R. B. Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett
Encyclopedia
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC
, KC (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947) 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. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England
, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett.
, New Brunswick
, Canada. He grew up nearby at the home of his father, Henry John Bennett, at Hopewell Cape
, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people.
His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut
in the 18th century. His great, great grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut
to Nova Scotia
c. 1765, before the American Revolution
, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadian
s during the Great Upheaval
.
R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. His principle ever after was: work as hard as you can, earn all you can, save all you can, and then give all you can. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum
deposits.
The Bennetts had previously been a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam-powered vessels in the mid-19th century meant the gradual winding down of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers.They were strong Conservatives
; indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the Sir John A. Macdonald
.
Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire
, then at its apogee.
on the ferry boat, a well-dressed lad about nine years younger came over to him and struck up a conversation. This was the beginning of an improbable but important friendship with Max Aitken, later the industrialist and British press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. The agnostic Aitken liked to tease the Methodist Bennett, whose fiery temper contrasted with Aitken's ability to turn away wrath with a joke. This friendship would become important to his success later in life, as would his friendship with the Chatham
lawyer, Lemuel J. Tweedie, a prominent Conservative politician. He began to study law
with Tweedie on weekends and during summer holidays. Another important friendship was with the prominent Shirreff family of Chatham, the father being High Sheriff
of Northumberland County
for 25 years. The son, Harry, joined the E.B. Eddy Company, a large pulp and paper
industrial concern, and was transferred to Halifax
. His sister moved there to study nursing, and soon Bennett joined them to study law at Dalhousie University
. Their friendship was renewed there, and became crucial to his later life when Jennie Shirreff married the head of the Eddy Company. She later made Bennett the lawyer for her extensive interests.
in 1890, graduating in 1893 with a law degree. He worked his way through with a job as assistant in the library, being recommended by Dr. R. C. Weldon.
He was then a partner in the Chatham law firm of Tweedie and Bennett. Max Aitken (later known as Lord Beaverbrook) was his office boy, while articling as a lawyer, acting as a stringer for the Montreal Gazette, and selling life insurance. Aitken persuaded him to run for alderman
in the first Town Council of Chatham, and managed his campaign. Bennett was elected by one vote, and was later furious with Aitken when he heard all the promises he had made on Bennett's behalf.
and become his law partner. Lougheed was Calgary's richest man and most successful lawyer.
Bennett moved to Alberta
in 1897. A lifelong bachelor and teetotaler (although Bennett was known by select associates to occasionally drink alcohol when the press was not around to observe this), he led a rather lonely life in a hotel and later, in a boarding house. For a while a younger brother roomed with him. He ate his noon meal on workdays at the Alberta Hotel. Social life, such as it was, centered on church. There was, however, no scandal attached to his personal life. Bennett worked hard and gradually built up his legal practice. In 1908 he was one of five people appointed to the first Library Board for the city of Calgary and was instrumental in establishing the Calgary Public Library
.
, representing the riding of West Calgary. He was re-elected to a second term in office in 1902 as an Independent from the parties in the Northwest Territories legislature.
In 1905, when Alberta
was carved out of the territories and made a province, Bennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party. In 1909, he won a seat in the provincial legislature
, before switching to federal politics.
Elected to the Canadian House of Commons
in 1911
, Bennett returned to the federal scene to again lead the Alberta Tories in the 1913 provincial election
, but kept his federal seat in Ottawa
when his Tories failed to take power in the province; such practice was later forbidden.
At age 44, he tried to enlist in the Canadian military once World War I
broke out, but was turned down as being medically unfit. In 1916, Bennett was appointed director general of the National Service Board, which was in charge of identifying the number of potential recruits in the country.
While Bennett supported the Conservatives
, he opposed Prime Minister Robert Borden
's proposal for a Union Government that would include both Conservatives and Liberals, fearing that this would ultimately hurt the Conservative Party. While he campaigned for Conservative candidates in the 1917 federal election
he did not stand for re-election himself.
appointed Bennett Minister of Justice
in his government, as it headed into the 1921 federal election
in which both the government and Bennett were defeated. Bennett won the seat of Calgary West
in the 1925 federal election
and was returned to government as Minister of Finance
in Meighen's short-lived government in 1926. The government was defeated in the 1926 federal election
. Meighen stepped down as Tory leader, and Bennett became the party's leader in 1927 at the first Conservative leadership convention.
As Opposition leader, Bennett faced off against the more experienced Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
in Commons debates, and took some time to acquire enough experience to hold his own with King. In 1930, King blundered badly when he made overly partisan statements in response to criticism over his handling of the economic downturn, which was hitting Canada very hard. King's worst error was in stating that he "would not give Tory provincial governments a five-cent piece!" This serious mistake, which drew wide press coverage, gave Bennett his needed opening to attack King, which he did successfully in the election campaign which followed.
in the 1930 federal election
, he had the misfortune of taking office during the Great Depression
. Bennett tried to combat the depression by increasing trade within the British Empire
and imposing tariffs for imports from outside the Empire, promising that his measures would blast Canadian exports into world markets. His success was limited however, and his own wealth (often openly displayed) and impersonal style alienated many struggling Canadians.
When his Imperial Preference policy failed to generate the desired result, Bennett's government had no real contingency plan. The party's pro-business and pro-banking inclinations provided little relief to the millions of increasingly desperate and agitated unemployed. Despite the economic crisis, Laissez-faire
persisted as the guiding economic principle of Conservative Party ideology. Government relief to the unemployed was considered a disincentive to individual initiative, and was therefore only granted in the most minimal amounts and attached to work programs. An additional concern of the federal government was that large numbers of disaffected unemployed men concentrating in urban centres created a volatile situation. As an "alternative to bloodshed on the streets," the stop-gap solution for unemployment chosen by the Bennett government was to establish military-run and -styled relief camps in remote areas throughout the country, where single unemployed men toiled for twenty cents a day. Any relief beyond this was left to provincial and municipal governments, many of which were either insolvent or on the brink of bankruptcy, and which railed against the inaction of other levels of government. Partisan differences began to sharpen on the question of government intervention in the economy, since lower levels of government were largely in Liberal hands, and protest movements were beginning to send their own parties into the political mainstream, notably the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and William Aberhart
's Social Credit Party
in Alberta
.
