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Robert Borden and the Election of 1911

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Heath Macquarrie
Heath Macquarrie*
Affiliation:
Ottawa
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Extract

The general election of 1911 was one of the most significant in Canadian history. Not only did it bring crushing defeat to the long-triumphant forces of Laurier Liberalism but it was also a decisive expression of Canadian sentiment on the subject of commercial relations with the United States. Success in this, his third electoral contest, saved Robert Borden from political oblivion and opened for him new vistas of opportunity and new avenues of achievement. The true measure of his ability as a party chieftain was revealed in the great struggle over reciprocity which shook the usually apathetic Canadian electorate during the summer of 1911. It is one of the ironies of history that the issue which brought down the Liberals in this election was one of their own choosing. The Conservatives who had at first feared the reciprocity issue eventually found it to contain potent emotional ingredients making for their own triumph. In his handling of reciprocity, the one decisive issue, Borden showed a masterly finesse which had not been apparent in his earlier attempts to win the support of his fellow Canadians.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , August 1959 , pp. 271 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1959

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References

1 Sir Charles Tupper said that Laurier's handling of reciprocity proved that he was neither a politician nor a statesman. A politician would have dissolved Parliament when the agreement was first presented. A statesman would never have made the agreement. Willison, J. S., Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Toronto, 1926), 407.Google Scholar Borden's view on Laurier's strategy is revealed in a letter he wrote many years afterwards. “Of course we should have been overwhelmingly defeated, if as soon as the fight in parliament had begun, the government had dissolved parliament and gone to the country.” Public Archives of Canada, Borden Papers, Post-1921 Series, Borden to Dafoe, Dec. 17, 1931, p. 150605.

2 After the election, Borden, in a letter to an English friend, recalled the first weeks of the reciprocity struggle. “Nearly forty percent of our party were either stampeded or terrified by the reciprocity proposals of the late government. All the waverers with perhaps two individual exceptions, pulled themselves together within the next two months.” Borden Papers, O.C. 44, Borden to L. S. Amery, Jan. 20, 1913.

3 Foster was one of the ablest platform speakers in Canada and was much in demand. He spoke in the Maritimes and the central provinces. At his New Brunswick meetings “Rule Britannia” was a favourite opening song.

4 Haultain's position was difficult, especially since he had always sought to keep the provincial and federal arenas separate. His decision to oppose reciprocity indicates his high regard for Borden and the extent of Conservative party unity.

5 The C.M.A. presented its memorial to the Government on January 13. The arguments then presented were put forward again and again in succeeding months by politicians and manufacturers. It was argued that the Canadian market consumed 80 per cent of the farm produce of Canada and it would, therefore, be unwise for Canadian farmers to put their dependence on the American market and lose their privileged position in their own. Organized business men were generally in strong opposition to the measure from the first. Many boards of trade passed resolutions condemning it, although Vancouver and Calgary went on record as approving it.

6 Fruit growers feared competition in the home market from the earlier-maturing products of American growers.

7 Canadian millers believed that the reciprocity agreement would be very hard on them because of the likelihood that Canadian wheat would go south to be milled in United States centres that were nearer the Canadian source of supply.

8 In letter to Charles Chaput who later assumed a major role in the Anti-Reciprocity League. Van Home's letter was later made public and given prominence in Conservative newspapers. See Halifax, Herald, 03 8, 1911.Google Scholar

9 Rogers was a close friend of his; Lash, a vice-president of Canadian Northern, was his confidant and associate; and he had close ties with Cochrane, Hughes, and other members of the parliamentary group.

10 Published in leading dailies Sept. 21. Well over a quarter of a million immigrants had come to Canada from Britain since the 1908 election. In many constituencies the British-born could be regarded as a decisive marginal group.

11 The credit or the reverse of setting in motion powers which ultimately destroyed the pact must go to parties and interests, which for reasons having nothing to do with party ambitions, took the field against it. First of these assailants in point of time, and ultimately in influence was Clifford Sifton.” Dafoe, J. W., Clifford Sifton in Relation to His Times (Toronto, 1931), 359.Google Scholar

12 Canada Year Book (1912), 6.Google Scholar

13 Two of the dissidents, Lloyd Harris and W. H. German, bolted the party on the reciprocity issue.

14 Interestingly enough, the American press was strongly in favour of reciprocity which, it was hoped, would bring down the price of newsprint.

