East Toronto and West Toronto.36 The full turn-out that packed the lecture room that night included such local party notables as McDougall, Howland, and Adam Wilson, the member for North York and former mayor who had been asked to stand for West Toronto. And there was also the city’s Reform representative in the late parliament, George Brown, there to be nominated for the constituency of East Toronto. As he rose to speak in this first public appearance since his illness, its mark was plain upon him. There was no dramatic change; his tall, erect figure had not noticeably wasted, his red-brown hair had not turned grey, his deep voice had lost none of its resonance. Yet he was obviously weak – “I doubt if my physicians approve of my being here tonight,” he observed, explaining that he would not talk long in order to save his strength.37 Above all, his speech did not climb and soar, and at the end he apologized for a lame performance. He also made clear that it was obligation, not enthusiasm, that impelled him. This was surely not the old Brown.
“With perfect frankness and sincerity,” he said, “were I at liberty to follow my own inclination at this moment, I would not be a candidate for election on the present occasion. After twenty years of unremitting toil I feel the preservation of my health demands a period of relaxation. And most gladly would I now retire from parliamentary life – at least for a season. But I feel in this I cannot be my own master. Political connections and ties have grown up around me which I cannot sever in a day. And there are responsibilities which, when public men assume them, must not be shrunk from – at any sacrifice to themselves. At such a moment I cannot think it would be right in me to withdraw from the good cause any service I can render it.”38 It was a lofty declaration that brought cheers; but it was scarcely in the spirit that wins elections.
The candidate went off to the country for a few more days of rest before beginning his campaign, and returned on June 17 to speak to the largest indoor political meeting yet held in Toronto, before a Liberal audience of one thousand in St. Lawrence Hall. Mowat and Connor spoke also, but the chief effort was Brown’s. This time there was nothing faltering or resigned about him, as he held forth on the population question and the wrongs done Upper Canada. She had 60,000 more inhabitants than Lower Canada in 1851, he proclaimed, had waited ten years under eastern domination, now had five times that lead – and still was denied justice! Were 300,000 westerners to remain disfranchised – because of the treachery of John A. Macdonald and his clique?39 It was all rapturously received. In fact, Brown’s old vitality seemed to come flooding back that evening, stirred as he was by the big, excited audience.
Just two nights later he was back at the hall again, to address a very different meeting in company with his Conservative opponent in the election, John Crawford.40 It was a gathering of both parties, the kind of situation made for trouble. Reformers filled the back of the main floor and the gallery, but in the front and around the platform sat a solid phalanx of Conservatives, a band of some thirty to forty rowdies noisily prominent among them. As soon as Mayor Bowes had opened the proceedings, the meeting began to fall apart. Amid hoots and catcalls, a shaky Mr. Allan tried stumblingly to introduce George Brown – then had his notes snatched away by Tories clambering onto the platform. The two candidates came forward; a wild contest of cheers and jeers filled the hall. Allan was still trying, and the Mayor was already calling frantically for an adjournment, when the funloving roughs still on the platform tried to push Brown off as he arrived. He fought back; more of them rushed up; over went the Mayor’s table; down to the reporters’ desk below crashed Brown; while Grits howling vengeance came racing down the aisles.
Highland blood up, torn coat flapping fiercely, Brown led a Liberal charge that almost reconquered the platform. But out stepped Constable Jones of the Grand Trunk, and with a huge push tumbled them all back to the floor. For good measure his friend Murphy swung at Brown’s head with a cudgel, but Brown had rammed his hat on in the first attack and the blow only smashed a good Victorian top-hat – a useful safety helmet for the politics of the day. At this point the police arrived, and the Mayor managed to convince the candidates that it was useless to go on. The rival forces marched out, the Reformers chanting, “On to the Globe!” There on the steps of the office their battered leader addressed them, ruined hat, ripped coat and all. He appeared “considerably exhausted”, the press remarked next day.41
Thereafter the campaign was less strenuous, though the round of smaller meetings at taverns and hotels was taxing enough for Brown. Moreover, it was not going very well. He could not make the efforts he once could; his meetings were fewer and shorter. Then on June 28 he lost the show of hands at the official public nomination of the opposing candidates (still deemed a matter of considerable psychological importance), apparently because the Conservatives had brought in a large body of their West Toronto voters to strengthen their showing in the East Toronto test.42 A long procession of Grand Trunk employees also appeared with banners flying to support Crawford, the son of one director of the line and the partner of another.43
The Reform contender launched into a last urgent rush of meetings before the two days of voting began on July 5. But when the polls closed on that date he was thirty-four votes behind.44 This was the ominous, the often fatal sign: undecided electors had their minds made up for them by the outcome of the first day of polling. At the end of the second day George Brown was in the minority by 191.45 He was beaten. He had entered parliament in the elections of 1851; he left it in elections just ten years later.
There were good reasons for Brown’s defeat, among them his failure to accomplish his policies since the last general election. He had failed to establish a lasting ministry in 1858 and to achieve representation by population. He had failed to advance his federation scheme in 1860, and again had not settled the discords in the union – nor even in his own party. Now Conservatives like Crawford, who himself espoused rep by pop, were contending that they could meet Upper Canada’s needs far better than the Grits, since they assuredly had proved that they could win and hold power in the country.46 Then, too, there was the fact that, if Brown’s alliance with McGee might bring him some Roman Catholic support, his earlier record still kept other Roman Catholics away from him. Finally, a powerful pivot group in West Toronto, the Methodists, remembered his stand in opposition to Victoria and to denominational colleges generally on the university committee of 1860. They paid him back at the polls.47
Beyond all this, however, was the fact of Brown’s illness, which had kept him out of the last session, made him a reluctant candidate, and vitiated much of his effort at campaigning. Nevertheless, after the initial shock of disappointment, the defeated candidate showed small regret for what might have been. His speech to the crowd at the official declarations on July 11, in the hot sun outside Toronto’s City Hall, was almost thankful, and certainly amiable. “I believe there has never been an election conducted in this or any constituency more satisfactory for both parties than this has been,” he told the crowd around him, charitably ignoring the recent battle at St. Lawrence Hall. “Mr. Crawford and I went into the contest good personal friends and I hope we come out of it as cordial as ever.”48
Of course, he added, he regretted the result, for the sake of the friends who had supported and worked for him, and for the sake of the cause he fought for; but personally he was overjoyed that henceforth he could attend to his health and his personal interests. “I have now faithfully discharged my duty to my party – my defeat has opened up the way for my retirement without dishonour – and I mean to take advantage of it! ”49 So passed George Brown, M.P.P. It remained to be seen how long his retirement might last, and to what use he would put his new freedom.
3
The whole election had been a disappointment for the western Reform party. Both Toronto seats were gone, for Adam Wilson had lost, as well as Brown. Mowat, a Kingstonian in origin, though now identified with Toronto, had also failed to capture his native city from John A. Macdonald, and several other old reliable Brownites had not been re-elected. Still, it had by no means been a Liberal rout. While there were a number of new men and moderates who were claimed by both sides, the strength of government and opposition