Bennett hosted the 1932 Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa
; this was the first time Canada had hosted the meetings. It was attended by the leaders of the independent dominions of the British Empire (which later became the Commonwealth of Nations
). Bennett dominated the meetings, which were ultimately unproductive, due to the inability of leaders to agree on policies, mainly to combat the economic woes dominating the world at the time.
's socialist novel
:
Reacting to fears of Communist subversion, Bennett invoked the controversial Section 98
of the Criminal Code of Canada
. Enacted in the aftermath of the Winnipeg General Strike, Section 98 dispensed with the presumption of innocence
in outlawing potential threats to the state: specifically, anyone belonging to an organization that officially advocated the violent overthrow of the government. Even if the accused had never committed an act of violence or personally supported such an action, they could be incarcerated merely for attending meetings of such an organization, publicly speaking in its defense, or distributing its literature. Despite the broad power authorized under Section 98, it targeted specifically the Communist Party of Canada
. Eight of the top party leaders, including Tim Buck
, were arrested and convicted under Section 98 in 1931. This plan to stamp out communism backfired, however, and proved to be a damaging embarrassment for the government, especially after Buck was the target of an apparent assassination
attempt. While confined to his cell during a prison riot
, despite not participating in the riot, shots were fired into his cell. When an agit-prop play
depicting these events, Eight Men Speak
, was suppressed by the Toronto police, a protest meeting was held where activist A.E. Smith repeated the play's allegations, and he was consequently arrested for sedition
. This created a storm of public protest, compounded when Buck was called as a witness to the trial and repeated the allegations in open court. Although the remarks were stricken from the record, they still discredited the prosecution's case and Smith was acquitted. As a result, the government's case against Buck lost any credibility, and Buck and his comrades were released early and fêted as heroic champions of civil liberties
.
A 2001 book by Quebec nationalist writer Normand Lester
, Le Livre noir du Canada anglais
(later translated as The Black Book of English Canada) accused Bennett of having a political affiliation with, and of having provided financial support to, fascist
Quebec writer Adrien Arcand
. This is based on a series of letters sent to Bennett following his election as Prime Minister by Arcand, his colleague Ménard and two Conservative caucus members asking for financial support for Arcand's antsemitic newspaper Le Goglu. The book also claims that in a 1936 letter to Bennett, A. W. Reid, a Conservative organizer, estimated that Conservative Party members gave Arcand a total of $27,000 (the modern equivalent $359,284).
was formed and affiliated with the Workers' Unity League
, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party. Camp workers in BC struck on April 4, 1935, and, after two months of protesting in Vancouver, began the On-to-Ottawa Trek
to bring their grievances to Bennett's doorstep. The Prime Minister and his Minister of Justice, Hugh Guthrie
, treated the trek as an attempted insurrection, and ordered it to be stopped. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) halted the Trek in Regina
on July 1, 1935, by attacking a crowd of 3,000 strikers and their supporters, resulting in two deaths and dozens of injured. All told, Bennett's anti-Communist policy would not bode well for his political career.
Following the lead of President
Roosevelt
's New Deal
in the United States, Bennett, under the advice of William Duncan Herridge
, who was both Canada's ambassador
to the United States
and Bennett's brother-in-law, the government eventually began to follow the Americans' lead. In a series of five speeches to the nation in January 1935, Bennett introduced a Canadian version of the "New Deal," involving unprecedented public spending and federal intervention in the economy. Progressive income taxation, a minimum wage
, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance
, an expanded pension
programme, and grants to farmers were all included in the plan.
In one of his addresses to the nation, Bennett said:
Bennett's conversion, however, was seen as too little too late, and he faced criticism that his reforms either went too far, or did not go far enough, including from one of his cabinet ministers H.H. Stevens, who bolted the government to form the Reconstruction Party of Canada
. Some of the measures were alleged to have encroached on provincial jurisdictions laid out in Section 92 of the British North America Act. The courts, including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
, agreed and eventually struck down virtually all of Bennett's reforms. However, some of Bennett's initiatives, such as the Bank of Canada
, which he founded in 1934, and the Canadian Wheat Board
, remain in place to this day.
. Unity in his own administration suffered, notably by the defection of his Minister of Trade, Henry Herbert Stevens
. Stevens left the Conservatives and formed the Reconstruction Party of Canada
, after Bennett refused to implement Stevens' plan for drastic economic reform to deal with the economic crisis.
The beneficiary of the overwhelming opposition during Bennett's tenure was the Liberal Party. The Tories were decimated in the October 1935 general election
, winning only 40 seats to 173 for Mackenzie King's Liberals. The Tories would not form a majority government again in Canada until 1958. King's government soon implemented its own moderate reforms, including the replacement of relief camps with a scaled down provincial relief project scheme, and the repeal of Section 98. King had earlier outlined his plans with his 1918 book Industry and Economy. Many of King's other reforms continue today, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, the nationalized Bank of Canada
, versions of minimum wage, maximum hours of work, pension, and unemployment insurance legislation. But ultimately, Canada mostly pulled out of the depression not as a result of government programs, but because of jobs created by the industrialization and onset of the Second World War
.
