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The Formative Years of the House of Commons, 1867–91

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Norman Ward
Norman Ward*
Affiliation:
University of Saskatchewan
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Extract

The practice of criticizing political institutions on the basis of their efficiency as pieces of machinery is so widespread in political science today that it is sometimes difficult to remember that institutions may be as important for what they are as for what they do. An elected legislature, in its scrutiny of governmental affairs, not only represents the dominant sections of the electorate that returned it; it also reveals, through the nature of its own organization, their attitudes towards the elected legislature and its place in their society. An appraisal of the capacities and incapacities of a legislature would be at best incomplete if it paid no attention to the beliefs and traditions reflected therein, for it would ignore the obvious truth that the quality of the legislature's work was conditioned by its social environment. In the paragraphs that follow, the emphasis is not upon performance, although that is not overlooked, but upon the legislature as a social entity, as a mirror in which one can see an important part of a community.

The Canadian House of Commons during its early years offered the unusual and interesting spectacle of a legislature engaged in threshing out great issues while the legislative machinery itself was still under construction. Debates on important matters concerning the country at large ran parallel with acrimonious discussions about the nature and function of the House of Commons and its organization, and the government frequently tried (by providing, for instance, that each province was to obtain its due proportion of Commons' clerkships) to make the House a significant factor in the settling of disputes. Many institutions of the House (the speakership, the Hansard, and the Library, to name but a few) took their initial form as a result of forces which often bore little relation to legislation and debate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 1952 , pp. 431 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1952

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References

1 House of Commons Journals, 1873, Appendix 4. The House in those days was ventilated by long underground ducts running out to the river banks. The ducts, members variously alleged without offering proof, brought in damp smoky air, filled up with stagnant water, and were frequently chosen by animals as a place to die in.

2 See, for instance, House of Commons Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 03 31, 1874, 8.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., Feb. 16, 1881, 990–1; and Feb. 28, 1881, 1166 ff.

4 Quoted ibid., Feb. 28, 1881, 1166 ff.

5 Week, Dec. 11, 1884.

6 Ottawa Daily Free Press, April 28, 1885.

7 H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 03 31, 1874, 8.Google Scholar The Speaker said in 1878 that he was unaware that his order to close the saloon was not being obeyed (ibid., April 17, 1878, 2062). That strong right arm of the Speaker, the Sergeant-at-Arms, was not operating at the peak of his capacity during this period, for he was ill from 1870 to 1883. See H. D. Smith to Macdonald, Feb. 14, 1883 (P.A.C., Macdonald Papers, vol. 92).

8 H. of C. Debates, 02 28, 1881, 1168.Google Scholar

9 Canadian Illustrated News, April 30, 1870.

10 See, for examples, H. of C. Debates, for the last day of the 1878 session, which concludes with Sir John A. Macdonald saying, “That fellow Smith is the biggest liar I ever met!”; and the debates on the Franchise Act of 1885. Typical journalistic comment is: Grip, April 20, 1878; Week, April 16, 1885; Montreal Herald, April 29, 30, 1885.

11 Canadian Illustrated News, Feb. 23, 1878.

12 H. of C. Debates, 02 24, 1880, 182 ff.Google Scholar Calling citizens to the Bar was commonly practised, and a wide variety of people ranging from minor election officials to the Prime Minister appeared in the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. Sir John A. Macdonald missed in 1873 a meeting of an election committee at which attendance was compulsory. When summoned before the House, he had a colleague produce a medical certificate saying that his doctor had advised him to take things easy; the certificate was signed by the Nova Scotian Conservative, Dr. Charles Tupper. See ibid. (Scrapbook Hansard), May 12, 1873, 166.

13 Note the pleasure and/or surprise with which Cockburn, Kirkpatrick, and Ouimet each greeted the news of his “appointment” as Speaker: Cockburn to Macdonald, Oct. 5, 1867 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 340); Kirkpatrick to Macdonald, Jan. 20, 1883 (ibid., vol. 224); Ouimet to Macdonald, March 24, 1887 (ibid., vol. 440). For evidence that even leading party members were unaware of the Government's choice of Speaker until it had been made, see J. H. Cameron to Macdonald, Oct. 5, 1867 (ibid., vol. 340); J. Ferguson to Macdonald, March 28, 1887 (ibid., vol. 440). Before the session of 1887, Macdonald wrote to a number of members asking them to be in their places on opening day to vote for the Speaker, but it is clear from the replies that he did not disclose the Speaker's identity. See ibid., vol. 440.

14 Cockburn to Macdonald, Nov. 26, 1869 (ibid., vol. 342). “You are very good. I cannot thank you enough,” he wrote Macdonald, “… I will work through my difficulties please God in time and win a new qualification for my next election.”

15 But the rumour persisted. See a memorandum in ibid., vol. 303, which comprises the Minutes of Evidence of Anglin's “trial” by the Committee on Privileges and Elections when he was Speaker in 1877. See also P.A.C., Sir John Thompson Papers, undated memorandum concerning the Liberal Party's record re Roman Catholics, in box labelled “Memoranda.”

