THE COMING OF PROSPERITY
The opening of the west--Railway expansion--State aids to
production--New provinces and old cries--Party fortunes
We have seen that in the early years of the Laurier regime Canada
attained a new international status and came to play no small part in
the affairs of the Empire. No less notable in the succeeding years was
the remarkable industrial expansion at home, the sunrise of prosperity
which followed the long night of depression. This expansion touched
every corner of the far-flung Dominion, and was based on the
exploitation of resources and possibilities of the most varied kind.
Yet the central fact, the development which caused and conditioned all
the rest, was the settlement of the great western plains.
For years 'Canada's unequalled western heritage' had given many an
after-dinner speaker a peroration, but it had given very few new
settlers a living. The Conservative Government had achieved one great
task of constructive patriotism, in providing for the {219} building of
a railway across the vast wilderness to the Pacific. Over thirty
million acres of the choicest lands of the West had been given to this
and other railways to encourage settlement. A liberal homestead policy
had been adopted. And still the settlers came not, or if they came
they did not stay. Barely three thousand homestead entries a year were
made in the early nineties. By 1896 the number had fallen to eighteen
hundred. Canadians themselves seemed to have lost faith in the West,
for in this year the applicants for homesteads included only five
hundred and seventy settlers from the older Canada. The stock of the
railway which had been built with such national effort had fallen to
fifty. West of Lake Superior, after thirty years of Confederation,
there were little more than three hundred thousand people, of whom
nearly one-third were Indians. And, in the phrase of a western
Conservative newspaper, 'the trails from Manitoba to the States were
worn bare and brown by the waggon wheels of departing settlers.'
In the remarkable development of the West which now began, and which
profoundly changed the whole outlook and temper of Canadian life, there
were some general factors {220} with which statesmen or business men
had nothing to do. The prices of farm products began to rise the world
over, due in part to the swing of population in every land from country
to city, and in part to the flooding supplies of new gold. The
lessening of the supply of fertile free lands in the United States gave
new value to Canada's untouched acres. Yet these factors alone would
not have wrought the transformation. In the past, when Canada's West
called in vain, low prices had not prevented millions of settlers
swarming to the farms of the United States. Even of the Canadians who
had migrated to the Republic, half, contrary to the general impression,
had gone on the land. Nor was Canada now the only country which had
vacant spaces to fill. Australia and the Argentine and the limitless
plains of Siberia could absorb millions of settlers. In the United
States itself the 'Great American desert' was being redeemed, while
American railways still had millions of western acres to sell. Canada
had the goods, indeed, but they needed to be advertised.
The new ministers at Ottawa rose to the occasion. They were not
content to be 'merely flies on the wheel,' in Sir Richard {221}
Cartwright's unlucky phrase of 1876. They adopted a vigorous and
many-sided policy for the development of the West and of all Canada.
The preferential tariff and the prime minister's European tour
admirably prepared the way. The British people now regarded Canada
with lively interest, and for the first time the people of the
Continent began to realize the potentialities of this new northern
land. The general impression thus created was followed up by more
specific measures, aiming to bring in men and capital, to extend and
cheapen transportation, and to facilitate production.
The call for settlers came first. Never has there been so systematic,
thorough, and successful a campaign for immigrants as that which was
launched and directed by the minister of the Interior, Mr, now Sir
Clifford, Sifton. He knew the needs and the possibilities of the West
at first hand. He brought to his office a businesslike efficiency and
a constructive imagination only too rare at Ottawa. Through
Continental Europe, through the United States, through the United
Kingdom, with an enthusiasm unparalleled and an insistence which would
not be denied, he sent forth the summons for men and women and {222}
children to come and people the great plains of the Canadian West.
It was from Continental Europe that the first notable accessions came.
