A True Canadian Patriot and Nati

A True Canadian Patriot and National Visionary

Tim Buck was a giant in Canadian politics.  His vision for Canada stood head and shoulders above the limp toady scheming of his contemporaneous bourgeois counterparts.  Buck’s foresight for securing an independent Canada was remarkable in its clarity and simplicity. His work remains as relevant and contemporary today as it was visionary and farsighted in his warnings to Canadian workers about the danger of following policies that “will transform our country into a United States dependency.”[1]

The genius of Buck was his mastery of Marxism-Leninism within the Canadian reality.  His profound and patriotic voice, his unwavering partisanship for Canadian workers was without equal and continues to endure 60 years later.  The depth of his work is a testament to the spirit of Canadian labour and an unyielding confidence in the revolutionary working class of Canada.

Buck’s deep conviction in the revolutionary potential of the Canadian working class to transform Canada into a great nation of peace and cooperation stands in stark contrast to the bleak and slanderous portrayals by Prime Minister Harper and his professional US imperialist apologists characterizing Canada as weak, dependent “middle power”, one that requires closer cooperation with and integration into the United State economy for its future.

Buck rejected in its totality the bourgeois conception that Canada is unable to chart an independent course and must remain reliant on US oversight for its prosperity and future progress.  He waged an unremitting fight against opportunism, revisionism and petty bourgeois idealism.  He never succumbed to hectoring labour for its weaknesses in organizing that were the result of ruthless attacks and coercion by the agents of monopoly capital.  Buck waged his unrelenting assault on the ruling class and positioned his fight for Canada squarely on regaining control of Canada’s great basic industries and natural resources as the only path to Canadian sovereignty.

Patiently explaining to Canadian workers, that to be “masters in our own house” an organized political struggle for Canadian sovereignty, founded on the science Marxist-Leninism is the only principled basis for labour unity.   Buck contended that “labour must lead the nation” and the road map to a socialist future for the country was only possible with labour standing at the head of the nation.  This was Buck’s great contribution to the Canadian working class.

Tim Buck said that, “A truly Canadian national policy must be founded squarely upon six basic facts…”[2]  Buck outlined them as follows:

  1. Canada’s tremendous and varied natural wealth;

  2. The “unsurpassed” productivity of Canadian workers;

  3. The urgent necessity for rapid increases in Canada’s great basic industries to process more of our raw material at home;

  4. Trade with the world and expand Canadian exports into the new growing and undeveloped markets of the world;

  5. Regaining our economic independence is the only way to re-establish sovereignty over our nations of Quebec and Canada;

  6. The Canadian people must choose what national legacy we want to leave for our children – a nation of peace and cooperation or a compliant appendage to US imperialism.

Not one political party in Canada can uphold their national policies that pass this test.  The present polices of the Harper regime and his minority government do not meet these conditions and in fact are working brazenly to undermine them.  Harper’s anti-labour policies as they are reflected in his attacks on the CAW are designed to undermine the large manufacturing industries of Quebec and Ontario. Harper is working to dismantle basic industries and not expand them.


[1] Tim Buck, Our Fight for Canada, Progress Books, Toronto ON, 1959, pp 287

[2] Tim Buck, Our Fight for Canada, Progress Books, Toronto ON, 1959, pp 287