Arthur MeighenPCQC (/ˈmiːən/;June 16,1874 –August 5,1960) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Canada from 1920 to 1921 and from June to September 1926. He led the Conservative Party from 1920 to 1926 and from 1941 to 1942.
In July 1920,Meighen succeeded Borden as Conservative leader and prime minister –the first born after Confederation. Meighen suffered a heavy defeat in the 1921 election to Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party. Meighen lost his seat but re-entered Parliament through a 1922 by-election and remained Opposition leader. In the 1925 election,the Conservatives won a plurality of seats,just eight short of a majority government,but Mackenzie King decided to hold onto power with the support of the Progressive Party. Meighen's brief second term as Prime Minister in 1926 came about as the result of the "King–Byng Affair," being invited to form a ministry after Mackenzie King was refused an election request and resigned. He soon lost a no-confidence motion,however,and faced another federal election. Meighen lost his own seat,and the Conservatives lost 24,as Mackenzie King's Liberals re-took power.
After losing the 1926 election,Meighen resigned as party leader and quit politics to return to his law practice. He was appointed to the Senate in 1932,and under Prime Minister R. B. Bennett served as leader of the Government in the Senate and minister without portfolio until 1935. In 1941,Meighen became leader of the Conservatives for a second time,following Robert Manion's resignation. Meighen unsuccessfully attempted to re-enter the House of Commons in a by-election for York South and resigned as leader shortly thereafter. He returned to practising law afterwards.
Early life
Arthur Meighen's Birthplace
Meighen was born on a farm near the hamlet of Anderson in Blanshard Township,Ontario,to Joseph Meighen and Mary Jane Bell. He attended primary school at Blanshard public school in Anderson,where,in addition to being the grandson of the village's first schoolmaster,he was an exemplary student. In 1892,during his final high school year at St. Marys Collegiate Institute,which later became North Ward Public School in St. Marys (now known as Arthur Meighen Public School) Meighen was elected secretary of the literary society and was an expert debater in the school debating society in an era when debating was in high repute. He took first class honours in mathematics,English,and Latin.[1]
Meighen then attended University College at the University of Toronto,where he earned a B.A. in mathematics in 1896,with first-class standing.[1] While there,he met and became a rival of William Lyon Mackenzie King;the two men,both future prime ministers,did not get along especially well from the start. Meighen then earned his teaching qualifications from the Ontario Normal College.[1]
In 1904 Meighen married Isabel J. Cox,with whom he had two sons and one daughter.
Early professional career
Meighen moved to Manitoba shortly after finishing law school. Early in his professional career,Meighen experimented with several professions,including those of teacher,lawyer,and businessman,before becoming involved in politics as a member of the Conservative Party. In public,Meighen was a first-class debater,said to have honed his oratory by delivering lectures to empty desks after class. He was renowned for his sharp wit.[2] Meighen established a law practice in Portage la Prairie,and was briefly a partner with Toby Sexsmith.[3][4]
Early political career (1908–1913)
Meighen was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1908,at the age of 34,[5] defeating incumbent John Crawford when he captured the Manitoba riding of Portage la Prairie. In 1911,Meighen won re-election,this time as a member of the new governing party. He won election again in 1913,after being appointed as solicitor general.
Cabinet minister (1913–1920)
Meighen during his early years as a cabinet minister.
As minister of the interior,Meighen steered through Parliament the legislation to consolidate several insolvent railways into the Canadian National Railway Company,which continues today.[6]
In 1919,as acting minister of justice and senior Manitoban in Borden's government,Meighen helped to subdue the Winnipeg General Strike.[7] Shortly after the strike ended,he enacted the Section 98 amendments to the Criminal Code to ban association with organizations deemed seditious.[1][8] Though Meighen has often been credited by historians with instigating the prosecution of the Winnipeg strike leaders,in fact he rejected demands from the Citizens' Committee that Ottawa step in when the provincial government of Manitoba refused to prosecute. It took the return to Ottawa in late July 1919 of Charles Doherty,Minister of Justice,for the Citizens' Committee to get federal money to carry forward their campaign against labour.[1]
Meighen became leader of the Conservative and the Unionist Party,and Prime Minister on July 10,1920,when Borden resigned and William Thomas White declined the Governor General's invitation to be appointed Prime Minister.[9] During this first term,Meighen was Prime Minister for about a year and a half.
