The Wilfrid Laurier-era in Canadian politics began on this date in 1896 when he and his Liberals defeated Canada’s Tories. It was the first time in almost 20-years that the Grits were victorious, after losing election after election to Sir John A. Macdonald of Kingston dating back to 1878.
Tory leader and Prime Minister, Sir Charles Tupper, spent most of the evening in the privacy of his East Block office as the telegrams reporting on his government and party’s defeat reported in. As revealed decades later by his Private Secretary, J.L. Payne, Tupper, who had only taken office as PM weeks before, was not overly depressed at his loss.
“It Is the best thing that could have happened,” he told Payne that evening, “for government by the Conservative party has become impossible.”
Laurier, of course, would go on to serve 15-years in power, guiding the nation through a period of unapparelled growth and optimism as the 20th century dawned.
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.