R. B. Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett

For the British composer named Richard Bennett, see Richard Rodney Bennett.

Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC (July 3, 1870 – June 26, 1947) was the eleventh Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930 to October 23, 1935.

Early days

R. B. Bennett was born when his mother, Henrietta Stiles was visiting at her parents home in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada. He grew up nearby at his father, Henry John Bennett's home at Hopewell Cape, the shire town of Albert County, then a village of 1,800 people. He was descended from settlers who migrated from England to Nova Scotia before the American Revolution.

His family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. His principle ever after was: work as hard as you can, earn all you can, save all you can, and then give all you can. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum deposits.

The Bennetts were previously a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam meant the end of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers. They were strong Conservatives, indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the Sir John A. Macdonald

Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire, then at its apogee.

Teacher, school principal and lawyer

At the age of 15, Bennett had learned all the local school could teach him, and he enrolled in the New Brunswick Department of Education's teacher training school in Fredericton, getting his second class teaching certificate. He then taught the elementary grades at a small village called Irishtown, just north of Moncton, New Brunswick. He campaigned vigorously in the Conservative interest in the 1887 federal election, at 17 years of age taking the floor at public meetings in rural areas, well able to handle hecklers. He earned the gratitude of the local candidate, Dr. R.C. Weldon, a co-founder of the Dalhousie University Law school.

In 1888 Bennett obtained his first-class teaching certificate and received an appointment as principal of the 159 student Douglastown school. Though only 18 years old, Bennett was a success. He was 6' tall and his serious demeanour enabled him to control his pupils. Sundays were spent across the Miramichi River in the larger community of Chatham, New Brunswick, where he attended the Methodist Church twice and taught Sunday School. He also joined the Chatham branch of the Conservative party and spoke whenever he could. He became a polished speaker. During this time he formed several female friendships, but none blossomed into marriage.

One day while Bennett was crossing the Miramichi on the ferry boat a well dressed lad some nine years younger came over to him and struck up a conversation. This was the beginning of an improbable but important friendship with Max Aitken, later an industrialist and British press baron. The agnostic Aitken liked to tease the Methodist Bennett whose fiery temper contrasted with Aitken's ability to turn away wrath with a joke. This friendship was key to Bennett's fortune later in life.

Another friendship was with the Chatham lawyer, Lemuel J. Tweedie, a prominent Conservative politician. He began to study law with Tweedie on weekends and during summer holidays. Another important friendship was with the prominent Shirreff family of Chatham, the father being High Sheriff of Northumberland County for 25 years. The son, Harry, joined the E.B. Eddy Company, a large pulp and paper industrial concern, and was transferred to Halifax, Nova Scotia. His sister moved there to study nursing and soon Bennett joined them to study law at Dalhousie University. Their friendship was renewed here and became crucial to his later life when Jennie Sherreff married the head of the Eddy Company. She later made Bennett the lawyer for her extensive interests.

Bennett started at Dalhousie University in 1890, graduating in 1893 with a law degree. He worked his way through with a job as assistant in the library, being recommended by Dr. R. C. Weldon.

He was then a partner in the Chatham law firm of Tweedie and Bennett. Max Aitken (later known as Lord Beaverbrook) was his office boy, while articling as a lawyer, acting as a stringer for the Montreal Gazette and selling life insurance. Aitken persuaded him to run for alderman in the first Town Council of Chatham, and managed his campaign. Bennett was elected by one vote and was later furious with Aitken when he heard all the promises he had made on Bennett's behalf.

Go west young man

Despite his election to the Chatham town council, Bennett's days in the town were numbered. He was ambitious and saw that the small community was too narrow a field for him. He was already negotiating with Sir James Lougheed to move to Calgary and become his law partner. Lougheed was Calgary's richest man and most successful lawyer.

Bennett moved to Alberta in 1897. A lifelong bachelor and teetotaler, he led a rather lonely life in a hotel and later, in a boarding house. For a while a younger brother roomed with him. He ate his noon meal on workdays at the Alberta Hotel. Social life, such as it was, centered on church. There was, however, no scandal attached to his personal life. Bennett worked hard and gradually built up his legal practice.

During his Calgary years, Bennett was known for a ferocious temper.

Prairie politics

He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in the 1898 general election representing the riding of West Calgary, he would be re-elected to a second term in office in 1902 Independent from the parties in the Northwest Territories legislature.

In 1905, when Alberta was carved out of the territories and made a province, Bennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party and, in 1909, won a seat in the provincial legislature before switching to federal politics.

