A long way to paradise : a new history of British Columbia politics 9780774864718, 9780774864732, 9780774864749

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C .D . H owe S e r ie s in C a n a d ia n P o l it ic a l H ist o ry Series editors: Robert Bothwell and John English This series offers fresh perspectives on Canadian political history and public policy from over the past century. Its purpose is to encourage scholars to write and publish on all aspects of the nation’s political history, including the origins, administration, and significance o f economic policies; the social foundations o f politics and political parties; transnational influences on Canadian public life; and the biographies o f key public figures. In doing so, the series fills large gaps in our knowledge about recent Canadian history and makes accessible to a broader audience the background necessary to understand contemporary public-political issues. Other volumes in the series are: Grit: The Life and Politics o f Paul M artin Sr., by Greg Donaghy The Call o f the World: A Political Memoir, by Bill Graham Prime M inisterial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden, by Patrice Dutil The Good Fight: M arcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy, by Brendan Kelly Challenge the Strong Wind: Canada and East Timor, 1975—99, by David Webster The Nuclear North: Histories o f Canada in the Atomic Age, edited by Susan Colbourn and Timothy Andrews Sayle The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent: Politics and Policies fo r a Modern Canada, edited by Patrice Dutil Canadian Foreign Policy: Reflections on a Field in Transition, edited by Brian Bow and Andrea Lane The Rowell-Sirois Commission and the Remaking o f Canadian Federalism, by Robert Wardhaugh and Barry Ferguson

The series originated with a grant from the C.D. Howe M emorial Foundation and isfurther supported by the B ill Graham Centrefo r Contemporary International History.

C.D. Howe Series in Canadian Political History

A Long Way to Paradise A New History of British Columbia Politics R O B E R T A .J. M C D O N A L D

© U B C Press 2021

All rights reserved. No part o f this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re­ trieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission o f the publisher, or, in Canada, in the case o f photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca. 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21

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Printed in Canada on FSC-certified ancient-forest-free paper (100% post-consumer recycled) that is processed chlorine- and acid-free. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Title: A long way to paradise : a new history o f British Columbia politics / Robert A .J. McDonald. Names: McDonald, Robert A .J., 1944-2019, author. Series: C .D . Howe series in Canadian political history. Description: Series statement: C .D . Howe series in Canadian political history Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210203412 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210203447 | ISB N 9780774864718 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780774864732 (PDF) | ISBN 9780774864749 (EPUB) Subjects: LC SH : British Columbia - Politics and government. | CSH : British Columbia - Politics and government - 18 71Classification: L C C FC3811 .M33 2 0 2 1 1D D C 971.1/03 - dc23 Canada U B C Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program o f the Government o f Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council. This book has been published with the help o f a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council o f Canada, and with the help o f the University o f British Columbia through the K .D . Srivastava Fund. U B C Press The University o f British Columbia 2029 West Mall Vancouver, B C V 6 T 1Z2 www.ubcpress.ca

Contents

Figures and Tables / vii Foreword: Getting to Paradise / ix Tina Loo Series Editors’ Foreword / xiii Robert Bothw ell and John English Note from the Publisher / xv Preface / xvii Introduction / 6 1 Confederation and the Birth o f Popular Politics, 1871-83 / 14 2 Politics before Parties in a N ew Province, 1884-1902 / 34 3 Singing the Song o f Progress in the McBride Years, 1903-15 / 65 4 Paradise Modern and the Party o f Reform, 1916-28 / 97

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5 Pattullos N ew Liberalism and the Revolt beyond the Rockies, 1928-41 / 129

vi

Contents

6 Unsettling Capitalism during the Depression, I933“ 39 I I5I 7 The Politics o f War and Keeping the Socialists at Bay, 1941—45 / 171 8 Right versus Left and Social Credit’s Triumph, 1945—52 / 193 9 Prosperity for All and Province Building in the Bennett Era, 1952-72 / 223 xo Trying to Dress Up the N D P in a Saville Row Suit, 19 6 1-72 / 253 1 1 Bennett s Defeat and B C s First Social Democratic Government, 1965-72 / 279 Conclusion / 309 Appendix: B C Premiers and Governments, 1871—1972 / 324 Notes / 325 About the Author / 391 Index / 392

