Angus Lewis Macdonald
Encyclopedia
Angus Lewis Macdonald, PC
, QC
(August 10, 1890 – April 13, 1954), popularly known as 'Angus L.', was a Canadian
lawyer, law professor and politician
from Nova Scotia
. He served as the Liberal
premier of Nova Scotia from 1933 to 1940, when he became the federal minister of defence for naval services. He oversaw the creation of an effective Canadian navy
and Allied convoy
service during World War II
. After the war, he returned to Nova Scotia to become premier again. In the election of 1945, his Liberals swept back into power while their main rivals, the Conservatives, failed to win a single seat. The Liberal rallying cry, "All's Well With Angus L.," was so well received that the Conservatives despaired of ever beating Macdonald. He died in office in 1954.
Macdonald's more than 15 years as premier brought fundamental changes. Under his leadership, the Nova Scotia government spent more than $100 million paving roads, building bridges, extending electrical transmission lines and improving public education. Macdonald dealt with the mass unemployment of the Great Depression
by putting the jobless to work on highway projects. He felt direct government relief payments would weaken moral character, undermine self-respect and discourage personal initiative. However, he also faced the reality that the financially strapped Nova Scotia government could not afford to participate fully in federal relief programs that required matching contributions from the provinces.
Macdonald was considered one of his province's most eloquent political orators. He articulated a philosophy of provincial autonomy, arguing that poorer provinces needed a greater share of national tax revenues to pay for health, education and welfare. He contended that Nova Scotians were victims of a national policy
that protected the industries of Ontario and Quebec with steep tariffs forcing people to pay higher prices for manufactured goods. It was no accident, Macdonald said, that Nova Scotia had gone from the richest province per capita before Canadian Confederation
in 1867 to poorest by the 1930s.
Macdonald was a classical liberal in the 19th-century tradition of John Stuart Mill
. He believed in individual freedom and responsibility and feared that the growth of government bureaucracy would threaten liberty. For him, the role of the state was to provide basic services. He supported public ownership of utilities like the Nova Scotia Power Commission
, but rejected calls for more interventionist policies such as government ownership of key industries or big loans to private companies.
. He was the ninth child in a family of 14. His mother was from a prominent Acadian family on Prince Edward Island
while his father's family had emigrated to Cape Breton from the Scottish Highlands
in 1810. The Macdonalds were devout Roman Catholics as well as ardent Liberal Party supporters.
In 1905, when Macdonald was 15, the family moved to the town of Port Hood, Cape Breton. Macdonald attended the Port Hood Academy. He hoped to enroll next in the Bachelor of Arts
program at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, but his family couldn't afford to pay for a university education so Macdonald obtained a teaching licence and taught for two years to finance his education. Midway through his university studies, he took another year off to earn money teaching. He completed his final term on credit and was required to teach in the university's high school during 1914–15 to pay off his debt. Macdonald did well at St. FX. He played rugby, joined the debating team, edited the student newspaper and, in his graduating year, won the gold medal in seven of his eight courses. He was also class valedictorian
.
, leaving for Britain in October 1916 where he received further training. Macdonald was finally sent to the front lines in France in May 1918 as a lieutenant in Nova Scotia's 25th battalion. He participated in heavy fighting and on one occasion led his entire company because all of the other officers had been wounded or killed. Macdonald felt fortunate to have been spared, but his luck ran out in Belgium when he was hit in the neck by a German sniper's bullet on November 7, 1918, just four days before the Armistice
. Macdonald spent eight months in Britain recovering from his wound. He returned home to his family in Cape Breton in 1919. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that the war had made him "more serious and less self-confident", but "struck by the willingness of so many to march to horrible deaths in the name of an abstract principle".
in Halifax. During his two years there, Macdonald formed lifelong friendships with students who were to become members of the political elite in the region. Once again, he excelled in athletics, was elected to the Dalhousie students' council, became the associate editor of the student newspaper and led the opposition in the law school's Mock Parliament
. He scored firsts in nearly every course and graduated in 1921 with academic distinction.
Macdonald was hired by the Nova Scotia government as assistant deputy attorney-general immediately after graduating from law school. He worked mainly as an administrator, although he occasionally appeared in court to help the attorney general prosecute a case.
In 1922, Macdonald became a part-time lecturer at the law school. When he left the attorney-general's office in 1924, he became a full-time professor. Macdonald was a popular and effective teacher. One former student describes him sitting at his desk on the rostrum speaking slowly and deliberately while gazing intently at the ceiling. "The more students disagreed (with one another in class) the more Angus encouraged it."
On June 17, 1924 when he was 33, Macdonald married Agnes Foley, a member of a prominent Irish Catholic family. They had worked together in the attorney general's office where Foley served as secretary. Between 1925 and 1936, the Macdonalds would have three daughters and a son. Agnes raised the children and ran the household after Macdonald entered politics. Biographer John Hawkins writes she eventually helped her husband win election in a Halifax riding
with a significant Irish Catholic population. She had a large circle of friends including members of the powerful Liberal Women's societies of Halifax. Hawkins also notes that Agnes Macdonald was a gifted hostess who loved conversation. "Quick witted, her rapid and varied flow of language contrasted with Angus L.'s deliberate, thoughtful manner of speaking, which some have described as a 'drawl'."
In 1925–26, while teaching at the Dalhousie Law School, Macdonald took additional courses in law at Columbia University
in New York, mainly by correspondence. He used these courses as the basis for full-time graduate work at the Harvard Law School
in Boston, Massachusetts in 1928. Harvard's faculty members saw the law as an instrument for social improvement. That view was reflected in Macdonald's 1929 doctoral thesis on the responsibility of property holders under civil law
.
When the deanship of the law school came open in 1929, Macdonald agonized over whether he should seek the job. He apparently had strong support from several members of the university's board of governors. At the same time however, he was increasingly drawn to politics and accepting the deanship would mean postponing his political ambitions indefinitely. In the end, the job was offered to Sidney Smith, another prominent Canadian academic who accepted on condition that Macdonald remain at the school. Macdonald did stay, but only for one more year. In 1930, he resigned so he would be free to enter politics.
in his native Cape Breton
. There he faced a Conservative opponent whose style contrasted sharply with his own cool and reserved manner. According to biographer John Hawkins, I. D. "Ike" MacDougall "was a gifted performer who before an audience could cut an opponent's well-marshalled arguments until they fell amid roars of laughter. He was the master of hyperbole, pun and high spirits. He could win a rural audience, not by his logic, but by his performance on the platform". Macdonald campaigned hard, but the trend was against him. The Conservatives led by R. B. Bennett
defeated Mackenzie King's
unpopular Liberals. And in Inverness, Ike MacDougall was re-elected by the narrow margin of 165 votes. It was to be Macdonald's only election defeat. Afterwards, Macdonald retreated to Halifax
where he opened his own private law office in August 1930.
In the 1928 provincial election, the Liberals regained some of their lost popularity in one of the closest votes in Nova Scotia history. The Conservatives remained in power with 23 seats to the Liberals' 20. Economic conditions worsened after the stock market crash
of 1929 making it seem increasingly likely that the Liberals would return to power in the next election. Macdonald helped draft a 15-point party platform for approval at a Liberal convention in the fall of 1930. It promised an eight-hour working day and free elementary school textbooks. It also pledged to establish a formal inquiry into Nova Scotia's economic prospects and the province's place within Confederation
.
The convention, held on October 1, 1930, proved to be a turning point both for the party and for Macdonald. In a departure from tradition, the party's new leader would be chosen by convention delegates instead of Liberal caucus
members at the legislature. Two veterans of Liberal politics, both wealthy businessmen, were contesting the leadership. There was little enthusiasm, however, for either. Just as nominations were about to close, a delegate from Truro
rose unexpectedly to nominate Macdonald. Surprised, Macdonald at first declined the nomination, then agreed to accept it when he sensed strong support on the convention floor. A few hours later, the 40-year-old Macdonald had won a resounding first-ballot victory to become the new Liberal leader.
