Appointing a Governor.
If Warwick was a King Maker, I couldn’t say that while I didn’t aspire to be his rival, I wasn’t in his class. At any rate, I was the humble means of aiding in appointing Senator John Schultz to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Manitoba. I was in the Ottawa Press Gallery at the time, and in the course of my reportorial duties frequently met the Senator. One day, the question of the Governorship of Manitoba incidentally came up between us. This position had always been held by an eastern man, and of all the names mentioned as a possible appointee, none could be proved to be acceptable to the Manitobans, and this phase of the question arose.
“Why don’t you take it yourself, Senator?” I suggested.
“Haven’t a chance,” he replied.
“Not now, perhaps, but if you’ll accept it, wait till to-morrow.”
I knew that the Governorship was the Senator’s ambition, so when I reached the Press Gallery I told the boys that “Senator Schultz’s appointment to the Manitoba governorship was being favorably considered.” This was sent off to the different newspapers with a little stronger one to the Winnipeg Free Press, which had all along been antagonistic to the Senator, and it came out with a corking editorial in his favor. That settled it. The Conservative Government feared the Liberal Free Press more than any other western paper and the appointment was shortly afterwards made.
It was nothing but the solemn truth I told the press boys about the Senator’s elevation to the Governorship being favourably considered. Both he and I were favourably considering it, weren’t we?
“Some One Blundered.”
Apropos of the unrestricted reciprocity proposal introduced by Sir Richard Cartwright in 1888 it is interesting to recall the fact that reply to Sir Richard—the first speech in criticism of the reciprocity project—was delivered by Robert S. White, then, as now, editor in chief of the Montreal Gazette. “Bob” White was but a lad in those days, and had just succeeded his father as member for Cardwell. His speech, coming immediately after Sir Richard had concluded, was brimful of information regarding the trade of the country, and became the basis of the anti-reciprocity argument of later days.
While personal friendship refused to observe party lines, personal dislike often manifested itself among men who on the surface were political friends. Edward Blake and Sir Richard Cartwright, for instance, as has already been mentioned, were not at all friendly. Mr. Blake did not like Sir Richard’s unrestricted reciprocity proposition, and Sir Richard thought Mr. Blake overdid it when he made his great attack upon the Orange Bill on March 17. This Orange question, by the way, was a thorn in the side to more persons than one. Mr. McMullen found it to be such in his case during a bye-election in Wellington. On his way to the village in which he was to speak, a scoundrel told him he was going into quite a Catholic settlement. So he thought he would improve the opportunity thus presented to him to win a few votes by dwelling upon the attitude of the party towards the Orangemen. He had not gone far when he experienced a decided coolness on the part of the audience, following which there was an uproar which convinced him that “some one had blundered.”
On the Government side also there were divisions which threatened the party. Dalton McCarthy was forming his group which developed into the element that made it impossible for Sir Charles Tupper to go on with the Manitoba School bill in 1896. It was thought at the time that McCarthy was disgruntled because Sir John Thompson had been brought in over his head as Minister of Justice. That is merely what Dame Rumor said. Then, while the English-speaking section of the Conservative party was up against a possible division, the French section was not happy. The Chapleau wing was dissatisfied with the leadership of Sir Hector Langevin, and the long reign of that statesman was coming to an end. Everything seemed to be moving in the last session I was at Ottawa towards readjustment. And within a year the readjustment came. Sir John Macdonald died, in the middle of the following session, and Sir Hector went out as a result of a scandal.