Browse Items (115 total)

  • Collection: Peter Desbarats's Collection

Action Canada: Lots of Targets but Few Members

Toronto, Ontario

Discussed a new political party, Action Canada, which seemed to have mass appeal but very few followers and very little buzz surrounding it.

In Footsteps of Illustrious Grandfather Westmount Tory Hoeing a Hard Row

Montreal, Quebec

This article is the same as Montreal Conservatives give a prime minister's grandson a difficult debut, published in the Toronto Daily Star several days earlier.

Ottawa's Antidote to U.S. Surcharge Ready in 10 days

Ottawa, Ontario

The Employment Support Act was being debated in House of Commons for a second time. Its purpose was to counteract a newly imposed 10% US “import surcharge.” It would see the Canadian government covering 2/3 of this cost on behalf…

Apathy Greets the Inquiry Into October crisis

Montreal, Quebec

Written on location from Montreal. The Citizen’s Commission of Inquiry into the War Measures Act began in Ottawa on October 12th, 1971. Desbarats condemns the composition of the inquiry panel. He argued there were not enough…

Canada Faces Russia Unsheltered by the United States

Ottawa, Ontario

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Russian Premier Alexei Kosygin were to meet in Ottawa the following week. Desbarats saw this as a unique meeting because Canada was usually involved in more collective bargaining with Russia…

Trudeau Shirking Chance to Define Canada's Relationship with U.S.

Ottawa, Ontario

Desbarats felt that Trudeau was not being clear enough about Canada’s position with the United States in the face of recent import duties imposed by the United States. He argues that the mass media cannot properly convey the…

A Quebec View of Ontario's Costly Election

Ottawa, Ontario

Desbarats believed that the 1971 Ontario provincial election would indicate what future elections across the country would look like years in the future. More would be spent on advertisements (millions), they would be personality…

How Times Change: 53 Years Ago We Fought the Red Army

Ottawa, Ontario

Desbarats points out that Canada sent 5000 troops to fight against the revolutionary Red Army during the 1918 Russian Revolution. He uses this point to springboard into a discussion about Canada’s ability to play both sides of a…

Blunt Talk Against the U.S. is Now Beginning

Winnipeg, Alberta

He argues that western Canada used to feel less anti-American prior to President Nixon’s 1971 trade policy change. After, there seemed to be greater consensus between Ontarians and western Canadians, Winnipeggers in particular,…

Manitoba's New Medicare Plan: Doctors on Salary

Winnipeg, Alberta

Discusses the debate over the rising costs of health care and a desire to transition hospitals to community health centres. Pressure was increasing to have a board of governors manage doctors within these organizations and that…