![]() ![]() There was a decided Canadian nationalism being articulated at this time. Leacock contributed generously to “The Makers of Canada” and “Chronicles of Canada” series that assisted in the defining the uniqueness of Canada as distinct from England, the Commonwealth and the United States. The years 1906-1911 brought to the fore Leacock, in many ways, as one of the more prominent public intellectuals in Canada. The combination of Leacock’s engaging lecture style and the rigor of Elements of Political Science meant he was soon to emerge from the wings onto front stage in Canadian political and economic life-Leacock the humourist was still waiting birth at this period of time. Leacock emerged on the academic scene in 1906 with a tightly pondered and well written book (that became a best seller for him) that was used in many universities: Elements of Political Science. The turn by Leacock to the Canadian context and why Canadians should not heed and follow Smith (and acolytes) became a core focus of Leacock in his years as an academic and activist. The thesis did not, though, ponder such economic wars within the Canadian context. Leacock had explored and examined various ways and means of lauding the notion of laissez faire in his PHD thesis, objections to it and alternate ways forward. Leacock’s older Tory roots (not to be confused with Red Toryism which I will discuss later) meant an inevitable collision was in the making. The publication of Smith’s controversial Canada and the Canadian Question (1891) clarified his views on free trade, his historic pro-American vision and why Canada should annex with such an emerging liberal economic vision of manifest Destiny. Smith was a prolific writer (authoring nearly fifty books and hundreds of articles), he settled in Toronto in 1871 and his commitment to the liberal notion of the market economy contra the state, consciously so, was in decided reaction to where, he perceived, England slipping too leftwards. The leading thinker in Toronto at the time who held high the “free trade” argument and closer economic ties with the USA was Goldwin Smith (1823-1910). Leacock’s PHD weighed, judiciously so, varied notions of laissez faire (lingering with a more nuanced version of Adam Smith), economists further right of centre than Smith and “the Counter Current” to the dogma (in its diverse variety) to such a doctrine. Needless to say, Leacock’s use of “doctrine” made it abundantly clear, that the economic battle had become a new religion of sorts, forms of orthodoxy, heterodoxy and heretical positions the new sacred reality for many. The larger economic questions were front and centre for Leacock in his maturing years, hence it is quite apt and significant, when doing his PHD at University of Chicago, his thesis was entitled The Doctrine of Laissez Faire and completed in 1903. But, Leacock taught in the Department of Political Economy all of his academic life at McGill University. Leacock is mostly remembered in Canada and beyond for his many compact books laced with humour, political commentary ever present. Where did Leacock stand in these conflicting theories (and their application) and why? Canada was still very much part of the British Commonwealth ethos in Leacock’s maturing years, the notion of free trade was waxing, Canadian nationalism was emerging and many were the Canadians that supported closer economic integration with the United States. Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) lived through a period of Canadian political and economic history in which two economic theories dwelt both in tension and in a confrontational mode. “Leacock was a great writer-one of the greatest we have ever possessed.” Stephen Leacock, head of the department of Economics and Political Science, was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known….He was an ardent Conservative (though, also, like Sir Sam Hughes, a fierce Canadian nationalist.” “At McGill, as at Ottawa Collegiate, I was blessed with exceptional teachers. When both ideologies have legitimacy within a political culture, a ybrid known as the Red Tory may emerge.” “Many writers have asserted that there is a common ground between conservatism and socialism perhaps the most frequently cited similarities are an organic view of society, distrust of pure individualism, and a willingness to use the state to assert the rights of society, as distinct from the interests of powerful individuals. “Stephen Leacock was part of that curious and perhaps indigenously Canadian species which has been given the name of “Red Tory” ![]()
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