Bowell, Sir Mackenzie, << BOH uhl, muh KEHN zee >> (1823-1917), served as prime minister of Canada from December 1894 to April 1896. He succeeded Sir John S. D. Thompson, who had died in office. Bowell, a Conservative, took office when his party found itself beset by scandal and political dilemmas. These problems strained relations between English- and French-speaking Conservatives. As a result, Bowell accomplished little in office.
Bowell, lost his party’s support because he failed to find a solution to the Manitoba Schools Crisis. This disagreement involved the right of Roman Catholics in Manitoba to have their own school system. Bowell finally resigned because of his failure to resolve the dispute.
Bowell was a newspaper owner and small-business man before he entered politics. Later, as a Cabinet minister under three prime ministers, he displayed considerable administrative ability and uprightness. But as prime minister, Bowell was weak, fussy, and conceited. He went back and forth on important decisions and reversed course on some issues. As a result, many of his followers grew to distrust him, and some deserted him.
Early life
Mackenzie Bowell was born on Dec. 27, 1823, in Rickinghall, England, near Bury St. Edmunds. His father, John Bowell, was a carpenter. In 1833, Mackenzie’s parents moved to the frontier colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) and settled in Belleville, on Lake Ontario.
Mackenzie did not have a formal education. At the age of 11, he began working as a printer’s apprentice for a Belleville newspaper, the Intelligencer. By 1860, he had become owner and editor of the paper.
Bowell was chairman of the Belleville school board and an officer of several local business firms, including hardware, insurance, and railroad companies. He also was a leader of the Orange Order, a group that promoted Protestant influence in Canadian politics and society. Roman Catholic Canadians, particularly in French-speaking Quebec, regarded the Orange Order, and thus Bowell, with suspicion. In 1847, Bowell married Harriet Louise Moore of Belleville. They had nine children.
Early political career
In 1867, Bowell won election to the Canadian House of Commons from Hastings North. His political strength lay partly in his newspaper, which strongly supported the Conservative Party. But Bowell’s broader influence over Anglo-Canadian politics came from his role as grand master of the Orange Order from 1870 to 1878.
Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, appointed Bowell minister of customs in 1878. After Macdonald’s death in 1891, Bowell became minister of militia in the administration of Sir John J. C. Abbott. In 1892, he was named minister of trade and commerce by Abbott’s successor, Sir John S. D. Thompson. Thompson appointed Bowell to the Senate that same year, and Bowell became government leader of that body.
Thompson died suddenly in London on Dec. 12, 1894. The governor general of Canada, the Marquis of Aberdeen and Temair, had to choose a replacement. He consulted Conservative leaders and then chose Bowell, who had served as acting prime minister in Thompson’s absence. Some Conservatives, especially those in Quebec, believed that Bowell lacked leadership qualities. But others felt that no other Conservative could draw general support. Bowell became prime minister on Dec. 21, 1894. Queen Victoria knighted him on Jan. 1, 1895.
Prime minister
The Manitoba Schools Crisis
was the chief problem that faced the Bowell government. In 1890, the Manitoba legislature had abolished the province’s separate system of schools for Roman Catholics. Manitoba Catholics fought the decision in the courts and lost, and then they appealed to the Canadian government. The issue struck at the heart of the Anglo-French partnership that made up the Conservative Party. The federal government stalled, torn between defending Roman Catholics’ rights and respecting Manitoba’s right to handle its own affairs. In January 1895, the British Privy Council ruled that the Canadian government had the power to act on the school issue.
The Canadian government ordered Manitoba to restore the separate Catholic schools, but the province refused to do so. The dispute split the Conservative Party. Most Catholics demanded that the national government pass legislation to restore the schools, but most Protestants strongly opposed such legislation. Bowell did not take a firm stand on the issue. He kept delaying any action, hoping that the province would agree to a compromise and make federal legislation unnecessary. However, the government of Manitoba, a chiefly Anglo-Protestant province, refused to change its position.
The Newfoundland question.
Bowell worked to bring Newfoundland into the Dominion of Canada in 1895. The colony had economic problems and hoped that Canada would take over its debts. But Bowell’s government and Newfoundland’s leaders could not reach a financial agreement. Newfoundland made other financial arrangements in the United Kingdom and did not become a province of Canada until 1949.
Cabinet crisis and resignation.
Bowell gradually lost the support of his Cabinet, largely because of his indecision regarding the Manitoba Schools Crisis. By the end of 1895, many Cabinet members wanted to replace him. They believed that Sir Charles Tupper could unite the Conservative Party and solve the schools question. Tupper, the Canadian High Commissioner in London, had served in the Cabinets of Prime Minister Macdonald. Seven members of Bowell’s Cabinet resigned in January 1896. Bowell called them traitors. When he tried to replace them, no prominent Conservative would join his Cabinet.
The governor general and other leaders agreed that Bowell would continue as prime minister in name until the session of Parliament ended. Tupper became leader of the House of Commons and the actual head of the government. Six of the Cabinet members who had resigned returned to office. In February, Tupper introduced a bill in the House to restore the Roman Catholic schools in Manitoba. But a long debate kept the legislation from coming to a vote before the session ended in April. Bowell resigned on April 27, 1896. Tupper succeeded him as prime minister.
Later years
Bowell remained in the Senate following his resignation as prime minister. He became Opposition leader in the Senate after the Liberals won the elections of June 1896. Also in 1896, Bowell resumed his work on the Intelligencer, which he had given up after accepting his first Cabinet appointment. He retired from politics in 1906 and died in Belleville on Dec. 10, 1917.
See also Prime minister of Canada .
