The ‘Canada first’ legacy of John A. Macdonald
His National Policy may have been born from an encounter with a Hamilton coffin maker
In light of the furor to remove John A. Macdonald’s name from public institutions and bar his visage from the public square, it might be prudent to relate this serendipitous anecdote from our city’s rich history.
In 1879, the Provincial Exhibition was held in Crystal Palace in Victoria Park, which at that time extended to Dundurn or Garth, as it then known. The “exhibition” and “palace” were both scaled down versions of the ones in the mother country meant to showcase the British Empire, then at the height of its imperialist glory.
At one booth, samples of cloth-covered caskets from a Buffalo manufacturer were on display. A young entrepreneur called James Evel had recently set up shop on the north side of the park on Florence Street, laboriously turning out an array of handmade coffins.
On one of Macdonald’s visits to Hamilton, the thrice-elected and newly installed prime minister happened to be standing near Evel, who apparently exclaimed: “I believe I could make more and cheaper caskets, if I could didn’t have to compete with American coffin makers.” McDonald responded: “I will see what can be done to help you.”
By the late 1870s The United States had begun its journey to create an imperialist state, cancelling the free trade treaty of the 1850s. “Reciprocity” had been a boon to Hamilton’s first mass transit enterprise, The Great Western Railway.
Rail laying equipment, iron rails, steampowered shovels and even locomotives had streamed across the recently built suspension Roebling bridge at Clifton Hill on the Niagara River, without interruption or inspection.
In the early years of Confederation, Canada as a distinct political entity hung in the balance. Alt-right styled American zealots like the Irish Fenians and “Know Nothing” political party paraded and talked boldly about annexing the rogue nation to the north. Nova Scotia, one of the four provinces which had entered Confederation in 1867, clamoured for the completion of the Interprovincial Railway. The Hudson Bay Company was determined to hold onto its assets in the west.
To offset the new high American tariffs, Macdonald proposed his own barriers on U.S.-manufactured goods entering the country. Unlike the America scheme however, duties on raw materials such as coal and iron ore were much lower, in order to stimulate the Canadian manufacturing sector.
High tariffs were the cornerstone of what is known as First National Policy or “defensive expansionism.” It is best known as National Policy, the conscious nation-building policies of successive Canadian federal governments, both Liberal and Conservative.
The National Policy has come to refer to an ideology and set of strategies intended to create a unique Canadian identity and economic autonomy. By the 1930s, National Policy encompassed government apparatus such as the Canada Wheat Board, the CBC and Bank of Canada.
It may be urban myth that the overarching policy of John A. Macdonald’s National Policy which included unrestricted immigration, the transcontinental railway and rapid development of cash crop agriculture in the West stems from this chance encounter with a coffin maker in Hamilton.
However these salient points remain: National Policy (1879-1940) was the first of three distinct epochs of Canadian economic history, as argued by noted Carleton economists Lorraine Eden and Maureen Molot.
National Policy was our first prime minister’s honest attempt to thwart American proto-imperialism in this period of an unregulated laissez faire economy, the era of the robber barons. National Policy led to the development of large industrial unions which is so important in Hamilton’s labour history.
National Policy may be the only reason we are not part of America today, an America that might be OK in removing some Confederate war statutes in its provincial backwaters, but would never consider renaming its capital, named after a slave-owning Virginian aristocrat.
Later in 1879, James Evel entered into partnership with Arthur Semmons. The Semmons and Evel Casket Company would become the largest of its kind in the Dominion, employing a staff of over 100 people. After falling out with his partner, Evel set up his own factory on York Boulevard where he made special oak caskets, employing almost three dozen workers including three travelling salesmen. Later there was a factory and office at Tisdale and King.
Hamilton was the first Canadian city to erect a statue to John A. Macdonald. It is a modest affair with its own special history. Unlike the U.S., Canada is not inundated with massive monuments and cities dedicated to our first prime minister.
The Macdonald Cartier Freeway is usually referred to by its numerical name. Macdonald’s birthday on Jan. 11 is virtually unknown.
I ask all parties who have weighed in on this issue to consider all aspects of these efforts to attempt to correct the past.