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Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine

Ward Heelers and Honest Men: Urban Québécois Political Culture and the Reform of 1909 Alan Gordon

Volume 23, Number 2, March 1995 Article abstract While scholars often emphasize traditionalism, ruralism and anti-statism as URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1016631ar the "dominants" of 's political culture prior to the Quiet Revolution, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1016631ar some Québécois embraced progressivism early in the twentieth century. Municipal government reform, one of the hallmarks of the progressive See table of contents movement, cropped up in Canada's largest city, Montreal. Far from being confined to anglophones and remnants of Quebec's rouge party, support for reform came from a wide section of Montreal's French-speaking population. Publisher(s) This article analyzes the rhetoric employed by Montreal's mass circulation newspapers during the referendum campaign of 1909 in order to demonstrate Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine the popularity of reform in Montreal and to uncover the main doctrines of French-Canadian progressivism. Urban Quebec's political culture, then, ISSN accommodated the position of the city in Québécois culture and envisioned an expanding and active state role in city life. Overriding these beliefs were the 0703-0428 (print) basic assumptions of early-twentieth-century liberalism and, curiously for a 1918-5138 (digital) referendum campaign, a distrust of popular sovereignty characteristic of North American reformism in general. Explore this journal

Cite this article Gordon, A. (1995). Ward Heelers and Honest Men: Urban Québécois Political Culture and the Montreal Reform of 1909. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 23(2), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.7202/1016631ar

All Rights Reserved © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 1995 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/ Ward Heelers and Honest Men: Urban Québécois Political Culture and the Montreal Reform of 1909

Alan Gordon

Abstract: Only a few histories of Montreal during Brunet's simplification, he supported Canada's first urban boom have been French-Canadian ambivalence towards While scholars often emphasize written. It is a paradox that an era in the state. In Heintzman's scheme, vari• traditionalism, ruralism and anti-statism as which urban questions were so profound ous factors forced francophones away the "dominants" of Quebec's political has produced such meagre debate on from modern economic development culture prior to the Quiet Revolution, some the development of Canada's largest and into the liberal professions, resulting Québécois embraced progressivism early in 1 city. This is especially surprising consid• in a nineteenth-century employment cri• the twentieth century. Municipal ering that French Canadian boosterism sis that, in turn, necessitated government government reform, one of the hallmarks had proponents as prominent as those of patronage to maintain a reasonable of the progressive movement, cropped up in Ontario and the Prairies.2 While much ink standard of living. Thus the state be• Canada's largest city, Montreal. Far from has been spilled over the political culture being confined to anglophones and came associated with partisan connec• remnants of Quebec's rouge party, support of French Canada, little has covered the tions, producing a cynicism about for reform came from a wide section of political culture of urban French Canada, politics that called for protection from po• Montreal's French-speaking population. leaving a dangerous simplification of litical control of important social objec• 6 This article analyzes the rhetoric employed québécois culture that this article will at• tives. Municipal affairs was one such by Montreal's mass circulation newspapers tempt to correct. In essence, and con• area. For Heintzman, the Montreal reform during the referendum campaign of 1909 trary to historical stereotypes, at least movement of 1909 "both symbolized and in order to demonstrate the popularity of some French Canadians in the early reflected the continuing desire of a por• reform in Montreal and to uncover the twentieth century, following the progres• tion of Quebec's élite to protect public main doctrines of French-Canadian sive, North American urban reform move• administration from the ravages of elec• progressivism. Urban Quebec's political ment, actively supported both reformism toral politics, a concern repeatedly frus• culture, then, accommodated the position and an active state role. trated by the realities of economic need of the city in Québécois culture and experienced by the population as a envisioned an expanding and active state Political Culture in Quebec whole."7 However, Heintzman ignores role in city life. Overriding these beliefs any sense that the reform of 1909 fol• were the basic assumptions of Following the polemics of Michel Brunet, lowed the tradition of municipal reforms early-twentieth-century liberalism and, the character of québécois political cul• carried out by more "progressive" prov• curiously for a referendum campaign, a ture prior to 1960 has been called anti- inces like Ontario, and the rest of anglo• distrust of popular sovereignty étatiste. Brunet attributed the fear of the phone North America. "Nonpolitical" characteristic of North American state to a retarded classical liberalism municipal systems cropped up across reformism in general. among Quebec's nineteenth-century fran• the continent. cophone élite that emphasized Quebec's traditional rural culture as its "vocation." Studies of Quebec's municipal anti-éta- In an effort to counter the upheaval of ur• tisme also borrow from the American banization and industrialization, these be• model of urban corruption. In the age of ing phenomena of foreign inspiration, American machine politics the immigrant this traditional-minded élite turned the ru• vote was largely exploited for machine ral lifestyles into a defence against for• purposes.8 As America's urban immi• eign domination.3 In Denis Monière's grants tended to be Catholics, the notion terms, the city "par son étrangeté, [était] of corrupt Catholicism developed. Apolo• l'espace des étrangers."4 Bernard Vigod gists stress that a bias of the dominant attributes this view to attempts to explain society against the unsophisticated and and justify the Quiet Revolution through unprotected made collective action into comparison with Quebec's earlier back• a form of protection. As the urban poor wardness.5 Despite Vigod's caution, Can• tended to be Catholic, it is all too easy to ada's anglophone historians continue to associate corruption with Catholicism.9 implicitly accept Brunet's charac• This association crops up in some of the terization. For instance, although Ralph best works on Canadian municipal re• Heintzman searched for a corrective to form. One student of urban reform char-

