The Struggle for Imperial Unity: Recollections & Experiences

by George T. Denison

We pray that the blessings of Your Majesty’s reign may, for your people’s sake, be long continued.

Mr. Mulock’s speech clearly explains the reasons for his action. He said:

We are all observers of current events, we are all readers of the literature of the day, and we have had the opportunity of observing the trend of the American Press during the last few months. In that Press you find a doctrine set forth as if it were the expression of one mind, but appearing in the whole of the Press of the United States and being in that way spread far and wide. You find it asserted there that the political institutions in Canada are broken down; that we are a people divided against ourselves or amongst ourselves; that we are torn apart by internal dissensions; that race is set against race, creed against creed, Province against Province, and the Dominion against the Empire; and that this has created a feeling in favour of independence or annexation which is now only awaiting the opportunity to take practical form and shape. These statements have, no doubt, already done injury to our country. A surplus population does not seek countries which are supposed to be bordering on revolution. Capital does not seek investment in countries which are supposed not to be blessed with stable government. Therefore, for the information of the outside world, for the information of those who have not had the advantage of being born or becoming Canadian citizens, for their advantage and for our own advantage ultimately, I have asked the House to adopt this resolution. To give further colour to these statements, we find that the United States Congress appointed a Committee of the Senate, ostensibly to inquire into the relations of Canada with the United States; but if anyone investigated the proceedings of that Committee, he would find that apparently the principal anxiety of the Commission is to discover satisfactory evidence that this country is in a frame of mind to be annexed to the United States. I know of no better way of meeting their curiosity on that subject, and at the same time of settling this question, than for the people of Canada, through their representatives here assembled, to make an authoritative deliverance upon the subject. Such a deliverance will go far, I believe, to settle the question in the minds of the people of the old lands, those of England and of continental Europe, and then I hope it will result in setting once more flowing towards our shores the surplus capital and the surplus population of those old lands which are so much wanted for the development of the resources of this vast Dominion. I make this statement in no feeling of unfriendliness to the United States. We cannot blame them for casting longing eyes towards this favoured land, but we can only attribute that to Canada’s worth, and, therefore, to that extent we can appreciate their advances. But that the American people seriously believe that Canada, a land so full of promise, is now prepared, in her very infancy, to commit political suicide, I cannot for a moment believe. Do the American people believe that this young country, with her illimitable resources, with a population representing the finest strains of human blood, with political institutions based upon a model that has stood the strain for ages, and has ever become stronger—do they believe that this country, possessing within her own limits all the essentials for enduring national greatness, is now prepared to abandon the work of the Confederation fathers, and pull out from the Confederation edifice the cement of British connection which holds the various parts of the edifice together? Do they, I say, believe that the people of Canada are prepared in that way to disappear from the nations of the earth, amidst the universal contempt of the world? No, Mr. Speaker, the American people are too intelligent to believe any such a thing. They have been trying to make themselves believe it, but they cannot do it. But whether they believe it or not—no matter who believes it outside of Canada—I venture to say the Canadian people do not believe it; and whatever be the destiny of Canada, I trust that such as I have indicated is not to be her destiny.

The motion was carried by a vote of 161 yeas and no nays.

This action of the House of Commons was of the greatest possible good, and gave great encouragement to our League.

By this time the meetings of the Executive Committee of the Imperial Federation League were generally held in my office, at the old Police Court. I often occupied the chair in the absence of Mr. D’Alton McCarthy, and later of Sir Leonard Tilley, who succeeded him as President. At a meeting held on the 17th February, 1890, Mr. Henry J. Wickham read a letter which he had received from a friend in the United States, mentioning the custom of flying the Stars and Stripes over the schools in that country, and suggesting that a like custom might be advantageous in Canada. The idea was seized on at once, and it was decided to organise a representative deputation with a view to waiting on the Minister of Education, and getting him to make such a regulation that the national flag would be used in all public schools in Ontario, and hoisted on certain days of the year to commemorate events of national importance. The details of the matter were left in the hands of Mr. H. J. Wickham and myself. Mr. Wickham acted as secretary, and very soon we had organised a very influential and powerful deputation of representative men to wait upon the Hon. G. W. Ross and to ask for Government recognition and authority for the movement.

On the 21st February, 1890, our deputation was received by the Minister of Education, and the objects we desired were explained to the Minister by Mr. Wickham, Mr. Somers (Chairman of the Public School Board), by myself as chairman of the deputation, and we were supported by Mayor Clarke, J. M. Clark and others.

Mr. Ross said that “it was needless to say that he sympathised deeply with the deputation in their request.” He said also that “he considered the display of the national emblem would be a fitting exhibition representing externally what was being done inside the schools. He would have no objection to make such a regulation, if it was not easy enough now, and legal if it was not so now, to display the national emblem in some such way as to impress upon the children the fact that we are a country and have a flag and a place in it.”

This was most satisfactory to us, and the movement soon became general, and now in several Provinces the practice of displaying the flag is followed.

On the same night, the 21st February, I attended the annual dinner of the Sergeants’ Mess of the Queen’s Own Rifles, all of whom were Imperial Federationists. I found there, for the first time at a public dinner to my knowledge, as one of the principal toasts, “Imperial Federation,” to which I responded. Since then, at almost all public dinners in Canada, some patriotic toast of that kind has appeared on the programme—“The United Empire,” “Canada,” “Canada and the Empire” “Our Country,” and many variations of the idea.