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Tom Monto

Frank Oliver was Liberal Party man, despite what you might read

Updated: May 26

From a Conservative website:

"Frank Oliver started Edmonton's influential newspaper the Edmonton Bulletin in 1880. He promoted Conservative party causes and disliked anyone who did not speak English, especially the French and Ukrainians. Elected to the national Parliament, Oliver became Minister of the Interior and reduced support for European immigration"


This is either a mistake or a propaganda or both.


Oliver was a Liberal party MP, sitting in the House of Commons from 1896 to 1917. He pursued Liberal goals such as defending small farmers of the North-west from eastern manufacturers. These manufacturers were charging high prices and were defended by the Conservative Party's National Policy and its high tariff on lower-priced imports from the U.S. His newspaper was so strident in support of the Liberal Party that Conservatives started the Edmonton Journal to be their mouthpiece.


As federal Minister of the Interior, he encouraged immigration. Many Ukrainians were among the hundreds of thousands of immigrants that arrived each year during his oversight of this important aspect of Canadian settlement.


During World War !, he seconded a motion by Wilfred Laurier, leader of the Opposition, that the wartime Unionist government should not bring in forced conscription into the Canadian army if it did not have approval of the people of Canada as proven in a referendum. The motion was voted down by the reigning Unionists MPs.


This happened in June 1917. A few months later Oliver ran for re-election in the Edmonton district. Forced conscription of men into the Canadian army was a major issue in this election, and Oliver running as a Laurier Liberal was vocally against it.


(His personal sacrifice had been great in the war -- he had lost a son and at the time had another son serving.)


Oliver's anti-draft stand was very popular in the Edmonton district. He received more votes than any other candidate. However the Conservative-led Union (coalition) government of Borden allocated the votes cast by soldiers in such a way as to give the Edmonton Unionist candidate William Griesbach the most votes and the seat. (Griesbach later was appointed a Conservative Senator.)


Oliver backed farmers against rapacious corporations. He fought for fair treatment of farmers by the Conservative Party's creation, the Canadian Pacific Railway.


At the same time, he showed himself without sympathy in his statements concerning Native groups in the Edmonton area (such as in Edmonton Bulletin, April 15, 1882). The Papaschase band and the Enoch band all suffered while he was the local representative. Perhaps this is referred to when it is said that Oliver promoted Conservative Party policies.


When he could tar the Conservative government for maltreatment of the First Peoples, his newspaper was clear in accusations against the Conservatives for breaking Indian treaties and of its disrespectful treatment of Metis' rights as inhabitants prior to Confederation.


An example of this is the July 25, 1885 issue when the Edmonton Bulletin placed blame for the 1885 uprising at Batoche on Macdonald's government authorizing a colonization corporation to take land from the Metis at Batoche.


Oliver's newspaper stated support for the Metis resistance against the Conservative government, stating "There is an old saying and more true than old - 'The subject who is truly loyal to the chief magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures.'" Surely not Conservative Party messaging!


Thank you for reading.

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There is outrage against Frank Oliver, but like most of us he was a man of his times.


As an elected politician he was even more a man of his times than most.

Did anyone run against him on a more-Native-friendly platform? I have seen no evidence of that. In the LIberal versus Conservative fight that was prevalent at the time, he was a spokesperson for the little guy of any race.

While McFouadall bought and sold Metis SRcrip, Oliver caled outthe federla govenrmetn for causing 1885 revellion.

In 1888 he ran against Samuel Cunningham 1885-1888 sitting member in NWT Council for St. Albert. Did Cunningham take any stand in favour of Native rights? In 1885 Cunningham had fought in the government side in the 1885 rebellion. A few years later Cunningham helped interpret the negotiation of Treaty No. 8.


In 1904 Oliver ran against Richard Secord. Secord made a fortune dealing in Metis Scrip, helping in the dispossession of the Metis old-timers in Western Canada. I know which of the two I would expect fairer handling of Native issues!


In 1908 he ran against arch-Conservative James Hyndman, partner in an Edmonton law firm. Hyndman was hardly a man to speak up for Natives! (Hyndman's grandson, arch-Conservative Lou Hyndman, as Alberta government Treasurer 1982-1986, oversaw government inaction during Alberta's recession of the 1980s and he was a target of much ridicule by jobless trade unionists at that time.)


In 1911 Oliver ran against Conservative Griesbach (of Mountie and military background) and Labourite Alf Farmilo. By then the Papaschase band had been dispossessed of their lands. No candidate borought up that injustice in the campaign.


In 1917 Oliver ran against Conservative Griesbach (of Mountie and military background). The main issue was forced conscription into the army. Oliver took the most of the votes cast in Edmonton. Later the army vote was allocated by the government and Greisbach was declared the winner.


Oliver's apparent injustice to Natives in the 1800s was not mentioned.


The human right not to be forced into the army was more uppermost in many people's minds in 1917. Griesbach won the votes that he did in Edmonton in part due to a Unionist (Conservative) government's promise not to conscript farmers. The Unionist (Conservative) government reneged on that promise a few months after the election, and some farmers were conscripted off their fields and, alongside conscripted city workers, put into the battlefield front-lines against their will in 1918.


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Thanks for reading.

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