Unholy Alliance (11 page)

The others nodded in agreement, although
no-one other than Bérubé expected this item to be given a high
priority or to have an easy passage through the parliament if and
when it was proposed.

“Luncheon, then,” Macaulay said, rubbing his
hands together.

***

Mrs. Blodgett had recovered from her arthritis
enough to prepare the guests a cold repast whose delights kept them
in the dining-room a little beyond the allotted forty minutes. The
atmosphere was convivial, but the temptation to linger over the
mince tart and excellent coffee seemed to be prompted more by a
desire to delay the upcoming session in the library than to prolong
the gormandising. As they all knew well, step two would make step
one look like a walk in the park.

When they had finally reassembled, Macaulay
was quick to turn the proceedings over to Robert Baldwin.

“Gentlemen, I need not remind you,” Robert
began, “that the unprecedented achievement of this morning’s
deliberations will be for nought if the parliamentary system of the
new dominion does not exemplify the principles of responsible
government. All future governors must select the members of their
cabinet from among those elected to the majority party of the
Legislative Assembly, from their associates in the Legislative
Council, or any others who support the policies and maintain the
confidence of that Assembly. Moreover, should said cabinet at any
time lose the confidence of the Assembly, its members shall be
obliged to resign. This is the definition of responsible government
that my father and I have pressed upon successive governors for the
past dozen years, and one which Mr. Hincks and Mr. LaFontaine have
corresponded about for several months hitherto. Without the
adoption of this principle and the evolution of a strict party
politics, our agenda of reform will be stillborn.”

When Marc finished translating, no-one
responded for a moment. Then Bergeron said, “If you have been
unsuccessful so far, what makes you believe that you, or we, can
persuade the British government to adopt the principle now?”

“
We
are a defeated people,” Tremblay
added bitterly, the tempering effects of the luncheon having worn
off. “And
your
rebels are in Van Dieman’s Land or hiding out
in American slums. Why should the victors offer
any
thing to
the vanquished?”

Robert, to whom these challenges had been
directed, replied quietly: “We would not have asked you here, and
Mr. LaFontaine would not have accepted our invitation, if we did
not believe we were moving inexorably towards our goal.”

“My colleague is referring to the secret
negotiations that he and I have had with Governor Poulett Thomson,”
Hincks added hastily. “As you know, the Tories here vehemently
opposed the Union Act and its terms, and they, with their
conservative colleagues, held a majority in our Assembly. The Whig
government in London refused to endorse the union unless both
Canadian provinces approved of it. So, in order to get legislative
approval here last November, His Excellency required out
assistance. Although we too had qualms about the terms, we secretly
agreed to help the Governor by backing the bill and persuading the
moderate conservatives to do so as well. In return for our
assistance, His Excellency assured us that, in practice, he would
adhere to the principle of cabinet responsibility we recommended.
So, you see, we have every expectation that when your
Rouge
and our Reform combine to make up a majority in the new Assembly,
it will be our members – French and English – who will form the
Executive Council and be in a position to advance our
policies.”

“You have some written assurance of this?”
Bérubé asked.

Hincks smiled. “We have not, and the reason
is simple: such a principle, the bulwark of British parliamentary
democracy, has not been written down anywhere in English
constitutional law. It is merely a custom, and all the more
enduring for that.”

“I don’t follow,” Bergeron said. “If this
‘custom’ has not the force of law, what guarantee do we have that
it will not be abandoned as soon as it is expedient to do so?”

“And how do you know the Governor hasn’t
played you for fools?” Tremblay said, looking pleased with
himself.

“He could have told your moderate
conservatives just the opposite,” Bérubé pointed out, “that he
would guarantee
never
to allow responsible government in
return for
their
support. Certainly the fellow has been both
high-handed and devious in his dealings with us in Quebec.”

Robert and Hincks looked down the table to
Louis LaFontaine.

“These are the very questions we came here to
have answered for us,” LaFontaine said softly.

The discussion was interrupted at this
critical point by the less-than-unobtrusive arrival of the
tea-trolley in the hands of Austin Bragg, subbing for the butler,
who was no doubt snooping about the barns in search of a missing
bag of oats. As soon as Bragg had served the refreshments and
departed, Robert returned to the burning issue of the day.

“At the moment it is a matter of trust and
logic,” he said. “I believe that Poulett Thomson wants, and has
been commanded, to push through immediate reforms to alleviate our
economic woes and unburden the mother country of the expense of
propping us up and defending us from the United States. And I know
for a fact that he realizes that nothing can be achieved without
constant support and real leadership in the Assembly. Moreover, I
have been shown correspondence between him and Lord Russell in
London, in which he has been told that he must govern with the
consent of the populace. Hence, in the short term, he has no choice
but to establish an administration selected from, and enjoying the
support of, the group that controls the Assembly. And unbeknownst
to him or our opponents, we are today laying the groundwork for a
French-English party who will present him with that possibility,
and, I might add, a party whose forward-looking economic policies
coincide with his own.”

“You might even say,” Hincks added when Marc
had translated Robert’s response, “that this situation, very much
in our favour, is step one of step two.”

LaFontaine almost smiled. “That much I do
see,” he said, “though are we not in danger of getting tangled in
our own steps? It’s still not clear where we would step next.”

“Let me try that one on,” Hincks said with
his customary and sometimes off-putting enthusiasm. “Robert is
saying that the time is ripe to establish on a practical basis, in
the new set-up, a working arrangement with Poulett Thomson that
resembles responsible government as we understand it. Once it is
seen to operate to the economic and social benefit of the two
provinces and provided that party cohesion is maintained, it will
become impossible for the Governor to alter the arrangements. This
time the vast majority of the populace, conservative and liberal,
will be behind the new arrangement, even if they do not all agree
on our policies. To go backwards would bring chaos and economic
ruin: too many citizens will have benefited to let that happen.
Indeed, we see the extremists on both sides becoming marginalized
very quickly.”

