As Canadians note the 200th birthday of the country’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, UFV adjunct history professor Ged Martin asks: was Macdonald planning to retire to British Columbia?
In March 1891, Macdonald led his Conservative Party to a narrow election victory. He had been talking about getting out politics for some time — after all, he was 76 — and now was the moment.
But there was no easy exit strategy from being prime minister. He did not even have an obvious successor.
He had to move a long way from Ottawa — he had been too big on the national stage for too long to hang around.
Politicians did not get pensions. Macdonald was not poor but he wasn’t wealthy either.
His wife, Agnes, was 22 years younger. Their only child, daughter Mary, needed constant care to cope with disability. He had to provide for their futures.
So Macdonald had to maximize his savings. In 1890, he was planning to invest his cash in BC mortgages — the best interest rates available across Canada.
He also needed a retirement job.
Becoming a lieutenant-governor would have been attractive — good salary, a nice mansion, light duties.
But Macdonald’s home province was out — he hated Ontario Liberal premier Oliver Mowat.
He spoke no French, so Quebec was closed too.
Jealous Maritimers did not welcome outsiders in their top jobs.
Manitoba was split by a language and religious conflict over schools funding.
Alberta and Saskatchewan had not yet become provinces.
But British Columbia would have been attractive.
Macdonald had visited the province back in 1886. He had travelled the newly opened Canadian Pacific Railway through the Fraser Valley, but did not stop there.
Macdonald enjoyed relaxing in Victoria, a city that had elected him to Ottawa as its absentee MP in 1878.
Like his home town of Kingston, Ontario, Victoria was a small city with a strong “British” atmosphere — and the climate was much better!
Agnes liked British Columbia. She holidayed on the West coast after Sir John A’s death.
BC politics would have been a downside — with no formal political parties, the legislature was a circus, and the lieutenant-governor would have had a hands-on role to keep the machine working.
But that would have been no problem for a skilled operator like Sir John A.
So — was he planning to retire to Government House in Victoria?
Lieutenant-governor Hugh Nelson, a Macdonald supporter, had been four years in the job — he quit in 1892 on health grounds.
So a change was on the cards.
The choice of a lieutenant-governor was entirely an Ottawa responsibility. Nobody in BC would have been consulted.
So the fact that there’s no actual evidence of Macdonald’s plans is not a problem — the appointment would have come out of the blue, with a simple announcement by the Governor General from Rideau Hall.
Well, it never happened — worn out by the election campaign and a growing wave of political scandal, Sir John A. Macdonald died in office on June 6th 1891.
UFV adjunct professor Ged Martin lives in Ireland and contributes to UFV classes via Skype. He is the author of John A. Macdonald: Canada’s First Prime Minister (Dundurn, 2013).
For more information, contact Ged Martin at Ged.Martin@ufv.ca
01/11/2015