Mcleod Stewart and the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal Daryl White

Document generated on 09/29/2021 1:35 a.m. Ontario History Killing premiers to build a canal McLeod Stewart and the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal Daryl White Volume 99, Number 2, Fall 2007 Article abstract For more than a century, Canadian promoters encouraged the construction of URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065737ar the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal. No individual brought more DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065737ar passion to the cause than McLeod Stewart. A well-connected man, he was a former Mayor of Ottawa and involved in a number of ventures in the city. He See table of contents devoted more than two decades of his life to raising private and public support for the canal he felt would capture the trade of the North American interior for Canada. Stewart may have failed to realize his dream, but his optimistic Publisher(s) imperialism reminds us of the spirit which infused Canada in the Laurier years. The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article White, D. (2007). Killing premiers to build a canal: McLeod Stewart and the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal. Ontario History, 99(2), 141–167. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065737ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2007 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 141 illing premiers to build a canal McLeod Stewart and the Montreal, K Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal By Daryl White Sault locks, 1875. Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, 972.239.5 few days before Christmas 1917, Stewart’s Background Sir Robert Borden received a let- rom 1893 until 1917 Stewart was a ter from an Ottawa resident. It leading advocate of the canal. He was Abegan: F instrumental in securing a charter for the I have, (metaphorically speaking), killed Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Ca- six Premiers of Canada physically, over the nal Company (of which he became the above project, viz. Sir John Macdonald, Hon. Alexander McKenzie [sic], Sir John chief spokesman) and pressed for govern- Abbott, Sir John Thompson, Sir Charles ment support for the project. Although Tupper, and Sir MacKenzie Bowell,1 and one Stewart failed to secure the canal’s con- Premier, politically, viz. the Right Hon. Sir 2 struction, his efforts are illustrative of the Wilfrid Laurier, G.C.M.G. turn-of-the-century optimism that “was It would be the last such letter a prime Canada’s most striking characteristic dur- minister received;3 after more than two ing the Laurier years.”4 Unlimited faith in decades of advocating a canal linking progress led Canadians to the construc- Montreal, Ottawa, and the Georgian tion of two transcontinental railways and Bay, McLeod Stewart’s pen fell silent. innumerable other ventures, all of which, 1 Bowell had died only seven days earlier. 2 McLeod Stewart to R.L. Borden, 17 December 1917, Library and Archives Canada (hereafter cited as LAC), RG13, Series A-2, vol. 223, file 1918-1153. 3 A nearly identical draft letter dated October 1920 to Arthur Meighen is in the William Stewart Papers, but was apparently never sent. McLeod Stewart to Arthur Meighen, October 1920, LAC, MG24, D101, William Stewart and Family fonds, vol. 5, “Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal Company, Open Letters.” 4 Ramsay Cook and Craig Brown, Canada 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart), 1974, 49. Ontario History / Volume XCIX No. 2 / Autumn 2007 142 ONTARIO HISTORY officer in the Governor Abstract General’s Foot Guards For more than a century, Canadian promoters encouraged the construc- and entered the legal tion of the Montreal, Ottawa and Georgian Bay Canal. No individual profession. By 1886, brought more passion to the cause than McLeod Stewart. A well-con- he was sufficiently nected man, he was a former Mayor of Ottawa and involved in a number of ventures in the city. He devoted more than two decades of prominent to merit en- his life to raising private and public support for the canal he felt would try in George Maclean capture the trade of the North American interior for Canada. Stewart Rose’s Cyclopædia of may have failed to realize his dream, but his optimistic imperialism Canadian Biography. reminds us of the spirit which infused Canada in the Laurier years. The entry declared “If Résumé: ��Pendant plus d’un si��cle, de nombreux Canadiens d��fendirent he could be won away l’id�e de construire un canal reliant Montr�al