With a federal election looming over Canada, the political landscape of the North Island - Powell River riding will be different.
Incumbent Rachel Blaney of the New Democratic Party is not seeking reelection, and five candidates are vying to take her place.
The first Canadian federal election was contested in 1867, held from Aug. 7 to Sep. 20. Only male British subjects 21 or older in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were allowed to vote.
John A. Macdonald, the leader of the Liberal-Conservative Party of Canada (in 1873, they dropped "Liberal" from their name, becoming the Conservative Party of Canada, not the same one of today), won the election, defeating the Liberal Party of Canada's George Brown and the Anti-Confederation Party's Joseph Howe.
British Columbia was not yet a province, so its residents could not vote. However, British Columbia became an official province of Canada in 1871, allowing people to vote (Manitoba joined Confederation the year prior and was also allowed to vote. However, residents of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Territories joined but were not given voting power). Only six out of 194 seats in the House of Commons were given to BC for the 1872 election. The ridings were the Cariboo, New Westminster, Vancouver, Victoria and Yale. Victoria was given two seats.
Macdonald, still leader of the Liberal-Conservative Party, once again beat the Liberals, beating Edward Blake. Macdonald won 100 seats, while the Liberals won 62. The Victoria riding elected two Liberals (the only British Columbian riding to do so), Henry Nathan Jr. (402 votes) and Amor De Cosmos (398). Unlike most ridings, which used First past the post, the Victoria riding elected representatives by Plurality block voting.
Nathan Jr. was the first Jewish Canadian elected to the House of Commons. He settled in Victoria after immigrating from England. De Cosmos (born William Smith) was born in Nova Scotia but moved to Victoria in 1858, where he founded the newspaper The Daily British Colonist (now the Victoria Times-Colonist). At the time of his election, he was also the Premier of British Columbia. The duo beat Robert Beaven (who received 94 votes), a Conservative candidate and future premier of B.C.
In the run-up to the election, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States had disputes over deep-sea fishing rights and the Fenian Raids in 1866 (which helped the case for Canadian Confederation) and 1870-71 led by the Fenian Brotherhood, an Irish republican organization fighting for the right of Irish self-governance and the British withdrawal of Ireland. Macdonald was appointed by the British as a commissioner, signing the Treaty of Washington, but failed to secure any compensation for Canada and forced Canada to open the sea for American fishermen. However, the signing of the treaty, along with the Rush - Bagot Treaty (signed in the aftermath of the War of 1812), ended any significant talk of the United States government's official talks of annexing Canada until 2025.
After the ratification of the treaty, Macdonald and his administration became embroiled in controversy after Hugh Allan's Canada Pacific Railway Company was granted a contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway in return for political donations of $360,000. This was uncovered by a Liberal Member of Parliament, Lucius Smith Huntington, who believed the money was used to bribe voters during the 1872 election, which was an oral endeavour and not through secret ballots.
The Pacific Scandal, as it became known, forced Macdonald to resign on Nov. 5, 1873, triggering an election in 1874. It was the first election to use secret ballots, introduced in the scandal's fallout.
The election was won by the Liberals under the leadership of Alexander Mackenzie. It was a clear majority, with the Liberals winning 129 seats, as opposed to the Conservative Party's 65 (Prince Edward Island had joined the confederation, adding six seats to the House of Commons).
In Victoria, De Cosmos won his second term as MP. Francis James Roscoe, an independent liberal, was elected. Born in Liverpool, England, Roscoe arrived on Vancouver Island in 1862.
During his term as Prime Minister, Mackenzie established the Supreme Court of Canada in 1875, created the Office of the Auditor General, and completed the Intercolonial Railway in 1872, connecting Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. However, his failure to make progress on a national railway became his downfall despite a worldwide economic depression (known as the Panic of 1873).
He also eliminated high protective tariffs on Canadian goods in American markets when he signed a new trade agreement in 1874, something that was unpopular with Canadian conservatives.
Mackenzie's government only lasted one term, with Macdonald and the Conservative Party winning again in 1878 with 134 seats. This time, Macdonald ran in Victoria instead of his hometown of Kingston, despite never stepping foot in Victoria. De Cosmos won the second seat in Victoria's riding.
Macdonald, in 1879, created what would become the Canadian Indian Residential School system, which was based on the industrial boarding school system in the United States. The system advocated for aggressive assimilation practices on First Nations and Inuit people, using tactics of isolation and abuse.
