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Date: 1865-08-16
By: Montreal Witness
Citation: “The Political See-Saw”, Montreal Witness (16 August, 1865)
Other formats: TBA

THE POLITICAL SEE-SAW.

Seated here on an island between Upper and Lower Canada, we of Montreal are, to use a childish illustration, like the Jack of the See-saw, interested in giving to each end of the Province its due length of plank, and its fair turn. Now, when Lower Canada sits like a big boy at the ground, keeping Upper Canada dangling high, we must say it is not fair. Under pretext of preserving the balance just as it is, we are told we must have a Premier as near as possible like the last, and so we have another Canadian Catholic knight in place of the one we have lost, with all his predecessor’s negative qualities a little intensified, and with nothing but negative qualities to recommend him. As it is evident that the same reasoning may apply at every future change, it is worth while that we should know whether our game is going to be spoilt or not. The system hitherto adopted may not have been the best; for we think the less that is made of boundary lines the better, and the man who has climbed to the top of the political ladder, should be permitted to sit there secure so long as the people let him, and when he fails the next by right of ability should rule. The present plan would, indeed, be reduced to a palpable absurdity by extending it to the Confederation which is talked of, and choosing a premier in rotation from each province. So long, however, as it is considered necessary to choose men, simply for their nothingness, there is no reason for breaking through the old rule. There are plenty of cyphers in Upper as well as in Lower Canada.

We see something more than the mere fear of shaking the trembling benches of the present ministry in the appointment out of turn of a Lower Canadian Roman Catholic. Where is the trumpet tongue that used to sound over the Globe the wrongs of Upper Canada?