15 Montreal, Star, 09 8, p. 19.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., Feb. 6,1911.

17 Canada, House of Commons Debates (hereafter cited as Debates), p. 3563.Google Scholar

18 Aug. 13, 1911, as quoted in Canadian Annual Review, 240.

19 Borden Papers, O.C. 46, Whitney to Borden, Jan. 27, 1911.

20 Quoted in Canadian Annual Review, 249, from a speech delivered at Cranbrook Sept. 12.

21 At Winchester Springs, Aug. 21. After the election a Liberal M.P., R. Bickerdike of Montreal, said that the man who defeated reciprocity had been dead a long time but he had written “Rule Britannia”! Ibid., 267.

22 Congressional Record, 61st Congress, 3rd session, 2520.

23 “Canada being one of the more important units of the British Empire, has manifestly no desire to weaken the connection with the mother country. On the contrary, a conscious effort, prompted largely by sentiment, has been directed towards the strengthening of imperial ties. … The friends of British preference scented in reciprocity a possible danger to the integrity of the Empire.” (“Why Canada Rejected Reciprocity” by “A Canadian” (Avard Longley Bishop?), Yale Review (N.S.), I, 187)Google Scholar

24 This remark was often attributed to Borden but there is no record of his ever having voiced such sentiments.

25 After the election he said: “The verdict has been given in no spirit of unfriendliness or hostility to the United States and no such spirit exists, but Canada desires and elects to be mistress of her destinies and to work out those destinies as an autonomous nation within the British Empire.” Press release, Sept. 21, carried in most newspapers the following day.

26 Manitoba, Free Press, 06 20, p. 13.Google Scholar

27 Borden, H., ed., Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs (Toronto, 1938), 327.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Memoirs.

28 Debates, p. 2497.

29 The Montreal Star ran many articles on deserted New England farms complete with pictures of the desolation. If New England farmers, so close to the reputedly hungry American market, could not compete against the American west, what chance would the more remote Canadian farmers have? These articles, as was the case with such Star material, were carried by many other papers.

30 Vaughan, W., The Life and Work of Sir William Van Home (New York, 1920), 346–7.Google Scholar Van Home cast his first vote in the 1911 election.

31 Debates, p. 33.

32 A promise that was faithfully kept. Fittingly, the Prince Edward Island terminal was named Borden.

33 Lanctot, Liberal M.P. for Richelieu, was accused of using supplies and workers from government stores at Sorel in the building of his own dwelling. The charges were laid by Pierre Blondin on March 6, 1911 (Debates, pp. 4644 ff.); they were referred to the Committee on Privileges and Elections and fully discussed on April 27 (ibid., pp. 7837 ff.). Serious charges had been levelled at Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, in connection with the granting of tracts of land to the Canadian Northern Railway, transactions from which he was alleged to have profited enormously. A royal commission of investigation was set up, but Parliament was dissolved before its report was made. Some criticism was voiced about Fielding's acceptance of a gift of $120,000 from benefactors whose names were not revealed to the public or to Fielding. Bourassa was highly critical of the Conservatives for not giving more attention to the scandals of the Government. (For discussions of the charges against Oliver see ibid., 1910–11, pp. 8309, 8314, 8347.)

34 Skelton, O. D., The Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Toronto, 1921).Google Scholar

35 Reproduced in Montreal, Star, 09 7, 1911 Google Scholar, and widely quoted in other papers although not all of them devoted a full page to it as did the Star. Reckles Willson wrote that Kipling's message was “read and digested by virtually the whole English-speaking voting population of the Dominion.” See his “Defeat of Continentalism in Canada,” Nineteenth Century and After, LXX, 1911, 942.Google Scholar

36 Borden Papers, O.C. 46, Borden to Whitney, Feb. 4, 1911.

37 Memoirs, 325.

38 Montreal, Star, 07 7, p. 6.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., Sept. 5, p. 9.

40 Borden Papers, O.C. 46, Borden to Walter Long, Oct. 24, 1911.

41 He would have agreed with Foster's statement at a North Toronto political meeting: “Did you fight geography in 1878 to make a Confederation? Well, do it now to keep Confederation” ( Mail and Empire, 04 18, 1911, p. 4).Google Scholar

42 Debates, p. 3315.

43 As the French proverb puts it, gouverner c'est prévoir.