Embattled Nation by Patrice Dutil

Author:Patrice Dutil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2017-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

a press imbued with anti-national sentiments [Drapeau was thinking of Le Devoir] was permitted to carry out a seditious campaign which has had the effect of falsifying the ideas of our people and over-exciting the imagination of the young men who frequent our schools, our colleges, and our universities, and which also penetrated the mind of a far too great a number, unfortunately, of the clergy who, in the Province of Quebec, exercise almost exclusively the control of the education of the young. [35]

For Drapeau and many others, what was lacking was a “Lafontaine” or a “Cartier” to fight the Liberals, a leader who would have denounced the Ontario government’s position on French schools during the debates on the Lapointe Resolution and who would have dared to utter, “You are nothing but a band of jokers.” Instead, he continued, the Conservatives had Senator Landry — “a cynical politician, [who] start[ed] a stupid campaign which was practically in favour of the Liberal Party. And here we find the same inaction on the part of the Conservative leaders from Quebec and this same culpable negligence which prevented them from enlightening public opinion in this Province.” Drapeau also derided all the Quebec Conservatives who “lost their heads” over the issue of conscription. He then called on Borden to mobilize Sir Pierre-Évariste Leblanc, the lieutenant governor of Quebec — who had been placed there by Borden — but nothing came of it.[36] Wilfrid-Bruno Nantel, who had resigned from the cabinet for a position on the Railway Commission, urged Borden to encourage and support his Quebec MPs “so that they may not be discouraged or indisposed to run again.” In this election, “I realize that their position is very difficult, but not entirely hopeless,” he wrote. It was important that all pro-government candidates stay in the race, and he urged Borden to remind his MPs that the Military Service Act was not to apply to everyone, “especially farmers,” which would exempt many French Canadians.[37]

Quebec was Borden’s personal “no man’s land” and he avoided it. In the seven weeks of the election campaign, the prime minister spent less than three days in Montreal. Borden arrived early on Sunday, November 11, (on his way to the Maritimes) to meet with local party leaders to discuss Henri Bourassa’s politics and to deal with the Montreal Star’s implacable attitude toward French Canadians. He met with Atholstan in the afternoon and discussed the Union finances, as described in chapter 6. One of Borden’s main concerns was also to make sure that cabinet minister Charles Ballantyne secured a riding that would guarantee his election. It was not an easy task, but here, at least, Borden did prevail. [38]

He returned a week later, but stayed only for brief meetings to discuss Quebec conditions. The news was not good. He tried again in late November, hoping to find a friendly audience in Sherbrooke, where two of the leading Conservatives in Quebec, Ballantyne and Charles Doherty, were to hold a rally. He arrived amid the confusion of an anti-government riot and the hall was ransacked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.