Western Europe, which in earlier decades had sent its swarms across the
sea, now had few emigrants to give. Falling birth-rates, industrial
development, or governments' desire to keep at home as much food for
powder as might be, had slackened the outward flow. But the east held
uncounted millions whom state oppression or economic leanness urged
forth. From Russia the Doukhobors or Spirit-Wrestlers, eager to escape
from the military service their Quakerlike creed forbade, turned to
Canada, and by 1899 over seven thousand of these people were settled in
the West. Austrian Poland sent forth each year some four to six
thousand Ruthenians, more familiarly known as Galicians. Both
contingents brought their problems, but they brought also notable
contributions to the western melting-pot. Their clannishness, their
differing social ideals, the influence of religious leaders who sought
to keep them a people apart, created political and educational
difficulties of undoubted seriousness. But they turned to farm
production, not to selling real {223} estate, and in a few years many
came to appreciate and follow Canadian ways, for good or for ill. And
if Doukhobor communistic practices or religious frenzy had their
drawbacks, they served to balance the unrestrained individualism and
the materialism of other sections of the community, and to add vast
potentialities of idealism to the nation's store.
Much more significant, however, was the influx of American settlers,
which reached a great height soon afterwards. Mr Sifton knew that no
settlers could be had anywhere with more enterprise, capital, and
practical experience of western needs than the farmers of the western
and mid-western states. As these states became settled, many farmers
who desired larger scope for their energy or farms for their growing
sons were in the mood to listen to tales of pastures new. Among these
Americans, then, the minister prepared to spread his glad tidings of
the Canadian plains. Agents were appointed for each likely state, with
sub-agents who were paid a commission for every settler who came. The
land of promise was pictured in attractive, compelling booklets, and in
advertisements inserted in seven or eight thousand farm and weekly
papers. All inquiries were {224} systematically followed up. In
co-operation with the railways, free trips were arranged for parties of
farmers and for press associations, to give the personal touch needed
to vitalize the campaign. State and county fairs were utilized to keep
Canada to the fore. Every assistance was given to make it easy for the
settler to transport his effects and to select his new home.
As a result of these aggressive efforts, the ranks of incoming
Americans, negligible in the earlier years, rose to astounding
proportions--from seven hundred in 1897 to fifteen thousand in 1900 and
one hundred thousand in 1911. This influx had a decisive effect on the
West. It was not only what these well-to-do, progressive settlers
achieved themselves that counted, but the effect of their example upon
others. Every American who preferred Canada to his own land persuaded
an Englishman or a Scotsman that the star of empire was passing to the
north.
Backed by this convincing argument, Mr Sifton now turned to the United
Kingdom. For many years his predecessors had directed their chief
efforts to this field. Early in the eighties a large influx of British
and Irish immigrants had come, but most of them had quickly passed to
the United States. In the {225} nineties scarcely ten thousand a year
crossed from the crowded British Isles to Canada, while the United
States secured thirty or forty thousand. Now conditions were soon
reversed. The immigration campaign was lifted out of the routine and
dry rot into which it had fallen. Advertisements of a kind new to
British readers were inserted in the press, the schools were filled
with attractive literature, and patriotic and philanthropic agencies
were brought into service. Typical of this activity was the erection
of a great arch of wheat in the Strand, London, during the Coronation
ceremonies of 1902. Its visible munificence and its modest mottoes,
'Canada the granary of the Empire' and 'Canada offers 160 acres free to
every man,' carried a telling message to millions. From nine or ten
thousand in the nineties British immigration into Canada rose to fifty
thousand in 1904 and over a hundred and twenty thousand in 1911.
Australia soon followed Canada's example, with the result that whereas
in 1900 only one of every three emigrants who left the British Isles
remained under the flag, a dozen years later the proportions had grown
to four out of every five. This was empire-building of the most
practical kind.
{226}
This incoming of English-speaking peoples also brought its problems.
The Americans contributed largely to the rise of the 'subdivision
expert,' though in this matter of land speculation the native sons soon
bettered their instructors. The British immigrants at first included
too many who had been assisted by charitable societies, and always they
flocked more to the towns than to the land. Yet these immigrants were
in the main the best of new citizens.
During the fifteen years of Liberal administration (1896-1911) the
total immigration to Canada exceeded two millions. Of this total about
thirty-eight per cent came from the British Isles, twenty-six from
Continental Europe, and thirty-four from the United States. This
increase was not all net. There was a constant ebb as well as flow,
many returning to their native land, whether to enjoy the fortune they
had gained or to lament that the golden pavements they had heard of
were nowhere to be seen. The exodus of native-born to the United
States did not wholly cease, though it fell off notably and was far
more than offset by the northward flow. After all deductions, the
population of Canada during this period grew from barely over five to
seven {227} and a quarter millions, showing a rate of increase for the
last decade (1901-11) unequalled elsewhere in the world.