"Argent within two bendlets Gules three maple leaves proper all between two demi-lions rampant couped gules. Crest, a demi-lion Gules grapsing in the dexter paw a battle axe in bend sinister Or and resting the sinister paw on an escallop also Gules. Supporters, Dexter a buffalo, sinister a moose, both proper. Motto, To be Pressed not Oppressed."
, which was the largest safety match manufacturer in Canada, and he was one of the richest Canadians at that time. Bennett helped put many poor, struggling young men through university. Relative to the times he lived in, he was likely the wealthiest Canadian to become prime minister.
Bennett worked an exhausting schedule throughout his years as prime minister, often more than 14 hours per day, and dominated his government, usually holding several cabinet posts. He lived in a suite in the Chateau Laurier
hotel, a short walk from Parliament Hill. The respected author Bruce Hutchison
wrote that had the economic times been more normal, Bennett would likely have been regarded as a good, perhaps great, Canadian prime minister.
Bennett was also a noted talent spotter. He took note of and encouraged the young Lester Pearson in the early 1930s, and appointed Pearson to significant roles on two major government inquiries: the 1931 Royal Commission on Grain Futures, and the 1934 Royal Commission on Price Spreads. Bennett saw that Pearson was recognized with an O.B.E. after he shone in that work, arranged a bonus of $1,800, and invited him to a London conference. Former Prime Minister John Turner
, who as a child knew Bennett while he was prime minister, praised Bennett's promotion of Turner's economist
mother to the highest civil service post held by a Canadian woman to that time.
to be elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham
in the County of Surrey
and of Calgary
and Hopewell
in the Dominion of Canada
.
He died after suffering a heart attack
while taking a bath on June 26, 1947, at Mickleham. He was exactly one week shy of his 77th birthday. He is buried there in St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham
. He is the only former Prime Minister not buried in Canada. Unmarried, Bennett was survived by nephews William Herridge, Jr., and Robert Coats and by brother Ronald V. Bennett. The viscountcy became extinct on his death.
Bennett was ranked #12 by a survey of Canadian historians out of the then 20 Prime Ministers of Canada through Jean Chrétien
. The results of the survey were included in the book Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders by J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer
.
by the Governor General
:
Bennett was the Honorary Colonel of The Calgary Highlanders from the year of their designation as such in 1921 to his death in 1947. He visited the Regiment in England during the war, and always ensured the 1st Battalion had a turkey dinner at Christmas every year they were overseas, including the Christmas of 1944 when the battalion was holding front line positions in the Nijmegen Salient.
Bennett served as the Rector of Queen's University
in Kingston, Ontario
from 1935–1937, even while he was still prime minister. At the time, this role covered mediation for significant disputes between Queen's students and the university administration.
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,...
, KC (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947) was a Canadian lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, businessman, politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst 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...
years. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett.
Early life
R. B. Bennett was born on July 3, 1870, when his mother, Henrietta Stiles, was visiting at her parents' home in Hopewell HillHopewell Hill, New Brunswick
Hopewell Hill is a Canadian rural community in Albert County, New Brunswick.It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Right Honourable Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC , KC , LL.B , who was the eleventh Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930 to October 23,...
, New Brunswick
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...
, Canada. He grew up nearby at the home of his father, Henry John Bennett, at Hopewell Cape
Hopewell Cape
Hopewell Cape is a Canadian village and headland in Albert County, New Brunswick at the northern end of Shepody Bay and the mouth of the Petitcodiac River.Located 31 kilometres south of Moncton, Hopewell Cape is the former shire town of Albert County...
, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people.
His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
in the 18th century. His great, great grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
to 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...
c. 1765, before the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadian
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...
s during the Great Upheaval
Great Upheaval
The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from present day Canadian Maritime provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island...
.
R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. His principle ever after was: work as hard as you can, earn all you can, save all you can, and then give all you can. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
deposits.
The Bennetts had previously been a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam-powered vessels in the mid-19th century meant the gradual winding down of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers.They were strong Conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
; indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the 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...
.
Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, then at its apogee.
Some important friendships
One day, while Bennett was crossing the Miramichi RiverMiramichi River
The Miramichi River is a Canadian river located in the east-central part of New Brunswick. The river drains into Miramichi Bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence...
on the ferry boat, a well-dressed lad about nine years younger came over to him and struck up a conversation. This was the beginning of an improbable but important friendship with Max Aitken, later the industrialist and British press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. The agnostic Aitken liked to tease the Methodist Bennett, whose fiery temper contrasted with Aitken's ability to turn away wrath with a joke. This friendship would become important to his success later in life, as would his friendship with the Chatham
Chatham, New Brunswick
Chatham is a Canadian urban neighbourhood in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick.Prior to municipal amalgamation in 1995, Chatham was an incorporated town in Northumberland County along the south bank of the Miramichi River opposite Douglastown...
lawyer, Lemuel J. Tweedie, a prominent Conservative politician. He began to study law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
with Tweedie on weekends and during summer holidays. Another important friendship was with the prominent Shirreff family of Chatham, the father being High Sheriff
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
of Northumberland County
Northumberland County, New Brunswick
Northumberland County , having the largest area of any county in the province, is located in northeastern New Brunswick, Canada.-Geography:Northumberland County is covered by thick forests, whose products stimulate the economy...
for 25 years. The son, Harry, joined the E.B. Eddy Company, a large pulp and paper
Pulp and Paper
Pulp and Paper is the name of the largest United States-based trade magazine for the pulp and paper industry. See also: Paper engineering, Pulp and Paper Merit Badge...
industrial concern, and was transferred 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...
. His sister moved there to study nursing, and soon Bennett joined them to study law at 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...
. Their friendship was renewed there, and became crucial to his later life when Jennie Shirreff married the head of the Eddy Company. She later made Bennett the lawyer for her extensive interests.