After winning the Liberal leadership, Macdonald travelled the province on speaking tours helping organize party support in every constituency. As Liberal leader, he proved to be an effective platform speaker. According to biographer John Hawkins, Macdonald's "plain talk and simplicity" persuaded audiences of his honesty. He developed the ability to explain political issues with a "clarity that every voter could understand". When the legislature
was in session, he led the Liberals from the public galleries because he had no seat in the House. There were six vacancies, but the Conservatives refused to call by-election
s fearing they would lose their five seat majority. Macdonald publicly criticized Premier Gordon Harrington
for depriving so many Nova Scotians of representation. He deplored what he called "the loss of responsible government." It was a message that struck a chord in the province that had been the first in Canada to achieve responsible government
in 1848 thanks to the efforts of the great liberal Reformer Joseph Howe
. Privately however, Macdonald rejoiced that the government couldn't risk calling a by-election telling one supporter years later, "If the truth must be told, I was sometimes afraid that they would open up a seat and deprive me of this sort of ammunition".
Macdonald was able to use the theme of responsible government even more effectively during the provincial election campaign of 1933. The governing Conservatives
, desperate to avoid electoral defeat, had enacted changes requiring that new voters' lists be drawn up by government-appointed registrars immediately before each election. Predictably, thousands of Liberal voters were left off the lists and the new law allowed only three days for corrections. The Liberals secured a court order requiring the appointment of additional registrars and some of the disenfranchised voters were finally added to the lists. The so-called Franchise Scandal enabled the Liberal press to cast Macdonald as a latter-day Joe Howe, crusading for the rights of the people. "No newcomer to the political scene", writes historian Murray Beck, "has ever become so quickly, widely, and favourably known in such a dramatic fashion". The scandal, compounded by suffering in the province due to the Great Depression
, resulted in Macdonald's Liberals winning 22 of the 30 seats on August 22, 1933. The Conservatives were now associated in the public mind with corruption and hard times. They would not regain power for 23 years.
. As journalist Harry Flemming wrote many years later, Macdonald became "God himself", the premier who "paved the roads and put the power into every home from Cape North
to Cape Sable".
The economic conditions facing the new government were dismal. Tens of thousands of Nova Scotians were impoverished and unemployed. The government expected that 75,000 Nova Scotians would need assistance during the coming winter. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald sympathized with the poor, but he worried that direct government relief payments would undermine their pride and self-respect. Even though direct relief might be cheaper, the Macdonald government preferred to hire the unemployed for public works projects such as paving roads. Henderson reports that in 1933, there were only 45 kilometres (28 mi) of paved roads in the province. By 1937, that figure had risen to 605. The government financed such public works by selling low-interest bonds and raising gasoline taxes from six to eight cents a gallon.
Macdonald also urged the federal Conservative government of R. B. Bennett
to increase financial support to poorer provinces. At the time, there was no national system of unemployment insurance and the Bennett Conservatives insisted that the unemployed were mainly the responsibility of the provinces and municipalities. Although the federal government did provide relief during the Depression, Nova Scotia and the two other Maritime provinces were hampered by the federal system of matching grants for relief programs. Under that system, provinces received federal money only if they were willing to contribute a percentage of their own revenues. Thus, the poorest provinces received less federal aid than the richer ones because they couldn't afford to match the federal grants. Historian E. R. Forbes points out for example, that from January to May 1935, all three levels of government spent an average of $2.84 for each relief recipient in the Maritimes, an amount less than half the $6.18 spent in the other six provinces.
. He asked it to recommend economic polices the province should follow to lessen the effects of the Depression and to lay out a framework for negotiations with the federal government.
The three-man Jones Commission included Harold Innis
, a prominent economic historian who had studied disparities between highly developed manufacturing regions and marginal ones that depended primarily on exploiting natural resources. After touring the province and hearing from more than 200 witnesses, the Commission issued its report in December 1934. Macdonald could take satisfaction in its finding that high tariffs had sheltered central Canadian manufacturing at Nova Scotia's expense and that federal subsidies to the province were "seriously inadequate".
The Commission recommended that the federal government assume responsibility for financing social programs such as old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. It also argued that Ottawa should establish equity among provinces and that redistribution of federal tax revenues should be based on need, an idea that became central to Macdonald's thinking about federal-provincial relations. Among other things, the Commission called on the Macdonald government to continue paving roads; to undertake a program of rural electrification to keep young people on family farms; and, to establish a professional civil service that would defend Nova Scotia's interests against federal bureaucrats in Ottawa.
The Macdonald government took practical steps to promote tourism as a way of bringing money into the province. It improved conditions for tourists by granting small loans to hotel, motel and cottage owners to upgrade their facilities. It also offered cooking classes to restaurant and hotel employees. The government's extensive road building program made it easier for tourists to travel. But biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald went well beyond these practical steps to promote Nova Scotia as a beautiful and rustic place peopled by colourful Scots, Acadians, Germans and Mi'kmaq. Government advertising portrayed the province "as a place where urban, middle-class families could go to 'step back in time'". Gradually, Henderson maintains, the tourism campaigns created a new identity for Nova Scotians. "They witnessed the provincial state constructing an elaborate network of modern roads; they read books and brochures extolling the beauty of the province, and they heard their premier waxing romantically about the pure, simple nobility of their ancestors." Macdonald was especially enthusiastic about "the romanticized culture of the Highland Scots". Historian Ian McKay writes that under his leadership, the provincial government gave money to the Gaelic College; bestowed Scottish names on key tourism sites and stationed "a brawny Scots piper" at the border with New Brunswick
. Macdonald also helped assemble more than a quarter of a million acres (4,000 km²) for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park
complete with a fancy resort hotel and world-class golf course. "Macdonald believed", Henderson writes, "he had created a piece of Scotland for tourists in the New World". And, as more tourists came, Macdonald's stature grew.
in the 1930s by passing what historian Stephen Henderson calls "Canada's first piece of modern labour legislation". Although Macdonald's governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives agreed on the need to protect union rights, the parties vied with each other to take credit for the Trade Union Act. In January 1937, Premier Macdonald carried a bottle of bootleg rum to a meeting with union officials in Sydney, Cape Breton where they gave him a draft bill based on the American National Labor Relations Act
. Before the Macdonald government could introduce the bill in the legislature, the Conservatives presented a similar one of their own. The legislation faced opposition from the Canadian Manufacturers' Association during public hearings, but Liberals and Conservatives combined to pass it unanimously. The new Trade Union Act required employers to bargain with any union chosen by a majority of their employees. It also prohibited employers from firing workers for organizing a union.
, the veteran Minister of Highways. MacMillan, also Chairman of the Nova Scotia Power Commission
, had been extending electrical service into rural areas. He now introduced a rural electrification bill designed to subsidize the cost of providing electricity.
After these preparations, the premier called a provincial election for June 29, 1937. Macdonald campaigned on his government's record. On election day, his Liberals were rewarded with 25 of the 30 seats in the legislature.
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
had invited Macdonald to run for federal office during the general election of 1935. Although Macdonald turned him down, there were strong rumours in 1937 that Macdonald would soon enter federal politics. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes however, that Macdonald wanted to remain as premier so he could present Nova Scotia's case to a Royal Commission
on federal-provincial relations.
and Saskatchewan
faced bankruptcy. Finally, in August 1937, Prime Minister King appointed the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, popularly known as the Rowell-Sirois Commission
. According to biographer Stephen Henderson, Macdonald played an important role in shaping the Commission's final recommendations.
Macdonald wrote Nova Scotia's submission and presented it himself when the Commission held hearings in Halifax in February 1938. He called on the federal government to take full responsibility for social programs such as unemployment insurance, old-age pensions and mothers' allowances. Macdonald recommended that the federal government be given exclusive jurisdiction over income tax
es and succession duties
to pay for these programs. He argued however, that to maintain their independence, the provinces needed to collect indirect sources of revenue such as sales tax
es. He also called for exclusive provincial control over such minor tax fields as gasoline and electricity taxes.
A central part of Macdonald's case concerned the redistribution of wealth from richer provinces to poorer ones. His argument was based on the premise that richer provinces benefited from national economic policies such as high tariffs while poorer provinces were penalized by them. Macdonald suggested that compensatory subsidies to poorer, less-populated provinces be based on need, not population, so that they could pay for government services available in other parts of the country without having to impose higher-than-average levels of taxation.