Closely connected with the immigration campaign was the Government's
land policy. The old system of giving free homesteads to all comers
was continued, but with a simplified procedure, lower fees, and greater
privileges to the settler. No more land was tied up in railway grants,
and in 1908 the odd sections, previously reserved for railway grants
and sales, were opened to homesteaders. The pre-emption regulations
were revised for the semi-arid districts where a hundred and sixty
acres was too small a unit. Sales of farm lands to colonization
companies and of timber limits were continued, with occasional
excessive gains to speculators, which the Opposition vigorously
denounced. Yet the homesteader remained the chief figure in the
opening of the West. The entries, as we have seen, were eighteen
hundred in 1896. They were forty-four thousand in 1911. Areas of land
princely in their vastness were thus given away. Each year the
Dominion granted free land exceeding in area and in richness coveted
territories for whose possession European nations stood ready to set
the world at war. In 1908, for {228} example, a Wales was given away;
in 1909, five Prince Edward Islands; while in 1910 and 1911, what with
homesteads, pre-emptions, and veteran grants, a Belgium, a Holland, a
Luxemburg and a Montenegro passed from the state to the settler.[1]
After and with the settler came the capitalist. The vast expansion of
these years was made possible by borrowing on a scale which neither
credit nor ambition had ever before made possible. Especially from
Britain the millions poured in as soon as Canadians themselves had
given evidence of the land's limitless possibilities. The yearly
borrowings from the mother country, made chiefly by national and local
governments and by the railways, rose to a hundred and fifty millions.
French, Dutch, Belgian, and German investors followed. American
capitalists bought few bonds but invested freely in mines, timber
limits, and land companies, and set up many factories. By the end of
the period foreign capitalists held a mortgage of about two and a half
billions on Canada, but in most cases {229} the money had been well
applied, and the resources of the country more than correspondingly
developed.
The railways were the chief bidders for this vast inflow of new
capital. It was distinctly a railway era. The railway made possible
the rapid settlement of the West, and the growth of settlement in turn
called for still new roads. In the fifteen years following 1896 nearly
ten thousand miles were built, two miles a day, year in and year out,
and the three years following saw another five thousand miles
completed. Two great transcontinentals were constructed. Branch lines
innumerable were flung out, crowded sections were double-tracked,
grades were lowered, curves straightened, vast terminals built,
steamship connections formed, and equipment doubled and trebled.
In this expansion the state, as ever in Canada, took a leading share.
The Dominion Government extended the Intercolonial to Montreal and
began a road from the prairies to Hudson Bay, while the Ontario
Government built and operated a road opening up New Ontario. The
federal policy of aid to private companies was continued, with
amendments. No more land-grants were given, and {230} when cash
subsidies were bestowed, the companies so aided were required to carry
free government mails, materials and men, up to three per cent on the
subsidy. The transcontinentals were specially favoured. The Grand
Trunk system was given large guarantees and cash subsidies for its
westward expansion, and the Government itself constructed the National
Transcontinental to ensure the opening up of the north, and to prevent
the traffic of the west being carried to United States rather than to
Canadian Atlantic ports. The Canadian Northern was assisted in its
prairie construction by both federal and provincial guarantees. The
Laurier Government aided the dubious project of building a third line
north of Lake Superior, but refused to take any share in the
responsibility or cost of building the much more expensive and
premature section through the Rockies. The Borden Government and the
province of British Columbia, however, gave the aid desired for this
latter venture. Another important development was the establishment,
in 1903, with the happiest results, of the Dominion Railway Commission,
to mediate between railway and shipper or traveller.