Personal Life

While Bennett was and is still fairly often criticized for lack of compassion for the impoverished masses, an often overlooked fact is that he stayed up through most nights reading and responding to personal letters from ordinary citizens asking for his help. The precise amount of money he gave personally is uncertain, though it is believed to be about $1,000,000 (at 1930s value). Bennett was a controlling owner of the E.B. Eddy match company, which was the largest safety match manufacturer in Canada, and one of the richest Canadians at that time.

Ottawa

Elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1911, Bennett returned to the provincial scene to again lead the Alberta Tories in the 1913 provincial election but kept his seat in Ottawa when his Tories failed to take power in the province. He was appointed Minister of Justice in 1921 shortly before the federal Tory government of Arthur Meighen was defeated. Bennett returned to government as Minister of Finance in 1926 and became Conservative leader in 1927 at the first Conservative leadership convention.

Prime Minister

He was elected Prime Minister of Canada in 1930, defeating William Lyon Mackenzie King. His election occurred just as the worst depression of the century was hitting the country and the rest of the world. Of course, he was no more responsible for the Great Depression than his predecessor. Bennett tried to fight the depression by expanding trade within the British Empire and imposing tariffs for imports from outside the Empire, promising that his measures would blast Canadian exports into world markets. However, his success was limited, and his impersonal style and reputation for wealth alienated many struggling Canadians.

When his imperial preference policy failed to generate the desired result, Bennett's government, in common with governments around the world, had no real alternative plans to enact. The party's pro-business, pro-banking inclinations provided little relief to the millions of unemployed who were now becoming increasingly desperate and agitated. Three problems lay at the core of Canada's inadequate response to the global depression (this is bias, many economics think government action prolonged America's depression -- Canada may have been right). First, the provinces and municipalities were primarily responsible for providing welfare, but neither had any money to deal with the problem. Second, accepted general ecomomic theory was that government had no role in such matters, and that if left alone, the marketplace would correct the problem. It didn't help that Communists and radical socialists were noisily calling on government to get involved in every aspect of economic life: their unpopularity and revolutionary rhetoric likely delayed the ultimate implementation of reform. Finally, of course, Canada was a very small country caught up in a devastating global depression.

At the time, however, the Conservatives seemed indecisive and unable to cope. Bennett's political foes blamed him personally for everything that was going wrong. The people eventually lost confidence. The government became a focus of popular discontent, even though its policies were largely the same as those of other Western governments. In Canada, car owners who could no longer afford gasoline reverted to having their vehicles pulled by horses and dubbed them Bennett Buggies.

Reacting to fears of Communist subversion, Bennett used the controversial Section 98 of the Canadian Criminal Code. That section allowed for the imprisonment of anyone who was a member of an organisation that officially advocated the violent overthrow of the government, even if the accused had never committed an act of violence or even personally supported such an action. With this law, the leaders of the Communist Party of Canada, including Tim Buck were arrested and imprisoned for sedition. However, this action proved to be a damaging embarrassment for the government, especially when Buck was the victim of an apparent assassination attempt: Buck was shot at while confined to his cell during a prison riot, despite the fact he was not participating in any way. The government's case against Buck lost credibility, and ultimately backfired, as Buck was soon released and fêted as a hero who championed civil liberties.

Bennett attempted to alleviate economic distress and prevent social disorder by evacuating the unemployed to relief camps, located far from most cities. There they worked on national infrastructure, including building many of the municipal airports that dot the country to this day. However, the low pay (20 cents a day), lack of recreational facilities, inefficent use of resources in favor of manual labor, their isolation from family and the use of military discipline along with threat of losing relief entitlements if they left made the camps feel like penal colonies which may have exacerbated social tensions. Ultimately, radicalized worked organized the On to Ottawa Trek of unemployed protesters; they intended to ride the rails from Vancouver to Ottawa (gathering new members along the way), in order to bring their demands for relief to Bennett personally. The trek ended in Regina on 1 July 1935, when the RCMP, on orders from the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Hugh Guthrie, fearing mob violence and terror, attacked a crowd of 3,000 strikers, leaving one dead and dozens injured.

The government's laissez-faire thinking was shaken to its roots as the Depression raged on unabated across Canada and the world.

Bennett faced pressure for radical reforms from within and without the party. The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, formed in 1932, prepared to fight its first election on a socialist programme; the Social Credit movement was gaining supporters in the West and shocked the country by winning the Alberta provincial election and forming the provincial government in September, 1935; Bennett's own government suffered a defection as his Trade minister, Henry Herbert Stevens, left the Conservatives to form the Reconstruction Party of Canada when Bennett refused to enact Stevens' plans for drastic economic reform and government intervention in the economy to deal with the crisis.

Following the enacting of the New Deal policies of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with some apparent success, economic thinking changed as to how to cope with the global Depression. Bennett changed tactics. The Bennett government introduced a Canadian version of the U.S. "New Deal" involving unprecedented public spending and federal intervention in the economy.