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Résumé acterized the Montreal combatants of The Montreal Tradition 1909 in Manichaean terms. State restruc• Alors que les érudits insistent souvent pour turing was supported by "a reform coali• Like its Western and Ontarian counter• dire que le traditionnalisme, la vie rurale et tion supported by many English voters, parts, Montreal embraced the impulses Vanti-étatisme on été les «éléments certain businessmen, and French Cana• of the progressive era. Rapid city growth, dominants» de la culture politique au dian progressives like Bourassa and and an increased importance of urban is• Québec avant la Révolution tranquille, Asselin." The opposition included "a sues, built awareness of corruption at certains Québécois ont adhéré au mixed bag of opportunists who had the City Hall. New social classes developed progressisme au début du vingtième siècle. backing of most French Canadians, es• and expanded alongside the process of La réforme de Vadministration municipale, pecially the clerical and artisan urbanization. Between the extremes of Vun des fleurons du mouvement classes."10 wealth and poverty emerged the new progressiste, a vu le jour dans la plus grande ville du Canada, Montréal Loin "white collar" middle class of clerical d'être uniquement le fait des anglophones Fernande Roy has recently criticized workers. Canadian industrial and finan• et de ce que restait du parti rouge du such single-minded approaches. In par• cial sector amalgamations after 1900 pro• Québec, Vappui à la réforme est venu ticular, she berates the recurrent notion duced a revolution in administration, a d'une bonne tranche de la population of "monotheism" in the study of ideology. far-reaching change in the complexity francophone de Montréal. Par l'analyse de Work on political culture, she argues, has and size of business practices. Canada's la rhétorique qui avait cours dans le not given adequate thought to the fluidity first big wave of mergers crested in journaux montréalais à grand tirage and variety within québécois ideologies. 1909-1912, with Montreal at the centre of durant la campagne référendaire de 1909, Roy then proceeds to build a convincing the movement. As companies merged le présent article démontre la popularité de case for the ascendancy of liberalism and expanded, they required an ever-in• la réforme à Montréal et met à jour les among Montreal's francophone business creasing army of clerks to handle the principales doctrines du progressisme community at the turn of the century, with• flows of information and paper that such canadien-français. La culture politique du out insisting on its universality.11 Harold operations demanded. Clerical employ• Québec urbain adapta, alors, la position de Kaplan's study of reformism in Montreal ment grew steadily during the first dec• la ville à la culture québécoise et envisagea presents a similar subtlety. While describ• ade of the century, especially in un rôle plus grand et plus actif de V état ing the 1909 movement as English-domi• Montreal.14 Meanwhile urban and indus• dans la vie da la ville. Le fait dépasser nated, he acknowledges its broad base trial growth built increased clout for the outre à ces convictions a présidé à of support. Moreover, he attributes the working classes. The largest city wards l'élaboration des hypothèses de base du 15 slow progress of reform to serious divi• were all working class wards. More• libéralisme du début du dix-huitième siècle sions in the ideological premises of over over, Montreal's early annexations et, ce qui est surprenant pour une forty reform groups active in the city.12 tended to bring more working class com• campagne référendaire, a été une façon de munities, like Hochelaga and Saint-Jean- discréditer la composante ^souveraineté Jacques Mathieu and Jacques Lacour- Baptiste, into the city.16 While the populaire" contenue dans le réformisme sière have also insisted on the variety of nord-américain en général. opinion in québécois society. Not only do struggle between the affluent western societies develop over time, they argue, wards and the poorer eastern wards but they do so in a way that ignores disci• characterized city politics, this division plinary barriers. Thus, while in flux, many also reflected the ethnic division of Mont• entwined streams of development can real.17 Working-class annexations co-exist.13 This seems to be a more fruit• tended to involve predominantly-franco• ful premise from which to study the place phone communities. In Montreal, city poli• of the municipal state in political culture, tics and the "racial question" were and provides a stronger theoretical back• intricately entwined. ground to the variety of responses to the municipal reform movement of 1909. Montreal municipal politics experienced a shake-up in the first decade of this cen• tury. Unrest over corruption at City Hall became open agitation. A group popu• larly known as the "Gang of 23," funded

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by Rodolphe Brunet of the Compagnie in the city's administrative structure.25 two to one per ward; the election of a de Construction et de Pavages Moder• Quebec Premier Sir , a Mon- Board of Control by the population at nes, and led by Alderman Giroux, mo• trealer sympathetic to the calls for honest large; and the nomination of a municipal nopolized city contracts and subsidies. and efficient government, could hardly ig• works commission by the City Council.30 The judicial system worked along similar nore such demands while pledging the The latter two offered competing models lines. Between 1905 and 1907, over 100 same for the provincial administration.26 for the new government structure: the hôteliers, charged with liquor law infrac• Board of Control model suggested by tions, paid their fines directly to the ap• Quebec's Legislative Assembly received the Board of Trade and the Technical propriate aldermen.18 The policing of the petition on 5 March, 1909. It became Commission suggested by Alderman gambling and prostitution establishments Bill 112, separate from the usual amend• Louis-Audet Lapointe. The public sided followed the same guidelines.19 The ing and maintenance of city charters in with the first two and against the last. In Compagnie de Construction et de Pav• Bill 135. Thus, unlike previous amend• effect this brought into being a system of ages Modernes was not, despite its ments, this one dealt with the municipal government that had been popularized name, a paving company. Rather, it was state apart from the rest of urban affairs, across North America. Ward heeling a firm set up to subcontract municipal suggesting that historians, following this would subside by cutting in half the paving and construction contracts at a division, ought to isolate municipal re• number of aldermen per ward. The profit of over fifty cents per yard.20 form from the broader urban reform. Es• Mayor and twenty-two aldermen sat on a sentially, Bill 112 called for a referendum council as before, but with greatly re• Reaction to such abuses had been on reforming the Montreal state structure. duced powers. The Board of Control, brooding for some time, but various fac• Although little debated in the legislature, consisting of four Commissioners elected tors prevented the formation of a coali• the proposal did not pass until 19 May, by the city as a whole rather than by tion of reformers until 1909-10.21 By that receiving assent ten days later.27 ward or district, prepared the city budget time, however, abuses of patronage had which could be ratified, but not altered, become so great that the reform move• While the legislature studied the reform by the Council. Similarly, the Board took ment had recruited a number of promi• bills, Superior Court judge Lawrence over control of appointments to the ad• nent city figures. Former Mayor, John Cannon led a commission of inquiry ministrative service and the tendering of Hormisdas Laporte and certain leading that, beginning in April, was to report its public works contracts.31 citizens organized a Comité des Ci• findings in September, coinciding with toyens, adding their voice to those of the the referendum. The inquest revealed a Did "le régime des honnêtes gens" Good Government Association, The series of scandals at City Hall, each of sweep out corruption at City Hall? Mont• Board of Trade, and the Chambre de which was prominently covered by the lo• real's famous satirist, Stephen Leacock, Commerce, all of which had been lobby• cal press. The publicity fuelled the re• characterized the hypocrisy of the whole ing against the rising costs of city admini• form momentum. Although Cannon movement, and its outcome in particular, stration.22 Coordination of the effort delayed his report to the middle of No• in his "The Great Fight for Clean Govern• benefitted from a great deal of cross rep• vember, the public spectacle of the in• ment." The following statement is typical: resentation on these bodies. Members of quiry helped assure the outcome of the the Comité also sat on the other three or• 20 September referendum. On 21 Sep• And as they talked, the good news ganizations, as well as on the Montreal tember, La Presse celebrated the tri• spread from group to group that it was Businessmen's League and the Real Es• umph of "La Conscience Publique" on already known that the new franchise tate Owners' Association.23 the Comité four pages.28 Triumphant the victory of Citizen's Light was to be made for des Citoyens included men like Farquhar seemed: close to 90% of the vote fa• two centuries so as to give the com• Robertson, a coal merchant and presi• voured the Comité des Citoyens. Never pany a fair chance to see what it could dent of the Board of Trade for 1909.24 mind that only 34% of the electorate both• do. At the word of it, the grave faces of Robertson, along with Victor Morin of the ered to vote.29 many bondholders flushed with pride, Real Estate Association and Charles and the soft eyes of listening share• Chaput of the Businessmen's League, What did that minority of the electorate holders laughed back in joy. For they petitioned the provincial government for support so overwhelmingly? The referen• had no doubt, or fear, now that clean an inquiry into the state of municipal af• dum put forward three motions: the re• government had come. They knew 32 fairs. Moreover, they asked for a change duction of the number of aldermen from what the company could do.

