Conservative leadership convention, 1927

Conservative leadership election, 1927
Date	October 12, 1927
Convention	Winnipeg Amphitheatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Resigning leader	Arthur Meighen
Won by	R.B. Bennett
Ballots	2
Candidates	6
	Progressive Conservative leadership elections ; 1927 · 1938 · 1942 · 1948 · 1956 · 1967 · 1976 · 1983 · 1993 · 1995 · 1998 · 2003 ; Canadian Alliance leadership elections ; 2000 · 2002 ; Conservative leadership elections; 2004, 2017

Last updated March 21, 2019

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 (formally the Liberal-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.^[1]

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. Centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, it is near the longitudinal centre of North America, approximately 110 kilometres (70 mi) north of the Canada–United States border.

Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is often considered one of the three prairie provinces and is Canada's fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi) with a widely varied landscape, stretching from the northern oceanic coastline to the southern border with the United States. The province is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territories of Nunavut to the north, and Northwest Territories to the northwest, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.

The Liberal-Conservative Party was the formal name of the Conservative Party of Canada until 1873, and again from 1922 to 1938, although some Conservative candidates continued to run under the label as late as the 1911 election and others ran as simple Conservatives before 1873. In many of Canada's early elections, there were both "Liberal-Conservative" and "Conservative" candidates; however, these were simply different labels used by candidates of the same party. Both were part of Sir John A. Macdonald's government and official Conservative and Liberal-Conservative candidates would not, generally, run against each other. It was also common for a candidate to run on one label in one election and the other in a subsequent election.

Background

Meighen had succeeded Sir Robert Borden as prime minister and leader of the Unionists, a coalition of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberal-Unionists in 1920 and attempted to forge the alliance into a permanent party called the National Liberal and Conservative Party. Despite his efforts, most Liberal supporters of the Borden government either returned to the Liberal Party of Canada or joined the new Progressive Party of Canada after World War I and Meighen's party was defeated in the 1921 federal election by the Liberals under their new leader William Lyon Mackenzie King. At a March 1922 caucus meeting that re-affirmed Meighen's leadership, the party voted to change its name to the Liberal-Conservative Party which it was known by under Sir John A. Macdonald.^[2]

Robert Borden 8th prime minister of Canada

Sir Robert Laird Borden, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.

Conscription, sometimes called the draft, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.

The Liberal Party of Canada is the oldest and longest-serving governing political party in Canada. The Liberals form the current government, elected in 2015. The party has dominated federal politics for much of Canada's history, holding power for almost 69 years in the 20th century—more than any other party in a developed country—and as a result, it is sometimes referred to as Canada's "natural governing party".

Meighen's Conservatives won a plurality of seats in the 1925 federal election but King's Liberals were able to continue in power until 1926 with the support of the Progressives, until King's government lost a non-confidence vote in the House of Commons of Canada. King asked Governor General Lord Byng for a dissolution and new election but Byng asked Meighen to form a government instead, a controversial decision that became known as the King-Byng Affair. Meighen's government, in turn, was defeated in a non-confidence vote after three months and the subsequent September 14, 1926 federal election returned the Liberals to power and also resulted in Meighen losing his seat in the House.

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons currently meets in a temporary Commons chamber in the West Block of the parliament buildings on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, while the Centre Block, which houses the traditional Commons chamber, undergoes a ten-year renovation.

The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The person of the sovereign is shared equally both with the 15 other Commonwealth realms and the 10 provinces of Canada, but resides predominantly in her oldest and most populous realm, the United Kingdom. The Queen, on the advice of her Canadian prime minister, appoints a governor general to carry out most of her constitutional and ceremonial duties. The commission is for an unfixed period of time—known as serving at Her Majesty's pleasure—though five years is the normal convention. Beginning in 1959, it has also been traditional to rotate between anglophone and francophone officeholders—although many recent governors general have been bilingual. Once in office, the governor general maintains direct contact with the Queen, wherever she may be at the time.

Meighen resigned as party leader, and the party called a special meeting of its parliamentary caucus and defeated candidates on October 11, 1926 that elected Member of Parliament Hugh Guthrie (Wellington South) as interim leader. In addition to Guthrie, MPs Henry Herbert Stevens, Sir George Halsey Perley (Argenteuil), Robert Manion (Fort William), Charles Cahan (St. Lawrence—St. George), Sir Henry Drayton (York West), Charles William Bell (Hamilton West) and Simon Fraser Tolmie (Victoria) were also nominated; Guthrie defeated Manion and Stevens on the third ballot to become interim leader and Leader of the Official Opposition until a permanent leader was chosen.^[3] The caucus also recommended that a leadership convention, the party's first, be held in 1927 to choose a permanent leader.^[4]

Hugh Guthrie, was a Canadian politician and Cabinet minister in the governments of Sir Robert Borden, Arthur Meighen and R. B. Bennett.

