The Revisionist History of "Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story"

Throughout the 20 Century, the grain elevators that stood as sentinels across the prairies were known as Prairie Giants.  From Saskatchewan came three political giants:  J.G. Gardiner, T.C. Douglas and J.G. Diefenbaker.

On March 12 & 13, 2006, the CBC televised Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story.  Within days, columnists slammed the Giant due to its many historical inaccuracies and its mis-appropriation of Jimmy Gardiner’s persona as the mean-spirited villain created to make Tommy Douglas appear saintly.  

Citizens of Saskatchewan spoke out through letters to newspapers and on radio shows, followed by objections from Jimmy Gardiner’s descendents. The controversy which arose from Prairie Giant is multi-faceted.  This web-page explores the issues and assists teachers and students in evaluating Prairie Giant.

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The Rt. Hon J.G. Gardiner

History

Truth and Lies

The CBC

Saskatchewan

Columnists & Journalists

Gardiner Challenges

Smith Family Response

MPs & Senators

The CBC has deceived Canadians.  Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story, displays a growing disregard for Canada's history.  The film does NOT tell the story of Medicare.  It does NOT tell the story of Saskatchewan.  It hardly tells the story of Tommy Douglas.  What it does do, is distort history and defame the Right Honourable James Garfield Gardiner.  No qualifiers that the CBC could envision would lead viewers of Prairie Giant to understand how far this film is from reality. 

The truth is entirely different.  Gardiner served the people of Saskatchewan and Canada as an elected representative for 44 consecutive years and was one of the most, if not the most, accomplished advocates for Western Canada.  Gardiner and Canadians deserve honest history from Canada’s broadcaster, which prides itself as presenting Canada’s Story to Canadians.

Storytelling is the tool societies have used for millenniums to preserve collective memory.  Without historical context, viewers will not be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood, between truth and fantasy. 

As a public broadcaster, the CBC has a duty to be faithful to Canada’s history.   Freedom of speech and creative license are accompanied by duties of responsibility, honest inquiry, and accountability. 

The CBC has a responsibility to ensure that it does not wrongly damage people, whether they are alive or dead.  Although the CBC now recognises the mischaracterisation of Jimmy Gardiner, it has failed to take steps to mitigate the damage that the Prairie Giant has done to Jimmy Gardiner’s reputation and to minimise further defamation.

At issue is whether the Prairie Giant demonstrates negligent production of a piece of Canada’s story or whether it demonstrates abuse of the unique power which resides in the CBC as Canada’s broadcaster. 

Also at issue is the use of taxpayer funds to promote inaccurate, and even worse, defamatory historical films about real people without due regard to historical accuracy.

The CBC states that ‘Canadians look to CBC to tell Canada’s stories’.  That, in a nutshell, is why this film remains a travesty and a disservice to Canadians.  If we do not respect our history, we will, as a society, lose sight of our value system.

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Ralph Goodale stated the Gardiner portrayal ‘brings no credit to those who conspired in such a gross distortion of reality', and ‘the abuse is so glaring that one can only assume it was deliberate and therefore malicious’.  Allan Blakeney criticised the inappropriate depiction of Jimmy Gardiner as a ‘simple-minded demon’.  Political Scientist and Biographer David Smith said that the portrayal of Gardiner as a hard-drinking thug was ‘scandalous’ and ‘a travesty’.  

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Gardiner is to Saskatchewan what Douglas is to the NDP  
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