One of Canada’s most significant early post-Confederation politicians died on this date in 1912. I speak, of course, of Sir Richard Cartwright of Kingston (where I now live), who would serve in the cabinets of both Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie and Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Cartwright, from one of Kingston’s most storied United Empire Loyalist families, began his political life as one of Tory – and fellow Kingstonian – Sir John A. Macdonald’s strongest supporters. Elected to the House as a Macdonald Tory, his support of his friend stopped entirely when Sir John A. did not appoint Cartwright Minister of Finance.
So, Cartwright crossed the floor and became a Liberal. When Sir John A. was tossed out of office – rightly – due to the Pacific Scandal in 1873, Alexander Mackenzie took office as Canada’s first Liberal Prime Minister. Mackenzie brought Cartwright into his cabinet as Minister of Finance.
When Mackenzie and his team were defeated by John A. in 1878, Cartwright stayed in the Commons and proved one of the Tory government’s greatest and most effective critics. His hatred of Macdonald became the stuff of political legend in Ottawa.
“As a member of the opposition benches, Cartwright was an invaluable parliamentary debater, fierce and unflagging in his denunciation of Conservative corruption and political chicanery (as personified by Macdonald),” states his entry at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
When the Grits took power again under Laurier – 22 years after Mackenzie first took office – Cartwright was named Minister of Trade and Commerce, though he had wanted to be Minister of Finance again. An avid advocate of free trade with the United States, he played an important role in the reciprocity agreement negotiated between the Laurier and Taft administrations – but ultimately rejected by Canadians in the 1911 election.
Appointed to the Senate by Laurier, Cartwright would serve a remarkable 47 years in Canada’s Parliament. He died on this date in 1912 and is buried in Kingston.[caption id="attachment_619514" align="alignleft" width="400"]
Sir Richard Cartwright[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.