Economy
Meighen's government combatted the Depression of 1920–1921. His government cut spending,resisted regulation,and minimally intervened in the economy and employers.[10][11]
In April 1921,Meighen's government established a royal commission to investigate the grain trade,partially responding to calls from farmers to restore the Canadian Wheat Board that was dissolved the year previously.[12]
Foreign policy
Believing that the economic power of the United States was the main threat to Canada's existence as a nation,Meighen advocated for protective tariffs.[13]
At the 1921 Imperial Conference,Meighen successfully campaigned against the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance by citing that the alliance would alienate the United States and negatively affect Canada's relationship with the United States,which Canada depended upon for its security.[14][15]
Meighen continued to lead the Conservative Party (which reverted to its traditional name),and was returned to Parliament in 1922,after winning a by-election in the eastern Ontario riding of Grenville.
Despite his party finishing in third place,Meighen became Leader of the Opposition after the Progressives declined the opportunity to become the Official Opposition. Unlike the situation with Laurier and Borden,who had a generally respectful personal relationship despite their clear ideological differences,there existed between Meighen and King a very deep personal distrust and animosity. Meighen looked down upon King,whom he called "Rex" (King's old University nickname),and considered him unprincipled. King viewed Meighen as an unreconstructed High Tory who would destroy the nation's social peace after the traumatic domestic events of World War I. The bitter and unrelenting rivalry between the two party leaders was probably the nastiest in the history of Canadian politics.[2]
Meighen's term as opposition leader was most marked by his response to the crisis at Chanak,in which British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill,then serving in the cabinet of David Lloyd George,leaked to the press that the Dominions might be called upon to help British forces in the Chanak,Turkey. With Parliament not in session,King refused to commit the country to military action without Parliamentary approval,and announced that the matter was not important enough to recall Parliament. Meighen strongly condemned King's statement,and quoted Laurier's remark made on an earlier occasion:"When Britain's message came,then Canada should have said,'Ready,aye ready,we stand by you.'" The crisis subsided within days before any formal request for Canadian help could be made,and Lloyd George's government was a casualty of the whole affair.[16] Meighen was left with a reputation as being blindly in favour of Britain's interests.[according to whom?]
The Liberal government of Mackenzie King was soon beset with scandal. While the uneven performance of the government and disorganization of the Progressive movement created some opportunity for the Conservatives,Meighen generally refused to change from his general philosophy of restoring the pre-war social order and returning to National Policy level tariffs. His strategy in Quebec consisted of granting Esioff-Léon Patenaude general autonomy to run a full campaign without any interference from Conservative headquarters.
Meighen and the Tories won a plurality of seats in the inconclusive election of 1925. King,as the already sitting Prime Minister,opted to retain confidence in the house through an informal alliance with the Progressives. Meighen denounced King as holding onto office like a "lobster with lockjaw."
Prime Minister (June–September 1926)
After a scandal was revealed in the Customs Department,King was on the verge of losing a vote in the Commons on a motion censuring the government. King,before the vote,asked the Governor General,Lord Byng,to dissolve parliament and call an election.
Byng,believing that the request was inappropriate considering the length of time since the election,Meighen's larger seat count,and King's uncertain control of confidence of the chamber,used his reserve power to refuse the request. King duly resigned as prime minister. Meighen,having secured a measure of support from the opposition Progressives,was invited by Byng to form a government,which Meighen accepted.
Because of the possibility of losing a vote in the Commons,Meighen advised Byng to appoint the ministers of the Crown in an "acting" capacity only,to avoid triggering the automatic by-elections Ministers faced when accepting their appointments at the time. King used the technique to mock the government and further his accusation that Meighen had acted irresponsibly by accepting Byng's appointment,attracting Progressive support to take down the fledgling government. The government lost a motion regarding the "acting" Ministers by one vote three days after Meighen's appointment. With no other parliamentary leader to call upon,Byng called the 1926 Canadian federal election.
