Ninth Grand Council

John McDowell.

The Ninth Grand Council of the Confederation of North America was elected to a five-year term on 15 February 1883. The partisan makeup of the Ninth Grand Council was 82 Liberal Party, 45 People's Coalition, and 23 Conservative Party. The Liberal majority re-elected party leader John McDowell of Manitoba to the office of Governor-General. It is not known who the Liberals chose as Majority Leader, but the Coalitionists, who had surpassed the Conservatives and were now the official Opposition for the first time in their 14-year history, chose their own party leader, Scott Ruggles of the Northern Confederation, as Minority Leader.

When the Ninth Grand Council met in a special session immediately after its election, the 23 Conservative Councilmen were uncertain where to sit, since the Coalitionists now occupied the Opposition benches. Most of them chose to seat themselves behind the Liberals, although five Conservatives from the N.C. and Quebec chose to sit with the Coalitionists.

Following the September 1881 coup d'etat by Benito Hermión in the United States of Mexico, McDowell had consulted with the Commandant of the C.B.I., Colonel Mark Forsyth, who had worked with Hermión to establish the Constabulary in the U.S.M. Forsyth had advised him that Hermión was a coward who would avoid antagonizing the C.N.A. and focus on bullying the smaller countries to his south. Forsyth proved correct when Hermión appointed the novelist Simon Cardenes as his ambassador to the C.N.A., and in 1884 he and Minister for Foreign Affairs Malcolm Kitteridge negotiated a major trade agreement. While maintaining friendly relations with the C.N.A., Hermión launched the Isthmian War in the fall of 1886, conquering the small Central American nation of Guatemala.

With a majority in the Ninth Grand Council, McDowell was able to pass all of his proposed legislation for 1883, a program he had campaigned on under the name "the Age of Renewal": a guaranteed employment act that made the government the employer of last resort; a guaranteed minimum wage of N.A. £1 a day; a reform of the school system offering universal secondary education; the Transportation Act of 1883, which gave the Railroad Control Commission the power to order changes in railroad policy; the Fair Trade Act of 1883 creating the North American Export Council to subsidize exports; the establishment of the North American Bank; an expansion of the National Financial Administration allowing more and larger loans to distressed corporations; expansion of the Rural Credit Association; expansion of the Confederation Bureau of Investigation into a national police force; and increased appropriations for the army and navy.

Pro-administration newspapers proclaimed McDowell the greatest reformer in the history of the C.N.A. The Burgoyne Times wrote, "With these new laws, our nation has forged into the lead in the area of social benefits"; the Michigan City Dispatch called McDowell "the greatest reformer the English-speaking world has known since Kensington"; and the Boston Word called him "the leading light of the century." However, Conservative Party leader and New York Herald publisher Theodore Lindsay denounced McDowell, saying that he "will destroy our moral fibre with his nostrums, and our exchequer with his taxes."

Scott Ruggles.

Minority Leader Ruggles criticized the expansion of the N.F.A. and R.C.A., claiming they would help large businesses and ignore smaller ones. He also stated that the North American school system could not support the new education program, and that the government was no place "to dump, unceremoniously, those whose skills are other than paper-pushing." Michigan City Mayor Ezra Gallivan, who had led the P.C. to victory there in 1882, allowed Ruggles to focus on specifics, while his own criticisms were more general. He asked rhetorically why McDowell chose to increase military spending "since we are not being threatened by any outside foe," and why the C.B.I. should be enlarged "when the dislocations of the early part of our decade have diminished, and our nation fortunately has been spared the pains of our neighbors across the Atlantic."

Ruggles' predictions proved correct, and by 1885 there was growing opposition to McDowell's reforms. The school system was indeed overwhelmed by the numbers seeking to enter it; the C.B.I.'s investigative methods provoked a public outcry, and tax rates were at an all-time high, while inflation became an increasing problem. In 1887, Ruggles declared, "Let Mr. McDowell ask us for what he will. He has a majority in the Grand Council, and can have anything he wants from it. Indeed, we would be willing to support his plans, for the People's Coalition wants peace and harmony as much as anyone else. The truth is, the Age of Renewal is, and always has been, a sham. The Liberals have had their chance, and have failed. Now it is time for true reform, and not just fancy maneuverings."

McDowell sought the Liberal nomination for a third term as goveror-general, the first incumbent to do so. He claimed that he needed more time "to correct the abuses of a century." At the Coalition's national convention, Gallivan received the nomination over Ruggles. Over the course of the campaign season, he appeared at many large meetings at which he would praise McDowell for his many achievements, but subtly criticize him as "a man worn out by the burdens he has carried for so long." Gallivan's agents organized well, and his manager, Senator Peter Higbe, personally coordinated the Coalition's programs throughout the C.N.A., allowing the P.C. to achieve an internal consistency and efficiency that the Liberals would not show for another two elections. Meanwhile, the fading Conservatives, although led by the able moderate Abraham Reese, were running poorly behind the other two parties.

Although both the New York Herald and the Burgoyne Times predicted another victory by the Liberals, on election day, the People's Coalition won a 73 seat plurality in the Grand Council, while the Liberals won only 66 and the Conservatives 9. McDowell chose not to challenge Gallivan for the governor-generalship, instead arranging for several Liberal Councilmen to vote for Gallivan, giving him an 81-seat majority.