{231}
The railway policy of this period is still matter for dispute. On the
economic side, it is clear that the greater part of the construction
was essential in order to open up the West, with all that this implied
for both West and East. Yet there were many evils to set against this
gain--the stimulus to unhealthy speculation, the excessive building in
settled districts, the construction of roads ahead of immediate needs
or possible traffic. The fact is that the railway policy was part and
parcel of the whole business policy of the period, the outcome of the
same new-born optimism which induced many a municipality to build
pavements and sewers before the population warranted, or manufacturers
to extend their plants too rapidly, or banks to open branches that did
not pay. Progress comes in zigzag fashion; now one need is stressed,
now another. To each time its own task, to each the defects of its
qualities. And if in the reaction from unexampled prosperity some of
the expansion seemed to have come before its time, most Canadians were
confident of what the future would bring, and did not regret that in
Canada's growing time leaders and people persevered in putting through
great and for the most part needful works {232} which only courage
could suggest and only prosperity could achieve.
On the political side, also, there were entries on both sides of the
ledger. Campaign-fund contributions and political intrigue were the
chief debit entries. Yet there were heavy credit entries which should
not be forgotten. No other country has made the effort and the
sacrifice Canada has made to bind its far-distant and isolated
provinces in links of steel. The Intercolonial made the union of east
and centre a reality, the Canadian Pacific bound east and centre and
west, and the National Transcontinental added the north to the
Dominion, gave the needed breadth to the perilously narrow fringe of
settlement that lined the United States border. The national ends
which Sir John Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier steadfastly held in
view were so great and vital as to warrant risk, to compel faith, to
justify courage.
In Canada the state, without much discussion as to the theory involved,
has endeavoured to foster production in countless ways. The
encouragement and sifting of immigration and the building or aiding of
railways and canals are perhaps the most important {233} single forms
this stimulus has taken; but they are far from the only ones. Farmer,
miner, fisherman, manufacturer, artisan, all have been aided by
policies more or less effective.
Under previous administrations the department of agriculture had done
good work and had raised the standard of farm production. That work
was now extended and re-vitalized. For the first time a farmer, Mr
Sydney A. Fisher, took charge of the department. Better farming and
better marketing alike were sought. On experimental farms and in
laboratories, studies were carried on as to the best stock or plants,
the best fertilizers or the best feeding-stuffs, to suit the varied
soils and climates of the wide Dominion. By bulletins and
demonstrations farmers were instructed in such matters as the selection
of seed, the cool curing of cheese, the improvement of stock, the
vigilant guarding against disease in herd and flock. Marketing
received equal attention. For the fruit and dairy industries
refrigerator-car services and cold-storage facilities on ocean ships
were provided. In these and other ways the effort was made to help the
Canadian farmer to secure full value for his toil.
The miner received less direct aid. {234} Railways built into mining
areas, bounties on lead and petroleum, bounties on iron ore and steel
products, laboratory studies in metallurgy, and reduction of the duties
on mining machinery, all played a part in the great development of the
mines of Canada which marked this era.
None too soon, an important step was taken in 1909 to ensure the
perpetuation or the prudent use of the country's natural resources. In
the early, lavish days men had believed these resources inexhaustible,
or had recklessly ignored the claims of the future in their haste to
snatch a fortune to-day. The United States had gone furthest on this
path, and was the first to come to its senses. A conference held at
Washington, in 1909, attended by representatives of the United States,
Canada, Newfoundland, and Mexico--notable also as one of the first
instances of Canada's recognition of the fact that she was an American
power--recommended the establishment of a conservation commission in
each country. Canada was the only country that acted upon the advice.
The Conservation Commission was established that very year, with wide
duties of investigation and recommendation. Under Sir Clifford Sifton
as chairman and Mr {235} James White as secretary it has performed
valuable and varied service.
The sea was given thought as well as the land. The fishing bounties
already established were continued. Experts were brought from Europe
to improve the methods of curing fish. Co-operative cold-storage
warehouses for bait were set up, and a fast refrigerator-car service on
both coasts brought fish fresh to the interior. Laboratories for the
study of marine life and fish hatcheries came into being.
Unfortunately, disputes arose as to jurisdiction between Dominion and
provinces and between Canada and the United States, and the fisheries
did not grow at the rate of other industries.
