November 15, 1867

CABINET APPOINTMENTS COMING

The Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, stated in the Commons yesterday, in response to a question from Luther Holton (Liberal, Châteauguay), that he hoped to announce the names of the new Minister of Finance and Secretary of State for the Provinces within the coming one or two days.

THE RIOT IN KAMOURASKA

Readers will recall that the election in Kamouraska, Québec, was cancelled following a riot that saw the Returning Officer attacked and the writs stolen.

Notice has been given that a motion requesting the attendance of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery before the Commons on November 18, will be moved tomorrow. The Clerk will be asked to appear along with the return of the last election from the riding of Kamouraska along with the poll books and any other papers, letters, and documents relating to the election that he has received from the returning officer, Henri Garon.

As we await Mr. Garon’s official version of events we are left with the report of the Montreal Herald that the reason for the riot stemmed from the belief on the part of supporters of the Liberal candidate, Mr. C.A. Pelletier, that the Returning Officer was a partisan acting in favour of Hon. John Charles Chapais, the Conservative candidate and Minister of Agriculture.

It is alleged this is the reason that Mr. Garon had struck various parishes from the election proclamation, thus disenfranchising some 800 voters in areas believed to heavily favour the Liberal.

It is suggested that some plausible deniability might exist for the Returning Officer on that score if it were not also reported by his enemies in that riding that he, as reported by the Herald, “made his cow walk through the country with blue colours on its head and red on its tail, the latter being put on to insult the Liberal electors and their candidate.”

We anxiously await confirmation of this latter fact in the official reports.

M. Chapais, meanwhile, remains in the Cabinet without a seat in Parliament. There has been no discussion of his resignation.

COMMONS MATTERS

Following the conclusion of the debate on the Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, several notices of motion were given by members:

• David Mills (Liberal, Bothwell), an enquiry of the Ministry on whether they intend to make appropriations to improve navigation on Rivers Thames and Sydenham
• Theodore Robitaille (Conservative, Bonaventure), for copies of reports and correspondence relating to the Intercolonial Railway since the Québec conference
• Albert Smith (Liberal, Westmoreland), an enquiry of the Ministry whether it was their intention to establish a Court of Repeal
• Alexander Sproat (Conservative, North Bruce), for returns of surveys and reports referring to harbours on the east coast of Lake Huron
• John White, (Liberal, Halton), for amount of tolls collected on Burlington Canal from April 1864 to July 1867 inclusive.