112
ƌŽŬĞŶ WƌŽŵŝƐĞƐ
II
Mackenzie King was too shrewd a politician, even in his first years as
party leader and before he became Prime Minister in late 1921, to
get out of step with the rank and file. If he attacked military expen-
ditures in peacetime Canada it was because his instincts advised him
that this fitted the popular mood. Only rarely would King fly in the face
of prevailing winds, and when he did it invariably redounded to his
advantage. Conscription, for example, had required some courage to
oppose in 1917, yet oppose it King did. He had toyed with the idea of
supporting the Union Government and he had tried to persuade Lau-
rier to accept conscription, but in the end he had stuck with hischief;
two years later he was party leader, helped into power by the votes of
the Quebec delegates. Certainly King himself believed “that it was my
stand in the Federal elections of 1917 which won me the leadership.”
25
To a lady friend he added that the convention victory became possible
“when I went to certain defeat at the time my mother was dying, and
left her side to fight for the principles which I felt were just as sacred
in the preservation of liberty as any the men were fighting for at the
front.”
26
His own view of the principles that had shaped his decisions
did not blind him to the possibility that others might have seen things
differently. “I am, of course, in entire accord with you as to the attitude
that should be taken by all Liberals toward those of the Party who gave
their support to the Union Government at the last election,” he wrote
to Professor George Wrong of the University of Toronto. “I have on two
or three occasions publicly expressed my own belief that only the most
patriotic and honourable of motives actuated practically all of those
who ... found it necessary to break with old associations and friends
during that trying period.”
27
On the other hand, King did not want to
1930
1935
Fr.
Eng.
Fr.
Eng.
Maj.-Gen.
3
7
Col
5
36
2
19
Lt Col
8
55
7
53
Maj.
7
82
9
84
Capt.
13
71
7
69
Lt
7
45
15
129
2Lt
-
-
5
14
40
292
45
375
(Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, “Armed Forces Historical
Study” (n.d., mimeo), part II, pp. 35, 41, 63.)