Figures and Tables

F ig u r e s Joseph Trutch /18 C P R ’s Connaught Tunnel / 21 “The Heathen Chinee in British Columbia” / 26 Chinese immigration report / 31 C h ief Isadore / 36 Coal miners o f the Alexandria M ine / 49 Richard M cBride / 66 Head-tax certificate / 68 “The Blue-Ruin Brigade” / 74 “The Conservative Machine” / 76 Coldstream Orchard / 79 Helen Gregory M acG ill / 91 Men’ W ho Are M aking B .C .” / 1 0 0 The Pacific Great Eastern Railway / 112 Tom Uphill / 1 19 “ Queer Doings” / 142 “The Great Fight —But?” /153

vi 1

Vlll

Figures and Tables

Laura Jamieson /168 Helena Gutteridge /169 Laura Jamieson, Dorothy Steeves, and Grace M aclnnis / 184 “ Collision with Coalition” /188 Alcan aluminum smelter / 1 9 4 “ It’s a Showdown” / 209 Ken Kiernan / 221 David Barrett / 266 Roderick Haig-Brown / 269 Frank Calder / 271 “ Socialist hordes” / 280 Anti-Vietnam War demonstration / 283 Robert A .J. M cD onald / 391

T ables 1 B C ’s population by racial and ethnic origin, 1871 and 1881 / 28 2 Percentage o f votes for left parties (socialist plus labour) in selected constituencies, 1903—20 / 59 3 B C election results, number o f seats and percent, 19 03-16 / 71 4 Election results, by party, number o f seats and percent, 1916—28 / 99 5 Percentage o f vote, core left constituencies versus all others, 1916-33 /159 6 Provincial government expenditures, 1939-52 / 203 7 Election results, 1952 / 217 8 Election results, by party, number o f seats and percent, 1956-63 / 245 9 Election results, by party, number o f seats and percent, 1963-72 / 264 10 Percentage o f labour force by industrial group, 19 11-7 1 / 315 1 1 Num ber o f employees in provincial public service, 1941—81 / 315

FOREWORD

Getting to Paradise Tina Loo

T

he book you’re about to read by my late friend and colleague Bob M cDonald is as much a piece o f travel writing as it is history. It’s the story o f how a group o f people tried to get to paradise and bring everyone along with them, sometimes kicking and screaming - kind o f like those long-distance summer car trips some o f us were subjected to as kids. In this case, the parents are successive generations o f B C politicians who differed as much about the destination as they did the route. They tried, in turn, to convince their passengers just who was the better driver and that they were almost, but not quite, there. Placating the sporadically restive people in the other seats —some o f whom were ready and able to drive but wanted to go in a different direction —involved a combination o f threats, bribery, compromise, and, on occasion, theft. Then as now, stealing another party’s ideas and calling them your own was effective politics. Bob’s book is a sustained and encompassing look at a century o f B C politics, a subject many have opinions about but few have had the where­ withal to take on fully. Until now, Margaret Ormsby’s 1958 work has been the standard reference, supplemented with Martin Robin’s engaging but flawed two-volume study, published in the early 1970s.' By virtue o f its rarity, the appearance o f a new, comprehensive political history o f British Columbia is worthy o f note. By virtue o f its content, I think this particular volume is destined to replace Ormsby: it will become the go-to source. Full o f colourful, bickering personalities, the theme that ties it all together are the successive efforts by different politicians and parties to modernize the province.