The manufacturer, however, continued to be the chief object of
attention. An increase took place in the service of trade
commissioners for Canada in other countries, whose duties are similar
to those of a foreign consular service. The bounties on iron and steel
production, amounting in all to twenty millions, undoubtedly did much
to stimulate that industry. The protective tariff, as we have seen,
remained in a modified form. After the notable step of 1897 towards a
purely revenue tariff, there came a halt for some years. In fact, it
seemed for a time that the pendulum {236} would swing towards still
higher duties. In 1902 the manufacturers began a strong campaign in
that direction, which was given aggressive support by the minister of
Public Works, J. Israel Tarte, often termed by opponents of the
Government the 'Master of the Administration.' This breach of
ministerial solidarity Sir Wilfrid Laurier met, on his return from the
Colonial Conference, by an instant demand for Mr Tarte's resignation.
It was made clear that the compromise which had been adopted in 1897
would not be rashly abandoned. Yet the movement for a tariff 'high as
Haman's gallows' continued, and produced some effect. It led (1904) to
a reduction of the British preference on woollens and to an
'anti-dumping act'--aimed against slaughter or bargain sales by foreign
producers--providing for a special duty when articles were sold in
Canada for less than the prevailing price in the country of origin. In
the same year Mr Fielding foreshadowed the introduction of a minimum
and maximum tariff, with the existing duties as the minimum, and with
maximum duties to be applied to countries which levied especially high
rates on Canadian products. Only the vigorous opposition set up by the
farmers of Ontario {237} and the West checked the agitation for still
higher duties. The new tariff of 1907 made many careful revisions
upward as well as downward, but on the whole the existing level was
retained. Below the maximum or general rate, but higher than the
British preference, there was set up an intermediate tariff, for
bargaining with foreign states. This compromise tariff of 1907
remained in force with little change or strong agitation for change
until three years later, when negotiations for reciprocity with the
United States once more brought the issue to the front.
The field of social legislation, in which so many radical experiments
have been made by other lands, in Canada falls for the most part to the
provinces. Within its limited jurisdiction the Laurier Government
achieved some notable results. Early in its career it put down
sweating and made compulsory the payment of fair wages by government
contractors. It set up a department of Labour, making it possible to
secure much useful information hitherto inaccessible and to guard
workmen's interests in many relations. Late in the Laurier regime a
commission was appointed to study the question of technical education,
important alike for manufacturer {238} and for artisan. The most
distinctive innovation, however, was the Lemieux Act, drawn up by W. L.
Mackenzie King, the first deputy minister of Labour. This provided for
compulsory investigation into labour disputes in quasi-public
industries. It proved a long step towards industrial peace, and was
one of the few Canadian legislative experiments which have awakened
world-wide interest and investigation.
The growth of the West made it necessary to face the question of
granting full provincial powers to the North-West Territories.
Originally under the direct rule of the Dominion parliament, step by
step they had approached self-government. In 1886 they had been given
representation at Ottawa; in 1888 a local legislature was created, with
limited powers, later somewhat enlarged; and in 1897 the Executive
Council was made responsible to the legislature. Now, with half a
million people between Manitoba and British Columbia, the time had come
to take the last step. And so in 1905 the Autonomy Bills, establishing
the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, were brought before the
House of Commons by the prime minister.
{239}
There were many controversial issues involved. How many provinces
should be created? Two were decided upon, to comprise the area south
of the sixtieth parallel; the area to the north was left in the
territorial status. What should be the capitals? Provisionally
Edmonton and Regina were selected. Should the provinces be given
control of crown lands? Notwithstanding some opposition, it was
decided to maintain the policy, in force from the first acquisition of
the West, of keeping the lands in control of the Dominion, which also
had control of immigration. What financial aid should be given?
Liberal grants were provided, accepted by all parties as fair and
adequate. What legislative powers should the provinces be given,
particularly on the subject of education? This proved a thorny
question. It provoked a storm of heated controversy which for a brief
time recalled the days of the Jesuits' Estates and Manitoba school
questions.
A clause in the bills, which Sir Wilfrid Laurier introduced in February
1905, provided: first, that Section 93 of the British North America
Act, safeguarding minority privileges, should apply; secondly, to make
it clearer what these privileges were, it stipulated that {240} the
majority of the ratepayers in any district might establish such schools
as they thought fit, and that the minority, whether Protestant or
Catholic, might also do so, being in that case liable only for one set
of school rates; and thirdly, that legislative appropriations should be
divided equitably between public and separate schools.
