No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
The return of the Conservatives to power in 1911 was the signal for a mad scramble for place and position by the men who had weathered fifteen lean and hungry years of political adversity. In forming his cabinet, Borden was subjected to all the usual pressures exerted on such occasions and, in addition, he had to take cognizance of certain special factors arising from the election campaign just concluded. But in the cabinet-making process much more is involved than an awareness of constitutional conventions and an appreciation of the political realities of the moment. The selection of the personnel of his government is a most difficult task for a prime minister and one which involves a host of considerations, administrative, political, and personal. In the discharge of this important duty, much may be revealed of the qualities of leadership of the party chieftain. This was certainly true of Robert Borden, and a study of his first essay at cabinet-making is instructive and rewarding.
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Montreal, June 7, 1956.
1 MacLean never did receive the appointment, and the island province failed to win representation in either of the cabinets formed by Borden.
2 There was considerable speculation in the newspapers to the effect that Rogers would sit for a Saskatchewan constituency and when the cabinet line-up was first announced, Rogers was listed as the representative of that province. However, he entered the Commons as a member from Winnipeg.
3 P.A.C, Borden Papers, Borden to G. E. Drummond, Oct. 14, 1911, O.C.A. series 217, p. 82033.
4 At one stage of the negotiations, consideration was given to having the Duke of Con-naught postpone his sailing date by two weeks. This idea was not carried through; Connaught arrived in Canada before Grey had departed and the two men had a shipboard conference before Connaught officially “landed.” See Borden Papers, Grey to Borden, Sept. 26, 1911, O.C. 47, p. 596, and Montreal, Gazette, 10 13, 1911.Google Scholar
5 P.A.C, Foster Diaries.
6 Toronto Globe, Oct. 28, report of Ward 6 Conservative Association meeting held on previous day.
7 R. MacG. Dawson, this Joubnal, V, no. 1, Feb., 1939, 92, in his review article on Borden, H., ed., Robert Laird Borden: His Memoirs (Toronto, 1938).Google Scholar The latter will be cited hereafter as Borden Memoirs.
8 Bilkey, P., Persons, Places and Things (Toronto, 1940), 140.Google Scholar
9 Borden Memoirs, I, 331.Google Scholar But McBride was on a hunting trip when the telegram arrived at his Victoria office and he therefore had little time to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a move to Ottawa. When he returned from his holiday he set out for the national capital.
10 Roblin had long since made clear his determination not to leave Manitoba and Rogers thus became the leading Manitoba aspirant for a cabinet post. The province's second portfolio went to Dr. Roche, a veteran M.P., who became Secretary of State.
11 Borden Papers, William Price to Borden, Oct. 2, 1911, O.C. 47, p. 644.
12 Toronto Globe, Sept. 29, 1911.
13 The Royal Commission on Insurance, in the report presented to the House of Commons on Feb. 26, 1907, had been critical of Foster's activities as manager of the Union Trust Co., in which role he had allegedly carried on some questionable speculations with the charitable funds of the Independent Order of Foresters. The matter was bitterly debated in the House in 1907 and in later sessions, and was a favourite topic with Liberal campaigners on the hustings in the elections of 1908 and 1911.
14 Although Israel Tarte, the former Minister of Public Works, threw his full weight behind the Conservatives in a protectionist campaign, he failed to bring any sizable group of Liberals with him. Borden at one time hoped that Andrew Blair, the Minister of Railways, would help the Conservative cause, but in this he was disappointed, for, although Blair was strongly opposed to Laurier's railway policy, he did not come out against the Government during the campaign.
15 Borden Papers, Willison to Borden, Oct. 5, 1911, O.C.A. 10, p. 69918.
16 Until 1903 the constituency was known as Victoria North. In that year it became Victoria and Haliburton, a name which it retained until the Redistribution Act of 1914. But through all the changes of boundaries and names, Hughes's popularity was a constant factor and, with one exception, every election brought an increase in his majority.
17 Kemp, Reid, Lougheed, and Rogers were members of the Order and Kemp held prominent office for many years. When Hughes was dismissed in 1916, the editor of the Orange Sentinel suggested that Kemp would be a most suitable successor.
18 Borden Papers, Hughes to Borden, Sept. 25, 1911, O.C. 103.
19 Borden Memoirs, 330.
20 That is, at the time when Borden presented his slate formally. Grey had earlier expressed his misgivings about the inclusion of Monk.
21 The Justice portfolio is one which requires a certain type of professional training and is always filled by a lawyer. Since among politicians this professional group is always numerically strong, the restriction is not a real hardship for a prime minister. Doherty was a member of the Faculty of Law at McGill University.
