Читать книгу Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper - Bob Plamondon - Страница 8

I hate politics, and what are considered their appropriate methods. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses, and everything that I know of that is apparently the necessary incident of politics— except doing public work to the best of my ability.

Macdonald could not be replaced. Indeed, the Tory party would go through its second, third, fourth and be on its fifth leader before the next election was held. Dwarfed by Macdonald or burdened by ill health, none of these men made much of an imprint on the Tory party, although three sat in Macdonald’s chair as prime minister of Canada. They are best known as the followers to Macdonald.

The unenviable task of following Sir John A. was given to John Abbott. He accepted this duty reluctantly. However, ill health and a brief tenure prevented him from making much of a mark as prime minister.

John Joseph Caldwell Abbott was born on March 12, 1821 in St. Andrew’s, Lower Canada, moving to the Montréal area in 1843, where Abbott’s father, once an Anglican missionary, became secretary of McGill College.

John Abbott was a brilliant student with a prodigious work ethic. He was admitted to the Québec bar in 1847 and made dean of the McGill Law faculty in 1855 where he served until 1880. One of Abbott’s more notable students was a future Liberal prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier.

In addition to a career in academia, Abbott was one of the highest paid lawyers in the province, a help in raising four daughters and four sons with his wife Mary. His business success included leading and building the Canada Central Railway, a key link in the transcontinental line. From 1885–1891, largely while sitting as a senator and Cabinet minister, Abbott served on the board of directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was a rich man who collected rare books and cultivated orchids.

When Abbott attended the first ever meeting of the Law Society of Lower Canada on July 24, 1849, he signed the “Annexation Manifesto,” a document that promoted a political union between Canada and the U.S. Abbott eventually changed his mind on annexation and was occasionally asked to explain what he called his “outburst of petulance.” Later in life he vehemently opposed trade reciprocity with the Americans because he feared it might lead to annexation. He further demonstrated his loyalty to the Empire during the Trent Affair of 1861, a conflict between Great Britain and the United States that barely avoided open war, by personally financing 300 recruits for the British.

Abbott first ran for office in 1857 as a candidate for Canada East’s Legislative Assembly in the riding of Argenteuil, Québec. He lost the election, but contested the results on the basis that “men without property qualifications and from outside the constituency had been enticed to vote for his opponent.” Abbott was awarded the seat after a lengthy trial. Over the next three years he served as Canada East’s solicitor general.

Initially hesitant about Confederation over fears the English-speaking minority in Lower Canada would lose political power to the French-speaking majority, he successfully petitioned the Fathers of Confederation to protect the electoral borders of twelve English constituencies in Québec. However, Abbott thought enough of his French countrymen to learn their language, which he used to his advantage in both politics and business.

In 1864, Abbott defended the Confederate agents who raided three banks at St. Albans, Vermont before escaping to Canada. Abbott persuaded the court that it lacked jurisdiction and the prisoners were set free. After their re-arrest, Abbott convinced the judge that the raiders were belligerents in a Civil War and not criminals.

Abbott was elected to the House of Commons in 1867 to represent his home riding of Argenteuil. He won reelection or was acclaimed as the MP for Argenteuil on five subsequent occasions. In addition to serving as an MP in Macdonald’s first government, Abbott was legal advisor for Sir Hugh Allan, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Abbott drafted the CPR charter and the monumental contract to construct Canada’s national railway. As Allan’s solicitor, Abbott had in the safe of his legal office the telegram from Prime Minister Macdonald to Sir High Allan pleading for funds for the election campaign. Abbott reportedly tried to minimize the impact of the Pacific scandal by tampering with evidence and attempting to influence the testimony of a potential witness.

On May 12, 1887, Abbott was summoned to the Senate, where he was made House Leader and a Cabinet member without portfolio. Later that year he was elected mayor of Montréal, where he was praised by his colleagues on city council for his tireless work. He ran unopposed for his second term as mayor, but declined to run for a third despite a petition, signed by most of the City Council and some five hundred prominent citizens, urging him to run. Abbott was actively engaged in good community works, was a founder of the Art Association of Montréal, helped to establish the Protestant Institution for Deaf Mutes and for the Blind, and was a sup porter of public libraries.