Bennett enacted progressive income taxation, a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance, an expanded pension programme, and grants to farmers. The Conservative's conversion to the concept of massive federal government interference in the economy, some might say even to a welfare state was seen as too little, too late.

The provinces, however, which by now were mostly in Liberal, CCF or Social Credit hands objected to Bennett's "New Deal." (At the time the Liberal parties were laissez-faire, the CCF religious-social democrat, and the Social Credit religious-populist.) They said the federal government had no jurisdiction to enact welfare legislaiton, since social welfare was a provincial right because it was a matter of property and civil rights under Section 92 of the British North America Act. The courts (including the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council) agreed with the provincial position and eventually struck down virtually all of Bennett's legislation. The courts also struck down possibly helpful provincial legislation particularly that enacted in Alberta and the prairies.

Bennett was the first Prime Minister to come from a Calgary riding, and the only one with this distinction until Calgary MP Stephen Harper was elected to the position in 2006. (Joe Clark, a former Prime Minister, also represented a Calgary riding in the early 2000s, after his term in office).

Defeat

Bennett had the bad fortune of being elected at the onset of a global Depression which neither he, nor the outgoing Liberal administration, had any hand in starting. His government relied on traditional economic theory as a cure, but changed its approach even though much of what he did was unconstitutional. The Tories were routed in the October 1935 general election, winning only 40 seats to 173 for Mackenzie King's Liberals.

Very little of what Mackenzie King did subsequently improved the lives of Canadians, because federal interference in the economy was continuously blocked by the courts under both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Eventually Canadians pulled out of the Depression not as a result of government programs, but because of the jobs created by the industrialization and onset of World War II.

Many of Bennett's reforms continue today, including the CBC and the Bank of Canada, minimum wage legislation, maximum hours of work, pension legislation, Employment Insurance and national marketing boards for farm products. Several of these were enabled by constitutional amendment (Employment Insurance in 1940, and pensions in 1964), while the courts eventually relaxed their hostility in the 1950s and 60s. In addition, the federal government used its declaratory powers to gain control over certain sectors of the economy including transportation and farming.

Retirement and death

Richard Bennett retired to Britain in 1938, and, on 12 June, 1941, became the first, and only, former Canadian Prime Minister to be elevated to the British House of Lords, as Viscount Bennett, of Mickleham in the County of Surrey and of Calgary and Hopewell in the Dominion of Canada.Prime Ministers of Canada: The Rt. Hon. Richard Bedford Bennett

He died by literally boiling to death: he suffered a heart attack while taking a bath on 26 June, 1947 at Mickleham, and is buried there in St. Michael's Churchyard. He is the only former Prime Minister not buried in Canada.

Controversy

Published in 2001 by Quebecois investigative journalist Normand Lester (himself part Jewish), Le Livre noir du Canada anglais (later translated as The Black Book of English Canada) first reported a relationship between R. B. Bennett and fascist Adrien Arcand. The book tells that, before the 1930 federal election campaign, Adrien Arcand and his associate Joseph Ménard were secretly approached by then-senator Joseph H. Rainville, in the name of Conservative leader in opposition Richard Bedford Bennett.

Arcand and Ménard were offered an initial guaranteed funding of 25,000 CAD dollars (equivalent to 268,577 CAD dollars at time of publication, according to the book) and promise of further financial support for their newspapers, now known for their anti-semitic content. In return, their publications (at the time, Le Miroir and Le Goglu; Le Chameau would soon follow) and Arcand's movement l'Ordre patriotique des Goglus would need to help the Conservative Party of Canada to win at least 12 seats in the upcoming election. A May 22, 1930 letter marked confidential from Adrien Arcand refers to Bennett and him meeting each other and the exposition of the plan to the future Canadian PM:

Last week, my partner Jos. Ménard and I were honored and favored with an interview with you. Our plan of procedure and propaganda was exposed to you as well as our program of meetings throughout this province. Lester, Normand (2001) Le Livre noir du Canada anglais; Montreal: Les Éditions des Intouchables, p.255. The letter is conserved at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. A photocopy can be found at the archives of the Canadian Jewish Council in Montreal, under P0005 ARCAND, Adrien (collection).

