Being Prime Minister by J.D.M. Stewart

Author:J.D.M. Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2018-05-23T04:00:00+00:00

As Opposition leader from 1873 to 1878, Sir John A. Macdonald continued to drink heavily and to generally embarrass himself, but eventually he began to turn things around. “He certainly can drink wine at dinner without being tempted to exceed, which hitherto he has never been able to do, and during the present [1877] session he has never given way as in former times,” wrote Lord Dufferin. Ironically, when the 1878 Temperance Act was passed, Macdonald had to be carried out of the House of Commons to spend the night in the Deputy Speaker’s office after a bout of insobriety. But Macdonald was not alone as a member of Parliament who imbibed. It was the habit of the times and Macdonald only the best-known among the bibulous.

Macdonald was once more prime minister after winning the 1878 election. Into the 1880s he began to look the way he is portrayed now on Canadian banknotes: grey hair, worn look, an aging man. His strength was waning. In 1881, at age sixty-six, he collapsed. His physician suspected he might have cancer. Macdonald went to London to see doctors there. They prescribed a better diet and some rest. Various ailments continued to plague him but Macdonald continued on. He gamely fought the 1891 election at age seventy-six under the slogan “The Old Flag, The Old Policy, The Old Leader.” But the contest was too much for him and in February he took ill and would not fully recover.

His physician, Dr. Robert Wynard Powell, was not surprised that Macdonald got sick. The constant train travel for the election campaign was too strenuous for someone of the prime minister’s age. Adding to the strain was the fact that the campaign took place during the winter months (election day was March 6), which necessitated Macdonald enduring outdoor speeches, cold rooms, and nasty weather. “It is not at all surprising that his strength broke down,” wrote the doctor in his report of the PM’s final days, “or that he contracted a severe cold from the strain and exposure.” In fact, Macdonald was diagnosed with bronchitis and a loss of voice. “There was no doubt of a congested lung and a threatened pneumonia,” the doctor’s report continued, “but absolute rest in bed, perfect quiet and active medicinal treatment averted such a catastrophe, and in a very few days he was sufficiently convalescent to venture downstairs, though still far from well. That Sir John was seriously ill on this occasion there can be no doubt.”[16]

Macdonald’s Conservatives won the election and the prime minister returned to Ottawa from Kingston in a considerably weakened state. He was well enough to attend the opening of Parliament on April 29 and sign the registry with his son, Hugh John Macdonald, a special moment for them and one of only two occasions when a sitting prime minister enjoyed the company of a son or daughter in the House (Louis St. Laurent was the other — his son Jean-Paul was an MP from 1955 to 1958).

Macdonald continued to decline.

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