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Mr. Leacock's black humour reveals corruption at city hall, and editorials de• than the more rigid structures of dis• more than his cynicism. A look at the bated the merits of the reform proposals. course analysis, reveals the shared as• composition of the first Board of Control Before the arrival of the electronic media, sumptions of combatants in a given field. supports his depiction. The Comité des information travelled chiefly through the Through attention to the shared charac• Citoyens ran a slate of candidates in the daily newspaper, making newspapers an teristics of the debate, the underlying subsequent election. They captured all essential component of Canadian politi• ideological assumptions of the politically four Board positions, most Council seats, cal debates. La Presse, with nearly active segment of the public become and the mayoralty. If Commissioner Du- 100,000 readers per day, demonstrates clear. Each of these assumptions, nota• puis is an example, Olivar Asselin was the influence potential of the popular bly popular sovereignty and liberalism, right to call for a close scrutiny of the con• press. While La Presse was Canada's will be examined in turn. tributors to the "Citizen's Fund."33 Dupuis largest, and possibly most influential, was a financier with interests in utilities newspaper, it was not alone in the field. Popular Sovereignty and land speculation, as well as a major La Patrie and Le Canada were two of department store.34 Montreal's larger papers. For this article, The concept of popular sovereignty is the coverage of these three largest repre• bound to come out in a referendum cam• While the Board of Control did improve sentatives of the popular press, along paign; it figured prominently in the reform the city's water supply and eliminate the with , the influential weekly rhetoric. Even reform opponents could worst abuses of patronage, administra• voice of the Ligue nationaliste, was exam• not escape the appeal to the people. Al• tive costs and taxes did not benefit from ined exhaustively from April to Septem• derman Giroux originally cautioned that the new structure. Moreover, the city's ber 1909. Smaller newspapers, such as the masses could not make a proper de• paving contracts simply shifted to the af• La Croix or Le Bulletin provide support cision on the issues, but later back• fluent western wards, suggesting that a and evidence of counter-currents of the tracked and, in a circular argument, western "faction" had taken control.35 debate. suggested that no referendum should be Nor were the exactions of the great fran• held because the people had not asked chise holders corrected. The street rail• Although political activists directed most for one.42 Some aldermen had good rea• way and utility corporations, thanks in newspapers, it would be incorrect to tie a son to fear the referendum. La Presse part to connections with the new Board newspaper's ideology too closely to its cited majority opinion as the chief reason of Control, continued to function as they political alliance. As newspapers deal in for reducing the number of aldermen.43 had before the reform. Perhaps the costs language, their choice of words gives the Furthermore, it defended its early opposi• of bribery had merely become too high, clearest picture of their ideological posi• tion to the Board of Control proposal on and the bribers had seized the opportu• tion. The rhetoric of newspapers thus rep• that body's likelihood of usurping popu• 36 nity to take control themselves. Eventu• resents the surest and quickest avenue lar sovereignty: ally disillusionment set in and enthusiasm into the exchange of ideas within the cul• 37 for the reform ebbed. It is interesting to ture of turn of the century Montreal. More• Avec le projet du "Board of Trade" on note that Guy Bourassa, "the foremost over, the wide readership of the popular enlève, pratiquement, toute autorité ad• student of Montreal politics," saw the press allows for a broad dispersal of spe• ministrative aux représentants des election of Mérédic Martin as Mayor, in cific language patterns propagating a quartiers, aux échevins. Le peuple 1914, as the real restructuring of the per• wide exposure of a given ideological compte plus. Avec le projet Lapointe, 38 sonnel of municipal politics. However, slant39 ou la Commission Technique, on the Montreal press knew nothing of this, améliore de 1000 pour cent la situation fully expecting the reform to usher in his• However, newspapers also pose some actuelle à l'hôtel de ville, sans rien di• toric change in civic politics. problems for the historian who would use minuer l'influence populaire.44 them as an indicator of popular ex• Theory and Method change. As Gilles Bourque and Jules Similarly, La Patrie claimed that the Tech• Duchastel note, discourse is strategic.40 nical Commission ought to be responsi• The popular press, or mass-circulation Any analysis of the language surround• ble to the Council, "c'est-à-dire aux newspapers, was instrumental in the re• ing a particular question must be aware représentants du peuple."45 And Le Na• form debate. Newspaper coverage of the of the strategic value of including or omit• tionaliste, in choosing between the Board Cannon Commission sensationalized the ting particular ideas.41 Rhetoric, rather

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of Control and Technical Commission, from popular control. The following state• shunned expert opinion, at the same asked a question of popular sovereignty: ment gives La Presses early position: time it called for more expert participa• tion. The Technical Commission, com• Le peuple croit-il que ses échevins Un des grands avantages de la Com• prised of the best civic employees, doivent être contrôlés, et, dans l'af• mission technique réside dans le fait would be an expert body advising the firmation, quelle sorte de contrôle croit- que ses membres ne seront pas Council. Business experts, the organiza• il le plus opportun de leur imposer?46 désignés au hasard d'une élection tional leaders of the reform movement, coûteuse, mais seront choisis avec fully expected to elect their own to the re• After all: soin parmi les hommes les plus com• constituted state. Thus the triumphs of pétents dans les travaux publics de the expert and of enterprise coincided. D'après nos principes de gouverne• toutes sortes.51 However, as the Montreal reform move• ments, il est entendu que c'est la ma• ment tried to paint such experts as non- jorité qui gouverne, et cela est In essence, La Presse favoured a tech• political—indeed this was their claim to parfaitement juste.47 nocracy. The Commission, responsible legitimacy—it avoided involving them in to the Council, which was in turn respon• the campaign. The expert in scientific Le Canada, whose owner had proposed sible to the people, preserved popular management, having been called to the referendum, most forcefully de• control, albeit a step removed. The sug• work by the referendum, preserved de• fended popular sovereignty, using it as gestion that election results are random mocracy by preventing its abuses and the rallying cry for the entire campaign.48 belies a lack of faith in popular sover• serving the public interest. Differing with its main competitors, Le eignty. Harold Kaplan outlines how Cana• Canada distinguished between the dian reformers tended to view experts as The form of popular sovereignty envi• Board of Control and the Technical Com• a counter to the excesses of democracy sioned also says something about the mission on the grounds of popular con• (ward-heeling and pork barrelling). The ideology of the Montreal newspapers. trol throughout the campaign. The Board better qualified, disinterested profes• Moreover, it says a great deal about the of Control "... étant élu par le peuple, sional administrator, in theory, had a municipal state in québécois political cul• sera responsable directement au peuple. clearer view of the general interest of the ture. Popular sovereignty, the reformers La commission des Travaux Publics nom• city and, in such matters, the public stressed, is not expressed solely through mée par le conseil, ne serait responsable ought to defer to his judgement.52 direct popular appeals like referenda, qu'au conseil."49 the structure of a state also influences Despite these calls for elite accommoda• the extent of its democracy. The munici• However, the press did not champion tion through respect for technocratic pal state was presented in two main popular sovereignty as universally as skills, the francophone notion of the ex• stages: pre-reform and post-reform. The these examples suggest. An element of pert was somewhat fuzzy. Unlike their post-reform state, then, appeared in two authoritarianism lurked in the reform dis• American counterparts, francophone re• democratic models: one Parliamentary, 54 course. La Patrie, for example, saw the formers eschewed expert opinion. Nei• the other Congressional. Le National• sovereignty of the people as subject to a ther technocrat opinion, nor technocrats iste strongly favoured a Congressional 55 higher control: were discussed in the press.53 Men with style system of checks and balances. no special claim to urban mastery repre• Such a system, instituted through the La loi donne au peuple de Montréal le sented expertise. Olivar Asselin, Henri separate selection of Aldermen and Con• droit, le pouvoir de le détruire, de Bourassa, Senator Dandurand, Louis- trollers, would make a majority in each doter la ville d'une administration nou• Audet Lapointe, and the editors of the "body" more difficult to ensure, thereby 56 velle offrant toutes les garanties possi- popular press were the key experts. reducing corruption. This surveillance en These same individuals offered opinions of each body by the other, a practice of bles de bon gouvernement... on every other public matter. In short, mutual supervision, would, according to La Presse saw legitimate restrictions on they were public figures, not experts. Le Canada, ensure successful, clean 57 popular sovereignty. Aside from restric• The Cannon Commission's discrediting government. tions on the use of referenda, the govern• of the obvious municipal experts, alder• ment administration should be insulated men and city employees, partly explains On the other hand, parliamentary models this phenomenon. Yet, while the rhetoric most often appeared in a negative fash-

