at a time when the decline of French in the West seemed inevitable.
Macdonald foresaw the inevitable concentration of the French language in Québec and its gradual disappearance elsewhere in Canada. “The people of Québec . . . wisely, I think, desire to settle the lands as yet unoccupied in their province and to add to their influence in eastern Ontario. The consequence is that Manitoba and the Northwest Territories are becoming what British Columbia now is, wholly English—with English laws, English, or rather British, immigration, and, I may add, English prejudices.”
Macdonald’s French-speaking colleagues wanted him to fight for the hard-earned rights of their brethren living outside Québec. But his English-speaking colleagues disagreed. With a divided caucus, Macdonald had to walk a fine line, opting for local self-determination and mutual respect on issues of language. “There is no paramount race in this country; there is no conquered race in this country; we are all British subjects, and those who are not English are nonetheless British subjects on that account . . . we must take great care, Mr. Speaker, that while we are calming the agitation and soothing the agitated feelings of the people of Québec, we are not arousing the feelings of the free men of the northwest by passing a resolution which postpones for an indefinite time, it may be a long period, a question which we can see, from the resolution they have adopted, that they are greatly interested.”
When a Liberal member from Québec moved an amendment that abolition of language rights in the Northwest Territories was inappropriate, he was supported by every French-speaking member of Parliament and opposed by almost every English-speaking member. Parliament was divided not along the lines of party, but along the lines of race, English and French.
Macdonald offered an unconvincing pretense of national unity after the federal government allowed the Northwest Territories more autonomy on language laws. Macdonald had deluded himself into thinking that issues respecting the French language would go away: “Let us forget this cry, and we shall have our reward in seeing this unfortunate fire, which has been kindled from so small a spark, extinguished forever, and we shall go on, as we have been going on since 1867, as one people.”
Having responded to problems in the Northwest Territories, Macdonald was confronted with new challenges in Manitoba. In 1890, the Manitoba Legislature unilaterally abolished legal guarantees for the use of the French language in the public school system. The federal government was called upon to disallow the legislation. As in the NorthWest, Macdonald was opposed to political intervention by the federal government, favouring a local resolution to the issue. Macdonald washed his hands of the matter in this letter to a French language resident of Manitoba: “I am strongly of [the] opinion that the only mode by which the separate school question can be satisfactorily settled in your province is by an open appeal to the courts.” The will of the majority, the letter suggests, was stronger than the provisions of the Constitution of the land.
As Macdonald faced domestic challenges, he still sought a better deal for Canada abroad. Increasingly, Canada was frustrated at being represented in the United States by a diplomat from Great Britain. CharlesTupper wrote to Macdonald urging him to take a stand on the matter.
In 1890, Macdonald was 75 and not up for many more battles with Britain or the United States. But despite his age, he did indeed have one more election to fight. He would die in office, he reasoned, fighting for his vision of strong and independent Canada, inextricably linked with Great Britain and firmly independent from the Americans. In a speech he could just as easily have delivered 30 years previously, Macdonald told the nation that he was in a fight to save it from the vultures in the United States who wanted Canada to fail. “Every American statesman covets Canada. The greed for its acquisition is still on the increase, and God knows where it will all end. . . .We must face the fight at our next election, and it is only the conviction that the battle will be better fought under my guidance than under another that makes me undertake the task, handicapped as I am, with the infirmities of old age.”
Parliament was dissolved on February 2, 1891 and Macdonald went to the people with the same national policies and ballot questions that had defined his career. “The question which you will shortly be called upon to determine resolves itself into this: shall we endanger our possession of the great heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers, and submit ourselves to direct taxation for the privilege of having our tariff fixed at Washington, with the prospect of ultimately becoming a portion of the American Union? . . . As for myself, the course is clear. A British subject I was born, a British subject I will die.”
On March 5, 1891, Macdonald won his sixth election, besting his Liberal opponent, Québec native son Wilfrid Laurier, 117 to 90. The Liberals won Québec by the narrow margin of 33 to 27. Once again, the shadow of Riel affected Macdonald, even if minimally.
But Macdonald’s electoral win was soon eclipsed by his rapidly declining health. A few short months after his election victory, on Friday, May 29, 1891, a sombre Sir Hector Langevin addressed the House of Commons. “I have the painful duty to announce to the house that the news from Earnscliffe just received is that the First Minister has had a relapse, and that he is in a most critical condition. We have reports from the medical men in attendance on the right honorable gentleman, and they do not seem to believe that he can live many hours longer.”
The legislature was adjourned. A hush fell over the nation. Macdonald died at 10:15 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, 1891.
Macdonald’s testament declared, “I desire that I shall be buried in the Kingston cemetery near the grave of my mother, as I promised her that I should be there buried.”
Since its founding, Canada had been guided by only one man. His vision, his determination, and his skill forged a nation and sustained its unity. Had the gristle of Canada, as he once called it, hardened into bone? Had Macdonald created a country that could survive his passing?
SECTION II - THE FOLLOWERS
CHAPTER 4
JOHN ABBOTT: THE RELUCTANT LEADER
I hate politics, and what are considered their appropriate methods. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses, and everything that I know of that is apparently the necessary incident of politics— except doing public work to the best of my ability.
Macdonald could not be replaced. Indeed, the Tory party would go through its second, third, fourth and be on its fifth leader before the next election was held. Dwarfed by Macdonald or burdened by ill health, none of these men made much of an imprint on the Tory party, although three sat in Macdonald’s chair as prime minister of Canada. They are best known as the followers to Macdonald.
The unenviable task of following Sir John A. was given to John Abbott. He accepted this duty reluctantly. However, ill health and a brief tenure prevented him from making much of a mark as prime minister.
John Joseph Caldwell Abbott was born on March 12, 1821 in St. Andrew’s, Lower Canada, moving to the Montréal area in 1843, where Abbott’s father, once an Anglican missionary, became secretary of McGill College.
John Abbott was a brilliant student with a prodigious work ethic. He was admitted to the Québec bar in 1847 and made dean of the McGill Law faculty in 1855 where he served until 1880. One of Abbott’s more notable students was a future Liberal prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier.
In addition to a career in academia, Abbott was one of the highest paid lawyers in the province, a help in raising four daughters and four sons with his wife Mary. His business success included leading and building the Canada Central Railway, a key link in the transcontinental line. From 1885–1891, largely while sitting as a senator and Cabinet minister, Abbott served on the board of directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was a rich man who collected rare books and cultivated orchids.
When Abbott attended the first ever meeting of the Law Society of Lower Canada on July 24, 1849, he signed the “Annexation Manifesto,” a document that promoted a political union between Canada and the U.S. Abbott eventually changed his mind on annexation and was occasionally asked to explain what he called his “outburst of petulance.” Later in life he vehemently opposed trade reciprocity