Fonds consists of nominal and chronological correspondences, 1921-1984; personal correspondence, 1906, 1926-1990; articles, speeches, reviews and letters to the editor, 1925-1990; subject files, 1847, 1854, 1886-1991; drafts and research material relating to Canadian labour history, 1919, 1962-1980; proceedings and correspondence relating to the Ontario Advisory Committee on Confederation, 1964-1970; correspondence relating to the Meech Lake Accord, 1986-1990; personal and family material; 1818, 1888-1990; and material found in the records of the Professor John M. Williams in the Centre for Election Studies at Waterloo University, 1966-1987.
The fonds also contains photographs related to the life and career of Forsey, including events, activities, friends, and family. It includes photographs of Eugene Forsey, Rideau Hall, the Parliament Buildings, a variety of Canadian and international geographic locations, and an album of carte-de-visite portraits. Other graphic material in the fonds are a reproduction of a painting of the "L.A.Dunton" (J.B. Forte & Sons, Grand Banks); a proof etching by L.S. Russell, entitled, "Nocturne, Ottawa", 1939; 177 postcards from Newfoundland including greeting cards and views of other provinces; and a print by John H.F. Bacon, entitled, "The Homage-Giving: Westminster Abbey, August 9th, 1902".
The fonds also contains sound recordings of talks by Forsey about the Canadian political system and notes dictated by Forsey for a book on Canadian history, 1959-[ca. 1980].
Forsey, Eugene A. (Eugene Alfred), 1904-1991 : Eugene Forsey (1904-1991) was born in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, and educated at Ottawa Collegiate, McGill University and Oxford (he was a Rhodes Scholar for Quebec in 1926). He was a lecturer in economics and political science at McGill, 1929-1941, and received his Ph.D. from McGill in 1941. From 1942-1966 he was Director of Research for the Canadian Congress of Labour and its successor, the Canadian Labour Congress, and he remained associated with the CLC as Special Project Director until 1969.
A founding member of the CCF, Forsey ran unsuccessfully as a CCF candidate for the Montreal City Council, 1940, the Ontario Legislative Assembly, 1945, and the House of Commons, 1948 and 1949. In 1970 he was appointed to the Senate by Pierre Trudeau, where he sat as a Liberal senator until his retirement in 1979. He continued to write and speak on constitutional and other issues almost until his death in 1991.
Forsey's principal publications include economic and social aspects of the Nova Scotia coal industry, 1926, The royal power of dissolution of parliament, 1943, Freedom and order, 1974, Trade unions in Canada, 1984, and his memoirs, A life on the fringe, 1990. He also wrote more than two hundred articles and a comparable number of letters to the editor.
