Our film on this episode is a 1987 documentary called Stanley Knowles by Word and Deed.

The subject was the member of Parliament for Winnipeg North Center from 1942 to 1958,

when he was a member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, better known as the CCF,

as well as 1962 to 1984, when he was a member of the new Democratic Party,

which to this day is Canada's only major Social Democratic Party.

And Stanley Knowles is an interesting figure because he truly embodied so many of the qualities

that we make fun of when liberals express them.

He truly believed in the idea of incremental progress. He truly was

a wonk, and he truly was a very religious man who believed that the church could play a role

in social change. When you were telling me about him a couple of weeks ago, you were saying

that you found him an oddly comforting figure

to think about in these difficult times for the left. Could you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah, I mean, everything I just said is true. And I mean, this is why I wanted to talk about

Stanley Knowles and talk about this documentary. You know, because he's quite unlike other figures that I've

cited as inspirations on this show. He's not a firebrand in the mold of someone like a Tony Ben,

you know, is someone who I don't think you could call a revolutionary socialist, uh, certainly a

determined socialist and a true believer, but also somebody who believed very deeply in, you know,

Parliament as an institution, uh, in its rules and procedures, um, in which he was

fascinated throughout his whole life. And he had such a mastery of them that he was actually

able to kind of game them, uh, in a way that was able to advance the social democratic agenda

at various points.

What about the old age pensioners? Ten years ago, the pension was $30 a month.

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