Ronald A. Gostick | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1918-07-18)July 18, 1918 |
| Died | July 16, 2005(2005-07-16) (aged 86) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Known for | Founder of theCanadian League of Rights |
Ronald A. Gostick (July 18, 1918 – July 16, 2005) was a long-time figure on the Canadianfar right and founder of theCanadian League of Rights.[1] Gostick was involved in theCanadian social credit movement and later published far-right andantisemitic material over the course of 50 years, including theCanadian Intelligence Service andOn Target! and numerous books and pamphlets.[2]
Gostick influenced several figures on the Canadian far right.Jim Keegstra got most of his reading material through his membership in Gostick's League.[3] He also collaborated withJohn Ross Taylor and was a mentor toPaul Fromm and an associate of Patrick Walsh, a fellow traveller who worked as research director at the CLR.[2] He was also associated with formerMember of ParliamentJohn A. Gamble, who worked with Gostick as Canadian leader of the World Anti-Communist League in the 1980s.[4]
David Lethbridge, ananti-fascist activist andCommunist Party member, described the CLR and Gostick as a "danger" because they soft-pedaled an essentially "fascist" message. Lethbridge toldThe Globe and Mail that "What made them dangerous was that they came across as mainstream."[3]
Ron Gostick was born inMerthyr Tydfil,Wales to Canadian parents and moved with them to Canada shortly afterWorld War I.[3] They established a homestead nearStettler, Alberta and lived there for nine years before moving toCalgary. From 1933 to 1935, he attendedCrescent Heights High School and was influenced by the school's principal,William Aberhart, a proponent of thesocial credit movement inAlberta. Gostick and his family joined theAlberta Social Credit League. His mother,Edith Gostick, was elected to theLegislative Assembly of Alberta in the1935 provincial election. This election brought her party, the Social Credit, to power and made AberhartPremier of Alberta.[3] She served as one of the fiveMember of the Legislative Assembly forCalgary until 1940. Then she took a position as Legislative Librarian.
Ron Gostick entered theCanadian Army in 1941 and fought in theSecond World War. After demobilization, he worked as a court reporter inOntario and served as national secretary of theSocial Credit Party of Canada,[3] the less successful federal counterpart of Aberhardt's Alberta Social Credit party. He settled inFlesherton, Ontario where he spent most of the rest of his life.[3] In the1945 federal election, he ran as the Social Credit candidate in the Ontario riding ofGrey North, coming in last place out of four candidates, with 250 votes.
In 1946, Gostick founded the "Union of Electors", a social credit based provincial party that was inspired by the more radical Quebec wing of theCanadian social credit movement, theUnion des electeurs.
He also began his publishing activities at the same time, beginning to issue the periodicalSocial Credit in 1947. The Social Credit Association of Canada disowned the publication in 1950 because of itsanti-Semitism. Gostick renamed the periodicalThe Canadian Intelligence Service in 1951.
He wrote (or co-wrote) several books:
In the early 1950s, Gostick was a public speaker at meetings sponsored by the American rightistsGerald Smith andWesley Swift (who later founded theChristian Identity movement).[2] Gostick founded the Canadian Anti-Communist League with a mandate of exposing the "Communist-Zionist-monopolist-finance enemy of Christian civilization."[3] The CACL became the Canadian affiliate of theWorld Anti-Communist League once the larger body was formed in the 1960s. The CACL became the Christian Action Movement and later in 1967 became the "Canadian League of Rights" (CLR).B'nai B'rith described the organization as being "long-known to support racist and anti-Semitic positions".[6]
Gostick died ofcancer two days before his 87th birthday.[3]