Byng's actions became known as the "King-Byng Affair." Debate continues today about whether King was attacking the Governor General's constitutional prerogative to refuse an election request by a prime minister,or whether Byng had intruded into Canadian Parliamentary affairs as an unelected figurehead,in violation of the principle of responsible government and the longstanding tradition of non-interference.[17]
While Meighen's appointment as Prime Minister gave the Conservatives control of the country's electoral machinery,the Conservatives' weakness in Quebec and the West continued,and Meighen faced rousing attacks from Mackenzie King and the Liberals for accepting Byng's appointment. Although the Conservatives won the popular vote,they were swept from office as the Liberals won a clear plurality of seats and were able to form a stable minority government with the support of the Progressives. Meighen himself was again defeated in Portage la Prairie. His second term lasted three months.
Meighen announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader shortly thereafter,though during his speech at the subsequent leadership convention it became clear he was attempting to rouse the floor to gain a new term. Rejected,he moved to Toronto to practise law.
In late 1941, Meighen was prevailed upon by a unanimous vote in a national conference of the party to become leader of the Conservative Party for the duration of the war. He accepted the party leadership on November 13, 1941, foregoing a leadership convention, and campaigned in favour of overseas conscription, a measure which his predecessor, Robert Manion, had opposed. As leader, Meighen continued to champion a National Government including all parties, which the party had advocated in the 1940 federal election.
Meighen, lacking a Commons seat, resigned from the Senate on January 16, 1942, and campaigned in a by-election for the Toronto riding of York South. His candidacy received the improbable support of the Liberal Premier of OntarioMitchell Hepburn; this act effectively hastened the end of Hepburn's Liberal Premiership, and did not in any case grant Meighen durable electoral support. The Liberals did not run a candidate in the riding due to a prevailing convention of allowing the Opposition leader a seat. Still harbouring a deep hatred for the Conservative leader and thinking that the return to the Commons of the ardently conscriptionist Meighen would further inflame the smouldering conscription issue, King arranged for campaign resources to be sent to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's Joseph Noseworthy. Federal Liberal support and rising CCF fortunes ensured that Meighen was defeated in the February 9, 1942, vote.
With its leader excluded from the Commons, the Conservative Party was further weakened. Meighen continued to campaign for immediate conscription as part of a "total war" effort through the spring and summer, but did not again seek a seat in the House of Commons. In September, Meighen called for a national party convention to "broaden out" the party's appeal. It remained unclear whether Meighen sought to have his leadership confirmed or to have his successor chosen. As the convention neared, news sources reported that Meighen had approached Manitoba's Liberal-Progressive Premier John Bracken about seeking the leadership, and that the convention would adopt a platform that would move the party toward acceptance of the welfare state. Meighen announced in his keynote address to the party on December 9, 1942, that he was not a candidate for the leadership and the party subsequently chose Bracken as leader, and renamed itself the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Retirement and death
Following his second political retirement, Meighen returned to the practice of law in Toronto. He died from heart failure in Toronto, aged 86, on August 5, 1960, and was buried in St. Marys Cemetery, St. Marys, Ontario, near his birthplace.[18] He had the second longest retirement of any Canadian Prime Minister, at 33 years, 315 days, Joe Clark surpassed him on January 12, 2014.
Arthur Meighen Public School in St. Marys, Ontario. This was Meighen's former high school, reopened as North Ward Public School in 1962 and renamed in his honour in 1984. The school closed permanently in 2010.[23]
The Arthur Meighen Building, 25 St. Clair Ave. East, Toronto, Ontario. Government of Canada Building built in 1950s.
Criticisms
Larry A. Glassford, a professor of education at the University of Windsor, concluded, "On any list of Canadian prime ministers ranked according to their achievements while in office, Arthur Meighen would not place very high."[1]
Meighen ranks as #14 out of the 20 Prime Ministers through Jean Chrétien, in the survey of Canadian historians included in Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders by J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer.
Sir Robert Laird Borden was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett,, was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 11th prime minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935.