University, early legal career
Bennett started at Dalhousie UniversityDalhousie 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...
in 1890, graduating in 1893 with a law degree. He worked his way through with a job as assistant in the library, being recommended by Dr. R. C. Weldon.
He was then a partner in the Chatham law firm of Tweedie and Bennett. Max Aitken (later known as Lord Beaverbrook) was his office boy, while articling as a lawyer, acting as a stringer for the Montreal Gazette, and selling life insurance. Aitken persuaded him to run for alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
in the first Town Council of Chatham, and managed his campaign. Bennett was elected by one vote, and was later furious with Aitken when he heard all the promises he had made on Bennett's behalf.
Move to Alberta
Despite his election to the Chatham town council, Bennett's days in the town were numbered. He was ambitious and saw that the small community was too narrow a field for him. He was already negotiating with Sir James Lougheed to move to CalgaryCalgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and become his law partner. Lougheed was Calgary's richest man and most successful lawyer.
Bennett moved to Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
in 1897. A lifelong bachelor and teetotaler (although Bennett was known by select associates to occasionally drink alcohol when the press was not around to observe this), he led a rather lonely life in a hotel and later, in a boarding house. For a while a younger brother roomed with him. He ate his noon meal on workdays at the Alberta Hotel. Social life, such as it was, centered on church. There was, however, no scandal attached to his personal life. Bennett worked hard and gradually built up his legal practice. In 1908 he was one of five people appointed to the first Library Board for the city of Calgary and was instrumental in establishing the Calgary Public Library
Calgary Public Library
The Calgary Public Library is a distributed library system featuring 17 branch locations including the Central Library. It is the second most used system in Canada...
.
Early political career
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 1898 general electionNorthwest Territories general election, 1898
The Northwest Territories general election of 1898 took place on 4 November 1898. This was the fourth general election in the history of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories....
, representing the riding of West Calgary. He was re-elected to a second term in office in 1902 as an Independent from the parties in the Northwest Territories legislature.
In 1905, when Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
was carved out of the territories and made a province, Bennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party. In 1909, he won a seat in the provincial legislature
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...
, before switching to federal politics.
Elected to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
in 1911
Canadian federal election, 1911
The Canadian federal election of 1911 was held on September 21 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Canada.-Summary:...
, Bennett returned to the federal scene to again lead the Alberta Tories in the 1913 provincial election
Alberta general election, 1913
The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July...
, but kept his federal seat in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
when his Tories failed to take power in the province; such practice was later forbidden.
At age 44, he tried to enlist in the Canadian military once 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...
broke out, but was turned down as being medically unfit. In 1916, Bennett was appointed director general of the National Service Board, which was in charge of identifying the number of potential recruits in the country.
While Bennett supported the Conservatives
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
, he opposed Prime Minister Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
's proposal for a Union Government that would include both Conservatives and Liberals, fearing that this would ultimately hurt the Conservative Party. While he campaigned for Conservative candidates in the 1917 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1917
The 1917 Canadian federal election was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Canada. Described by historian Michael Bliss as the "most bitter election in Canadian history", it was fought mainly over the issue of conscription...
he did not stand for re-election himself.
Cabinet minister, Conservative party leader
Nevertheless, Borden's successor, Arthur MeighenArthur Meighen
Arthur Meighen, PC, QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served two terms as the ninth Prime Minister of Canada: from July 10, 1920 to December 29, 1921; and from June 29 to September 25, 1926. He was the first Prime Minister born after Confederation, and the only one to represent a riding...
appointed Bennett Minister of Justice
Minister of Justice (Canada)
The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
in his government, as it headed into the 1921 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1921
The Canadian federal election of 1921 was held on December 6, 1921 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader...
in which both the government and Bennett were defeated. Bennett won the seat of Calgary West
Calgary West
Calgary West is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1917 to 1953, and since 1979. It is located in the western part of the City of Calgary....
in the 1925 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1925
The Canadian federal election of 1925 was held on October 29 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 15th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party formed a minority government. This precipitated the "King-Byng Affair".The Liberals under...
and was returned to government as Minister of Finance
Minister of Finance (Canada)
The Minister of Finance is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's budget...
in Meighen's short-lived government in 1926. The government was defeated in the 1926 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1926
The Canadian federal election of 1926 was held on September 14 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 16th Parliament of Canada. The election was called following an event known as the King-Byng Affair...
. Meighen stepped down as Tory leader, and Bennett became the party's leader in 1927 at the first Conservative leadership convention.
As Opposition leader, Bennett faced off against the more experienced Liberal 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...
in Commons debates, and took some time to acquire enough experience to hold his own with King. In 1930, King blundered badly when he made overly partisan statements in response to criticism over his handling of the economic downturn, which was hitting Canada very hard. King's worst error was in stating that he "would not give Tory provincial governments a five-cent piece!" This serious mistake, which drew wide press coverage, gave Bennett his needed opening to attack King, which he did successfully in the election campaign which followed.
Confronting the Depression
By defeating William Lyon Mackenzie KingWilliam 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...
in the 1930 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1930
The Canadian federal election of 1930 was held on July 28, 1930 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Canada...
, he had the misfortune of taking office during 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...
. Bennett tried to combat the depression by increasing trade within the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and imposing tariffs for imports from outside the Empire, promising that his measures would blast Canadian exports into world markets. His success was limited however, and his own wealth (often openly displayed) and impersonal style alienated many struggling Canadians.
