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Richard Gwyn Brings Canada's First Prime Minister to Life

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Richard Gwyn Brings Canada's First Prime Minister to Life BOOK REVIEW COMPTE RENDU The man who made John A. – Richard Gwyn brings Canada’s first prime minister to life Richard Gwyn. John A: The Man Who Made Us. Toronto: Random House Canada, 2007. Review by Tasha Kheiriddin No one else in the country knew politics as hands of a drunken servant. The influence colony in 1848. This gave the colonial well…as he did…Macdonald hadn’t so of his mother is also noteworthy; she government full administration over much created a nation as manipulated and always held high hopes for her remaining domestic affairs and bestowed a greater seduced and connived and bullied it into son, telling him that he was destined to be role — and greater patronage powers — existence against the wishes of most of its “more than an ordinary man.” on both federal MPs and premiers. own citizens. Though first elected to office in t the age of 15, Macdonald quit 1844, as the Conservative MP for t takes a great writer to make a his- A school and apprenticed himself to Kingston, Macdonald did not really torical figure come alive, a greater local lawyer George Mackenzie. show his promise until a decade later, I one to make the subject leap off Macdonald’s legal career advanced rapid- when, in a letter to James McGill the page and into the hearts and ly, due to a combination of circumstance Strachan, a Toronto lawyer, he pro- minds of his readers. In John A: The and luck. The circumstances were those posed a new kind of Conservative Man Who Made Us, author, columnist of his birth. As Gwyn notes, in Canada, Party. Macdonald wanted the and political commentator Richard “it was the right time to be a Scot… By Conservatives to reach out to French Gwyn does just that, as he deftly 1880, even though numbering just one members and embrace voters who chronicles the first 52 years of the in seven European Canadians, half of were prepared to be progressive about remarkable life of Canada’s first prime Canada’s industrial leaders would be some issues, while being conservative minister, John A. Macdonald. Scots or the sons of Scottish immigrants.” about others. He eventually formed his Granted, the author had a more As for Macdonald’s luck, Gwyn writes “Liberal-Conservative Party,” com- than colourful subject. Had he lived that it was a classic case of schadenfreude. posed of “Conservatives willing to be today, Macdonald’s patronage schemes The deaths of two prominent local reasonably progressive, Reformers would have made the Sponsorship lawyers left a vacuum which Macdonald looking for a sanctuary, and a depend- Scandal look like petty larceny, while helped fill, first opening his own office in able bloc of Canadiens.” Gwyn writes his personal shenanigans would have Kingston in 1835 and then becoming that this big tent would become “the landed him in the Betty Ford Clinic. solicitor for the Commercial Bank of the political edifice that almost every one Nonetheless, Gwyn gets full credit for Midland District. of Macdonald’s successors down to scripting the man’s triumphs and tor- For reasons more pecuniary than today would attempt to emulate.” ments with equal aplomb. In addition, principled, Macdonald then decided to This is but one of the important the author takes us through the birth enter politics. The influence he would observations Gwyn makes about pangs of our country, midwifed by gain would be useful in serving his Macdonald’s influence on Canada’s Macdonald almost against its will. clients, to secure them patronage. And political heritage. Another relates to the Gwyn begins at the beginning, with this was a particularly profitable time to culture of patronage. Macdonald sprin- the arrival of the young John A. and his enter public life. Upper and Lower kled patronage like salt: In one case, he family from Scotland. Macdonald’s early Canada had recently joined together, urged a candidate to “keep the Whitby life in Kingston, in what was then Upper and politicians Robert Baldwin and Post Office [position] open until after Canada, is uneventful but for the tragic Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine achieved the election” because “it may be valu- death of his younger brother, James, at the responsible government for the new able to have the office to give away.” POLICY OPTIONS 105 DECEMBER 2007-JANUARY 2008 Tasha Kheiriddin COMPTE RENDU When party members in Toronto felt er of the Toronto Globe. He relates situations were apparently great neglected, Macdonald asserted that “as Macdonald’s ousting of his leader, Allan sources of sadness for Macdonald. soon as Toronto returns Conservative MacNab. He describes Macdonald’s rela- In 1867, Macdonald married members, it will get