Читать книгу Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper - Bob Plamondon - Страница 10

It is such a comfort to shake hands with honest men, after having been in company with traitors for months.

Mackenzie Bowell ranks as one of Canada’s least-respected prime ministers. When Sir John Thompson died suddenly in 1894, the leadership of the Conservative party was thrust upon Bowell by a meddlesome governor general. Prime minister for less than sixteen months, and one of only two to lead from the Senate, Bowell is known chiefly for inspiring a revolt in his caucus and for fumbling the Manitoba School crisis.

Mackenzie Bowell was born in Rickinghall, England on December 27, 1823. When he was nine, his family moved to Canada to join relatives in Belleville, Ontario. As a young man, Mackenzie Bowell worked for the Intelligencer, Belleville’s local newspaper, and later became owner and editor. In 1847 he married Harriett Louisa Moore with whom he had four sons and five daughters. Bowell was a military man whose active duty included responding to Fenian disturbances. He retired from service in 1874 with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Bowell was also a proud member of the Orange Order, founded in 1795 in Ireland to commemorate William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In 1870, Bowell rose to the top rank of Grand Master. While the Order was widely subscribed outside Québec, it was not a unifying force in the nation—its members were not sympathetic to either Catholics or French Canadians. Macdonald was once a member of a similar order, although Orangemen took a dim view of his alliances with politicians from Québec. Likewise, Bowell found that his personal views were sometimes in conflict with those of the larger membership. While seeking election to the Upper Canada legislature in 1863, Bowell spoke out against allowing Catholics their own school boards. But once the law was passed he did not speak out or resist its implementation, despite requests from the more out spoken ranks of Orangemen for continued resistance. As far as Bowell was concerned, the bill had passed fairly and he refused further struggle. Dissatisfied, his fellow Orangemen arranged for his defeat at the polls.

Bowell accepted the Conservative nomination again in 1867. His opponent had voted against legislation to connect Belleville with Marmora by rail, causing Belleville Mayor Billa Flint to endorse Bowell. Keeping an eye on local issues helped Bowell to win seven consecutive general elections in Hastings North from 1867 through to 1891.

Bowell was a staunch Conservative, but by no means a blind partisan supporter of Macdonald. In his early days as a parliamentarian, Bowell often voted against government legislation. But Bowell’s habit of speaking out only when voting against the government gave him the reputation of being a grumbler.

In 1874, Bowell was openly critical of his government after Thomas Scott, an Ontario Orangeman, was executed by a Métis firing squad under the leadership of Louis Riel. Bowell petitioned for Riel’s expulsion from Canada and called it a “disgrace” that Macdonald thereafter consulted with Riel’s representatives. Though strongly opposed to Macdonald’s handling of Riel, and disdainful of Catholicism, Bowell was still an essential ally to Macdonald. With one in five voters from Ontario belonging to the Orange Order, Macdonald could not sustain his political coalition and ignore the group Bowell represented. Bowell served in Macdonald’s Cabinet, holding portfolios for railways and canals, and later for trade and commerce.

After Macdonald’s death in 1891, Bowell considered retiring, saying, “I do not care how soon I am relieved of the cares of official life of which I am getting tired.” But he continued in Abbott’s Cabinet, and when Thompson succeeded Abbott, he appointed Bowell government leader in the Senate as a reward for defending Thompson against religious attacks. Such a defence was unexpected from an Orangeman.

As Thompson’s minister of trade and commerce, Bowell travelled to Australia to discuss trade between Canada and the colonies. During the visit, Bowell secured host status for Canada for the next colonial conference.

While Thompson was on his fateful trip to Europe in 1894, the 71year old Bowell was the acting prime minister. Tories debated among themselves who should succeed Thompson. Sir Charles Tupper, the high commissioner to England, was their initial choice, but the governor general, Lord Aberdeen, held Tupper in low regard and rejected him. Lady Aberdeen especially disliked Tupper. She felt he was far too conservative, and disapproved of his reputation as a philanderer. Other potential candidates were also rejected. Then there was Bowell. He had served as acting prime minister, although, by convention, this fact often precludes consideration. His reputation as a fierce Protestant and ardent anti Roman Catholic made him popular within certain segments of party ranks, particularly in Anglo Québec. Officially, Bowell claimed no interest in the leadership, but the events that unfolded indicate otherwise. Lord Aberdeen met with him to discuss the future of the country. Bowell withheld information about the poor regard in which he was held by caucus. Lord Aberdeen then consulted with Sir Frank Smith, a Roman Catholic senator, about Bowell’s capability. Sir Frank approved the choice, and Lord Aberdeen used his constitutional authority to ask Bowell to form a Cabinet.

Though much of the caucus did not want Bowell as leader, Lord Aberdeen made his own decision. By contemporary standards, the authority the governor general had in political affairs seems scandalous. Not so then, given the governor general’s constitutional responsibility to ensure a stable and responsible government. And Lord Aberdeen clearly relied on his wife for advice, if not direction.

Bowell’s appointment met with lukewarm reviews in the press. The Toronto Globe said: “The criticisms upon him must simply be that he is not a broad enough or a strong enough man for the position . . . He has the views and habits of thought of the average party man. Nobody need fear that as Premier he will be the author of any great political crime.”

Bowell attempted to emulate the Old Chieftain. But Bowell was no Macdonald. He lacked Macdonald’s intelligence, insight, wit, charm, and patience. More important, he lacked leadership skills and the respect of his caucus. His term as prime minister was doomed from the beginning.

