Oldal 167 [167]
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: THE MAKING OF FRED ROSE, M.P.
Communists for their own utilitarian reasons (and vice versa the Communists
with King), but even some newspaper editors did so too. The Gazette, a Mon¬
treal newspaper, will be a major source here. Finally, the results of the byelec¬
tion will be presented with a conclusion.
Who was Fred Rose? This is not so mundane a question since Rose’s birth
name was actually Fishel Rosenberg, born in Lublin, Poland in 1907 to Jewish
parents there.? His family arrived and settled in Montreal in 1920. This was
fortuitous since Rose had already received French language instruction at the
Gymnase Humaniste de Lublin before arriving in Montreal (Levy, The Montreal
Review). This earlier education, along with the English language education
Rose received at Baron Byng high school, made it possible for him to represent
both francophone and anglophone workers in political and union activities
beginning in 1925 (The Gazette. May 16, 1986, Cl; Levy, The Montreal Review).
Rose became an active communist and a major organizer of workers in work¬
ing-class Montreal, where miserable conditions in the dressmaking sweatshops
existed, especially after the calamitous effects of the Great Depression and the
resulting unemployment occurred. But organizing labour strikes, especially
by a Communist Party member, was then illegal under Article 98 of the Crim¬
inal Code of Canada. This led to Fred Rose and four other communists being
arrested and charged under Article 98 in 1931, and Rose spent nearly a year in
jail (Weisbord 27-28, 35). His imprisonment on behalf of the Montreal work¬
ing class only boosted Rose’s political profile and helped him start his first
political campaign in the federal riding of Cartier in the October 1935 federal
election. The federal riding of Cartier existed in the center of Montreal from
1925 to 1968. Its then population likely had a majority Jewish population, which
was mostly working class, along with a large number of mainly working class
French Canadian and Eastern European groupings.’ Rose first ran there under
the name Fred Rosenberg as a Communist and received 3,385 votes, finishing
a Clear but distant second from the Liberal winner in Cartier. He then ran in
the August 1936 Quebec provincial election and received 578 votes in Mon¬
treal-Saint-Louis, finishing a distant third behind the Liberal winner.’ By the
w
It was not unusual then for Jewish families to change their names since it made their names more
understandable and, for those Jews who wished to assimilate, get ahead in Canadian society.
For the boundaries of Cartier see https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/Election¬
sRidings/Ridings/Profile?Organizationld=1765. For where Jews lived in Montreal, see Mordecai
Richler’s novel, Son ofa Smaller Hero (Richler 14-15). Regarding Cartier’s population, itishard
to find precise figures. Paul Masse, the Bloc Populaire candidate in the August 9th byelection,
stated that the riding was 55% French Canadian, 25% Jewish, and 20% of Canadian of Hun¬
garian, Polish and Slovak descent (The Gazette, July 30, 1943, 19). In contrast, The Canadian
Forum had it at “approximately 55% Jewish, 35% French speaking and 10% other voters of mixed
nationalities” (The Canadian Forum, September 1943, vol. 23, no. 272, 126).
Rose’s percentage of the vote in both elections were similar: 16.28% federally and 16.8% pro¬
vincially. The boundaries of Cartier covered the then largely Jewish working-class district along
The Main (the colloquial term for St. Laurent Blvd.) in Montreal.
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