BOOK: Taylor HOLLANDER, Power, Politics, and Principles : Mackenzie King and Labour, 1935-1948 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018). ISBN 9781487521936, $33.71

(Source: University of Toronto Press)

University of Toronto Press just published a book on the creation of P.C. 1003, a seminal piece of wartime labour law legislation in Canada.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Set against the backdrop of the U.S. experience, Power, Politics, and Principles uses a transnational perspective to understand the passage and long-term implications of a pivotal labour law in Canada. Utilizing a wide array of primary materials and secondary sources, Hollander gets to the root of the policy-making process, revealing how the making of P.C. 1003 in 1944, a wartime order that forced employers to the collective bargaining table, involved real people with conflicting personalities and competing agendas.

Each chapter of Power, Politics, and Principles begins with a quasi-fictional vignette to help the reader visualize historical context. Hollander pays particular attention to the central role that Mackenzie King played in the creation of P.C. 1003. Although most scholars describe the Prime Minister’s approach to policy decisions as calculating and opportunistic, Power, Politics, and Principles argues that Mackenzie King’s adherence to moderate principles resulted in a less hostile legal environment in Canada for workers and their unions in the long run, than a more far-reaching collective bargaining law in the United States.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Taylor Hollander is a Middle School History Teacher at Orchard House School in Richmond Virginia.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Unity of Our Country, Fall 1935-Fall 1939

The Prime Minister

The Labour Movement

The Employers

Other Groups

The Breastplate of Righteousness, Fall 1939-Fall 1941

More of the Same

Incongruities

Fine-Tuning

Plant Committees

The Task that Lies Ahead, Fall 1941-Fall 1942

The Campaign

Intransigence

Respect and Dignity

Adherence

A Code of Labour Relations, Fall 1942-Spring 1944

The Impetus

The Experts

The Code

A Fine Conclusion, Spring 1944-Summer 1948

Tempering

The Rand Formula

Postwar Tumult

The Middle of the Road

Afterword

Reference

Index

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