22 Monk was a vain and sensitive man who frequently quarrelled with his party colleagues. He resigned the Quebec leadership in 1904 because Tarte had been given too prominent a role in the campaign. T. Chase Casgrain and he were bitter enemies. In 1910 he was one of the M.P.'s who did not sign the round robin urging Borden to retain the leadership. Borden Memoirs, I, 311.Google Scholar
23 0ct. 6, 1911.
24 Borden Papers, Grey to Borden, Oct. 2, 1911, O.C. 47, pp. 601–2.
25 These men had stood by the Conservative party in 1896 when Laurier had wooed and won many of the traditional supporters of the old party of Cartier and Macdonald. They might be described as “continuing bleus,” which many of the 1911 Nationalists were not.
26 This statement was subsequently denied by Borden in the House of Commons.
27 From one of his signed articles in Le Devoir dealing with the Conservative-Nationalist alliance.
28 0ct. 11, 1911.
29 Oct. 11, 1911.
30 Oct. 12, 1911.
31 The Globe had some fun at the expense of its Montreal rival over this statement. On October 12 it declared: “The Star need not be so insistent, no one has denied that modest claim.”
32 In 1913 Arthur Meighen was appointed to the post and given cabinet rank, a distinction not always conferred upon the Solicitor General.
33 The Borden family motto, Avauncez lentement, seems particularly appropriate to Sir Robert.
34 In 1910 and in 1911 Borden had been faced with serious threats to his leadership and on both occasions he declared his intention of resigning.
35 Monk's resignation of the Quebec leadership and his failure to obey the whip did not contribute to his popularity with the rank and file of the Conservative party.
36 Blondin and Sevigny were young men in the Nationalist mould who had been sharply critical of the naval policies of both Laurier and Borden. Yet they remained loyal to Borden and fought the bitter election campaign of 1917 as members of the Union Government. (Blondin was in France at the time.)
37 Nov. 13, 1911.
38 Many of their speeches made in the twelfth Parliament appeared to be designed to foster a disagreement between the allies. Bourassa after the 1911 election was afraid that the Nationalist movement might be swallowed by the Conservatives.
39 Although Hughes did not join in the intrigues against Borden, he was bitterly resentful of the influence wielded by Perley, Ames, Crothers, and others of the newer arrivals.
40 Borden Memoirs, 230.
41 Foster Diaries, Sept. 17, 1917. The “jettison” reference was to the dismissal of Rogers.
42 Roblin had been Premier of Manitoba since 1900 and although his party was not defeated in the 1914 election, its victory was narrow and the renascent Liberals were able to bring down the discredited regime within a few months. Criminal charges were subsequently laid against many of the ministers accused of malfeasance of office.
43 Galt had been appointed by the Liberal Government of Manitoba to inquire into the letting of contracts for certain public buildings. Rogers was accused of exerting improper influence on contractors as well as personal profiteering.
44 It is doubtful whether Rogers' letter was really a resignation. He had declared that he could not stay in unless greater political efforts were put forth.
45 Ford, A. R., “Some Notes on the Formation of the Union Government in 1917,” Canadian Historical Review, XIX, no. 4, 12, 1938, 357–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46 Oct. 11, 1911.
47 At the Militia Council he was alleged to have accused the Governor General of “priming” some of the military officers. Most of his fellow ministers were anxious to get rid of Hughes. White, Foster, Perley, and Crothers had long been strongly opposed to him. Many of the back-benchers were angered by his actions and Claude MacDonnell of Toronto attacked him bitterly at a caucus meeting.
48 Hughes himself was much impressed and used to say: “Look at Valcartier and wonder.”
49 Borden described Hughes's offer as “a kindness which I shall always value and appreciate.” Borden Papers, Borden to Hughes, Dec. 9, 1904, Memoir Notes, vol. XI, p. 5951.
50 Both men could be described as Imperialists but both were insistent that the rights of colonials be respected in the Empire's councils and undertakings.
51 Borden Memoirs, II, 571.Google Scholar
52 Monk believed that his public promises of a referendum were of such a binding character that he could not remain in the Government if it failed to hold one. But he made every effort to make the break as painless as possible and his resignation was ostensibly on grounds of ill health.
53 He was Monk's successor as a French-speaking minister from Quebec. The Public Works portfolio was given to Rogers and Coderre became Secretary or State.
54 Sevigny was one of the most ardent Nationalists, a young and enthusiastic disciple of Bourassa. Yet he stood by Borden throughout the furious conscription crisis. His complete adoption of Conservative principles and his devotion to Borden may be regarded as justification of Borden's 1911 policy of fusion with the Nationalists.
55 Actually, as has been pointed out, the Union Government did include Blondin and Sevigny but their overwhelming defeat and the solid anti-Government vote of the French-speaking electorate made it virtually impossible for Borden to do anything but create a cabinet representing only the English-speaking voters. Blondin, after his appointment to the Senate, remained in the cabinet for a time, but he could scarcely be described as representative of the French-speaking electorate.