eListas - My Lists: socialcredit: Messages

Hansard is the name given throughout the Commonwealth to the daily printed record of the proceedings of a Parliament. The name comes from the Hansard family, who published the United Kingdom's parliamentary debates from 1812 to 1888; however, making parliamentary speeches a matter of public record was William Cobbett's idea. Cobbett was a 19th century reformer who published the first-ever record of debates in Britain in 1810. Alberta Hansard has been published since 1972."

What we do have in Alberta is what is called by the Legislative Library as the "Scrapbook Hansard" which is an extensive collection of newspaper and journal articles, etc. which can be accessed by the general public in the Library. Unfortunately, it is either not indexed or is poorly indexed and searches require an amount of tedious effort. Therefore, those early debates in the Legislature are not accurately recorded and organized in official Government archives and we have to depend upon excerpts, quotes and commentary from other sources, with their own biases, opinions and omissions which were by no means always friendly to Social Credit, for such information as is available. Some of the Social Credit publications of the times did, of course, contain such material. The Library is working on getting such material as they do possess into digital form but it is a massive task which they tell me is not anywhere nearing completion. As for microfiche records the Library informs me that they know of no way to directly read these into digital form and have not attempted to do so. So, I am afraid that, as Bill has suggested, the only current practical method would be to print out the microfiche documents, assemble them into appropriate usable format and subsequently scan them with OCR technology, edit and then save them to digital files--a very labour intensive task. If the digital scanning technology exists to avoid this inconvenience, I am not aware of such--and it would probably not yet be available for use by the average citizen in any case.

William Chant from Camrose was Minister of Agriculture in Aberhart's new Social Credit Government of 1935 which unseated the United Farmers Administration by a startling and overwhelming majority in 1935 which dismayed the financial powers around the world. When the undoubtedly brilliant and flamboyant British inventor and Social Credit activist, John Hargrave, praising Douglas with high credentials as a theorist but criticizing him (in Hargrave's opinion) as incompetent as a practical strategist, arrived suddenly in Alberta to take the lead in implementing Social Credit which he thought was in danger of being lost because of the apparent lack of effective Government action, Chant was one of those who expressed his doubt about the possibility of implementing Social Credit in a Provincial jurisdiction. There was at this time also dissension in Aberhart's Government during the upsetting "infamous" Banker's Toadies episode which saw Party whip Joe Unwin, M.L.A. from Camrose and Douglas technician George Powell convicted of criminal libel and sentenced to three and six months, repectively, at hard labour after which Powell was expelled from the country. While Hargrave's militant call for action regardless of Constitutional issues was not adopted his activity seemed to be a major factor in bolstering the insurgency of Douglasite M.L.A.s who were demanding effective action, which was defused by achieving an agreement with Aberhart to proceed with the guidance of Douglas's other technician, L. Denis Byrne and the Social Credit Board. Of the four Ministers to resign as an aftermath to all of this commotion, Chant, at least, apparently did not go willingly and had to be removed by Order-in-Council. Some authors have claimed that Chant also had some issues with Aberhart over patronage appointments. I know nothing of the content of William Chant's addresses, public or in the Legislature, either in Alberta or during his later career in the Government of British Columbia. Again, no doubt one might find some material in the media of the day, Social Credit and otherwise.

On 10-Sep-07, at 11:27 AM, william_b_ryan@yahoo.com wrote:

"The BC Legislature did not have a Hansard in the WAC
Bennett era, so likely the only record of what Chant
was trying to put across in his annual 'A+B' lecture
might be found in the archives of one of the
newspapers that had correspondents in the Legislative
press gallery."
------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------

But surely there would have been transcripts and
records of the proceedings? Here in Texas we have
them for the state legislature going back to when it
was the Congress of the Republic of Texas, 1836-1845.
Not always in neat published volumes, but in archives
somewhere, available to researchers. The WAC Bennett
era was not that long ago. Legislatures have always
been filled with lawyers and lawyers love transcripts.

-----------------original message---------------------

Bill,

William Chant had the unique distinction of having
been a MLA and Cabinet Minister in Premier Aberhart's
first Alberta Social Credit government, and then, much
later on, a MLA and Cabinet Minister for many years in
WAC Bennett's BC Social Credit League government.

In the second Appendix to Douglas's "The Alberta
Experiment" he is listed as Aberhart's Minister of
Agriculture. I believe there was some 'dissention in
the ranks' during Aberhart's first term in office, and
he resigned from Cabinet, and possibly his seat in the
Alberta Legislature, too.

Whether this was over the 'progress', (or lack of
same), towards trying to bring in Douglas 'social
credit' in Alberta, (before Byrne came out from
England), or over some other matter, I really don't
know. Wally may have more information on that. Chant
subsequently left Alberta and moved to BC in any case.

In BC, Chant was Bennett's Minister of Public Works
for many years. This became a somewhat minor
portfolio in that era, the responsibilities for public
highways having been transferred by Bennett to a
separate Ministry of Highways, long under the control
of the Rev. Philip A Gaglardi. Who was an exteremly
effective Minister, easily the most popular in WAC
Bennett's Cabinet, until one scandal too many caught
up with him. Gaglardi wouldn't have known the first
thing about Douglas 'social credit', but he built some
tremendous highways and was a tremendous 'populist'
and orator.

Chant, along with a number of other Ministers in the
WAC Bennett regime, ones who may well have had a much
better understanding of 'social credit',
(Eric Martin, Lyle Wicks, and a few others), were
often regarded as sort of political 'seat-warmers'.
The real 'power' in the running of their respective
Ministries resided with Premier WAC Bennett.

The BC Legislature did not have a Hansard in the WAC
Bennett era, so likely the only record of what Chant
was trying to put across in his annual 'A+B' lecture
might be found in the archives of one of the
newspapers that had correspondents in the Legislative
press gallery. If any of them qouted correctly and
printed at any length what he was actually on about.
Which, considering the attitude of the press towards
'Social Credit' here at that time, I seriously doubt.

David Mitchell wrote a comprehensive biography and
history of the WAC Bennett era, and was, long after
WAC had passed from the scene, briefly a BC MLA (BC
Liberal Party) himself.

Joe

____________________________________________________________________________________
Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's
Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when.
http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Some introductory materials to the discussion topic of this list are at
http://www.geocities.com/socredus/compendium
You're subscribed to this list with the email wmklinck@shaw.ca
For more information, visit http://www.eListas.com/list/socialcredit

Services:	Home, List Hosting Services, Industry Solutions
Your Account:	Sign Up, My Lists, My Preferences, Start a List
General:	About Us, News, Privacy Policy, No spam, Contact Us


The Most Complete Mailing Lists, Groups and Newsletters System on the Net

HOME SERVICES SOLUTIONS COMPANY