ix

X

Foreword

W hile many British Columbians agreed that the desired destination was a prosperous, “modern” society, they differed on where it was, what it looked like, and how far you had to travel to get there. The disparities weren’t confined to people o f different political stripes; even those belong­ ing to the same party had divergent views o f the political landscape. Place mattered: things looked different from the Kootenays than they did from the coastal urban centres o f Vancouver and Victoria. The only thing Brit­ ish Columbians might have agreed on was that “ it is a long way to para­ dise,” as Premier Harlan Brewster told one voter frustrated by the pace o f reform in 1917. For Brewster, a Liberal, paradise was a place where pork-barrel politics patronage —didn’t exist, where merit governed civil service appointments, and where formally trained experts and technical knowledge informed how decisions were made. Those were the hallmarks o f modernity. In addition, for the Liberals, members o f the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C C F ), and, for a brief time, British Colum bia’s Conserva­ tives and the Social Credit party, paradise also had an activist state. This state was concerned - to differing degrees, at different times - with the social welfare o f British Columbians as well as the province’s economic development. W hile the peculiarities o f personalities (Amor De Cosmos!), private interests (liquor licensing!), and place (the coast versus the interior and north) shaped the tone and tenor o f political discourse, Bob insists B C politics was more than a clash o f economic interests, as M artin Robin and those who have followed in his interpretive footsteps argue. W hile not discounting class, Bob makes the case that ideology was at the root o f the disagreements and conflicts over i f and how to modernize the province. The century saw a shift from “classical” late-nineteenth century liberal­ ism — with its emphasis on individualism, private property, and small government — to “new” liberalism, characterized by a willingness to use the power o f the state to intervene in people’s lives in ways meant to benefit them. The ideas associated with new liberalism contributed greatly to the emergence o f the welfare state. However, as this book points out, getting to that part o f paradise was due in no small measure to the increasing appeal and influence o f socialism, and the work o f a group o f feminist CCFers in the 1930s in particular. Helena Gutteridge and Laura Jamieson, among others, pushed the party away from its explicit goal o f eliminating capitalism and toward a more reformist one o f building a cooperative society. This trajectory later resulted in the creation o f the New Democratic Party in 1961.

Foreword

xi

Regardless o f whether it was a Liberal, Conservative, CCF, or Social Credit politician or supporter giving voice to their party’s platform, the destination they promised to take British Columbians to was often char­ acterized as a peoples paradise. Candidates from across the ideological spectrum used populist ideas and rhetoric at one point or another as a way to counter their opponents and to reinforce the idea that, somehow, they were outsiders to politics or beyond it. W .A.C. Bennett was a master o f this. A former Conservative M L A and one-time supporter o f a modern, expert-informed, activist state, Bennett managed to engineer a surprise victory for his new Social Credit party in 1952, portraying them as outsiders and free-enterprise friends o f the people. Bob shared populist politicians’ desire to connect. Although he brought the expert, technical knowledge o f an academic historian to bear on his subject, Bob took pains to make this book accessible. It uses personalities and specific places and debates deftly, with a light touch, to leaven and colour ideas and arguments that are more abstract. Com m unicating his­ tory and connecting with an audience that included, but went far beyond, specialists was important to Bob. This desire was evident in the care he took with the thousands o f undergraduates he taught as well as in his work with the Vancouver Historical Society and the C ity o f Vancouver Archives. More often than not, for Bob, communicating and connecting involved vigorous debate —something his students, colleagues, and friends can attest to. It meant “stirring things up,” as he put it. Even when some o f us might have wished for more moments o f quiet disengagement, Bob was always ready to hash things out, often noisily and joyfully, with over-the-top propositions, even ones that undermined the arguments he was trying to make. It was his way o f working out ideas - his and yours, whether you wanted to or not. W hile he traded in the extravagant and overblown, doing so was a way to engage rather than a characteristic o f his writing. Bob was the most careful o f scholars, offering precise, nuanced arguments that emerged from sitting with his archival sources for a long time. H e read them as some­ one trained in political history —thanks to his U B C dissertation supervisor Margaret Prang and her colleague, the B C historian Keith Ralston - and the “new” social history, which was just emerging when he was a graduate student. This book, the last result o f Bob’s historical vision, bears the imprint o f that early training and sensibility: it’s attentive to both high politics and class (and, to a lesser extent, gender and race). It’s the work o f a fully

