CHAPTER III
THE PROPHET OF CANADIAN NATIONALITY

McGee entered Canadian politics at a crucial period. Most of the old issues over which political battles had been fought were disappearing. Responsible Government in principle at least was recognized by all parties. The Clergy Reserves, which had frequently ruffled the peace of provincial politics, had in 1854 been settled with reasonable satisfaction to those concerned. In the same year the thorny question of seigniorial tenure in Lower Canada had received its quietus. A chapter of hoary Canadian controversies was closed, and a chapter with the newer problems of the United Canadas opened. One of the most prominent aspects of the new era was the appearance of railways. Quaint locomotives, mere playtoys in comparison with the huge masses of steel which now rumble over the Canadian lines, began to glide by the snake fences of the farmer, and introduced a new touch to the Canadian landscape and a new issue to Canadian politics. The incorporation of railways as the promised means of developing the Canadas became the absorbing subject with provincial statesmen, and the parliamentary debates became bulky with all the dry details of railway management. But the most ominous problem of the time was that of attempting to work the scheme of union established by the Act of 1841. In the years immediately following 1858 the union underwent its severest tests, and began to fail as an effective means of government. Amid the accumulating difficulties of politicians, the Confederation movement had its rise. In this movement McGee from the outset played a vital role.

The first important question confronting McGee in 1857 was the choice of a party. Canadian parties in the period were notoriously unsteady. Prominent men readily shed old alliances for new ones, and this readiness for change gave a makeshift appearance to party affiliations. The legislature was like a ballroom in its quick shifting of political partners. There were four distinct groups. In Lower Canada the Reformers were known as the Parti Rouge, and were led by A. A. Dorion, a very able but doctrinaire Liberal. Following the elections of December, 1857, this group was a small minority, thanks largely to the nimble-mindedness and dynamic energy of George E. Cartier, leader of the Bleus, the opposing group. In Upper Canada the government party, known as Liberal-Conservatives, was led by John A. Macdonald, and the Reformers were under the command of George Brown. With the latter were loosely associated a small band who followed Sandfield Macdonald, and were known as Sandfield Macdonald's "tail". On McGee's entrance to the legislature, the government was described as the Macdonald-Cartier administration. During the next four years it was preserved in power by the majority of Lower Canadian members, marshalled by Cartier, and a number of Upper Canadians drawn by the winning personality of John A. Macdonald.

In view of McGee's subsequent career, it is possible that he might in 1857 have accepted a nomination from the party of Macdonald and Cartier. Certain considerations drew him to support Dorion and the Parti Rouge, but they were hardly of a nature to overcome the strong attraction of a warm welcome from the government party. Such a welcome was not extended. The fact is that those in power were somewhat dubious concerning this new man, with his chequered career and his reputation for brilliance. One who, only ten years before, had been a rebel against the Queen might not prove of much help to a party in a colony where loyalty was fashionable. Political leaders before investing in new stock must be sure of a good return, and in this case they were in doubt. McGee did not receive their nomination. Hence he gave his support to the Rouges, with whom he had more genuine sympathy. It is interesting that he thus entered Canadian political life as an advanced reformer, the opponent of John A. Macdonald, with whom his name was later linked. In the election of December, 1857, Dorion stood at the top of the poll in Montreal with his follower, McGee, a close second. The other four candidates trailed behind with Cartier at the bottom, five hundred votes below McGee.

Some eighteen months after his election, McGee outlined in four public letters to his Irish-Canadian constituents his views on Canadian parties. They adequately explain why for four years he supported the Opposition, consorting with Dorion, George Brown, and other uncompromising opponents of the Cartier-Macdonald ministry. He attributed to the Bleus an exclusive Canadianism. They had no wish to welcome immigrants, for they dreamed of a French Canada existing isolated, alone, and still French on the map of North America. Their conception of French-Canadian nationality was too narrow to allow the development of a broad conception of Canadian nationality, so essential in a land of warring sects and races. The Rouges, on the other hand, were more in touch with modern tendencies, and more disposed to recognize as their Canadian countrymen the newer immigrants who spoke a different tongue and were of another race. In them the Irish Canadians of Lower Canada could find more congenial allies than among the Bleus. McGee on this occasion worked in his own fervid gospel of a nationality, which would recognize distinctions of neither race nor creed: "For my own part, I respect every nationality represented on our soil; but yet I hold we should consider them rather as invaluable materials to a desired end, than as finalities themselves. I hope to see the day, or at least the eve of the day, when there will be no other term to our patriotism, but the common name of Canadian, without the prefix of either French or British."