The Conservatives won the election in 1882, with Macdonald beating Blake, returning as the leader of the Liberals, 133 seats to 73. Instead of Victoria, Macdonald ran in Carleton (in Ontario), opening the doors to Edgar Crow Baker and Noah Shakespeare, both conservatives.
Born in England, Shakespeare, who claimed to be distantly related to the famous playwright, emigrated to Canada in 1862 due to the Cariboo gold rush. He worked in Nanaimo as a labourer before moving to Victoria and becoming a photographer and gallery owner. Shakespeare was also involved in real estate but entered politics in 1875, acclaimed as a city Councillor for James Bay Ward.
Like many of his contemporaries, Shakespeare, a Methodist, held anti-Chinese beliefs due to Chinese immigration as work crews for the Canadian Pacific Railway and supported the closure of Chinese brothels and disenfranchising Chinese residents in the area for local elections. Eventually, Shakespeare became the leader in Victoria's anti-Chinese movement, even becoming a tax collector when the Legislative Assembly passed the Chinese Tax Act in 1878 and used it as a platform in the federal election.
When he was in the House of Commons, Shakespeare brought forth a law to prohibit Chinese immigration. It became law in 1885 as the Chinese Immigration Act, introducing a $50 head tax per arrival and limiting the number of immigrants on vessels.
Macdonald was also facing some controversy. Louis Riel had returned to Canada from exile in the United States. Metis led another rebellion in 1885 in Saskatchewan, the North-West Rebellion. Canada managed to beat the rebellion, a coalition of the M茅tis and members of the Cree-Assiniboine First Nations at the Battle of Batoche (between Prince Albert and Saskatoon), leading to the execution of Riel. The conflict had a limited impact on B.C. at the time. Macdonald was heavily criticized for the handling of the affair and execution of Riel, which alienated Canada's Francophone and Catholic population.
However, Macdonald was still elected in the 1887 election. As was Shakespeare and Baker in Victoria. Macdonald returned to Kingston for his seat, which he won. Blake resigned, moving away for Wilifid Laurier.
Shakespeare resigned as a member of the House of Commons in June 1887, becoming the Postmaster for Victoria. He was replaced by Conservative Edward Gawler Prior. Baker also resigned, but in 1889. Thomas Earle replaced him. Earle had been in Victoria since 1873, opening a grocery business.
Macdonald called an election on March 5, 1891. The election was dominated by the Conservative government's National Policy, which regarded protective tariffs and was in place since 1879 (but introduced in 1876). The policy called for high tariffs on imported manufactured items, an expansion of roads and railroads, and promoted population growth in Western Canada. The Liberal Party supported free trade, particularly with the United States.
Macdonald, once again, won the majority, with 117 seats to Laurier's 80. Victoria's Conservatives, Prior and Earl, retained their seats as well. However, in May, Macdonald suffered a stroke. He was left speechless and partially paralyzed. He lived until June 6 after serving 19 years as Canada's prime minister. Today, he leaves a legacy of Canada's Confederation, but also the country's treatment of it's First Nations, particularly the Indian Act and the implementation of residential schools.
His death threw the Conservative Party in disarray. John Abbott became Prime Minister after Macdonald's death, only serving until October 30, 1893. Despite supporting fellow Conservative John Thompson to become the new party leader, Abbott was asked by the majority of the party to take Macdonald's place.
With Canada falling into an economic recession, Abbott also had to deal with the McGreevy-Langevin scandal, reformation of the civil service and revisions to the criminal code. He also tried to pass off the office to Thompson. However, Thompson was a Catholic, and the Conservative Party had an anti-Catholic bias at the time. However, when Abbott retired due to health issues (brain Cancer) Thompson succeeded him, becoming the first Catholic prime minister of Canada.
Thompson had a heart attack on Dec. 12, 1894, dying while on a trip to England after Queen Victoria just made him a member of her Privy Counsel. He was 49. Mackenzie Bowell replaced him on Dec. 27, becoming Canada's accidental Primer Minister and leading the country until April 27, 1896, when he resigned, leaving the country in the hands of Charles Tupper, who became Canada's sixth prime minister.
Tupper, along with John Turner and Mark Carney are the only prime ministers to not sit in Parliament while prime minister.
Tupper was only in office for 68 days before the 1896 election was called, the shortest term of any prime minister. However, current Prime Minister Mark Carney may have that distinction on April 28 of this year.