16 H. of C. Debates, 02 13, 1879, 2.Google Scholar Letters to Macdonald from his English-speaking Speakers (Cockburn, Kirkpatrick, and White) outnumber those from his two French Speakers in the ratio of seven to one.

17 R. W. Shannon to Macdonald, Oct. 29, 1881 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 377); Kingston Liberal Conservative Association to Macdonald, July 9, 1879 (ibid., vol. 360).

18 See, for example, Ouimet to Macdonald, July 20, 1880 (ibid., vol. 370), and March 29, 1882 (ibid., vol. 382). In the first of these he urged Macdonald not to replace a Montreal cabinet minister with one from Quebec city; in the second, he informed Macdonald that a Supreme Court Bill will not “meet the approval of your French friends from Quebec.”

19 Mackenzie to Anglin, Oct. 14, 1875 (P.A.C., Mackenzie Letterbooks, vol. 4). See also ibid., Oct. 7, 1875. See also Macdonald to Cockburn, July 27, 1872, urging him, when he was still Speaker, to “work night and day” for two Conservative candidates (P.A.C., Macdonald Letterbooks, vol. 18).

20 Macdonald to Kirkpatrick, June 21, 1888 (ibid., vol. 25).

21 Macdonald to White, April 9, 1891 (ibid., vol. 28).

22 Cockburn to Macdonald, Nov. 24, 1870 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 342).

23 April 17, 1871 (ibid., vol. 343). Cockburn based his claim to the British Columbia post partly on a sectional argument: the post should go to Ontario.

24 Kirkpatrick to Macdonald, July 30, 1885 (ibid., vol. 224).

25 Memorandum dated April 13, 1877, in ibid., vol. 303.

26 Canadian Illustrated News, April 18, 1874.

27 See, for instance, H. of C. Debates, 02 15, 1877, 51–2, 77.Google Scholar

28 Kirkpatrick to Macdonald, Dec. 13, 1884 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 224).

29 Canadian Illustrated News, April 11, 1874. When Anglin was proposed, Sir John A. Macdonald, then Leader of the Opposition, paid little attention to him, but lauded Mr. Holton, another Liberal, who would have made a fine Speaker, he said.

30 H. of C. Debates, 02 10, 1885, 67 ff.Google Scholar A statute passed immediately after Confederation had empowered the Speaker to secure a deputy when he needed one.

31 Ibid., March 5, 1877, 485.

32 Ibid., July 14, 1886, 3363.

33 Ibid. (Scrapbook Hansard), April 17, 1873, 80.

34 Ibid., April 9, 1877, 1266 ff.

35 E.g. ibid., April 5, 1877, 1171 ff.; May 3, 1878, 2402 ff.

36 See Ward, Norman, The Canadian House of Commons: Representation (Toronto, 1950), chap, vGoogle Scholar, “The Independence of Parliament.”

37 H. of C. Debates, 02 7, 1878, 2 ff.Google Scholar

38 Ibid.; Mackenzie to Anglin, Jan. 3, 1878 (Mackenzie Letterbooks, vol. 6).

39 See H. of C. Debates, 02 18, 1879, 29 ff.Google Scholar; A. Patrick to Macdonald, Jan. 22, 1879 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 354). Patrick, Clerk of the House, wrote: “I yesterday received a peremptory letter from Mr. Anglin directing certain changes in my department. …”

40 Chapter 27 of the Statutes of 1868 read in part: “For the purposes of this Act, the person who shall fill the office of Speaker at the time of any dissolution of Parliament, shall be deemed to be the Speaker until a Speaker shall be chosen by the new Parliament.”

41 Statutes of Canada, 31 Vic, c. 27, s. 1. The Speaker was in 1870 made statutory chairman of the Commission, and was paid an extra $1,000 annually therefore. His regular salary was $3,200.

42 See, for example, H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 12 12, 1867, 98 Google Scholar; ibid., April 30, 1873, 127. The outlying provinces were regularly dissatisfied with their share of the Commons patronage. See memorandum to Macdonald, May 8, 1888 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 93).

43 See, for example, Todd to Macdonald, April 2, 1873 (ibid., vol. 55): “As the Opposition may claim priority for a proposed vote of censure, to the hindrance of Public Business, I venture to remind you of the English practice on this point ….” Also Todd to Tupper, Jan. 29, 1881 (ibid., vol. 324): “I think it right—and no breach of confidence—to mention that it is in contemplation to raise a point of order …. It is grounded in error.” In 1891, Bourinot sent Sir John Thompson a telegram of congratulations on his “grand victory” (Thompson Papers, no. 14722). See also Bourinot to Macdonald, June 7, 1890 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 335): “I have Conservative instincts ….”