He advised his Catholic countrymen in Upper Canada that they support in their section of the province the Reform party of George Brown. Brown was something of a knight errant. He was bold in tilting with abuses, and ever ready to ride about the colony in search of them. McGee was won by Brown's frank, fearless character. Moreover, he believed that the Irish Catholics of Upper Canada could subscribe with little reservation to the Reform leader's principles. They shared with Brown a hostility to the intolerant Toryism of the old school, and entertained his faith in the widest extension of popular suffrage, economy in public expenditure, and reduction in taxation. But there were two issues on which McGee was not in harmony with Brown. He did not believe that the adoption of representation by population would, as Brown so ardently argued, heal the ills of Canadian government. Also, contrary to the belief of the Upper Canadian, he thought that separate religious schools should receive more definite recognition by the provincial legislature. These questions were to arise frequently during his political career, and a statement of his position on them may be conveniently postponed.

In March, 1858, the parliamentary session began. From the outset, McGee hurried into the leading debates, and attacked the "corruptionists", as the government party was described, with all the weapons of polished wit and searching sarcasm. His reputation as an orator had preceded him, and his maiden speech was eagerly awaited. None of the assembled legislators was disappointed. A press correspondent wrote that McGee had scarcely spoken three sentences in a silvery, penetrating mezzo-soprano before he had the audience in that pleasurable grip which only the highly endowed orator can attain. "Of loud declamation," wrote another contemporary observer, "there was not a vestige, and scarcely a change of attitude. He merely placed the finger of his right hand occasionally on the palm of his left, then let both hands fall by his sides, or on occasion lifted the right hand in solemn warning, but as he warmed up a magnificent period with an appeal to the justice of his cause, or the manhood of his country, his whole frame shook, light darted from his eyes, he was so to say transfigured." The correspondent of the Globe wrote that he was "undoubtedly the most finished orator in the House.... He has the peculiar power of impressing an audience, which can only be accounted for by attributing to those who possess it some magnetic influence not common to everyone."

The methods of the government in the previous election gave him an opportunity of displaying facetiousness and extracting roars of laughter from all sides of the chamber. Cayley, the inspector-general, had unsuccessfully contested a seat in the counties of Huron and Bruce. One of his electioneering devices had been that of presenting several Orange lodges of these counties with beautifully bound copies of the sacred scriptures. "It was a spectacle," remarked McGee, "rare and refreshing to see the inspector-general, the chancellor of the exchequer, the finance minister of the province, voluntarily turn missionary and act the part of a colporteur in the neighbourhood of Lake Huron. He must further remark that the good people of these counties seemed to have studied the sacred volume presented to them from so high a source to good effect. They appeared to have learnt the lesson of retributive justice, for although they accepted the gospel, they rejected the missionary."

There is something in parliamentary life that appeals to the fighting instinct, and men in opposition feel more free to indulge in it. McGee did so with undisguised recklessness. In the opinion of sober-minded people he seemed over-ready to engage in the battles of debate. One of the most controversial questions of the period was the choice of a site for the government. Up to 1858 the capital had been shunted about almost in the manner of a freight car, remaining at the most only four years in any one city. Such an arrangement was obviously not satisfactory. Yet there was real difficulty in deciding which of the rival cities should be the permanent capital. Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton—all had their advocates who fought for their respective centres with the public enthusiasm of men whose parliamentary seats depended upon the extent to which they promoted local interests. A decision in favour of any one city might spell the death of the ministry. The Macdonald-Cartier government of 1858, unwilling to enter an early grave, hit upon an expedient which might remove responsibility from their heads. They passed a resolution requesting the Queen to choose among the rival cities. The Queen or her ministers could have little knowledge of the respective merits of the various Canadian cities, and it is likely that she acted on advice from Canada. In any case she decided in favour of a village, Bytown, in the backwoods of the Ottawa river. From a ragged settlement, in the country of lumbermen, the village has since grown into the beautiful Ottawa. The Opposition was up in arms against the Queen's decision. McGee, who was frankly a champion of Montreal, flung himself into the debate, pleading the advantages of Lower Canada's largest city.

The final upshot was the resignation of the government, and the calling of Brown and Dorion to form a ministry. Then occurred the famous incident in Canadian history known as the Double Shuffle. The governor, Sir Edmund Head, refused Brown the privilege of a dissolution whereby the Reform leader might have obtained a more substantial majority. To add to the latter's misfortunes, the Opposition without giving the Reform ministry a trial carried a vote of censure. The new ministry, only a few hours old, was thus forced out of power, and Cartier and Macdonald were once more called upon. Constitutional precedent required that the ministers upon accepting office should seek re-election. But Macdonald feared that the ministers from Upper Canada would not be returned, if at this juncture they faced their constituents. Hence the ministers by shuffling their offices made use of a legal technicality to avoid re-election, and carried on the government as if nothing had occurred to disturb their former possession of power.