Wilfrid Laurier.

« The Manitoba schools were the main issue in the 1896 election.

Although the Catholic clergy campaigned against him, Laurier argued in Québec that he would obtainbetter terms for the Catholics by negotiating directly with the provincial government of Manitoba.

“Hands off Manitoba” was an effective slogan in the other provinces aswell.

A second issue was corruption in the Conservative Party, as a series of scandals had rocked the Bowell administration.

Israel Tarte, a former Québec conservativewho possessed evidence of these charges, managed Laurier's campaign in Québec.

It was in Québec that he had his greatest victory, carrying a large majority of seats.Victories in Ontario and western Canada brought the Liberal majority in Parliament to 21.

Tupper resigned on July 8, and on July 11, 1896, Laurier became primeminister of Canada. Laurier's cabinet contained, in marked contrast to those of his predecessors, many people of real ability, some of whom had been provincial leaders.

Sir RichardCartwright was made minister of trade and commerce.

The post of minister of finance was given to William Fielding, a former premier of Nova Scotia.

Tarte was mademinister of public works, and Clifford Sifton of Manitoba became minister of the interior.

The minister of justice was Sir Oliver Mowat, a comparatively old man who hadbeen premier at Ontario since 1871.

Laurier took no department for himself. The first task of the new government was to find a solution to the Manitoba crisis.

Laurier did so by pushing through a plan that allowed a limited amount of religiousteaching and instruction in French in the Manitoba schools.

However, it did not return the province to its original educational system, which had been based on equalitybetween the Protestant and Catholic populations.

The plan failed to satisfy the more extreme Catholics.

When L'Electeur, the Liberal paper in Québec, defended Laurier's compromise, the Catholic bishops of the province excommunicated anyone who continued to read it.

However, the paper merely changed its name to Le Soleil. Eventually the Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic church intervened to restrain the bishops, whose political domination in Québec came to an end. B Tariff Laurier's first budget was a compromise between his free trade views and the need to protect Canadian industries accustomed to a high protective tariff, a tax onimports.

He made only a few reductions in the general tariff and then offered Britain a large discount, amounting to one-third of the duty on all its trade with Canada.This offer made Laurier a key figure at the Colonial Conference of 1897, a meeting of the heads of state of the British Commonwealth, when he firmly resisted pressurefrom the British to form an imperial confederation or to contribute Canadian ships to the British navy. C Imperial Policy In 1899 the outbreak of the Boer War in South Africa, a conflict between the British and the South Africans of Dutch descent (Boers), again made an issue of Canada'srelationship with Britain.

The British Canadians believed that Canada should strongly support England against the Boers.

Most French Canadians believed that it wasnone of Canada's business.

Feelings on both sides were high, and Laurier's solution was again a compromise.

He agreed to equip a contingent of volunteers, andalthough this action did not please extremists on either side, it gained general support.

About 8000 Canadians eventually fought in South Africa, about one-third ofwhom came from the militia and were paid by the government.

Laurier's policy was fiercely attacked by Henri Bourassa, one of his former supporters from Québec.However, Bourassa's views had little effect on the results of the next election, in 1900.

The Liberals lost a few seats in Ontario but carried Québec and the country as awhole.

Laurier was at the height of his power. At the 1902 Colonial Conference, Laurier's role was much as it had been in 1897.

He refused to cooperate in a common defense policy or to consider seriously animperial parliament.

When he returned from Europe, he became very ill and offered to resign.

The party refused to let him go, but Tarte began to have hopes ofsucceeding him.

Returning to his former protectionist views, Tarte made a series of speeches in Ontario urging higher protective tariffs.

As this view was directly againstdeclared government policy, Laurier forced him to resign.

Tarte returned to the Conservatives and became Laurier's chief enemy in Québec. D Boundary Dispute Two setbacks affected the government in 1903.

One was the final solution of a dispute over the boundary between Canada and Alaska.

A commission was set upconsisting of three members from the United States, two from Canada, and the British lord chief justice, Lord Alverstone.

Although its members were supposed to actimpartially, President Theodore Roosevelt's appointees were all passionate supporters of the U.S.

claims.

Alverstone sided with the Americans.

Canada believed that ithad been betrayed by England, and Laurier declared that his country must have greater power to deal with such problems independently of Britain. E Development of the West The second setback was the resignation of Laurier's minister of railways over Laurier's decision to build a second transcontinental line to compete with the CanadianPacific Railway that the Conservatives had built.

Even with a large flow of immigrants to the Canadian west, the line was not needed, and it was built at a huge cost tothe country's taxpayers.

A third transcontinental railway, the Canadian Northern, was built before Laurier left office in 1911. Despite these problems, the main factor in the election of 1904 was Canada's continued prosperity and expansion.

The result was a triumphant success for Laurier.

TheLiberals carried every province except Prince Edward Island and won the election by a large margin. The Liberals had a much larger majority than they had had in 1896.

At the same time, however, they had become essentially a one-man party.

Laurier wasindispensable and there seemed no likely successor.

The years to follow showed a steady decline in the government's effectiveness and the party's fortunes. With the formation of Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces from the Northwest Territories, another Catholic-Protestant dispute over the question of church schoolsbroke out in 1905.

Laurier proposed to follow the Ontario system, which supported separate Roman Catholic schools through taxes.

That time the Protestants objected.Laurier's minister of the interior, Clifford Sifton, returned from holiday to protest and resigned.

A compromise proposal was worked out, although it again cost Laurierthe support of Bourassa.

Sifton was not invited to rejoin the cabinet, and he, too, became Laurier's enemy. In 1906 the government was beset by a succession of scandals, and some ministers were forced to resign.

Laurier's own integrity was never questioned, but he had atendency to put problems off.

Once forced to act, however, he was usually decisive. F Imperial Conferences The Imperial Conference of 1907, another meeting of British Commonwealth members, was a happier occasion.

A Liberal government was in power in Britain, and itagreed with Laurier's view of the empire.

In a remark at the conference Laurier summed up this view in the words: “We are all His Majesty's governments.” At the 1911Imperial Conference, Laurier won British agreement to his proposal that Canada would not be bound by any British treaty without its consent.

Two years before, he hadestablished a department of external affairs for Canada. In spite of constant disputes between extremists, Laurier continued to draw support from a balance of moderate opinion throughout Canada.

The election of 1908 wasfought mainly on the issue of government corruption, but a vigorous campaign by Laurier carried the country against the Conservatives.. »