The Commission's final report, released in May 1940, reflected many of Macdonald's recommendations. Mackenzie King called a federal-provincial conference in January 1941 to discuss the report. The provinces failed to agree on what should be done, but in April, the federal government went ahead on its own announcing it would levy steep taxes on personal and corporate incomes as a temporary measure to finance Canada's participation in the Second World War
.
, a native Nova Scotian, to become his new minister of defence. Ralston agreed but imposed two conditions: First that J. L. Ilsley
of Nova Scotia replace him as minister of finance and second that he get assistance in his new portfolio.
King decided to appoint two additional ministers, one in charge of the Royal Canadian Air Force
, the other to oversee the Royal Canadian Navy
. He therefore, asked Macdonald to join the federal cabinet as minister of national defence for naval services. Macdonald, who had fought in World War I
as a soldier on the front lines in France and Belgium, decided it was his duty to fight World War II
as a political leader in Ottawa. He handed over his responsibilities as premier to A. S. MacMillan
and was sworn into the federal cabinet on July 12, 1940.
Macdonald's five years in Ottawa were tumultuous ones. He oversaw a massive increase in Canada's naval forces and played a key role in a political crisis that threatened to tear the Liberal government and the country apart. He also incurred the wrath of Mackenzie King, a political leader whom Macdonald grew to loathe. When he entered the federal cabinet in 1940, Macdonald seemed a likely candidate to replace the aging King and one day become prime minister himself. By the time he resigned in 1945, Macdonald's federal political career was in tatters.
Mackenzie King wanted Macdonald to stand for a vacant seat in Kingston, Ontario
. It was a traditional Conservative riding that had been represented by Sir John A. Macdonald
, Canada's first prime minister. In 1935 however, the riding had switched to the Liberals and King wanted to keep it. "I told Mr. King that I did not know Kingston at all, nor its problems, nor its people", Macdonald wrote later. When the Conservatives agreed not to run a candidate against him however, Macdonald had no choice but to stand for office in Kingston. He won the seat by acclamation on August 12, 1940.
The RCN was assigned the task of escorting supply vessels transporting food and other materials needed to keep the war going. This convoy
duty was critically important as German submarines or U-boat
s sought to starve Britain into submission by sinking supply ships. The RCN performed about 40 per cent of the war's transatlantic Allied
escort duty. Desmond Morton argues it was Canada's "most decisive" military contribution. Canada's convoy protection efforts did not always run smoothly, however. In the early part of the war, the Canadian navy lacked equipment that could detect underwater submarines as well as efficient radar for sighting ones on the surface. To make matters worse, Canada didn't have the long-range aircraft that were the most effective anti-submarine weapons.
As supply ship losses mounted, the RCN struggled to catch up to the better-equipped British and American navies. Macdonald himself lacked military expertise and often depended on senior naval staff who kept him in the dark about equipment shortages and other problems. "Macdonald's administration of Naval Affairs did not rise to brilliance", Henderson writes, "[but] the problem may have lain more with the senior naval staff than with Macdonald". Macdonald's conflict with high ranking naval officers, particularly Rear Admiral Percy W. Nelles
, led to the effective dismissal of the latter in 1944.Yet, as the war progressed, the RCN, led by Macdonald, gradually became more effective in protecting the huge cargoes of materials on which Allied victory depended.
Nevertheless, Macdonald continued to push the government to commit itself to conscription if circumstances should change. His position earned him the enmity of the politically cautious Mackenzie King. "Macdonald is a very vain man", the prime minister complained in his diary, "and has an exceptional opinion of himself. Undoubtedly, he came here expecting to possibly lead the Liberal party later on but has found that he will not be able to command the following that he expected".
As the opposition Conservatives continued to press for overseas conscription, the King government held a national plebiscite on April 27, 1942. The plebiscite asked voters to release the government from its previous promise not to introduce compulsory war service. The results confirmed the sharp national split. English Canada voted strongly in favour and French Canada overwhelmingly against. The results of the plebiscite seemed to strengthen the position of ministers who supported conscription. Macdonald's two cabinet colleagues from Nova Scotia, defence minister J. L. Ralston
, and finance minister J. L. Ilsley
, urged the government to introduce conscription immediately. A more cautious Macdonald wanted the government to commit itself to conscription should it be required to support the war effort.
The crisis flared again two years later when the Canadian military called for overseas reinforcements. Ralston wanted King to impose conscription, but at Macdonald's urging, seemed willing to compromise by going along with the prime minister's plan for one last voluntary recruitment campaign. King however, suddenly dismissed Ralston during a cabinet meeting on November 1, 1944. Macdonald considered resigning, but said later he would have struck King if he had risen to leave. Instead he sat in his chair ripping sheets of notepaper into small shreds and dropping them on the floor. Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald's decision not to resign probably saved the King government. King himself seemed to recognize that if Macdonald had left, Ilsley would have resigned too, possibly taking other ministers with him and causing the government's collapse.
In the end, King was forced to impose overseas conscription after the failure of the voluntary recruitment campaign, but the war ended soon after and his government survived unscathed. The conscription crisis however, hardened the animosity between King and his naval minister. Macdonald, disillusioned by what he saw as the chicanery and ruthlessness of national politics, longed to return to Nova Scotia. After King called an election for June 11, 1945, Macdonald resigned from the federal cabinet.
, the Liberals reaffirmed Macdonald's leadership at their convention on August 31, 1945. Less than two months later, Macdonald's Liberals swept the province wiping out the Conservatives for the first time since Confederation and winning all but two Cape Breton ridings where voters elected members of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
or CCF, the forerunner of the present-day New Democratic Party
, or NDP. In spite of his huge victory, a close colleague noted that Macdonald was not the same man he had been before he left Nova Scotia in 1940. He had trouble making decisions, not because he was a procrastinator, but because he was not well.
Nevertheless, Macdonald plunged into his role as a leading champion for the provinces. He argued that in order to maintain their independence, provinces needed exclusive jurisdiction over such sources of revenue as gasoline, electricity and amusement taxes. He lobbied for constitutional amendments designed to guarantee provincial rights. Macdonald urged the federal government to accept the 1940 recommendations of the Rowell-Sirois Commission
and redistribute national wealth based on need. Such a policy, he maintained, would enable poorer provinces to sustain government services available in other parts of the country without having to impose higher-than-average levels of taxation. In the end, Macdonald won only small victories such as gaining exclusive provincial access to gasoline taxes. The federal government refused to recognize financial need as the basis for provincial subsidies.
Aside from his role as a national spokesman for provincial rights, Macdonald presided over an administration that invested heavily in education. His government financed the building of rural high schools and extended financial assistance to Dalhousie University
's schools of medicine and law. Macdonald also appointed Nova Scotia's first minister of education, Henry Hicks
, in 1949 to oversee $7.6 million in spending, about a fifth of the provincial budget.
The Macdonald Liberals easily won re-election in 1949 and 1953, but the Conservatives made steady gains under Robert Stanfield
, their new leader. The Conservatives for example, drew attention to kickback schemes under which brewing companies, wineries and distilleries contributed to the Liberal party in exchange for the right to sell their products in government liquor stores. The Liberals seemed secure against such allegations however, as long as they were led by the popular Angus L. Macdonald. However, Macdonald suffered a slight heart attack
on April 11, 1954 and was admitted to hospital where he died in his sleep two nights later, just four months before his 64th birthday.
Stephen Henderson writes that the Nova Scotia legislature sat on the day of his death. Macdonald's seat was draped in Clanranald tartan
and a sprig of heather
decorated his desk. Macdonald's body lay in state for three days in the legislative building as more than 100,000 people filed past to pay their respects.
, a Roman Catholic who had served as interim premier after Macdonald's death. Instead they chose the Protestant Henry Hicks
. "Unfortunately for the Liberals", historian Murray Beck writes, "it appeared as if the delegates had ganged up to defeat the only Catholic among the contestants". Beck also notes that "Nova Scotia governments have always been most vulnerable after a change in leadership". In the next provincial election held on October 30, 1956, Robert Stanfield
and his Conservatives won 24 seats, the Liberals 18. The 23-year Liberal era, begun under Macdonald's leadership, had finally ended.
. Like Howe, Macdonald was a passionate and eloquent leader whose elegantly crafted speeches reflected his wit, wide learning and respect for factual accuracy. Beck writes that by scrupulously fulfilling his campaign promises, Macdonald became known as a leader who always kept his word.
