Some see co-operation simply as an effective way of doing business.
Others view it as a social and economic philosophy that gives ordinary
people control over their lives. Still others believe that it provides
the economic democracy necessary for the political sphere. And many,
such as Moses Coady, the Cape Breton priest who was the guiding
light of the Maritimes' Antigonish Movement for 30 years, see co-operation
in an even more transcendent light. "It is the expression of
Christianity in the economic sphere," Coady wrote. "It
is founded on the principle of mutual self-help and generates a
sense of brotherhood and fellowship... It lays the material foundation
for national unity and international brotherhood."
Working Together tells the story of the co-op movement in Prince Edward Island, from its beginnings in the 19th century to its prospects for the 21st. Based on exhaustive research and dozens of oral interviews, and written in a journalistic style, it shows how innovative Islanders have reshaped ideas and models developed elsewhere to fit their particular needs. Where no models existed, they created their own: institutions such as farmers' banks and fishermen's unions, institutions which, in turn, inspired co-operators in other places.
Marian Bruce has been a writer and editor on newspapers and magazines across Canada and a broadcaster with CBC Radio. In the 1990s, she worked with the late Angus MacLean, former premier of Prince Edward Island, on his memoir, Making It Home: Memoirs of J. Angus MacLean (Ragweed Press, 1999). She has also collaborated with other writers on several books about Island life, and is the author of Pets, Professors, and Politicians: The Founding and Early Years of the Atlantic Veterinary College (Island Studies Press, 2005), and A Century of Excellence: Prince of Wales College, 1860-1969 (Island Studies Press, 2005). She lives on the Bruce family farm in High Bank, in eastern Prince Edward Island.
A native of Chipman, New Brunswick, Emily Elizabeth Cran lives in Tignish, a centre of the Prince Edward Island co-op movement. She is the author of Success on the Edge: Portrait of a Small Town, the story of Tignish. She also writes book reviews for The New Brunswick Reader and The Guardian, and the Homesteader column for the West Prince Graphic.
ISBN 0-919013-31-7 / $24.95 pb
280 pp / 6 x 9 / illustrated, bibliography, index
Institute of Island Studies