When his Imperial Preference policy failed to generate the desired result, Bennett's government had no real contingency plan. The party's pro-business and pro-banking inclinations provided little relief to the millions of increasingly desperate and agitated unemployed. Despite the economic crisis, Laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
persisted as the guiding economic principle of Conservative Party ideology. Government relief to the unemployed was considered a disincentive to individual initiative, and was therefore only granted in the most minimal amounts and attached to work programs. An additional concern of the federal government was that large numbers of disaffected unemployed men concentrating in urban centres created a volatile situation. As an "alternative to bloodshed on the streets," the stop-gap solution for unemployment chosen by the Bennett government was to establish military-run and -styled relief camps in remote areas throughout the country, where single unemployed men toiled for twenty cents a day. Any relief beyond this was left to provincial and municipal governments, many of which were either insolvent or on the brink of bankruptcy, and which railed against the inaction of other levels of government. Partisan differences began to sharpen on the question of government intervention in the economy, since lower levels of government were largely in Liberal hands, and protest movements were beginning to send their own parties into the political mainstream, notably the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and William Aberhart
William Aberhart
William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...
's Social Credit Party
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
.
Hosts, dominates 1932 Imperial Conference
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
; this was the first time Canada had hosted the meetings. It was attended by the leaders of the independent dominions of the British Empire (which later became the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
). Bennett dominated the meetings, which were ultimately unproductive, due to the inability of leaders to agree on policies, mainly to combat the economic woes dominating the world at the time.
Anti-Communism
A nickname that would stick with Bennett for the remainder of his political career, "Iron Heel Bennett," came from a 1932 speech he gave in Toronto that ironically, if unintentionally, alluded to Jack LondonJack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
's socialist novel
The Iron Heel
The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel by American writer Jack London, first published in 1908.Generally considered to be "the earliest of the modern Dystopian", it chronicles the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the United States. It is arguably the novel in which Jack London's socialist views are...
:
What do they offer you in exchange for the present order? Socialism, Communism, dictatorship. They are sowing the seeds of unrest everywhere. Right in this city such propaganda is being carried on and in the little out of the way places as well. And we know that throughout Canada this propaganda is being put forward by organizations from foreign lands that seek to destroy our institutions. And we ask that every man and woman put the iron heel of ruthlessness against a thing of that kind.
Reacting to fears of Communist subversion, Bennett invoked the controversial Section 98
Section 98
Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada was a law enacted after the Winnipeg General Strike banning "unlawful associations." It was used in the 1930s against the Communist Party of Canada....
of the Criminal Code of Canada
Criminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
. Enacted in the aftermath of the Winnipeg General Strike, Section 98 dispensed with the presumption of innocence
Presumption of innocence
The presumption of innocence, sometimes referred to by the Latin expression Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, is the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many...
in outlawing potential threats to the state: specifically, anyone belonging to an organization that officially advocated the violent overthrow of the government. Even if the accused had never committed an act of violence or personally supported such an action, they could be incarcerated merely for attending meetings of such an organization, publicly speaking in its defense, or distributing its literature. Despite the broad power authorized under Section 98, it targeted specifically the Communist Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
. Eight of the top party leaders, including Tim Buck
Tim Buck
Timothy "Tim" Buck was a long-time leader of the Communist Party of Canada...
, were arrested and convicted under Section 98 in 1931. This plan to stamp out communism backfired, however, and proved to be a damaging embarrassment for the government, especially after Buck was the target of an apparent assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt. While confined to his cell during a prison riot
Prison riot
A prison riot is an act of concerted defiance or disorder by a group of prisoners against the prison administrators, prison officers, or other groups of prisoners in attempt to force change or express a grievance....
, despite not participating in the riot, shots were fired into his cell. When an agit-prop play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
depicting these events, Eight Men Speak
Eight Men Speak
Eight Men Speak is a Canadian play written in 1933 by a committee of Oscar Ryan, E. Cecil-Smith, Frank Love and Mildred Goldberg. Although the play made only one performance in its initial run, the attempts by the authorities to suppress it backfired into a political embarrassment for the Canadian...
, was suppressed by the Toronto police, a protest meeting was held where activist A.E. Smith repeated the play's allegations, and he was consequently arrested for sedition
Sedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
. This created a storm of public protest, compounded when Buck was called as a witness to the trial and repeated the allegations in open court. Although the remarks were stricken from the record, they still discredited the prosecution's case and Smith was acquitted. As a result, the government's case against Buck lost any credibility, and Buck and his comrades were released early and fêted as heroic champions of civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
.
A 2001 book by Quebec nationalist writer Normand Lester
Normand Lester
Normand Lester is a Quebec investigative journalist. Though he built his reputation through investigations of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service , the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Forces, he is best known for the controversy created in Canada after the publication of...
, Le Livre noir du Canada anglais
Le Livre noir du Canada anglais
Le Livre noir du Canada Anglais is a series of three polemic books written by Quebec journalist Normand Lester...
(later translated as The Black Book of English Canada) accused Bennett of having a political affiliation with, and of having provided financial support to, fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
Quebec writer Adrien Arcand
Adrien Arcand
Adrien Arcand was a Montreal journalist who led a series of fascist political movements between 1929 and his death in 1967...
. This is based on a series of letters sent to Bennett following his election as Prime Minister by Arcand, his colleague Ménard and two Conservative caucus members asking for financial support for Arcand's antsemitic newspaper Le Goglu. The book also claims that in a 1936 letter to Bennett, A. W. Reid, a Conservative organizer, estimated that Conservative Party members gave Arcand a total of $27,000 (the modern equivalent $359,284).
Relief camp protest
Having survived Section 98, and benefiting from the public sympathy wrought by persecution, Communist Party members set out to organize workers in the relief camps. Camp workers laboured on a variety of infrastructure projects, including such things as municipal airports, roads, and park facilities, along with a number of make-work schemes. Conditions in the camps were abhorrent, not only because of the low pay, but the lack of recreational facilities, isolation from family and friends, poor quality food, and the use of military discipline, which made the camps feel like penal colonies. Communists thus had ample grounds on which to organize camp inmates. The Relief Camp Workers' UnionRelief Camp Workers' Union
The Relief Camp Workers' Union was the union into which the inmates of the Canadian government relief camps were organized in the early 1930s. It was affiliated with the Workers' Unity League, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party of Canada...
was formed and affiliated with the Workers' Unity League
Workers' Unity League
The Workers' Unity League was created in 1929 as a labour central operated by the Communist Party of Canada on the instructions of the Communist International....
