Successful launch of the Graham Spry documentary, “Radical Dreamer”
On April 25th 2008, the CBMF hosted a pre-broadcast screening of the documentary
“Radical Dreamer: The Passionate Journey of Graham Spry”.
A White Pine Pictures
and Soundings/Steele Inc. production, produced and directed by Peter Raymont and
Bruce Steele, in association with the SCN, TVO, BC Knowledge Network, AccessTV
and CLT, the documentary tells the story of the remarkable life of Graham Spry, known
in this country as the “Father of Canadian Public Broadcasting”.
Using archival material from the Library and Archives Canada and interviews with historic and contemporary figures, the documentary explores the varied life of this nation-builder, who also played an important role in the introduction of socialized medicine to Canada and in the founding of the CCF party that later became the NDP, as well as in the creation of the CBC/Radio-Canada. Kealy Wilkinson, Executive Director of the Foundation who worked with Spry for a decade, served as a consultant to the team producing this documentary.
At the pre-broadcast screening, Ms. Wilkinson used the opportunity to spread the word about the CBMF and its mission and the importance of preserving Canada's broadcast heritage. Doug Rimmer of Library and Archives Canada cited this film as an example of the very significant role that the LAC's extensive audio-visual and print holdings can play in expanding public knowledge of Canada's history. The screening was followed by an energetic discussion about broadcasting, regulatory issues and the CBC.
About the Documentary:
Graham Spry (1900-1983) played a central role in the creation of modern Canada - but he was too far ahead of his time, and paid a huge price for advocating his vision for Canada. That vision has now become an accepted part of the character of this nation and includes the two defining realities in Canada: the struggle to retain a culture distinct from that of the United States, and the attempt to create a bi-cultural, now multi-cultural, state in the northern half of North America.
The young Graham Spry, as a Rhodes scholar and eventual Oxford graduate, dreamt of a Canada with “middle power status” on the world stage. Spry envisioned Canada as a “bicultural state”, with old age pensions, unemployment insurance, universal medical care, a national publicly-owned radio network and other social and political benefits that have since come to define the country.
In the depths of the depression, Spry helped found a new political party (the CCF, now NDP). He organized Canadian clubs across the country and published several influential magazines: Canadian Nation, Canadian Frontier, Canadian Forum, Arts In Canada, The Farmers Sun and the New Commonwealth. They were full of the vision of a vibrant Canadian culture and of a unique democracy. Spry championed the new medium of radio, seeing its potential to function as a “central nervous system” for Canada, a force for education and culture as well as entertainment. As a result of his successful lobbying efforts with the Canadian Radio League, he would later become known as the “Father of Canadian Public Broadcasting”.
During these years, his close friends and associates included Lester Pearson, Eugene Forsey, Frank Scott, King Gordon, Brooke Claxton, Tommy Douglas, Alan Plaunt, Frank Underhill and many others. While they laboured within the established order, Spry worked tirelessly from the fringes of the political culture to popularize his ideas. However, these “radical ideas” in the 1930s ensured that he never became a member of the Canadian establishment. Instead, they made him “unemployable in Canada”.
As a result, he lived in England for three decades as an oil executive, journalist and diplomat. He was the Agent General for Saskatchewan in England and Europe, marketing the Wheat Board, championing the Port of Churchill and helping to introduce medicare in Canada by finding British doctors to break the Doctors' Strike in Saskatchewan.
The documentary, telecast on April 30, 2008, contains interviews with Graham Spry's daughter, Lib and his grandson, Jeremy, journalist Larry Zolf, former Saskatchewan Premier, Allan Blakeney, CEO of the National Arts Centre (and founding Chair of the CBMF/FMCR), Peter Herrndorf, former CRTC Commissioner John Meisel, broadcaster Robert O'Reilly, writer Susan Crean, designer Paddye Mann, economist Bob Babe, historian Michiel Horne and Kealy Wilkinson.
Using archival material from the Library and Archives Canada and interviews with historic and contemporary figures, the documentary explores the varied life of this nation-builder, who also played an important role in the introduction of socialized medicine to Canada and in the founding of the CCF party that later became the NDP, as well as in the creation of the CBC/Radio-Canada. Kealy Wilkinson, Executive Director of the Foundation who worked with Spry for a decade, served as a consultant to the team producing this documentary.
At the pre-broadcast screening, Ms. Wilkinson used the opportunity to spread the word about the CBMF and its mission and the importance of preserving Canada's broadcast heritage. Doug Rimmer of Library and Archives Canada cited this film as an example of the very significant role that the LAC's extensive audio-visual and print holdings can play in expanding public knowledge of Canada's history. The screening was followed by an energetic discussion about broadcasting, regulatory issues and the CBC.
About the Documentary:
Graham Spry (1900-1983) played a central role in the creation of modern Canada - but he was too far ahead of his time, and paid a huge price for advocating his vision for Canada. That vision has now become an accepted part of the character of this nation and includes the two defining realities in Canada: the struggle to retain a culture distinct from that of the United States, and the attempt to create a bi-cultural, now multi-cultural, state in the northern half of North America.
The young Graham Spry, as a Rhodes scholar and eventual Oxford graduate, dreamt of a Canada with “middle power status” on the world stage. Spry envisioned Canada as a “bicultural state”, with old age pensions, unemployment insurance, universal medical care, a national publicly-owned radio network and other social and political benefits that have since come to define the country.
In the depths of the depression, Spry helped found a new political party (the CCF, now NDP). He organized Canadian clubs across the country and published several influential magazines: Canadian Nation, Canadian Frontier, Canadian Forum, Arts In Canada, The Farmers Sun and the New Commonwealth. They were full of the vision of a vibrant Canadian culture and of a unique democracy. Spry championed the new medium of radio, seeing its potential to function as a “central nervous system” for Canada, a force for education and culture as well as entertainment. As a result of his successful lobbying efforts with the Canadian Radio League, he would later become known as the “Father of Canadian Public Broadcasting”.
During these years, his close friends and associates included Lester Pearson, Eugene Forsey, Frank Scott, King Gordon, Brooke Claxton, Tommy Douglas, Alan Plaunt, Frank Underhill and many others. While they laboured within the established order, Spry worked tirelessly from the fringes of the political culture to popularize his ideas. However, these “radical ideas” in the 1930s ensured that he never became a member of the Canadian establishment. Instead, they made him “unemployable in Canada”.
As a result, he lived in England for three decades as an oil executive, journalist and diplomat. He was the Agent General for Saskatchewan in England and Europe, marketing the Wheat Board, championing the Port of Churchill and helping to introduce medicare in Canada by finding British doctors to break the Doctors' Strike in Saskatchewan.
The documentary, telecast on April 30, 2008, contains interviews with Graham Spry's daughter, Lib and his grandson, Jeremy, journalist Larry Zolf, former Saskatchewan Premier, Allan Blakeney, CEO of the National Arts Centre (and founding Chair of the CBMF/FMCR), Peter Herrndorf, former CRTC Commissioner John Meisel, broadcaster Robert O'Reilly, writer Susan Crean, designer Paddye Mann, economist Bob Babe, historian Michiel Horne and Kealy Wilkinson.