Macdonald's reputation as the premier who led the province out of the Great Depression
rested on his commitment to ambitious government projects such as highway construction and rural electrification. He continued to support highway improvements throughout his career. Two projects that he pushed especially hard for, the Canso Causeway
linking Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia and a suspension bridge
spanning Halifax Harbour
were completed after his death. The bridge, named in his honour, made it possible to travel between Halifax
and Dartmouth
without having to board a ferry or drive several kilometres around the Bedford Basin
.
Macdonald consistently called for a more equitable redistribution of wealth, so that poorer provinces such as Nova Scotia, could share fully in Canada's prosperity. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald deserves credit for the introduction, in 1957, of an equalization scheme
designed to enable poorer provinces to provide comparable levels of services to their citizens. Macdonald's advocacy of provincial autonomy however, fell victim to the centralizing tendencies of a post-war welfare state in which the federal government increasingly assumed greater control over national social programs.
Throughout his life, Macdonald maintained ties to his alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University
. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from St. FX in 1946. He served as honorary chair and fundraiser for the university's centennial celebrations in 1953 and raised money to support student research into the early history of the Scots in Nova Scotia. Macdonald suggested that the reading room in a new university library be called the Hall of the Clans. St. FX adopted the idea and decided to name the library in his honour. Thus, when the Angus L. Macdonald Library officially opened on July 17, 1965, 50 coats of arms representing both Scottish and Irish clans adorned the walls of its reading room.
Queen's Privy Council for Canada
The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...
, QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
(August 10, 1890 – April 13, 1954), popularly known as 'Angus L.', was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
lawyer, law professor and politician
Politics of Canada
The politics of Canada function within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is head of state...
from Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. He served as the Liberal
Liberal Party of Nova Scotia
The Liberal Party of Nova Scotia is a political party in Nova Scotia, Canada.-Origins:The party is descended from the pre-Confederation Reformers in Nova Scotia who coalesced around Joseph Howe demanding the institution of responsible government...
premier of Nova Scotia from 1933 to 1940, when he became the federal minister of defence for naval services. He oversaw the creation of an effective Canadian navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
and Allied convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
service during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. After the war, he returned to Nova Scotia to become premier again. In the election of 1945, his Liberals swept back into power while their main rivals, the Conservatives, failed to win a single seat. The Liberal rallying cry, "All's Well With Angus L.," was so well received that the Conservatives despaired of ever beating Macdonald. He died in office in 1954.
Macdonald's more than 15 years as premier brought fundamental changes. Under his leadership, the Nova Scotia government spent more than $100 million paving roads, building bridges, extending electrical transmission lines and improving public education. Macdonald dealt with the mass unemployment of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
by putting the jobless to work on highway projects. He felt direct government relief payments would weaken moral character, undermine self-respect and discourage personal initiative. However, he also faced the reality that the financially strapped Nova Scotia government could not afford to participate fully in federal relief programs that required matching contributions from the provinces.
Macdonald was considered one of his province's most eloquent political orators. He articulated a philosophy of provincial autonomy, arguing that poorer provinces needed a greater share of national tax revenues to pay for health, education and welfare. He contended that Nova Scotians were victims of a national policy
National Policy
The National Policy was a Canadian economic program introduced by John A. Macdonald's Conservative Party in 1876 and put into action in 1879. It called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items to protect the manufacturing industry...
that protected the industries of Ontario and Quebec with steep tariffs forcing people to pay higher prices for manufactured goods. It was no accident, Macdonald said, that Nova Scotia had gone from the richest province per capita before Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
in 1867 to poorest by the 1930s.
Macdonald was a classical liberal in the 19th-century tradition of John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...
. He believed in individual freedom and responsibility and feared that the growth of government bureaucracy would threaten liberty. For him, the role of the state was to provide basic services. He supported public ownership of utilities like the Nova Scotia Power Commission
Nova Scotia Power
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a power generating and delivery company in Nova Scotia. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board .-History:...
, but rejected calls for more interventionist policies such as government ownership of key industries or big loans to private companies.
Early life and education
Angus Lewis Macdonald was born August 10, 1890 on a small family farm at Dunvegan, Inverness County, on Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
. He was the ninth child in a family of 14. His mother was from a prominent Acadian family on Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
while his father's family had emigrated to Cape Breton from the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
in 1810. The Macdonalds were devout Roman Catholics as well as ardent Liberal Party supporters.
In 1905, when Macdonald was 15, the family moved to the town of Port Hood, Cape Breton. Macdonald attended the Port Hood Academy. He hoped to enroll next in the Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
program at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, but his family couldn't afford to pay for a university education so Macdonald obtained a teaching licence and taught for two years to finance his education. Midway through his university studies, he took another year off to earn money teaching. He completed his final term on credit and was required to teach in the university's high school during 1914–15 to pay off his debt. Macdonald did well at St. FX. He played rugby, joined the debating team, edited the student newspaper and, in his graduating year, won the gold medal in seven of his eight courses. He was also class valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
.
War service
The First World War broke out while Macdonald was earning his university degree. In 1915, he underwent military training in the Canadian Officers Training Corps. In February 1916, he joined the 185th battalion, known as the Cape Breton HighlandersCape Breton Highlanders
The Cape Breton Highlanders is an infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It was established in 1871, merged into The Nova Scotia Highlanders in 1954, and re-established as a distinct regiment in 2011....
, leaving for Britain in October 1916 where he received further training. Macdonald was finally sent to the front lines in France in May 1918 as a lieutenant in Nova Scotia's 25th battalion. He participated in heavy fighting and on one occasion led his entire company because all of the other officers had been wounded or killed. Macdonald felt fortunate to have been spared, but his luck ran out in Belgium when he was hit in the neck by a German sniper's bullet on November 7, 1918, just four days before the Armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
. Macdonald spent eight months in Britain recovering from his wound. He returned home to his family in Cape Breton in 1919. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that the war had made him "more serious and less self-confident", but "struck by the willingness of so many to march to horrible deaths in the name of an abstract principle".
Life before politics
In September 1919, the 29-year-old Macdonald began studying at Dalhousie Law SchoolDalhousie Law School
The Schulich School of Law is part of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Formerly called Dalhousie Law School, it was established in 1883, making it the oldest university-affiliated common law school in the Commonwealth. It is the primary law school in Atlantic Canada and...
in Halifax. During his two years there, Macdonald formed lifelong friendships with students who were to become members of the political elite in the region. Once again, he excelled in athletics, was elected to the Dalhousie students' council, became the associate editor of the student newspaper and led the opposition in the law school's Mock Parliament
Model parliament
A Model Parliament is a simulation of the parliamentary proceedings of a legislature or other deliberative assembly, often based upon the Westminster Parliamentary system...
. He scored firsts in nearly every course and graduated in 1921 with academic distinction.
Macdonald was hired by the Nova Scotia government as assistant deputy attorney-general immediately after graduating from law school. He worked mainly as an administrator, although he occasionally appeared in court to help the attorney general prosecute a case.
In 1922, Macdonald became a part-time lecturer at the law school. When he left the attorney-general's office in 1924, he became a full-time professor. Macdonald was a popular and effective teacher. One former student describes him sitting at his desk on the rostrum speaking slowly and deliberately while gazing intently at the ceiling. "The more students disagreed (with one another in class) the more Angus encouraged it."
On June 17, 1924 when he was 33, Macdonald married Agnes Foley, a member of a prominent Irish Catholic family. They had worked together in the attorney general's office where Foley served as secretary. Between 1925 and 1936, the Macdonalds would have three daughters and a son. Agnes raised the children and ran the household after Macdonald entered politics. Biographer John Hawkins writes she eventually helped her husband win election in a Halifax riding
Electoral district (Canada)
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...
with a significant Irish Catholic population. She had a large circle of friends including members of the powerful Liberal Women's societies of Halifax. Hawkins also notes that Agnes Macdonald was a gifted hostess who loved conversation. "Quick witted, her rapid and varied flow of language contrasted with Angus L.'s deliberate, thoughtful manner of speaking, which some have described as a 'drawl'."