In 1891, Macdonald appointed Abbott president of the Privy Council. At the time, Macdonald told Sir John Thompson, “When I am gone, you will have to rally around Abbott; he is your only man.” Powerful words, especially since they were uttered to Thompson, a leading contender to succeed Macdonald. Hours before his death, however, Macdonald is reported to have had a change of heart and to have told Thompson that Abbott could not be the prime minister because he was “too damned selfish.”

Had the Liberal-Conservative party been in opposition, the caucus would likely have determined who was best qualified to succeed Macdonald. But because the party held power, it was the constitutional prerogative of the governor general to invite a member from the Conservative benches to become prime minister. The governor general could consider the views of the past leader and senior Cabinet ministers, but he was not beyond using his own judgment. Indeed, until the mid1920s, Governors General enjoyed a remarkable degree of latitude in choosing the prime minister.

The governor general considered Sir Hector Langevin, Macdonald’s French-Canadian deputy, but rejected him because of a scandal in his ministry. Sir Charles Tupper, then the Canadian High Commissioner to London, was offered the position, but declined. Sir John Thompson was next in line, but he also declined because he did not believe the country was ready for a Catholic prime minister. In fact, Thompson had converted from Methodism, making him even more controversial. Thompson recommended Senator John C. Abbott.

Although Abbott had been elected mayor of Montréal, he was not popular among French Canadians. He understood the party was divided and that the issues of the day would challenge him. Abbott was ready to exit political life, and twelve days before Macdonald’s death he explained why. “I hate politics and what are considered its appropriate methods. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses. Why should I go where doing honest work will only make me hated and my ministry unpopular, and where I can only gain reputation and credit by practicing arts that I detest, to acquire popularity?”

Eventually Abbott relented, musing that the reason he was chosen to take over the prime ministership was because he was “not particularly obnoxious to anybody.” He saw himself as the candidate who would least divide the party, taking office in ill health at the age of seventy. He was the first Canadian prime minister born in British North America, and one of only two to lead from the Senate. Other than Brian Mulroney, Abbott is the only Quebecer to lead the Conservative party. Unlike Mulroney, however, Abbott could make no claim to affinity with French Canadians. His initial political assignment was to protect the rights of the English in Québec.

With Abbott leading from the Senate, Thompson held the fort for the government in the House of Commons. In fact, many observers saw Thompson as the de facto prime minister, biding his time to earn the confidence of his countrymen until they could overlook his religious conversion. Leading from the Senate amplified Abbott’s challenge. He was detached from the cut and thrust of the elected House of Commons and too old to invigorate a factionalized party. The caucus—divided on lines of religion, ethnicity, and personal loyalties—could not be bridled by a mere mortal.

In the one year, five months, and ten days he held office, Abbott dealt with much of the government business left over from Macdonald’s tenure. Abbott had no grand vision, but responsibly advanced government business in areas of civil service reform, criminal code amendments, and trade relations with the Americans. He also pressed for an attaché to the British mission in Washington who would be responsible for Canada’s affairs. In short, Abbott was a caretaker prime minister who took on the difficult task of providing stability at the outset of the post-Macdonald era.

Abbott’s most impressive accomplishment in office was the record number of Conservative wins during his time in office. He increased the party’s majority by 13 seats, winning 42 of 52 by-elections. That record of by-election success remains unmatched in Canadian political history. But he was not much of a retail politician. Dignified yet grim, he never made a speech in public while holding office and preferred to play a quiet game of chess rather than attend caucus meetings.

After one year as prime minister, Abbott attempted to hand the reins over to Thompson, but the anti-Catholic faction of the party resisted. The issue of succession became imperative when Abbott fell severely ill with stomach cancer in August 1892, and was told by his doctors that he would die without rest. Abbott went to England to seek medical treatment, then resigned in December, without ever facing the country in a general election. He returned to Canada and died the following year.

Abbott is unknown to most Canadians and is rarely mentioned in the history books. His successor, John Thompson, explained why. “Sir John Abbott’s great qualities of brain and heart, his great qualities of statesman ship, his great abilities and his great desire to serve this country will never be fully understood by the Canadian people because his career as first minister was too short to have made much of a mark on Canadian history. Perhaps Abbott will best be known simply as the prime minister who took on the impossible task of succeeding the Old Chieftain Macdonald.”