Arthur Meighen | |
|---|---|
 Meighenc. 1920s | |
| 9th Prime Minister of Canada | |
| In office June 29, 1926 – September 25, 1926 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Governor General | The Lord Byng of Vimy |
| Preceded by | W. L. Mackenzie King |
| Succeeded by | W. L. Mackenzie King |
| In office July 10, 1920 – December 29, 1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Governors General |
|
| Preceded by | Robert Borden |
| Succeeded by | W. L. Mackenzie King |
| Leader of theConservative Party | |
| In office November 12, 1941 – December 9, 1942 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Hanson (interim) |
| Succeeded by | John Bracken |
| In office July 10, 1920 – September 24, 1926 | |
| Preceded by | Robert Borden |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Guthrie (interim) |
| Leader of the Government in the Senate Minister Without Portfolio | |
| In office February 3, 1932 – October 22, 1935 | |
| Prime Minister | R.B. Bennett |
| Preceded by | Wellington Bartley Willoughby |
| Succeeded by | Raoul Dandurand |
| Canadian Senator fromOntario | |
| In office February 3, 1932 – January 16, 1942 | |
| Nominated by | R.B. Bennett |
| Appointed by | Earl of Bessborough |
| Minister of the Interior Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs | |
| In office October 12, 1917 – July 10, 1920 | |
| Prime Minister | Robert Borden |
| Preceded by | William James Roche |
| Succeeded by | James Alexander Lougheed |
| Solicitor General of Canada | |
| In office June 26, 1913 – October 3, 1917 | |
| Prime Minister | Robert Borden |
| Preceded by | Vacant |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Guthrie (acting) |
| Member of theHouse of Commons of Canada | |
| In office January 26, 1922 – September 14, 1926 | |
| In office October 26, 1908 – December 6, 1921 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1874-06-16)June 16, 1874 Anderson,Ontario, Canada |
| Died | August 5, 1960(1960-08-05) (aged 86) Toronto,Ontario, Canada |
| Resting place | St. Marys Cemetery,St. Marys, Ontario |
| Political party | Conservative (1908–1917, 1922–1942) Unionist (1917–1922) Progressive Conservative (1942–1960) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Theodore Meighen Maxwell Meighen Lillian Meighen Wright |
| Relatives | Michael Meighen (grandson) |
| Education | University College, Toronto (BA) |
| Signature |  |
Arthur Meighen delivering a speech aboutJohn A. Macdonald on the 50th anniversary of his death. | |
Arthur MeighenPC QC (/ˈmiːən/MEE-ən; June 16, 1874 – August 5, 1960) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the ninthprime minister of Canada from 1920 to 1921 and from June to September 1926. He led theConservative Party from 1920 to 1926 and from 1941 to 1942.
Meighen was born inAnderson, Ontario. His family came fromCounty Londonderry, Ireland. He studied mathematics at theUniversity of Toronto, and then trained to be a lawyer. After qualifying to practise law, he moved toPortage la Prairie, Manitoba. Meighen entered theHouse of Commons of Canada in1908, and in 1913 was appointed to theCabinet of Prime MinisterRobert Borden. Meighen prominently served assolicitor general,minister of the interior, andsuperintendent-general of Indian affairs.
In July 1920, Meighen succeeded Borden as Conservative leader and prime minister – the first born afterConfederation. Meighen suffered a heavy defeat in the1921 election toMackenzie King and theLiberal Party. Meighen lost his seat but re-entered Parliament through a 1922 by-election and remainedOpposition leader. In the1925 election, the Conservatives won a plurality of seats, just eight short of amajority government, but Mackenzie King decided to hold onto power with the support of theProgressive Party. Meighen's brief second term as prime minister in 1926 came about as the result of the "King–Byng Affair," being invited to form a ministry after Mackenzie King was refused an election request and resigned. He soon lost ano-confidence motion, however, and facedanother federal election. Meighen lost his own seat, and the Conservatives lost 24, as Mackenzie King's Liberals re-took power.
After losing the 1926 election, Meighen resigned as party leader and quit politics to return to his law practice. He was appointed to theSenate in 1932, and under Prime MinisterR. B. Bennett served asleader of the Government in the Senate andminister without portfolio until 1935. In 1941, Meighen became leader of the Conservatives for a second time, followingRobert Manion's resignation. Meighen unsuccessfully attempted to re-enter the House of Commons in a by-election forYork South and resigned as leader shortly thereafter. He returned to practising law afterwards.
