View source for Eugene Forsey

{{Short description|Canadian scholar and politician (1904–1991)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]]
| name             = Eugene Forsey
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|CC|FRSC|size=100%}}
| image            = Eugene Alfred Forsey.jpg
| caption          = Forsey while a professor at [[McGill University]]
| office           = [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] for Nepean, Ontario
| nominator        = [[Pierre Trudeau]]
| appointer        = [[Edward Schreyer]]
| term_start       = October 7, 1970
| term_end         = May 29, 1979
| birth_name=Eugene Alfred Forsey
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1904|5|29}}
| birth_place      = [[Grand Bank]], [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1991|2|20|1904|5|29}}
| death_place      = 
| nationality      = 
| spouse           = {{marriage|Harriet Roberts|1935}}
| party            = {{ubl | [[Liberal Party of Canada]] (1970–1982) | [[New Democratic Party]] (1961–?) | [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] ({{circa|1933}}&nbsp;– 1961)}}
| relations        = 
| children         = 
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| occupation       = 
| profession       = 
| module           = {{Infobox academic |child=yes
| alma_mater         = [[McGill University]]<br />[[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| thesis_title       = The Royal Power of Dissolution of Parliament in the British Commonwealth
| thesis_year        = 1941
| school_tradition   = 
| doctoral_advisor   = 
| academic_advisors  = 
| influences         = {{hlist | [[Edmund Burke]] | [[John Macmurray]]}}
| era                = 
| discipline         = [[Political science]]
| sub_discipline     = <!--academic discipline specialist area – e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th Century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist-->
| workplaces         = <!--full-time positions only, not student positions-->
| doctoral_students  = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| notable_students   = <!--only those with WP articles-->
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = 
| notable_ideas      = 
| influenced         = <!--must be referenced from a third-party source-->
| signature          = 
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}}
}}
'''Eugene Alfred Forsey''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|PC|CC|FRSC}} (May 29, 1904 &ndash; February 20, 1991) served in the [[Senate of Canada]] from 1970 to 1979. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost constitutional experts.

==Biography==
Forsey was born on May 29, 1904, in [[Grand Bank, Newfoundland and Labrador|Grand Bank]] in the [[Newfoundland Colony]]. He attended [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]].

Forsey was a supporter of the [[Conservative Party of Canada (historic)|Conservative Party]] led by [[Arthur Meighen]] until he went to [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], on a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] during which he was converted to [[democratic socialism]]. Upon returning to Canada, he joined the [[League for Social Reconstruction]], and was a delegate at the founding convention of the [[Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]] (CCF) in 1933 in [[Regina, Saskatchewan|Regina]].

In 1924 Forsey was employed by [[Vincent Massey]] as a tutor for the two Massey boys at their Batterwood home near [[Canton, Ontario]]. This was an old farmhouse and property that the Masseys had bought in 1918 on rising land backed by rolling hills and facing Lake Ontario a few miles to the south.{{sfn|Milligan|2004|p=19}}
Forsey was free to enjoy Massey's extensive library, and also socialized with the many visitors. These included academics from the [[University of Toronto]] and politicians such as the son of [[Ramsay MacDonald]], the British Prime Minister.{{sfn|Milligan|2004|p=20}}
Massey at this time was about to enter public life, although his more immediate concern was the health of the family business.{{sfn|Milligan|2004|p=21}}

From 1929 to 1941, Forsey served as a lecturer in economics and political science at McGill University. He later taught Canadian government at [[Carleton University]] in Ottawa and Canadian government and Canadian [[labour history (discipline)|labour history]] at the [[University of Waterloo]]. From 1973 to 1977, he served as chancellor of [[Trent University]].

While he had become a social progressive, he remained a "Constitutional conservative", and wrote his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] thesis on the [[King–Byng Affair]], defending the positions of Arthur Meighen and Governor-General [[Julian H.G. Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy|Lord Byng of Vimy]]. The thesis was published in 1943 as ''The Royal Power of Dissolution of Parliament''. This was one of very few major works on the [[reserve powers]] of the Crown in [[Commonwealth of Nations]] countries.

