Why Calgary needs a statue of Winston Churchill

Mark Milke, Calgary Herald, November 7, 2020

A few years back, the president of the Gandhi Society of Calgary and I publicly discussed how we should think about historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill.

The late British prime minister and the non-violent Indian barrister who pressed for Indian independence were both world-consequential figures — take away either man from the 20th century and the world would have been less free and less flourishing in their absence.

I’ll offer thoughts shortly on how we might ponder history's leaders, flaws and all, but first, consider why the Churchill Society of Calgary has commissioned a statue of Churchill that we hope will grace some prominent Calgary location next summer.

One obvious reason to commemorate Winston Churchill 75 years after the end of the Second World War is his wartime leadership. Churchill’s 1930s stance on the existential danger that Nazi Germany posed to freedom and minorities deserves to be permanently remembered.

Hundreds of Calgarians and nearly 45,000 Canadians died fighting Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Italy. Absent Churchill’s courage and bloody-mindedness amidst appeasers, their soldierly sacrifices early in the war could have been in vain.

Another reason is Churchill’s connection to southern Alberta.

Churchill and his son Randolph visited Canada in the summer of 1929, as part of their three-month North American tour.

In Alberta, they visited Edmonton and Calgary, the Prince of Wales Ranch, the Turner Valley oil fields and the Rockies.

According to Bradley Tolppanen in his book, Churchill in North America, 1929, Churchill was fascinated by southern Alberta and its great potential. He wrote to his wife, Clementine, of how he planned to buy shares in Alberta-based oil companies and suggested that he might even buy a ranch and move to Alberta if Neville Chamberlain ever became prime minister. (Chamberlain did, in 1937, but Churchill thankfully stayed in London to eventually take over as prime minister in May 1940.)

Churchill the painter came to love Alberta for other reasons connected to his aesthetic side, which explains his fondness for Banff, Lake Louise and Emerald Lake. His visit to Alberta produced multiple paintings including one repatriated to Alberta in 2018.

Churchill: A leader to admire in any age

There are other reasons why Calgarians today should cherish Churchill: because while he was a man of his time and all that that implies, he was also ahead of it, and often learned from his own mistakes.

Churchill’s views — both ones we would oppose or support today — should be addressed. While ahead of contemporaries on some matters, he held unsupportable ones on issues such as imperialism and had a mixed record on race.

That noted, some of Churchill’s positions are more understandable with context. For example, he opposed Indian independence because he saw India as akin to Europe — divided in governance, religion and much else and incapable of uniting. He was also fearful of bloodshed if Britain left. Churchill was wrong about India’s potential for eventual unity but tragically right about the initial post-independence bloodshed.

“The left-out millions”

We should consider Churchill’s other actions, early and late in life, that contributed to human freedom and flourishing and should round out our views of him today.

Early on, as historian Andrew Roberts noted in his recent biography, Churchill opposed South African Boer racists and argued that black South Africans should be given legal equality with whites. Also, when American troops landed in Great Britain during the Second World War, Churchill refused an American military request that segregation be enforced against black military personnel in pubs and restaurants with white American troops.

Churchill was not a modern progressive. He was a classic liberal and saw individuals as individuals first, which meant he often, eventually defaulted to positions that took into account the needs of those too often ignored by his aristocratic colleagues.

Examples abound. In his career, Churchill denounced an anti-Jewish bill that meant to prevent Jewish immigration from Russia; he believed governments have a duty to protect minorities against what he called “a petty white community”, and he wanted Indian minorities, the Untouchables and Muslims, protected from the majority population.

Churchill’s individualism and ability to think outside the box — a trait of leaders, not followers — also explains his early advocacy for social reforms.

As Ian Holloway, dean of the University of Calgary law school describes Churchill's early positions, he fought for unemployment insurance, pensions and a minimum wage for garment workers. In short, Churchill favoured the “left-out millions.” That was evident decades before he visited the ruins of East London during the Second World War after German bombs ripped into working-class neighbourhoods.

Fresh, fair thinking about history’s famous men and women

To propose a Winston Churchill statue in an era when some statues are being attacked might seem odd. But this actually is the right time to do so because it allows us all to ponder how best to consider historical figures.

For example, if we oppose commemorating those whose views are not in perfect accord with today, we must then shy away from celebrating the Famous Five suffragists, given they endorsed eugenics. Or consider Gandhi's errors. He advised German Jews, after Kristallnacht, to practice non-violence toward the German SS. He also wrote Hitler in 1941 to inform him that he, Gandhi, did not "believe that you are the monster described by your opponents."

The suffragists were wrong on eugenics but right to demand freedom, equality of opportunity and the vote; Gandhi was wrong to suggest pacifism to European Jews and on Hitler, but was right to campaign for Indian independence: It is possible to make distinctions and to admire long-dead men and women for what they achieved, despite their other views and advocacy with which we should vehemently disagree.

The key question we should pose to historical figures is not, “Did their every view or remark perfectly align with us today?” That is an impossible standard for them and us. Instead, the useful question to ask is: Did they contribute to human freedom and flourishing in their era?

The answer — if one gazes at U.S. Civil War Confederate generals who fought to retain slavery, or Hitler, who was a tyrant — is no. But the answer for suffragists, Gandhi and Churchill is unquestionably yes.

Hong Kong’s protesters grasp Churchill’s eternal values

In an age where historical figures are turned into cardboard characters without nuance, we should also recall Churchill’s other two traits: His tears and humour. Churchill, in an age where Brits valued a stiff upper lip, cried often. He did so when he saw the devastation of war and the fruits of peace. For example, he sobbed while walking through the streets of Paris after liberation. On humour: “I could not live without champagne,” he told a friend in 1946. “In victory, I deserve it; in defeat, I need it.”

Lastly, Churchill’s battle for a world free from tyranny is yet relevant today. When I visited Hong Kong in 2013 to meet politicians, business people and others, almost to a person, they told me they wanted three unique aspects from Hong Kong's British era in relation to the repressive regime in Beijing: the rule of law, capitalism and democracy. Those inheritances are valued because they allow freedom and individuals to flourish as individuals.

It is why during the protests against a Beijing government, Hong Kong students and others have regularly raised the British flag and even scrawled “We shall never surrender” across a signboard. What Churchill fought for — human freedom and flourishing — is yet relevant today. Churchill is a timeless symbol of freedom and democracy and why a permanent tribute – a statue — is what we hope to erect in Calgary in the summer of 2021.

Mark Milke is president of the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary. The Calgary Herald has partnered with the society since its inception in 1965, created in part by then Herald publisher Frank Swanson and Vera Swanson. To find out more about the Sir Winston Churchill Leadership Initiative and Statue project and his 1929 visit to western Canada, see https://www.churchillcalgary.ca/

Mark Milke is the author of The Victim Cult: How the culture of blame hurts everyone and wrecks civilizations.