A long-time Winnipeg communist city councillor and school trustee, Joe Zuken was loved and hated in about equal measure. He was ignored by no one.
The son of Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, Zuken received his political education in the hard school of the Great Depression. His subsequent career as a lawyer and municipal politician highlights the forces that dominated Winnipeg's social and political life from the 1930s to the 1980s: the impact of European migration, the growth of radicalism, the internment of communists in World War Two, the political witch-hunting of the Cold War.
Joe Zuken: Citizen and Socialist examines these issues through the life of a man who, through good times and bad, remained passionately devoted to social justice.

Doug Smith is a Winnipeg writer and author of numerous books on political and social issues and Manitoba labour and political history: including Stickin’ to the Union: Local 2224 versus John Buhler, As Many Liars: The Story of the 1995 Manitoba Vote-Splitting Scandal, and Joe Zuken: Citizen and Socialist, Consulted to Death: How Canada’s Workplace Health and Safety System Fails Workers and As Many Liars: The Story of the 1995 Manitoba Vote-Rigging Scandal.

He has written for several magazines and newspapers including This Magazine, Maclean’s and the Winnipeg Sun. He has also worked as producer at CBC radio for documentaries and the CBC Radio program Ideas and worked as an editorial consultant on a number of public inquiries including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Doug Smith's profile page