à Ottawa, et de là à la somewhat from his baie Georgienne. L’un des plus ardents promoteurs de ce projet, fut certai- present engagements nement McLeod Stewart. Ancien maire d’Ottawa, il �tait engag� dans de nombreuses entreprises et jouissait d’un r�seau important de relations. and induced to enter Il se consacra pendant plus de vingt ans à la recherche de soutiens aussi the political arena, he bien priv�s que publics pour ce projet, persuad� que ce canal attirerait would be a very valu- à lui la majorit� du commerce entre le Canada et l’int�rieur de l’Am�- able acquisition to the rique du Nord. Sans doute McLeod Stewart a-t-il �chou�, et n’a pas pu political life of Cana- r�aliser son rêve; mais son optimisme, cette ambition imp�rialiste, nous 6 rappellent l’esprit qui r�gnait alors au Canada à l’�poque de Laurier. da.” It proved a prophet- ic statement. Stewart it was believed, would be justified by the was elected mayor of Ottawa for the fol- enormous growth that always seemed to lowing two years. He ran for re-election in lie just over the horizon. These were years 1888 and while he defeated his opponent when promoters and proprietors were by a vote of 1,959 to 1,642, his election thought to be building the Canadian na- was suspect.7 Two months later, he and tion5 and McLeod Stewart sought to be some of his election agents were charged counted among them. with bribery, and Stewart was barred from Born in 1847, McLeod was the son municipal office.8 The incident would of William Stewart, a member of the eventually block Stewart’s imperial as assembly of the United Canadas and well as municipal ambitions. When John prominent in the Ottawa lumber in- A. Macdonald later promised to request dustry. McLeod Stewart received his a knighthood for Stewart, he noted to education at the University of Toronto, Charles Tupper that he had forgotten that earning a B.A. and M.A. He served as an Stewart had been “disqualified for munici- 5 Michael Bliss, Introduction to Alan Sullivan’s The Rapids (Toronto: U of T Press, 1972), vii. 6 George Maclean Rose, ed., A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography (Toronto: Rose Publishing Co., 1886), 759. 7 “The Municipalities,”Toronto Globe, 3 January 1888, 1. 8 “Alleged Bribery at the Capital,” Toronto Globe, 29 February 1888, 8. The Montreal, Ottawa & Georgan Bay Canal 143 pal office on account of personal corrupt his most successful venture. The Stewart practices.” Macdonald instructed Tupper family purportedly owned half of the to “put him [Stewart] off the best way you coal company when Stewart arranged its can without ‘giving me away.’”9 sale to an English syndicate for $1.5 mil- Stewart inherited considerable Otta- lion in July 1889.14 wa property from his father. The streets Stewart’s boosterism did not end of what was once Stewarton still bear the with his business ventures. In 1910 he names of family members.10 His Ottawa published Ottawa: The First Half-Centu- home, which included a conservatory, ry, a glowing account intended to remove was appraised in 1902 at over $20,000.11 all doubt of the city’s future as a major Stewart embarked on a number of busi- industrial centre. Socially, Stewart was ness ventures in Ottawa, including president of the St. Andrew’s Society, an the construction of the Molson’s Bank active member of the Caledonian Soci- building on Metcalfe Street and the ety, and a supporter of both the Protes- Chaudière Hotel Company. Although tant Orphans Home and the Protestant the history of the Château Laurier makes home for the aged. He and his wife were no reference to the Chaudière Hotel, the frequent guests at Rideau Hall and corre- prospectus for the latter outlines a build- sponded with several former Governors- ing of identical appearance that was to General. In one illustrative note, Lord be built on the spot the Grand Trunk Grey invited Stewart for an afternoon Railway later constructed the Château discussion and suggested that he bring Laurier.12 his children along for tea.15 By training, Stewart was a lawyer and Stewart was evidently a figure of some early on a partner in the Ottawa firm of means and was connected to prominent Stewart and Chrysler. However, at vari- figures in Canadian and British public ous times he was also president of Do- life. Thus he seemed ideally suited to minion Savings and Loan, the Canada press the cause of the Montreal, Ottawa Atlantic Railway, the Stewart Ranch and Georgian Bay Canal in Canada’s cor- Company, and the Canada Anthracite ridors of power and the financial houses Coal Company.13 The last may have been of London.

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