Perhaps the least remembered of twentieth century federal Conservative leaders is Dr. Robert J. Manion. A medical doctor by training, and a Liberal at the beginning of his career, he was elected from Thunder Bay to Parliament in 1917 as a supporter of the Unionist government, a mixture of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals under the leadership of Robert Borden.
Following the war Dr. Manion remained a Conservative. He seemed something of an outsider to many both within and outside the party. Dr Manion was an Irish Roman Catholic in a party that was often associated with the Orange Order and extreme Protestantism.
He served in the brief government of Arthur Meighen in 1926. In the spring of 1930, under the leadership of R.B. Bennett, he was one of the bright lights of the party as the campaign got under way for a general election in the late spring of that year.
The Conservative Riding Association of North-East Wellington managed to lure Dr. Manion for a rally in Arthur on May 16 of 1930. Arthur was home to a number of Irish residents, and the riding association may have felt he held a special appeal to that portion of the electorate, hence their invitation to come to Arthur.
A sizeable crowd packed the Arthur Town Hall for the meeting, which was held on a Friday night. The secretary of the riding association, Henry Irvine, occupied the chair for the evening. Rixon Rafter, the blind editor of the Arthur Enterprise News and the president of the riding association, gave some words of welcome to the multitude.
J.B. Moon of Mount Forest introduced the speaker. Dr. Manion had arrived earlier in the day at Palmerston by train. He came to Arthur by car with the popular sitting Conservative MP for North Wellington, Duncan Sinclair. The doctor preferred to travel in a low-key manner, and he appreciated the informal style of Moon’s remarks.
But before Dr. Manion mounted the platform, Duncan Sinclair offered some remarks. He began by castigating the sitting Liberal government for its immigration policy, which had brought 800,000 foreigners to Canada while losing 900,000 Canadian citizens to the United States. A new treaty signed by the Liberals with Australia and New Zealand had flooded the Canadian market with dairy products, at the expense of Canadian farmers.
Dr. Manion followed Duncan Sinclair. He strongly agreed with the points made by Sinclair, who he described as one of the most respected members of the House of Commons. Dr. Manion began his talk by criticizing the Mackenzie King government for frequently changing policy, and being unable to cope with the trying economic conditions of the late 1920s and with the depression that seemed to be descending on the country in the early months of 1930. His answer to the dilemma was a Conservative government, headed by men who were unwavering in their policies and were sensible and practical in their views.
The most recent Liberal budget, he said, took a “shot-gun” approach, which raised import duties on some items, reduced it on others, cut some programs, and put more money into others. He said that the government had applied new tariffs to a number of American steel products, but removed them from some British ones They had hoped, he said, that at least something in the budget would appeal to everyone. The mixed message in the tariff policy sought to avoid offending the traditional low-tariff views of old-time Liberals, while at the same time giving some tariff protection to items produced in Canada.
Overall, he said, the recent Liberal economic policy gives with one hand and takes away with the other. It tries “to mix oil and water, free trade and protection, which cannot be done.” It was obvious that Mackenzie King’s political skills and sudden reversals of policy were causing Dr. Manion much frustration. Particularly annoying to him was the sudden appropriation of portions of policies that had long been part of the Conservative platform. He had to admit that the Conservative position was in agreement with portions of the new tariff policies as they related to agriculture. This was not the first time that King appropriated portions of the policies of other parties, and it would not be the last.
Much of Dr. Manion’s speech focused on the deficiencies of the Liberal agricultural policies. He had perhaps been advised by Duncan Sinclair that North East Wellington was an overwhelmingly agricultural riding, and that Arthur village was central to the agricultural community.
“Canada is just as much a part of the Empire as England, Dr. Manion said in conclusion. “Canada, being British, charity should begin at home. The Empire is like a chain, only as strong as its component parts. When I’m forced to choose between my land and another I will align myself with my land, and that is the attitude of the Conservative party.”
The meeting closed with three cheers for Dr. Manion, followed by three cheers for Duncan Sinclair, and then three cheers for R.B. Bennett.
The 1930 election was a rare summer one, with polling day on July 28. The campaign locally, apart from the Arthur rally, was a quiet one. Both Sinclair and Dr. Blair concentrated on meeting as many people as possible, mostly with a grueling door-to-door and farm-to-farm canvas.
To the amazement of many observers, Dr. Blair’s earnestness and obvious intelligence and grasp of the issues played very well with farmers. When the votes were tallied he won the riding, though with a slim majority of 100 votes. He bucked the national trend, which saw the Conservatives decisively defeat the Mackenzie King government.
Bennett’s Conservative government soon proved that it was unable to deal with the depression conditions. Their hopes for re-election steadily diminished, and Bennett delayed the next election as long as possible, until 1935.
Duncan Sinclair had no difficulty in securing the nomination again. He prevailed upon Dr. Manion, who had become a personal friend, to again help with his campaign. Dr. Manion spoke at a rally in Sinclair’s hometown of Harriston. But the Conservative Party was by then a lost cause. The meeting drew only about 150 people, and the voters re-elected Dr. Blair by a sizeable margin over Sinclair.
It appears that 1935 was Dr. Manion’s last visit to Wellington County. He lost his own seat in the election of that year, but nevertheless he was the party’s choice for a leader to succeed R.B. Bennett in 1938. In the 1940 general election he failed to gain a seat once more, and resigned as leader shortly afterward. Dr. Manion died in 1943.
Duncan Sinclair’s enthusiasm in bringing Dr. Manion, a practicing Catholic, into a riding that was reputedly one of the most outspokenly Protestant areas of the province, suggests that religious feelings may not have been as deep and unbending as most people supposed. And for his part, the Doctor always minimized his religious opinions, telling audiences that his politics and his religion were quite separate.
As for Duncan Sinclair, he retained his personal popularity, serving for 10 years as reeve of Harriston, and later as mayor. He always insisted that he much preferred local politics, where he could be more effective in pushing policies that would directly impact the community. In 1946 he served a term as warden. Duncan Sinclair died in 1951. Today he is much better remembered in Wellington County than his leader, R.J. Manion.