In 1925–26, while teaching at the Dalhousie Law School, Macdonald took additional courses in law at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York, mainly by correspondence. He used these courses as the basis for full-time graduate work at the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in Boston, Massachusetts in 1928. Harvard's faculty members saw the law as an instrument for social improvement. That view was reflected in Macdonald's 1929 doctoral thesis on the responsibility of property holders under civil law
Civil law (common law)
Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
.
When the deanship of the law school came open in 1929, Macdonald agonized over whether he should seek the job. He apparently had strong support from several members of the university's board of governors. At the same time however, he was increasingly drawn to politics and accepting the deanship would mean postponing his political ambitions indefinitely. In the end, the job was offered to Sidney Smith, another prominent Canadian academic who accepted on condition that Macdonald remain at the school. Macdonald did stay, but only for one more year. In 1930, he resigned so he would be free to enter politics.
Federal campaign, 1930
The federal election in the summer of 1930 gave the 40-year-old Macdonald a chance to run for office. He decided to contest the riding of InvernessInverness, Nova Scotia
Inverness is a Canadian rural community in Inverness County, Nova Scotia. In 2001 its population was 2,496.Located on the west coast of Cape Breton Island fronting the Gulf of St...
in his native Cape Breton
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
. There he faced a Conservative opponent whose style contrasted sharply with his own cool and reserved manner. According to biographer John Hawkins, I. D. "Ike" MacDougall "was a gifted performer who before an audience could cut an opponent's well-marshalled arguments until they fell amid roars of laughter. He was the master of hyperbole, pun and high spirits. He could win a rural audience, not by his logic, but by his performance on the platform". Macdonald campaigned hard, but the trend was against him. The Conservatives led by R. B. Bennett
R. B. Bennett
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
defeated Mackenzie King's
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
unpopular Liberals. And in Inverness, Ike MacDougall was re-elected by the narrow margin of 165 votes. It was to be Macdonald's only election defeat. Afterwards, Macdonald retreated to Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
where he opened his own private law office in August 1930.
Provincial convention, 1930
Macdonald was active in provincial Liberal Party organizational work during the latter part of the 1920s. In 1925, the party had suffered a crushing defeat after 43 years in power. On election day, the Liberals were reduced to three seats in the Nova Scotia legislature. Many believed that the time had come to return the party to its reformist roots. Macdonald worked with other reform-minded members to establish a network of younger Liberals intent on reviving their party.In the 1928 provincial election, the Liberals regained some of their lost popularity in one of the closest votes in Nova Scotia history. The Conservatives remained in power with 23 seats to the Liberals' 20. Economic conditions worsened after the stock market crash
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
of 1929 making it seem increasingly likely that the Liberals would return to power in the next election. Macdonald helped draft a 15-point party platform for approval at a Liberal convention in the fall of 1930. It promised an eight-hour working day and free elementary school textbooks. It also pledged to establish a formal inquiry into Nova Scotia's economic prospects and the province's place within Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
.
The convention, held on October 1, 1930, proved to be a turning point both for the party and for Macdonald. In a departure from tradition, the party's new leader would be chosen by convention delegates instead of Liberal caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
members at the legislature. Two veterans of Liberal politics, both wealthy businessmen, were contesting the leadership. There was little enthusiasm, however, for either. Just as nominations were about to close, a delegate from Truro
Truro, Nova Scotia
-Education:Truro has one high school, Cobequid Educational Centre. Post-secondary options include a campus of the Nova Scotia Community College, as well as the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in the neighboring town of Bible Hill.- Sports :...
rose unexpectedly to nominate Macdonald. Surprised, Macdonald at first declined the nomination, then agreed to accept it when he sensed strong support on the convention floor. A few hours later, the 40-year-old Macdonald had won a resounding first-ballot victory to become the new Liberal leader.
Liberal party leader
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
was in session, he led the Liberals from the public galleries because he had no seat in the House. There were six vacancies, but the Conservatives refused to call by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
s fearing they would lose their five seat majority. Macdonald publicly criticized Premier Gordon Harrington
Gordon Sidney Harrington
Gordon Sidney Harrington was a Nova Scotia politician and the province's 11th Premier from 1930 to 1933.He was mayor of Glace Bay from 1913 to 1915 when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force fighting in World War I...
for depriving so many Nova Scotians of representation. He deplored what he called "the loss of responsible government." It was a message that struck a chord in the province that had been the first in Canada to achieve responsible government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
in 1848 thanks to the efforts of the great liberal Reformer Joseph Howe
Joseph Howe
Joseph Howe, PC was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, and public servant. He is one of Nova Scotia's greatest and best-loved politicians...
. Privately however, Macdonald rejoiced that the government couldn't risk calling a by-election telling one supporter years later, "If the truth must be told, I was sometimes afraid that they would open up a seat and deprive me of this sort of ammunition".
Macdonald was able to use the theme of responsible government even more effectively during the provincial election campaign of 1933. The governing Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia
The Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia, registered under the Nova Scotia Elections Act as the "Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia", is a moderate right-of-centre political party in Nova Scotia, Canada....
, desperate to avoid electoral defeat, had enacted changes requiring that new voters' lists be drawn up by government-appointed registrars immediately before each election. Predictably, thousands of Liberal voters were left off the lists and the new law allowed only three days for corrections. The Liberals secured a court order requiring the appointment of additional registrars and some of the disenfranchised voters were finally added to the lists. The so-called Franchise Scandal enabled the Liberal press to cast Macdonald as a latter-day Joe Howe, crusading for the rights of the people. "No newcomer to the political scene", writes historian Murray Beck, "has ever become so quickly, widely, and favourably known in such a dramatic fashion". The scandal, compounded by suffering in the province due to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, resulted in Macdonald's Liberals winning 22 of the 30 seats on August 22, 1933. The Conservatives were now associated in the public mind with corruption and hard times. They would not regain power for 23 years.
First term as premier 1933–37
Macdonald was sworn in as Premier of Nova Scotia on September 5, 1933. He was 43 years old and had never held a seat in the legislature. Historian Murray Beck writes that Macdonald's cabinet was "probably Nova Scotia's strongest". Biographer Stephen Henderson points out that the "ministers were fresh, motivated and knowledgeable about their portfolios", although Macdonald himself had no experience in finance. Biographer John Hawkins characterizes the Liberal party of 1933 as "a party of thinkers and reformers". During the 1930s, Macdonald's Liberals took credit for leading the province out of the depths of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. As journalist Harry Flemming wrote many years later, Macdonald became "God himself", the premier who "paved the roads and put the power into every home from Cape North
Cape North, Nova Scotia
Cape North is a Canadian rural community in Victoria County, Nova Scotia near the northeastern tip of Cape Breton Island.The community derives its name from Cape North, a headland located 18 km to the north....
to Cape Sable".
Nova Scotia is not the most prosperous part of Canada, but it is still, I hope, and always will be, I trust, a land where the higher things of life are preserved inviolate, where religion is venerated, where education is cherished, where justice is fairly administered, where law is duly observed, where the time-honoured virtue of hospitality is not forgotten, where "stranger" is still a sacred name. |
| Premier Angus L. Macdonald, October 2, 1937. |
Pensions and relief programs
On his first day in office, Macdonald kept a key Liberal promise by bringing in old age pensions for elderly people in need. Cheques would be mailed out to 6,000 pensioners by the end of March 1934. It was a popular move even though monthly pension payments in Nova Scotia were substantially below the national average.The economic conditions facing the new government were dismal. Tens of thousands of Nova Scotians were impoverished and unemployed. The government expected that 75,000 Nova Scotians would need assistance during the coming winter. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald sympathized with the poor, but he worried that direct government relief payments would undermine their pride and self-respect. Even though direct relief might be cheaper, the Macdonald government preferred to hire the unemployed for public works projects such as paving roads. Henderson reports that in 1933, there were only 45 kilometres (28 mi) of paved roads in the province. By 1937, that figure had risen to 605. The government financed such public works by selling low-interest bonds and raising gasoline taxes from six to eight cents a gallon.
