Pacific Railways and Nationalism in the Canadian-American Northwest, 1845–1873 (1939) Morton, W.L.
Indeed, sentiments of Manifest Destiny were abuzz in this time: in 1867, year of Confederation, U.S.
Macdonald: The Old Chieftain, Vol 2: 1867–1891 (1955) Den Otter, A.
As part of British Columbia's 1871 agreement to join the Canadian Confederation, the government had agreed to build a transcontinental railway linking the Pacific Province to the eastern provinces. The scandal led to the resignation of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A.
Canada, a nascent country with a population of 3.5 million in 1871, lacked the means to exercise meaningful de facto control within the de jure political boundaries of the recently acquired Rupert's Land; building a transcontinental railway was national policy of high order to change this situation.
He announced he had uncovered evidence that Allan and his associates had been granted the Canadian Pacific Railway contract in return for political donations of $360,000. In 1873, it became known that Allan had contributed a large sum of money to the Conservative government's re-election campaign of 1872; some sources quote a sum over $360,000.
The Liberal party, at this time the opposition party in Parliament, accused the Conservatives of having made a tacit agreement to give the contract to Hugh Allan in exchange for money. In making such allegations, the Liberals and their allies in the press (in particular, George Brown's newspaper The Globe) presumed that most of the money had been used to bribe voters in the 1872 election.
Macdonald's control of Parliament was already tenuous following the 1872 election.
On April 2, 1873, Lucius Seth Huntington, a Liberal Member of Parliament, created an uproar in the House of Commons.
He announced he had uncovered evidence that Allan and his associates had been granted the Canadian Pacific Railway contract in return for political donations of $360,000. In 1873, it became known that Allan had contributed a large sum of money to the Conservative government's re-election campaign of 1872; some sources quote a sum over $360,000.
In a time when party discipline was not as strong as it is today, once Macdonald's culpability in the scandal became known he could no longer expect to retain the confidence of the House of Commons. Macdonald resigned as prime minister on 5 November 1873.
Perhaps as a direct result of this scandal, the Conservative party fell in the eyes of the public and was relegated to being the Official Opposition in the federal election of 1874.
Macdonald would return as prime minister in the 1878 election thanks to his National Policy.
He would hold the office of prime minister to his death in 1891, and the Canadian Pacific would be completed by 1885 with Macdonald still in office. ==References== ==Further reading== Creighton, Donald.
He would hold the office of prime minister to his death in 1891, and the Canadian Pacific would be completed by 1885 with Macdonald still in office. ==References== ==Further reading== Creighton, Donald.
Macdonald: The Man and the Politician (Oxford UP, 1971). ==External links== Canada's first political scandal, CBC Video Sauvé, Todd D.
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