OTTAWA – Newly declassified records show RCMP intelligence officers secretly tracked politician Walter Gordon, who waved the flag of economic nationalism as a Liberal cabinet minister and advocate of an independent Canada.

The Mounties’ security branch analyzed Gordon’s political pronouncements, eyed his travels to Communist countries, monitored the outspoken figure’s views on the Vietnam War, and compiled copious notes on his family and associates.

The Canadian Press obtained the RCMP’s top secret, 272-page file on Gordon, who died in 1987, from Library and Archives Canada under the Access to Information Act.

Because he was a federal cabinet minister, Gordon’s dossier was among the force’s closely held VIP Program files, a collection of 668 classified records on politicians, senior public servants, judges and other “high-profile” individuals.

In a bid to uncover left-wing radicals and others branded as subversive, RCMP spies monitored a wide array of groups and individuals, from academics and artists to environmentalists and peace groups.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service took over counter-subversion duties from the RCMP in 1984.