past, Messiah Aberhart announced that he was ready to accept the call to be Alberta's Premier, declared: "It has been a revolution not of bullets but of ballots!"

Hoboes and roustabouts, who might think they can get $25 in hard cash dividends per month by trekking into Alberta, were served notice that the dividend will only be paid to bona fide adult Albertans of some years standing, and then not in cash but in credit. Unemployed Albertans who refuse to work will receive no dividends.

An economic pontiff, William Aberhart makes his followers sign pledges that they accept Social Credit "on faith," forbids them to debate or argue its merits.

"They say what we propose to do is unconstitutional!" he snorted. "Just because an old paper was signed in the past doesn't say we can't do this. The British North America Act is a fool act. We can do what we want! . . . Social Credit is spreading like the measles." (1)

Chapter Twenty Continued: Father Charles Coughlin

Sources:

1. Messiah, Major, Money, Time Magazine, September 02, 1935

2. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 202

Chapter Eighteen Continued: In Search of Utopia

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

Sometime before 1929, fellow pastor, Harry Scrimgeour, introduced William Aberhart to the writings of Edward Bellamy, whose 19th century novels became the framework for Utopian societies, in particular Looking Backward: 2000-1887, which was first published in 1887.

Aberhart may have been intrigued by one vision of Bellamy's. The notion of a radiorator, or radio personality, but not just any radio personality, but a radiorating preacher*.

Now, as to hearing a sermon to-day, if you wish to do so, you can either go to a church to hear it or stay at home."

"How am I to hear it if I stay at home?"

"Simply by accompanying us to the music room at the proper hour and selecting an easy chair. There are some who still prefer to hear sermons in church, but most of our preaching, like our musical performances, is not in public, but delivered in acoustically prepared chambers, connected by wire with subscribers' houses. If you prefer to go to a church I shall be glad to accompany you, but I really don't believe you are likely to hear anywhere a better discourse than you will at home. I see by the paper that Mr. Barton is to preach this morning, and he preaches only by telephone, and to audiences often reaching 150,000."

"The novelty of the experience of hearing a sermon under such circumstances would incline me to be one of Mr. Barton's hearers, if for no other reason," I said. (1)

Scientific research into radio waves was then being conducted, and the telephone was already in use, but a radio for home had yet to be invented. But Bellamy is not far off the mark when describing the future of radio:

As Edith had promised he should do, Dr. Leete accompanied me to my bedroom when I retired, to instruct me as to the adjustment of the musical telephone. He showed how, by turning a screw, the volume of the music could be made to fill the room, or die away to an echo so faint and far that one could scarcely be sure whether he heard or imagined it ...

I will set the telephone at eight o'clock." "What do you mean?" I asked. He explained that, by a clock-work combination, a person could arrange to be awakened at any hour by the music. (1)

Aberhart's biographer David Elliot did wonder just how far he would have taken Bellamy's work.

The nature of the State was better defined. Dividends would be given for loyalty to the State; if a person refused to work, or refused to join the Social Credit movement, he would not receive dividends. If he abused his privileges under the new economic system, the Credit House inspector could withdraw his dividends and put him on an "Indian List." The latter expression was not defined, but Aberhart may have had in mind the reservations or concentration camps that Bellamy had described for non-sympathizers. (2)

Major Douglas, the creator of the Social Credit theories, also sought a Utopian world, once his economic principles were adopted.

American Patriotism Defined:

Historian Dr. Rex Curry has done a lot of research into not only Edward Bellamy's work, but also that of his cousin Francis Bellamy, and has written a book Pledge Of Allegiance Secrets.

The Bellamy's promoted military socialism, and it was Francis who authored the Pledge of Allegiance, used in classrooms in the United States. He refers to it as "flag fetishism" that is accompanied by "robotic group-chanting".

He suggests, and he is probably correct, that the Bellamys were the first to "indoctrinate" children into a fierce nationalism, that not only prepared young boys for military service, but created citizens who would either glorify war or be compliant to a country going to war.

