Allen's career began with history and he specialized in Christian socialism within Canada. In 1971, he published a work entitled The Social Passion, chronicling the history of the Canadian social gospel from the 1890s to 1929. In the book he proposed that the social gospel supplied the reform movement with a type of ideology. He said it ultimately failed because the concept translated poorly between English and Canadian society and that the structure of the churches did not lend itself to promoting social change. The book was criticized because it focused too strongly on central Canada and ignored trends in the Maritimes and Western Canada.[3]
In addition to The Social Passion, Allen has published Region of the Mind: Interpreting the Western Canadian Plains (1973), Religion and society in the prairie west (1975) and Man and Nature on the Prairie (1976), and was the editor of a collection entitled The Social Gospel in Canada (1975). In 1998 he published a family history, "Sun Bright and Well Beloved: Three Hundred Years of a North American Family and their Farther Past," hailed in the Canadian Historical Review as setting a new standard for family history in Canada. He has also written several articles on Salem Bland, a prominent Canadian Christian socialist (1859–1950). In 2008 Allen published volume one of his biography of Salem Bland, The View from Murney Tower: Salem Bland, the Late Victorian Controversies, and the Search for a New Christianity.
List of works
The Social Passion, 1971
Region of the Mind: Interpreting the Western Canadian Plains, 1973
Religion and society in the prairie west, 1975
Man and Nature on the Prairie, 1976
The Social Gospel in Canada (editor), 1975
Sun Bright and Well Beloved: Three Hundred Years of a North American Family and their Farther Past, 1998
The View from Murney Tower: Salem Bland, the Late Victorian Controversies, and the Search for a New Christianity, 2008
In 1983, Allen introduced a resolution calling for Ontario to be made a nuclear-free zone. It was defeated by a vote of 63 to 38.[7] As the NDP critic for Constitutional Affairs and a member of l'Association interparlementaire de langue francaise, Allen was a vocal supporter of the Meech Lake Accord, and with Liberal critic, Charles Beer, drafted the Ontario Legislature's official report on the Accord.[8]
In the cabinet shuffle of February 3, 1993, Allen was asked to become a Minister Without Portfolio in order to take responsibility for international trade.[10] On August 22, 1994, he was re-appointed to a full cabinet position as Minister of Housing.[11]
The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1995, and Allen lost the Hamilton West riding to Progressive ConservativeLillian Ross by over 4,000 votes.[12] Allen moved on to become chairperson of the Board of Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton (1996–2001) and resumed a career of historical research and writing.[13]
^ ab"Ontario's first NDP cabinet". Toronto Star. 2 October 1990. p. A17.
^Faulkner, Tom (January 1, 1972). "The Social Passion: Religion and Social Reform in Canada, 1914–18". Church History. 41: 278. doi:10.2307/3164200. JSTOR3164200.
^Palango, Paul (June 18, 1982). "NDP wins Hamilton by-election". The Globe and Mail. p. P1.
^"Results of vote in Ontario election". The Globe and Mail. May 3, 1985. p. 13.
^"Results from individual ridings". The Windsor Star. September 11, 1987. p. F2.
^"MPPs vote against nuclear resolution". Toronto Star. November 27, 1983. p. F7.
^McMonagle, Duncan (June 24, 1988). "Stage set for Ontario to back pact". The Globe and Mail. p. A4.
^Ferguson, Derek; DeMara, Bruce (November 24, 1992). "Agency's purpose to train workers". The Toronto Star. p. A12.
^Brennan, Richard (February 3, 1993). "Cooke glad to shed old job: He gets new super education ministry". The Windsor Star. p. A1.
^Mittelstaedt, Martin (August 19, 1994). "Gigantes resigns as Housing Minister Standards backfiring, observers say". The Globe and Mail. p. A1.