William Lyon Mackenzie King was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. King is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and the Second World War. He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
The 1921 Canadian federal election was held on December 6, 1921, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader William Lyon Mackenzie King. A new third party, the Progressive Party, won the second most seats in the election.
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Harry Corwin Nixon was a Canadian politician and briefly the 13th premier of Ontario in 1943. He is both the longest-serving member in the history of the Ontario legislature and the shortest-serving premier of Ontario.
The Unionist Party was a centre-right political party in Canada, composed primarily of former members of the Conservative party with some individual Liberal Members of Parliament. It was formed in 1917 by MPs who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War, who formed the government through the final years of the war, and was a proponent of conscription. It was opposed by the remaining Liberal MPs, who sat as the official opposition.
John Bracken was a Canadian agronomist and politician who was the 11th and longest-serving premier of Manitoba (1922–1943) and later the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942–1948).
Hugh Guthrie, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as a minister in the governments of Sir Robert Borden, Arthur Meighen and R. B. Bennett.
The 1925 Canadian federal election was held on October 29, 1925 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 15th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative party took the most seats in the House of Commons, although not a majority. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was invited to form a minority government. Unlike the Conservative party, King's Liberals had the conditional support of the many Farmer/Progressive MPs.
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The King–Byng affair was a Canadian constitutional crisis that occurred in 1926, when the governor general of Canada, the Lord Byng of Vimy, refused a request by the prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, to dissolve parliament and call a general election.
The 1926 Canadian federal election was held on September 14, 1926, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 16th Parliament of Canada. The election was called after an event known as the King–Byng affair.
Robert Forke, was a Canadian politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Brandon in 1921. In 1922, he replaced Thomas Crerar as leader of the Progressive Party of Canada. Forke served as a cabinet minister in the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Ewan Alexander McPherson was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1926 to 1930. He was also a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1920 and from 1932 to 1936, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of John Bracken.
Wilfrid Garfield Case also known as W. Garfield Case,, was a Canadian politician who served as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament and Mayor of Owen Sound, Ontario. He is best known for his upset victory over Defence Minister General Andrew McNaughton in the Grey North federal by-election held on February 5, 1945.
A Conservative leadership convention was held on October 12, 1927 at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The convention was held to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party to choose a successor to former Prime Minister of Canada Arthur Meighen who had led the party since 1920. This was the first time the Conservatives used a leadership convention to choose a leader. Previous leaders had been chosen by the party's caucus, the previous leader, or by the Governor General of Canada designating an individual to form a government after his predecessor's death or resignation.
The article is the Electoral history of Arthur Meighen, the ninth Prime Minister of Canada.
This article is the Electoral history of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth Prime Minister of Canada. A Liberal, he was Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister, with three separate terms as Prime Minister, for a total of 21 years and 154 days. He defeated Prime Ministers Arthur Meighen and R.B. Bennett at different times, and was succeeded by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent in 1948.
Graham, Roger (1960–1965). Arthur Meighen: a biography, 3 volumes. Clarke, Irwin.; the standard scholarly biography
Graham, Roger. "Some political ideas of Arthur Meighen," in The political ideas of the prime ministers of Canada, ed. Marcel Hamelin (Ottawa, 1969), 107–20.
Granatstein, J.L. and Hillmer, Norman. Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders. HarperCollinsPublishersLtd., 1999. P. 75-82. ISBN0-00-200027-X.
Thompson, J. H. and Allen Seager. Canada, 1922–1939: decades of discord (Toronto, 1985);
Primary sources
Meighen, Arthur. Unrevised and Unrepented II: Debating Speeches and Others by the Right Honourable Arthur Meighen (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011), Edited by Arthur Milnes.
Meighen, Arthur. Unrevised and Unrepented: Debating Speeches and Others by the Right Honourable Arthur Meighen (1949)
1The department was eliminated in 1993 when the government was reorganized. The position of Secretary of State for Canada was not legally eliminated until 1996 when its remaining responsibilities were assigned to other cabinet positions and departments, particularly the newly created position of Minister of Canadian Heritage.
1The offices of Minister of Immigration and Colonization, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Mines and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs were abolished and the office of Minister of Mines and Resources was created and came in force on December 1, 1936.
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