The John A. Macdonald Retrospective 2-Book Bundle. Ged Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ Washington Treaty episode had undermined Macdonald in crucial respects. He had regarded it as “rather a dangerous experiment” to leave Ottawa while Parliament was sitting, and, subsequently, he felt that his hold over backbenchers had weakened. Absence also added to his admitted “neglect” of his own Kingston riding. But the biggest setback was the defeat of his allies in Ontario. Sir John A. Macdonald’s departure for Washington coincided with the start of the provincial election campaign. Sandfield’s ministry lost seats, some of which Macdonald believed would have been saved if he had campaigned himself. Sandfield was left leading a minority government but, in the eight months before the legislature met, he did little to strengthen his position. In December 1871, he was defeated, and the Reformers took over Ontario.

      Characteristically, the prime minister pretended to regard the interlopers as a temporary nuisance whom he would soon dislodge. In fact, the Liberals (as they were increasingly called) would control Ontario until 1905. It was a sea change in Canadian politics, the replacement of Macdonald’s ideal of an Ottawa-Ontario partnership by institutionalized confrontation between Dominion and its largest province. Ontario now banned politicians from sitting in both parliaments: Oliver Mowat emerged as provincial premier, Alexander Mackenzie as opposition leader in Ottawa. One of the biggest challenges facing Sir John A. Macdonald fighting the 1872 Dominion election was the hostility of Canada’s strongest provincial government.

      Macdonald started planning the campaign a year ahead. He claimed to be “in very good health” even though “the severe attack I had last year has left its mark on me for life.” He was determined “to complete the work of Confederation before I make my final bow,” and felt confident of winning a second term. Regarding Ontario as “the only difficulty,” he mounted a counter-attack against the Globe. Once before, in 1858, Macdonald had attempted to establish a rival newspaper in Toronto, but he learned from the rapid collapse of the Atlas that any such venture needed careful planning — and capital. The launch of the Toronto Mail was a major enterprise, requiring the backing of wealthy supporters on the eve of an expensive election campaign. A bumptious young Englishman, T.C. Patteson, was appointed editor, but Macdonald micro-managed the project from Ottawa. “The first number was a good one,” he congratulated Patteson, “for a first number.” No doubt the Mail had to “assume an appearance of dignity at the outset,” but it must “put on the war paint … scalps must be taken.” It would be some years before the Mail effectively challenged the Globe, but at least Macdonald now had a voice in the Ontario capital.

      The 1872 election campaign was “hard and unpleasant.” In two months, he delivered one hundred speeches across Ontario: “I have never worked so hard before.” With voting spread out over several weeks, Macdonald planned (as in 1857) to start with his own triumphant return for Kingston, but the strategy came unstuck. Discovering that he was in trouble in the riding, Macdonald was forced to suspend his province-wide campaign to scramble for votes against John Carruthers, a respected local businessman. On the hustings, Macdonald charged his opponent with profiteering at the expense of Kingston consumers. When Carruthers indignantly denied the allegation, the prime minister of Canada slapped him in the face. Under pressure, Macdonald (“much excited,” as the journalistic code put it) was drinking again. He won, but only by 735 votes to 604. He owed his victory to Catholic voters, who backed him by 250 votes to 78. The Protestant powerbase that had elected him since 1844 had narrowly turned against him.

      After securing Kingston, Macdonald then resumed campaigning across the province, “more or less under the influence of wine,” Campbell alleged. Every riding had to be fought in the “stern and up-hill battle” throughout Ontario. On the eve of the campaign, disgusted at the demands of Prince Edward County Conservative candidate J.S. McCuaig, he had written off the riding. “I would prefer losing the seat to being bullied by Master McCuaig.” But he spoke for his greedy standard-bearer, in a speech of two hours and twenty minutes at Picton, and offered him a $1,000 campaign contribution: “You had better spend it between nomination and polling.” McCuaig lost anyway. The Ontario government mobilized “its power, patronage and influence,” making the election campaign frighteningly expensive. Timber barons subscribed lavishly to Liberal funds to safeguard future logging concessions, and Macdonald resorted to desperate measures to match opposition financial firepower. Alexander Campbell was shocked to learn that his brother had done “a very foolish thing.” A Toronto businessman, Charles Campbell had been pressured into guaranteeing a $10,000 bank loan, his only security being Macdonald’s promise of repayment “as a member of the Government.” Naively, Charley wondered “how far such official promises are reliable.” Macdonald also solicited contributions from wealthy businessmen. Humiliatingly, he begged election funds from Hugh Allan, the banker who had called in his overdraft. Accepting Allan’s money also created a conflict of interest since the government was negotiating with him over the Pacific Railway. Worse still, Cartier was in trouble in Montreal East, where Allan was rumoured to have driven a hard bargain — campaign cash in return for the contract on his terms. In fact, Allan failed to save Cartier’s seat, but his estimated donations of $160,000 — equal to many millions today — were not likely to have been unconditional. In the last days of the campaign, Macdonald successfully begged “another ten thousand” from Allan. “Will be the last time of calling. Do not fail me,” his telegram pleaded. He had no idea what Cartier had promised, and he would indeed be haunted by fears that he might have incautiously committed himself to some damaging pledge — just as he had trapped Charley Campbell into endorsing that $10,000 loan. Throughout the campaign, so Charles Tupper said, Macdonald was “upon the drink” and Campbell feared that he had “no clear recollection of what he did.”

      Macdonald saved forty of Ontario’s eighty-eight seats, but he claimed to have won “as large or a larger majority” overall than in 1867. He regarded thirty-four out of the thirty-seven members from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as sympathetic, whatever their party affiliation. However, Macdonald’s calculation relied on the assumption that “independent members, or loose fish” would back him. When the new Parliament assembled in March 1873, ministers won Commons divisions by sixteen and twenty-five votes, well short of the fifty-six seat majority he had boasted. In reality, his position was barely secure. Just 104 out of 200 MPs labelled themselves as Conservatives. Effectively, Macdonald had given himself a ten-seat bonus, by allocating six constituencies to British Columbia and four to Manitoba, far more than their populations merited. All ten Western representatives sought favours from government, but they faced huge travel problems, and might not attend the entire parliamentary session. Opposition disunity helped him: twenty of the thirty-seven Maritime MPs were Liberals, but many distrusted the “Ontario First” aura around opposition leader Alexander Mackenzie. However, a dramatic issue might unite them in outrage, and a major scandal was about to break. In November 1873, eight months into the new Parliament, Sir John A. Macdonald was forced to resign, and his career seemed to be finished.

      6

      1872–1877

      John A. Beats the Devil

      Following his narrow victory in the 1872 election, Macdonald’s priority was the Pacific Railway project. Neither Allan’s election contributions nor Macpherson’s testimonial fund influenced his judgment. Although Macpherson refused to merge with his rival, the contract went to Allan on Macdonald’s terms: the Montreal entrepreneur dumped his American backers and formed the required all-Canadian company. In December, Macdonald assured Mail editor Patteson that “we have no rocks ahead for the next session.” Unfortunately, Allan’s American friends were outraged at their abandonment: they felt they had bought Allan, Allan had bought the election, and they wanted a slice of the contract. Macdonald rebuffed them, so they turned to the opposition. On April 2, 1873, a Liberal MP, L.S. Huntington, charged that the Pacific Railway project had been sold for election funds. Macdonald was able to reject the allegation by a thirty-one vote majority but, seven months later, Canada’s first prime minister resigned in disgrace.

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