July 18, 1867

TORY SHENANIGANS IN VAUGHAN

A Reform meeting held in Vaughan yesterday for the purpose of selecting delegates to the West York Reform Convention (occurring today in Weston) was taken over by representatives of the Conservative Party, supportive of Hon. William Pearce Howland, minister of Inland Revenue in the Dominion government. Mr. Howland’s brother, Howard, was elected chairman of the meeting and the Tories attempted to force the election of their own as delegates to the Reform convention.

George Brown led the Reformers out of the hall after objecting to attempts to limit his speech to thirty minutes. Once outside the hall, the Reformers convened around the stump of a pine tree and elected their delegates without interference from the Tories.

Sandfield’s “Patent Combination”

The Tories, meanwhile, remained indoors and heard from Ontario Premier J. Sandfield Macdonald who offered a defence of what he called his “Combination” government, a term for which he told the crowd he would seek a patent. Sandfield said his coalition was necessary to maintain harmony between the provincial and Dominion governments, that lack of which could raise a “revolution”.

Ontario elections

The Premier suggested during his speech that Ontario’s elections would be concluded before the beginning of September.