“But His Excellency Mr. Poulett Thomson is
not our monarch,” LaFontaine said. “Nor is his health good.”

“How do we know that his successor will not
be another Lord Gosford or General Colborne?” Tremblay cried,
striking the table with his two-fingered hand. “These governors
come willy-nilly from anywhere! Your lieutenant-governor, Sir
George Arthur, was known as the Executioner of Van Dieman’s Land
before he arrived here in ‘thirty-eight to start hanging every
rebel he could see.”

“That is a concern,” Robert conceded. “All we
can do is make sure that conditions here will make it more
difficult for future governors to become tyrants. For now, the Whig
government in London is backing
us.
”

“A Whig government that is close to
collapse,” Bergeron said, indicating that he was well-versed on the
state of English politics, “with the unsavoury prospect of Robert
Peel becoming the new Prime Minister.”

“Facing a Tory government in England will be
step three,” Robert said calmly. “Establishing the habit of cabinet
responsibility to the majority in the Assembly is step two, and
should occupy us for the next two or three years. That is all the
grace period we shall need. Step three will begin when the first
fresh and unsympathetic governor arrives, and none of us can
predict the outcome. But we can’t get to that step without the
first two, and
their
accomplishment lies entirely within our
power. With the program of reforms now agreed to, I am asking for a
solemn commitment to the formation of a coalition party with the
authority to act as such in the new Legislature.”

In the brief silence that followed these
remarks, Bérubé said, “In the least we will be able to get the
canals improved, the roads built, and the banks brought to heel –
before the roof falls in! Right now, we’re all stewing in our own
juice.”

“And we could get the French language
approved for the Assembly,” Bergeron said, “and legal protections
for our Catholic schools and colleges. And local government of some
kind – ”

Hincks interrupted to say, with a rush of
enthusiasm, “Mr. Baldwin has already sketched out a bold plan for a
county governance system that combines the best features of the
British and American models.”

Maurice Tremblay startled the room by
bringing his maimed fist down upon the table so smartly the coffee
cups rattled in their saucers. “Damn it all!” he shouted, glaring
at his colleagues and their schoolboy exuberance. “Don’t you see
what is happening here?”

Marc started to translate but was waved off
by Robert.

“We French are being taken for fools once
more! We will be used and tossed aside as callously as Colborne’s
soldiers burned my wheat and terrified my children.”

“I think you had better explain yourself,”
Hincks said through gritted teeth.

LaFontaine looked slightly discomfited by
Tremblay’s outburst, but said nothing.

“We’ve heard a lot of talk here about
avoiding the extremes, about doing everything within the letter of
the law, a law written for us by foreigners,” Tremblay continued
with no effort to conceal his contempt. “But we wouldn’t even
be
at this table now if enough of us had had the guts to
stand up for our families and our religion, had had the courage to
look the English musketeers in the eye and dare them to kill those
men who only wished to farm the land they inherited from their
fathers.”

No-one said a word. Tremblay, alone in this
room of lawyers and businessmen,
had
put his life on the
line for his beliefs. He continued his speech, somewhat more
moderately: “Let us grant Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Hincks their first
step. What happens when we all get together in the new Assembly?
There has been much talk of the moderates among the Upper-Canadian
conservatives, of how their fanatic Orangemen and High Tories are
losing their grip. Do you honestly believe that the English
Reformers will not quickly realign themselves with the economic
interests of the moderate Tories? Will they not, as soon as we
French have served our purpose, find themselves more at home with
those who share their moderate policies as well as their language
and religion? There will then be one large, middle-of-the-road
English party surrounded by splinter groups of diehard English and
French Tories and we poor, pathetic French nationalists.”

The logic of this impassioned address seemed
to catch everyone off-guard, French and English alike.

But Tremblay was not quite through. He waited
for Marc to finish, then said, “This whole business here is about
trust. I have heard lots of high-sounding arguments so far, but
nothing to make me want to trust people who did not have the
courage to take up arms when it mattered or offer public support
for the uprising and its goals.”

The ensuing silence was more than awkward.
LaFontaine, expressionless, stared hard at Robert Baldwin.

“Let me then give you such a reason,” Robert
said slowly and quietly. “When the new Assembly meets, I hope that
Mr. LaFontaine and I will find ourselves sitting side by side in
the House among those in the majority party. When we are invited to
join the cabinet and constitute a true Reform administration, as we
certainly shall, its leader and first minister will be
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine. If not, then I myself will not
serve.”

This declaration took everyone by surprise,
even Hincks and especially LaFontaine.

“You’re saying that the alliance will be led
by one of us?” Bérubé said, not sure whether he ought to be shocked
or incredulous. “But you yourself are held to be the leader of the
Reform party, are said to be the only man in Upper Canada capable
of uniting the scattered liberal elements. How could you think of
relinquishing your leadership role – to a French-speaking
Quebecer?”

It was a question Hincks might have asked –
or Marc.

“I have become a politician by necessity,”
Robert said solemnly, making eye contact with each delegate around
the table as he spoke, “not by instinct or inclination. I have
never wished to sit in parliament or stump the back roads preaching
Reform doctrines. I am not an orator like Francis here or Mr.
Edwards. I am a widower with four youngsters to raise. I long for a
quiet life in my chambers and my home. But circumstance has brought
me here, as it has each of you. I will serve as long as I am
needed. And serving beside Mr. LaFontaine, who is most qualified to
lead our alliance, is the best thing for me and for our party. A
LaFontaine-Baldwin administration will make a bold statement to
those who oppose responsible government. To them our alliance may
seem unholy, but it will be real. It will be here to stay.”