Reform Party of Canada

“ The result was the growth of a Liberal or Reform party, which, while generally composed of the later immigrants, comprised several persons of Loyalist extraction, who did not happen to belong to the favoured class or church, but recognised the necessity for a change in the methods of administration. Among these Loyalists must be specially mentioned Peter Perry, who was really the founder of the Reform party in 1834, and the Reverend Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist minister of great natural ability.
Unfortunately creed also became a powerful factor in the political controversies of Upper Canada. ”

“ While it is in alliance with the Liberal party of the Dominion and lends its support to the Liberal administration, it does so in the full conviction that the principles of that party are in the best interests of the country, and that the government at present in power is not only the best which could be chosen from our parliamentary representation, but in point of ability, honesty and progressiveness is equal, if not superior, to any which Canada has yet possessed. ”

“ They are worthy of a highly-civilised, wealthy, and prosperous community; but, in fact, the economy with which they are managed is not one of the least remarkable features about the Montreal institutions. Party animosities have now been softened: but there is no doubt of the satisfaction with which the Liberal Canadian points to the fact that those who were imprisoned and persecuted by the Government, for rebellious acts or tendencies, have since been called to office, and have served the Crown in high official positions. ”

“ After 1854, and for ten years, the political history of Canada is a reductio ad absurdum of the older party system. Government succeeded government, only to fall a prey to its own lack of a sufficient majority, and the unprincipled use by its various opponents of casual combinations and {301} alliances. Apart from a little group of Radicals, British and French, who advocated reforms with an absence of moderation which made them impossible as ministers of state, there were not sufficient differences to justify two parties, and hardly sufficient programme even for one. ”

“ If the Liberal leader is now as anxious to serve the nation of his birth as he was when he twice refused large salaries and comparative ease for the sake of continuing to do Canada's work, would it be high treason either to himself or to his party to call a Liberal convention out of which he would father a resolution of federation of historic parties based upon such a compromise as Macdonald created in the federation of provinces? ”

“ At that time it seemed as if the long-desired boon of responsible government were going to prove a failure in Canada, for the representatives of the people were split up into so many different groups—French and English; Reformers and Conservatives, both moderate and extreme, none of whom could arrive at any means of working harmoniously together. Any one of the numerous parties, standing alone, was sure to be outvoted; and it sometimes happened that opponents would unite to drive a third party from power, but not to give strength to any government. ”

“ I believe that the problem of how to govern United Canada would be solved if the French would split into a Liberal and a Conservative party, and join the Upper Canada parties which bear corresponding names. The great difficulty hitherto has been that a Conservative government has meant a government of Upper Canadians, which is intolerable to the French, and a Radical government a government of French, which is no less hateful to the British. No doubt the party titles are misnomers, for the radical party comprises the political section most averse to progress of any in the country. ”

“ Party government in Canada ensures unity of policy, since the premier of the cabinet becomes the controlling part of the political machinery of the state; no such thing as unity of policy is possible under a system which gives the president neither the dignity of a governor-general, nor the strength of a premier, and splits up political power among any number of would-be party leaders, who adopt or defeat measures by private intrigues, make irresponsible recommendations, and form political combinations for purely selfish ends. ”

“ Of course, in the methods of party government we can see in Canada at times an attempt to follow the example of the United States, and to introduce the party machine with its professional politicians and all those influences that have degraded politics since the days of Jackson and Van Buren. Happily, so far, the people of Canada have shown themselves fully capable of removing those blots that show themselves from time to time on the body politic. Justice has soon seized those men who have betrayed their trust in the administration of public affairs. ”

“ The National Progressive Party is not a group; it is a business majority. It contains the people who produce the majority of the nation's wealth for consumption and export and therefore enable the nation to pay its bills. It is Liberal because it advocates free-trade and is opposed to big monopolies, and there is no other Liberalism in Canada left worthy the name. ”

“ Canadian political parties had originally been formed on the plain issue whether or not the majority of the people were to be allowed to rule. In Upper Canada the governing party, known as the 'Family Compact,' composed chiefly of representatives of the Crown and men who had inherited position or caste from their Loyalist fathers, had been attacked by a motley and shifting opposition, sober Whig and fiery Radical, newcomers from Britain or from the States, and {19} native-born, united mainly by their common antagonism to clique rule. ”

“ Index: Md Favoured by small wing of Reform party, 23; manifesto issued by business men of Montreal, its causes, 39, 40, 95; opposition to Confederation raises hopes of American party, 118; movement in Nova Scotia, 145; movement in British Columbia, 149; Goldwin Smith, the gloomy prophet of, 293; advocated by Edward Farrer, 312-313. Mc W. L. Mackenzie not in favour of, 10. BL Manifesto of 1849, 336; Sir John Abbott on, 336; advocated by many of the Radicals of Lower Canada, 343. C Advocated by Democratic party in Quebec, 26; said by Elgin to be popular among commercial classes in 1849, 44 ”