44 The schedule is printed in H. of C. Journals, 1885, Appendix 1. The House establishment was outlined as follows: 1. The Chief Branch (Officers of the House, Clerks of English and French Journals, of Votes and Proceedings, Translators of Votes and Proceedings and Journals, of Routine and Records and of Committees); 2. Law and Translation Branch (Law Clerk, Assistant Law Clerk, and Chief French Translator); 3. Miscellaneous Branch (Accountant, Stationery Office, Engrossing Office, and Post Office).

45 A copy of the report is in Macdonald Papers, vol. 93.

46 Kirkpatrick to Macdonald, June 7, 1884 (ibid., vol. 224).

47 A. Rowe to Macdonald, Jan. 28, 1884 (ibid., vol. 92); C. Allen to Macdonald, April 28, 1879 (ibid., vol. 357); J. White to Macdonald, April 10, 1887 (ibid., vol. 93). White wrote, “I am deeply anxious to publish my paper semi-weekly this session but will not be able to do so otherwise.”

48 H. of C. Debates, 04 2, 1880, 1025–38.Google Scholar Anglin said frankly that he had followed the principle of appointing nominees sponsored by members of his party. In 1879, during the squabble over Anglin's outgoing appointments, Macdonald had asserted that the Internal Economy Commission had no powers of appointment; only the Speaker had, and the question in 1879 was: Which Speaker?

49 Bourinot to Thompson, Oct. 20, 1891 (Thompson Papers, no. 17041).

50 H. of C. Debates, 04 26, 1888, 1025 ff.Google Scholar

51 Bourinot to Thompson, March 9, 1891 (Thompson Papers, no. 18650).

52 H. of C. Debates, 02 14, 1890, 701.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., June 16, 1891, 938.

54 Week, Dec. 25, 1884.

55 See H. of C. Debates, 04 3, 1871, 825 Google Scholar, for a typical complaint from a French member about this.

56 Ibid., July 13, 1885, 3359 ff.

57 Ibid., April 20, 1883, 764.

58 Ibid., Feb. 11, 1878, 17.

59 Ibid., April 3, 1882, 694; May 11, 1882, 1474. Macdonald was none the less a steadfast champion of the Hansard, though he always insisted that the record was the House's business, not the Government's.

60 Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Nov. 23, 1951.

61 H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 05 11, 1868, 231.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., April 5, 1882, 785.

63 The evidence on this point is overwhelming. See, for example, ibid., March 16, 1876, 703; A. D. DeCelles to Macdonald, memorandum dated 1885 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 96).

64 H. of C. Debates, 04 5, 1882, 785.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., May 12, 1882, 1499.

66 Phillip Todd to Macdonald, Jan. 25, 1884 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 324).

67 H. of C. Debates, 05 6, 1885, 1661.Google Scholar

68 Ibid., May 6, 1885, 1658 ff.

69 Griffin had wanted for years to be either Clerk of the Privy Council or Librarian. See Griffin to Macdonald, April 24, 1882 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 383); Griffin to Thompson, April 24, 1889 (Thompson Papers, no. 9563); same, July 21, 1882 (ibid., no. 2977); same, May 3, 1893 (ibid., no. 22553). In this last letter, Griffin refers to the Liberal party as “an asylum for idiots.”

70 A. D. DeCelles to Macdonald, memorandum dated 1885 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 96).

71 Griffin to Macdonald, Jan. 19, 1888 (ibid., vol. 96); Griffin to Thompson, May 1, 1888 (Thompson Papers, no. 7650).

72 H. of C. Debates, 02 27, 1877, 326.Google Scholar

73 Davin to Macdonald, March 21, 1884 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 96).

74 Todd to Macdonald, Nov. 8, 1882 (ibid., vol. 313); H. of C. Debates, 05 6, 1885, 1658 ff.Google Scholar

75 Macdonald was most often accused of this, but he himself criticized the Liberals for it in 1874; H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 03 26, 1874, 4.Google Scholar

76 See David Mills to Macdonald, Sept. 22, 1871 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 343).

77 H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 03 18, 1868, 126.Google Scholar

78 Ibid., March 29, 1878, 1509.

79 Ibid. (Scrapbook Hansard), April 3, 1868, 156.

80 McDougall to Macdonald, Sept. 9, 1881 (Macdonald Papers, vol. 313). The Auditor General was asking for two new clerks, and asking that two gentlemen on his staff, both over seventy-five, be retired.

81 House of Commons, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 1891, Report no. 33 p. 61.Google Scholar

82 Lady Macdonald to Tupper, Nov. 3, 1891 (P.A.C., Tupper Papers, no. 597).

83 See Canadian Illustrated News, Feb. 24, 1877. “In the easy-going times of the old Government … the Departmental reports dropped in as they listed, few and far between.” Needless to say, Opposition complaints were loud and frequent.

84 H. of C. Debates (Hansard, Scrapbook), 05 2, 1873, 136.Google Scholar

85 House of Commons, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 1877, Report no. 3.Google Scholar Macdonald did not deny the charge, but argued mitigating circumstances.

86 H. of C. Debates, 03 14, 1881, 1377.Google Scholar

87 Ibid., May 6, 1878, 2470–1.