League For Social Reconstruction - Social Planning: The CCF and The Royal Commission

Social Planning: The CCF and The Royal Commission

Later in 1932, the socialist party Underhill predicted materialized as the CCF. The CCF were social democrats, and held the same ideas as the LSR regarding state theory, and hence the CCF were the LSR's best option for access to parliament. The CCF was also the best option for another reason: J.S. Woodsworth, honorary president of the LSR, was also leader of the CCF. Because the LSR had been established outside the political system, the question was how to structure the relationship between the League and the CCF. d on the stated goal of education, and it was not clear they would stay if the LSR became the organ of a political party. Woodsworth proposed a solution for members of the LSR who desired affiliation; CCF Clubs. Club membership brought affiliation, and LSR members could thus affiliate with the CCF independently of affiliation with the LSR. The LSR was thus able to move forward as an independent research organization.

To promote and improve their ideas, the League discussed political economy with intellectuals and politicians across the nation. The LSR believed that because the Depression was national, its solution would be national as well, and they found sympathetic analyses amongst the intellectual community. Intellectuals concerned with social reform began to contemplate national reform. Common ground between the LSR and intellectual elites provided a program for action. Intellectuals felt that they needed to convince Canadians that government should assume an interventionist role; financial and social policies should be implemented at the national level, and stability would flow top downwards. Such an arrangement was not however possible under the BNA, and accordingly, the constitution would require modification.

By the mid-1930s, many modern intellectuals found work in government, and political bodies began to seek advice from extra-parliamentary intellectuals. In 1935, extra-political intellectual elites were included in a national conference on Dominion-provincial relations, however the conference's primary purpose was to stop the flow of federal money to provinces, which was not what intellectuals had in mind. The initiatives put into place after the conference proved unproductive, and the movement was transmuted into the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations. The Commission was placed under the control of modern social scientists, including LSR member Frank Scott, and was instructed to provide recommendations for securing the economy and the federation. In 1940, the Commission reported that the Depression resulted from problems in the definition of the Canadian Dominion; the BNA had developed in the context of a wheat-timber-fish economy, and could not support Canada's mixed and industrializing economy. Industrial growth had increased the complication of economic activity, but the political system had not made corresponding advancements. To solve the Depression, the taxation powers and fiscal responsibilities of the federal and provincial governments required readjustment. The government should control all unemployment insurance programs, assume all provincial debts, collect all income taxes, and make equalization payments to needy provinces.

Premiers met the Prime Minister in 1941 to discuss the recommendations, and with war raging in Europe, the Premiers agreed to the Commission's proposals. After the war, Prime Minister King was eager to preserve the government's new powers, and a separate agreement was reached with the provinces, making the Commission's recommendations into permanent policy. Politicians of all stripes were eager to mitigate against the economic and social problems experienced after World War One, and acceded to the implementation of central planning measures. Reflecting on the Commission, historian Doug Owram noted that the report "was not so much the product of the public hearings as ... of the intellectual network of the 1930's ... Indeed, the results of the study had been conceived even before its appointment." The report itself became a vehicle for shaping data in such a fashion that it supported the conclusions of the intellectuals who wrote it, with an eye towards converting its readers into advocates of centralization.

The ideas of the LSR proved instrumental in introducing successful social planning measures into government, however disenchantment with socialism however had grown as World War Two approached, and the LSR itself was reduced to the point of dissolution. With CCF related activities expanding, the League finally disbanded in 1942. In the mid-1940s two members of the LSR held prominent positions within the CCF: Frank Scott became the National Chairman, and Professor George M. A. Grube became the president of the Ontario CCF.