Liberal Party of Canada - HISTORY The origin of Canadian political parties can There had been considerable agitation for be traced to the early days of the English reform throughout the sparsely settled and French colonies of Upper and Lower regions of Upper Canada. In Lower Canada, Canada. The American Revolution had seen similar outcries for reform had led to the the influx into Canada of a substantial election of an Assembly dominated by number of United Empire Loyalists. Settling Reformers led by Papineau. There was a largely in what is now Ontario (Upper steady correspondence among the Canada) and in parts of Atlantic Canada, the Reformers in the various regions. Mackenzie majority of the Loyalists believed in the need and Papineau and their followers in Upper for a governing class. This class was and Lower Canada were consciously working comprised of the chief families as well as for the same ends in close alliance. business and professional elite in the colonies and formed a closely-knit group The Reformers were opposed to the special around the British Governor. Like their privileges of the ruling oligarchies in Upper counterparts in England, those who followed and Lower Canada known respectively as this belief became known as Tories. the “Family Compact” and the “Château Clique”. The “Château Clique” was an elite The ancestors of the modern Liberal Party who governed with disregard for and usually contended that freeborn Englishmen did not in opposition to the wishes of the majority. In lose any of their rights by crossing the Upper Canada, its equivalent, the “Family Atlantic. They believed that the real objective Compact” was equally tyrannical. The of government in the colonies should be the Reformers realized, however, that the only welfare and advantage of the settlers effective way to redress grievances and themselves. destroy special privileges was, as William Lyon Mackenzie put it in 1835, to establish Following the War of 1812 there was “the British constitutional system, by which increased demand for self-government in the head of the government is obliged to what was to become Canada. The American choose his councilors and principal officers Revolution had established a definitive from men possessing the confidence of the precedent for revolt that the colonists chose popular branch of the legislature”. The to reject in favour of a more gradual process Reformers saw responsible government as of change. the means to root out special privilege and give equal rights to all. The Reformers Those who opposed the ruling class theory – Frustration with the seeming impossibility of The Reformers (Liberals) – were much less reform led the reformers to resort to arms in organized than the Tories who were already the Rebellion of 1837. Although the rebellion in power. In Lower Canada, the Reformers was small, and quickly failed, it demonstrated were led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, and in the reformers determination and the fact that Upper Canada by William Lyon Mackenzie. the need for reform was great. 3 Liberal Party of Canada - HISTORY After the Act of Union the union of Ontario and Quebec, but was to In 1838, the British, dispatched Lord Durham be a basic policy of the Liberal Party down as governor with authority to restore order, through the years. to inquire into the causes of the rebellion, and to suggest measures for the future. The Responsible government implies well- result of his mission was the presentation of organized parties because its efficient the Durham Report, which is considered to functioning depends upon a party being able be one of the greatest constitutional to maintain a stable majority in a documents in British colonial history. His two representative assembly. The Lafontaine- major recommendations were the union of Baldwin coalition did not quite become a Upper and Lower Canada and the immediate party in their day, and it disbanded quickly grant of responsible government. when they retired in 1851. Nevertheless, it is one of the great achievements in Canadian In 1841, the Act of Union combined Upper political history. It was the beginning of and Lower Canada and established a single organized party government. The Lafontaine- legislative unit to be called Canada. The Act Baldwin coalition was also the first example provided for a governor, a legislative council, of what has become the most striking and appointed for life by the Crown (this was distinctive feature of Canadian politics – the changed in 1856, by making the members biracial party which overcomes differences submit to election for an eight-year term), between French and English and brings them and an elected legislative assembly of 84 together inside one party to conduct a members, each of the two former colonies government on principles on which they can being given 42 members. agree. The issue of responsible government, The Grits however, was not settled until the general In the years following