Richard bedford bennett biography of michael

It uses material from the Wikipedia article Richard Bedford Bennett. Bennett spent time as a school teacher, principal, lawyer and businessman before entering local politics. InBennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party and, inwon a seat in the provincial legislature before switching to federal politics. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons inwas appointed Minister of Finance in and became Conservative leader in at the first Conservative leadership convention.

He was elected Prime Minister of Canada indefeating William Lyon Mackenzie King, just when the worst depression of the century was hitting the country. Radio, it maintained, had to be Canadian, English and French, but Canadian. Existing radio offered too much entertainment and not enough education. To these conclusions the leaders in the commons all subscribed, King, Bennett, and James Shaver Woodsworthwho headed the Labour group.

The problem was how to put them into effect. Where lay the constitutional authority to regulate radio? Quebec claimed it fell within provincial jurisdiction. King had shied away from the question; Bennett acted as soon as he returned from London in December A reference was made to the Supreme Court of Canada and on 30 June it decided for the federal government.

Judgement was given in London on 9 Feb. Within a week Bennett proposed a special committee of the commons. Everyone agreed, he said, that the present system was unsatisfactory. Radio was of surpassing importance, essential in nation building, and with a high educational value. The special committee reported on 9 May and the richard bedford bennett biography of michael setting up the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, to regulate all broadcasting in Canada and establish a nationally owned radio system, was presented a week later.

Only public ownership could ensure to all Canadians the service of radio; no Canadian government was justified in leaving the airwaves to private exploitation. The following year the country was facing even graver difficulties. Unemployment had reached 27 per cent of the workforce, as high as in the United States. On the prairies, drought, crop failures, and soil erosion continued, turning especially southern Saskatchewan into a dust bowl.

The work camps for unemployed single men that had been set up in under the aegis of the Department of National Defence were becoming hotbeds of discontent. Everywhere established institutions seemed to be under threat. The pervasive feel of the depression was of this very helplessness. The lack of any vestige of hope exacerbated the climate of fear: fear induced by watching the old and familiar crumbling; fear that next month, especially next winter, there would not be enough to eat or the wherewithal to keep warm.

Even for those on fixed incomes it was a distressing time, having to cope with tramps at the kitchen door and watching the freight trains going by with men riding to unknown destinations and for unknown purposes. Roots were drying up like the prairies. Borden told Bennett he and his wife fed everyone who came to the door at their Ottawa home.

Two thirds of them, Borden said, were genuinely down on their luck, battered and bruised by economic forces over which they had no control. By 4 Marchthe day Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as president of the United States, almost every bank in the United States had locked its doors. The Canadian banking system had stood up well — there had not been a Canadian bank failure since — but there was urgent need of a central bank to regulate credit.

On 21 March E. Rhodes announced there would be a royal commission on banking and currency in Canada. The commission reported in September, recommending three to two in favour of a central bank, the two dissenters being Canadian bankers. The chartered banks did not like it; they had to give up their profitable issue of bank notes in favour of a national currency, and they were required to transfer their gold reserves to the Bank of Canada.

For the gold, they sought a much higher price than they had paid, a demand Bennett thought iniquitous. We are going to get that gold and it is just about time for us to find out whether the banks or this government is running this country. There was other legislation in The Natural Products Marketing Act established a federal board with powers to arrange more orderly marketing in the hope of obtaining better prices.

A special committee which later became a royal commission headed by H. Stevens was set up to investigate mass buying by large businesses and the difference between the prices received by producers and the prices consumers were being charged. But Bennett considered the Bank of Canada his best domestic achievement. Nevertheless, his government found the going difficult.

There were increasing doubts within the party that they could win a general election. Then in October the popular Stevens, having in the eyes of many in the cabinet overstepped the mark in his criticism of Canadian capitalists, was forced to resign his portfolio. The Bennett New Deal ofpromising federal government intervention to achieve social and economic reform, arose from that political anguish.

It was also genuine Bennett, policies he had espoused for many years, with roots in his own political instincts. He had long believed in old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and labour unions. Finlayson and delivered by Bennett in incisive radio speeches. I am for reform. And, in my mind, reform means Government intervention. It means the end of laissez-faire.

It was followed by bills introducing a minimum wage, an eight-hour day, and a hour work week. There were doubts about the constitutionality of these measures, but with elections due in a few months that was worth risking. In February it was just a bad cold, but on 7 March atrial fibrillation of the heart was diagnosed. The doctors said he needed to rest for a month.

His health was excuse sufficient that, had he chosen to retire then, it might have been managed. But the party would have had to select a new leader. Stevens, whom Bennett would not have had at any price. The house then adjourned in April. He returned to Ottawa a month later not much invigorated. Legislation was also approved to implement some of the recommendations of the price spreads commission, including the establishment of the Dominion Trade and Industry Commission to regulate business activity.

Bennett also had to deal with the On-to-Ottawa trekkers, a small army of the unemployed from the relief camps set up in The trek, begun in Vancouver, had been stopped by police in Regina. It was not an amicable meeting. If Bennett was hard with the bankers ofhe was much more so with the trekkers ofwho threatened to disrupt law and order.

Bennett with his back up could be a chalcenterous animal. Like many lawyers, Bennett distrusted public disorder. Strikes when legitimate he accepted, as disagreements inevitable over work or wages. But public law and order were to him fundamental. He hated the Communists with their too clever tactics at undermining the state. He himself was fearless and outspoken, able to face down and even convert a hostile crowd.

Parliament prorogued on 5 July; Stevens, restless and dissatisfied, now quite at odds with Bennett, formed the Reconstruction Party two days later; richard bedford bennett biography of michael was dissolved on 15 August. Bennett was indeed defeated on 14 Oct. In the Conservatives still took 30 per cent. The Liberals really had no policy; they expected the depression would defeat Bennett and the depression did exactly that.