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ion. Admittedly, reformers often imagined Nous disons "sur le principe" des par• debate, subordinated popular sover• the Council and Board of Control to be tis politiques sans nécessairement y eignty to savings, claiming that elections legislative and executive branches of faire entrer les éléments "rouge" ou would be costly.65 In economic matters, government.58 But, they frequently con• "bleu." Toutes autres choses pourrait the popular press fell into line with eco• fused this split for the American checks servir à des organisations bien nomic liberals from the Ligue nationaliste and balances system. La Presse even ar• définies.61 to radical rouges. gued against the institution of parliamen• tary control: Clearly, La Presse saw differences be• Liberalism tween the requirements of the provincial Toutes décisions, rapports, recomman• state and those of the municipal state. Fernande Roy characterized the study of dations du Bureau de Contrôle, concer• They did not need to be structured by liberal ideology as a search for a system nant une dépense d'argent, l'octroi de the same principles. of symbolization revealing the under• contrats, l'acceptation des soumis• stood definition of man and society. Her sions, l'achat du matériel, etc. ... tout On the other hand, reformers universally study of the ideology of francophone cela doit être soumis au Conseil, aux denounced the "régime actuel," or pre-re- businessmen described its main tenets échevins qui peuvent les accepter, les form state. No one compared it to demo• as individualism, private property and a rejeter ou les amender à volonté ... cratic models, emphasizing its strict separation of private affairs from avec la majorité simple ou la majorité undemocratic characteristics. This was the public interest.66 Such a charac• absolue59 part of the strategic nature of rhetoric. terization of liberalism agrees with the Discussion of the structure in place be• broadly defined ideology of liberalism No scheme of reform entrusted the con• fore the referendum focused instead on outlined most notably in the works of trol of money, the prerogative of elected the need for change. The alleviation of John Stuart Mill. Mill's summary of liberal• assemblies in a parliamentary system, to the rampant patronage exposed by the ism includes three key doctrines: a faith the Council. But this, according to La Cannon Commission was the most obvi• in individualism as the source of human Presse, was a product of the distinctions ous reason for reform.62 However, Can• well-being; an airtight division between between the levels of the state. The non's work was not necessary to reveal public and private interests; and the Board of Control was like a Parliament, the extent of patronage, and Le National• sanctity of private property. To these but without popular control: iste expressed concern that the Comité three, Mill added the principle of utility, des Citoyens had appropriated it for its the test of the greatest good for the great• Il faut dire que le Bureau de Contrôle own gain.63 est number, as the measure of all ethical agirait auprès du Conseil comme le questions.67 The analysis of the reform ministère auprès de la Législature. Another reason for reforming the state fol• rhetoric reveals similar sentiments Lorsqu'il y a conflit entre le Cabinet et lowed from the first: expense and ineffi• among the francophone popular press. la Législature, il y a appel au peuple, ciency. Reformers connected these two et c'est le peuple qui tranche la ques• ideas more closely than maladministra• Reformers premised their rhetoric on the tion. Si le Bureau de Contrôle ne s'en• tion and patronage. The business ex• concept of the liberal individual. Al• tendait pas avec le Conseil de ville, perts of the reform campaign though the popular press rarely dis• c'est celui-ci qui aurait raison, sans understandably demanded fiscal respon• cussed the notion of the individual, it qu'il y eut besoin d'en appeler au peu• sibility, but the popular press was no less never questioned individualism. La Patrie ple.60 demanding. Differing with its competi• condemned "the vestiges of the tors, Le Canada's support for fiscal re• seigneurial system" as an infringement La Presse was speaking here of a motion straint turned it to the business-style on individual rights.68 La Presse, in a of confidence in the assembly. However, reforms of the Board of Control long be• clear endorsement of the liberal princi• parliamentary government of the sort un• fore La Presse or La Patrie came on ple, denounced the idea of property tax 64 derstood by La Presse functioned on the side. Efficiency closely mirrored busi• paying corporations voting in local elec• basis of parties. Yet, La Presse had an in• ness. However proponents of the Techni• tions because the right to vote belonged teresting view of the party system: cal Commission also stressed economy only to individual citizens.69 Le Canada and efficiency: La Presse, favouring the even individualized the entire mass of Commission in the early phases of the municipal corruption, frequently blaming

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it all on Alderman Giroux.70 Individualism Montreal proper, allowing the. popular ated a barrier between community and al• also appeared in the major tourist ex• press to define community more abruptly derman.77 If aldermen were external to travaganza of September 1909, Back-to- than in the dialogue on wider reforms. the community, the hypothetical mem• Montreal Week. This week-long festival, bers of the Board of Control, in contrast, designed to promote Montreal com• This clarity also permeated discussions would be drawn from the community. merce by encouraging former residents of relations between Montreal and other Like the aldermen, Labour leaders were of the city to return for a visit, was only communities. Montreal required auton• also outsiders, even if the working class loosely connected to the reform cam• omy, much as the province required was part of the larger community. Class, paign. Only one reform proponent linked autonomy within Canada. Reformers did thus subsumed to community, was only the two events, but the rush of civic pride not use municipal autonomy in the same legitimate when in concert with the gen• could only aid the reform forces.71 On manner as traditionalists would later use eral interest of the city. In this way, the re• the surface, Back-to-Montreal Week was autonomy to keep Quebec out of national form rhetoric pushed potential a simple tourist event; newspaper cover• welfare schemes, however they also sub• oppositional leaders to the margins of age centred on the enormity of the ordinated the desirability of reform to lo• the notion of community, and presented crowds at festivities such as fireworks cal autonomy. Where the city could reformers as the only legitimate authority displays, tours of the city and a parade reform without provincial intervention, in the city. in which "les diverses grandes maisons autonomy ought to be guarded.75 Any de commerce de Montréal avaient leurs concept of community likely involves The most fruitful representation of com• représentants dans la procession."72 some version of community autonomy. munities within the city was the concept However, the newspaper coverage man• Like the nation and its claim to self-deter• of race. Race, as understood by Canadi• aged to separate individual tourists from mination, a community can only consti• ans at the turn of the century, was the pri• the masses that tramped through the tute itself in opposition to that which it mary divider of humanity into its largest city. Articles highlighted specific visitors, holds to be external; a sense of the groupings. Fin-de-siècle conceptions of like Madame Mainwaring of Yokohama, "other" is essential to the construction of race were substantially different from to• Japan.73 A broader effort at individualiz• any community. Moreover, such concep• day's notions. Montrealers of 1909 used ing the masses was the practice of print• tions often formulate the "other" as more race to distinguish between Canadians ing the names and hotels of many of the than alien—almost as hostile—in order to of British stock and Canadians of French tourists. maintain the integrity of the community. stock. By this definition, Montreal was a Autonomy allows the community to distin• city of two main races, and race, conse• Similarly, reform editorials and articles guish itself by revealing its ability to act quently, figured in local politics. Despite generally did not discuss individualism in pursuit of common goals. In the case many attempts to minimize its impor• openly, but left traces of it in other sub• of Montreal, the remainder of the prov• tance, the reform debate was no excep• jects. One such subject, also central to ince was external, therefore any action tion. Nevertheless, proponents of reform, the reform rhetoric, was the concept of by the provincial assembly, which had understanding that racial division could community. Liberal communities, much 4 only six Montreal members, had to be seriously hurt the movement, generally 78 like John Locke envisioned, are collec• curtailed. What Heintzman saw as the re• sought to minimize the racial question. tions of autonomous individuals; the re• moval of municipal affairs from political Consequently, the majority of the popular form rhetoric defined community less influence was only the logical extension press was unwilling to launch racial accu• clearly. If the community obviously in• of the concept of municipal autonomy, a sations. Many papers praised Senator cluded Montreal, the precise definition of commitment that lasted at least until the Dandurand for denouncing the anti-refor• Montreal was less obvious. Some saw 1920s.76 mist use of the race question. Similarly, Montreal as the entire urbanized area of the anglophone reform rhetoric claimed the Island of Montreal, a forerunner of a Representations of a community often re• that English Canadian voters would hap• metropolitan community, making annexa• inforce the legitimacy of political power. pily vote for any honest and competent 79 tions the "liberation" of the suburbs.74 In the case of Montreal, the existing local individual, regardless of race. Individu• However, political boundaries necessar• political authority had been discredited alism soothed potential racial squabbles. ily left such ideas on the periphery of the and therefore was excluded from the no• Moreover, reform opponents unwittingly discussion. After all, municipal govern• tion of community. Aldermanic abuses supported such an idea: Rodolphe Bru- ment reform concerned only the city of that had victimized "les citoyens" cre• net justified his excesses of patronage