Three main questions arose. Were separate schools desirable in
themselves? Was there any obligation, legal or moral, to establish or
maintain them? If so, what form should they take?
Introducing the bills, Sir Wilfrid stated that he 'never could
understand what objection there could be to a system of schools
wherein, after secular matters had been attended to, the tenets of the
religion of Christ, even with the divisions which exist among His
followers, are allowed to be taught.' He went on to contrast the
schools of Canada, wherein Christian dogmas and morals were taught,
with those of the United States, where they were not taught, and to
point out the resulting difference in moral standards as witnessed by
lynching, murder, and divorce statistics.
The great majority of Catholics and a {241} minority of Protestants, or
their ecclesiastical spokesmen, regarded the school as a means of
teaching religion as well as secular subjects, and wished secular
subjects, where possible, to be taught from a distinctly religious
point of view. A small minority were in favour of complete
secularization of all schools. The majority of Protestants would
probably have favoured some non-denominational recognition of religion
in the schools, and would judge denominational teaching by the test of
how far this would involve herding the children apart and putting
obstacles in the path of educational efficiency and of national unity.
But was parliament free to grant the provinces the liberty to decide
the question solely in accord with what the majority might now or
hereafter think expedient? On the one hand, it was vigorously
contended that it was free, and that any attempt to limit the power of
the province was uncalled for, was an attempt to petrify its laws, and
to revive the coercion which Sir Wilfrid Laurier himself had denounced
and defeated in 1896. The recognition of separate schools in the
British North America Act, the critics continued, applied only to the
four original provinces, and there was probably no power, and {242}
certainly no legal obligation, to extend the principle to the West. On
the other hand, it was argued that Section 93 of the British North
America Act--introduced at the instance of the Protestant minority of
Quebec, and designed to protect the interest of all minorities--morally
and legally bound the whole Dominion; that the Manitoba Act of 1870
confirmed the principle that the Dominion could give a new province
only such powers as the constitution provided, which meant control over
education _subject to the minority's privilege_; and that parliament,
by unanimously establishing separate schools in the North-West
Territories in 1875, had still further bound its successors, or at
least had shown how the Fathers of Confederation interpreted the
constitution.
To many, however, the abstract questions of separate schools and the
constitution were less important than the practical question, What kind
of schools were to be guaranteed by these bills? Sir Wilfrid Laurier
declared that the school system to be continued was that actually in
force in the North-West, which had been established under the clause
respecting schools of the Dominion Act of 1875, which the present bills
repeated word for word. {243} This system worked very satisfactorily.
It gave Catholic and Protestant minorities the right to establish
separate schools, and to pay taxes only for such schools. In all other
respects the school system was uniform; there was only one department
of education, one course of study, one set of books, one staff of
inspectors. No religious teaching or religious emblems were permitted
during school hours; only in the half-hour after the close of school
might such teaching be provided. The separate schools were really
national schools with the minimum of ecclesiastical control.
It soon became apparent, however, that the schools then existing in the
North-West, though based on the Act of 1875, were much less
ecclesiastical in character than the act permitted, and less
ecclesiastical in fact than the schools which had formerly existed in
the territories. In 1884 the Quebec system had been set up, providing
for two boards of education, two courses of study, two staffs of
inspectors, and separate administrations. But in 1892 this dual system
had been abolished by the territorial legislature, and in 1901 the
existing system had been definitely established by a series of
ordinances. To meet the {244} objections urged, the new bills were
amended to make it clear that it was the limited separate school system
established in 1901 that was to be continued, and not a complete
separate system as authorized in 1875. The bills as originally drafted
virtually gave the Church complete control over separate schools, but,
as now amended, control over religious education only.
The measure was hotly debated, inside and outside parliament.
