John A. Macdonald. Ged Martin

Toronto and privilege had shouldered aside the self-made lawyer from Kingston. For twenty years, Cameron remained Macdonald’s rival in the Conservative party.

      Macdonald made his ambitions clear when he renewed his law partnership with Alexander Campbell in September 1846 for a further three years. Campbell received a larger share of the profits — and would be paid still more if Macdonald accepted political office. In December, Draper made Macdonald a Queen’s Counsel. This promotion to senior legal rank allowed him to charge higher fees, and to use a junior barrister — Campbell of course — as his gopher in court cases. If Macdonald quit Parliament, he would have gained something from his time in politics. If he stayed, he was marked out as a potential attorney-

       general (justice minister). An angry Toronto newssheet denounced his elevation as “another deep insult offered to the Canadian people”: the mottoes “corruption” and “incapacity” should be sewn on his new silk gown. The twice-weekly Globe was a minor nuisance, run by a young Scotsman called George Brown. Brown belonged to a breakaway Presbyterian church which delighted in denouncing sinners — a strategy incompatible with building political alliances. But, within a decade, the Globe became the most powerful newspaper in Upper Canada and Brown’s the loudest voice in the Reform party — with Macdonald the special target for his venom.

      Macdonald perhaps never saw the Globe’s first attack on him. His wife had travelled north from Georgia but was still reluctant to return to Kingston. The couple arranged to celebrate Christmas 1846 in New York, and celebrate they certainly did. Isabella soon discovered that, at the age of thirty-seven, she was expecting her first child: in her weakened state, she might not survive childbirth. Although pregnancies were managed by female relatives, Macdonald briefly considered dropping out of Parliament. However, he decided to return to Montreal for “the last act of my short political career,” a renewed attack on the bigoted Tories who made the Conservative party “stink in the nostrils of all liberal minded people.” In fact, he was appointed to Cabinet. He claimed to be “quite taken by surprise,” but Draper’s comment — “Your turn has come at last” — suggests Macdonald had pressed his claims. The new governor general, Lord Elgin, described Macdonald as “a person of consideration” among the moderate Conservatives whose appointment would strengthen the ministry. Critics pointed to his lack of experience and his low profile in Parliament: the Globe loftily dismissed him as “harmless,” a judgment it soon revised.

      Becoming a Cabinet minister at thirty-two was an achievement. Office-holders were styled “Honourable” for life: he was now the Hon. John A. Unfortunately, Macdonald had joined a failing government. Elections were due and, since Lord Elgin was under orders from Britain to be neutral, the Conservatives had no chance of repeating their narrow victory of 1844. As Macdonald recalled years later, “we went to a general election knowing well that we should be defeated.” But for a young politician, it is a good long-term investment to join a government facing defeat: in the opposition years that follow, the novice can grow into a party heavyweight. Both Laurier and Mackenzie King founded their future careers on joining short-lived Cabinets.

      Macdonald was appointed receiver-general, responsible for collecting government revenue. However, the only proposal that he put to Parliament dealt with university funding. His scheme planned to split funds allocated for higher education among four small Church-run colleges, which together catered for only a few dozen students. Macdonald’s interest in the issue probably reflected his own regrets at his incomplete education. Dividing the funds appealed to his sense of fairness, although it helped that two of the four beneficiaries, Presbyterian Queen’s and Catholic Regiopolis, were located in Kingston. Unfortunately, Macdonald’s compromise collapsed when the Tories demanded all the money for the Anglicans.