Читать книгу Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper - Bob Plamondon - Страница 11

For the honour of having one single representative in the British Parliament, the three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants of Nova Scotia would not only be called upon to suffer an enormous amount of taxation, but the person of every man in the Colony would be liable to be drafted at an hour’s notice to fight the battles of Great Britain in India, or any other part of the world.

A founding father of confederation with one of the most illustrious careers in Canadian politics, a notorious rake known to many as “The Ram of Cumberland,” Sir Charles Tupper is a great character in Conservative history. His reign, however, was surprisingly short. The oldest prime minister, at seventy-four, ever to assume office, Tupper was never prime minister to a sitting Parliament and held onto the job for a mere sixty-nine days, the shortest term of any Canadian leader.

Charles Tupper was born on July 2, 1821, near Amherst, Nova Scotia. His father, when not tending the family farm, served as a Baptist pastor. Charles studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met and married Frances Morse. Though he would later be known as a womanizer, the marriage produced six children and spanned sixty-six years. The Tuppers established their home in Halifax, where Charles was an affluent and prominent doctor, presiding as president over the Medical Society of Nova Scotia from 1867–1870.

Tupper ran for election in 1855 for the Nova Scotia Parliament in Cumberland County, defeating Liberal Joseph Howe, who would later be best known as the chief opponent of Confederation. Tupper’s defeat of Howe was exceptional in an election where the Liberals won a tremendous majority.

Once in office, Tupper wanted to eliminate all religious prejudice and decreed that the Conservative party “must reverse its hostile attitude towards the Roman Catholics; that the true policy was equal rights to all, with regard to race or creed.” Tupper was a great believer that citizens of the new world should cast aside any religious or ethnic differences and work together with the resources available. After the Conservatives lost the 1859 election, largely because of sectarian divisions, F.C. O’Brien, Archbishop for Halifax, wrote to Tupper, calling him “the champion of equal rights for Catholics . . . Defeat with honour unstained is more glorious than victory purchased by the sacrifice of principle.” The Conservative party returned to power in 1863. When Premier Johnstone resigned the following year, he was succeeded by Tupper.

Tupper was a visionary who in these pre-Confederation days shared Macdonald’s passion for connecting and strengthening the British North American colonies. He initiated talks with New Brunswick and Canada to create an intercolonial railway. Although these talks ultimately failed, Tupper later became a major player in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. As premier, he championed railroads within Nova Scotia, from Truro to Pictou Landing, from Annapolis Royal to Windsor. He also made great strides in public education. In 1864, he helped pass the Free Schools Act to subsidize public education. The following year an amendment was introduced to allow funding for separate schools that conducted after hours religious studies. This allowed the Catholic school boards to receive funding.

In 1866, Tupper engaged his former political foe in a battle over Confederation. Joseph Howe had published an article entitled Confederation Considered in Relation to the Empire, where he argued against a union with Canada.

[The Maritime Provinces] owe no allegiance to Canada . . . they naturally desire to preserve the great privileges they enjoy, and to develop their resources without being involved in entanglements difficult to unravel, and from which, once enthralled, there may be no escape . . . [Canada’s] proper mission would seem to be to cultivate amicable relations with her neighbours—to fill up her sparsely populated territory—to eliminate from her political system the anachronisms of dual leadership and double majorities, to control her Irish and Orange factions, and to fuse into one race by patient tact and mutual forbearance, her Saxon, Celtic, and Norman elements.

Howe believed that through confederation, the Maritime provinces would be sucked into Canada’s ethnic and linguistic problems with little to no financial benefit. At the time, the Maritimes were confident in their abundant natural resources. Howe had no objections to the current representational system for the colonies in the British Parliament and considered debating Confederation to be “wasting precious time with schemes to dismember the Empire.”

Tupper quickly responded to Howe’s article and took his case directly to the people of Nova Scotia:

Mr. Howe proposes to reduce the British Colonists to the position of a Russian ‘serf.’ It would be impossible to conceive of a scheme more oppressive or unjust. For the honour of having one single representative in the British Parliament, the 350,000 inhabitants of Nova Scotia would not only be called upon to suffer an enormous amount of taxation, but the person of every man in the Colony would be liable to be drafted at an hour’s notice to fight the battles of Great Britain in India, or any other part of the world.

The Maritime conference that ultimately became the meeting place for Confederation was a Tupper inspiration. He saw strengthening and unifying the Maritimes as a prerequisite to negotiations on a larger union.

