Book Review: Canada: Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Author | John T. Saywell |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900418 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
568
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Canada
RENEGADE
IN
POWER:
THE
DIEFENBAKER
YEARS.
By
Peter
C.
Newman.
1963.
(Toronto.
McClelland
&
Stewart.
xvi,
411pp.
$7.50)
No
more
unenviable
task
awaits
a
latter-day
Canadian historian
than
becoming
the
official
or
sympathetic
biographer
of
John
George
Diefenbaker.
Even before
the
publication
of
Peter
Newman's
book,
the
assignment
would
have
been
formidable;
now
it
could
appear
foolhardy.
The
Prime
Minister's
sins
of omission
and
commission on
the
policy
level
were
evident
to all
who
could
see--as
were
his
good
intentions
and
some
wise
policies
pursued
by
the
government. But
not
even
the
repeated
presence
of
Mr.
Diefenbaker
in
our living
rooms
or
the
sur-
veillance
of
a
not
always
impartial
press
provided
as grotesque
a
portrait
of
the
Tory
leader
as
emerges
from
Renegade
in
Power.
Mr.
Diefenbaker's supporters
have
dismissed
the
book
as
tittle-tattle,
largely
picked
up on
the
Liberal
cocktail
circuit
in
Ottawa.
But
none
of
them
has
effectively
repudiated
matters
of
real
substance.
Not
one
of
them
to
my knowledge
has
ever suggested
in
print
that
Mr.
Diefenbaker's
behaviour
was
not
as
extraordinary-indeed
unbelievable-as
Newman
suggests.
The mind
boggles
at
the
bizarre
portrait
of
the
Prince
Albert
lawyer
dabbling
in
international
statecraft
and,
as
Newman says,
failing
"to
differentiate
between
the
subtleties of modern
diplomacy
and
the
approach
he
used
to
elicit
ballots
from
his
prairie
constituency":
diplo-
macy
by
self-congratulatory
press
releases;
almost
open
contempt
for
"the
Personalities",
as he
dubbed
the
staff
of
External
Affairs;
the
absurd
secret
meeting
with
Koca
Popovic,
the
Yugoslav
foreign minister;
a
series
of
performances
which
first
astounded and
then
enraged
President
Kennedy;
and
the
grandstand
play
at
Nassau,
when
the
somewhat
unwelcome
guest
blew
the
story
of
increased
military
aid
to
India. Newman
is
careful
to point
out
that
Canada's
loss
of
prestige
abroad
was
due
in
great
part
to
general
causes
over
which
Canada
had
no
control,
but
there
is
little
doubt
that
in
the
six
years
the
Conservative
leader
made
a
magnificent
contribution
to the
weakening
of
a
position
which
a
decade
of
quiet
diplomacy
by
the
Personalities
had
created.
The
weakest
section
of
the
book
deals
with
the
policies
of
the
Diefenbaker government. Granted
that
policies
enunciated
and
legisla-
tion
passed
were
worlds
apart,
there
still
was
a
place
for
an
earnest
attempt
to
examine the
policies
in
the
light
of
national
circumstances
and
to
determine
the
effect
of
the
actual performance.
Newman
does
discuss Mr.
Diefenbaker's
philosophy-a
combination
of
western
pro-
gressivism
and
Tory
democracy
cast in
the
mold
of
John
A.;
fiscal
policy
-"twelve
major
blunders";
northern
development
-
"the
vision
that
became
a
mirage";
the
bill
of
rights, relations
with
the
press,
and
foreign
affairs.
But
he
views
them essentially
from
a
negative
and
highly
critical
point
of
view.
The
case
against
Mr.
Diefenbaker
might
have
been
more
convincing
if
the
attempt
to
examine
Conservative
policies
had
been
broader,
deeper
and more
balanced.
There
is
a
little
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