Forsey was president of the CCF in [[Quebec]] in the 1930s. He spent a number of years working for the CCF, and then as research director for the [[Canadian Congress of Labour]] and its successor, the [[Canadian Labour Congress]] (CLC). He was a candidate for the party in the Ottawa area [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] of [[Carleton (Ontario federal electoral district)|Carleton]] in a 1948 [[by-election]], but lost to the new [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada]] leader [[George A. Drew|George Drew]]. When asked why he lost he famously quipped that it was because the other candidate received more votes. He ran and lost again in the [[1949 Canadian federal election|1949 election]].

In 1958, Forsey, though still a CCF member, was appointed by the Progressive Conservative government of [[John Diefenbaker]] to the [[Board of Broadcast Governors]], the predecessor of the [[Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission]]. He remained in that position until he resigned in 1962 because of policy differences.

Shortly after the formation of the [[New Democratic Party]] from the alliance of the CLC with the CCF, Forsey resigned from the party because of its constitutional policy which viewed Quebec as a nation within Canada. Later in the 1960s, he was attracted to the views of [[Pierre Trudeau]] on the [[Canadian constitution]], and joined the [[Liberal Party of Canada]] upon being appointed to the Senate in 1970. He retired from the upper house on reaching the age of 75 in 1979, and turned down an offer from the Liberals to run for a seat in the [[House of Commons of Canada]]. He opposed the emergence of Quebec nationalism.  Québecor leaders objected that the word "dominion" indicated that Ottawa would have control over Quebec. Under Prime Minister [[Louis St-Laurent]], compromises were reached that quietly, and without legislation, "dominion" was retired in official government names, titles and statements, usually replaced by "federal". Dominion Day remained until in May 1980 when a private member's bill to replace the name with [[Canada Day]] was unexpectedly passed in the House. In the Senate, Forsey and the Monarchist League of Canada strongly defended the traditional usage. When a Gallup poll showed 70 percent of all Canadians favoured the change, the Senate approved the bill without a recorded vote.<ref>Alan Rayburn, ''Naming Canada: Stories about Canadian Place Names'' (2001) pp 17–22.</ref> He subsequently resigned from the Liberal Party in 1982 due to disagreements with the proposed changes to the [[Constitution of Canada]].

In 1968, he was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]] and was promoted to Companion in 1988. He was appointed to the [[Queen's Privy Council for Canada]] on June 10, 1985.

In his many commentaries on constitutional issues, especially the [[reserve powers]] of the Crown, Forsey was a conspicuous supporter of the action of the Governor-General of Australia, [[Sir John Kerr]], in dismissing the Prime Minister, [[Gough Whitlam]], in the [[1975 Australian constitutional crisis|1975 constitutional crisis]] because his government was unable to obtain supply (approval to spend money) from the parliament and refused to call a general election.<ref>''Evatt and Forsey on the Reserve Powers''. Sydney: Legal Books, 1990. [[Sir John Kerr]], ''Matters for Judgment'', Macmillan, 1978.</ref>

In retirement Forsey published a study of the labour movement in 1982, ''Trade Unions in Canada, 1812–1902''. His publication ''How Canadians Govern Themselves'' is perhaps his most enduring legacy, being a simple yet comprehensive guide to Canadian government that is continuously edited and published with [[posthumous work|posthumous]] credit.

Forsey's daughter, Helen Forsey, was a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 federal election]] in the riding of [[Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington (federal electoral district)|Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ndp.ca/helenforsey/welcome|title=Canada's New Democrats|access-date=2017-08-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506123916/http://www.ndp.ca/helenforsey/welcome|archive-date=2016-05-06|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==

* Forsey was appointed as an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]] on 20 December 1968 giving him the [[List of post-nominal letters in Canada|post-nominal letters]] "OC" for life. This was changed when he was upgraded to Companion of the [[Order of Canada]] on 17 November 1988, giving him the post-nominal letters "CC" for life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=2524|title=Order of Canada|first=Government of Canada, Office of the Secretary to the Governor General, Information and Media|last=Services|website=archive.gg.ca}}</ref>
* He was sworn in as a Member of the [[Queen's Privy Council for Canada]] on 10 June 1985 giving him the honorific prefix "[[The Honourable]]" and the post-nominal letters "PC" for life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/index.asp?lang=eng&page=information&sub=council-conseil&doc=members-membres%2Fhist-chronolog-eng.htm#a1981-1990|title=Privy Council Office|first1=Privy Council|last1=Office|first2=Bureau du Conseil|last2=privé|website=www.pco-bcp.gc.ca|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2015-10-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009172749/http://www.pco-bcp.gc.ca/index.asp?lang=eng&page=information&sub=council-conseil&doc=members-membres%2Fhist-chronolog-eng.htm#a1981-1990|url-status=dead}}</ref>