The Manitoba Schools Question colours Bowell’s entire term as prime minister. The Manitoba Act, passed in 1870, granted equal rights to French Catholic and English Protestant schools. Within a decade, however, the makeup of the province had changed dramatically. Many Métis had left and immigrants from Québec were far outnumbered by English-speaking Protestants from Ontario. In 1890, Manitoba Premier Thomas Greenway passed the controversial Manitoba Schools Act, which eliminated public funding for Catholic schools, effectively ending French as an official language in the province. Catholics wanted the federal government to pass remedial legislation to restore the public funding that Greenway’s government abolished. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Manitoba Schools Act violated the earlier Manitoba Act. But in January 1895, a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain overruled that decision. At this point, Bowell still had the prerogative to intervene, as provided in the British North America Act.

This political landmine challenged Bowell beyond his ability. Québec strongly supported entrenched Roman Catholic rights. Protestant Ontario supported Manitoba. From the Senate, Bowell could not control the debate in the House of Commons, and the business of the nation ground to a halt. Bowell decided to restore the abridged language rights through remedial legislation, but to delay action for six months, hoping the English-French divisions within his own Cabinet could be overcome. But that delay only inflamed the debate.

Bowell’s minister of justice, H.C. Tupper, insisted that Manitoba pass new legislation restoring language rights and that Parliament should then be dissolved and go to the people over the issue. Bowell hesitated. Tupper resigned. In a stinging resignation letter, he cited Bowell’s poor leadership and cowardice in the face of an election: “I cannot be a party to a course dictated by the dread of the people. . . . We can . . . do nothing effectively or properly without a direct mandate from the people.”

Eventually, Tupper would be brought back into the fold on the condition that if negotiations with Manitoba failed, federal legislation would be introduced.

Anglo-Québec journalist and author Robert Sellar fiercely opposed giving public funds to French Catholic schools, and inflamed French-speaking Canadians with his writing: “Force upon the Northwest separate schools, and the point of the wedge is entered which will involve the West in the troubles and difficulties that perplex Québec. The granting of separate schools con cedes the principles that those to whom they are granted are entitled to special legislation apart from their fellow subject, and that dangerous principle once conceded, it logically requires that the legislature also provide for them, separate institutions for deaf mutes, for the blind, the poor, the sick, the insane, for dealing with the criminal call, all to be controlled not by the State, but by the hierarchy—the State merely providing the funds.”

The issue was so divisive that a general election was widely anticipated. Bowell hesitated and stalled, however, and by the end of the year had still given no clear indication that he intended to dissolve Parliament.

Clinging to hopes of a negotiated agreement with Manitoba, Bowell allowed political tensions in his caucus to explode. Minister of Agriculture Auguste-Réal Angers resigned in July 1895.The Tories were defeated in two crucial by-elections in Québec. Increasingly, Quebecers viewed the Tory party—now led by an Orangeman—as insensitive to their needs and aspirations. First Louis Riel and now the Manitoba Schools crisis. The mistakes made by Bowell over language rights were part of a series of missteps by Conservative leaders that condemned the party to weak or nonexistent support in the province of Québec for generations to come.

On January 2, 1896, Parliament reopened. On January 4, seven ministers resigned. Bowell famously labelled this group of mutineers “a nest of traitors.” On January 7, one of the seven, George Eulas Foster, rose in the Commons and requested the prime minister’s retirement. Bowell, who was watching from the wings, went into the Opposition benches and shook hands with the members there, saying loudly, “It is such a comfort to shake hands with honest men, after having been in company with traitors for months.”

Bowell told the governor general that the seven men opposed remedial legislation and that their opposition to party policy could be resolved. But the so-called “traitors” despised Bowell. This crisis of confidence could not be resolved.

The constitutional limit on the life of the government was at its end and a general election had to be called by April 26, 1896. But if Bowell couldn’t organize a Cabinet, the governor general would be forced to call an election before then. When Bowell failed to unite his caucus, he offered his resignation to Lord Aberdeen.

Lord Aberdeen refused the resignation, in the hopes that the remedial legislation issue could be worked out. When the seven members found out what Bowell had said to Lord Aberdeen, they explained they were not anti- remedialists. Fearful that the governor general would call upon the Liberals to form a government, the seven returned to Bowell’s government. The Tories remained in power. But H.C. Tupper expressed his disappointment over their lack of political integrity: “We all turned in like sheep into the fold, at the very rumour of Liberals being asked to form government.”

Six of the seven were brought back into Cabinet; H.C. Tupper was left out in the shuffle, replaced by his father, Sir Charles Tupper. Bowell persisted to work with Manitoba, but it was clear that no remedial bill would pass before the April 26 deadline.

On April 27, Bowell’s resignation was accepted and he returned to his duties in the Senate where he remained leader until 1906. He also returned to the Intelligencer, after having given up its control in 1878. Bowell continued to work well into the twilight of his life, until his death from pneumonia in 1917 at the age of ninety-three.

Conservatives often blame Lord Aberdeen for the disunity that followed the death of Sir John Thompson. Indeed, history would have been entirely different had Aberdeen’s distaste for Charles Tupper not affected his judgment, or had he consulted with members of the Cabinet before selecting Bowell to succeed Thompson. Aberdeen made a difficult situation far worse by foisting Bowell upon the Conservatives.

But it is Bowell who is to blame for the fiascos of his administration. Lacking vision and leadership skills, he was unable to make important decisions in a timely manner. And he never gained the confidence of his caucus. When political capital was needed during the Manitoba Schools crisis, he had none to spend.

Bowell left his party in tatters. The Tories had gone through three leaders since the death of Macdonald without once facing the voters in an election. Now they needed a fourth. The Tory government was at the end of its constitutional mandate. And there was no reason for optimism with an election required within months.