After the Conservative win in the 1930 election, on January 28, 1931, upon another letter marked confidential, Arcand and Ménard detailed their expenses. They asked to be reimbursed 52,000 dollars ($627,752 at publication) for their electoral help, including organizing 104 electoral assemblies having gathered 400,000 people. The two also recognized having already received 18,000 dollars ($193,376 at publication) in 1930, right in the Great Depression. As the papers struggled, other letters pleading for financial help would follow. A January 2, 1932 letter of Adrien Arcand and Joseph Ménard to R. B. Bennett shows the loyalty they professed towards the latter:

We will be glad and proud in our misfortune to have loyally served our ideal, our country, the doctrin (sic) of our Party and the Godsent man who leads our country so wisely in this hour of great distress and who has all our admiration and confidence. ^* If God permits that, by one way of the other, we survive for one week or one year, you may rest assured that we will be during that time as we have been since our first interview, Your loyal and faithful Soldiers, Adrien Arcand Joseph Ménard Lester, Normand (2001) Le Livre noir du Canada anglais; Montreal: Les Éditions des Intouchables, pp. 257-258. Can also be found at the archives of the Canadian Jewish Council in Montreal, under P0005 ARCAND, Adrien (collection).

Arcand accumulated defamation cases against him and, in May 1932, asked again the Conservatives for help. On June 7, 1932, Conservative MP Leslie G. Bell wrote to Bennett that Le Goglu, "as you are aware, rendered us efficient and valuable service during the last election campaign. On every occasion when it was necessary to call upon their services, they responded most effectively." Later in the letter, he would note that "I am quite thoroughly convinced that the proprietors of 'The Goglu' are conservative in their politics and are prepared to back the Federal interests with all their strength." Another conservative, John A. Sullivan, would intervene and write about Le Goglu that "It would be a pity to see it fall, and you alone can help it in the present circumstances." Lester, Normand (2001) Le Livre noir du Canada anglais; Montreal: Les Éditions des Intouchables, p. 259. Unable to face the financial hardships brought on by the legal cases against them, Arcand and Ménard would fall into bankruptcy.

Arcand knew the British fascist Arnold Spencer Leese and would even once send to Bennett a copy of Leese's paper The Fascist. Lester, Normand (2001) Le Livre noir du Canada anglais; Montreal: Les Éditions des Intouchables, p.258. Originally from Robin, Martin (1992) Nativist and Fascist Politics in Canada, 1920-1940; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 118. On January 4, 1933, Arcand wrote to Bennett's secretary to inform him that Adolf Hitler's Washington representative, Kurt Ludecke, wished to meet with him in the second half of January. Ludecke was the Nazi representative in charge of gathering funds and support in America. No trace is to be found of Bennett either attending the meeting or refusing it. Lester, Normand (2001) Le Livre noir du Canada anglais; Montreal: Les Éditions des Intouchables, p. 259.

After the end of the three papers, the new middleman between Bennett and Arcand, Pierre Édouard Blondin, leader of the government in senate, recommended Arcand to "turn a new sheet" and start a new newspaper. Le Patriote would be launched on May 4, 1934. In the beginning of 1934, senator Blondin confided to Bennett that "he [Arcand has launched a movement which (under the name of The Christian national party) aims simply at the debunking of all the rot of the old parties, which, when the end comes, will be found to be 'a regenerated Conservative party' in Quebec, which I think we need." Ibid., p. 260.

Arcand would once again be commissioned to help the Conservative Party for the 1935 federal election campaign. He and his paper Le Fasciste canadien campaigned for the Conservatives and attacked Mackenzie King, who would win the election. In 1936, in a letter to Bennett, a Conservative organizer, A. W. Reid, estimated that the Conservative Party gave Arcand 27,000 dollars ($359,284 at publication) in total. The author Lester notes that all the light may not have been shed on the relationship between the Conservative Party of Canada and Arcand: the Arcand archives from before the war have disappeared while in the care of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Ibid., p. 261.

Supreme Court appointments

The following justices of the Supreme Court of Canada were appointed by the Governor General of Canada on the advice of Bennett while Prime Minister:

Oswald Smith Crocket - (September 21, 1932 - April 13, 1943)
Frank Joseph Hughes - (March 17, 1933 - February 13, 1935)
Sir Lyman Poore Duff (Chief Justice) - (March 17, 1933 – January 2, 1944) (appointed a Puisne Justice by Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1906)
Henry Hague Davis - (January 31, 1935 - June 30, 1944)
Patrick Kerwin - (July 20, 1935 - February 2, 1963)

Other appointments

Bennett was the Honorary Colonel of The Calgary Highlanders from the year of their designation as such in 1921 to his death in 1947. He visited the Regiment in England during the war, and always ensured the 1st Battalion had a turkey dinner at Christmas every year they were overseas, including the Christmas of 1944 when the battalion was holding front line positions in the Nijmegen Salient.

References

External links

Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Silver and Gold: Bennett and the Great Depression — Historical essay, illustrated with photographs
Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament
R.B. Bennett at Find A Grave

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