To the same end, historians have consistently underplayed the Tory contribution to the development of Canada. Books about Conservative political history, if you can find them, come with such catchy subtitles as “syndrome ... renegade ... rogue ... blues ... interlude ... decline.” Except for Macdonald, there is little praise for Tory leaders. Even then, the national poll for the CBC program The Greatest Canadians absurdly ranked both Pierre Trudeau and Lester B. Pearson ahead of Sir John A. Macdonald.
True, the Conservative electoral record is appalling. But more important than raw statistics, Conservatives have made fundamental and far-reaching contributions to Canada while in and out of office. Tories led the country through some of its more tumultuous times and initiated many of the transformative changes that define the nation today. Conservatives did much of the tough sledding by implementing necessary and often unpopular measures that improved our quality of life and enhanced our political and economic sovereignty, often to their short-term political detriment. They would do more for Canada, however, if they learned from their political blunders.
BlueThunder chronicles Tory history by examining the careers of its nineteen leaders; from Sir John A Macdonald to Stephen Harper (in Harper’s case to the beginning of 2009). Surprisingly, this is the first book that covers the life of the Tory party, or any Canadian political party for that matter.
Blue Thunder explores winning and losing strategies, the scandals, the best quotes, leadership transitions, and the stories that amuse and entertain. The story is not told with speculative psychological profile, but through the deeds and the words of the leaders themselves. Along the way myths are exposed, blame is assessed, and heroes are chosen.
What emerges from this longitudinal and critical assessment of 141 years of Tory politics are seven determinants of success and failure; a frame work that helps us judge the careers of Conservative leaders past, present, and future.
1.Are they nation builders who are relevant in all parts of Canada?
2.Do they offer a vision that inspires the nation?
3.Is the party united behind them?
4.Do they build broad and sustainable coalitions?
5.Are they tough, but not authoritarian?
6.Do they divide and conquer their opponents?
7.Are they absolutely committed to winning?
Regardless of the leader or circumstances, Conservative leaders who have answered affirmatively to these questions have achieved electoral success. Those who have fallen short in several categories have undermined their ability to govern effectively or even govern at all.
Any assessment of political performance is bound to launch a vibrant dialogue and debate, one that I am pleased to host. I invite interested Canadians to share their perspectives about Tory success and failure (past and present) over the Internet at www.bluethundertalk.com. This site also provides the footnotes to Blue Thunder.
So, from the pre-confederation genius of Sir John A. Macdonald, to the narrow escape of Stephen Harper’s minority government from a coalition of three opposition parties in December 2008, here is the bold, blue, thundering truth of Canadian Conservative leadership.
SECTION I - JOHN A. MACDONALD: THE CHIEFTAIN
CHAPTER 1
Treat the French as a nation and they will act as a free people generally do—generously. Call them a faction and they become factious.
John A. Macdonald has no equal. His vision and guiding hand moulded this nation. He led the party that founded Canada and he steered the country through a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles over most of the latter half of the nineteenth century.
His beginnings were modest. John Alexander Macdonald was one of four children, born to Hugh and Helen Macdonald in Glasgow, Scotland, on either January 10 or 11, 1815. John was five years old when his family emigrated to Canada. His father was a shopkeeper, and later ran a milling business. John attended boarding school in Kingston, but his family could not afford to send him to university. He entered the workforce at age fifteen in the prestigious commercial law practice of George Mackenzie.
The hard working and ambitious Macdonald had opened his own law office on Quarry Street in Kingston by the age of twenty and was admitted to the bar a year later. By coincidence, his first articling student was Oliver Mowat, a man who would later become premier of Ontario and a political foe over much of Macdonald’s career. Macdonald was successful in criminal law, then switched to a more lucrative commercial practice. His major client was the Commercial Bank of the Midland district, where he was also a member of its board of directors.
Macdonald entered the workforce at a time of political tension and uncertainty. Fuelled by a weak economy and a desire for democratic reform, matters flared up on December 6, 1837 when a group of Reform radicals led by William Lyon Mackenzie gathered with 1,000 men at the Montgomery Inn in Toronto in an attempt to seize control of the government. Although Macdonald was not sympathetic to Mackenzie’s cause, he legally defended eight of his supporters who had protested, with weapons in hand, on the streets of Kingston and secured an acquittal on technical grounds.
Macdonald was not a reformer: he was committed to British institutions. The primary cause for this loyalty is debatable: his high regard for British institutions, perhaps? His conservative nature that resisted change to established order? Or his fear that Canada would not survive annexation to the United States without the might of the British military by its side? Macdonald’s ties to Great Britain included membership in the Celtic Society, for which he served as recording secretary. The Society had similarities to the Orange Order, an organization with anti-Catholic and anti-French views. Macdonald rejected these views, but joined the Society to expand his business contacts. Though not much of a military man, like every able-bodied male at the time, Macdonald served in the sedentary militia, a minimal commitment involving one day of annual training that coincided with the birthday of George III.
At the age of twenty-eight Macdonald entered the realm of politics. Like the Celtic Society, politics provided Macdonald with an opportunity to expand his community profile and fortify his law practice. He ran for Kingston town council without any grand vision: “[I ran] to fill a gap. There seemed to be no one else available, so I pitched in.” But he remembered names and faces and made people laugh and feel good about themselves, developing the reputation for being something of a charmer. The local Chronicle and Gazette declared: “We are not aware that a more eligible person could offer. His experience in public business, his well-known talents and high character, render him peculiarly fit for the office, and we sincerely hope, for the sake of the town, that he will be elected.” Financial gain may have inspired him to enter the political arena, but as his skills developed, Macdonald discovered a higher purpose: nation-building. Later in his career he remarked, “I don’t care for office for the sake of money, but for the sake of power: for the sake of carrying out my own view of what’s best for the country.”
With an exuberant campaign that included print advertising, Macdonald won by a margin of 156 to 43.That same year, 1843, he married his cousin, Isabella Clark, six years his senior. It would be a sorrowful marriage, burdened by Isabella’s poor health and the death of their first child at the age of one. The cause of death remains uncertain. Some biographers suggest it was the result of a fall; others that it was Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). On March 13, 1850, another child, Hugh John, was born.
Isabella died when Hugh was seven. Thereafter, he was mostly raised by Margaret Williamson, Macdonald’s sister. Macdonald,
