alternatehistory.com
Shooting Politicians in a Barrel
Riding high from his sweeping conference victory, Laurier made landfall back in Canada only to find for him a pre-set political minefield. The Conservative opposition had been nothing but busy in his absence as Laurier’s recently proposed reciprocal trade agreement with the United States was a veritable roundhouse kick to their hornets’ nest. In January of that same year, Laurier and US President Taft had agreed to sign an agreement regarding the free trade of natural products between nations. While the US Congress and Senate had passed the required legislation, the agreement was now to be decided by the Canadian political establishment. The Liberal party had placed its hope on the fact that the Prairie provinces would support such an agreement, giving them an excellent market for their largely agricultural materials. On the other hand, the manufacturing center of Canada which resided within Ontario and Quebec feared that this would remove materials from their own economy and place too much power in the economical juggernaut across the border. It was alleged by Frederick Monk that Laurier’s trade agreement with the United States only served to “dig a big ditch to hide the nefarious policy of his naval bill” and while this may be true, the Liberal party as a whole had been proponents of free trade for years and this was completely on brand for them.
While outwardly a strong strategy to both empower his supporters and quietly shuffle the RCN’s various controversies somewhere to be dealt with after the next election, this gamble would prove to be Laurier’s political downfall. As Canada and the United States had specifically utilized legislation instead of a formal treaty to dodge the approval of the British government, many parties viewed this as some beginning to a shady backroom deal. A lack of consulting with the British caused overly patriotic imperialist Canadians to start pointing fingers and leveling the charge of “traitor” against anybody in favor of this agreement. Another American annexation scare was also sparked when House of Representatives speaker Champ Clark fervently declared before the house, “I look forward to the time when the American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole. The people of Canada are of our blood and language.” This was promptly capped off with remarks regarding this trade agreement as the first step in ending Canada as a country, being received with immense applause. This rightly caused panic within Canada and the Conservative party latched onto this incident to fuel their anti-America, pro-Britain stance. Another nail was struck into the coffin concerning the agreement when William M. Bennett, member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution that asked the President Taft to open negotiations with Britain on how the United States could properly annex Canada into it’s fold. President Taft rejected the resolution and the following vote only had Bennett himself voting for the resolution however, the damage was done. Bennett's resolution was taken into the Canadian media as substantial proof that the Americans were planning on an eventual annexation of their nation.
This would all result in Robert Borden and his Conservative party leveling a filibuster against the proposed legislation. As the Canadian political system did not yet possess a tool used to break such a tactic, Laurier was forced to dissolve parliament and call a general election more than a year before he had previously planned. In order to assist his party in breaking Laurier’s over 15-year stranglehold on power, Borden formed a shaky coalition with the two prominent French politicians of the time, Frederick Monk and Henri Bourassa, Conservative and Nationalistic politicians respectively. With establishment Conservative funding and the use of all the talking head newspapers, the attacks on Laurier personally began. Due to Laurier taking the reigns of previous naval developments, his opposition tied the failures and problems of the department directly to Laurier himself. The naval issue was front and center in Quebec but nowhere else in Canada. The only strong thread holding all of these precarious alliances together was their personal hatred for Laurier and his naval bill, eventually holding long enough to replace Laurier with Robert Borden on October 10, 1911. Ironically for the Quebec politicians, Laurier’s compromises and French-Canadian understanding was gone, replaced by the hardline imperialist sentiments of Borden’s Conservatives.
Political cartoon of the period lampooning Borden and Bourassa in their alliance against Laurier.
The nightmare of the Royal Canadian Navy had been realized, the complete control of the recently born service now rested in the hands of her mortal enemies. When Niobe emerged from dock, she was immediately placed alongside and waited for a concrete announcement from the new government regarding her fate. There she would lay for years with her gun breeches removed and her very hull rotting out from under her due to a lack of maintenance. Following the removal of the pro-navy Governor General Grey and the appointment of a new Minister of Fisheries alongside Monk to the Minister of Public Works, Laurier’s carefully stacked deck in the navies favor had came tumbling down. Luckily though, Borden opted to continue the honor system of not outright dismissing civil servants from a previous administration, meaning Kingsmill, Desbarats and the remainder of their staff retained their positions. Although honestly, Borden had nobody to replace any of these staff even if he wanted to. Only a month after his election, the tenders for Laurier’s fleet had been rejected, the Borden administration returned the deposits to their owners and closed the book on the entire project. Following this, Borden announced that he would be moving to repeal the Naval Service Act from existence, effectively executing the Royal Canadian Navy. Although he promised to replace the act with his own more effective legislation, this was little comfort. The only silver lining was the fact the Naval Service Act would remain on the books until such new legislation was drafted which would take considerable time. Borden would go on to say,
“As the government could not very well sink the ships and burn the buildings belonging to the current navy, the existing establishment would continue until a new policy could be formulated.”
Even with this said though, the Conservative government delivered the toughest pill to swallow in the form of the 1912 budgetary estimates. A massive cut was to come from the naval budget, moving from $3 million under Laurier to $1.6 million under Borden. The promise of a fair time in a new service with plenty of opportunity was essentially snuffed away, leaving the Royal Canadian Navy without the money and later, the personnel to even send their ships to sea. Royal Navy leased personnel, Canadian recruited men and even members of the Royal Navy who had joined the Royal Canadian Navy began to weigh their options in the rapidly sinking service and as is natural, sailors tend to leave a sinking ship. Miraculously though, the Royal Naval College of Canada in Halifax escaped any of Borden's budgetary cuts. While the admission slowed to only a mere trickle even compared to the previous meager years, this trickle would later prove to be invaluable in the years to come.
