Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-20
POLITICS In CANADA.
BY Frederic J. Haskin.
X-THE LIBERAL PARTY.

| The liberal party in Canada, which has
been continuously in power for fifteen
years. had it's origin in the protest oil
Canadians of both English and French
ancestry against the privileged oligarchy
! that held undisputed sway in British
North America until the rebellion of 1887.
| During the fifteen years 1t has been
| in power the party has been controlled
| largely by considerations of eXpediency,
even to the extent that some of its ideals
| may have been obacured. But notwith-
standing the wear and tear of practical
politics. the liberal party in Canada still
| represents the democratic conception of
government as opposed to the arstocratic
| conception held by the tories. In this re-
| spect the Canadian liberals are close akin
| to the English party of the same name
| The modern era of politics in the Eng
| disappearing world Zone might almost
| include the entire occidenp dates from
| the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo
| On that June day in 1915 war ceased to
be the chief function of government
For perhaps a decade after the end of
| the Napoleonic wars the western world
devoted itself exclusively to recouping
its losses. Then began a great struggle
between the democracy and the arstoc-
racy, not over the forms of government
but for the control of the substance of
power, In 1898 the election of Andrew
Jackson as President of the United States
| ended once for all the political ariStoc-
racy which until that time had dominated
| American politics, albeit sometimes in a
democratic fashion
In 1882 an indignant house of commons
forced William " to promise to create a
sufficient number of peers to pass the
reform bill. which eliminated corruption
in parliament and the ENGLISH
pie actual representative government.
The threat was sufficient to pass the
bill.
h \
That democratic movement was felt in
Canada. In the English province of up
per Canada,
Reformers Overthrow now Ontario.
Clergy and Wealthy. r ra c s,sao
ed of wealthy families and the clergy of
the Church of England, dominated affairs
by means of what was known as the
family compact. Citizens who protested
against the rule of political privilege and
the dissenting Protestant churches united
to overthrow the upper Canadian aris-
tocracy. This party at the time took the
name of 'reformers' and, until this day,
the liberal party in Ontario continues to
employ the terms liberal and re
former interchangeable. One of the
early reformers boosted that his partisans
would continue to fight in the face of
seemingly overwhelming odds because
they possessed clear grit From this
chance remark the reformers were nick
named by their opponent ''grits." The
reformers accepted the sobriquet, and
therefore it happens that liberals in
Canada are called "grits' as conserva-
tives are called tories
The democratic movement of the second
and third decades Of the nineteenth CEN
fury was not confined to the Anglo-Saxon
world. The American colonies of Spain
threw off the European yoke and in the
twenties and thrties Latin Europe was
convulsed by revolution after revolution.
This influence was strongly felt in the
French province of Quebec where there
were two parties, one supporting the IL
responsible aristocratic government then
in power and the other clamoring for
autonomy and responsible popular gov
eminent. In Quebec a conservative or
aristocrat partisan was called a 'bleu,"
while radical democrat was dubbed
rouge Thus in Quebec the people were
divided between the blues and the reds.
The democratic agitation In both upper
and lower Canada, having no opportu-
nifty to display its force at the ballot box.
finally resorted to force The grits OF
upper Canada. under the leadership of
of lower Canada. under the leadership of
Louis Joseph Papineau, in the year 1897
resorted to armed rebellion against the
English crown There was some fighting,
but the rebels were soon defeated and
order restored