None of this is really new. Most armies carried a banner of some kind for inspiration, but Curry argues that it was never a domestic practice prior to 1892, when Francis Bellamy introduced the 'pledge' into the classroom. And along with it, was the robotic hand gesture that started with a military salute, and then the extension of the arm toward the flag, palm down. (3)

Another Famous Salute

Bellamy's futuristic novel, Looking Back, is the third largest selling work of fiction of all time. The first being Uncle Tom's Cabin and the second, Ben Huhr. It was translated into 20 different languages, and was the first book to lay a clear foundation for patriotic nationalism and military socialism.

It's not too hard to imagine where the Nazi salute came from when you look at the photograph of the children above. Once it took on a sinister meaning, it was changed to just hand on head.

According to Dr. Curry, Alfred Rosenberg, was also inspired by Bellamy's book and may have been the one to introduce it to the Thule Society. Though his first interest was antisemitism, inspired by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Aryan supremacy, as introduced by Helena Blavatsky:

"The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans ..."

Blavatsky also promoted the notion of Brotherhoods and Societies dedicated to the Occult. Where I see Bellamy's book coming in, is with the creation of a perfect society, once they got rid of the Jews and bred an Aryan race. And of course, you can't mistake the military socialism.

I know people will argue that none of this was the intent of Edward Bellamy when he wrote Looking Backward.** He was describing failed capitalism, and promoting a form of communism. But people see what they want to see, I guess, when they need to justify their actions.

I did find one passage in the book that describes how we now honour our fallen soldiers, something that I believe was new in the twentieth century:

It was one of the annual holidays of the nation in the latter third of the nineteenth century, being set apart under the name of Decoration Day, for doing honor to the memory of the soldiers of the North who took part in the war for the preservation of the union of the States. The survivors of the war, escorted by military and civic processions and bands of music, were wont on this occasion to visit the cemeteries and lay wreaths of flowers upon the graves of their dead comrades, the ceremony being a very solemn and touching one. The eldest brother of Edith Bartlett had fallen in the war, and on Decoration Day the family was in the habit of making a visit to Mount Auburn, where he lay. (1)

Decoration Day, is now Veterans Day, Memorial Day or Remembrance Day, not that they are bad things.

And the salute only became sinister when it was adopted by the Nazis, and now symbolizes evil. Before that it was just a gesture. It does remind me of a funny photograph though, that has been kicking around the Internet. I'm sure he wasn't giving the Nazi salute here, and it's actually his facial expression that bothers me. Oh well. What can I say?

Chapter Nineteen: Demagogs and Democracy

Footnotes:

* In 1935 Time magazine referred to him as "Messiah William Aberhart, the radiorating Premier of Alberta" (5)

** You can read Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward for free here. I've been reading it and it's actually quite good. Along the same vein as George Orwell's 1984.

Footnotes:

1. Looking Backward: 2000-1887, By: Edward Bellamy, Boston and New York, Ticknor and Company, 1887

2. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 188

3. Pledge of Allegiance Secrets, By: Dr. Rex Curry. (It can be read online here, though I had a bit of difficulty following it. Lots of very interesting photographs though)

4. Bible Bill's Story, Time magzine, March 02, 1936

Chapter Seventeen Continued: Is This Fascist?

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

Throughout the campaign, Aberhart was becoming increasingly paranoid, confrontational and authoritarian.

The mainstream newspapers, especially the Calgary Herald, continued to demand that he explain the economic principles of Social Credit, something he had yet to do, and also questioned his view of democratic principles.

Instead of allowing the people to select their candidates, Aberhart sent out a call for "100 good men". He also told the local offices to bring forward the names of several possible candidates, and then he would personally select from the group.

Understandably this brought about the accusation of fascism and many began to refer to Aberhart as a dictator. The references to Mussolini must have really got under his skin, because at one point he thought he might be the Antichrist. A Mr. Humble wrote in the Herald:

First, let me say, Major Douglas is a democrat, and Mr. Aberhart is a dictator. Two weeks ago I charged that the Aberhart movement savored of Fascism. It is now a matter of record that Mr. Aberhart has dictated the terms on which he would undertake the leadership of the new political party and no dictator of the modern world has been more exacting in his demands. Those of you who have been reading the daily press, but did not understand the nature of this organization, were no doubt shocked when you read that the mailed fist of dictatorship was to control the affairs of the party even to the point of naming the candidates for the various con­stituencies in the Province of Alberta. No doubt the sponsor of this move­ment is well read-up on Mussolini and his methods.