Macdonald also urged the federal Conservative government of R. B. Bennett
R. B. Bennett
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
to increase financial support to poorer provinces. At the time, there was no national system of unemployment insurance and the Bennett Conservatives insisted that the unemployed were mainly the responsibility of the provinces and municipalities. Although the federal government did provide relief during the Depression, Nova Scotia and the two other Maritime provinces were hampered by the federal system of matching grants for relief programs. Under that system, provinces received federal money only if they were willing to contribute a percentage of their own revenues. Thus, the poorest provinces received less federal aid than the richer ones because they couldn't afford to match the federal grants. Historian E. R. Forbes points out for example, that from January to May 1935, all three levels of government spent an average of $2.84 for each relief recipient in the Maritimes, an amount less than half the $6.18 spent in the other six provinces.
Jones Commission
Macdonald tried to deal with the financial imbalances in Confederation by appointing a Royal CommissionRoyal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
. He asked it to recommend economic polices the province should follow to lessen the effects of the Depression and to lay out a framework for negotiations with the federal government.
The three-man Jones Commission included Harold Innis
Harold Innis
Harold Adams Innis was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. The affiliated Innis College at the University of Toronto is named for him...
, a prominent economic historian who had studied disparities between highly developed manufacturing regions and marginal ones that depended primarily on exploiting natural resources. After touring the province and hearing from more than 200 witnesses, the Commission issued its report in December 1934. Macdonald could take satisfaction in its finding that high tariffs had sheltered central Canadian manufacturing at Nova Scotia's expense and that federal subsidies to the province were "seriously inadequate".
The Commission recommended that the federal government assume responsibility for financing social programs such as old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. It also argued that Ottawa should establish equity among provinces and that redistribution of federal tax revenues should be based on need, an idea that became central to Macdonald's thinking about federal-provincial relations. Among other things, the Commission called on the Macdonald government to continue paving roads; to undertake a program of rural electrification to keep young people on family farms; and, to establish a professional civil service that would defend Nova Scotia's interests against federal bureaucrats in Ottawa.
Tourism and Nova Scotian identity
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. Macdonald also helped assemble more than a quarter of a million acres (4,000 km²) for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Cape Breton Highlands National Park is located on northern Cape Breton Island in the province of Nova Scotia. One-third of the Cabot Trail passes through the park featuring spectacular ocean and mountain views. The park was the first National Park in the Atlantic provinces of Canada and covers an...
complete with a fancy resort hotel and world-class golf course. "Macdonald believed", Henderson writes, "he had created a piece of Scotland for tourists in the New World". And, as more tourists came, Macdonald's stature grew.
Trade Union Act
The Nova Scotia legislature recognized the growing power of industrial unionsIndustrial unionism
Industrial unionism is a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union—regardless of skill or trade—thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations...
in the 1930s by passing what historian Stephen Henderson calls "Canada's first piece of modern labour legislation". Although Macdonald's governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives agreed on the need to protect union rights, the parties vied with each other to take credit for the Trade Union Act. In January 1937, Premier Macdonald carried a bottle of bootleg rum to a meeting with union officials in Sydney, Cape Breton where they gave him a draft bill based on the American National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act or Wagner Act , is a 1935 United States federal law that limits the means with which employers may react to workers in the private sector who create labor unions , engage in collective bargaining, and take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in...
. Before the Macdonald government could introduce the bill in the legislature, the Conservatives presented a similar one of their own. The legislation faced opposition from the Canadian Manufacturers' Association during public hearings, but Liberals and Conservatives combined to pass it unanimously. The new Trade Union Act required employers to bargain with any union chosen by a majority of their employees. It also prohibited employers from firing workers for organizing a union.
Government patronage
Nova Scotia's well-entrenched system of paying off government supporters with jobs and contracts continued to flourish under the Macdonald Liberals. In his comprehensive history of Canadian patronage, journalist Jeffrey Simpson writes that the Liberals used road improvements to win votes, with highway crews "especially busy before and during election campaigns." Simpson adds that the Liberals awarded government contracts to companies approved by the party. In return, the firms were required to kickback some of the money they received to the Liberals. Biographer Stephen Henderson argues that Macdonald himself did not relish the traditional practice of filling government jobs with party supporters. Nevertheless, the "wave of partisan hirings and firings" continued as committees in each riding "scrutinized employees for inappropriate political activity and rated prospective candidates based on what they or their families had done for the Liberal party".Second term as premier, 1937–40
Fortunately for the Macdonald government, economic conditions improved during the 1930s. In March 1937, Macdonald announced that after 14 years of running operating deficits, the Nova Scotia government had recorded a surplus with another forecast for the next year. The pro-Liberal Halifax Chronicle gleefully described the scene in the legislature: "the House sat for a moment, as if not comprehending the good news, then rocked with acclaim, at least the Government side of the House did, though the opposition, stilled and stunned-like, sat like figures carved in stone". Macdonald promised the government would spend another $7.5 million on its popular road paving program overseen by A. S. MacMillanAlexander Stirling MacMillan
Alexander S. MacMillan was a Nova Scotia politician and businessman, the provinces 13th Premier.MacMillan was born in Upper South River, Antigonish County. He made his fortune in lumbering and construction before being made chairman of the Nova Scotia Highways Board in 1920 and serving briefly as...
, the veteran Minister of Highways. MacMillan, also Chairman of the Nova Scotia Power Commission
Nova Scotia Power
Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a power generating and delivery company in Nova Scotia. It is privately owned by Emera and regulated by the provincial government via the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board .-History:...
, had been extending electrical service into rural areas. He now introduced a rural electrification bill designed to subsidize the cost of providing electricity.
After these preparations, the premier called a provincial election for June 29, 1937. Macdonald campaigned on his government's record. On election day, his Liberals were rewarded with 25 of the 30 seats in the legislature.
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from December 29, 1921 to June 28, 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from October 23, 1935 to November 15, 1948...
had invited Macdonald to run for federal office during the general election of 1935. Although Macdonald turned him down, there were strong rumours in 1937 that Macdonald would soon enter federal politics. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes however, that Macdonald wanted to remain as premier so he could present Nova Scotia's case to a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
on federal-provincial relations.
Rowell-Sirois Commission
The Depression of the 1930s exposed glaring weaknesses in federal-provincial financial arrangements. Canada's poorer provinces found it impossible to cope with widespread poverty and hunger while the federal government resisted taking full responsibility for unemployment relief. By 1937, conditions had become so desperate that the provinces of ManitobaManitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
faced bankruptcy. Finally, in August 1937, Prime Minister King appointed the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, popularly known as the Rowell-Sirois Commission
Rowell-Sirois Commission
The Rowell-Sirois Commission officially known as the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations was a Canadian Royal Commission looking into the Canadian economy and federal-provincial relations. It was called in 1937 and reported in 1940....
. According to biographer Stephen Henderson, Macdonald played an important role in shaping the Commission's final recommendations.
Macdonald wrote Nova Scotia's submission and presented it himself when the Commission held hearings in Halifax in February 1938. He called on the federal government to take full responsibility for social programs such as unemployment insurance, old-age pensions and mothers' allowances. Macdonald recommended that the federal government be given exclusive jurisdiction over income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
es and succession duties
Succession duty
Succession duty, in the English fiscal system, "a tax placed on the gratuitous acquisition of property which passes on the death of any person, by means of a transfer from one person to another person ." In order properly to understand the present state of the English law it is necessary to...
to pay for these programs. He argued however, that to maintain their independence, the provinces needed to collect indirect sources of revenue such as sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
es. He also called for exclusive provincial control over such minor tax fields as gasoline and electricity taxes.
A central part of Macdonald's case concerned the redistribution of wealth from richer provinces to poorer ones. His argument was based on the premise that richer provinces benefited from national economic policies such as high tariffs while poorer provinces were penalized by them. Macdonald suggested that compensatory subsidies to poorer, less-populated provinces be based on need, not population, so that they could pay for government services available in other parts of the country without having to impose higher-than-average levels of taxation.
The Commission's final report, released in May 1940, reflected many of Macdonald's recommendations. Mackenzie King called a federal-provincial conference in January 1941 to discuss the report. The provinces failed to agree on what should be done, but in April, the federal government went ahead on its own announcing it would levy steep taxes on personal and corporate incomes as a temporary measure to finance Canada's participation in the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Summons to Ottawa
The course of Macdonald's political career changed sharply after Canada declared war on Germany in September 1939. Three months later, Mackenzie King called a federal election and on March 26, 1940, his Liberals won a decisive victory. In spite of his victory, King was under pressure to recruit the country's "best brains" into his wartime cabinet. The death of his minister of defence in an air crash in June 1940 gave King an opportunity to reorganize his administration. He asked J. L. RalstonJames Ralston
James Layton Ralston, PC was a Canadian lawyer, soldier and politician.Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Ralston graduated from law school at Dalhousie University in 1903 and practised law in Amherst...