Particularly in Ontario the original bills were denounced by many
Liberals as well as Conservatives as oppressive, reactionary, and a
concession to the hierarchy. The West itself was not disturbed, and
the Protestants of Quebec acquiesced in the recognition of separate
schools. Mr Sifton made the measure the occasion for resigning from
the Ministry. The controversy was a great surprise to Sir Wilfrid, who
had considered that he was simply carrying out the agreement reached
unanimously in 1875. The amendment satisfied all the malcontents of
his party in parliament, but the controversy continued outside. The
more extreme opponents of separate schools would see no difference
between the new clause and the old. Archbishop Langevin strongly
denounced the {245} amendment; but the fire soon cooled. Today fewer
than one school in a hundred in the two provinces is a separate school.
Throughout this period of rapid growth the Liberal party maintained its
place in power. The country was prosperous and content and the party
chieftain invincible. The general elections of 1904 turned chiefly on
railway issues. The criticisms of the Opposition, many of them well
grounded, proved unavailing. The contest ended in a victory for the
Government with a majority of sixty seats in the House and of fifty
thousand votes in the country. The results presented the usual
discrepancies between electoral votes and parliamentary representation.
Though the Liberals had only 54,000 votes in Nova Scotia, as against
46,000 for the Conservatives, they captured all the eighteen seats.
Prince Edward Island, giving the Liberals a popular majority, returned
three Conservatives to one Liberal. Ontario cast 217,000 Conservative
and 213,000 Liberal votes and returned forty-eight Conservatives and
thirty-eight Liberals. An untoward incident of the elections was the
defeat of Mr R. L. Borden in Halifax. The leader of the Opposition had
won universal respect, {246} and it was to the satisfaction of
opponents as well as followers that another seat was shortly found for
him.
In the general elections of four years later (1908) no single issue was
dominant. The Opposition alleged 'graft' and corruption, and charged
ministers and ex-ministers with breach of the eighth and neighbouring
commandments. Government officials, too, they said, were guilty of
extravagance and fraud. Timber limits, contracts, land deals, figured
in still further scandals. The ministerial forces replied in the usual
way, claiming in some cases that there was no ground for the
allegations, and in others that they themselves had intervened to put a
stop to the practices inherited from previous administrations. They
carried the war into Africa by counter-charges against leading members
of the Opposition. The air was full of scandals and personalities; but
none of the charges were of sufficient magnitude or sufficient
certainty to weigh heavily against the prosperity of the country and
the personality of the prime minister. The parliamentary majority,
however, fell from sixty-two to forty-seven, and the popular majority
from fifty to twenty thousand.
{247}
The years had brought many changes in the Ministry. Mr Sifton had
retired, Mr Tarte's resignation had been accepted, and Mr Fitzpatrick
had gone to the Supreme Court. Mr Oliver had succeeded Mr Sifton, Mr
Aylesworth had come from a distinguished place at the bar to the
portfolio of Justice, Mr Pugsley was in charge of Public Works, Mr
Graham had left the leadership of the Ontario Opposition for the
portfolio of Railways, Mr Mackenzie King had jumped from the civil
service to the Cabinet, and Mr Lemieux and Mr Brodeur were the prime
minister's chief colleagues from Quebec. The Opposition benches showed
almost as many changes. Of the former Conservative ministers, Mr
Foster and Mr Haggart only remained in active service, while Mr
Doherty, Mr Ames, and Mr Meighen were among the more notable
accessions. Some rumbles of discontent were heard against Mr Borden's
leadership, but the party as a whole rallied strongly to him, and his
position both in the party and in the country grew increasingly firm.
Through all the changes the prime minister grew in strength and
prestige. Each year that passed gave proofs of his masterful
leadership. {248} The old cry that he was too weak to rule now gave
way to the cry that he was too strong. There was no question that for
all his suavity he insisted upon being first minister in fact as well
as in form. In Canada he had a hold upon the popular imagination which
had been equalled only by Sir John Macdonald, while abroad he was the
one Canadian, or in fact the one colonial statesman, known to fame, the
outstanding figure of Greater Britain.
[1] It is estimated that 15 per cent of the Scottish, 18 per cent of
the English, 19 per cent of the Irish, 27 per cent of the Continental,
and 30 per cent of the United States immigrants made entry for
homesteads. The proportion of Americans who bought land was in still
greater degree much the largest.
{249}