“ In the sphere of economic legislation, Liberalism still has perhaps its greatest work to do. The welfare of the common man at the common task is its first consideration.
Government of the people, for the people, and by the people is the essence of Liberalism.
The application of these principles to the problems of Canadian politics in relation to provincial, national, imperial and world-wide interests is the work of the Liberal party in Canada.
On the evening of Tuesday, January 14th, 1919, Sir Wilfrid Laurier delivered his last public address. ”

“ Whilst he is thus obnoxious to the Assembly and people of the province, he is by no means popular with the Assembly's enemies — the anti-popular party.
In Canada, there can be no middle term, no neutral ground in politics. The social equality of the people converts them into a state of natural democracy, whilst on the other hand, the forcible maintenance of power in the hands of a minority, renders them from their mere weakness, intolerant of any countenance given to the governed many. Fear, in short, must always render a minority clad with undue powers, tyrannical. ”

“ In general, however, the great questions on which political parties divide are questions of practical expediency. Shall we, as a nation, be more comfortable and more prosperous if the powers of the federal government are strengthened and extended? Shall we have better local government under the old-fashioned form of city government, or under some form of commission government? Should we have more business and more profitable business if we had free trade with the Dominion of Canada? Shall we be better off under the Republican or the Democratic party? ”

“ To expect, in fact, that men with such opposite characteristics, apart even from their other elements of 729 discord, should harmonise, when the party weaker in legislation was the stronger in civilisation, when the party that stood still had the power of making the other stand still also, was to expect an impossibility. And this was exactly the nature of the contest so long carried on in Lower Canada. ”

“ Never had a political leader in Canada such a duty of broad revision within his party. King neglected the opportunity. The Toronto Globe realizes what a squeezed lemon the Liberal party has become between the other two groups and calls for a working alliance between the Liberals and Agrarians to upset the Government. The Mail and Empire paternally points out that it is the duty of Liberals to enlist, Quebec included, under the hegemony of the party which has already incorporated Liberals and is ready to save that party from obliteration by the free-trade group. ”

“ Could I venture to enter the lists against so tremendous a rhetorical athlete as Professor Goldwin Smith, I should say, that his idea of abolishing party government to secure purity of election is an utter fallacy; I should say that the great factor of corruption in Canada has been the adoption of the principle of coalitions. ”

“ As a general statement it may be said that the Liberal-Conservative party is a protection party, a “development” party, and leans to a stronger federal government; that the Liberal party favors freer trade, would cry halt to debt for the forcing of development, and is jealous of provincial rights. ”

“ There was, however, this difference, that while in Peel's case, and still more in that of his followers, the British party tradition proved overwhelmingly powerful, in Canada, where tradition was weaker, and the need for sound administration far more vital, the movement became dominant in the form of Liberal-conservatism. In other words, in place of small violently antagonistic parties, moderate men inclined to come together to carry out a broad, non-controversial, national programme. ”

“ We had only six constituencies to add, and we so arranged the matter that if you look at the population, you will find that wherever a change was made, it was in the direction of representation by population. That is the only true principle. A Government is not bound to see that certain counties are Grit and other Conservative, and arrange them according to their supposed political proclivities. In 1874, when there was a sweep made of the Conservative party in consequence of the Pacific slander, when we had not a corporal's guard, the majority of the constituencies in Ontario were Grit. ”

“ During the first session after the formation of the Liberal-Conservative party the two great questions which had long distracted the united province of Canada—the Clergy Reserves and the Seigneurial Tenure—were settled on terms which were accounted satisfactory by all moderate and reasonable men. Both the measures which the Government introduced to adjust these matters were opposed at every stage by Brown, Dorion, and other professed champions of the popular will. ”

“ Would Montreal like to be put under the generous rule of the Quebec politicians? Our friends here are prepared to consider dispassionately any scheme that may issue from your party in Lower Canada. They all feel keenly that something must be done. Their plan is representation by population, and a fair trial for the present union in its integrity ”

“ Even in the political and economic change no man and no party had a dominating share. The Canada of to-day is the creation of millions of hands, of the known or unknown few who toiled primarily for their country's advancement, and of the many who sought their own private ends and made national progress as a by-product. Yet if statesmen {325} are, on the one hand, not directly responsible for good harvests or bad, on the other, they are not 'flies on the wheel.' The powers confided to them are great for good or ill. ”

“ Whatever undercurrents of opinion there might have been against a whole-hearted support of the Empire in the struggle, such as manifested itself openly in practically all the belligerent European countries, found little expression in Canada. Political party issue sank for the time being out of sight, and the popular voice, as expressed through the newspapers of diverse shades of opinion, and through the popular political leaders, was practically unanimous. And that voice demanded that Canada should strain every resource, should offer every available man, in Britain's support. ”

“ Well, they say in Parliament I am too old for my friends in Opposition. (laughter) You, the people of Canada, know the party that laid down the great principle of national protection, and you put a Government in power to carry it out. You know that the present Government have honestly and sincerely carried that policy out, although they have been attacked in England for so doing. We all desire to stand well with the great old Mother Country, but her people are the judges of their interests and we of ours. ”

“ They complain that the official party seek to foment the absurd prejudices of country and religion amongst them; that the whole administration of Government is one of favouritism and injustice; that the revenues of their country are employed and squandered away by persons not responsible to the people ”