ABORTIVE POLITICAL MOVEMENT
Shortly after these events some of our committee were anxious to make a
forward movement, to organise a political party to carry out our views,
and to start openly a propaganda to advocate them. I opposed this
strenuously, saying that the instant we did so the newspapers on both
sides of politics would attack us, and that they would have something
tangible to attack. The late Daniel Spry urged me very strongly that we
should come out openly. I opposed the idea and refused to take any part
in it, fearing that it would at the time injure the influence we were
beginning to exert.
Foster and I discussed the matter at great length, and my suggestion
was that we should go on as we had been going, and that if we ever
wished to hold public meetings Dr. Canniff, one of the "Twelve
Apostles," and the oldest of them, the author of "The Early Settlement
of Upper Canada," would always make an excellent chairman, and not
being a party man would not arouse hostility. I said, "If we organise
a party and appoint a particular man to lead, we shall be responsible
for everything he says," and repeated that the party Press would attack
him bitterly and injure the cause, which was all we cared for. Foster
supported my views, and during 1872 and 1873 we kept quiet, watching
for any good opportunities of doing service to the country.
In the general election of 1872 I was requested by the Hon. George
Brown and Alexander McKenzie to go up to Algoma, and either get some
candidate to run or run myself in the Reform interest against Lt.-Col.
Fred C. Cumberland, the sitting member for the House of Commons. I
arrived at Bruce Mines on the same steamer with Col. Cumberland, and
he called a meeting of the electors the same evening and asked me to
attend. I did not know anyone in the place, but Mr. Brown had given me
a letter to Mr. Peter Nicholson, which I presented to him and told him
I was going to the meeting. He urged me not to go, but I insisted. He
then said he would get a few friends, so that I would not be alone.
Col. Cumberland spoke for about an hour, and then called upon me to
speak, he well knowing I had come up to work against him. I asked him
to introduce me to the meeting, as I did not know anyone; this he did
in a very satirical manner. I then spoke for an hour, and attacked the
Government very vehemently for their Red River policy and on other
points. Very soon the whole meeting was with me, and after it was over
the people nearly all came over to Mr. Nicholson's store and insisted
that I should contest the constituency, and, finding I could not get
anyone else to run, I consented. Col. Cumberland withdrew the next day
from the contest, and the Hon. John B. Robinson was brought out in his
place. After a hard struggle I was defeated by a majority of eighty
votes. I fully expected to be beaten; in fact, I was surprised the
majority was not much greater. There was a very large amount of money
spent against me; so large that there was an inquiry in the House
afterwards, and something like $6,000, spent by the Northern Railway
Company against me, was, I believe, refunded to the company by the
directors or the Conservative party. This was my only attempt to enter
Parliament.
In November, 1873, I left for England and did not return until the
2nd February, 1874. Shortly after leaving an election came on, and
the late Chief Justice Thomas Moss was contesting West Toronto for
the House of Commons. Foster thought it would be good policy, as Moss
was sympathetic with our views, to organise the "Canada First" party
as a political organisation and as such to support Moss. He at once
took steps to organise it, and with the old organisation and a large
number of others the National Association was established. This was on
the 6th January, 1874. Of our old group there were W. A. Foster, Dr.
Canniff, Hugh Scott, Joseph E. Macdougall, C. E. English, G. M. Rae,
Richard Grahame, James R. Roaf, Thomas Walmsley, George R. Kingsmill;
and besides these a number of new associates--W. H. Howland, R. W.
Elliott, J. M. Trout, Wm. Badenach, W. G. McWilliams, James Michie,
Nicol Kingsmill, Hugh Blain, Jos. A. Donovan, W. B. McMurrich, G. W.
Badgerow, C. W. R. Biggar, W. H. Fraser, J. G. Ridout, W. E. Cornell,
W. G. Mutton, C. W. Dedrickson, J. Crickmore, Wm. Hessin, J. Ritchie,
Jr., R. G. Trotter, A. S. Irving, A. Howell, R. H. Gray, and Dr.
Roseburgh.
Foster did most of the work, and I have no doubt drafted the
constitution and the platform. He remembered what I had said, and
provided that the movement should be guided by an Executive Committee
of twelve, without any president or vice-president. The platform was
adopted as follows:
(1) British Connection, Consolidation of the Empire, and in the
meantime a voice in treaties affecting Canada.
(2) Closer trade relations with the British West India Islands, with a
view to ultimate political connection.
(3) Income Franchise.
(4) The Ballot, with the addition of compulsory voting.
(5) A Scheme for the Representation of Minorities.
(6) Encouragement of Immigration, and Free Homesteads in the Public
Domain.
(7) The imposition of duties for Revenue, so adjusted as to afford
every possible encouragement to Native Industry.
(8) An improved Militia System, under the command of trained Dominion
Officers.
(9) No Property Qualifications in Members of the House of Commons.
(10) The Reorganisation of the Senate.
(11) Pure and Economic Administration of Public Affairs.
It will be noticed that the very first plank in the platform was
"British Connection, Consolidation of the Empire, and in the meantime a
voice in treaties affecting Canada." This certainly was not favouring
either Independence or Annexation, and of the other ten items nearly
every point has since been carried into practice.
At the first public meeting, held on 6th December, 1873, Mr. W. H.
Howland was in the chair. He knew very little of our objects or
aspirations. He was the son of Sir Wm. P. Howland, who had been a
citizen of the United States, and had only settled in Canada some
fourteen years before W. H. Howland was born. Sir Wm. Howland was a
most useful and patriotic citizen, and during a very long life did
great service to Canada in various capacities, but neither he nor
his son had the inherited traditions of loyalty to the Empire which
animated the older Canadians, and the result was that at this first
meeting the chairman's remarks struck a discordant note in the minds
of the majority of the members of the National Association. "He held
that there was too much toadyism to English aristocratic usages in
this country. There was too much toadyism to titles. We would have no
aristocracy in this country but the aristocracy of merit, no order but
the order of merit, and the sooner the English Government recognised
the fact that the adornment of a man in this country with the feelings
they entertained was rather an insult than an honour to our people, the
sooner would they appreciate our real sentiment. Many Canadians who had
gone home had, he held, brought us into contempt by their toadying."
The result of this speech was most unfortunate. I believe he did not
speak for more than fifteen or twenty minutes, but in that time he
had practically killed the movement as a political organisation. The
committee were dissatisfied and disheartened; the political Press
seized at once on the weak points, and attacked the organisation for
advocating Independence, and charged it with being disloyal in its
objects. Mr. Goldwin Smith then joined it and hoped to use it for the
purpose of advocating the disruption of the tie which bound Canada to
the Empire. The National Club was founded by this organisation at this
time.
I returned to Canada shortly after the movement had been launched and
was at once appealed to by my old comrades to join and help to redeem
the party from the taint of Independence which it had acquired through
the unfortunate speech of W. H. Howland in introducing it to public
notice. I declined positively, telling them that it was too late, and
it would have to die a natural death. As a political party it lost
strength and soon died, its demise being hastened by the fact that it
gave encouragement to a few young men to come out openly in favour of
Canadian Independence, supported as they were by the great social and
literary status of Mr. Goldwin Smith, who has always been willing to
assist any movement likely to injure the unity of the British Empire.