to Ottawa. She accepted the post in June 1921, at a time when the newly formed Progressive party, under Thomas Crerar, the Conservatives, led by Arthur Meighen, and the Liberals, headed by Mackenzie King, were gearing up for an election campaign that would culminate in the return of the Liberals to power.
Wily Mackenzie King, who would lead the Liberals to victory on 6 December 1921, was a good friend of Norman Wilson and a party chief who attracted the unflagging loyalty and friendship of Mrs Wilson, no matter how much he disappointed her by the stand that he took on some of the issues closest to her heart. This consummate political strategist and tactician was born in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario in 1874, the son of John King, a lawyer, and Isabel Grace Mackenzie, the daughter of William Lyon Mackenzie, pre-Confederation Canada’s most colourful radical. Raised on tales of his grandfather’s exploits, King early felt himself destined for a great career, in which thinking he was constantly encouraged by his possessive mother whom he worshipped.
When the future prime minister was still a child, his debt-ridden father moved his young family to Toronto, where the shy, introverted son later attended the University of Toronto. Following graduation, Mackenzie King spent a year doing social work at the University of Chicago. He then completed his studies at Harvard University and returned to Canada in 1900 to become the first deputy minister of the fledgling federal Department of Labour. In 1908, he entered the House of Commons as a Liberal and the following year he became the Minister of Labour in Laurier’s government.
After this dazzling beginning, King lost his seat in the election of 1911 that routed Laurier and the Liberals from office and brought Robert Borden and the Conservatives to power. For the next few years the plump bachelor with three university degrees and an ingratiating personality divided his time between serving as a labour negotiator for the Rockefeller family in the United States and working for the Liberal Party and the furtherance of his own political ambitions. Engaged by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1914 to undertake a study of capital-labour relations, he wrote Industry and Humanity: A study in the Principles Underlying Reconstruction which earned him an enviable reputation as a progressive authority on labour-management relations. His political future, however, was always uppermost in his mind, so when Borden called an election in 1917 King returned to Canada to participate in the bitterly fought campaign, a contest which was enlivened and embittered by that most contentious of issues, compulsory military service. Two years later, in 1919, he won the leadership of the Liberal Party when four-fifths of the convention delegates from Quebec voted for him instead of W.S. Fielding, who had deserted Laurier over conscription.
Convinced that the hand of destiny was upon him, the new leader set out to transform a faction-ridden party that had been reduced to eighty-two seats in Parliament in the 1917 election into an harmonious political alliance. Fortunately for the party’s survival and well-being, King had the single-minded vision and political shrewdness to realize this goal, but the task would take many years to achieve. Along the way he would receive generous assistance from Cairine Wilson, who realized full well the invaluable contribution that educated women could make to Liberalism and the Liberal Party, both of which she identified with the good of Canada.
It is significant that Mrs Wilson took on her first political office in 1921 because that year marked the first time that all Canadian women were eligible to vote in a federal election. However, although she was to play a significant role in the campaign preceding this election, Cairine Wilson could not claim that she had made any contribution to the women’s suffrage movement and the breakthrough developments that finally culminated in 1918 in voting equality at the federal level. As a shy housewife she had been far removed from the struggle. Nevertheless, in the years ahead she would devote enormous amounts of time and energy to organizing women into an effective political force, albeit one designed to advance the interests of an established party.
She took an important step in this direction when, as chairwoman of a fifty-member committee, she played the leading role in founding the Ottawa Women’s Liberal Club, of which she served as president for three years. Shortly after its launching with seventy members in February 1922, Cairine Wilson wrote to Mackenzie King:
In a reckless moment you once suggested that we might take the stump together. I have no intention of inflicting such an ordeal upon you, but it would give me and all the other members of the newly formed Ottawa Women’s Liberal Club immense gratification if you could consent to speak at our inaugural luncheon on March 11th.
Our corresponding Secretary has already written to you officially, but I wish to add a personal appeal. In some way I seem to have attained undue prominence for I do not feel gratified to act as chairwoman upon such an occasion.29
Certainly the last thing that she felt was gratified because Cairine Wilson dreaded public appearances. Even after she had chalked up an impressive record of them, she felt unsure of herself when it came to presiding in a public capacity. This point is driven home in a letter to Mackenzie King in which she noted poignantly, “Your endorsation means much for I am afraid there are times when, without the never failing interest and encouragement of our late legal adviser and constant friend, I am inclined to hesitate and seriously doubt my own ablility to proceed.”30
The phrase “our late legal adviser and constant friend” is a reference to the noted Ontario Liberal Party organizer, Alex Smith. Smith was one of those rare male political workers: a man who never aspired to political office, but who gave unselfishly of his energy and talents to the cause of his party. At a time when Liberal fortunes were dismal, he worked tirelessly to perfect the machinery of the Eastern Ontario Liberal Association and to recruit new members for it. The association’s female members owed him a special debt of gratitude because it was his advice and encouragement that persuaded many of them to enter politics. Cairine Wilson was obviously one of his devoted admirers. In fact, one wonders whether she would have taken on her first political jobs without the encouragement of men like Horsey and Smith, raised as she had been in circles where women were expected to defer to men’s opinions and look to male figures for support and wisdom. It is indeed fortunate that these two political mentors recognized her organizing genius and capacity for hard work and were prepared to provide her with continuing injections of self-confidence.
In the new role that she was forging for herself Cairine Wilson would never become one of those radical feminists, who often attacked the churches, capitalism and bourgeois society in general. From time to time she would take unpopular positions on controversial questions and even oppose stances adopted by the Liberal Party, her “dear chief' and friend, Mackenzie King, and members of the establishment. But strident militancy was quite foreign to her nature. Throughout her life in politics she would become an exponent of what has been called “maternal feminism” — the belief that women have special qualities, virtues and interests that they should employ in making the world a better place in which to live. Some of this thinking is hinted at in the following selection that she wrote in 1922 for apreface to a booklet on Liberal clubs. In all likelihood she was asked to compose this introduction by Alex Smith.
Until recently the great mass of women have been regarded as children whose activities must be limited. We women wish to develop the political strength that comes from organized association and discussion and the spirit that arises from activity.
For generations men have had wide political opportunities and are therefore more experienced to speak upon a great many subjects, but there are topics to which women bring a more intimate personal knowledge as well as a greater degree of interest.
As women we wish to use our powers to redress existing evils and in every respect to promote legislation which will benefit the greatest number. With the mothers and children we are primarily concerned and we hope that no mother will in the future be forced through poverty to be separated from her children. These little ones are the Nation’s greatest asset and if we are able to teach the boys and girls a love of country and to take a sane, responsible interest in public affairs, we may leave Canada in safe hands.
There
