Ontario Throne Speeches Through the Lens of Mass Media by James Cairns This paper presents highlights from a larger study that examines shifts in twentieth century coverage of the ceremonial Opening of the Ontario Legislature. The first 2008 CanLIIDocs 340 section summarizes limitations of traditional approaches to parliamentary openings. The second section identifies changes to ways in which newspapers have approached and described the legislative opening over the past century. The concluding section makes generalizations about parliamentary institutions and political culture. ommunication scholars in Canada have long ob- Standard Approaches to Parliamentary Openings served that “the media form our psychic environ- Cment, especially with respect to matters beyond Political science interpretations of the legislative open- our direct personal experience, a realm into which most ing in Canada are conceptually restricted by a prevailing aspects of politics fall.”1 British sociologist John B. disposition to view the event as an exclusively parlia- Thompson uses the term “mediated publicness” in mentary affair. In what little writing has been done on drawingattentiontowaysinwhichcommunication the topic, the opening tends to be described as part of: the technologies such as newspapers, television, and the administration of parliament, the ceremonial functions internet foster a sense of communal experience among of the Crown, or the government’s (explicit or hidden) distant and diverse political observers.2 Clearly mass agenda. Political science textbooks take the same tack: media are key to how people conceive of themselves as they interpret the opening as the commencement of a parts of larger political communities. But as Thompson’s new legislative session; or as a commemoration of Can- term implies, it is important to bear in mind the fact that ada’s British heritage; or as a list of government policy media not only transmit political information, but also proposals. help to frame the very ways in which political reality is It should come as no surprise that parliamentary is- understood. The idea is crucial to parliamentary studies sues are well represented in scholarly texts. The opening because it suggests that the reality-making functions of is a parliamentary affair; but is it exclusively thus? Bear- mass media both depend upon and reveal shared under- ing in mind the three perspectives from which political standings of the meaning of political institutions. scientists typically view the civic ritual, it becomes ap- parent that what has been consistently excluded from de- bate is the People. The event is the promise of parliamentary politics, in both literal and figurative senses of the term. But how is this affair brought to life James Cairns is a graduate student at Ryerson University in Toronto. outside the walls of parliament? The question is never This article is based on his doctoral thesis entitled “From Social asked. Although the citizenry is not the only audience for Celebration to Politics as Usual: Newspaper coverage of the which the opening is performed, it does constitute a sig- Legislative Opening in Ontario, 1900-2007.” The author wishes to thank Kate Cairns, Rick Cairns, Frederick J. Fletcher, and David E. nificant audience, perhaps not by rule, but certainly by Smith for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper, as well as the convention. Where are citizens located in relation to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for financial legislative opening? support. AUTUMN 2008/CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW 21 Opening the Legislature Through the Lens of Mass social groups, or include reaction from government Media supporters and opponents. For example, after one full column describing the scene and setting at Queen’s Park, “For the majority of citizens in mass societies such as a Star story from 1915 reads, “The Speech from the Canada, the principal continuing connection to leaders Throne points out that there is a marked deficit to be met and institutions is provided by the words, sounds, and by the Province, and predicts special taxation to meet the images circulating in the mass media.”3 Therefore, in situation. Other measures predicted are the Moratorium practice, to think about the meaning for citizens of the Act, changes in the Workmen’s Compensation Act, amend- legislative opening is to think about news coverage of the ments to the Liquor License Act, improved boiler inspec- legislative opening. How was the meaning of the Open- tion, and good roads legislation.”9 It is almost impossible ing of the Legislature in Ontario represented in main- to imagine a time when talk of provincial deficits and stream newspapers between 1900 and 2007?4 taxes came after details about the “full