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on his excess of patriotism. His purpose claimed the obvious: the Board of Con• Labour was not the only agent to make had been to ensure that the city's-con• trol proposal was an English Canadian use of the concept of class. The popular tracts went to French Canadians, the proposal, both in its inspiration in Toronto press, in a typically liberal understanding city's majority.80 About the same time, and in its main proponents, the Board of of class, also presented itself as the one weekly claimed that the Board of Trade. In countering this drawback, re• friend of the working man. The working Control reform was an anglophone plot formers relied on liberal individualism to classes, as part of the larger community, to control the city.81 While reformers gen• override the collectivity of race. were manipulated into a false conscious• erally denied this possibility, Le National• ness. The true consciousness being city-, iste was less certain, asking "Est-il vrai Social class is another attempt to repre• not class-based, reform opponents at• que l'institution du bureau de contrôle sent community. As with race, propo• tempted to "use" Labour to swallow their est une manoeuvre de la minorité an• nents of reform subordinated class to adversaries.89 La Presse outlined its dis• glaise pour reprendre dans l'administra• community, while opposing groups tried pute with Labour opposition to reform in tion civique la suprématie qu'elle a to reveal a divide between class interests dubious terms: perdue et qu'en votant le projet nous ne and those of the reform campaign. La• ferons que tirer pour elle les marrons du bour activists used such arguments most Quelle différence entre l'Eglise qui feu?"82 Moreover, a Board of Control split frequently. In fact, Labour saw the reform élève les travailleurs pour eux-mêmes between anglophones and franco• program as a plot by Montreal's capital• et l'agitateur cupide qui les souleva phones, would only hurt the latter. Olivar ists to reduce the costs of bribery. Argu• pour s'élever, lui, tout seul!90 Asselin agreed with Brunet that franco• ing that the Board of Control would be no phones had borne the brunt of Cannon more than a smaller city council, and The removal of the property qualification, Commission's criticism of municipal cor• thus easier to corrupt, Labour leaders coupled with a community spirit, would ruption.83 urged a rejection of the proposals. Fur• permit the election of any citizen, even a thermore, the reduction of the number of worker. Nonetheless, organized labour The racial issue was more volatile than aldermen would weaken the voice of consistently counselled against voting for the reform rhetoric admitted. The Techni• working-plass wards in government, as the reforms, something that any procla• cal Commission, involving a commission well as reducing any likelihood of elect• mation of unanimous support for reform 86 of the senior municipal employees ap• ing a worker to the Council. However, ignored.91 pointed by the Council to advise on pub• the authors of the "Workers' Manifesto" lic works (and executing those works chose to phrase their concerns in liberal While La Patrie sought to avoid any class independently of the Council) was the terms. Aside from the persistent use of struggle, it was willing to accommodate brainchild of the francophone Alderman the expression "working class," the La• class in the make-up of society.92 After Lapointe. La Presse supported it be• bour Manifesto did not divert appreciably all, if the referendum failed, "ce sera par cause, not being subject to elections, ra• from the rhetoric of the major papers. It la faute des ouvriers qui représentent cer• cial quarrels would be less likely to erupt focused on such concepts as the cor• tainement la majorité de l'électoral"93 than in more directly democratic bod• ruptibility of individuals, municipalisation ' However, La Patrie never implied that 84 ies. Although La Presse and La Patrie of utilities, and the costs of the change. class was a stronger identity than the rushed to support Lapointe's proposal Three points must be made here. By pub• larger community of the city. In the same over the anglophone Board of Trade's lishing in La Presse, the Labour Mani• article it maintained that worker interests proposal for a Board of Control, they had festo had to follow the guidelines of the were in conjunction with the general inter• to change when, at the last minute, paper. Secondly, the Parti ouvrier in ests of the city, thus making itself the Lapointe denounced his own idea and Montreal was not a socialist organization, voice of the working class, and implying backed the Board of Control. Orphaned, thus its acceptance of liberal principles 87 a unity of the workers with the larger com• the Technical Commission also lost its need not be contradictory. Lastly, ac• munity.94 Even the radical Le Canada in• 85 ceptance of some liberal concepts does two strongest friends. Yet, despite its cluded class in its understanding of not necessarily imply acceptance of all. claims to seek racial harmony, La Presse society, but as a category rather than as One cannot assume that the dominated distinguished between Lapointe's "Com• a formulation. Unlike a formulation, a ideology is just the inverse of the domi• mission technique" and "le proposal du category is artificial and cannot develop nant ideology.88 'Board of Trade'" until it opted for the lat• a consciousness.95 Thus while it was ter. Only two newspapers openly possible to speak of a "classe