, the trade union umbrella of the Communist Party. Camp workers in BC struck on April 4, 1935, and, after two months of protesting in Vancouver, began the On-to-Ottawa Trek
On-to-Ottawa Trek
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a long journey where thousands of people had unemployed men protesting the dismal conditions in federal relief camps scattered in remote areas across Western Canada. The men lived and worked in these camps at a rate of twenty cents per day before walking out on strike in...
to bring their grievances to Bennett's doorstep. The Prime Minister and his Minister of Justice, Hugh Guthrie
Hugh Guthrie
Hugh Guthrie, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and Cabinet minister in the governments of Sir Robert Borden, Arthur Meighen and R. B. Bennett....
, treated the trek as an attempted insurrection, and ordered it to be stopped. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
(RCMP) halted the Trek in Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
on July 1, 1935, by attacking a crowd of 3,000 strikers and their supporters, resulting in two deaths and dozens of injured. All told, Bennett's anti-Communist policy would not bode well for his political career.
Bennett's New Deal
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
's New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
in the United States, Bennett, under the advice of William Duncan Herridge
William Duncan Herridge
William Duncan Herridge, PC, KC, MC, DSO was a Canadian politician and diplomat.He was the son of Reverend William T...
, who was both Canada's ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Bennett's brother-in-law, the government eventually began to follow the Americans' lead. In a series of five speeches to the nation in January 1935, Bennett introduced a Canadian version of the "New Deal," involving unprecedented public spending and federal intervention in the economy. Progressive income taxation, a minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance
Health insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
, an expanded pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
programme, and grants to farmers were all included in the plan.
In one of his addresses to the nation, Bennett said:
Bennett's conversion, however, was seen as too little too late, and he faced criticism that his reforms either went too far, or did not go far enough, including from one of his cabinet ministers H.H. Stevens, who bolted the government to form the Reconstruction Party of Canada
Reconstruction Party of Canada
The Reconstruction Party was a Canadian political party founded by Henry Herbert Stevens, a long-time Conservative Member of Parliament . Stevens served as Minister of Trade in the Arthur Meighen government of 1921, and as Minister of Trade and Commerce from 1930 to 1934 in the Depression-era...
. Some of the measures were alleged to have encroached on provincial jurisdictions laid out in Section 92 of the British North America Act. The courts, including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
, agreed and eventually struck down virtually all of Bennett's reforms. However, some of Bennett's initiatives, such as the Bank of Canada
Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada is Canada's central bank and "lender of last resort". The Bank was created by an Act of Parliament on July 3, 1934 as a privately owned corporation. In 1938, the Bank became a Crown corporation belonging to the Government of Canada...
, which he founded in 1934, and the Canadian Wheat Board
Canadian Wheat Board
The Canadian Wheat Board was established by the Parliament of Canada on 5 July 1935 as a mandatory producer marketing system for wheat and barley in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and a small part of British Columbia...
, remain in place to this day.
Defeat
Although there was no unity among the motley political groups that constituted Bennett's opposition, a consensus emerged that his handling of the economic crisis was insufficient and inappropriate, even from Conservative quarters. Bennett personally became a symbol of the political failings underscoring the depression. Car owners, for example, who could no longer afford gasoline, had horses pull their vehicles, named them Bennett BuggiesBennett buggy
A Bennett buggy was a term used in Canada during the Great Depression to describe a car which had its engine and windows taken out and was pulled by a horse...
. Unity in his own administration suffered, notably by the defection of his Minister of Trade, Henry Herbert Stevens
Henry Herbert Stevens
Henry Herbert Stevens, PC was a Canadian politician and businessman. A member of R.B. Bennett's cabinet, he split with the Conservative Prime Minister to found the Reconstruction Party of Canada.-Early life:...
. Stevens left the Conservatives and formed the Reconstruction Party of Canada
Reconstruction Party of Canada
The Reconstruction Party was a Canadian political party founded by Henry Herbert Stevens, a long-time Conservative Member of Parliament . Stevens served as Minister of Trade in the Arthur Meighen government of 1921, and as Minister of Trade and Commerce from 1930 to 1934 in the Depression-era...
, after Bennett refused to implement Stevens' plan for drastic economic reform to deal with the economic crisis.
The beneficiary of the overwhelming opposition during Bennett's tenure was the Liberal Party. The Tories were decimated in the October 1935 general election
Canadian federal election, 1935
The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party.The central...
, winning only 40 seats to 173 for Mackenzie King's Liberals. The Tories would not form a majority government again in Canada until 1958. King's government soon implemented its own moderate reforms, including the replacement of relief camps with a scaled down provincial relief project scheme, and the repeal of Section 98. King had earlier outlined his plans with his 1918 book Industry and Economy. Many of King's other reforms continue today, including the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, the nationalized Bank of Canada
Bank of Canada
The Bank of Canada is Canada's central bank and "lender of last resort". The Bank was created by an Act of Parliament on July 3, 1934 as a privately owned corporation. In 1938, the Bank became a Crown corporation belonging to the Government of Canada...
, versions of minimum wage, maximum hours of work, pension, and unemployment insurance legislation. But ultimately, Canada mostly pulled out of the depression not as a result of government programs, but because of jobs created by the industrialization and onset of 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...
.
