July 25, 1867

JOHN A. CALLS FOR END TO OLD PARTY SYSTEM

At a speech before 1,500 people in London, Ontario last evening, the prime minister, Hon. John A. Macdonald said the time was ripe for bringing an end to the old party factions that had fought one another in the old colonies. Confident that he could win a majority under the old party lines in the new Dominion, Macdonald said a new course was necessary. Had he constructed his cabinet from members of his pre-Confederation party he would have faced two difficulties: 1. He would have had to deal with criticisms that the government was dominated by the French, and 2. He would have had to include some who remained opposed to Union, a situation as untenable, he said, as making a horse-thief a policeman. With Confederation now a fact, it is necessary, Macdonald suggested, that a new party system develop on that basis.

Macdonald further endorsed several candidates who had put forward their names as candidates for both Dominion and provincial legislatures, including Hon. John Carling, Hon. George-Étienne Cartier, and Hon. Hector Langevin, on the grounds that the provincial legislatures require experienced legislators. He said he would have done so himself, save for his work as prime minister demanding his time.

REP BY POP DEMAND HURTING REFORM

The London meeting was also addressed by J. Sandfield Macdonald, whose late arrival was owing to his having travelled by special train from the South Ontario riding where he’d been two nights before. Sandfield said that Reform’s demands for Representation by Population were hurting the party amongst French Canadians and decreasing their chances of forming a government.

CAMERON TO RUN IN NORTH BRANT

Hon. Matthew Crooks Cameron, Provincial Secretary and Registrar for Ontario, has indicated his intention to run for the provincial seat of North Brant.

His cabinet colleague, Hon. E. B. Wood (Treasurer), faced some difficulty at a meeting at the Town Hall in Brantford last evening. The meeting, called by Wood and his supporters for the purposes of winning the support of employees of the Grand Trunk Railway, was interrupted by Henry Leeming, the deputy reeve, and a well known Reformer in the town. The motion was defeated but the vote is reported to have been close, suggesting some bitterness amongst his neighbours regarding his decision to join Sandfield Macdonald’s coalition cabinet.

SANDFIELD AND BROWN SQUARE OFF IN VILLAGE OF BROUGHAM

The second of George Brown’s election meetings in the South Ontario riding was held on July 23 and attended by candidates for both legislatures and from both parties, as well as Ontario’s premier Hon. J. Sandfield Macdonald.

Sandfield defended his decision to appoint a “Patent Combination” government in order to avoid becoming beholden to the extreme wing of the Reform party. He had not, in fact, gone over to the Conservatives, he told the assembly, but rather, brought the Conservatives to him, and that he would not let either party, nor the Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, tell him what to do.

A motion declaring support for Mr. Brown was adopted with a closeness similar to the motion voted on in Brantford the following night.