X ll

Foreword

committed, unapologetic regionalist —someone known to “go after” (his phrase) his prairie colleagues with a twinkle in his eye for what he con­ sidered to be their imperialistic use and understanding o f “west,” one that didn’t take B C and its particularities into account. But this book is also informed by a deep reading and understanding o f context: Bob M cDonald’s British Colum bia doesn’t exist in a geograph­ ical, historical, or intellectual vacuum. One look at the notes will tell you that: there you’ll find references to theorists Stuart Hall and Theda Skocpol alongside ones to whiggism in India and Ontario politics from the lateeighteenth to the late-nineteenth centuries. The immersion in sources and deep appreciation o f context that charac­ terize this book and inform its arguments didn’t come quickly. It couldn’t and, in Bob’s view, it shouldn’t have. Good history required time - time spent sitting and reading on the eleventh floor o f U B C ’s Buchanan Tower, before, during, and after hours, all year long - for years. M any o f us tried to tempt him with diversions or convince him there were shortcuts, but Bob remained steadfast in his determination to get his readers to paradise in the best way he knew how. It’s an eye-opening ride. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Series Editors’ Foreword Robert Bothw ell a n d Jo h n English

A Long Way to Paradise: A N ew History o f British Colum bia Politics A m is the tenth title in The C .D . Howe Series in Canadian Political jL History. This magisterial work reflects a lifetime o f reflection and research on its topic, the unique and fascinating provincial politics o f British Columbia. As we welcome its fresh insights and impressive range, we deeply regret that Bob M cD onalds sudden death as he prepared the manuscript’s final draft means that his authoritative voice will be silent when this important book provokes debate about its approach and argu­ ments. We greatly appreciate the work that his colleagues and the editors at the University o f British Columbia Press have done in preparing the manuscript for publication in the Howe Series. W hen the C .D . Howe Foundation contributed funds to endow this series, it stated that it wanted to reinvigorate the field o f Canadian political history. As M cDonald indicates, most historians in British Columbia had turned toward social, Indigenous, gender, and cultural topics in recent decades. The major works on British Colum bia provincial politics were written in the 1970s, often by political scientists, and their focus was on class, parties, and personalities in the “ Com pany Province.” The lively personalities and the rise and fall o f parties are certainly present in A Long Way to Paradise, but the author widens the lens to incorporate recent scholarship on Asian, Indigenous, female British Columbians. For much o f British Columbia’s political history, these groups were excluded from participation in the formal structures o f provincial politics. M cDonald avoids concentrating on elections and politicians and emphasizes what he

XIV

Series Editors’ Foreword

terms “the political culture o f the province” —the response o f the state to fundamental changes in the economic, social, racial, and industrial char­ acter o f British Columbia. Responding to Theda Skocpol’s urging that the “state” be brought back to historical scholarship, M cD onald illumin­ ates the historical role o f the state as the best recent political history has done. Class, the focus o f many earlier histories o f British Colum bia where left and right have long clashed with ferocious partisanship, remains import­ ant, but M cD onald believes that earlier scholars have too often ignored the importance o f “ ideology” or “ ideas.” H e uses the transition between the “traditional” M cBride government and the “progressive” Brewster government in 1916 as the stages where ideas o f modernity, rationality, and social welfare play out. Recent scholarship on liberalism and populism informs his interpretations o f British Columbian politics. W hile intel­ lectually sophisticated and grounded in decades o f archival research, A Long Way to Paradise is written for a general audience. Clear prose, striking anecdotes, and colourful personalities abound. M cDonald has left us an invaluable work that reaches beyond the academic community. It will long endure.

