Alan Butterworth Plaunt (March 25, 1904 – September 12, 1941) was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, journalist and activist. The son of a wealthy lumber family, Plaunt attended the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and was a keen observer of the fledgling

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

while in Britain becoming a believer in John Reith's approach to public broadcasting.Twomey, John E., "Foundations, Alan Plaunt and The Early Days of CBC Radio", ''Canadian Journal of Communication'' Vol. 12, No. 2 (1986) With

Graham Spry Graham Spry, CC (February 20, 1900 - November 24, 1983) was a Canadian broadcasting pioneer, business executive, diplomat and socialist. He was the husband of Irene Spry and father of Robin Spry, Richard Spry and Lib Spry. Life He was born ...

, he founded the Canadian Radio League in 1930 to mobilize political support for the creation of a

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

system, first in the form of the

Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Origins The CRBC was establis ...

in 1932 and then with the creation of the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

in 1936. Plaunt sat on the original CBC Board of Governors from 1936 until Alan Butterworth Plaunt
''Canadian Encyclopedia'', retrieved January 20, 2008 1941, when he resigned to protest what he saw as increasing government direction of the CBC during the war. He was also an active

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

as a member of the

League for Social Reconstruction The League for Social Reconstruction (LSR) was a circle of Canadian socialists officially formed in 1932. The group advocated for social and economic reformation as well as political education. The formation of the LSR was provoked by events such ...

and helped write the

Regina Manifesto The Regina Manifesto was the programme of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and was adopted at the first national convention of the CCF held in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1933. The goal of the Regina Manifesto was to eradicate the sy ...

which was the original program of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. Plaunt founded the New Canada Movement in 1933, an agrarian youth movement that advocated a " new deal" for farmers and promoted its views in the '' Farmer's Sun'', (renamed ''New Commonwealth'') the former journal of the United Farmers movement which he and Spry owned from 1932 until 1935. In the last years of his life, Plaunt helped organize the Neutrality League, a pacifist organization that opposed Canadian participation in the looming conflict in Europe. He died of cancer at the age of 37.Plaunt, Alan Butterfield, 1904–1941
University of British Columbia Special Collections Biography

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