The leader of this new so-called social credit party of Alberta has been quite outspoken regarding the old political parties and their wire-pulling tactics, but no political party leader in Canada has attempted to pull the strings to the extent that every member of the party sitting in the parlia­ment would be the personal choice of the leader and a mere rubber stamp man.... Surely no one is going to be fooled by the crude attempt to cover up this procedure by what is to be called "an advisory council" of three members, because even the advisors are to be chosen by the dictator himself. There is not an atom of democracy left in the whole proceedings and Canada has now one who is making a definite bid for dictatorial powers. (1)

And as he promised $25.00 dividends to all Albertans he was very clear about who would qualify:

Dividends would be given for loyalty to the State; if a person refused to work, or refused to join the Social Credit movement, he would not receive dividends. If he abused his privileges under the new economic system, the Credit House inspector could withdraw his dividends and put him on an "Indian List." The latter expression was not defined, but Aberhart may have had in mind the reservations or concentration camps that Bellamy* had described for non-sympathizers. (2)

By now he had almost complete control of the press. From his Social Credit Chronicles to his radio broadcasts, which were uncensored, since he had loaned the radio station a great deal of money (with an 8% interest charge I might add). And if any other newspaper was too hard on him he'd simply tell his listeners from his radio pulpit to boycott them and they would.

And he was not above the use of thuggery:

Feelings ran very high. Some of Aberhart's supporters believed that opposition groups were trying to keep them in poverty. Opposi­tion candidates claimed that when they held their political rallies, their meetings were sometimes broken up by Social Crediters - who banged fenceposts on the walls of the buildings, or stopped their cars outside the halls and blew their car horns until the speakers were forced to quit. They also claimed that Social Crediters slashed their car tires and put sand and sugar in their gas tanks.'

Aberhart did little to discourage the actions of his supporters. When O.L. Mcpherson, the minister of Public Works who had been involved in the spec­tacular divorce suit, attempted to question Aberhart at a political rally, Aberhart appealed to his supporters and said, "Are you going to let this man cross-examine me?" The crowd responded by shouting down Mcpherson's questions. (2)

But it all worked, because on August 22, 1935; the Social Credit Party won 56 of 63 seats.

Chapter Eighteen: It Began at That Hour

Footnotes:

* Much of Aberhart's 'Yellow Pamphlet' describing the principles of Social Credit, came from the popular book: Looking Backward: 2000-1887, a Utopian novel by Edward Bellamy. It influenced a large number of intellectuals, and appears by title in many of the major Marxist writings of the day. It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement. The novel also inspired several Utopian communities.

Sources:

1. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 179-180

2. Elliot/Miller, 1987, Pg. 190-191

Chapter Seventeen Continued: A Divine Mission

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

Ernest Manning's son Preston would later be inspired by Abraham Lincoln's challenge to the established parties, creating the Republicans, when he launched his own 'Reformation'; but for Ernest and William Aberhart, they were reliving the lives of two sixteenth century Reformation martyrs, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, who were burned at the stake for upsetting the English religious hierarchy.

One of their radio skits went like this:

Manning: Do you remember when Latimer and Ridley were suffering martyrdom it was believed that this would dampen the enthusiasm of the whole movement? It would soon die out after this. But it didn't. Why even when they were being burned at the stake Latimer said, "Play the man Master Ridley for we shall today light a fire in England that will never be put out." *

Aberhart: But, Charles you do not mean that the Social Credit idea will never cease do you?

Manning: Yes I do. It must be the basis of the new era of civilization.'

Aberhart and his lietenant were not starting a political party, they were on a crusade, and saw themselves as martyrs to the cause. And they played that card whenever they met opposition.

