November 25, 1920
What was happening a century ago this week from the front page of the Cowichan Leader.
November 25, 1920
With an approaching provincial election it was all about politics, a century ago. Over half of the front page of The Leader was dedicated to speeches by incumbent Independent candidate Kenneth Duncan and the leader of the opposition, Conservative William Bowser, who was on a barnstorming visit.
Let’s begin with Bowser who’s best remembered for his role as attorney-general during the Great Strike by coal miners, 1912-14. By 1920 he’d succeeded Sir Richard McBride as leader of the party and was in town to support the local candidate, Cobble Hill’s George Cheeke.
At the Opera House he was greeted with a packed audience and was introduced by W.M. Dwyer, vice-president of the local Conservatives and president of the Liberty League which had been founded to fight Prohibition. Dwyer began by praising opponent Duncan for his personal integrity but criticized him for his political belief that an independent candidate had any real role to play in a parliament dominated by political parties.
C.F. Davie’s introductory speech drew loud heckling when he referred to Duncan as a “derelict on the political ocean”. How could Duncan deliver the goods to his constituents—“bounties and appropriations”—if he didn’t ally himself with the party in power? (He means patronage.) If Duncan did work with the governing party, well, then, he wasn’t really independent, was he?
So far as Davie was concerned, Duncan had already colluded with the ruling Liberals. As proof, he waved a paper that he said was a list of Duncan’s nominees—all of them known to be Liberals! But, despite demands from the audience, he refused to read them out.
He then claimed that Duncan’s campaign had received financial support from the Liberals, that he knew this from an informed source whom he refused to identify without that party’s consent.
In introducing Bowser, candidate Cheeke declared that he was “the most abused gentleman in B.C.,” to a loud chorus of, “Rightly so!” Cheeke said that if he were to run as an independent he’d have no problem working with Bowser or his Conservatives. Because Duncan maintained that he was not in any way allied with or supported by the Liberals (who’d declined to run a candidate against him), Cheeke thought it only reasonable that this claim be up for challenge.
Finally, it was Bowser’s turn to speak. He reminded the audience that Duncan had originally run in 1916 as a Liberal, been defeated, then, elected as an “Independent” in a by-election, showed himself to be a Liberal in disguise.
For two hours he railed against the Liberals, citing their expenditure of $100,000 for a Temperance Plebiscite, but he agreed to institute a government-controlled liquor control board and to sell booze as cheaply as possible to discourage bootleggers if the Conservatives won. He questioned the Grits’ financial record: Why, when in power his Conservatives had spent $44 million over 13 years on public roads; during their time in office the Liberals couldn’t even keep them in repair!
There was an accusation of patronage (he’d hired his brother) from the audience which he didn’t deny, saying that his brother was qualified for the job as opposed to his Liberal-appointed replacement.
There was much more but we’ll turn to Kenneth Duncan who addressed 50 people in Chemainus. Duncan Mayor Pitt, who identified himself as a life-long Conservative, said he supported Duncan because he was tired of “partyism”.
The Leader reporter glossed over Duncan’s speech as having been reported previously and turned to a Col. McIntosh who endorsed Duncan as an independent because he thought all political parties were the pawns of moneyed interests. The behind-closed-doors caucus was the curse of party politics, he said. He reminded the audience that the McBride-Bowser government had committed the province to the tune of $40 for the building of the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway which had bankrupted and would have taken the province down with it had not the CNPR been absorbed into the Canadian National Railways by the federal government. Neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals had clean hands when it came to the latest railway scandal, that of the PGE, he said.
In short, McIntosh was for independent candidates vs. the party system hence his support for Duncan. Independents, he believed, stood “not purely for the purpose of opposition but for freedom of action and conscience”.
Have a question, comment or suggestion for TW? Use our Contact Page.