Dafoe, Laurier, and the Formation of Union Government
1961; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 42; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3138/chr-042-03-01
ISSN1710-1093
Autores Tópico(s)Australian History and Society
Resumoœormation œ Union government are among the most contentious in recent Canadian history. On the one hand these events may be seen as a superb patriotic effort o assist Great Britain in the winning oœ the Great War. A variation of this view might characterize them as colonial Canada's reply to the call for assistance from imperial Britain. On the other hand they can, and have been interpreted as a plot on the part of scheming anti-Quebec politicians to preserve their slipping hold on oflqce. As a sidelight to this main charge the suggestion has been made that the central objective of the promoters oœ Union government was to produce an administration sympathetic to the sagging œortunes oœ the Grand Trunk and Canadian Northern Railways. Also the suspicion has sometimes been raised that Union government was part of a plan to re-organize the British empire on a centralized basis. A final comment that is œrequently made about the Unionist movement is that it destroyed that national unity which had been so carefully built, brick by brick, by Sir Willrid Laurier during his fifteen years oœ office. All of these suggestions were made in a variety oœ ways in 1917 and have been given some standing in the official life of Laurier, written by O. D. Skelton in 1922 while the issues were still hot. As yet, however, no thorough study has been made oœ the available contemporary evidence in an attempt o place together all the pieces in the enormous puzzle. A survey of the events from the outbreak oœ war in August, 1914, to the election oœ 1917 as seen through the eyes of J. W. Dafoe suggests that the complete explanation œor the support which the Unionist movement won has not yet been offered. It also suggests that much that has been written about conscription, Union government, and the
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