Tupper was one of only eleven Fathers of Confederation to attend all three conferences in Charlottetown, Québec City, and London. Future Liberal leader Wilfrid Laurier described Tupper’s contribution to Confederation: “I believe I speak my mind and speak the fair judgment of my countrymen when I say that, next to Macdonald, the man who did most to bring Canada into Confederation was Sir Charles Tupper.”

Tupper had no fear of engaging Howe in debate. In the winter of 1864, delegates from the Maritime provinces were to meet in Charlottetown to discuss the possibility of a union of the Maritime colonies. Tupper wanted Joseph Howe present: “The first man I invited to attend, as I valued the strength of his influence.” Howe, unable to participate, was enthusiastic about the project, and assured Tupper that he “would do everything in his power to carry out any policy [the delegates] adopted at Charlottetown.” But when discussions about a Maritime union expanded to include Confederation, Howe led the formidable forces of opposition.

Although few contributed more to Confederation than Tupper, he graciously set aside personal honour and status to ensure the success of the Dominion. As Tupper told the story, Macdonald was in a difficult position during the formation of the first government. He had asked Tupper to join his Cabinet, but this would have upset the religious and regional balance necessary for harmony in Macdonald’s first government. “I went to [Thomas D’Arcy] McGee and said: ‘The union of the Provinces is going to end in a fiasco unless we give way. We are the only two men who can avert that calamity.’ I then proposed that he should stand aside in favour of Sir Edward Kenny, of Halifax, as the representative of Irish Catholics, and that I should likewise surrender my claims to a portfolio.”

McGee agreed to this proposal and Macdonald offered Tupper a governorship, which he declined. “I would not take all the governorships rolled into one. I intend to run for a seat in the Dominion Parliament.”

In the first Canadian federal election, Howe’s anti-Confederation party won every seat in Nova Scotia, except for one—the seat won by Conservative Sir Charles Tupper. Howe sailed to England to request that Nova Scotia be removed from Confederation. He insisted he had the backing of “eight hundred men in each county of Nova Scotia who will take an oath that they will never pay a cent of taxation to the Dominion.” Tupper— in bold response—made the same trip to offer the opposing view.

Tupper was determined to make Confederation work. He rebuked Howe’s inflammatory claims by arguing that without taxes there would be no funds for necessary public services like roads and schools. Eventually, however, Tupper seduced Howe with a more pragmatic quid pro quo: “If you will enter the Cabinet and assist in carrying out the work of Confederation you will control all the provincial patronage and you will find me as strong a supporter as I have been opponent.” Having secured an agreement, Tupper was able to send word to Macdonald that Howe was ready to abandon his anti-Confederate stance.

Tupper joined Macdonald’s Cabinet on June 21, 1870, as president of the Privy Council. Two years later he became the minister of Inland Revenue. During the federal election that year, Tupper bragged of “not a single anti confederate being elected.” Following the Pacific Scandal, Tupper was one of only two Conservatives elected to the House from Nova Scotia in 1874.

His attacks on the Liberals were not all partisan bluster. Tupper genuinely opposed Prime Minister Mackenzie’s tepid railway policies, in particular the unwillingness of the Liberal government to make the investments necessary to connect the country by rail. Tupper was also upset that Mackenzie was contracting the project out to non-Maritimers, which ran counter to the economic benefits that Confederation had promised.

Tupper made the railway an issue in the 1878 election, where Conservatives won government and took 14 out of 21 seats in Nova Scotia. When Tupper was made minister of public works, completing the railway was his top priority. But when he pressured a contractor on cost, and the quality of the work declined, a displeased Macdonald signalled to his inner circle that Tupper should not be seen as his successor.

In1882, Tupper was made high commissioner to London. Four years later, Macdonald wanted Tupper to return to Canada to become finance minister and assist in the coming election. Macdonald was gloomy about the prospects and wrote to Tupper on June 21: “We are not in a flourishing state in the present state of public opinion ...We have rocks ahead, and great skill must be exercised in steering the ship.” Tupper wrote back that he heard positive reports from Nova Scotia and was of the opinion that he was not needed there. On January 11, 1887,Tupper received an insistent cablegram from Macdonald: “Come out. I sent message before. Must have miscarried.—Macdonald.” Tupper dutifully responded on January 25, telling Macdonald he was at his disposal and would do whatever he thought would best serve the interests of the country.

Macdonald appointed Tupper finance minister on his return and Tupper once again helped to carry Nova Scotia in the 1887 election, with the Tories winning 14 of 21 seats. In 1888, Tupper resigned from cabinet and once again returned to his post in London.