And as the Social Credit crusade gained momentum, so to did the image of a man on a divine mission.In the lead up to their first convention in Red Deer, on April 5, 1935, the editor of the Social Credit Chronicles, Charles K. Underwood, wrote:

There is one important thing you happen to be blessed with, YOU POSSESS A LEADER WHO IS ONE MAN IN A MILLION, a man of foresight, a man of ntelligence and a man with GOD GIVEN GUIDANCE....

There is one great thing that your worthy leader relies on, the same thing that men, like Gladstone, Salisbury, Gordon, Kitchener, Cromwell**, Nelson, Laurier, Lincoln*** and other noted statesmen and soldiers of history relied on, that one thing is PRAYER. In this scientific age this may seem superficial, but in spite of the advances of science that same faith in the Almighty, after all is said and done, He is the only real guide in this great question, He and He alone is the mainstay of the whole business, and the very minute God Almighty stays away from Social Credit then you may just as well throw away your aspirations and intentions for this cause into the discard, you may just as well go home and forget it. Pray for that great guidance from Him; if your leader Mr. Aberhart can do it, with courage, hope and success, surely you as delegates can do likewise. (1)

These good Christian soldiers would certainly fight for the cause. And they even had their own Battle hymn, "God Our Help in Ages Past" which opened every event, though the lyrics were altered to suit:

Who is he in yonder hall
Calling to Albertans all?
Aberhart 'tis he with glory
Sending forth a wond'rous story.... ****

And if critics objected to his combining politics and religion, he had an answer. When one suggested that "the leader of this movement has used and is using a tabernacle built in the name of religion to promote what is rapidly becoming a political party" He responded:

That surely is a polite way of saying it. "We are very religious down here at the Herald. We do not believe in mixing our religion with politics ...... You know I have always believed that a religion that amounts to anything should be practised in every span of life.... The day is past when religion should be put on the shelf and taken down on Sundays. (2)

And when he criticized for using his radio pulpit to announce Social Credit events and policies, he retorted:

If you do not desire to hear what I have further to say about the so-called social credit plan for Alberta then turn your radio dial, but I urge you, if you are a church member or if you are interested in the Christian religion to hear me out in this matter. I appeal to all those who are jealous for religion and the freedom which has been associated with it, to protest that an attempt is being made to use God as a rubber stamp for the political ideas of one man.... The inference has gone abroad that a person must be a social crediter to be a Christian, and furthermore, not just a social crediter, but an Aberhartite. Last Sunday, over a Calgary radio station, a service was broadcast wherein the so-called social credit plan for Alberta was discussed. A member of the Prophetic Bible Institute offered prayer in these words, "We thank Thee, 0 Lord, for Thy truth, which has gone out on Social Credit this afternoon." In these words an attempt is made to use God as a rubber stamp for the ideas of the sponsor of the so-called Social Credit plan for Alberta. (2)

To argue with him was to defy the Bible. One listener even wrote a brief note to the Calgary Herald in warning: Just as God chose Moses to lead the children of Israel out of bondage, we firmly believe God has also ordained Mr. Aberhart a second Moses, who will lead the people of Alberta into a better and higher standard of life and into their rightful heritage.... No one else stood a chance.

Footnotes:

* Hugh Latimer to Nicholas Ridley during their October 16, 1555 exectution

** When Preston Manning launched the Reform Party with Stephen Harper as his lietenant, he likened it to the launching of the Republican Party. Lincoln would also often suggest that 'God was on his side', even during the worst carnage of the Civil War.

***Oliver Cromwell is a favourite with fundamentalists since he was the first military leader to choose his subordiantes based on their fatih and gave his crusades a holy purpose. Forget that he slaughtered thousands of Irish and Scots. God was still on his side. Aberhart also stated many times that he treated his classroom as a battlefield where he was Oliver Cromwell.

****Many of Hitler's followers also beleived that he was on a divine mission and changed the words to "Silent Night':

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Only the Chancellor steadfast in fight Watches o'er Germany by day and by night Always caring for us.
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Adolf Hitler is Germany's wealth Brings us greatness, favour and wealth
Oh give us Germans all power (2)

Sources:

1. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 167

2. Elliot/Miller, 1987, Pg. 174-175

3. Elliot/Miller, 1987, Pg. 179