As Borden struggled to forge a naval policy for himself, he would become rapidly swept into the company of a figure who would leave his mark on the Canadian Navy for years to come.
While outwardly a strong strategy to both empower his supporters and quietly shuffle the RCN’s various controversies somewhere to be dealt with after the next election, this gamble would prove to be Laurier’s political downfall. As Canada and the United States had specifically utilized legislation instead of a formal treaty to dodge the approval of the British government, many parties viewed this as some beginning to a shady backroom deal. A lack of consulting with the British caused overly patriotic imperialist Canadians to start pointing fingers and leveling the charge of “traitor” against anybody in favor of this agreement. Another American annexation scare was also sparked when House of Representatives speaker Champ Clark fervently declared before the house, “I look forward to the time when the American flag will fly over every square foot of British North America up to the North Pole. The people of Canada are of our blood and language.” This was promptly capped off with remarks regarding this trade agreement as the first step in ending Canada as a country, being received with immense applause. This rightly caused panic within Canada and the Conservative party latched onto this incident to fuel their anti-America, pro-Britain stance. Another nail was struck into the coffin concerning the agreement when William M. Bennett, member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution that asked the President Taft to open negotiations with Britain on how the United States could properly annex Canada into it’s fold. President Taft rejected the resolution and the following vote only had Bennett himself voting for the resolution however, the damage was done. Bennett's resolution was taken into the Canadian media as substantial proof that the Americans were planning on an eventual annexation of their nation.
This would all result in Robert Borden and his Conservative party leveling a filibuster against the proposed legislation. As the Canadian political system did not yet possess a tool used to break such a tactic, Laurier was forced to dissolve parliament and call a general election more than a year before he had previously planned. In order to assist his party in breaking Laurier’s over 15-year stranglehold on power, Borden formed a shaky coalition with the two prominent French politicians of the time, Frederick Monk and Henri Bourassa, Conservative and Nationalistic politicians respectively. With establishment Conservative funding and the use of all the talking head newspapers, the attacks on Laurier personally began. Due to Laurier taking the reigns of previous naval developments, his opposition tied the failures and problems of the department directly to Laurier himself. The naval issue was front and center in Quebec but nowhere else in Canada. The only strong thread holding all of these precarious alliances together was their personal hatred for Laurier and his naval bill, eventually holding long enough to replace Laurier with Robert Borden on October 10, 1911. Ironically for the Quebec politicians, Laurier’s compromises and French-Canadian understanding was gone, replaced by the hardline imperialist sentiments of Borden’s Conservatives.
Political cartoon of the period lampooning Borden and Bourassa in their alliance against Laurier.
The nightmare of the Royal Canadian Navy had been realized, the complete control of the recently born service now rested in the hands of her mortal enemies. When Niobe emerged from dock, she was immediately placed alongside and waited for a concrete announcement from the new government regarding her fate. There she would lay for years with her gun breeches removed and her very hull rotting out from under her due to a lack of maintenance. Following the removal of the pro-navy Governor General Grey and the appointment of a new Minister of Fisheries alongside Monk to the Minister of Public Works, Laurier’s carefully stacked deck in the navies favor had came tumbling down. Luckily though, Borden opted to continue the honor system of not outright dismissing civil servants from a previous administration, meaning Kingsmill, Desbarats and the remainder of their staff retained their positions. Although honestly, Borden had nobody to replace any of these staff even if he wanted to. Only a month after his election, the tenders for Laurier’s fleet had been rejected, the Borden administration returned the deposits to their owners and closed the book on the entire project. Following this, Borden announced that he would be moving to repeal the Naval Service Act from existence, effectively executing the Royal Canadian Navy. Although he promised to replace the act with his own more effective legislation, this was little comfort. The only silver lining was the fact the Naval Service Act would remain on the books until such new legislation was drafted which would take considerable time. Borden would go on to say,
“As the government could not very well sink the ships and burn the buildings belonging to the current navy, the existing establishment would continue until a new policy could be formulated.”
Even with this said though, the Conservative government delivered the toughest pill to swallow in the form of the 1912 budgetary estimates. A massive cut was to come from the naval budget, moving from $3 million under Laurier to $1.6 million under Borden. The promise of a fair time in a new service with plenty of opportunity was essentially snuffed away, leaving the Royal Canadian Navy without the money and later, the personnel to even send their ships to sea. Royal Navy leased personnel, Canadian recruited men and even members of the Royal Navy who had joined the Royal Canadian Navy began to weigh their options in the rapidly sinking service and as is natural, sailors tend to leave a sinking ship. Miraculously though, the Royal Naval College of Canada in Halifax escaped any of Borden's budgetary cuts. While the admission slowed to only a mere trickle even compared to the previous meager years, this trickle would later prove to be invaluable in the years to come.
As Borden struggled to forge a naval policy for himself, he would become rapidly swept into the company of a figure who would leave his mark on the Canadian Navy for years to come.
- RelativeGalaxy7
- Word Count: 1.3k