III.

History

A.

Mackenzie

After Canadian Confederation in 1867, the first Liberal government came to power in 1873 under the leadership of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. The Mackenzie Liberals advocated relatively free trade with the United States, but this position lost favor in 1878. That year the Liberals were swept out of power by Sir John A. Macdonald and the Conservative Party, who wanted restrictions on trade to protect Canadian industries. The reform of the Canadian legal system and establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada by Mackenzie’s minister of justice Edward Blake were the major achievements of Mackenzie’s administration.

B.

Laurier

The most influential Liberal of the period before World War I (1914-1918) was Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canada’s first French Canadian prime minister. He became prime minister in 1896 and stayed in power until 1911. Laurier worked vigorously for national unity and, at least early in his career, British-style liberalism. Once he was in power, his promotion of common national interests expanded support for the Liberals in both Québec and the English-speaking part of Canada. He adopted many strategies the Conservatives had used before him, including patronage (the distribution of political offices to party loyalists) and the expansion of federal government involvement in Canadian economic development.

Laurier frequently compromised between the interests of English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. When the province of Manitoba abolished public funding for separate French-speaking Roman Catholic schools, he arranged for very limited separate instruction. When Britain pressed Canada to join its Boer War (1899-1902) in South Africa, which French Canadians opposed, he refused, but helped pay the costs of Canadian volunteers. Such policies alienated both English-speaking and French-speaking supporters. In 1911 he attempted to secure limited free trade with the United States, which angered industrial interests and led to a Liberal Party loss in that year’s election.

Laurier led Canada during a period of continued industrialization, which saw the addition of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. He also strengthened the Liberal Party’s position in both Québec and English Canada.

C.

King and St. Laurent

Although the Liberals did not return to power until 1921, the party dominated Canadian politics from the early 1920s through the late 1950s. William Lyon Mackenzie King became prime minister in 1921 and, except for the period from 1930 to 1935, served as prime minister almost continuously until he retired in 1948. No Canadian prime minister has held office longer. Under King’s leadership, Canada became a participant in world affairs. He contributed much to the cooperation between Britain, Canada, and the United States during and after World War II (1939-1945). However, his greatest achievement was the preservation of unity between French-speaking and English-speaking parts of Canada. King walked a fine line of compromise between the various interests that made up Canadian society. He garnered public support through his introduction of social welfare programs, particularly during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

During World War II, in which French Canadians opposed Canada’s participation, King was able to avoid alienating them. At first he declared there would be no conscription (drafting) of soldiers. In 1940, when the war worsened and he could no longer maintain that position, he introduced conscription for home service only. In 1942 the Conservatives pressed for conscription for overseas service, and King held a national referendum on the issue. It was defeated in Québec but approved in the rest of Canada. King still did not initiate an overseas draft. Finally, in 1944, King instituted limited overseas conscription, but he had delayed it long enough to prevent a breach with Québec.

As his successor, King selected Louis St. Laurent, who instituted more social welfare programs and oversaw the entry of Newfoundland as the tenth province. It was not until 1957 that a Conservative government under John Diefenbaker took power and seriously weakened support for the Liberals in the Canadian west. Liberal weakness in that region persists to this day.

D.

Pearson and Trudeau

After a brief hiatus, the Liberals again dominated Canadian politics from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Lester Pearson was elected prime minister in 1963 but was hampered by never having a Liberal majority in Parliament. However, he was followed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, an especially influential Liberal prime minister, who was in office almost continuously from 1968 to 1984.

Trudeau supported several major policy initiatives, such as a national energy program and bilingualism, which gave the French language the same status as English in the federal government. His most notable achievement was to gain from Britain full control over the Constitution of Canada. Previously, Canada had lacked the power to amend its own constitution. Trudeau also was successful in adding a charter of rights and freedoms to the constitution. The charter was significant because it spelled out individual rights that are superior to legislative acts, and thus reduced parliamentary control over these and other political issues in favor of a more American-style reliance on court decisions.

Trudeau lost support in the west, where Liberal support was already low, because voters believed that his policies favored central Canadian economic interests. He offended many speakers of English by promoting bilingualism. He also caused hard feelings among French Canadians by pushing through the constitutional changes without the support of the government of Québec and by including among these changes provisions that some saw as giving excessive strength to the federal government versus the provinces.

E.

Chrétien and Martin

The Progressive Conservatives ruled under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1984 to 1993. During this period the Liberals opposed free trade with the United States; it was Mulroney who, taking the old Liberal position, achieved the most comprehensive Canadian-American free trade treaty yet concluded—the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The Liberals were swept back into power in 1993, largely because of Mulroney’s personal unpopularity. Jean Chrétien, a Trudeau ally and former member of his cabinet, became prime minister. In the fall of 1995, Chrétien was accused of exercising indecisive leadership against French Canadian nationalists who were demanding sovereignty for Québec. In a referendum held in Québec on that issue, the pro-sovereignty forces lost by an extremely narrow margin.

After the referendum, the Québec issue waned in public concern, and the government focused on economic issues, particularly the national deficit, high unemployment, and high taxes. Chrétien continued reductions in government spending, which included cuts in defense expenditures and federal subsidies. In foreign affairs, Chrétien attempted to distance Canadian policy from that of the United States. In particular, he disagreed with U.S. proposals to use the air power of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian war. He also expressed a desire to renegotiate the terms of NAFTA, but after several years in office had made no serious effort in that direction.

In 1996 the Liberal cabinet was shaken up by the resignations of the minister of defense, David Collenette, and the chief of the defense staff, General Jean Boyle. Both were under fire from critics in Parliament for their handling of allegations that Canadian soldiers had shot and tortured civilians during their peacekeeping mission in Somalia in 1992 and 1993.

The Liberal Party barely managed to maintain a majority government after the election in 1997, taking 155 of 301 seats. The Liberals’ fortunes improved in the November 2000 election, called early by Chrétien in a gamble to increase his party’s representation in the House of Commons. The Liberals won 173 seats, achieving a comfortable majority. With the Liberals’ election victory, Chrétien became the first Canadian leader since World War II to win a third consecutive majority government.

Facing a Liberal Party convention and a vote of confidence on his leadership in February 2003, Chrétien expressed his desire in January 2002 to continue leading the party. Seven months later, however, Chrétien announced his decision to retire. The end came when he sacked Finance Minister Paul Martin, his long-term rival for Liberal Party leadership. The move backfired as Liberal Party members of Parliament came to Martin’s defense and called on Chrétien to step down. Chrétien resigned as Liberal Party head and, therefore, as prime minister, in December 2003. Martin succeeded him as Canada’s 21st prime minister.

Martin and the Liberals lost their parliamentary majority in elections held in June 2004, but the party retained control of the government. The party was plagued by a growing financial scandal, however, as evidence emerged that officials in Chrétien’s government had funneled millions of dollars in federal money into their own party’s coffers in the late 1990s.

Over the next year Conservative Party leaders charged Martin’s government with corruption in relation to the scandal and called for new elections, finally forcing a confidence vote in May 2005. The government won the vote, but lost a subsequent confidence vote in November. In January 2006 elections, the Conservative Party toppled the Liberal government, ending 12 consecutive years of rule by the Liberals in Canada. Conservative leader Stephen Harper became the country’s new prime minister. In December 2006 the Liberal Party chose Stéphane Dion, former minister of the environment, as its new leader.