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dirigeante," Le Canada meant this only points to the dividing line between public ner he anticipated. Rather than insulate as a useful simplifier.96 and private. Classical liberalism, of the the municipal state from provincial ma• type Brunet and Heintzman expected, fa• nipulation, though such an effort can be If the sense of community of the reform vours a limited state. The example of seen in demands for local autonomy, discourse was fluid, it was dominated by Back-to-Montreal Week supports such francophone Montrealers attempted to re• the spirit of individualism. And yet, collec• an assumption. Nearly the entire pro• form the state to prevent factionalism tive identities can be seen creeping into gramme of events was planned, adver• from dominating political activity. In so the francophone notion of the self. Com• tised, and paid for by private initiative. doing, they expressed a rather instrumen• munity, as a concept, reconciled collec• Nonetheless, much like the Ligue nation• talist view of the state. The municipal tive identities with liberal individualism. aliste, many advocates of reform state, a tool in the hands of a dominating Communities exist at various levels; indi• blended such laissez-faire attitudes with faction, needed reforms to protect the viduals were to act as members of the a corporatist and progressive view of so• people from trusts and interests. A most general community affected by a ciety. Olivar Asselin's argument in favour checks and balances system, favoured given issue. As municipal maladministra• of public utility ownership was not the in the reform rhetoric, would keep civic tion affected all residents, particular inter• only endorsement of such an active politics in the public eye, as "corrupteurs ests ought to give way to the general state.101 As the reform debate raged, the et corrompus n'ont pas de pire ennemi good. On the other hand, issues affect• City of Montreal discussed buying a pri• que la discussion publique."108 Public ing a single ward ought to be left to that vate utility, the Montreal Water and discussion of the role of the municipal ward.97 John Cooper argued that inertia Power Company, which fed water and state emphasized two competing goals alone kept the ward system in place, but power into four city wards. The franco• of government activity: to protect the citi• ward representation reconciled the local phone press generally supported the zens and to improve the general welfare. interests within the city with the general idea. La Presse called for "l'achat im• Reformers often portrayed the Board of interest.98 Similarly, the legitimacy of the médiate par la ville de la 'Montreal W. Control as "ce bureau protecteur."109 La Labour movement went unquestioned, and P. Coy.'"102 La Patrie, while calling Croix saw the protection of rights as the even if its leadership remained illegiti• for a referendum, also supported the pro• purpose of the state.110 After the suc• mate.99 The collectivity of race was the posal.103 However, this was not the only cess of the referendum, L'Événements premise of the Ligue nationaliste, setting municipal role envisioned. La Patrie only comment was that "le peuple de the Ligue apart from other North Ameri• wanted the city to take a more active part Montréal s'est uni pour se protéger."111 can progressives by its desire to recon• in the leisure of its citizens, putting parks cile the collectivity of race with the in every ward and funding public con• The airtight compartments separating individualism of economic liberalism.100 certs.104 Meanwhile, Le Canada fa• public from private began to wear The reform rhetoric reveals that the place voured a permanent public commission through in the first decade of the twenti• of the individual in society, while still to supervise utilities, and was well dis• eth century. Power production and distri• dominant, slowly adapted to the mass posed towards the municipalization of bution increasingly slipped from the culture of the twentieth century. the Montreal Water and Power Co.105 De• private realm of property to the public spite a reputation for radical liberalism, realm of social need. In this slide, utilitar• Similar adaptations can be seen in the at• Le Canada's owner Godfroy Langlois, ian principles guided the rhetoric titudes of reformers towards two other as• and his allies in the Provincial Cabinet, through the difficult task of maintaining pects of liberalism: the airtight division of were not strangers to state expansion• the principles of liberalism. State interfer• public and private spheres, and the sanc• ism.106 Thus the example of minimal ence with private property had to follow tity of private property. In adapting these state activity in Back-to-Montreal Week the general interest of the community. La liberal doctrines from their "retarded" did not hold up throughout the rhetoric. Croix phrased its qualification of property classical formulations, reformers relied rights in terms that would have brought a heavily on the language of utility. The The francophone press gave every indi• smile to the lips of John Stuart Mill: rhetoric's vision of the structure of the mu• cation that it favoured a more active mu• nicipal state, and more importantly its nicipal state.107 As Heintzman Autrefois le droit d'expropriation n'était role, demonstrates how the premise of suggested, francophones tried to protect accordé que pour les fins d'utilité pub• separate public and private spheres of city administration from patronage and lique112 activity evolved. The role of the state political interference, but not in the man•

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Nationalists supported public utility own• at different points in the rhetoric. Popular Board of Control proposal came from the ership for the greater good it would ac• sovereignty was both upheld and feared. anglophone-dominated Board of Trade, complish in redressing past abuses of Human interaction was divided between using the Toronto Board of Control as its power.113 This utilitarian thread ran public and private spheres, guided by archetype.121 However, La Patrie held up through the reform debate: Board of Con• utilitarian principles. But, like the nature another Ontario city as an example to be trol elections would promote the general of utilitarianism, these categories were followed: interest and the greatest good; four-year not always easy to separate. Quebec tenures of office, coupled with a require• was not stuck in Brunet's retarded classi• Nous [y] verrons bientôt si les con• ment of full-time dedication, promoted a cal liberalism, but ideology in Montreal tribuables attachent quelque prix aux long run view of administration.114 While was in a state of flux. The focus on the merveilleux résultats obtenus à Guelph the rhetoric did not involve anything so metropolis has obviously slanted the evi• et s'ils sont prêts à suivre son exem- exact as Bentham's Calculus, it did em• dence towards a confirmation of the re• pie.122 ploy the general principles of utility. cent emphasis on progressivism.117 However, even in Montreal, lingering an• Reformers found more immediate exam• The public-private dichotomy also ap• tecedents and developing precedents ples in English Canada, or at least On• pears in the idea of public service, a con• can be found alongside the dominant ide• tario, than in Europe. The United States cept that presumes a separation of ology. was similarly prominent. Olivar Asselin public and private spheres. Thus, when published a pamphlet on the Galveston Le Nationaliste argued that municipal em• Amérique française ? model's application to Montreal.123 Other ployees, as public servants, owed their precedents were probed in New York, allegiance to the public, it assumed that By the early twentieth century, English Vermont, Massacheusetts, Wisconsin, corruption subverted this public duty.115 Canadian liberalism and some collective Iowa, Ontario and Nova Scotia.124 Com• Similarly, reformers presented the activities had become compatible.118 For parisons were sought across the conti• elected members of the Board of Control instance, business worked collectively nent, but were "impossible entre as public servants, preferable to "les through organizations like the Canadian Montréal et aucune autre ville du conti• échevins professionels" who had cor• Manufacturers Association, and bureau• nent américain."125 Despite this, no one rupted the notion.116 The idea that only cratization implied a qualified accep• turned to Europe for solutions to North the Board of Control could redress cor• tance of collective action. The reform American problems. ruption united reform with the ideal of rhetoric's similar accommodation of cer• public service. Thus, the liberal ideal of tain forms of collective action demon• The Americanness of the reform rhetoric government as public service encour• strates that English- and suggests that urban francophones, be• aged acceptance of reform. French-Canadian liberalism experienced ing North American in both outlook and similar developments. Despite this, Cana• inspiration, relied on European traditions The rhetoric on municipal reform demon• dian intellectual history continues to de• less than is often claimed. Given the strates that, while the popular press pict québécois intellectual traditions as magnitude of French-Canadian emigra• shared many assumptions, within these more European that North American. tion to the textile mills of New England, assumptions there was room for diver• Francophone leaders such as Olivar and accepting that culture crosses territo• gence. Often the same paper or individ• Asselin and , so the de• rial frontiers more easily than do people, ual held divergent views. The wide piction asserts, toiled oblivious to the the Anglo-French language barrier ap• audience of newspaper readership work of Stephen Leacock and Andrew pears less firm.126 Although québécois opened the reform rhetoric to a variety of McPhail, though all four were Montreal- reform reveals unique characteristics, elements in Montreal's political culture. ers.119 Meanwhile, G.-A. Nantel mod• such as the reluctance to embrace ex• Within its range were such concepts as elled his beautification plans on the pert aid, or the Technical Commission, it• direct democracy, representative govern• reforms of Paris and the Parisian model self a unique formulation, it must be ment and technocracy. All, however, inspired the architecture of Montreal's placed in a North American context. As• clustered around a liberal discourse. City Hall buildings.120 However, English suming a North American outlook and in• While the primacy of the individual was Canada, not France, supplied the mod• spiration, one might also assume that the generally assumed, collective identities els for the reform rhetoric of 1909. On the political ideas of this continent had pene• were able to co-exist with individualism surface, this seems understandable. The trated québécois society. Without over-

