a.m., the conclusion of a five-hour speech in the House of Commons, Macdonald made a plea for his government based on its past accomplishments:
I have fought the Battle of Confederation, the battle of Union, the battle of the Dominion of Canada. I throw myself upon the House. I throw myself upon this country, I throw myself upon posterity, and I believe that, notwithstanding the many failings of my life, I shall have the voice of this country in this House rallying around me.... I can see past the decision of this House either for or against me; but whether it be for or against me, I know . . . that there does not exist in this country a man who has given more of his time, more of his heart, more of his wealth, or more of his intellect and power, such as they may be, for the good of this Dominion of Canada.
It was a rousing speech that brought most members on the government side to their feet. But not all, and the defections were enough to undo Macdonald’s working majority. After meeting with the governor general, Macdonald resigned on November 5, 1873.
Alexander Mackenzie, the leader of the opposition Liberals, formed a government and seized the opportunity to capitalize on the Tory demise by going to the people on January 22, 1874. With the Pacific Scandal fresh in voter’s minds, 129 Liberals were elected, compared with 65 Conservatives and 12 independents. In the first Canadian election to use a secret ballot, the Liberal sweep went right across the country.
In the aftermath, Macdonald resigned as party leader, saying, “My fighting days are over . . . I will never be a member of any administration again.” His offer was refused by the Tory caucus. There was a dispute over the election results in his riding, however, and in the by-election held on December 29, 1874, Macdonald squeaked by with a 17vote win. Had nine electors switched their votes, or had his caucus accepted his resignation, Macdonald might never have been a factor in Canadian politics again. But Macdonald knew that a life in politics comes with its ups and downs. “When fortune empties her chamber-pot on your head, smile and say ‘we are going to have a summer shower.’”
Not more than a year into the Liberal administration, Macdonald sensed opportunity. The Blake Liberals and Mackenzie Reformers—the forces that had combined to defeat the Tories in 1874—were coming unglued. Edward Blake began to speak of narrow nationalist sentiments, such as diminishing ties to Great Britain, and opposed accommodations for British Columbia, saying he was “prepared to let them go.” Concerned over finances, Mackenzie opposed proceeding with the transcontinental railroad. Macdonald thought if he was patient and didn’t needlessly provoke unrest it was only a matter of time before the Liberal government would divide itself. “The great reason why I have always been able to beat (the opposition),” offered Macdonald, “is that I have been able to look a little ahead, while (they) could on no occasion forgo the temptation of a temporary triumph.” Politics, he added, “is a game requiring great coolness and an utter abnegation of prejudice and personal feeling.”
Macdonald distinguished his nation-building Conservatives from what he called “little Canadian Liberals.” Macdonald raised the spectre of a growing American empire seeking to fulfill what some called its “manifest destiny.” With British help, Macdonald believed, Canada would build a nation from “ocean to ocean.” The Liberals, by contrast, were weak nation builders because they were not prepared to invest in the infrastructure of a nation. Their focus on the “Pacific scandal” was so small-minded that it arrested progress on the railway itself. Macdonald said he could get the job done: “Until the road is built to British Columbia and the Pacific, this Dominion is a mere geographical expression. . . . until bound by the iron link, as we have bound Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the Intercolonial Railway, we are not a Dominion in fact.”
Asserting British tradition was fundamental to Macdonald’s political mission. “The cardinal point in our policy is connection with Great Britain. I am a British subject, and British-born, and a British subject I hope to die. . ..Those who disliked the colonial connection spoke of it as a chain, but it was a golden chain, and he, for one, was proud to wear its fetters.”
Macdonald saw the British connection with Canada as critical to its political independence from the United States. Independence from the Americans, connection with Great Britain, a nation from sea to sea, a national railway, and protection for Canadian industry were the corner stones of Macdonald’s national policies, and the guideposts that would sustain the remainder of his political life.
The Liberal leadership was proposing to remove trade barriers. Dissension in Liberal ranks was increasing, and Macdonald sensed it would take but a bit of wooing to cause the dissenters to switch sides. But Macdonald did not want to woo them at any cost. He wanted the rancorous division over trade policy to fester within Liberal ranks. If members of the Liberal caucus did jump ship, he wanted it to be on his terms, not theirs. Following the introduction of Mackenzie’s budget in 1876, an entire delegation of Liberal members indicated they were ready to cross the floor of the House of Commons. In the House, Macdonald said: “I heard the threat—the dire threat—that the members from Montréal would go into opposition. . . . Well, Mr. Speaker, I have caught some queer fish in my time, but I’m afraid that my honorable friend—as during the previous session when he sat over in that corner—is too loose a fish for me ever to catch.”
Loyalty to party—even above constituent needs—was sacred to Macdonald. Once elected, Macdonald believed, a parliamentarian was duty bound to complete the term with the party that he ran with. “A man’s duty when he accepts a seat in Parliament is not to his constituents as a whole, but to the party that elected him . . . unless they ask him to retire, he should remain.”
To Macdonald the trade issue was neither ideological nor academic. The impact of a one-sided trade arrangement with the Americans, he thought, was causing real hardship to the Canadian economy. A depression had set in and Macdonald contended the Liberals were unwilling or unable to address the matter. “We are informed in the speech from the throne that there is a stagnation in trade.... and if it be true, I say that if there is ever a time when it is lawful, or allowable, or wise, or expedient for a government to interfere, now is the time.” The campaign Macdonald wanted to fight was not for the odd Liberal defector, but for the hearts and minds of the Canadian people. The nation was suffering an economic depression, and Macdonald blamed it on American trade policy and the timidity of the Liberal government.
In the summer of 1876, Macdonald initiated a series of political picnics across the land, each attended by thousands of enthusiastic supporters. On July 27, over 5,000 people came to hear him at a picnic near Belleville, Ontario. Later that summer, Macdonald led a torchlight parade through the streets of Montréal, where 50,000 people gathered at Dominion Square to hear him speak. He labelled Liberal “laissez-faire” trade policy as gross neglect, and said he dreamed of a “Canada for the Canadians.”
The Liberals sensed they were headed for defeat. Even the governor general, in a letter to the Colonial Secretary, remarked on their doomed prospects. “Blake is ill, thoroughly broken down with overwork and excitement and irritability of the brain ...As for Mackenzie he looks like a washed out rag and limp enough to hang up on a clothesline.”
With renewed purpose and conviction, Macdonald was by all accounts drinking little, if any, alcohol during this critical period. Within the ranks of his party, he implored unity: “Let us not, like the hunters in the fable, quarrel about the skin before we kill the bear. It will take our united efforts to kill a bear.”
On September 17, 1878, the voters punished the Liberals for the depression and for the free trade policies they saw as its cause. The indiscretion of the Pacific Scandal had, apparently, been forgiven. The business establishments in major eastern cities supported trade protection and went solidly for the Tories. The Liberals won only half the seats they had taken in 1872, leaving Conservatives with 134 MPs in the 206-seat legislature. Solid Tory majorities were secured in every province except New Brunswick.
A