Coat of arms
Bennett's Coat of Arms was designed by Alan BeddoeAlan Beddoe
Lieutenant-Commander Alan Brookman Beddoe, OC, OBE, HFHS, FHSC was a Canadian artist, war artist, consultant in heraldry and founder and first president of the Heraldry Society of Canada in 1965....
"Argent within two bendlets Gules three maple leaves proper all between two demi-lions rampant couped gules. Crest, a demi-lion Gules grapsing in the dexter paw a battle axe in bend sinister Or and resting the sinister paw on an escallop also Gules. Supporters, Dexter a buffalo, sinister a moose, both proper. Motto, To be Pressed not Oppressed."
Legacy
While Bennett was, and is still, often criticized for lack of compassion for the impoverished masses, he stayed up through many nights reading and responding to personal letters from ordinary citizens asking for his help, and often dipped into his personal fortune to send a five-dollar bill to a starving family. The total amount he gave personally is uncertain, although he personally estimated that between the years of 1927-37 he spent well over 2.3 million dollars. Bennett was a controlling owner of the E.B. Eddy match companyEddy Match Company
The Eddy Match Company is a Canadian company whose main product was originally wooden matches.The company began manufacturing matches in Hull Quebec in 1851 as the E.B. Eddy Company. EB Eddy sold off its match division in 1927 and it was merged with World Match Corp. Ltd., Dominion Match Co. Ltd....
, which was the largest safety match manufacturer in Canada, and he was one of the richest Canadians at that time. Bennett helped put many poor, struggling young men through university. Relative to the times he lived in, he was likely the wealthiest Canadian to become prime minister.
Bennett worked an exhausting schedule throughout his years as prime minister, often more than 14 hours per day, and dominated his government, usually holding several cabinet posts. He lived in a suite in the Chateau Laurier
Château Laurier
The Fairmont Château Laurier is a landmark hotel in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive designed in the Châteauesque style.-History:...
hotel, a short walk from Parliament Hill. The respected author Bruce Hutchison
Bruce Hutchison
William Bruce Hutchison, was a Canadian author and journalist.Born in Prescott, Ontario, Hutchison was educated in public schools in Victoria, British Columbia. He married Dorothy Kidd McDiarmid in 1925, around the same time that he began his journalism career as a political reporter in Ottawa...
wrote that had the economic times been more normal, Bennett would likely have been regarded as a good, perhaps great, Canadian prime minister.
Bennett was also a noted talent spotter. He took note of and encouraged the young Lester Pearson in the early 1930s, and appointed Pearson to significant roles on two major government inquiries: the 1931 Royal Commission on Grain Futures, and the 1934 Royal Commission on Price Spreads. Bennett saw that Pearson was recognized with an O.B.E. after he shone in that work, arranged a bonus of $1,800, and invited him to a London conference. Former Prime Minister John Turner
John Turner
John Napier Wyndham Turner, PC, CC, QC is an English Canadian lawyer and retired politician, who served as the 17th Prime Minister of Canada from June 30 to September 17, 1984....
, who as a child knew Bennett while he was prime minister, praised Bennett's promotion of Turner's economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
mother to the highest civil service post held by a Canadian woman to that time.
Retirement and death
Bennett retired to Britain in 1938, and, on June 12, 1941, became the first and only former Canadian Prime MinisterPrime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
to be elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham
Mickleham, Surrey
Mickleham is a village and civil parish between the towns of Dorking and Leatherhead in Surrey, England covering . The parish includes the hamlet of Fredley.-History:Mickleham lies near to the old Roman road known as Stane Street...
in the County of Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
and of Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
and Hopewell
Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick
Hopewell Hill is a Canadian rural community in Albert County, New Brunswick.It is most famous for being the birthplace of the Right Honourable Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC , KC , LL.B , who was the eleventh Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930 to October 23,...
in the Dominion of Canada
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...
.
He died after suffering a 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...
while taking a bath on June 26, 1947, at Mickleham. He was exactly one week shy of his 77th birthday. He is buried there in St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham
St. Michael's Churchyard, Mickleham
St. Michael's Churchyard is the church and cemetery located in Mickleham, Surrey, England.It is the final resting place of Richard Bedford Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada and a member of the House of Lords....
. He is the only former Prime Minister not buried in Canada. Unmarried, Bennett was survived by nephews William Herridge, Jr., and Robert Coats and by brother Ronald V. Bennett. The viscountcy became extinct on his death.
Bennett was ranked #12 by a survey of Canadian historians out of the then 20 Prime Ministers of Canada through Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
. The results of the survey were included in the book Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders by J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer
Norman Hillmer
George Norman Hillmer is a leading Canadian historian and teacher and is among the leading scholars on Canada-US relations....
.
Supreme Court appointments
Bennett chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
by the Governor General
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
:
- Oswald Smith CrocketOswald Smith CrocketOswald Smith Crocket was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada....
(September 21, 1932 – April 13, 1943) - Frank Joseph HughesFrank Joseph HughesFrank Joseph Hughes was a Canadian lawyer and puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Canada.Born in Peel County, Ontario, the son of James Hughes and Winnifred Mullarkey, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in 1907 and studied at Osgoode Hall Law School. In 1911, he was...
(March 17, 1933 – February 13, 1935) - Sir Lyman Poore DuffLyman Poore DuffSir Lyman Poore Duff, GCMG, PC, QC was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and briefly served as Acting Governor General of Canada in 1931 and 1940....
(as Chief Justice, (March 17, 1933 – January 2, 1944; appointed a Puisne JusticePuisne JusticeA Puisne Justice or Puisne Judge is the title for a regular member of a Court. This is distinguished from the head of the Court who is known as the Chief Justice or Chief Judge. The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions such as England, Australia, Kenya, Canada, Sri Lanka,...
under Prime Minister LaurierWilfrid LaurierSir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....