;Honorary degrees
*  Forsey received many [[honorary degree]]s for his political career and his work as a constitutional scholar. These include

{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
! style="width:20%;"| Province
! style="width:20%;"| Date
! style="width:40%;"| School
! style="width:20%;"| Degree
|-
| New Brunswick || '''May 1962''' || [[University of New Brunswick]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lib.unb.ca/archives/HonoraryDegrees/results.php|title=INTRODUCTION - POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE|website=www.lib.unb.ca}}</ref>
|-
| Newfoundland and Labrador || '''May 1966''' || [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]] || [[Doctor of Letters]] (D.Litt.) <ref>[https://www.mun.ca/senate/honorary_degrees_by_convo_listing.pdf Honorary degrees] {{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
|-
| Quebec || '''30 May 1966''' || [[McGill University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D) <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mcgill.ca/secretariat/files/secretariat/hon-alph_5.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-10-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220114302/https://www.mcgill.ca/secretariat/files/secretariat/hon-alph_5.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-20 }}</ref>
|-
| Saskatchewan || '''4 November 1967''' || [[University of Saskatchewan]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.usask.ca/archives/campus-history/honorary-degrees.php?id=178&view=detail&keyword=&campuses=|title=Honorary Degrees - University of Saskatchewan|website=library.usask.ca}}</ref>
|-
| Nova Scotia || '''1967''' || [[Acadia University]] || <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.acadiau.ca/alumni-friends/alumni/awards/honorary-degrees.html|title=Honorary Degrees - Acadia University|website=www2.acadiau.ca}}</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''1968''' || [[University of Toronto]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>[http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Boards+and+Committees/Committee+for+Honorary+Degrees/degreerecipients1850tillnow.pdf Degree recipients] utoronto.ca</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''1968''' || [[University of Waterloo]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web|url=https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat-general-counsel/committees-and-councils/honorary-degrees-committee/honorary-degrees-granted/1960-1969|title=1960 - 1969 - Secretariat|work=Secretariat|date=22 May 2012}}{{Dead link|date=June 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
|-
| Nova Scotia || '''1971''' || [[Dalhousie University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dal.ca/academics/convocation/ceremonies/honorary_degree_recipients/hon_degree_1892_1999.html |title=1892 - 1999 Honorary Degree Recipients - Convocation - Dalhousie University |access-date=2017-06-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130506021113/https://www.dal.ca/academics/convocation/ceremonies/honorary_degree_recipients/hon_degree_1892_1999.html |archive-date=2013-05-06 }}</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''Fall 1972''' || [[York University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web|url=http://secretariat.info.yorku.ca/senate/sub-committee-on-honorary-degrees-and-ceremonials/honorary-degree-recipients/#F|title=Honorary Degree Recipients - University Secretariat|website=secretariat.info.yorku.ca}}</ref>
|-
| New Brunswick || '''1973''' || [[Mount Allison University]] || [[Doctor of Civil Law]] (DCL) <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mta.ca/Community/Governance_and_admin/Governance/Board_of_Regents/Board_committees/Honorary_degrees/Honorary_degree_recipients_20th_century/Honorary_degree_recipients_20th_century/|title=Mount Allison University|website=Mount Allison University|access-date=2015-10-19|archive-date=2016-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307224502/http://www.mta.ca/Community/Governance_and_admin/Governance/Board_of_Regents/Board_committees/Honorary_degrees/Honorary_degree_recipients_20th_century/Honorary_degree_recipients_20th_century/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''1976''' || [[Carleton University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{cite web|url=https://carleton.ca/senate/honorary-degrees/honorary-degrees-awarded-since-1954/|title=Honorary Degrees Awarded Since 1954 - Senate|website=carleton.ca}}</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''Fall 1978''' || [[Trent University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D)  <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.trentu.ca/administration/pdfs/2015updatedHDhistoric.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-10-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112928/http://www.trentu.ca/administration/pdfs/2015updatedHDhistoric.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
| Ontario || '''May 1984''' || [[McMaster University]] || [[Doctor of Laws]] (LL.D) <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://secretariat.mcmaster.ca/|title=Home|website=University Secretariat|accessdate=13 February 2024}}</ref>
|-
|}