Wellington South was a Canadian federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867 as the "South Riding of the county of Wellington". The County of Wellington was divided into three ridings: the North, South and Centre Ridings".

An interim leader, in Canadian politics, is a party leader appointed by the party's legislative caucus or the party's executive to temporarily act as leader when a gap occurs between the resignation or death of a party leader and the election of their formal successor. Usually a party leader retains the leadership until a successor is formally chosen — however, in some situations this is not possible, and an interim leader is thus appointed by the party's caucus or the party executive. An interim leader may also be appointed while a leader is on a leave of absence due to poor health or some other reason, and then relinquish the position upon the leader's return.

Candidates

Richard Bedford Bennett , 57, Member of Parliament for Calgary West, Alberta served as Minister of Finance in Meighen's 1926 government and had been the first leader of the Alberta Conservative party.
Hugh Guthrie , 61, MP for Wellington South, Ontario, was a former Liberal who became a Liberal-Unionist supporter of Borden's World War I government in which he served as Solicitor General of Canada. He continued in cabinet under Meighen as Minister of Militia and Defence (1920-1921) and then as Minister of Justice and Minister of National Defence in Meighen's 1926 government. He led the party in parliament as Leader of the Opposition since 1926 due to Meighen losing his seat.
Charles Cahan , 66, MP for St. Lawrence—St. George, Quebec was first elected to parliament in 1925. He had led the Nova Scotia Conservative Party in the 1890s and served as Director of Public Safety for Canada during the war. He was a hardline Conservative advocating free enterprise and individualism.^[5]
Robert Manion , 46, Member of Parliament for Fort William, Ontario, had served in parliament since 1917 and had been a Liberal before the war but joined the Unionists as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917. He served as Minister of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment in Meighen's first government and, variously, as Minister of Immigration and Colonization (acting), Minister of Labour (acting), Minister of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment (acting), Minister presiding over the Department of Health (acting), and Postmaster General (acting) in his second.
Robert Rogers , 63, had been the MP for Winnipeg South until losing his seat in the 1926 election. He had been Minister of Public Works in the Manitoba government before entering federal politics in 1911 and was appointed to Borden's cabinet as Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs and then as Minister of Public Works from 1912 to 1917. He did not stand in the 1917 federal election, returned to parliament in 1925, but lost his seat in 1926.
Sir Henry Drayton , 58, was Member of Parliament for York West, Ontario and served as Minister of Finance under both Borden and Meighen.

Calgary West was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1953, and from 1979 to 2015. It was located in the western part of the City of Calgary.

The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta. The party formed the provincial government, without interruption, from 1971 until the party's defeat in the 2015 provincial election under Premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, Dave Hancock and Jim Prentice. At 44 years, this was the longest unbroken run in government at the provincial or federal level in Canadian history.

World War I 1914–1918 global war originating in Europe

World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.

Convention

Heading into the convention, Ontario Premier Howard Ferguson was considered the favourite as he enjoyed popularity in Quebec as well as Ontario as his government had repealed Regulation 17 which had restricted French-language school instruction. Other Conservatives wanted Meighen to stand as a candidate and succeed himself. Meighen and Ferguson clashed on the convention floor after Meighen, who had attempted to make overtures to Quebec where the Conservatives and Meighen were unpopular due to the Conscription crisis of 1917, proposed that Canada not be able to go to war in future without there first being a referendum or federal election on the issue. Meighen raised the issue on the floor of the convention but Ferguson, echoing the views of many English-Canadian Conservatives, loudly denounced Meighen's position saying: "I, as a Liberal-Conservative, entirely disagree with him and repudiate that view; and if this convention chooses to endorse him, I will dissociate myself entirely from the convention." Ferguson's comments were received with a round of boos taking him out of consideration for leadership while also making Meighen succeeding himself untenable.^[5]^[6]

The Premier of Ontario is the first minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario and the province’s head of government. The position was formerly styled "Prime Minister of Ontario" until the ministry of Bill Davis formally changed the title to premier.

George Howard Ferguson, PC was the ninth Premier of Ontario, Canada from 1923 to 1930. He was a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to 1930 who represented the eastern provincial riding of Grenville.

Regulation 17 was a regulation of the Ontario Conservative government designed to shut down French-language schools at a time when Francophones from Quebec were moving into eastern Ontario. It was a regulation written by the Ministry of Education, issued in July 1912 by the Conservative government of premier Sir James P. Whitney. It restricted the use of French as a language of instruction to the first two years of schooling. It was amended in 1913, and it is that version that was applied throughout Ontario. French Canadians reacted vehemently, and lost, dooming its French-language Catholic schools. This was a reason why French Canadians distanced themselves from the subsequent World War I effort, as its young men refused to enlist.

