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Arthur Meighen

[mee-uhn]

Arthur Meighen PC, QC (June 16, 1874 – August 5, 1960) was the ninth Prime Minister of Canada from July 10, 1920 to December 29, 1921 and June 29 to September 25, 1926. He was the first Prime Minister born after Confederation, and also the first (and to date only) to represent a riding in Manitoba (notwithstanding that he was born and lived most of his life in Ontario). Both of his terms of office were brief, the second unprecedentedly so (partially due to the conflicts between the Governor General of Canada and Meighen's rival, William Lyon Mackenzie King).

Background

Meighen was born in Anderson, Ontario, Canada to Joseph Meighen and Mary Jane Bell. Meighen attended high school in St. Marys, Ontario at North Ward Public School, but what is now known as Arthur Meighen Public School. The grandson of the schoolmaster of the first school in St. Marys, Meighen was an exemplary student. In 1892 in his final year at St. Marys Collegiate Institute, Meighen was elected secretary of the Literary Society and was a member of the school Debating Society. He received first class honours in Mathematics, English, and Latin and went on to tertiary education at the University of Toronto. He graduated from the University of Toronto, earning a B.A. in Mathematics in 1896. While there, he met and became a rival of William Lyon Mackenzie King; the two men, both future prime ministers, did not get along especially well from the start. Meighen then graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School. In 1904 he married Isabel J. Cox (1882 - 1985) with whom he had two sons and one daughter. In 1990, one of his grandsons, Michael Meighen, was appointed to the Canadian Senate on the recommendation of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Meighen experimented in several professions, including those of teacher, lawyer and businessman, before becoming involved in politics as a member of the Conservative 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.

Cabinet

He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1908, defeating incumbent John Crawford in the Manitoba riding of Portage la Prairie. He was re-elected in 1908 and 1911, and again in 1913 after being appointed Solicitor General (at the time, newly appointed Ministers had to seek re-election).

Meighen served as Solicitor-General from June 26, 1913, until August 25, 1917, when he was appointed Minister of Mines and Secretary of State for Canada. In 1917, he was mainly responsible for implementing conscription. Noteworthy was the government's decision to give votes to conscription supporters (soldiers and their families), while denying that right to potential opponents of conscription such as immigrants. Meighen's portfolios were again shifted on October 12, 1917, this time to the positions of Minister of the Interior and Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

He was re-elected in the December 1917 federal election in which Borden's Unionist (wartime coalition) government defeated the opposition Laurier Liberals over the conscription issue.

As Minister of the Interior, Meighen steered through Parliament the largest piece of legislation ever enacted in the British Empire - creating the Canadian National Railway Company, which continues today. Meighen was re-appointed Minister of Mines on the last day of 1920. In 1919, as acting Minister of Justice and senior Manitoban in the government of Sir Robert Borden, Meighen helped put down the Winnipeg General Strike by force. 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. Only with the return to Ottawa, in late July 1919, of Charles Doherty, Minister of Justice, did the Citizens' get federal money to carry forward their campaign against labour.

First term

He became leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party and Prime Minister on July 7, 1920, when Borden resigned. He quickly called an election.

Meighen fought the 1921 election under the banner of the National Liberal and Conservative Party in an attempt to keep the allegiance of Liberals who had supported the wartime Unionist government. However, his actions in implementing Conscription hurt his party's already-weak support in Quebec, while the Winnipeg General Strike and farm tariffs made him unpopular among labour and farmers alike. The party was defeated by the Liberals, led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. Meighen was personally defeated in Portage la Prairie, with his party nationally falling to third place behind the newly-formed Progressive Party. He continued to lead the Conservative Party (which had reverted to its traditional name), and returned to Parliament in 1922 for the eastern Ontario riding of Grenville.

Opposition leader

Despite his party finishing in third place Meighen became Leader of the Opposition after the Progressives declined the opportunity to become the Official Opposition. Meighen's term as opposition leader was most marked by his response to the crisis at Chanak, in which British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill leaked to the newspapers that the Dominions might be called upon to help British forces in the area. King refused to commit to sending troops, resenting the way Churchill went above the Dominion leaders' heads. King used the rationale that Parliament should decide, and that the matter was not important enough to recall Parliament. Meighen strongly condemned his action, stating in a Toronto hotel, "When Britain's message came, then Canada should have said, 'Ready, aye ready, we stand by you.'" The crisis subsided within days, and Meighen was left with a reputation as blindly in favour of Britain's interests.

Unlike Laurier and Borden, there existed between Meighen and King a very personal distrust and animosity. Meighen looked down on King, whom he called "Rex" (King's old University nickname), and considered him unprincipled.

The Liberal government of Mackenzie King was soon beset with scandals and corruption. Much of this was uncovered in a Royal Commission established to probe wrongdoing in Quebec, and in particular, in connection with the construction of the Beauharnois Canal. The Tories won a plurality of seats in the inconclusive election of 1925, but King was able to retain power until 1926 through an alliance with the Progressives. Meighen denounced King staying in power, saying he was holding on to office like a "lobster with lockjaw."

A scandal in the Customs department was soon discovered, making the Progressives wary of supporting King. When King was on the verge of losing a vote in the Commons in 1926, he asked the Governor General, Lord Byng, to call an election. Despite every effort to cling to power, Mackenzie King's shaky government was defeated in the House of Commons. King resigned and Meighen was invited to form a government, having secured a measure of support from the opposition farm parties. This became known as the "King-Byng Affair". Historians have been divided in their interpretation of this event. Some have regarded it as an attack by Mackenzie King on the Governor General's constitutional prerogatives, including the right to refuse an election request by a prime minister; others have regarded it as an unwarranted intrusion into Canadian Parliamentary affairs by an unelected figurehead, and hence a violation of the principle of responsible government and the longstanding tradition of non-interference.

Second term

Because of the possibility of losing a vote in the Commons while Meighen and his ministers were re-elected (a relic of British law dating to 1701 that was repealed in Canada in 1938), Meighen made his ministers "acting" ones, and did not give them the oath of office. King created an uproar about this tactic, attracting Progressive support to take down the government. In the event, the government lost the confidence of the House by one vote. With no other parliamentary grouping to call upon, Byng called an election. Meighen's party was swept from office, and Meighen himself was again defeated in Portage la Prairie. He resigned as Conservative Party leader shortly thereafter.

Afterward

Meighen was appointed to the Senate in 1932 on the recommendation of Prime Minister Richard Bennett. He served as Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister without Portfolio from February 3, 1932, to October 22, 1935.

In 1941, Meighen was prevailed upon to become leader of the Conservative Party again. He resigned his Senate seat on January 16, 1942, and campaigned in a by-election for the Toronto riding of York South. According to custom, the Liberals did not run a candidate in the riding. 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 conscription crisis, King sent resources to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's Joseph Noseworthy. Meighen was defeated, and once again withdrew from public life.

Arthur Meighen died in Toronto, Ontario, aged 86, on August 5, 1960, and was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, St. Marys, Ontario, near his birthplace. As of 2008, he had the longest retirement of any Canadian Prime Minister, at 33 years, 10 months, 11 days.

Legacy

There are schools in St. Marys, Ontario and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba named for Arthur Meighen.

Mount Arthur Meighen is a 3205 m (10515 ft) peak located in the Premier Range of the Cariboo Mountains in the east-central interior of British Columbia, Canada. The mountain is south of the head of the McClennan River and immediately west of the town of Valemount, British Columbia.

Meighen Island, in the far north of the Canadian Arctic, is named after Arthur Meighen.

The federal government building in Toronto's Yonge and St Clair area is named for him.