Legacy Article - Fil Fraser

Legacy Article "Alberta's Camelot: Culture & the Arts
in the Lougheed Years"
Spring 2004
reviewed by Allan Sheppard

The title of this book looks back to the US presidency of John E Kennedy, many of whose participants and advocates adopted "Camelot" to characterize what they believed was a golden age in American history, politics and culture. The sobriquet was taken from Lerner and Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical, which, in turn, was inspired by The Once and Future King, by T.H. White, published in four parts between 1939 and 1958.

Drawing on the mythology of King Arthur, White tells of an imagined past when a politics of hope, trust, and tolerance created an era of peace, prosperity and justice. His story inspires devotees to invoke the image of Camelot in praise of politicians such as Kennedy and Peter Lougheed. Yet White's tetralogy also tells of the defeat of trust and the end of peace, leaving only hope for a better future.

One of the many virtues of Alberta's Camelot is that it captures such subtleties and shadings without sacrificing its central purpose: to celebrate an era and salute some of the people who, in Fraser's opinion, helped bring our province's own golden age into being. Many of the heroes are predictable: the irrepressible founder of the Citadel Theatre, Joe Shoctor; the man-about-books, -publishing and -politics, Mel Hurtig; and the indefatigable Horst Schmid, who, as Lougheed's Minister of Culture, originated and presided over many innovative and effective policies and programs to support the arts in Alberta.

Schmid had a passion for the arts and a willingness to take risks that most politicians would refuse even to consider. He is the central figure in the story and, as Fraser tells his tale, deservedly so. No one before him had championed the cause of art, artists, and culture with the same enthusiasm, commitment and success.

Two other heroes are less predictable but, as Fraser presents them, equally deserving of celebration: the Premier's wife, Jeanne Lougheed, and Schmid's deputy minister, Les Usher. Lougheed pursued her love of the arts as a patron and supporter and educated her husband in the process. When he became premier, that education and dedication bore fruit in his unwavering support for Schmid and his personal support of the arts. Usher, made his mark quietly as a superb administrator.

Fraser tells his story with obvious relish for the topic and affection for the people. Born in Quebec, trained and initiated in his many careers— broadcaster, journalist, civil servant, advocate—in Ontario and Saskatchewan, Fraser proclaims himself a proud Albertan by choice. A complex mixture of outsider and insider, he writes with rare insight graced with admirable ease, elegance and directness.

Alberta's Camelot is a memoir of events in which Fraser was a participant or close observer. It is difficult to challenge his interpretations, inclusions and, his omissions, as it is based on personal experience, not formal historical research and analysis.

And yet... there is something missing. As an indigenous Albertan introduced to and educated in the arts in the 1940s and '50s, I see stories that remain to be told.

Fraser states the purpose of his book in an introduction:

Fraser achieves his purpose, but often overlooks or discounts important precedents. Most of Alberta's cultural activities and institutions existed and thrived before the Lougheed era. The "creative citizens" who responded as artists and appreciative audiences, to the "supportive environment' of Alberta's Camelot also "did not just happen." They were products of equally enlightened support and programs: the Department of Extension at the University of Alberta that took art and culture to rural communities starting in the '30s; introduction of fine arts into the school curriculum that began before the Second World War; a requirement that all Education students taking a degree minor in a fine art; pioneering Fine Arts degree program University of Alberta. These and other fruitful initiatives occurred before Lougheed. In spite of their tight-fisted conservatism, the Social Credit governments of Premier Ernest Manning introduced programs that set standards for the other provinces, and even the federal government.

Arguably, the work done by and during the Lougheed government was more intelligent husbandry (fertilized with money) and creative harvesting of ground already cultivated than innovation—still important, admirable, and worth celebrating, as Fraser does so well.

Like its literary and musical theatre antecedents. Alberta's Camelot also looks forward. After chronicling the consequences of post-Lougheed cuts in arts funding and support, Fraser concludes "I have not given up hope that my son, Randall Fraser, who has made a life as a member of the Edmonton arts community, will someday experience a renaissance of government commitment that will rival that of the '70s."