George Halsey Perley, H. H. Stevens, John Allister Currie, New Brunswick Premier John Baxter, Ferguson, Nova Scotia Premier Edgar Nelson Rhodes, and outgoing leader Arthur Meighen were all nominated but declined to run.^[7]

Bennett had the support of Ferguson and Stevens, who worked the convention floor on his behalf. Bennett spoke no French in his speech to delegates.^[5] Guthrie misspoke by saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome this, the greatest Liberal convention in all history,"^[7] and hurt his prospects in Quebec by saying he wished to "obliterate" distinctions between French and English.^[5]

Resolutions were passed favouring preferential tariffs throughout the British Empire but not if it hurt farmers or workers, social legislation to support the unemployed, ill, and elderly "so far as it is practicable" and an immigration policy that supported settlers from Britain and excluded "such races... as are not capable of ready assimilation."^[6] The party also committed itself to maintaining the Canadian National Railway as a "publicly owned and operated utility" and affirmed the "traditional adherence of the Liberal-Conservative Party to the principle of loyalty to the Crown, and the maintenance of that integral connection of Canada with the British Empire".^[8]^[9] The convention also approved the construction of a St. Lawrence canal as an all-Canadian project, maintenance of a maximum freight rate for grain products, construction of interprovincial highways, implementation of the findings of the Duncan Commission investigating grievances of the Maritime provinces, as well as resolutions on the development of mining, the fisheries, and agriculture, and for legislation giving the Western provinces powers over natural resources within their territory.^[9]

Results

Delegate support by ballot
Candidate		1st ballot		2nd ballot
Candidate		Votes cast	%	Votes cast	%
	BENNETT, Richard Bedford	594	38.0%	780	50.2%
	GUTHRIE, Hugh	345	22.0%	320	20.6%
	CAHAN, Charles Hazlitt	310	19.8%	266	17.1%
	MANION, Robert James	170	10.9%	148	9.5%
	ROGERS, Robert	114	7.3%	37	2.4%
	DRAYTON, Henry Lumley	31	2.0%	3	0.2%
Total		1,564	100.0%	1,554	100.0%

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References

↑ "CONSERVATIVE (1867-1942)". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
↑ "MEIGHEN, ARTHUR". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval.
↑ "CONSERVATIVES CHOOSE GUTHRIE AS HOUSE LEADER: Meighen's Resignation Accepted By Dominion-Wide Party Caucus And National Convention Ordered Selection of Former Liberal From South Wellington Is Made on Third Ballot Following All-Day Conference Behind Closed Doors Will Guide Opposition Through Coming Session PERMANENT CHIEF LEFT FOR FUTURE Resolutions Extol "Great Services Rendered to Party and People of Canada" by Retiring Leader, and "Deplore His Announced Intention to Retire" Committee to Arrange for National Conclave". The Globe. 12 October 1926.
↑ Waite, P.B. (2012). In Search of R.B. Bennett. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 30. ISBN 0773539085.
1 2 3 4 Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper. eBookit. 2013. ISBN 1456620525 . Retrieved February 6, 2016.
1 2 Waite, P.B. (2012). In Search of R.B. Bennett. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 0773539085.
1 2 "1927 Conservative Leadership Convention". CPAC . Retrieved April 24, 2014.
↑ "RESOLVED IN CONVENTION". The Globe and Mail. 9 July 1938.
1 2 "Building Up the Platform". The Globe. 13 October 1927.

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[parlinfo1-1] "CONSERVATIVE (1867-1942)". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved 7 February 2016.

[meighenbio-2] "MEIGHEN, ARTHUR". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto/Université Laval.

[3] "CONSERVATIVES CHOOSE GUTHRIE AS HOUSE LEADER: Meighen's Resignation Accepted By Dominion-Wide Party Caucus And National Convention Ordered Selection of Former Liberal From South Wellington Is Made on Third Ballot Following All-Day Conference Behind Closed Doors Will Guide Opposition Through Coming Session PERMANENT CHIEF LEFT FOR FUTURE Resolutions Extol "Great Services Rendered to Party and People of Canada" by Retiring Leader, and "Deplore His Announced Intention to Retire" Committee to Arrange for National Conclave". The Globe. 12 October 1926.

[ben1-4] Waite, P.B. (2012). In Search of R.B. Bennett. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 30. ISBN 0773539085.

[plam-5] 1 2 3 4 Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives from Macdonald to Harper. eBookit. 2013. ISBN 1456620525 . Retrieved February 6, 2016.

[ben-6] 1 2 Waite, P.B. (2012). In Search of R.B. Bennett. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 0773539085.

[cpac-7] 1 2 "1927 Conservative Leadership Convention". CPAC . Retrieved April 24, 2014.

[8] "RESOLVED IN CONVENTION". The Globe and Mail. 9 July 1938.

[platform-9] 1 2 "Building Up the Platform". The Globe. 13 October 1927.