Among his friends, McLuhan referred to Baum as a KGB agent.  His
friends were never sure just how seriously he meant the remark.  What was
beyond doubt was McLuhan's outrage at Baum's highly politicized, left-
leaning theology.  When Baum endorsed the New Democratic party, Can-
ada's "social democratic" party, despite its advocacy of legalized abortions,
McLuhan, who would become an active member of the pro-life movement
in Canada in the seventies, was confirmed in his view that Baum was
beyond the pale.  As far as he was concerned, Baum's talk about "solidarity
with the oppressed" was nothing more than an appeal to what McLuhan
called "unemployed emotions" eager to be enlisted in some self-righteous
crusade.  This eagerness was antithetical to the traditional wisdom of the
urbane and self-possessed Catholic."

Note from McLuhan's letters