Conservatives and Liberals

The Conservative plans for a National Policy remained in force during the 1870s and 1880s. Armed with constitutional tools including the right to disallow provincial statutes and the retention of residual powers, John A. Macdonalds government attempted to maintain federal supremacy. Yet the balance of power was tilting dramatically in favor of the provinces due in part to the British Privy Council, effectively the final arbiter in contentious court cases. In a series of decisions during the 1880s and 1890s, ranging from the control of liquor licenses to provincial boundary disputes, the Privy Council decided in favor of the provinces. These decisions effectively eroded the federal governments residual powers. Also plaguing the Conservatives were two issues that strained the fragile bonds between anglophones and francophones. The Jesuits Estates Act controversy pitted the pro-Catholic Quebec government against fervent Protestants in the Equal Rights Association. The 1888 statute provided financial compensation to Jesuits for property that had been confiscated in the eighteenth century. Macdonalds refusal to disallow the controversial act angered Protestants and Ontario Conservatives, who considered his actions a capitulation to francophone Catholics. An even more contentious controversy swirled around the Manitoba governments decision in 1890 to alter the Manitoba Act by making publicly funded schools nondenominational and abolishing French as an official language. Provincial rights advocates supported the changes, while francophones and Catholics protested and implored the federal government to overturn the legislation. Macdonald died in 1891, and his four Conservative

successors struggled ineffectively to solve what had become a national problem. John Abbott, Macdonalds immediate successor, resigned in 1892 due to poor health.Nova Scotias John Thompson died two years later on a diplomatic mission to Britain. Mackenzie Bowell became prime minister, but he was unable to inspire even his colleagues. Bowell acceded leadership in 1896 to Dr. Charles Tupper, a Father of Confederation, who faced defeat within the year to the Liberals. Wilfrid Laurier, the new prime minister, had capitalized on the raging Manitoba schools question during the campaign of 1896 by promising a sunny way out of the dilemma. Unfortunately, the issues tortured passage through various courts offered no clear guidelines. A lawyer by training, Laurier nonetheless brokered a compromise that kept the tax-based secular schools but allowed religious training at the end of the school day if a certain number of Roman Catholic students were enrolled. Similarly, provisions were included for some non-English training in French or other foreign languages. Few on either side of the debate were particularly pleased with the solution, but it clearly illustrated Lauriers negotiating skills. Denominational schools and language rights would continue to dominate both provincial and federal politics into the next century. The Liberals embraced economic and social ideals that theoretically ran counter to the Conservatives; nonetheless, Lauriers administration essentially adopted and modestly altered the principles of the National Policy. The new government faced a host of concerns, including domestic divisions, immigration and territorial expansion, international trade, and mounting British and American imperialism. Although it periodically sought a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, Lauriers administration continued

to protect growing Canadian businesses by instituting a scaled structure that essentially matched the tariffs of its trading partners. The Liberals also strengthened east-west linkages and prairie agricultural development by supporting the construction of two additional transcontinental railroads. The Canadian Northern Railway, chartered in 1899 with generous support of land and government subsidies, built a line that swept northward in the prairies and British Columbia and then terminated in Vancouver. The Grand Trunk Pacific, constructed by 1914, connected eastern lines at Winnipeg to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. These lines soon ran into severe financial difficulties. Still, for a time they boosted the economy and provided thousands of jobs for laborers. Thus, Lauriers Liberals reinforced two of the three elements of Macdonalds National Policy. The third component, improved immigration to populate the West, faltered under Conservative leadership. Perhaps ironically, this part of the plan succeeded spectacularly during Lauriers years in office.