{{Incomplete list|date=October 2015}}

==Selected bibliography==
'''Works by Forsey'''
* ''A Life on the Fringe: The Memoirs of Eugene Forsey''. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990.
* [https://lop.parl.ca/About/Parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/book/assets/pdf/How_Canadians_Govern_Themselves_10th-ed_EN.pdf How Canadians Govern Themselves] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707065052/https://lop.parl.ca/About/Parliament/SenatorEugeneForsey/book/assets/pdf/How_Canadians_Govern_Themselves_10th-ed_EN.pdf |date=2022-07-07 }}, 10th ed. ({{ISBN|978-0-660-34265-8}}) 2020; [https://web.archive.org/web/20160228005225/http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/book/assets/pdf/How_Canadians_Govern_Themselves8.pdf How Canadians Govern Themselves], 8th ed. ({{ISBN|978-1-100-20078-1}}) Ottawa: Canada, 2012 (1st ed. 1980, 2nd ed. 1988, 3rd ed. 1990).
* ''Freedom and Order''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974.
* ''The Royal Power of Dissolution in the British Commonwealth''. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1938; reprinted 1968; reprinted with a new introduction by Eugene Forsey in 1990 in ''Evatt and Forsey on the Reserve Powers'', (ed. by [[George Winterton]]).
* ''Our Present Discontents'' (The George C. Nowlan Lectures). Wolfville: Acadia University, 1968.

'''Works about Forsey'''
*Forsey, Helen. ''Eugene Forsey, Canada's Maverick Sage''. Toronto: Dundurn, 2012.
*Hodgetts, J.E. ''The Sound of One Voice: Eugene Forsey and His Letters to the Editor''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
*''Evatt and Forsey on the Reserve Powers'': Legal Books, 1990.
*Chamberlain, Tyler, "The High Tory Conservatism of Eugene Forsey and John Farthing," in Lee Trepanier and Richard Avramenko (eds) ''Canadian Conservative Political Thought. Routledge, 2023.''
* [[Donald Markwell]], "Canada's Best", ''The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs'', 1990/1991.
*{{cite book |last=Markwell |first=Donald |author-link=Donald Markwell |title=Constitutional Conventions and the Headship of State: Australian Experience |publisher=Connor Court|year=2016 |isbn=9781925501155 }} Appendix 3: Two Constitutional Scholars: Sir [[Kenneth Wheare]] and Dr Eugene Forsey.
*{{cite book|last=Milligan|first=Frank|title=Eugene A. Forsey: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lX_EFrMPcI0C&pg=PA19|access-date=2014-07-11|year=2004|publisher=University of Calgary Press|isbn=978-1-55238-118-2}}

== Archives ==
There is a Eugene Forsey [[fonds]] at [[Library and Archives Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Library and Archives Canada, Finding Aid to Eugene Forsey fonds, part 1|url=https://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002051.pdf|access-date=2020-06-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Library and Archives Canada, Finding aid to Eugene Forsey fonds, part 2|url=https://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000107.pdf|access-date=2020-06-18}}</ref>

== Electoral record ==
{{1949 Canadian federal election/Carleton}}
{{CANelec/top|CA|20 December 1948|by=yes|reason=On the resignation of [[George Russell Boucher|G. Russell Boucher]], 1 November 1948|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|[[George A. Drew|George Drew]]|12,284|76.27|+14.01}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Eugene Forsey|3,371|20.93|+13.46}}
{{CANelec|CA|Social Credit|J. Nelson McCracken|451|2.80|}}
{{CANelec/total|Total valid votes|16,106|100.0 &nbsp;}}
{{CANelec/hold|CA|PC|+0.28}}
{{end}}

==See also==
* [[List of University of Waterloo people]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Canadian Parliament links|ID=3050}}
*[http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/index-e.asp ''How Canadians Govern Themselves''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310131614/http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/index-e.asp |date=2009-03-10 }}, current edition from Library of Parliament
*[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEED8123BF931A15751C0A967958260 Obituary, ''New York Times'']

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
| before=[[Leslie Frost]]
| title=[[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of [[Trent University]]
| years=1973–1977
| after=[[W. L. Morton|William L. Morton]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsey, Eugene}}
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