Keeping Canada British: The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Saskatchewan

The Ku Klux Klan had its origins in the American South in the
post-Civil War period. It was suppressed but rose again in the 1920s
when it enjoyed widespread support throughout the United States and
spread into Canada, especially Saskatchewan, where it took root and
flourished. There it won widespread support and helped bring down the
Liberal government and elect the Conservative party in the 1929
provincial election.

James Pitsula offers a new interpretation for the appeal of the Ku
Klux Klan in 1920s Saskatchewan. He argues that the Klan should not be
portrayed merely as an irrational outburst of intolerance and hatred
but rather as a populist aftershock of the First World War. Fearing
that the hard-won victory to keep Canada British was being undone by
massive immigration from Central and Eastern Europe, many
Saskatchewanians sought to reverse the trend. The Klan represented a
slightly more extreme version of mainstream opinion and, although a
racist organization, it eschewed violence, followed constitutional
methods, and eventually rejected robes and hoods.

Keeping Canada British tackles a controversial issue
central to the history of Saskatchewan and the formation of national
identity. In seeking to understand the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in all of its
strange complexity, this book shines light upon a dark corner of
Canada's past.

James M. Pitsula is a professor of history at the
University of Regina.