A Very Canadian Coup: The Rise and Demise of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell, 1894–96
(By Ted Glenn)
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| Author | Ted Glenn |
When Mackenzie Bowell became Canada’s fifth Prime Minister in December 1894, everyone — including Bowell — expected the job would involve nothing more than keeping the wheels on the Conservative wagon until a spring election.
Plans for a quiet caretaker-ship were dashed in January 1895 when the courts ruled that the Manitoba government had violated Roman Catholics’ constitutional rights by abolishing the provincial separate school system back in 1890. Catholics in Quebec demanded that Bowell force Manitoba to restore the schools, while Ontario Protestants warned him to keep his hands off.
Backed into a corner, Bowell tried three times to negotiate a compromise with Manitoba over the course of 1895, but to no avail. By January 1896, seven of Bowell’s cabinet ministers had had enough. Convinced Bowell had tarnished the Conservative brand, the caballers forced Bowell to resign and make way for a new leader who they believed could revive party fortunes in time for the coming election, the old Warhorse of Cumberland himself, Sir Charles Tupper.
Ultimately, the coup didn’t matter. Tupper and his conspirators plead their case in Parliament and on the hustings, but nothing could stand in the way of Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals’ historic rise to power in the June 1896 election.
A Very Canadian Coup brings fresh sources and new perspectives to bear on the life and times of Canada’s fifth — and least understood — Prime Minister and his Sixth Ministry.”
