IV.

Prime Minister of Canada

On November 7, 1873, the British governor-general called on Mackenzie to form a government. Mackenzie became prime minister and took charge of the ministry of public works in order to supervise the railways. The governor-general, like many others, thought Mackenzie was nothing but Brown's puppet. It is true that Mackenzie was extremely loyal to his mentors, Brown and Blake, but he showed far greater loyalty to his political ideals and to his faith in honest government, gradual reform, and free trade.

He set about forming his cabinet at once but found it difficult to get the best men in his party to serve. Blake at first refused to join the cabinet at all. When he finally agreed, he would accept only a minor post. Richard Cartwright became minister of finance when Luther Holton, a personal friend of Mackenzie's, refused to serve. Mackenzie could not even persuade Brown, who had returned and taken a seat in the Senate in 1874, to join the cabinet. Dorion, however, became minister of justice and was the representative of Québec in the government. Perhaps the best of the ministers, Dorion resigned in order to become chief justice of Québec in 1874.

The Liberals had a minority in Parliament when Mackenzie formed his ministry. Because he could not persuade enough Conservatives to join him, he dissolved Parliament in January 1874. The Liberals won the election of 1874 with their promises to give Canada an honest, vigorous, and thrifty government.

Mackenzie was an efficient administrator. He quickly introduced the much-needed reform of a secret ballot. He put the railway to rights and sent Brown to negotiate tariff concessions with the United States. Unfortunately, factors he could not control condemned much of his program to failure. Canada was entering an economic depression when he became prime minister, and when it continued, he was held responsible. In addition, he had inherited a financial policy that he could not change in the short time he was in office.

The first program to feel the economic pinch was the transcontinental railway. Mackenzie had always opposed the idea, and the company building it had been discredited by the Pacific scandal. However, British Columbia had been promised a railway, and in his cautious way he set about building it. When private capital could not be found in Canada, the government agreed to build the railway in small segments. Mackenzie also authorized a complete survey of the route. The survey was essential and later paid great dividends, but it did not satisfy western Canadians. British Columbia threatened to leave the dominion. Blake, who did not support the railway project, advised Mackenzie to abandon it. The British, however, insisted that he negotiate. When Mackenzie's settlement failed to pass the Senate, the governor-general went to British Columbia to arrange his own settlement. This interference infuriated Mackenzie, but British Columbia remained in the dominion and received an annual subsidy until the railway was built.

After the railway the most important issue facing Mackenzie was the tariff, a tax on imported goods to protect local merchants and farmers. In Mackenzie's first year as prime minister he was forced to raise the tariff from 15 percent to 17.5 percent to raise money. Pressure increased for Mackenzie to raise the tariff again, for, as the depression continued, manufacturers and farmers began to think a protective tariff might bring relief. The finance minister seemed ready to agree, but during a visit to Scotland in the summer of 1875, Mackenzie declared that the principles of free trade were “the principles of civilization.” When he returned to Canada, there was no mention of a higher tariff in the budget of 1876.

Personal characteristics also influenced Mackenzie's failure. As minister of public works he spent up to 14 hours a day on ministry business. Inevitably, he neglected the leadership of his party. His pardoning of the followers of Louis Riel in the Red River Rebellion (which brought about the creation of the province of Manitoba) infuriated many people in Ontario. His support of an act that favored prohibition was not popular in Québec. When he made Dorion a judge in 1874, he lost his only French colleague who could act as leader in Québec. Although future prime minister Wilfrid Laurier joined his cabinet in 1877, Mackenzie considered him too young for real responsibility.

To add to Mackenzie's troubles, Blake, who became minister of justice in 1875, threatened to leave the cabinet in 1876. Mackenzie pleaded with him to stay, and Blake relented and remained another year. Indeed, Blake's reform of the Canadian legal system and his establishment of the Supreme Court of Canada were the most lasting major achievements of Mackenzie's administration.