State ceremonial” In the first four decades of the twentieth century, and the “gubernatorial procession”, not to mention a newspapers represented the ceremony itself – the scene time when the ritual’s policy features were unaccompa- and setting at Queen’s Park—as the most salient feature nied by reaction from politicians and extra-parliamen- 2008 CanLIIDocs 340 of the Opening of the Legislature. tary associations. Yet, as a rule, critical policy analysis In addition to fulfilling constitutional obligations, the was suspended for the day. opening was understood to be “a social function. Mere Drawing on the language of vaudevillian show-busi- statesmen were backed into the obscurity of the back ness to explain the meaning and popularity of the event seats... while society had its fling. And what a day society at Queen’s Park, in 1905 the Telegram opined that “The made of it!”5 The crush of the crowd, the dazzling attire of opening of a Legislature is a combination of a society pa- guests, and the stateliness of the royal procession were rade, a military pageant and a political demonstration. A held up as examples of Ontario’s wealth and prosperity. promoter who could enroll all these interests on behalf of In 1905, for example, the Toronto Star interpreted the his scheme would not need to write home for money.”10 “scene inside the chamber” not simply as confirmation of Although made partly in jest, the observation neatly the social elite’s ability to throw a good party, but as “in- summarizes the way in which newspapers in the first disputable proof... that Ontario is a prosperous and pro- half of the twentieth century framed the legislative open- gressive Province.”6 ing. Certainly policy promises and political parties were News stories tended to be organized in chronological understood to be central parts of the affair; but in general, order. They began with the arrival of spectators on the newspapers portrayed the ritual’s multiple, at times con- legislative grounds (many of whom took up positions in tradictory, and far from exclusively legislative meanings the public galleries between three and five hours in ad- to be its defining quality. vance of the Throne Speech), and proceeded through the The pivotal trend in postwar coverage of the legisla- spectacle of the official procession, through administra- tive opening has been the rise to dominance of the Speech tive procedures and the Speech from the Throne, and from the Throne. In today’s store of assumed journalistic concluded at the post-Speech tea-party typically held in knowledge, the significance of the proposed legislative the lieutenant governor’s suite. The ceremony was de- agenda has become such that even reporters in the scribed as being especially important to women, for prior Queen’s Park press gallery are unlikely to refer to the to 1944 it constituted the lone legitimate opportunity for opening as anything other than “Throne Speech day.”11 women to sit on the floor of Ontario’s Legislative Assem- Taken as evidence of conceptual shifts transpiring over bly. Even after the extension of the franchise in 1917, the course of the twentieth century, this lexical revision women’s place on the floor at the opening was newswor- suggests that the meaning of the event has changed not in thy: in 1925, for example, “a view from the gallery degree but in kind. The Table shows that the dominant showed a feminist millennium, a parliament of man be- journalistic storyline of earlier times was turned on its come a parliament of women”.7 Newspaper pages for head in the postwar era. women listed names of hundreds of guests and de- Contemporary interpretations of the legislative open- scribed, in detail, the gowns of “Ontario’s feminine offi- ing’s significance are exemplified by newspaper pages cialdom.”8 dedicated exclusively to the Speech from the Throne. Coverage of the Throne Speech tended to consist of one These “Throne Speech pages” (or page) reside some- or two large stories dealing with the legislative agenda as where within a newspaper’s first section. Though known a whole. Newspaper analysis did not parse the contents to carry more than a dozen news items on different pol- of the Speech, assess their potential impact on different icy proposals, this new form of news is distinguished by 22 CANADIAN PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW/AUTUMN 2008 Comparing Themes of Newspaper Coverage of the Legislative Opening Total number of items Primary theme is scene Primary theme is Throne and setting Speech/partisan politics 1900-1945 1950-2007 1900-1945 1950-2007 1900-1945 1950-2007 Globe and Mail 83 119 58 (70%) 40 (34%) 25 (30%) 79 (66%) Toronto Daily Star 76 163 45 (59%) 45 (28%) 31 (41%) 118 (72%) Toronto Evening Telegram / Sun 76 143 63 (83%) 55 (38%) 13 (17%) 88 (62%) Total 235