Читать книгу Full Circle: Death and Resurrection In Canadian Conservative Politics - Bob Plamondon - Страница 10

Richard Bennett was fifty-seven years of age when he became leader of the Conservative party on October 20, 1927.At the time the party was both disorganized and in poor financial condition. Bennett invested his own financial resources and built a party organization that was efficient and innovative. An effective opposition leader, Bennett built national support by establishing links with Ontario premier George Howard Ferguson and Quebec Conservative party leader Camillien Houde.

Ultimately, party organization and networking were less important in Bennett’s success in the 1930 election than was the hardship facing voters. Canada was suffering from the stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent collapse in commodity prices. Unemployment was on the rise, and a devastating drought in Western Canada further depressed the national economy and spirit.

Bennett ran on an interventionist platform that promised employment in Canadian industries through tariff protection coupled with a program of public works. What he offered was a shot of hope with a bad economics chaser. Voters chose hope and gave Bennett a mandate on July 28, 1930, with the election of 137 Conservatives, 91 Liberals, and 17 others.

In a move that would make modern-day economists cringe, Bennett implemented heavy tariffs, hoping to create markets for Canadian producers and to keep Canada independent of the United States. The economy failed to improve; in fact, it worsened. Bennett responded with more tariffs, more direct relief for the unemployed, and more public infrastructure programs. Unemployment reached 27 per cent of the workforce. Remedial measures were implemented, including legislation to help farmers avoid foreclosure. Marketing boards were established to help secure better prices for farm products.

Bennett also attacked some of the pillars of capitalism. He established public broadcasting, the Bank of Canada, unemployment insurance, the Canadian Wheat Board, and a national infrastructure program, and he enhanced old age pensions. He believed in labour unions and in improved working conditions.

With his government’s popularity at record-low levels and an election looming, he launched a new plan that took dead aim at laissez-faire capitalism. One of his cabinet ministers, Henry Herbert Stevens, was forced to resign over his remarks about the capitalist system. While out of cabinet, a disgruntled Stevens formed a new political entity called the Reconstruction Party.

The election was called, and Bennett went down to defeat. At first glance the results were devastating, with the Liberals rising from 88 seats to 171, and the Tories collapsing from 137 to 39. However, it was not a higher Liberal vote that caused the devastation to the Tories. The problem was the Reconstruction Party, which received 8.7 per cent of the popular vote and cut deeply into conservative support. It was a case of vote splitting, 1930s style.

There is no doubt that R.B. Bennett was an accomplished, intelligent, ambitious, and hard-working man. He invested substantial sums of money in the Conservative party and brought many innovative approaches to the art of politics. He was also very moody, but for this it is hard to blame a prime minister governing during a great depression.

Bennett was not much of a coalition-builder while out of office and a one-man band while prime minister. He was also not much of a conservative. His electoral success was based largely on good timing. He was a single-term prime minister, but the extent of his defeat can be blamed on party disunity and an overcrowded ballot, with the Reconstruction Party dragging the Tories down. Yes, history probably had some important lessons the Tories could have learned, to avoid the debacle of 1993.