Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics

Laurier: A Study in Canadian
Politics

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Title: Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics
Author: J. W. Dafoe
Release Date: March 30, 2005 [EBook #15509]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAURIER:
A STUDY IN CANADIAN ***

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LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS
By J. W. DAFOE
THOMAS ALLEN PUBLISHER, TORONTO
Copyright, Canada, 1922 by Thomas Allen
Printed in Canada
DEDICATION: TO E. H. MACKLIN IN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
OF A CONSTANT FRIENDSHIP.

PREFACE

The four articles which make up this volume were originally published
in successive issues of the Monthly Book Review of the Manitoba Free
Press and are herewith assembled in book form in response to what
appears to be a somewhat general request that they be made available
in a more permanent form.
J. W. D. October 13 1922.

CONTENTS
PART 1. LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS PART 2.
LAURIER AND EMPIRE RELATIONSHIPS Part 3. FIFTEEN
YEARS OF PREMIERSHIP

LAURIER: A STUDY IN CANADIAN POLITICS
THE CLIMB TO POWER.
THE life story of Laurier by Oscar D. Skelton is the official biography
of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Official biographies of public men have their
uses; they supply material for the definitive biography which in the
case of a great man is not likely to be written by one who knew him in
the flesh. An English public man, who was also a novelist and poet,
wrote:
"Ne'er of the living can the living judge, Too blind the affection or too
fresh the grudge."
The limitation is equally true in the case of one like Sir Wilfrid Laurier
who, though dead, will be a factor of moment in our politics for at least
another generation. Professor Skelton's book is interesting and valuable,
but not conclusive. The first volume is a political history of Canada
from the sixties until 1896, with Laurier in the setting at first
inconspicuously but growing to greatness and leadership. For the
fifteen years of premiership the biographer is concerned lest Sir Wilfrid
should not get the fullest credit for whatever was achieved; while in
dealing with the period after 1911, constituting the anti-climax of
Laurier's career, Mr. Skelton is avowedly the alert and eager partisan,
bound to find his hero right and all those who disagreed with him
wrong. Sir Wilfrid Laurier is described in the preface as "the finest and
simplest gentleman, the noblest and most unselfish man it has ever
been my good fortune to know;" and the work is faithfully devoted to

the elucidation of this theme. Men may fail to be heroes to their valets
but they are more successful with their biographers. The final
appraisement of Sir Wilfrid, to be written perhaps fifty years hence by
some tolerant and impartial historian, will probably not be an echo of
Prof. Skelton's judgment. It will perhaps put Sir Wilfrid higher than
Prof. Skelton does and yet not quite so high; an abler man but one not
quite so preternaturally good; a man who had affinities with
Macchiavelli as well as with Sir Galahad.
The Laurier of the first volume is an appealing, engaging and most
attractive personality. There was about his earlier career something
romantic and compelling. In almost one rush he passed from the
comparative obscurity of a new member in 1874 to the leadership of
the French Liberals in 1877; and then he suffered a decline which
seemed to mark him as one of those political shooting stars which blaze
in the firmament for a season and then go black; like Felix Geoffrion
who, though saluted by Laurier in 1874 as the coming leader, never
made any impress upon his times. A political accident, fortunate for
him, opened the gates again to a career; and he set his foot upon a road
which took him very far.
The writer made acquaintance with Laurier in the Dominion session of
1884. He was then in his forty-third year; but in the judgment of many
his career was over. His interest in politics was, apparently, of the
slightest. He was deskmate to Blake, who carried on a tremendous
campaign that session against the government's C. P. R. proposals.
Laurier's political activities consisted chiefly of being an acting
secretary of sorts to the Liberal leader. He kept his references in order;
handed him Hansards and blue-books in turn; summoned the pages to
clear away the impedimenta and to keep the glass of water
replenished--little services which it was