, June 4, 1906) - Henry Hague DavisHenry Hague DavisHenry Hague Davis was a Canadian lawyer and Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.Born in Brockville, Ontario, the son of William Henry Davis and Eliza Dowsley, he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1907, a Master of Arts in 1909 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1911 all from the University of Toronto...
(January 31, 1935 – June 30, 1944) - Patrick KerwinPatrick KerwinPatrick Kerwin, PC , was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.Kerwin was born in Sarnia, Ontario to Patrick Kerwin and Ellen Gavin. After graduating from the Sarnia Collegiate Institute at the age of 16, he enrolled at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1906. He articled in Sarnia with R. V...
(July 20, 1935 – February 2, 1963)
Other appointments
Bennett served as the Rector of Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
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...
from 1935–1937, even while he was still prime minister. At the time, this role covered mediation for significant disputes between Queen's students and the university administration.
See also
- List of Canadian Prime Ministers
- Albert County Museum
- Juniper HallJuniper HallJuniper Hall Field Centre, leased from the National Trust, is a 18th century country house in a quiet wooded valley within the chalk North Downs in Surrey. It is about from Box Hill and only from central London. Nearby habitats and environments for study include unimproved chalk grassland,...
Monographs
- Andrew D. Maclean; R. B. Bennett, Prime Minister of Canada, Toronto, Excelsior Publishing Co., 1935.
- Ernest WatkinsErnest WatkinsErnest Shilston Watkins was a provincial politician and author from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1957 to 1963.-Political career:...
; R. B. Bennett: A Biography, 1963. - J. R. H. Wilbur; The Bennett New Deal: Fraud or Portent, 1968.
- James Henry Grey; R. B. Bennett: The Calgary Years, University of Toronto Press, Toronto and Buffalo, 1991.
- Peter Busby WaitePeter Busby WaitePeter Busby Waite, is a Canadian historian, and a retired Dalhousie University professor.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he attended high school in Saint John, New Brunswick. He obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD degree from the University of Toronto...
; Loner: Three Sketches of the Personal Life and Ideas of R.B. Bennett, 1870-1947, 1992. - Christopher McCreery and Arthur Milnes (editors): The Authentic Voice of Canada, Kingston, OntarioKingston, OntarioKingston, 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...
, McGill - Queen's University Press, Centre for the Study of DemocracyCentre for the Study of DemocracyThe Centre for the Study of Democracy is a multidisciplinary policy studies research organization which enhances the study of democracy both within Canada and abroad. Founded in the mid-1990s, CSD is a non-profit, non-partisan organization affiliated with the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s...
, 2009, ISBN 978-1-55339-275-0. This book is a collection of Bennett's speeches in the British House of LordsHouse of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
from 1941-47. - Forthcoming major biography by Peter Busby WaitePeter Busby WaitePeter Busby Waite, is a Canadian historian, and a retired Dalhousie University professor.Born in Toronto, Ontario, he attended high school in Saint John, New Brunswick. He obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD degree from the University of Toronto...
. - John Boyko; Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged And Changed A Nation, Toronto, Key Porter Books, 2010, ISBN 1554702488.
Other works
- Bruce HutchisonBruce HutchisonWilliam Bruce Hutchison, was a Canadian author and journalist.Born in Prescott, Ontario, Hutchison was educated in public schools in Victoria, British Columbia. He married Dorothy Kidd McDiarmid in 1925, around the same time that he began his journalism career as a political reporter in Ottawa...
; The Incredible Canadian, Toronto 1952, Longmans Canada. This book is mainly concerned with William Lyon Mackenzie KingWilliam Lyon Mackenzie KingWilliam 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...
, but also includes substantial material on R. B. Bennett. - Lord Beaverbrook; Friends, 1959.
- H. Blair Neatby; The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties, 1972 ch 4 on Bennett, pp 51–72 online version.
- Bruce HutchisonBruce HutchisonWilliam Bruce Hutchison, was a Canadian author and journalist.Born in Prescott, Ontario, Hutchison was educated in public schools in Victoria, British Columbia. He married Dorothy Kidd McDiarmid in 1925, around the same time that he began his journalism career as a political reporter in Ottawa...
; Mr. Prime Minister 1867-1964, Toronto 1964, Longmans Canada. - C. P. StaceyC. P. StaceyColonel Charles Perry Stacey, OC, OBE, CD, FRSC was a Canadian historian and university professor. He was the official historian of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, and has been published extensively on matters both military and political.-Early life, education:Stacey was born in...
; Canada and the Age of Conflict, volume 2, 1981. - Gordon Donaldson (journalist)Gordon Donaldson (journalist)Archibald Gordon Clark Donaldson was a Scottish-Canadian author and journalist. He appeared on television and also produced television programming.- Early life :...
; The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1993. - Michael BlissMichael BlissJohn William Michael Bliss, CM, FRSC is a Canadian historian and award-winning author. Though his early works focused on business and political history, he has written several important medical biographies, including of Sir William Osler...
: Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Mulroney, 1994. - George BoweringGeorge BoweringGeorge Harry Bowering, OC, OBC is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. He has served as Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate....
: Egotists and Autocrats: The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1999. - Will FergusonWill FergusonWilliam Stener "Will" Ferguson is a Canadian writer and novelist best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture....
; Bastards & Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present, 1999. - J.L. Granatstein and Norman HillmerNorman HillmerGeorge Norman Hillmer is a leading Canadian historian and teacher and is among the leading scholars on Canada-US relations....
: Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders, Toronto: HarperCollinsPublishersLtd., 1999, pp. 102 – 113. ISBN 0-00-200027-X.
External links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Silver and Gold: Bennett and the Great Depression — Historical essay, illustrated with photographs
- R.B. Bennett at Find A Grave