Meighen was born on a farm near the hamlet of Anderson in Blanshard Township, Ontario, to Joseph Meighen and Mary Jane Bell. He attended primary school at Blanshard public school in Anderson, where, in addition to being the grandson of the village's first schoolmaster, he was an exemplary student.
In 1892, during his final high school year at St. Marys Collegiate Institute, which later became North Ward Public School inSt. Marys (Later known as Arthur Meighen Public School, know known as Saint Marys District Collegiate and Vocational Institute), Meighen was elected secretary of the literary society and was an expert debater in the school debating society in an era when debating was in high repute. He took first class honours in mathematics, English, and Latin.[1]
Meighen then attendedUniversity College at theUniversity of Toronto, where he earned a B.A. in mathematics in 1896, with first-class standing.[1] While there, he met and became a rival ofWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King; the two men, both future prime ministers, did not get along especially well from the start. Meighen then earned his teaching qualifications from the Ontario Normal College.[1]
Meighen marriedJessie Isabel Cox, a schoolteacher, in 1904. The couple had two sons and one daughter:Theodore (1905–1979),Maxwell (1908–1992), andLillian (1910–1993). Their grandson isMichael Meighen is a Canadian former senator, lawyer and cultural patron.
Isabel Meighen died at the age of 103 and was interred next to her husband in theSt. Marys Cemetery in the town ofSt. Marys, Ontario.
Meighen moved to Manitoba shortly after finishing his LLB atOsgoode Hall Law School. Early in his professional career, Meighen experimented with several professions, including those of teacher, lawyer, and businessman, before becoming involved in politics as a member of theConservative Party. In public, Meighen was a first-class debater, said to have honed his oratory by delivering lectures to empty desks after class. He was renowned for his sharp wit.[2]
Meighen established a law practice inPortage la Prairie, and was briefly a partner withToby Sexsmith.[3][4]
Meighen was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1908, at the age of 34,[5] defeating incumbentJohn Crawford when he captured the Manitoba riding ofPortage la Prairie. In 1911, Meighen won re-election, this time as a member of the new governing party. He won election again in 1913, after being appointed assolicitor general.
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Meighen served as solicitor general from June 26, 1913, until August 25, 1917, when he was appointedminister of mines andsecretary of state for Canada. He was responsible for implementing mandatory military service during theConscription Crisis of 1917. Meighen's portfolios were again shifted on October 12, 1917, this time to the positions ofminister of the interior andsuperintendent of Indian affairs.
Meighen was re-elected in theDecember 1917 federal election, in which Prime MinisterRobert Borden'sUnionist (wartimecoalition) government defeated the oppositionLaurier Liberals over the conscription issue.
As minister of the interior, Meighen steered through Parliament the legislation to consolidate several insolvent railways into theCanadian National Railway Company, which continues today.[6]
In 1919, as actingminister of justice and senior Manitoban in Borden's government, Meighen helped to subdue theWinnipeg General Strike.[6] Shortly after the strike ended, he enacted theSection 98 amendments to the Criminal Code to ban association with organizations deemed seditious.[1][7] Though Meighen has often been credited by historians with instigating the prosecution of the Winnipeg strike leaders, in fact he rejected demands from the Citizens' Committee that Ottawa step in when the provincial government of Manitoba refused to prosecute. It took the return to Ottawa in late July 1919 ofCharles Doherty, Minister of Justice, for the Citizens' Committee to get federal money to carry forward their campaign against labour.[1]
Meighen was re-appointedMinister of Mines on the last day of 1920.
Meighen became leader of theConservative and theUnionist Party, andPrime Minister on July 10, 1920, when Borden resigned andWilliam Thomas White declined the Governor General's invitation to be appointed prime minister.[8] During this first term, Meighen was prime minister for about a year and a half.