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stating this commonness, the rhetoric sur• Notes 13. Jacques Mathieu and Jacques Lacoursière, Les rounding Montreal municipal reform in mémoires québécoises (Sainte-Foy, 1991). 1909 does suggest a degree of cross- 1. Annick Germain, "L'émergence d'une scène poli• 14. Graham Lowe, Women in the Administrative cultural contact that is not often assumed. tique: mouvement ouvrier et mouvement de Revolution (Toronto, 1987), pp. 30-31; p. 49. réforme urbaine à Montréal au tournant du siècle," Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française 15. John Irwin Cooper, Montreal: A Brief History Conclusion (septembre 1983), p. 186. (Montreal, 1969), pp. 124-125.

2. Ronald Rudin, "Boosting the French Canadian 16. Germain, op cit., pp. 187-189; Michel Gauvin, This article suggests that a large number Town: Municipal Government and Urban Growth "The Reformer and the Machine: Montreal Civic of academic assessments of French-Ca• in Quebec, 1850-1900," Urban History Review Politics from Raymond Préfontaine to Mérédic nadian attitudes toward the city and its (June 1982), p. 9. The most notable exception is: Martin," Journal of Canadian Studies (Summer state are inadequate. The city was not P.-A. Linteau, Maison neuve (Montreal, 1981). 1978), p. 17. foreign to québécois culture as Denis 3. Michel Brunet, "Trois dominantes de la pensée 17. Gauvin, op cit., p. 17. Monière suggested. Indeed, far from sid• canadienne-française: l'agriculture, l'anti-éta- 18. La Patrie, 28 avril 1909. ing with the opponents of reform, the fran• tisme et le messianisme," La présence anglaise cophone popular press embraced the et les Canadiens {Montréal, 1964), pp. 113-166. 19. Andrée Lévesque, "Eteindre le Red Light Les Fernand Dumont, "Du début du siècle à la crise North American reform tradition. If La réformateurs et la prostitution à Montréal entre de 1929: Un espace idéologique," in Dumont et 1865 et 1925," Urban History Review'(February Croix can be taken to represent the cleri• a/(eds). Idéologies au Canada français, 1900- 1989), p. 193; Robert Rumilly, Histoire de Mon• cal community, then it did oppose re• 1929 (Quebec, 1974), p. 12. Fernand Dumont, tréal (Montreal 1972), p. 404. form, but La Croix was a marginal weekly "La représentation idéologique des classes au 20. Rumilly, op cit., p. 400; Olivar Asselin, The Mont• paper whose voice was far outweighed Canada français," Recherches sociographiques (janvier-avril 1965), p. 15. real Graft inquiry, Its Funny Side and Its Serious by others. In the main, the francophone Side (Montreal, 1909), p. 6. popular press was divided by a number 4. Denis Monière, Le développement des idéolo• 21. Kaplan, op cit., p. 326 lists the two key factors as of issues, but overriding that division gies au Québec des origines à nos jours (Mont• real, 1977), p. 230 a traditional culture that blurred distinctions be• were the basic assumptions of early- tween politics and religion, and partisan divisions twentieth-century liberalism. Essentially 5. Bernard Vigod, "History According to the among the reformers themselves. liberal, québécois political culture was Boucher Report: Some Reflections on the State and Social Welfare in Quebec Before the Quiet 22. Cooper, op cit., p. 133. neither uncompromising nor unchanging. Revolution," in Allan Moscovitch and Jim Albert 23. Gauvin, op cit., pp. 20-21. This snapshot of québécois ideology re• (eds). The Benevolent State: The Growth of So• veals a changing rhetoric that, with hind• cial Welfare in Canada (Toronto, 1987), p. 178. 24. Rumilly, op cit., p. 402. sight, can be seen adapting to the social 6. Ralph Heintzman, "The Political Culture of Que• 25. Canadian Who's Who v. 1, p. 167; pp. 42-43. imperatives of the modern, industrial bec, 1840-1960," Canadian Journal of Political Quebec, Legislative Assembly, Journals, p. 40. age. Similarly, francophones looked to Science (March 1983) pp. 3-59. 26. Cooper, op cit., p. 133. the municipal state to make parallel ad• 7. Ibid., p. 27. aptations. While such assumptions sug• 27. Quebec, Legislative Assembly, Journals, p. 40; gest a faith in liberal democracy, the 8. Harvey Boulay and Alan DiGaetano, "Why did Po• p. 120; p. 138; p. 358; p. 372; p. 525; p. 534; p. litical Machines Disappear?" Journal of Urban 635; Legislative Council, Journals, pp. 142-143; reform rhetoric revealed a curious am• History (November 1985), p. 36. p. 147; p. 183; pp. 194-195. bivalence towards the idea of popular sovereignty. Although the referendum 9. J.P. Fitzpatrick, "Catholics and Corruption," 28. La Presse, 21 septembre 1909. Thought (1962), pp. 379-390. campaign demanded calls on popular 29. Rumilly, op cit., p. 405. sovereignty, francophone reformers 10. Paul Rutherford, "Tomorrow's Metropolis: The Ur• 30. La Presse, 11 septembre 1909. shared the distrust of the electorate dem• ban Reform Movement in Canada, 1880-1920," Canadian Historical Association, Historical Pa• 31. Edward VII c.82. s 2 (21/). onstrated by anglophone reformers in pers, 1972, p. 212. Ontario and the Prairies. In conclusion, 32. Stephen Leacock, Arcadian Adventures of the the complexity of the rhetoric of urban po• 11. Fernande Roy, Progrès, harmonie, liberté (Mont• Idle Rich (Toronto, 1914), p. 309; See also Chris• real, 1988); see also Linteau, Maisonneuve, op litical culture suggests that similar intrica• topher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles, Monopoly's cit., and his Histoire du Québec contemporain Moment (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 101-107. cies might be found elsewhere in the v.1. (Montreal, 1979), esp. pp. 308-312. political culture. 33. Asselin, Montreal Graft Inquiry, op cit., pp. 14-15. 12. Harold Kaplan, Reform, Planning, and City Poli• tics: Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto (Toronto, 1982), 34. Biographes Canadiennes-françaises y. 3, p. 135. p. 326. 35. Gauvin, op cit., p.. 21.