Though a proud member of the British Empire, and a founding member of the Imperial Federation League in 1884, Tupper opposed colonies contributing money to the empire without receiving anything in return. He pushed instead for “a policy of mutual preferential trade between Great Britain and her colonies [that] would provide the tie of mutual self-interest in addition to the purely sentimental bond which now exists.”

On Macdonald’s death, Tupper paid tribute to the Old Chieftain in a letter to his son, Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper: “It is a source of great satisfaction to me in this sad hour to feel that through good and evil report I have stood at his side, and in sunshine and in storm have done all in my power to sustain and aid him in the great work to which he has, since we first met, devoted so successfully all his great powers. He has left a bright example for us to follow; let us endeavour to emulate him as far as we can, and we will deserve well of our country.”

Tupper was overlooked as a candidate for prime minister by the governor general, who nominated Abbott, Thompson, and Bowell in succession. But as many in Cabinet long expected, the torch was ultimately, if belatedly, passed to Tupper, who had long had the support of Agnes Macdonald to succeed her late husband. Tupper recalled the short period that led to his taking over the government: “Asked by the recalcitrant members of the [Bowell’s] Cabinet to assume leadership, I refused, declaring that I would not do so except at the request of the [Prime Minister] Mackenzie Bowell. It was not until all efforts on his part at reconstruction had failed that he requested me to become leader of the party.”

After winning a seat in the House of Commons through a by-election in Cape Breton in February 1896,Tupper became the leader of the government in the House of Commons. He believed that the promise made to Catholic minorities had to be honoured and introduced a remedial bill to resolve the Manitoba Schools crisis. But it was too little too late. Parliament was dissolved, Bowell resigned and Tupper reluctantly became prime minister of Canada on May 1.Tupper, along with Kim Campbell (1993) and John Turner (1984), are the only prime ministers ever to hold the position without Parliament being in session.

The election, which finally came on June 23, 1896, was fought over one issue: the Manitoba Schools question, which divided the Tories and hurt them in French Québec. Liberal leader Sir Wilfrid Laurier, whose approach to national politics closely emulated Macdonald’s, conveniently suspended his views on free trade and adopted Tory “national policies” of protection for Canadian industry. Laurier proposed dealing with the Manitoba schools crisis with reasonable accommodation and compromise; the so-called “sunny way.” What this ultimately meant was striking a deal with Premier Greenway that allowed some religious instruction within the public schools but did not restore separate schools.

The Liberals won 117 seats, the Tories 86, in the 213seat legislature. A strong Conservative showing in the Maritimes was more than offset by a drubbing in Québec, where the Liberal native son won 49 of 65 seats. It mattered little to Quebecers that Tupper led the charge for remedial legislation to protect minority language rights, saying bravely in Toronto, “We must do right even if it means the downfall of the Conservative party.” Tupper actually won the popular vote, but Lord Aberdeen refused to confirm his ministerial appointments because of the seat totals and the Conservatives were out.

During Tupper’s term as leader of the Opposition a key issue was Canada’s support for Britain’s war in South Africa: “I pressed [Prime Minister Laurier] in the strongest manner, and pledged him the support of my party to the policy of sending a Canadian contingent, and was fortunately able to induce him to change his attitude in regard to that important question.”

Tupper did not fare much better in his last election than he had in his first. In 1900, the Liberals gained several seats despite Tory gains in Ontario. Tupper explained the losing strategy that meant the end of his leadership. “In Ontario, where Sir Wilfrid at the opening of the poll in 1900 had a major ity of twelve, I reversed that, and at the close had a majority of eighteen seats, but it was not enough to counteract the Liberal landslide in the Province of Québec. In that election, I sustained my first personal defeat, as I devoted practically nearly all my time to the campaign in Ontario.”

Tupper moved to Bexleyheath in England to live with his daughter Emma, and remained there for the rest of his days, though he returned to Canada numerous times to visit his sons. He was appointed to the British Privy Council in 1907, where he was an advocate of closer economic ties between the two nations. He died on October 30, 1915, at the age of ninety-four. He was eulogized the following day in the Toronto Globe: “It goes without saying that he was endowed with a more than ordinary equipment of physical vigour, corresponding to his intense intellectuality and his exceptional willpower. He was always a strenuous antagonist in a political contest, giving no quarter and expecting none . . . there will endure in the general memory only the inherent greatness of the man and the undoubted value of the services he rendered to his country during a long, strenuous, and story career.”

Tupper’s successor, Sir Robert Borden, remarked: “In Sir Charles Tupper passed away the greatest living Canadian . . . Premier of his native Province, Minister of Finance, Minister of Railways and Canals, High Commissioner of Canada in London, Prime Minister of Canada, no Canadian has had a more distinguished public career.”