I thought I’d seen the worst of the toxic battles that brewed when two former Ontario PC Party leaders tried to mix politics, religion, and education.
The first was in 1984, when former premier Bill Davis thought he was doing a solid for the separate-school system by extending public funding to the end of high school for Catholics. At the time, public funding went only to the end of Grade 11. Even though only one MPP voted against the move in the Ontario legislature, the majority of Ontarians who weren’t Catholic — and the public-school education unions in particular — detested the idea. (Davis actually retired before implementing the policy, and it was Premier David Peterson, backed by then-NDP leader Bob Rae, who brought in full funding for Catholic schools two years later.)
The more recent — and even more controversial — example of how the mix of politics, religion, and education are the third rail of politics (“touch it, and you’re dead”) came in 2007. Davis’s protégé, then-PC leader (now Toronto mayor) John Tory, thought it was unfair that one religion received public funding for their schools to the exclusion of all the others and was determined to fix that inequity.
His solution, however, started a civil war within the PC party and created huge consternation in much of the rest of society. Tory said fairness dictated that all religions should be eligible for some public funding for their schools. Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals, who might have lost that 2007 election, instead won a second consecutive majority on the strength of the public’s rejection of Tory’s proposal.
But both of those examples pale in comparison to another I’ve just learned about, thanks to a fascinating new book by Ted Glenn, who’s managed the graduate program in public administration at Humber College for 20 years. It’s called A Very Canadian Coup. Do you know the story of how a virtual coup torpedoed the tenure of a former Canadian prime minister?
Didn’t think so. Read on.
We need to go back to the 1890s. Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, had died. John Abbott succeeded him, but ill health quickly forced his departure. His replacement, John Thompson, then died at age 50 while having lunch with Queen Victoria in Windsor Castle. It was left to a much older senator named Mackenzie Bowell to take the reins of power, and, before long, he was mired in the problematic mix of politics, education, and religion.
Mackenzie Bowell served as prime minister from December 1894 until April 1896. (Library and Archives Canada)
The story started in Manitoba, where the Liberal government abolished public funding for the Catholic-school system, which had been guaranteed and in place since Confederation. The province argued that the Catholic community was now much smaller, and, besides, being anti-French and anti-Catholic was pretty good politics.
Catholics denounced the move and tried everything from challenging it in the courts (here and in Britain) to demanding that the federal government disallow the law as soon as it was passed. Both sides won and lost court verdicts, ultimately dropping the issue in Prime Minister Bowell’s lap.
Glenn writes that Bowell was an Orangeman but not anti-Catholic. He was prepared to have his cabinet hear pleas from Manitoba Catholics seeking federal remedial legislation to their province’s edict. The group also let it be known that, if Conservatives wanted any help from them in the next election, Bowell should disallow Manitoba’s law forthwith.
Bowell didn’t personally support Catholic schools but did believe the feds had a constitutional obligation to protect minority rights. He told Parliament: “No matter what my individual opinion may be, as a public man I consider myself bound … to carry out to the fullest possible extent the promises that were made to the minority at confederation.”
His problem was an increasingly restive and powerful rump in the Conservative cabinet who feared that going to bat for Catholics would harm their re-election chances, particularly in Ontario. The leader of that group was Charles Tupper, a former premier of Nova Scotia and high commissioner to Great Britain. Things got so ugly that seven ministers resigned from cabinet, threatening to take 39 more Ontario Tories from caucus with them if Bowell attempted to interfere in the Manitoba-schools question. Then six British Columbia MPs insisted they’d bolt as well.
Bowell didn’t like his MPs putting “a pistol to [his] head,” but he was cornered. Tupper, convinced he could shelve the schools question and lead the Tories to re-election victory, essentially forced Bowell to resign, lest the government fall. Bowell relented.
Tupper was sworn in as PM on May 1, 1896, then called a snap election he felt sure he’d win. When someone asked Bowell what he thought of the whole thing, he replied, “You may say that it is the blackest piece of political treachery on record. [But I feel] very well, considering that I have been living in a nest of traitors.”
The cabinet ministers who resigned came back; one of them even called Catholic schools “an unmitigated evil in this country.”
Tupper might have thought he’d considered every angle when plotting his coup, but he neglected to
Charles Tupper served as prime minister from May 1896 until July 1896. (Library and Archives Canada)
consider one thing: his opponent in the June 23, 1896, election was Wilfrid Laurier, whose Liberals won a 23-seat majority. Laurier would become one of our greatest and longest-serving prime ministers. Five months later, he announced a compromise agreement with the Manitoba Liberals. No separate-school system was created, but 30 minutes of clergy-led denominational instruction were to be permitted at the end of each school day, and Catholic representation would be assured in both the classroom and the administration.
Author Glenn isn’t Catholic or from Manitoba. But he became fascinated with the post-Macdonald period of Canadian history while an undergrad student “and that interregnum has piqued my interest since,” he says. “It’s pretty much right in my wheelhouse.”
Bowell, who was born 200 years ago this year, would go back to the Senate, where he became opposition leader until 1906. He lived to the age of 94 and is buried in Belleville.
Tupper would become the shortest-serving prime minister in Canadian history, in large measure because he misunderstood how toxic a brew politics, religion, and education can be.
A very Canadian coup, indeed.
Donate Now