The League for Social Reconstruction was formed in 1932 to provide an analysis of the capitalist system and to define the social goal toward which political action should be directed. Early in its history the need was seen for a comprehensive book bringing together important pieces of individual research and spelling out in some detail a plan of social and political action based on the LSR Manifesto, the declaration of the League's principles and plan of action.
Social Planning for Canada, published in 1935, was the result of this perception and marked a turning point in Canadian political history. It was the first comprehensive democratic socialist book about Canada. The authors, who freely admitted their debt to Fabianism, provided a historical and critical survey of Canadian conditions and applied the ideas of planning and social democracy to the Canadian scene, attempting throughout to write in 'specifically Canadian terms.' The first part of the book surveys and analyses the economic system, documenting the LSR Manifesto statement that 'the present capitalist system has shown itself unjust and inhuman, economically wasteful, and a standing threat to peace and democratic government.' The longer part of the book 'What Socialist Planning Really Means, ' deals with the application of the principles and policies of social reconstruction.
Social Planning for Canada exerted great influence on policies and platforms of the CCF and indirectly on those of the other parties. It is the most comprehensive study by the Canadian left of an economic and social alternative to Canadian capitalism.