the adoption of election of January 1848. Robert Baldwin responsible government (1848), there and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, the leaders occurred a gradual restructuring of the of the Canadian Reformers realized that political parties. In 1854, a Liberal- responsible government would not become a Conservative coalition was formed in order reality unless they secured the support of a to ensure a majority. This coalition gradually majority of the members of the legislature in solidified into a party under the skillful both of the former colonies. In 1848, seven leadership of John A. Macdonald and years after Upper and Lower Canada were Georges-Etienne Cartier. formed into a legislative union, the voters went to the polls and elected a majority of In opposition to the Liberal-Conservative Reformers. Lafontaine and Baldwin were government of the 1850s, there emerged two entrusted with the task of forming the first groups: The Grits of Upper Canada, headed cabinet. This dual French and English by George Brown, the powerful editor of The speaking leadership was symbolic not only of Globe, and the Rouges of Lower Canada. 4 Liberal Party of Canada - HISTORY They combined briefly but never quite many reforms. Some of the more notable coalesced into a real party before 1867. were the replacement of open voting by Taking in allies from the Maritime provinces secret ballot, the confinement of elections to after Confederation, they were to become a single day, the creation of the Supreme the Reform or Liberal Party of Mackenzie, Court of Canada, and the establishment of Blake and Laurier. Hansard, the public record of the House of Commons Debates. Despite these reforms, Confederation was brought about, as far as the Liberal Party under Mackenzie was the province of Canada was concerned, by a unable to achieve a solid popular base of coalition of the Macdonald-Cartier support in any province except Ontario, and Conservatives with Brown’s Grits. The in 1878, the government was badly defeated Rouges group refused to join the movement. in the general election. The Conservatives Before July 1, 1867, Brown had led most of won 137 seats, the Liberals 69. his followers out of the coalition. Macdonald formed the first federal government by Edward Blake constructing a cabinet out of his own In 1880, Edward Blake, a great Conservative allies whom he had found in parliamentarian but a man whose leadership the Maritimes and a few Upper Canada Grits. was not extremely successful, succeeded There were a few years of party confusion; Alexander Mackenzie as leader of the Liberal but gradually a pattern of party alignments Party. On the retirement of Blake, the Liberal emerged and by the time of the second members of Parliament elected Wilfrid election in 1872, a straight party fight took Laurier national leader of the Liberals. The place between a Conservative government choice of Laurier to succeed Blake was a and a Reform or Liberal Opposition. clear demonstration that the Liberal Party accepted the equal partnership of the The Liberals – Alexander Mackenzie English and French in Canada. From the The Conservatives dominated the political time of his election as leader, Laurier began scene from the time of Confederation until to preach the ideal of national unity. Until his 1896, with the exception of the years 1873 to death in 1919, Laurier spent a total of almost 1878. 45 years in the House of Commons, 15 of them as Prime Minister of Canada. In November 1873, Macdonald was forced to resign because of the Pacific Scandal and an The Laurier Years election was called for the following year. In Wilfrid Laurier has been called the architect the election of 1874, the Liberals won 133 of modern Liberalism. In Quebec City, in seats, the Conservatives 73. For the next 1877 – 10 years before he became leader – four years, Canada had a Liberal he defined Liberalism: government under Prime Minister Alexander “The principle of Liberalism resides in the Mackenzie. essence of our nature itself, in this thirst for During these years, the Liberals carried out happiness we bring with us in life, which 5 Liberal Party of Canada - HISTORY follows us everywhere, but which however, is the disintegration of Macdonald’s regime. never completely quenched this side of The old French-English bitterness flared up Heaven. We gravitate incessantly towards an again. After Laurier’s Liberals defeated the ideal that we never reach. No sooner have Conservatives in 1896 (the Liberals won 117 we reached the point we are aiming at, that seats and the Conservatives won 89), they we discover new horizons whose existence drew into their party many of the Bleus, the we never even suspected. We dash towards moderate Conservatives of Quebec. In this them, and those new horizons, explored in way, they received substantial support in their turn; we discover others to which we Quebec, making the Liberal Party the party are carried away, on and on, further always.