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Date: 1867-06-15
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “The Effect of Confederation upon Sectional Politics”, The Montreal Herald (15 June, 1867)
Other formats: TBA

THE EFFECT OF CONFEDERATION UPON SECTIONAL POLITICS.

—Confederation is now un fait accompli. It is no use to say anything against a thing which exists and cannot be changed; but that being so, it is permissible to inquire as to the effect which it is likely to produce upon our politics. There are at present two so called liberals, who once were really liberals, in the Cabinet, where, however, they will speedily lose their distinctive title if they have not lost it already, and will become as “dead ducks,” as Sidney Smith or Spence the erewhile Minister of the Crown, now Custom House officer. “To such base uses do we come Horatio!” “Imperial Cæsar,” in the shape of a member of Her Majesty’s Government, “dead and turned to clay” by the natural withdrawal of confidence by constituents who find that he thinks no longer as they think, will do to stop any hole, the stopping of which carries with it a salary. Ignoble though easy retirement will be the end of lives which at their commencement were not without lofty aspirations. But in the meantime these gentlemen, should they remain in office, will no doubt very effectually play the game of those who are using them as warming pans, until the time shall come to lay them on the shelf. No doubt, with that self deception to which most of us are prone, they find or invent grounds of patriotic and public interest, for the course which suits the natural personal desire to hold on to office, and the consequence which arises from it, so long as that can be done with anything like a decent regard to public opinion, a word which generally means the opinion of one’s own set. We can, therefore, easily understand the mode of logic which will be adopted by men who are weak in political faith, or who are seeking an apology for a course of action which seems somewhat doubtful to themselves. They have given out through Upper Canada that Confederation was to be the grand remedy for all ills, and was to redress the balance which has hitherto leaned to the side of Lower Canada. They see that Mr. John A. MacDonald is to be called to the head of the first ministry; they anticipate the possibility of his making up a majority, though still in a minority in Upper Canada, from Lower Canada and the Eastern Provinces; and they think that if he does so, it will disprove the arguments by which they have commended Confederation to the Upper Canadians, unless they, by remaining in the Cabinet, can keep up the semblance of a share of power, being ill held by Upper Canadian Liberals in their person. If Lower Canada domination shall still continue after the application of the wonderful cure all, great will be the discomfiture of the medicine men by whom that phenomenon has been brought about. All that is intelligible enough; but after all it is but one of those delusions by which men who wish to be deceived contrive to deceive themselves; but fail in blinding the eyes of others. Mr. John A. Macdonald will we presume form the new Cabinet. He will be in a minority in Ontario, he will have a majority contributed by Mr. Cartier in Quebec, and as to the Lower Provinces they are doubtful; Nova Scotia, however, being pretty certain to be largely against him. It is nevertheless to be remarked that as Upper Canada is to have eighty-two members out of one hundred and eighty-one, probably with a ratio constantly increasing in her favour, a popular party sent to Parliament from that Province will have a power very far greater than it ever had before, as Upper Canada will return one more member than Lower Canada and New Brunswick put together. Those are the main features of the new situation, though it is not possible to forecast the numbers of each majority or minority with sufficient accuracy to decide with certainty upon the complexion of the whole House of Commons. But, supposing that Mr. MacDonald, being, as he certainly will be, in a minority in his own Province, shall have a majority in the entire Confederation, Upper Canada will be dominated as heretofore, and [Confederation?] [will?] be proved not to have answered the end for which it was projected. If Mr. Macdonald have none but Conservatives in his Cabinet, this domination will be apparent; but if he can keep one or two Liberals among his colleagues, he will be able to make a semblance of uniting men of both political opinions. The true question, however, for those Liberals whom Mr. MacDonald may seek to associate with him in the Cabinet, is, whether by joining him they will not really aid him in establishing a new term of subjection for Upper Canada, which they have taught the people to believe could never occur again; and whether the people in spite of all shams, will not be able to see the real situation as they have done before. Mr. Macdonald was not less really master of the situation in Upper Canada, in spite of the wishes of the large majority of the people, when he had Mr. Joseph Morrison, Mr. Sydney Smith, and Mr. Spence, for colleagues, than he was when his Cabinet was wholly and professedly Conservative. Those persons soon lost all their liberality except in name, which sufficed to make them unpopular with the Conservatives, while their own friends took the earliest opportunity of dropping them, and one after another they were weeded out of public life into the cool shades of subordinate government offices. The same process is about to happen in the cases of Messrs. Howland and McDougall, only their power of resistance to the will of the people whom they affect to represent will be lessened, as compared to that exerted by their liberal predecessors, in the same proportion that the popular voice in Upper Canada has become more potent by the concession of representation according to population.