Eighteenth Grand Council

Henderson Dewey.

The Eighteenth Grand Council of the Confederation of North America was elected to a five-year term on 15 February 1928. The partisan makeup of the Eighteenth Grand Council was ninety-four Liberal Party, and fifty-six People's Coalition.

The Eighteenth Grand Council's Liberal majority re-elected Henderson Dewey of Indiana to the office of Governor-General on the first ballot. John Jenckinson of the Northern Confederation was chosen as Majority Leader, and Harley Shaw of the Southern Confederation was chosen by the P.C. as Minority Leader.

The Eighteenth Grand Council's increased Liberal majority initially had no major policy goals, but that changed on 1 December 1928 when Dewey announced a major study of the National Financial Administration, an agency whose loans to new businesses were a major engine of economic growth in the C.N.A. Dewey stated in his announcement that the purpose of the study would be "to see how this important agency may better serve the interests of the nation and its people." Dewey noted that of the 4,698 loans granted by the N.F.A. during his first term, half were to entrepreneurs from the Northern Confederation and another fifth to those in Indiana; either entrepreneurs from the other confederations lacked the qualities of their eastern counterparts, or the N.F.A. was remiss in its duties.

On 5 May 1929 Dewey gave a vitavised address to talk about the report's findings. He recommended that the N.F.A. be required to finance a certain percentage of startup businesses in the less industrialized confederations to make the economic map of the C.N.A. conform to its demographic outlines, aid newcomers to Manitoba in their resettlement there under the Galloway Plan, and enable Negroes in Southern Vandalia and elsewhere to better share in the nation's wealth. Dewey believed that his proposed reforms would "bring the N.F.A. to more people, to increase its usefulness, not detract from it."

Douglas Watson.

As was his wont, Dewey moved slowly, meeting with Liberal Party leaders on 8 May, where they agreed to introduce a bill and schedule a vote the following week at the start of the new session of the Eighteenth Grand Council. Their plans were disrupted when Dewey was found dead of a heart attack on the morning of 10 May. Jenckinson informed the press that afternoon that the Liberal caucus would meet the following morning at 9 A.M., and would not adjourn until a new goveror-general was selected. Since the Grand Council was not in session, the Liberals did not achieve a quorum until the morning of 12 May, and it consisted of only 71 of the 94 Liberal members. Had 10 missing members from Manitoba been present, the caucus would have chosen Foster McCabe, the Governor of Manitoba. However, those present on the morning of the 12th chose Douglas Watson, the Minister for Home Affairs.

Watson spent the next year winning passage of Dewey's reform of the N.R.A., which devolved control over the agency to eight confederation-level offices located in the capitals of the six confederations, as well as the two associated provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia. Watson also continued Dewey's Diffusion Era policy of transferring power and funding from the national government to the confederations, increasing expenditures for roads, providing subsidies for airlines, and establishing a medical research agency called the National Health Administration. By the time campaigning began for the 1933 Grand Council elections, Watson and the Liberals were considered unbeatable.