Bennett, Richard Bedford (1870-1947), Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary, and Hopewell, served as prime minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935. He held office during the early part of the Great Depression and had little success in stabilizing the Canadian economy. However, his government established Canada’s central bank and the nation’s publicly owned broadcasting system.
Before Bennett became prime minister, he had achieved success as a corporation lawyer, businessman, and public official. He became a millionaire in his 40’s by investing in real estate and by helping to carry out several business mergers. Bennett, a Conservative, first won election to the Canadian Parliament in 1911. He served as leader of the Conservative Party from 1927 to 1938. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1939 and became a member of the British House of Lords in 1941.
Bennett was a bachelor, and he lived in hotels most of his life. His fine clothes and erect bearing gave him the look of an aristocrat. He often wore dark-colored suits, high-collared shirts, and a derby. Bennett neither smoked nor drank alcohol. A devout Methodist, he read the Bible daily.
Early life
Richard Bedford Bennett was born on July 3, 1870, near Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. He was the oldest of the five children of Henry John Bennett, a lumberman and shipbuilder, and Henrietta Stiles Bennett. Richard ranked high in his class at the local elementary and high schools. At the age of 18, he became a teacher in Douglastown, New Brunswick.
In 1890, Bennett enrolled in Dalhousie University in Halifax to study law. He received his law degree in 1893 and soon became a partner in a law office in Chatham, New Brunswick. Bennett had great confidence in his future. He predicted to friends that he would become prime minister of Canada and be a member of the British Parliament.
Early public career
Entry into politics.
Bennett entered politics in 1896, when he won election to the town council of Chatham. In 1897, he received an offer to become a junior partner in the influential law firm of Canadian Senator James Lougheed. He eagerly joined the firm in Calgary, a booming town in the North West Territories.
In 1898, Bennett was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North West Territories. In 1905, his district became part of the newly created province of Alberta. Bennett ran for election to the provincial Legislative Assembly that year but was defeated. He won election to the Assembly in 1909.
Business activities.
Bennett became a successful corporation lawyer while with the Lougheed law firm. His work for such clients as the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson’s Bay Company made him rich.
Bennett also was a business associate of William Maxwell Aitken, a boyhood friend from Chatham. They brought about mergers that resulted in the formation of the Alberta Pacific Grain Company, the Calgary Light and Power Company, and the Canada Cement Company. Real estate investments added to Bennett’s growing fortune. By the early 1900’s, he was a millionaire.
Federal offices.
In 1911, Bennett won election to the Canadian House of Commons from Calgary East. In 1917, he returned to his many business interests, rather than seek reelection. In 1921, Prime Minister Arthur Meighen appointed Bennett minister of justice and attorney general. In a general election later that year, Bennett ran for a seat in the House, but he and most other Conservative candidates were defeated.
In 1925, Bennett was elected to the Canadian House of Commons from Calgary West. He served as minister of finance in the Meighen government that held office in 1926 from July to September.
Conservative Party leader.
In 1927, Bennett succeeded Meighen as leader of the Conservative Party. The next year, a severe drought in western Canada ushered in the Great Depression. Thousands of Canadian workers lost their jobs.
Unemployment became the chief issue in the 1930 election. Most Canadians believed that Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King, the leader of the Liberal Party, had misjudged the signs of the coming Depression. They regarded Bennett as a symbol of personal success and hoped he could lead them to better times. During the campaign, Bennett promised to create new jobs and end unemployment by “blasting” Canadian exports into world markets. The Conservatives won an easy victory, and Bennett became prime minister of Canada on Aug. 7, 1930.
Prime minister
Early policies.
During his first years as prime minister, Bennett personally headed the departments of foreign affairs and finance. He attended the Imperial Conference of the British Commonwealth in London in 1930 and hosted the conference in Ottawa in 1932. In 1933, Bennett visited the United States for trade talks with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. That same year, he went to London for the World Monetary and Economic Conference and the World Wheat Conference. But none of these meetings stopped the decline of Canada’s exports or provided help for the 650,000 jobless Canadians.
In 1932, the government set up federal relief camps for single, unemployed men. The men, who helped build airports, received free housing and earned 20 cents a day. Also in 1932, legislation that was sponsored by Bennett established the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, a national publicly owned broadcasting system.
Economic reforms.
Bennett had initially believed that private industry would solve Canada’s economic problems. But by the end of 1933, with the Depression becoming worse, he admitted the need to increase government control over the economy.
In 1934, H. H. Stevens, minister of trade and commerce under Bennett, publicly blamed large corporations for unfair labor and marketing practices. Bennett ordered a parliamentary investigation, and hearings supported some of Stevens’s charges. Bennett then began to prepare legislation to correct the abuses.
Also in 1934, the Bennett administration established the Bank of Canada, which became the foundation of the nation’s central banking system. Other legislation that year placed agricultural sales under federal supervision and helped farmers get credit to pay large debts.
In January 1935, Bennett announced a broad reform program that he called a “New Deal,” the name of Roosevelt’s economic program. Bennett’s chief reforms established minimum wages and maximum hours of work. Another Bennett measure, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act of 1935, aided the conservation of land and water in drought-stricken western Canada.
Bennett’s reforms created a nationwide debate. Liberal Party leaders declared that, under Canada’s constitution, only the provincial governments could adopt such measures. Alarmed Conservatives charged that the reforms would destroy the work ethic behind private industry. Many Canadians approved the reforms but felt they had come too late. Still others, including Stevens, argued that the reforms were too weak.
Bennett’s failure to repair the economy led to a decline in his public support. In 1935, following the announcement of the “New Deal,” several thousand men from relief camps in British Columbia staged a march on Ottawa, the Canadian capital. The men were protesting conditions in the camps. Bennett met the leaders of the demonstration and urged them to end the march. They did so in July, but only after a riot in Regina, Saskatchewan, resulted in the death of a police officer.
The 1935 election.
Seeking a vote of confidence, Bennett called a general election to be held in October 1935. But the Depression, conflict among the Conservatives, and the rise of new political parties in western Canada made a Conservative defeat inevitable. In the election, the Liberal Party won the largest parliamentary majority to date. Mackenzie King replaced Bennett as prime minister on Oct. 23, 1935. Bennett, who had been reelected to Parliament from Calgary West, became leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.
Later years
In 1938, Bennett resigned as a Member of Parliament and as Conservative Party leader. He moved to England the next year and bought a mansion in Surrey. In 1941, Bennett received the title of viscount and became a member of the British House of Lords.
During World War II (1939-1945), Bennett donated large amounts of money to the British war effort. His health grew steadily worse during the mid-1940’s, and he died in his home on June 26, 1947. Since the late 1900’s, Bennett’s accomplishments have received greater recognition than they did during his life.