, a native Nova Scotian, to become his new minister of defence. Ralston agreed but imposed two conditions: First that J. L. Ilsley
James Lorimer Ilsley
James Lorimer Ilsley, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and jurist.He was born in Somerset, Nova Scotia, the son of Randel Ilsley and Catherine Caldwell. Ilsley was educated at Acadia University and Dalhousie University and was admitted to the Nova Scotia bar in 1916. In 1919, he married Evelyn Smith...
of Nova Scotia replace him as minister of finance and second that he get assistance in his new portfolio.
King decided to appoint two additional ministers, one in charge of the Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
The history of the Royal Canadian Air Force begins in 1920, when the air force was created as the Canadian Air Force . In 1924 the CAF was renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force and granted royal sanction by King George V. The RCAF existed as an independent service until 1968...
, the other to oversee the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...
. He therefore, asked Macdonald to join the federal cabinet as minister of national defence for naval services. Macdonald, who had fought in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a soldier on the front lines in France and Belgium, decided it was his duty to fight World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a political leader in Ottawa. He handed over his responsibilities as premier to A. S. MacMillan
Alexander Stirling MacMillan
Alexander S. MacMillan was a Nova Scotia politician and businessman, the provinces 13th Premier.MacMillan was born in Upper South River, Antigonish County. He made his fortune in lumbering and construction before being made chairman of the Nova Scotia Highways Board in 1920 and serving briefly as...
and was sworn into the federal cabinet on July 12, 1940.
Wartime federal career, 1940–45
Mackenzie King wanted Macdonald to stand for a vacant seat in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. It was a traditional Conservative riding that had been represented by Sir John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
, Canada's first prime minister. In 1935 however, the riding had switched to the Liberals and King wanted to keep it. "I told Mr. King that I did not know Kingston at all, nor its problems, nor its people", Macdonald wrote later. When the Conservatives agreed not to run a candidate against him however, Macdonald had no choice but to stand for office in Kingston. He won the seat by acclamation on August 12, 1940.
Building the navy
Macdonald faced a huge, but critical task in overseeing the expansion of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). As historian Desmond Morton points out, the RCN was tiny when Canada entered the war in 1939. It consisted of six destroyers, five minesweepers and about three thousand personnel in its regular forces and volunteer reserves. By the time Macdonald took office in 1940, the RCN had grown to 100 ships and more than 7,000 personnel, but as biographer Stephen Henderson notes, "few of its ships and sailors were ready for service at sea". By the end of the war, the RCN had expanded by 50 times its original strength with about 400 fighting ships, almost 500 additional craft and about 96,000 men and women.The RCN was assigned the task of escorting supply vessels transporting food and other materials needed to keep the war going. This convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
duty was critically important as German submarines or U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
s sought to starve Britain into submission by sinking supply ships. The RCN performed about 40 per cent of the war's transatlantic Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
escort duty. Desmond Morton argues it was Canada's "most decisive" military contribution. Canada's convoy protection efforts did not always run smoothly, however. In the early part of the war, the Canadian navy lacked equipment that could detect underwater submarines as well as efficient radar for sighting ones on the surface. To make matters worse, Canada didn't have the long-range aircraft that were the most effective anti-submarine weapons.
As supply ship losses mounted, the RCN struggled to catch up to the better-equipped British and American navies. Macdonald himself lacked military expertise and often depended on senior naval staff who kept him in the dark about equipment shortages and other problems. "Macdonald's administration of Naval Affairs did not rise to brilliance", Henderson writes, "[but] the problem may have lain more with the senior naval staff than with Macdonald". Macdonald's conflict with high ranking naval officers, particularly Rear Admiral Percy W. Nelles
Percy W. Nelles
Percy Walker Nelles, CB was a flag officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and the Chief of the Naval Staff from 1934 to 1944. He oversaw the massive wartime expansion of the RCN and the transformation of Canada into a major player in the Battle of the Atlantic. During his tenure U-boats raided the...
, led to the effective dismissal of the latter in 1944.Yet, as the war progressed, the RCN, led by Macdonald, gradually became more effective in protecting the huge cargoes of materials on which Allied victory depended.
Conscription crisis
Biographer Stephen Henderson maintains that Macdonald played a key role in the wartime conscription crises that beset the federal government in 1942, and again in 1944, as Prime Minister Mackenzie King tried to avoid imposing compulsory military service overseas. Macdonald himself strongly favoured conscription rather than relying solely on voluntary enlistment. A committed internationalist, he believed it unfair that some bore the sacrifices of overseas service while others escaped what he saw as their military obligations. Macdonald realized however, that conscription was highly unpopular in French-speaking Quebec and that enforcing it would split the country at a time when national unity was crucial. He also recognized that in the early years of the war, voluntary enlistment was producing enough recruits to meet the needs of the armed forces.Not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary. |
| Mackenzie King's 1942 slogan ingeniously avoided any definite commitment. |
Nevertheless, Macdonald continued to push the government to commit itself to conscription if circumstances should change. His position earned him the enmity of the politically cautious Mackenzie King. "Macdonald is a very vain man", the prime minister complained in his diary, "and has an exceptional opinion of himself. Undoubtedly, he came here expecting to possibly lead the Liberal party later on but has found that he will not be able to command the following that he expected".
As the opposition Conservatives continued to press for overseas conscription, the King government held a national plebiscite on April 27, 1942. The plebiscite asked voters to release the government from its previous promise not to introduce compulsory war service. The results confirmed the sharp national split. English Canada voted strongly in favour and French Canada overwhelmingly against. The results of the plebiscite seemed to strengthen the position of ministers who supported conscription. Macdonald's two cabinet colleagues from Nova Scotia, defence minister J. L. Ralston
James Ralston
James Layton Ralston, PC was a Canadian lawyer, soldier and politician.Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Ralston graduated from law school at Dalhousie University in 1903 and practised law in Amherst...
, and finance minister J. L. Ilsley
James Lorimer Ilsley
James Lorimer Ilsley, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and jurist.He was born in Somerset, Nova Scotia, the son of Randel Ilsley and Catherine Caldwell. Ilsley was educated at Acadia University and Dalhousie University and was admitted to the Nova Scotia bar in 1916. In 1919, he married Evelyn Smith...
, urged the government to introduce conscription immediately. A more cautious Macdonald wanted the government to commit itself to conscription should it be required to support the war effort.
The crisis flared again two years later when the Canadian military called for overseas reinforcements. Ralston wanted King to impose conscription, but at Macdonald's urging, seemed willing to compromise by going along with the prime minister's plan for one last voluntary recruitment campaign. King however, suddenly dismissed Ralston during a cabinet meeting on November 1, 1944. Macdonald considered resigning, but said later he would have struck King if he had risen to leave. Instead he sat in his chair ripping sheets of notepaper into small shreds and dropping them on the floor. Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald's decision not to resign probably saved the King government. King himself seemed to recognize that if Macdonald had left, Ilsley would have resigned too, possibly taking other ministers with him and causing the government's collapse.
In the end, King was forced to impose overseas conscription after the failure of the voluntary recruitment campaign, but the war ended soon after and his government survived unscathed. The conscription crisis however, hardened the animosity between King and his naval minister. Macdonald, disillusioned by what he saw as the chicanery and ruthlessness of national politics, longed to return to Nova Scotia. After King called an election for June 11, 1945, Macdonald resigned from the federal cabinet.
Provincial premier, 1945–54
When Macdonald returned to Nova Scotia in 1945, he was only 55, but the silver-haired politician now seemed 20 years older. After the retirement of Premier A. S. MacMillanAlexander Stirling MacMillan
Alexander S. MacMillan was a Nova Scotia politician and businessman, the provinces 13th Premier.MacMillan was born in Upper South River, Antigonish County. He made his fortune in lumbering and construction before being made chairman of the Nova Scotia Highways Board in 1920 and serving briefly as...
