National Post- Ted Byfield dead at 93: Journalist was a catalyst for the rise of Western conservatism. He coined the phrase ‘The West Wants In,’ which became a slogan for his magazine Alberta Report and for the Reform Party it inspired.
National Post- Ted Byfield dead at 93: Journalist was a catalyst for the rise of Western conservatism. He coined the phrase ‘The West Wants In,’ which became a slogan for his magazine Alberta Report and for the Reform Party it inspired.
Probably one of the very last of the rock-ribbed conservatives in Canada. Hard-drankin’, hard-partyin’, and (paradoxically to some folks at least) a “muscular” Christian.
We’re not gonna see his like again during my lifetime, that’s for sure.
Oh my. One of the best writers of current events and history ever.
I think of him every Christmas and re-read an article he wrote about the impact Christ had on the world.
He pointed out the fact that even “non-believers” celebrate …which when you think of it seems strange.
I have a file full of his articles.
I miss him and many will.
Ted was a weekly political commentator on Gzowski’s Morningside back in the day. Before “Camp, Kierans, and Lewis” became a thing. My memory’s fuzzy on this, but the millionaire commie Lewis might have actually been Ted’s “replacement” on the panel.
I remember the last day Ted appeared on the program. He was in a surly mood. Gzowski tried to coax and soothe him to play nice in the CONfederation sandbox with the other boys. The usual Laurentian blandishments. Finally Ted blew up. Told the easterners that they had stolen billions of dollars from the province of Alberta by stealing its resource revenue and many billions more in lost revenue through interference in the industry, and they weren’t going to get obsequious gratitude for the criminality from him.
There was an icy chill in the Toronto studio after Ted’s speech, followed by Gzowki’s nervous tittering.
He was never heard from again on Morningside. No explanation for his absence and replacement either.
Probably the last time the Mother Corp. pretended to give non-Laurentian elites or useful idiots some air time on their network.
Good bye to another God fearing man – I hope there are younger ones who will pick up the torch of righteousness and stand up against the evil that is in our land.
Yes muscular Christian like Garth posted above, Peter was a tough and rough fisherman, God plays no favourites and uses us as we submit to His ways.
No one could cultivate them like Ted.
He gave Manning and the “reformers” sound advice at the founding convention in Vancouver. Sadly it was ignored.
My introduction to Mr. Byfield was during the week Trudeau’s National Energy Program was announced, in late 1980 I believe. The Alberta Report’s cover was a cartoon of Ottawa politicians dynamiting oil fields, with Byfield launching a an anti-Trudeau tirade on the last page of the mag.
My crystalization of competent conservative and Christian contemporary thought began with the reading of the Alberta Report. In Ontario. His foundations book series on the first 2000 years of Christianity and Christendom are greatly appreciated. Blessed is the man that dies in the LORD, for his works shall follow him. Thanks Ted
I remember moving from Toronto to Calgary in the early 90s, and being surprised to realise that I’d just moved into the target market of the best journalism being done in Canada. The age of Alberta Report was something like a golden age. Thanks to Ted Byfield, may he rest in well-earned peace.
Too bad the Reform Party was nothing more than a well timed distraction allowing unfettered Liberal corruption… think the Liberal Party money laundering and theft scheme known as, adscam.
100’s of millions stolen from the treasury while, “the west wants in”. Another scam.
Not that I’m blaming Ted for the con game that was the “Reform Party”.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Laurentian gangsters conjured up the Reform Party to keep the western rubes occupied.
RIP, Mr. Byfield.
I read the Alberta Report religiously back in the day.
Rest in peace Ted.
I got here from there.
Sean.
Clearly Ted did not condone the direction Preston took the party.
Stating “Preston’s reach was further than his grasp”.
Alberta Report (AR) was initially called St John’s Alberta Report. Ted pounded the bible into you as he lectured you on social conservatism.
Long before places like Ryerson were cranking out ‘professional journalists’ AR fostered the development of many a budding reporter. Byfield schooled his kids in the craft of writing. He paid nothing for wages but you got an apprenticeship like no other.
He also ran St John’s Christian school. It was a boot camp where Ted believed you had to be toughened up in order to be a man. Maybe somebody who attended might comment?
Alberta benefited from Ted Byfield. He was the conscience of the Province for many years.
Unfortunately the steady march of socialism was too much for even the likes of Byfield. Alberta is now a shadow of
It’s former conservative self.
Much will be written of Ted Byfield in the weeks to come. Not all will be flattering. He was a true original. He bled conservative blood.
Good on ya Ted Byfield.
The Christians is a masterwork. I subscribed to both Alberta Report and later Western Report. Wise and witty, I know he is now with his mentors and looks upon them in the same reverential way we look upon his works.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24128480-the-christians
A Ted Byfield story I remember is from the time when the press was the bane of politicians and not their lapdogs.
He tells of Winnipeg City council having in camera meetings and that someone had discovered a ventilation shaft to the building exterior that carried sound fairly clearly from the meeting room to the outside. The press would gather at the outlet and listen in.
On regular occasions some tidbit, or tidlarge would appear in print and the councillors would go through a round of accusing each other of leaking secret stuff.
RIP Ted Byfield
If his numerous talents, strong beliefs and dogged determination were enough to change the sad course upon which the demented Dominion is now well-embarked, Ted would have managed that. God knows he tried, and God bless you, Ted, for that. Rest in peace.
// He also ran St John’s Christian school. It was a boot camp where Ted believed you had to be toughened up in order to be a man. Maybe somebody who attended might comment? //
There were three of them. Part of the toughening up included a canoe trip as a sort of initiation cum boot camp.
But a dozen students and a leader died on one of these trips & the St John’s schools were never the same.
Now there are none.
One of my undergrad classmates was an alumnus. I think that was before that incident, at least according to the stories he told me.
There was a book written about the canoe mishap:
Deep Waters: Courage, Character and the Lake Timiskaming Canoeing Tragedy
by James Raffan
//Timiskaming was certainly not an accident.” … this school — “established within a quasi-Christian context, wherein God empowered the masters, the masters ruled the big boys, and the big boys ruled the little boys, who, in turn had to appeal to God . . . because no one else would help them” — was much like a cult. //
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/no-act-of-god/article755289/
An article about the tragedy & the book:
http://www.ottertooth.com/che-mun/109/images/timisk1.JPG
This sad image of some of the victims of the Lake Timiskaming drownings in June, 1978, their new running shoes sticking out from under a tarp on a rain-slicked dock, stayed locked in the mind of writer and educator James Raffan for decades. It stirred him to examine the tragedy that saw 12 students and an inexperienced teacher from St. John’s School drown on the first day of a canoe trip to James Bay.
http://www.ottertooth.com/che-mun/109/109-9.htm
The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing SUMMER 2002
This school practised what sociologists call “resocialization”: think of marine boot camp, first we tear you down, then we
build you back up in our image.