Conservative tionship with George-Étienne Cartier, again, to Susan Agnes Bernard, the sis- appointments.” On other occasions, he Macdonald’s “French lieutenant,” and ter of Hewitt Bernard, his principal civil gave positions to people in financial the role it played in crafting the English- service aide. As Gwyn wryly notes, need or ill health, more out of compas- French alliance necessary for Their marriage was a union of sion than to curry favour. Confederation. Gwyn also sketches mutual self-interest. He, now on other important personalities of the the verge of becoming prime he legacy of this practice, Gwyn period, including D’Arcy McGee, minister… would soon need a T argues, was that instead of build- Alexander Tilloch Galt and the anti- hostess and a chatelaine. She, ing parties on lines of ideology, Canada Confederation premier of Nova Scotia, by now aged thirty-one, needed built parties on lines of influence. “The Joseph Howe. Finally, the author brings to escape a future of ever-dimin- distinguishing difference is not in their all this theatre to a boil in describing the ishing choices. titles, Liberal and Conservative, but in events leading up to Confederation — the fact that, at any one time, one the cajoling, conniving and plain hard his is not to say that there was no party is in and the other is out.” work in “herding cats,” as Macdonald T love in the relationship. By this Without patronage, Gwyn believes, it called it, into a brand new country. point, Agnes and Macdonald both pas- would have been impossible for either sionately loved the same thing: power. to function as a national party. he only thing more colourful than Agnes claimed, “My love of power is… Is the author right? Since T Macdonald’s politics was his drink- so strong that I sometimes dread it,” Macdonald’s day, most historians ing. Here Gwyn has also assembled a while Macdonald wrote, “I don’t care agree there have been few major poli- series of sometimes humorous, some- for the office for the sake of money, cy differences between the two parties, times pathetic tales of Canada’s first but for the sake of power…,carrying and they have also reversed positions prime minister in various states of inebri- out my own view of what’s best for the on key issues, based on practical con- ation (in one instance, vomiting on a country.” They were both also highly siderations. For example, Macdonald’s chair in the drawing room of Lady intelligent and read a great deal, and Conservatives were anti-free trade at a Monck). It is incredible to think that made a formidable political couple. time when the stance was popular and Macdonald achieved so much while Agnes also made a crucial contribu- America posed a clear threat to being so frequently and so completely tion to both Macdonald’s health and Canadian sovereignty. A hundred intoxicated, sometimes for days, in plain the future of the country. It was due to years later, Brian Mulroney’s PCs sup- sight of political friends and foes alike. her influence that he finally controlled ported free trade when a royal com- Clearly, Macdonald was a master- his drinking, which, Gwyn notes, prob- mission said that it would benefit ful politician, a great strategist and ably extended his life for another 20 Canada, and when the popular tide tremendous leader. But it is when years. From the nation’s perspective, had turned, particularly in Quebec. Gwyn describes Macdonald’s personal this was a good thing, considering that Gwyn also debunks the importance life that one really gets a sense of his Confederation marked not the end but of the phrase “peace, order and good strength of character and ability to rise the beginning of the great project that government.” He claims it was merely above tragedy. His first marriage, to was Canada. Nurturing the new coun- “legal boilerplate that was inserted rou- Isabella Greene, began with promise try, from its childhood to adolescence, tinely into all kinds of British colonial but quickly became a source of despair would occupy the remainder of constitutions.” Only since 1961, when when a mysterious malady afflicted his Macdonald’s life until his death in 1891. historian W.L. Morton seized on the young bride. For 12 of their 14 years But to enjoy that story, readers phrase as proof of difference between together, Isabella was a bedridden will have to wait for the second instal- the nature of Canada and that of invalid, slipping into longer and ment in Richard Gwyn’s masterful America (whose motto is “Life, liberty longer periods of stupor due to larger biography. This is one reader who is and the pursuit of happiness”), did it and larger quantities of painkillers. Yet eagerly anticipating the sequel. suddenly become a means of defining Macdonald loved his wife, and tended the national character. to her until the end.
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