Meighen's government combatted theDepression of 1920–1921. His government cut spending, resisted regulation, and minimally intervened in the economy and employers.[9][10]
In April 1921, Meighen's government established aroyal commission to investigate thegrain trade, partially responding to calls from farmers to restore theCanadian Wheat Board that was dissolved the year previously.[8]
Believing that the economic power of the United States was the main threat to Canada's existence as a nation, Meighen advocated forprotective tariffs.[11]
At the1921 Imperial Conference, Meighen successfully campaigned against the renewal of theAnglo-Japanese Alliance by citing that the alliance would alienate the United States and negatively affect Canada's relationship with the United States, which Canada depended upon for its security.[12][8] Although the subject of unrest in Ireland was avoided at the conference, Meighen urged the British representatives to make sincere efforts to achieve peace in Ireland.[13]
Meighen fought the1921 election under the banner of theNational Liberal and Conservative Party in an attempt to keep the allegiance of Liberals who had supported thewartime Unionist government. However, his actions in implementing conscription hurt his party's already-weak support in Quebec, while theWinnipeg General Strike and farmtariffs made him unpopular among labour and farmers alike. The party was defeated by theLiberals, led byWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King. Meighen was personally defeated inPortage la Prairie, with his party nationally falling to third place behind the newly formedagrarianProgressive Party.
Meighen continued to lead the Conservative Party (which reverted to its traditional name), and was returned to Parliament in 1922, after winning a by-election in the easternOntario riding ofGrenville.
Despite his party finishing in third place, Meighen becameLeader of the Opposition after the Progressives declined the opportunity to become theOfficial Opposition. Unlike the situation with Laurier and Borden, who had a generally respectful personal relationship despite their clear ideological differences, there existed between Meighen and King a very deep personal distrust and animosity. Meighen looked down upon King, whom he called "Rex" (King's old university nickname), and considered him unprincipled. King viewed Meighen as an unreconstructedHigh Tory who would destroy the nation's social peace after the traumatic domestic events of World War I. The bitter and unrelenting rivalry between the two party leaders was probably the nastiest in the history of Canadian politics.[2]
Meighen's term as opposition leader was most marked by his response to thecrisis at Chanak, in which British Colonial SecretaryWinston Churchill, then serving in the cabinet ofDavid Lloyd George, leaked to the press that the Dominions might be called upon to help British forces in the Chanak,Turkey. With Parliament not in session, King refused to commit the country to military action without Parliamentary approval, and announced that the matter was not important enough to recall Parliament. Meighen strongly condemned King's statement, and quoted Laurier's remark made on an earlier occasion: "When Britain's message came, then Canada should have said, 'Ready, aye ready, we stand by you.'" The crisis subsided within days before any formal request for Canadian help could be made, and Lloyd George's government was a casualty of the whole affair.[14] Meighen was left with a reputation as being blindly in favour of Britain's interests.[according to whom?]
The Liberal government of Mackenzie King was soon beset with scandal. While the uneven performance of the government and disorganization of the Progressive movement created some opportunity for the Conservatives, Meighen generally refused to change from his general philosophy of restoring the pre-war social order and returning toNational Policy level tariffs. His strategy in Quebec consisted of grantingEsioff-Léon Patenaude general autonomy to run a full campaign without any interference from Conservative headquarters.
Meighen and theTories won a plurality of seats in theinconclusive election of 1925. King, as the already sitting prime minister, opted to retain confidence in the house through an informal alliance with the Progressives. Meighen denounced King as holding onto office like a "lobster with lockjaw."
After a scandal was revealed in the Customs Department, King was on the verge of losing a vote in the Commons on a motion censuring the government. King, before the vote, asked the Governor General,Lord Byng, to dissolve parliament and call an election.
Byng, believing that the request was inappropriate considering the length of time since the election, Meighen's larger seat count, and King's uncertain control of confidence of the chamber, used hisreserve power to refuse the request. King duly resigned as prime minister. Meighen, having secured a measure of support from the opposition Progressives, was invited by Byng to form a government, which Meighen accepted.
Because of the possibility of losing a vote in the Commons, Meighen advised Byng to appoint theministers of the Crown in an "acting" capacity only, to avoid triggering the automatic by-elections Ministers faced when accepting their appointments at the time. King used the technique to mock the government and further his accusation that Meighen had acted irresponsibly by accepting Byng's appointment, attracting Progressive support to take down the fledgling government. The government lost a motion regarding the "acting" Ministers by one vote three days after Meighen's appointment. With no other parliamentary leader to call upon, Byng called the1926 Canadian federal election.