Note from the Publisher

D

r. Robert A .J. M cDonald — or Bob, as we knew him — was a leading historian o f British Columbia, a generous scholar, teacher, and contributing member to learned and historical societies, and a presence, rather than a fixture, at regional and national history confer­ ences and events. In the hubbub o f the book fairs, where editors and authors converse, renew connections, and plot book ideas, Bob would make his way to the U B C Press booth, satchel under his arm, a colleague or two alongside, and, in a manner both laconic and vibrant, join in banter and discussion. It was a ritual that came to include a brief nod to the progress o f his major book project, which we all awaited with anticipation. When Bob submitted his completed oeuvre, it was as he had described it: a new history o f B C politics, told through events and the clash o f ideolo­ gies, and populated with real-life characters. Professional and practical, Bob meticulously followed the myriad technical requirements for submit­ ting a manuscript. Consistent with his view o f scholarship as a collaborative and iterative process o f learning, thinking, and sharing, he welcomed the peer review stage o f academic publishing, and used it both to reaffirm his decisions and refine points and passages. Bob was almost at the point o f sending us the very final version o f his work when, to our shock and sor­ row, he died o f a stroke on June 19th, 20x9. The decision to publish this work posthum ously was without ques­ tion. A number o f people played a part in ushering the work into the final stages o f publication. Colleagues - friends - in the Department o f History at the University o f British Columbia (U BC) collected Bob’s annotated

xv

XVI

Note from the Publisher

print manuscript with its finishing touches, image research notes, and correspondence; Lara Campbell o f the Department o f History at Simon Fraser University and Ben Bradley o f the Department o f History at the University o f Northern British Columbia offered their support as close colleagues and chums o f the author; eminent historian Jean Barman and U B C Press Publications Board member Michel Durchame, who had both been among Bob’s close interlocutors during the writing, provided wise counsel to the Press as the manuscript advanced through copy-editing, design, and proofreading. A community o f scholars gathered around the memory o f Bob and his work in this endeavour, as they had during his life, and we are grateful to each and all. We also give profound thanks to family members Linda Lovett and Heather Hall, who so warm ly met with us and gave their full support to bring this book to fruition. A Long Way to Paradise is the culmination o f a life’s work. Bob had a clear vision for this book. In rising to the challenge and the standard he set for it, he offers to all readers not only a vibrant new political history o f British Columbia, but, too, the company o f an informed and inquisitive mind engaging with decades o f research.

L J

Preface

W

hen I began to consider writing this book in the winter o f 2000—0 1, 1 was teaching at the M cG ill Institute for the Study o f Canada in Montreal. I was motivated by a personal desire to think more broadly about British Columbia than I had when I explored the relationship between class and status in early Vancouver. Since the late 1970s, the most interesting work on British Columbia has been presented by anthropologists, geographers, and historians on settler colonialism and the history and culture o f Indigenous peoples in the Pacific province. But my background as a social and urban historian o f settler British Columbia did not lead me in that direction. M y other goal was to write about British Columbia in a way that appeals to general readers. It has always struck me that while w ork in the acad­ emy advances knowledge on a wide range o f subjects through original and theoretically informed research and writing, British Columbians char­ acteristically think about their province through the traditional framework o f politics. I felt that we were approaching the time when a balanced, general history o f B C politics, one that reflected recent scholarship, would have broad utility. M artin Robins two-volume history, The Rushfo r Spoils: The Company Province, was published in 1972. It surveys the first hundred years o f provincial political history and still stands as the most compre­ hensive coverage o f British Columbia’s political development. Since then, extensive sources have become available, offering an enticing invitation to rethink the formative first century o f B C politics. In the pages that follow, I accept that challenge. XVII

Transportation routes in southeastern British Columbia, 1898. Map by Eric Leinberger. Adapted from Map 2.1 in Jeremy Mouat, Roaring Days: Rossland’s Mines and the History o f British Columbia (Vancouver: U BC Press, 1995).

Following page: Postwar economic development. Map by Eric Leinberger. Adapted from “Map io: Economic development o f British Columbia following the Second World War,” in Jean Barman, The West Beyond the West: A History o f British Columbia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), xx.

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