, the Liberals reaffirmed Macdonald's leadership at their convention on August 31, 1945. Less than two months later, Macdonald's Liberals swept the province wiping out the Conservatives for the first time since Confederation and winning all but two Cape Breton ridings where voters elected members of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
or CCF, the forerunner of the present-day New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
, or NDP. In spite of his huge victory, a close colleague noted that Macdonald was not the same man he had been before he left Nova Scotia in 1940. He had trouble making decisions, not because he was a procrastinator, but because he was not well.
Nevertheless, Macdonald plunged into his role as a leading champion for the provinces. He argued that in order to maintain their independence, provinces needed exclusive jurisdiction over such sources of revenue as gasoline, electricity and amusement taxes. He lobbied for constitutional amendments designed to guarantee provincial rights. Macdonald urged the federal government to accept the 1940 recommendations of the Rowell-Sirois Commission
Rowell-Sirois Commission
The Rowell-Sirois Commission officially known as the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations was a Canadian Royal Commission looking into the Canadian economy and federal-provincial relations. It was called in 1937 and reported in 1940....
and redistribute national wealth based on need. Such a policy, he maintained, would enable poorer provinces to sustain government services available in other parts of the country without having to impose higher-than-average levels of taxation. In the end, Macdonald won only small victories such as gaining exclusive provincial access to gasoline taxes. The federal government refused to recognize financial need as the basis for provincial subsidies.
Aside from his role as a national spokesman for provincial rights, Macdonald presided over an administration that invested heavily in education. His government financed the building of rural high schools and extended financial assistance to Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
's schools of medicine and law. Macdonald also appointed Nova Scotia's first minister of education, Henry Hicks
Henry Hicks
Henry Davies Hicks was a lawyer, university administrator, and politician in Nova Scotia.He was born in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the son of Henry Hicks and Annie Kinney. Hicks was educated in Bridgetown and at Mount Allison University, Dalhousie University and Oxford University. He was admitted to...
, in 1949 to oversee $7.6 million in spending, about a fifth of the provincial budget.
The Macdonald Liberals easily won re-election in 1949 and 1953, but the Conservatives made steady gains under Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
, their new leader. The Conservatives for example, drew attention to kickback schemes under which brewing companies, wineries and distilleries contributed to the Liberal party in exchange for the right to sell their products in government liquor stores. The Liberals seemed secure against such allegations however, as long as they were led by the popular Angus L. Macdonald. However, Macdonald suffered a slight heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on April 11, 1954 and was admitted to hospital where he died in his sleep two nights later, just four months before his 64th birthday.
Stephen Henderson writes that the Nova Scotia legislature sat on the day of his death. Macdonald's seat was draped in Clanranald tartan
Tartan
Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns...
and a sprig of heather
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae, commonly known as the heath or heather family, is a group of mostly calcifuge flowering plants. The family is large, with roughly 4000 species spread across 126 genera, making it the 14th most speciose family of flowering plants...
decorated his desk. Macdonald's body lay in state for three days in the legislative building as more than 100,000 people filed past to pay their respects.
Aftermath of Macdonald's death
Macdonald's death proved disastrous for provincial Liberals. There was no obvious successor to the popular premier. At the party's leadership convention held on September 9, 1954, the Liberals appeared badly split along religious lines. After five ballots, the convention rejected Harold ConnollyHarold Connolly
Harold Joseph Connolly was a Nova Scotia journalist, newspaper editor, and politician who served as the province's 15th Premier in 1954....
, a Roman Catholic who had served as interim premier after Macdonald's death. Instead they chose the Protestant Henry Hicks
Henry Hicks
Henry Davies Hicks was a lawyer, university administrator, and politician in Nova Scotia.He was born in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the son of Henry Hicks and Annie Kinney. Hicks was educated in Bridgetown and at Mount Allison University, Dalhousie University and Oxford University. He was admitted to...
. "Unfortunately for the Liberals", historian Murray Beck writes, "it appeared as if the delegates had ganged up to defeat the only Catholic among the contestants". Beck also notes that "Nova Scotia governments have always been most vulnerable after a change in leadership". In the next provincial election held on October 30, 1956, Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
and his Conservatives won 24 seats, the Liberals 18. The 23-year Liberal era, begun under Macdonald's leadership, had finally ended.
Assessment and legacy
Murray Beck writes that Macdonald's political appeal to Nova Scotians may have been even stronger than the legendary Joseph Howe'sJoseph Howe
Joseph Howe, PC was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, and public servant. He is one of Nova Scotia's greatest and best-loved politicians...
. Like Howe, Macdonald was a passionate and eloquent leader whose elegantly crafted speeches reflected his wit, wide learning and respect for factual accuracy. Beck writes that by scrupulously fulfilling his campaign promises, Macdonald became known as a leader who always kept his word.
Macdonald's reputation as the premier who led the province out of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
rested on his commitment to ambitious government projects such as highway construction and rural electrification. He continued to support highway improvements throughout his career. Two projects that he pushed especially hard for, the Canso Causeway
Canso Causeway
The Canso Causeway is a rock-fill causeway in Nova Scotia, Canada.The causeway crosses the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula...
linking Cape Breton Island to mainland Nova Scotia and a suspension bridge
Angus L. Macdonald Bridge
The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge, locally known as "the old bridge", is a suspension bridge crossing Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada; it opened on April 2, 1955....
spanning Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour
Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality.-Harbour description:The harbour is called Jipugtug by the Mi'kmaq first nation, anglisized as Chebucto...
were completed after his death. The bridge, named in his honour, made it possible to travel between Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
and Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Dartmouth founded in 1750, is a community and planning area of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour, Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes after the large number of lakes located in the city.On April 1, 1996, the provincial...
without having to board a ferry or drive several kilometres around the Bedford Basin
Bedford Basin
Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast.-Geography:Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within the Halifax Regional Municipality and is oriented northwest-southeast, measuring approximately 8 kilometres long and 5...
.
Macdonald consistently called for a more equitable redistribution of wealth, so that poorer provinces such as Nova Scotia, could share fully in Canada's prosperity. Biographer Stephen Henderson writes that Macdonald deserves credit for the introduction, in 1957, of an equalization scheme
Equalization payments
Equalization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to subnational governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services....
designed to enable poorer provinces to provide comparable levels of services to their citizens. Macdonald's advocacy of provincial autonomy however, fell victim to the centralizing tendencies of a post-war welfare state in which the federal government increasingly assumed greater control over national social programs.
Throughout his life, Macdonald maintained ties to his alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University
St. Francis Xavier University is a post-secondary institution located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The school was founded in 1853, but did not offer degrees until 1868. The university has approximately 5000 students.-History:...
. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from St. FX in 1946. He served as honorary chair and fundraiser for the university's centennial celebrations in 1953 and raised money to support student research into the early history of the Scots in Nova Scotia. Macdonald suggested that the reading room in a new university library be called the Hall of the Clans. St. FX adopted the idea and decided to name the library in his honour. Thus, when the Angus L. Macdonald Library officially opened on July 17, 1965, 50 coats of arms representing both Scottish and Irish clans adorned the walls of its reading room.
Further reading
- Chapman, Harry. (2005) Crossings: Fifty Years of the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing.
- Conrad, Margaret. (1986) George Nowlan: Maritime Conservative in National Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Conrad, Margaret and Hiller, James K. (2006) Atlantic Canada: A Concise History. Don Mills ON: Oxford University Press.
- Cross, Austin F. (1943) The People's Mouths. Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.
- Forbes, Ernest R. (1979) The Maritime Rights Movement, 1919–1927. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Hadley, Michael L., Huebert, Robert N., and Crickard Fred W. (1996) A Nation's Navy: In Quest of Canadian Naval Identity. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-1506-2
- Pickersgill, J. W. (1960) The Mackenzie King Record (Volume 1 1939–1944). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- Tucker, Gilbert Norman. (1952) The Naval Service of Canada: Its Official History. Volume II: Activities on Shore During the Second World War. Ottawa: King's Printer.
- Waite, P. B. (1994) The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume One, 1818–1925. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Waite, P. B. (1998) The Lives of Dalhousie University: Volume Two, 1925–1980. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Walsh, Paul. (1986) Political Profiles: Premiers of Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing Limited.
- Whitaker, Reginald. (1977) The Government Party: Organizing and Financing the Liberal Party of Canada 1930–58. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.