Byng's actions became known as the "King-Byng Affair." Debate continues today about whether King was attacking the Governor General's constitutional prerogative to refuse an election request by a prime minister, or whether Byng had intruded into Canadian Parliamentary affairs as an unelected figurehead, in violation of the principle of responsible government and the longstanding tradition of non-interference.[15]
While Meighen's appointment as prime minister gave the Conservatives control of the country's electoral machinery, the Conservatives' weakness in Quebec and the West continued, and Meighen faced rousing attacks from Mackenzie King and the Liberals for accepting Byng's appointment. Although the Conservatives won the popular vote, they were swept from office as the Liberals won a clear plurality of seats and were able to form a stable minority government with the support of the Progressives. Meighen himself was again defeated inPortage la Prairie. His second term lasted three months.
Meighen announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader shortly thereafter, though during his speech at thesubsequent leadership convention it became clear he was attempting to rouse the floor to gain a new term. Rejected, he moved to Toronto to practise law.
Meighen was appointed to theSenate in 1932 on the recommendation of Conservative Prime MinisterR. B. Bennett. He served asLeader of the Government in the Senate andMinister without Portfolio from February 3, 1932, to October 22, 1935. He served asLeader of the Opposition in the Senate from 1935 until he resigned from theupper house in January 1942.
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In late 1941, Meighen was prevailed upon by a unanimous vote in a national conference of the party to become leader of the Conservative Party for the duration of the war. He accepted the party leadership on November 13, 1941, foregoing aleadership convention, and campaigned in favour ofoverseas conscription, a measure which his predecessor,Robert Manion, had opposed. As leader, Meighen continued to champion aNational Government including all parties, which the party had advocated in the1940 federal election.
Meighen, lacking a Commons seat, resigned from the Senate on January 16, 1942, and campaigned in a by-election for theToronto riding ofYork South. His candidacy received the improbable support of the LiberalPremier of OntarioMitchell Hepburn; this act effectively hastened the end of Hepburn's Liberal Premiership, and did not in any case grant Meighen durable electoral support. The Liberals did not run a candidate in the riding due to a prevailing convention of allowing the Opposition leader a seat. Still harbouring a deep hatred for the Conservative leader and thinking that the return to the Commons of the ardently conscriptionist Meighen would further inflame the smouldering conscription issue, King arranged for campaign resources to be sent to theCo-operative Commonwealth Federation'sJoseph Noseworthy. Federal Liberal support and rising CCF fortunes ensured that Meighen was defeated in the February 9, 1942, vote.
With its leader excluded from the Commons, the Conservative Party was further weakened. Meighen continued to campaign for immediate conscription as part of a "total war" effort through the spring and summer, but did not again seek a seat in the House of Commons. In September, Meighen called for a national party convention to "broaden out" the party's appeal. It remained unclear whether Meighen sought to have his leadership confirmed or to have his successor chosen. As the convention neared, news sources reported that Meighen had approached Manitoba's Liberal-Progressive PremierJohn Bracken about seeking the leadership, and that the convention would adopt a platform that would move the party toward acceptance of thewelfare state. Meighen announced in his keynote address to the party on December 9, 1942, that he was not a candidate for the leadership and theparty subsequently chose Bracken as leader, and renamed itself theProgressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Following his second political retirement, Meighen returned to the practice of law in Toronto. He died from heart failure in Toronto, aged 86, on August 5, 1960, and was buried inSt. Marys Cemetery,St. Marys, Ontario, near his birthplace.[16] He has the second longest retirement of any Canadian Prime Minister, at 33 years, 315 days;Joe Clark surpassed him on January 12, 2014.
 |
Honorary degrees
| Location | Date | School | Degree |
|---|---|---|---|
 Ontario | 1921 | University of Toronto | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[17] |
 Manitoba | 1932 | University of Manitoba | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[18] |
ThePost Office Department issued a memorial stamp featuring Meighen on April 19, 1961.[19] In the same year, Meighen was designated aNational Historic Person by theHistoric Sites and Monuments Board.[20] Landmarks named after Meighen include:
Larry A. Glassford, a professor of education at theUniversity of Windsor, concluded, "On any list of Canadian prime ministers ranked according to their achievements while in office, Arthur Meighen would not place very high."[1]
Meighen ranks as #14 out of the 20 Prime Ministers throughJean Chrétien, in the survey of Canadian historians included inPrime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders byJ.L. Granatstein andNorman Hillmer.
Mitchell Public was closed in June of 2010.
