He is known for his 1959 biography of Co-operative Commonwealth Federation founder J. S. Woodsworth, A Prophet in Politics, and his 1982 book The Pelican History of Canada.
McNaught was born on 10 November 1918[7] to a family of middle-class leftists in Toronto, Ontario.
[6] McNaught attended Upper Canada College before receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1941 from the University of Toronto.
[citation needed] He resigned in 1959 in protest of the college's dismissal of Harry Crowe.
[12] In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his courage and integrity in defending academic freedom, and for his contributions in moving the country's political discourse beyond the classroom into the public domain".