tradition of bestowing titles upon loyal subjects of the Crown in Canada was not unique to the British. Under the French regime, titles were bestowed upon particularly distinguished subjects (see chapter 3).
A map of this complex system begins with the peerage in the United Kingdom, which is made up of different levels of peers:
I Duke/Duchess
II Marquess/Marchioness
III Earl/Countess
IV Viscount/Viscountess
V Baron/Baroness
VI Life Peers (Baron/Baroness)
Prior to 1999, almost all members of the peerage were entitled to sit in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament — much like the Senate is the upper chamber of Canada’s Parliament. Until 1957 almost all peerages were hereditary; thus the title passed to the eldest male heir of a peer upon his death. In some exceptional cases, a peerage title could pass through a female child, as happened with Lord Strathcona, who had two daughters but no son.
The peerage is unusual in that being summoned as a peer is both an honour — in that a title is bestowed — and that, until recently, one generally became a member of the upper chamber of the British Parliament. The passage of the House of Lords Act, 1999, removed all but a handful of hereditary peers from the House of Lords, making it more like the Canadian Senate. Since 1957, almost all appointments to the peerage have been of life peers, meaning the title (always a baron) is held only by the recipient and is not inherited after his or her death.
Over the span of Canadian history, twelve peerages and one other title have been bestowed upon Canadians. Among these, five are considered to be Canadian peerages — that is, awarded after consultation with the Canadian government. The first of these went to Sir George Stephen, who became a baron on June 26, 1891. Stephen, like two other Canadian peers, was president of Canadian Pacific Railway, and it is not unlikely that he owed his appointment to the “help” he gave the ruling Conservatives in the 1891 election campaign. This connection between the CPR and the awarding of titles strengthened opposition to hereditary honours among some in the Liberal Party of the period, who connected the procedure to the operations of patronage and party financing in the Canadian political system.
The second Canadian (and sole Canadian woman) appointed to the peerage, Lady Macdonald, became Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe on August 14, 1891. She was not entitled to sit in the House of Lords, and it seems safe to conclude that she was honoured mainly in memory of her late husband, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who was to be the initial recipient of the honour had he not died while still an MP.
The next appointment to the peerage, Sir Donald Smith, was another former president of the CPR. He was appointed in his capacity as Canadian high commissioner to London, becoming 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal in 1900. Smith continued as Canadian high commissioner until his death in 1914. Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, the principal catalyst for the 1902 Privy Council Report on honours and titles — and like Strathcona and Stephen also a president of the CPR — was elevated to the peerage in 1916.
The last Canadian to be elevated to the peerage after consultation with the Canadian government was Sir Hugh Graham, president of the Montreal Star, whose name figured so prominently in the 1917–19 debate on honours. This appointment was by far the most controversial, for Graham was remembered vividly for his fundraising activities on behalf of the Conservatives as well as his stridently pro-imperial editorials in the Star at the time of the South African War (1899–1902). The appointment — made over Borden’s objections and politically ill-timed — may well have been the turning point in rendering the prospect of Canadian peers a politically unpalatable one.
There have been a number of Canadians appointed to the peerage of the United Kingdom for services to Britain, and these are therefore not considered “Canadian” peerages. Sir Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton, was born in Nova Scotia and rose to become the permanent undersecretary of state for war in Britain from 1895 to 1897. William James Pirrie, head of the famous Belfast shipbuilding firm Harland and Wolff, was made a baron in 1906 and later elevated as Viscount Pirrie in 1921. Sir Max Aitken, a native of New Brunswick, was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Beaverbrook in 1917, yet another Canadian newspaper owner sent to the House of Lords. Sir Edward Patrick Morris, the premier of Newfoundland, became the island’s only native son to be made a peer, as 1st Baron Morris of St. John’s, in 1918. Although Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time, it seems appropriate that Morris should be included in this list. Richard Bedford Bennett, the Canadian prime minister who revived the imperial honours system in Canada during the 1930s, was raised to the peerage as 1st Viscount Bennett in 1941. This occurred several years after Bennett had moved to Britain. Following the long tradition of Canadian newspapermen being ennobled, Roy Thomson was made 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet in 1963. In 2000, Conrad Black became Lord Black of Crossharbour and is the only Canadian yet to be appointed a life peer.
During the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, the new King was keen to make Sir Wilfrid Laurier “Baron Laurier of St. Lin.” Laurier was shocked at the offer and declined. In Canada peerages have historically been highly contentious and continue to be as evidenced by the case of Lord Black of Crossharbour, who was forced to renounce his Canadian citizenship in order to become a peer. Upon his retirement as governor general of Canada, Lord Alexander was raised in the peerage from a viscount to an earl and given the additional title of Baron Rideau of Ottawa and of Castle Derg, County Tyrone.
Number of Elevations: In total, ten Canadians were elevated to the peerage from 1867 until the present day; only the first five can be considered Canadian appointments:
• Lady Susan Agnes Macdonald, Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe in the Province of Ontario and of the Dominion of Canada (1891).
• Sir George Stephen, Bt, GCVO, 1st Baron Mount Stephen of Mount Stephen in the Province of British Columbia and Dominion of Canada, and of Dufftown in the county of Banff, New Brunswick (1891).
• Sir Donald Alexander Smith, GCMG, GCVO, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal (1900).
• Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, Kt, KCVO, 1st Baron Shaughnessy of the City of Montreal in the Dominion of Canada and Ashford in the County of Limerick (1916).
• Sir Hugh Graham, Kt, 1st Baron Atholstan of Huntington in the Province of Quebec in the Dominion of Canada and of the City of Edinburgh (1917).
• Sir William Maxwell Aitken, Kt, 1st Baron Beaverbrook in the Province of New Brunswick in the Dominion of Canada and Cherkley in the County of Surrey (1917); posthumously made an ONB.
• Sir William James Pirrie, KP, 1st Baron Pirrie of the City of Belfast (1906). Elevated to 1st Viscount Pirrie of the City of Belfast (1921).
• The Right Honourable Richard Bedford Bennett, PC, KC, ED, 1st Viscount Bennett of Mickelham, Calgary, and Hopewell (1941).
• Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet (1964), subsequently made a GBE.
• The Right Honourable Conrad Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (1999).[1]
Unlike the other honours covered throughout this book, there are no distinctive insignia to indicate a peerage. Instead, peers are entitled to wear a coronet and robe appropriate to their degree at the coronation of the sovereign (the coronet can also be displayed with the peer’s coat of arms), and for those in the House of Lords, a special parliamentary robe can be worn on select occasions.
The
