 With PETER BLACK Quebec, The Fatherland
I would bet a Borden that your average Canadian would not be able to name more than two of the original Fathers of Confederation.
Many would get Sir John A. Macdonald, and some George-Etienne Cartier. The truly gifted would nail George Brown and Thomas D'Arcy McGee, probably because the sinister circumstances of their deaths granted them an extra dose of fame.
There is not much shame in this, one supposes. I reckon even the hyper-patriotic Americans must find it tough slogging once they get past Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Hancock.
Given that recent studies show Canadians are fabulously ignorant of their own history, thanks, in part, to the Fathers of Confederation who didn't dare consider making education a federal responsibility, it's not surprising that knowledge of obscure details such as the membership of the famous Fathers is spotty. The fact is many of the Fathers were undeniably obscure figures. Still, they deserve some recognition. So, in the spirit of Canada Day and the quest for a better understanding of how mediocrity and greatness combined produced this country, we present Quebec's, or rather Lower Canada's or Canada East's, Fathers of Confederation.
They are: the aforementioned Cartier and McGee, Sir Etienne P. Taché, Sir Alexander T. Galt, Jean Charles Chapais, Sir Hector Langevin - together one half of the dozen delegates Canada sent to the Confederation parlays in Charlottetown, Quebec City and London. Who were these pretty fly Victorian white guys?
Cartier we know as the French-Canadian key to the whole deal. If he had not been open to the overtures of the ornery Orangeman George Brown, and had he not had such a masterful control over the hearts and minds of his people, Confederation might have ended up as a bad champagne hangover after the first session in Charlottetown in September, 1864.
McGee, generally deemed to be the most eloquent and passionate public spokesman for the Confederation project, was instrumental in the early deal-making. Alas, he fell victim to the demographics of Sir John's cabinet-making, and, there being enough Irish Catholics already around the table, he sat on the back benches during the first parliament of the Dominion. A Fenian assassin immortalized McGee in April, 1868, as one of a very select group of murdered Canadian politicians.
Trivia buffs will love E.P. Taché, because he was actually prime minister of the united Canadas when the Quebec conference took place in 1864. He was also the only Father of Confederation to not live to see the results of the Father's labors. Col. Taché, a doctor who had served with the British army in the War of 1812, provoked, by dying in July, 1865, a crisis in the Confederation talks. He had been the compromise choice to head the Canadian coalition government, since Macdonald and Brown were like fire and ice.
Sir Hector Langevin, known now for the building across from Parliament Hill that houses the Prime Minister's office, was the stodgy counterpoint to the bon vivante Cartier, with whom he studied law. Langevin saw himself as the vigilant guardian of French-Canadian rights, particularly at the crucial London conference, where, according to him, Cartier preferred the salon party scene to constitutional minutiae. Langevin succeeded Cartier as Quebec Tory leader when Sir George died in London in 1873.
Perhaps the most unsung of the Quebec fathers was Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, Sherbrooke's favorite son and the leading voice of English Quebec. Galt played an early key role in the Confed drama when in 1858 he made it a condition of his joining the Macdonald-Cartier government as finance minister that union of the provinces be a central Tory policy. Galt was the master number cruncher during the Confederation conferences and stayed on as finance minister in the first Dominion government until he quit in 1868 over a disagreement with Macdonald.
Last, and probably least, we come to J.C. Chapais, whose role in the Confederation drama might best be described as an extra. The soft-spoken minister of public works only attended the Quebec City conference. He holds the distinction of being the only Quebec Tory to be defeated in the first Dominion elections in August-September, 1867. Macdonald, for reasons unknown, named Chapais to the newly created Senate, and kept him in the cabinet as minister of agriculture. There you have it. Next time you'll take that bet for a Borden.
Copyright © 1999 Peter Black/Log Cabin Chronicles/6.99 |
