The tale of two Bennetts (Part 2)

[u/ToryPirate]

In part one of this post I gave a brief overview of the career of WAC Bennett with comparisons to the career of RB Bennett. In this second part of the essay I wanted to try and give a full overview of RB Bennett's legislative initiatives. I will, where appropriate, note how far along each initiative got and whether these initiatives were later re-visited and whether they've come up recently. This list will by necessity be incomplete as changes large and small were made during his term.

Bank of Canada - Probably RB Bennett's signature achievement. The chartered banks fought him on this every step of the way but in the end he created one of Canada's greatest assets in regulating the economy. The bank initially had private ownership through shares as a means of preventing political interference. This was unpopular with basically everyone and Mackenzie King had the shares bought out. To this day the shares still exist and are owned by the Minister of Finance. Bennett's original ownership structure seemed prescient recently when Pierre Poilievre mused about sacking certain officials at the bank - just the sort of thing Bennett was worried about.

Public Broadcasting - The other major achievement of Bennett's term was the creation of the CRBC, the predecessor of the CBC. Once again Bennett faced opposition, this time from newspapers and American radio channels. His own cabinet tried defunding the crown corporation at least twice while Bennett was otherwise occupied. Each time Bennett restored funding but did not sack the ministers responsible (showing an uncharacteristic level of grace towards those who went against his wishes). Mackenzie King would tighten the mandate of the crown corporation but otherwise left it alone to do its job.

1930 Unemployment Relief Act - The largest stimulus package the government had ever done to that point amounting to 20 million of a 500 million dollar total government budget. Unlike past smaller stimulus packages Bennett set up oversight to ensure the money reached those in need rather than padding the budgets over lower levels of government. This proto-Keynesian approach of stimulus during economic downturns would return as a debate in 2008 which incidentally saw Bennett's star rise a bit from the rock bottom it had been sitting at.

1930 Counter Tariffs - Bennett came to power just as about everyone was raising tariff barriers. Rather than see Canada's economy hollowed out he followed suit but crucially kept negotiating for greater access for Canadian goods in other markets on a tariff-by-tariff quid pro quo basis.

1931 End of Cabinet By-Elections - Bennett ended this practice which had long since stopped being at all useful and was a contributing factor in the King-Byng Affair (Bennett was a bit player in that drama as he was away at the time and the opposition member he was paired with voted when he shouldn't have). Its easy to imagine the mischief opposition parties would be able to get into if government ministers still had to run in a by-election to enter cabinet.

1931 Statute of Westminster - Bennett saw through the final negotiations and had to walk a fine line between going too fast (and angering the provinces) and delaying Canada's path towards independence. Perhaps unfortunately the judicial committee of the privy council remained Canada's highest court of appeal and this fact would gut much of Bennett's legacy.

1931 Raised corporate taxes and cut the bureaucracy - I'm hard-pressed to think of a government of any stripe that would do both of those things concurrently.

1931 Had the government underwrite all farm loans - The banks had stopped extending credit during the Great Depression which threatened to collapse the entire agricultural system in Canada. Bennett would go further and subsidize wheat production.

1931 Completed the Welland Canal - This project was started under Bordon and completed under Bennett. It was a crucial first step in creating the St. Lawrence Seaway - a project Bennett attempted to negotiated but which was scuttled by Governor Roosevelt and special interests in Congress.

1932-1935 Attempts made to get US tariffs lifted - The US was prepared to lift tariffs shortly before the 1935 election but Mackenzie King convinced the new Roosevelt administration to postpone until after King was prime minister. This occurred days after the election along the terms Bennett negotiated.

1932 public works program - These are the work camps which would later spawn the On-To-Ottawa Trek. The premise was good. There were many unemployed young men - with all the dangers that entailed - wandering the country. Why not pay them to build public works and strengthen Canada's economic infrastructure? Kill two birds with one stone. A third advantage is it would keep these desperate men away from the corrupting influence of the communists. The plan hit its first snag when the army was put in charge of the camps. This is understandable in that they were the only organization with experience organizing large numbers of men. However, their experience was with prisoners of war or soldiers in a strict hierarchy. Complaints started almost immediately. The camps are an entire discussion on their own but they largely failed. Communists infiltrated the camps and sowed unrest. The pay given out was seen as too low. And there was no over-arching vision given for how these projects were going to help Canada.

1932 Increased eligibility for old age pensions - Increased the federal portion of the fund from 50 to 75%.

1932 Established a committee to oversee the CNR and CPR railways with representatives from labour on the committee

1932 Imperial Conference - This saw many bilateral trade agreements signed and a great increase in trade but not the comprehensive trade treaty Bennett sought. The UK delegation was notably disorganized and dysfunctional (I'm starting to think this might be a cultural trait of the British ruling class). However, Bennett did himself no favours by both chairing the meeting and leading the Canadian delegation. CANZUK can in many ways be seen as the spiritual successor of the idea of imperial preferential trade.

1932 Trade deals with Bolivia, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, and Haiti - In a bit of a mirror of the current situation, trade disruption with the US seems to be the only time we as a nation really go full steam getting other trading relationships.

1933 joined other wheat producing nations in limiting production in hopes of ending the glut in the market and raising prices - We stayed within our quota due to declining production brought on by the Dust Bowl but prices also didn't recover. Efforts to control the price of wheat would eventually lead to the creation of the Canadian Wheat Board (abolished by Harper).

1935 Met with the leaders of the On-to-Ottawa Trek - In a stormy meeting Bennett, with his cabinet at his back, laid out why the leaders of the protesters were wrong, how they were communist agitators, and why the men needed to return to the camps. It would have been interesting to see Trudeau do this to the Convoy protesters, but then again Bennett also managed to keep the Trek from getting to Ottawa. The failure of this meeting likely led directly to the clearing of the protesters from the streets of Winnipeg.

Created the first national list of electors - Door-to-door registering of electors had always been prone to missing voters and a permanent list was hoped would be cheaper, easier, and more accurate. However, the technology to oversee such a list did not exist and it would be killed in 1938 by Mackenzie King.

Restored the practice of granting knighthoods - Pearson, who worked under Bennett in the bureaucracy, was almost knighted but when he saw his boss wasn't set to be honoured he asked his name be removed. Had be accepted I think he would have been the only example of someone in Canada knighted before becoming prime minister. After Bennett's term ended the long, cold years of Mackenzie King saw the practice ignored again with the length of said term having made non-issuance permanent - although only via custom, not law.

Price Spreads Commission - Looked at corporate profiteering which led to a tightening of when loss-leading could be done.

Oil sanctions on Italy - In the dying days of his term Bennett authorized oil sanctions against Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia. This would be reversed by Mackenzie King upon taking office and the League of Nations effort fell apart.

"I am not interested in politics. I am here as Prime Minister today, I may be gone tomorrow! I don't care! Life has given me about everything a man can desire. I am sixty-one, old enough to sit back and enjoy what I have. But what I have, I owe in a considerable degree to Canada, and if I can do anything for Canada, that is what I want to do. When the Canadian people are finished with my services, I am also content." ~ RB Bennett, 1931

[u/Ticklishchap]

Very interesting overview. Thank you, u/ToryPirate. This seems like characteristic Red Tory territory: Keynesian economics; cautious and pragmatic economic interventionism; consolidation of national institutions; a patriotic but non-‘jingoist’ ethos; an outward looking foreign policy.

Re. the Imperial Conference: I am reminded of the debacle of our ‘Brexit negotiations’ a few years ago. Your comment is astute: the British political class goes through cycles of dysfunction.