“Progressive monthly – a Polish Alliance of Canada organization” read the heading of the first issues of the printed newspaper, which had been established by the PAC Head Executive Board in December 1932.

The first issue of The Alliancer was published in January 1933, consisted of 16 pages, and was prepared by the following Editorial Committee: S.F. Konopka, A. Piekarz and K.J. Mazurkiewicz. For over a year, the monthly publication was copied on a duplicating machine.

In April 1934, K.J. Mazurkiewicz purchased a set of characters and a small printing press, which slightly improved the effectiveness of compiling future issues, but the work was still difficult and very arduous. The text had to be manually assembled letter by letter. Purchasing a linotype became a necessity. Finally, K.J. Mazurkiewicz was able to buy an old linotype at an auction; after the linotype was repaired, it was ready for normal use.

At the VII PAC General Assembly in 1935, the decision was made to publish weekly. The first issue of the weekly publication appeared on October 6, 1935, and consisted of 6 pages; two months later, it was 8 pages long and remained that length until 1951.

The first editor of the weekly The Alliancer was A.J. Staniewski. The beginnings of the weekly were very difficult. A lack of financial resources forced the workers to receive minimum salaries. Difficulties arose in distribution, which was also handled by editor Staniewski. During the week, he worked and, on Sundays, he travelled through Polish neighbourhoods looking for subscribers.

Thanks to his orating abilities, he was often able to procure several subscriptions during these “Sunday trips.” After the death of A.J. Staniewski in May 1941, Dr. W. Rosinski became editor and remained in this position until July 1943.

Subsequent editors included F. Glogowski, L. S. Garczynski, J. Gizycki, Franciszek Glogowski, Benedykt Heydenkorn, Jerzy Rozwadowski, Roman Buczek, Gustaw Slodkowski, Dr. Jacek Adolf, Janusz Sukiennik, Robert Dlugoborski, Stanislaw Stolarczyk, and Jaroslaw Abramow-Newerly.

In 1957, the editorial staff decided that the newspaper should be published twice a week, in order to inform its readers about current world and Canadian events more quickly.  The fact that many new community organizations were being formed at the time was also important, and informing the Polish community about them became a priority. From a Polish Alliance of Canada newspaper, The Alliancer became a newspaper of the Polish-Canadian community. Interestingly, from the moment of its establishment, the newspaper neither obtained nor requested any discretionary funds; it only served Polish immigrants and initiated actions to help Polish countrymen. The Alliancer was published as a semi-weekly until the 1990’s, when the Press Management decided to resume weekly publication.

The Alliancer was a newspaper published by the organization, so it shared the organization’s views on various public issues. However, it was not a newspaper that solely served The Polish Alliance of Canada’s ideological objectives.

The newspaper’s publishers wanted to expand the weekly publication and to give it a character that advocated the Polish community – its “old” and “new” members. The wide-ranging topics and the continually increasing volume of The Alliancer led to its conversion to a type of magazine, raising many social, cultural and political issues.

Translations from popular American press were published. Consideration of Canadian questions was also developed. The newspaper did not take part in any particular political party’s campaign but encouraged participation in the election process.

At the beginning of the 1990’s, a “Literary Magazine” was included and written by Jaroslaw Abramow-Newerly; its main theme consisted of Polish cabarets, from “Zielony Balonik” to Inter-War to “Piwnica pod Baranami.” In 1997, The Alliancer listened to the demands of its numerous readers to create an English-language information section and began cooperating with The Warsaw Voice, a newspaper that allowed its materials to be copied and printed. At that time (between 1991 and 1997), Robert Dlugoborski was editor-in-chief of The Alliancer.

The newspaper took on several exceptional authors. Jerzy Slubicki commented on the Canadian political scene, Nina Geysztor-Zawirska wrote fantastic columns, and Jan Nowak-Jezioranski and Pawel Jedlewski authored very popular articles. Stanislaw Stolarczyk, a correspondent from Ottawa, took on the position of editor-in-chief in 1998, after having uncovered history, geography and customs in Canada. His cycle of texts, which he called “reports of a maple leaf,” were passionate tales, written with great ease and humour, that were later collected in a book called Przepustka do raju (A Pass to Paradise).

The first issue that was published by the new editor differed greatly from the previous ones. Various sections were implemented, and “Polish community news” were separated from the rest. During this time, additions became fashionable, among which were the following: “New Current. Arts, Literature & Culture,” which was mainly aimed at intellectually-artistic centres in Canada and was written by the Polish Publishing Fund; “Sunshine” for children; “Polish Parnassus,” which contained Polish poems; and “Travels,” which was sponsored by LOT Polish Airlines and the Credit Union.

For the 20^th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, another addition was created, consisting of 16 pages and having a coloured cover. In December 1998, Jaroslaw Abramow-Newerly joined The Alliancer’s editing team, briefly becoming editor-in-chief. His deputy was Stanislaw Stolarczyk. Together, they edited the newspaper, which contained more culturally-oriented texts and which cooperated with many people, like Stanislaw Tym, Tomasz Chludzinski, and Andrzej Stawicki, the known photographer and photo reporter for The Toronto Star. Jan Nowak-Jezioranski continued to publish his columns.

In September 1999, Stanislaw Stolarczyk resumed his position of editor-in-chief.  The heading of the weekly newspaper was changed.  “Serving the Polish community since 1933” appeared over the title, underlining the long work of The Alliancer.

The end of the 20^th century was not the happiest of times for this devoted Polish community newspaper. Its fate became uncertain due to the PAC’s financial troubles.  New reforms of the newspaper had no effects.  At the end of 2000, Stanislaw Stolarczyk leased the title and several rooms from the PAC for 5 years.  Soon thereafter, The Polish Alliance of Canada lost the building at 1638 Bloor Street West, so the editor had to find another office, which he changed twice.  The PAC Head Executive Board’s address “travelled” along with The Alliancer’s.  Currently, the newspaper is self-sufficient and is not financed by any Polish organization.  This does not mean, however, that it does not have financial problems.  These problems forced editor Stolarczyk to find partners.  For this reason, the title Time, a weekly newspaper in Winnipeg, appeared on the front page two years ago.  The new cooperation with Time made both newspapers more attractive; they now work under one title, Time-Alliancer, as one weekly newspaper continuously serving the Polish community in Canada.

For nearly three decades, the great publication The Alliancer was supervised by the Press Management, which was selected annually at The Alliancer’s shareholders meeting.  Now, The Polish Alliance of Canada only has a weekly newspaper, which has been leased out to Stanislaw Stolarczyk for another three years.  A complete history of the publication is contained in the books written for the 50^th and 75^th anniversaries of the PAC.  Along with the main task of publishing the newspaper, this history comprises the ownership of a large building, which housed a printing press, a bookstore, a travel agency, and offices of the PAC Head Executive Board and The W. Reymont Foundation.  The company also had its own publishing policy and printed school textbooks, brochures, novels, a Polish-Canadian community information calendar, and many other publications.  Only the comment of Z. Wrzosk, one of the first readers of The Alliancer and a member of the PAC, remains accurate today: “This newspaper cannot be stained by jealousy because it teaches agreement. […] This newspaper’s columns manifest national dignity, dignity of many Alliance branches, and a long history of Alliance volunteer work.  Confident that this newspaper will serve noble objectives, we can be sure of its success, since noble thoughts are always able to overthrow all obstacles and to reach their advocates.”  This was said in 1934.  In 2007, the centennial year of the PAC, remain only a sad reflection and respectful conduct towards our predecessors, who had built a great organization – The Polish Alliance of Canada.