
WILFRID LAURIER’S POLITICAL LIBERALISM
Anonymous (1877)
There is one thing certain, the lecture which Mr. Laurier, the eloquent member for Arthabaska in the House of Commons, has just delivered at Quebec, before the “Club Canadien,” has put our adversaries out of countenance.¹ This fact is evident, and the efforts which they are making to alter the sense of Mr. Laurier’s words, and to attribute to him, opinions and ideas which he did not express, and to fasten on the liberal party, principles, which as a body, they never professed, show in the clearest manner, the confusion in which the conservatives are placed. Notwithstanding their efforts, Mr. Laurier’s speech will stand, and all the unfair commentaries by which they endeavor to impute to him doctrines which his lecture does not in any way express, will not prevent the people, with their natural good sense, from understanding the real meaning of the reform [37] programme. Those amongst our adversaries who are sincere, should now know from the acknowledged declaration of Mr. Laurier, speaking on behalf of the reform or liberal party, that this organization never entertained plans dangerous to the church, but that they have always endeavored to secure it the fullest enjoyment of its rights and privileges, whenever the opportunity offered. The reform party never intended to cause the triumph of any religious or anti–religious principle.
The object it has in view is to look after the administration of the temporal affairs of the country.
It leaves to each of its members individually the right to profess whatever religious or philosophical doctrines he may think proper without rendering itself responsible, as a party, which has only a political object in view, for such doctrines. Playing on words, is the favorite tactics of our adversaries, and any declaration we may make will never force them to admit that our party does not try to bring about the triumph of principles which they attribute to us: But the public who are daily becoming more enlightened is no longer disposed to be deceived by any such absurdities, and it relies on its own judgment to decide as to the respective tendencies of both parties; on this we rely with fullest trust.
A party must be judged according to its works, and not by the forced meaning taken from the words delivered by those who represent it, and to which, according to Talleyrand, a sense may always be given, contrary to what they mean. Now, if we consider the works of the reform party, it will be seen that far from being hostile to Catholics, it has on the contrary, been favorable on every occasion, to their dearest interests. To mention only the question of Catholic schools, to it is due the introduction of the separate school system in Upper Canada. It is to the McDonald–Sicotte Liberal Ministry of which Mr. Dorion was a member, and which had a majority of two only, that is due the measure against which conservatives, such as John Cameron and Cockburn gave their votes.
It was a liberal government which was not afraid to lose its popularity in Upper Canada and to risk its existence as a government, by making it a ministerial question, by granting to the Catholics of Ontario the rights of having separate schools, a risk which Sir John A. MacDonald or Mr. Cartier, in the plenitude of their power, supported by a strong majority, never wished to incur. [38]
It is also to a reform government, the MacKenzie government, that the Catholics of the new North West Territory owe the adoption of the separate school system. As regards the New Brunswick schools, the immense majority which Mr. Anglin has just obtained clearly shows that the policy adopted by the reformers on this question had nothing antagonistic to Catholic doctrines. These facts alone — even without Mr. Laurier’s brilliant logic, should be enough to convince every honest and unprejudiced citizen that the reform party does not in any way desire to deprive the church of its rights, but that on the contrary, it has always endeavored to secure to it the full exercise thereof. Let our enemies exert all their efforts; their foul work is ended. Mr. Laurier has unmasked the enemies’ batteries, and the hypocrites who usurp the name of conservatives have been irrevocably driven from one of their strongest positions.
ENDNOTES
1. Anonymous, “Remarks of the Press: Le National,” Lecture on Political Liberalism: Delivered By Wilfrid Laurier, Esq., M.P., on the 26th June, 1877, in the Music Hall, Québec, Under the Auspices of “Le Club Canadien,” By Wilfrid Laurier, Québec, The Morning Chronicle, 1877, 36–38.
