Home > Graham Spry

As a student Spry became an editorial writer at the Manitoba Free Press and was mentored by editor and Canadian nationalist Allan Dafoe . He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Upon his return to Canada he became Secretary of the Canadian Clubs and organised a nation wide broadcast to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Canadian Confederation. The accomplishement, achieved despite the lack of a national radio network, convinced Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to appoint a royal commission to make recommendations for radio broadcasting in Canada.

Following the defeat of King's government, Spry and Alan Plaunt fromed the Canadian Radio League to campaign for the implementations of the Commission's recommendation for a national public radio network. The League mobilised public opinion and convinced the Conservative government of R.B. Bennett to form the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (which later became the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCBC redirects here, as this is the most common use of the abbreviation. For other uses, see CBC (disambiguation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commonly known by the abbreviation CBC is Canada's government-owned television network and radio network.).

A socialist, Spry cofounded the League for Social ReconstructionThe League for Social Reconstruction was a circle of Canadian socialist intellectuals formed in 1931 by academics advocating radical social and economic reforms and political education as a response to the Great Depression. Its leading members were F., contributed to the writing of the Regina ManifestoThe Regina Manifesto was the programme of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and was adopted at the first national convention of the CCF hed in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1933. The CCF was a democratic socialist party founded in 1932 by farmers, worker and purchased both the Farmer's Sun (publication of the United Farmers of OntarioThe United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) were the Ontario section of the nation-wide United Farmers movement that arose in Canada in the early part of the 20th century. The UFO was founded in 1914 by the merger of various farmer's organizations that had arisen) and the Canadian Forum to propoagate the LSR's views. He served as chairman of the Ontario Cooperative Commonwealth Federation from 1934Events January-April January 1 Alcatraz becomes a federal prison. January 7 First Flash Gordon comic strip is published. January 10 Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe January 24 Einstein visits White House January 26 The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, Ne to 1936 and twice ran unsuccessfully for the Canadian House of Commons in a 1934 by-election and the 1935 Canadian election as a Cooperative Commonwealth Federation losing on both occasions to Conservative Tommy Church.

Unable to find work in Canada due to his socialist convictions Spry accepted a job offer from an old Oxford friend and served as a British based executive for Standard Oil from 1940 to 1946. From 1942 to 1945 he also served as personal assistant to Sir Stafford Cripps, a Labour minister in the wartime British cabinet.

After the war Spry was named agent-general of Tommy Douglas's CCF government representing the province of Saskatchewan in Britain from 1946 to 1968. As such, he played a crucial role during the Saskatchewan Doctor's Strike against Medicare by recruiting British doctors to move to the province. (see also Saskatchewan New Democratic Party)

In 1970, Spry turned down Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's offer of a Senate seat.