Graham Spry

ARTICLE CONTENTS:  |  Suggested Reading  |  Links to Other Sites
Graham Spry, journalist, diplomat, international business executive, political organizer, advocate of public broadcasting (b at St Thomas, Ont 20 Feb 1900; d at Ottawa 24 Nov 1983). As cofounder with Alan PLAUNT in 1930 of the Canadian Radio League he was instrumental in mobilizing popular and political support for public broadcasting in Canada. A Rhodes scholar in history at Oxford, Spry began his career as a reporter and editorial writer for the Manitoba Free Press (1920-22). He was chairman of the Canadian Radio League 1930-34 (and years later of the Canadian Broadcasting League 1968-73). The CRL campaigned for the general recommendation of the 1929 royal commission on broadcasting - the establishment and the support of a national system operated as a public undertaking. Spry's famous 1932 aphorism, "The State or the United States," is apt even today (see CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION).

A political activist, he published the Farmers' Sun, renamed the New Commonwealth (1932-34); was coauthor of Social Planning for Canada, published by the LEAGUE FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION (1935); and was chairman of the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (1934-36). He then joined Standard Oil of California, becoming director (1940-46) of UK-based subsidiaries engaged in Arabian and other operations. At the same time he was personal assistant to Sir Stafford Cripps of the British War Cabinet (1942-45), accompanying him on his mission to India, and served in the Home Guard.

As agent general for Saskatchewan in the UK, Europe and the Near East (1946-68), among other duties he recruited doctors, nurses and other skilled personnel. He was instrumental in neutralizing the 1962 SASKATCHEWAN DOCTORS' STRIKE against medicare. In Canada 1968-83, he continued to work for public broadcasting until the end of his life.

Spry, Graham
Spry, Graham
In 1930, when the radio was becoming the essential device in North American homes, Spry co-founded the Canadian Radio League, a grassroots organization that advocated public control of the airwaves (National Archives of Canada/courtesy CBC).

Author ROBERT E. BABE


Suggested Reading
R.E. Babe, "Life is Information: Canadian Communication and the Legacy of Graham Spry," in Communication and the Transformation of Economics (1995); R. Potvin, Passion and Conviction: The Letters of Graham Spry (1992).


Links to Other Sites
The History of Canadian Broadcasting
This site is dedicated to the visionary pioneers who created Canada’s broadcasting industry. Features profiles of members of the CAB Hall of Fame and much more. From the Canadian Communications Foundation.

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