There must be something in the water in Ottawa. This seemed to be the conclusion of a reporter, G.B. Van Blaricom, in a feature story of his published on this date in 1915. In his piece, that appeared in the Windsor Star, the journalist pointed out that past PMs Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and others, were still active and healthy though well into their 90s. The reporter took special note of Bowell’s continuing work as a journalist.
“The oldest working newspaper man in America, if not in the world, a veteran, who defies time, space, distance, and years, a venerable figure, who particularly a it may seem, becomes more active the older he grows,” Blaricom wrote. “This is a picture of Sir Mackenzie Bowell, of Belleville, former Premier of Canada, who, at ninety-two- years of age, has been wandering over the harvest fields of the prairie provinces. The other day the veteran Knight turned up rather unexpectedly in Vancouver on a visit to his son, John. He had gone to Winnipeg to attend the sessions of the Most Worshipful Grand Orange Lodge of British America, of which he Is a Past Grand Master, and also Past President of the Triennial Council of Orangeism. So well did he stand the trip, that Sir Mackenzie decided to go on to the Coast, making the entire journey of nearly three thousand miles alone and waving side any proffered aid with his luggage.”
“To speak of the journalistic career of Sir Mackenzie Bowell seems like narrating a chapter of ancient history,” Blaricom continued. “Over eighty years ago he entered the office of the Belleville Intelligencer as a printer's ‘devil,’ and there you will find him today busily engaged at his desk writing editorials, reading exchanges end cordially receiving visitors, that is when he is not at Ottawa attending to his legislative duties or making flying trips across the continent. Such a record of continuously long service and devotion to the duties of a profession is one of the marvels in the annals of newspaper-making, and editing.”
Past PM Charles Tupper and his longevity were also noted. “It is interesting to recall in this connection that you cannot undermine or permanently injure the physical or mental efficiency of some of Canada's eminent men,” Blaricom wrote. “Sir Charles Tupper, also a former Premier of Canada, residing at Bexley Heath, Kent, England, and now in his ninety-fifth year, had an attack of pneumonia at ninety years of age and completely recovered. The disease would likely have proved fatal in the case of less young and less vigorous persons.”
Of course, Blaricom made sure to mention the true Iron Man of Canadian politics.
“Another long-lived Canadian was the late Senator David Wark of New Brunswick, who, when a hundred years of age, attended the sessions of the Senate of Canada at Ottawa, being the oldest legislator in the world,” the reporter marveled. “He insisted on making the trips to the capital, and was usually accompanied by his daughter. Once her remarked, when she attempted to assist him from the train, that she might better have remained home and not tire herself out traveling the long distance as, in such busy days, it was enough for a man to visit Ottawa alone without having to look after a woman.”
Senator Wark had been summoned to the Senate in 1867 and served a commanding 38 years in the Red Chamber before his death, at age 101, in 1905!
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.