30 Urban Review I Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XXIII, No. 2 i, 1995 mars) Ward Heelers and Honest Men

36. John Weaver, "Elitism and the Corporate Ideal: 55. Le Nationaliste, 12 septembre 1909. 84. La Presse, 28 août 1909. Businessmen and Boosterism in Canadian Civic Reform, 1890-1920," in A.R. McCormack and I 56. Ibid., 19 septembre 1909. 85. La Patrie, 3 septembre 1909; La Presse, 10 sep• tembre 1909. Macpherson (eds) Cities in the West (Ottawa, 57. Le Canada, 18 août 1909. 1975), p. 53. 86. "Un manifeste des ouvriers," La Presse, 1 sep• 58. Ibid., 20 août 1909; La Presse, 19 août 1909. tembre 1909. 37. Cooper, op cit., p. 135. 59. La Presse, 19 août 1909. 87. Jacques Rouillard, "L'action politique ouvrière, 38. Guy Bourassa, "Les élites de Montréal: De l'aris• 1899-1915," in Idéologies au Canada français, tocratie à la démocratie," in R. Desrosiers (ed) Le 60. Ibid., 21 août 1909. 1900-1929, opcit., p. 310. personnel politique québécois (Montreal, 1972), 61. Ibid., 31 juillet 1909. pp. 117-142. The quotation is from Andrew Sanc• 88. Michel Pêcheux, "L'étrange miroir de l'analyse ton, Governing the Island of Montreal (Berkeley, 62. For examples see La Patrie, 16 juin; 11 septem• de discours," Langages (juin 1981), p. 7. 1985), p. 24. bre 1909; La Presse, 2 septembre; 14 septem• bre; 15 septembre 1909; Le Canada, 17 89. La Presse, 9 août 1909. 39. Ralph Fasold et ai, "The Language-Planning Ef• septembre 1909; Le Nationaliste, 12 septembre fect of Newspaper Editorial Policy: Gender Differ• 90. Ibid., 7 septembre 1909. This is the only point in 1909. ences in The Washington Post" Language in the campaign at which a major paper distin• Society (December 1990), p. 522. See also Mur• 63. Le Nationaliste, 13 juin; 12 septembre 1909. guished between different labour leaders. ray Edelman, Constructing the Political Spectacle 91. Ibid., 18 août 1909. (Chicago, 1987), p. 104. 64. See especially Le Canada, 17 septembre 1909. 92. La Patrie, 24 mars 1909. 40. Gilles Bourque and Jules Duchastel, Restons tra• 65. La Presse, 23 août 1909. ditionnels et progressifs (Montreal, 1988), p. 34 66. Roy, op cit. 93. Ibid., 4 septembre 1909. 41. Jean-Jacques Courtine, "Quelques problèmes 67. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (Hew York, 1956). 94. Mackenzie King's Industrial Disputes Investiga• théoriques et méthodologiques en analyse du tion Act makes a similar presentation, Christo• discours, à propos du discours communiste 68. La Patrie, 10 mai 1909. pher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles, Monopoly's adressé aux chrétiens," Langages (juin 1981), p. Moment (Philadelphia, 1986), pp. 240-241. 9. 69. La Presse, 27 avril 1909. 95. Raymond Williams, Keywords (London, 1976), 70. See for example, Le Canada, 10 août 1909. 42. Alderman Giroux cited in Le Canada, 22 avril p. 59. 1909; 23 avril 1909. 71. La Presse, 13 septembre 1909. 96. Le Canada, 31 juillet 1909. 43. La Presse, 3 avril 1909. 72. La Patrie, 15 septembre 1909. 97. La Presse, 15 juin 1909. 44. Ibid., 25 juin 1909. 73. Le Canada, 15 septembre 1909. 98. Cooper, op cit., p. 134; Le Nationaliste, 12 sep• 45. La Patrie, 23 août 1909. 74. La Presse, 7 avril 1909; La Patrie, 1 juin 1909. tembre 1909.

46. Le Nationaliste, 22 août 1909. 75. La Patrie, 14 avril 1909. 99. La Presse, 9 août 1909.

47. Ibid., 22 août 1909. 76. Compare Heintzman's "Political Culture of Que- 100. Joseph Levitt, Henri Bourassa and the Golden bec," op cit., p. 19 with Bernard Vigod, Quebec Calf (Ottawa, 1972), pp. 143-144. 48. Le Canada, 14 août 1909. Before Duplessis: The Political Career of Louis-Al• 101. Armstrong and Nelles, opcit., p. 147; see also 49. Ibid., 17 août 1909. exandre Taschereau(Kingston and Montreal, Levitt, opcit., p. 111. 1986), p. 101. 50. La Patrie, 8 septembre 1909, emphasis added; 102. La Presse, 28 avril 1909. see also 11 septembre where reform came 77. La Patrie, 14 septembre 1909. "Grace au gouvernement." 103. La Patrie, 8 mai 1909. 78. Ronald Rudin has noted a similar "sugar-coat• 51. La Presse, 23 août 1909. ing" of ethnic relations in recent Quebec histori• 104. Ibid., 12 août 1909. See also 22 avril; 7 juin; 14 ography. See his "Revisionism and the Search juillet; 10 août 1909. 52. Kaplan, op cit., p. 167; pp. 190-194. for a Normal Society: A Critique of Recent Que• 105. Le Canada, 24 avril; 7 mai 1909. 53. Despite coming during the campaign, G.-A. Nan- bec Historical Writing," Canadian Historical Re• view (March 1992), p. 38. tel's death received only a minor note in La Croix, 106. P.A. Dutil, "The Politics of Progressivism in Que- 5 juin 1909. 79. Le Canada, 1 septembre 1909. bec: The Gouin 'Coup' Revisited, " Canadian Historical Review (December, 1988), pp. 444- 54. While the system of checks and balances could 80. La Patrie, 27 août 1909; Rumilly, op cit., p. 404. 445. stem form Montesqieu and not America, the high visibility of American examples in the reform 81. Le Bulletin, 29 août 1909. 107. Heintzman had suspected this in his stress on rhetoric suggests that the United States did pro• "modernism" in his "The Struggle for Life: The 82. Le Nationaliste, 22 août 1909. vide the immediate inspiration. French Daily Press of Montreal and the Prob- 83. Asselin, Montreal Graft Inquiry, op cit., p. 15.

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lems of Economic Growth in the Age of Laurier, 116. Curiously, the virtues of professionalism encour• Montreal. Public Relations Department. Mont• 1896-1911" PHD (York), 1977, pp. 624-625. aged in private affairs were seen as a vice in real and its Government - A Brief Note on the public affairs. History and Administration of the City of Mont• 108. Le Nationaliste, 19 septembre 1909. real (1972), p. 6. 117. See Rudin, "Revisionism and the Search for a 109. Le Canada, 18 août 1909. Normal Society," op cit., p. 55. 121. La Patrie, 9 juillet 1909. 110. La Croix, 3 juillet 1909. 118. Allen Smith, "The Myth of the Self-Made Man in 122. Ibid., 1 juillet 1909. 111. L'Événement, 22 septembre 1909. English Canada, 1850-1914," Canadian Histori• cal Review (June 1978), pp. 207-208. 123. Olivar Asselin, Le problème municipal: Le leçon 112. La Croix, 3 juillet 1909. Italics in original. que Montréal doit tirer de l'expérience des Etats- 119. R.C. Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896- Unis (Montreal, 1909). 113. Armstrong and Nelles, op cit., p. 148. 1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto, 1974), p. 164. 124. Le Canada, 15 avril 1909. 114. Le Canada, 15 septembre 1909. 120. Paul Rutherford, Saving the Canadian City: The 125. La Presse, 21 août 1909. 115. Le Nationaliste, 23 mai 1909. First Phase, 1880-1920 (Toronto, 1974), p. xiv. 126. Mathieu and Lacoursière, op cit., p. 125.

32 Urban History Review I Revue d'histoire urbaine Vol. XXIII, No. 2 (March, 1995 mars)