AbstractsPolitical Science

It would not be giving an altogether true impression to say that French Canada in the 1880’s expressed its political interests through a two-party system. On the face of it, the assertion would seem true enough. There were two parties: two etiquettes would be the better term, to borrow an expression from the French Canadian political vocabulary. Liberals and Conservatives, rouges and bleus, contested elections and formed governments. The two-party system had a real meaning, but political life did not end there. Behind the labels of rouge and bleu lay the more complicated picture of struggling groups and factions. In these divisions personalities counted for much, private interests counted for something, but underlying everything was a problem in conflicting ideas. There is one contrast which lies at the root of every discussion of Canadian politics of the late-nineteenth century period. It can be summed up this way: “While English-speaking Canada looked west, French Canada looked east. English-speaking Canadians, with the Americans to the south, devoted their attentions to expansion, economic and territorial expansion; in short, to material expansion. The greatest strength of the Conservative party in English speaking Canada was that it had effectively associated itself with an expanding Canadian life, willing to undertake great things in the present with the conviction of faith that the future would justify them. [...]