Seats in the House of Commons were quite another matter: the Liberals tookthe Conservatives 40, and the other parties The Reconstruction Party won only one, Stevens being elected, but their 8. Stevens and the wide sympathy that his price spreads commission evoked ought not to have been allowed to get away. The most popular politician nationally that the Conservatives had, Stevens should have been tolerated, even cosseted.

Bennett was incapable of it. For the next three years Bennett was a model opposition leader; indeed, government legislation was often improved by his interventions. In he was in the house almost every day, the most faithful of his party in his duty to parliament. Ostensibly he bore no grudges; he seemed to have accepted that the Canadian people who had suffered so much in the depression would want to punish the government.

But he had given so greatly of himself, his energy, his health, and his fortune to captain the Canadian ship through that storm, he was hurt that so few Canadians seemed to be cognizant of his sacrifices. His charities, which were private, had become a huge burden. His benevolence was in fact outrunning his income. Hutchison had seen Bennett at the fag end of the election campaign, backstage at a Victoria theatre, slumped, tired, a boisterous crowd ready to get at him.

When Bennett came to speak he was transformed: his moral force, his booming voice, his sheer bravura triumphed over hecklers, over everybody. Hutchison had never seen anything like it. Bennett did the same with an even noisier Vancouver crowd the next night. Now in the spring of there seemed to be a newer Bennett, relaxed, his leg thrown casually over the arm of a chair in his office, talking almost continually about politics, Alexander the Great, Ming pottery, and the military geography of the South African War.

He checked in at pounds. Even for a man six feet tall, he was heavy; maple sugar and chocolates had taken their toll. His English doctor told him to lose at least 10 pounds to ease the strain on his heart. That autumn of Bennett discussed retirement, but the party persuaded him to carry on. By March he knew he could not continue. King could call an election any time and Bennett was now incapable of taking his party through it.

He resigned on 6 Marchbut stayed on until a new leader was chosen in July. Then suddenly, on 11 May, Mildred, who was being treated for breast cancer in a New York hospital, died. She was only 49 years old. The Conservative Party convention was held in Ottawa early in July. There was talk that Bennett wanted to be asked to carry on, but there is little firm evidence of it.

Richard bedford bennett biography of michael: Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st

There is strong evidence, however, that members of the party wanted him to make peace with Stevens and shake hands with him in public. Bennett was not having it. Robert Manion was chosen as leader; Bennett was not there. Bennett had decided to live in England. In Canada he could have had positions from president of a university to president of a bank, but in Canada there were huge public pressures on his time and on his purse.

He did not want to live in the United States; in London he was almost as much at home as in Canada. He proceeded to order those Canadian essentials, efficient plumbing and central heating. He then returned to Canada to take his leave. That proved to be much more difficult than he had imagined. The Montclare sailed in the evening. Bennett came to love Juniper Hill.

It was the only home he had ever had, and he acquired a devoted staff. He joined a host of organizations in England and was a popular speaker wherever he went. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item.

Prime Minister of Canada from to For other people named Richard Bennett, see Richard Bennett disambiguation. The Right Honourable. Bennett c. Bennett's voice. B Bennett giving his farewell speech to Britain following the Imperial Conference. Early life — [ edit ]. University, early legal career — [ edit ]. Political, law, and business success — [ edit ].

Early federal political career — [ edit ]. Out of politics — [ edit ]. Political return and leader of the Official Opposition — [ edit ].

Richard bedford bennett biography of michael: Richard Bedford Bennett. Born

Prime Minister — [ edit ]. Confronting the depression [ edit ]. Trade with Britain [ edit ]. Anti-communism [ edit ]. Labour policy and relief camps [ edit ].

Richard bedford bennett biography of michael: BENNETT, RICHARD BEDFORD, 1st Viscount BENNETT,

Agricultural policy [ edit ]. Other initiatives [ edit ]. Bennett's New Deal [ edit ]. Internal divisions and defeat [ edit ]. Retirement, House of Lords, and death — [ edit ]. Legacy and assessments [ edit ]. Criticisms [ edit ]. Supreme Court appointments [ edit ]. Other appointments [ edit ]. Coat of arms [ edit ]. Publications [ edit ].

Honours [ edit ]. Hereditary peerage [ edit ]. This list is incomplete ; you can help by adding missing items. July Scholastic [ edit ]. August Honorary degrees [ edit ]. Freedom of the City [ edit ]. Memberships and fellowships [ edit ].

Richard bedford bennett biography of michael: Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett,

Honorary military appointments [ edit ]. Electoral record [ edit ]. Main article: Electoral history of R. See also [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved March 14, Retrieved July 9, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online ed. Oxford University Press. Subscription or UK public library membership required.

Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 20, Owen Merchants and manufacturers record of Calgary. Calgary: Jennings Publishing Company. Archived from the original on September 24, Retrieved June 6, Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved March 16, Archived from the original on March 22, Retrieved March 15, Archived from the original on October 13, Calgary: Fifth House.

ISBN Archived from the original on April 17, Bennett reconsidered: A long-overdue "remarkable and head-turning portrait" ". Toronto: Methuen. Canada, — Decades of Discord. Montreal: Black Rose. Government of Canada. Fraser Institute. January 5, Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. August 12, April 20, The London Gazette. July 22, Richard Bedford Bennett".

Archived from the original on June 20, Archived from the original on October 27, Retrieved October 19, Parks Canada. December 20, Archived from the original on October 22, Retrieved February 27, The letter is conserved at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. Archived from the original on May 21, Archived from the original on April 27, Archived from the original on August 3, Retrieved August 22, Calgary Highlanders.

Retrieved April 5, Further reading [ edit ]. See also: List of books about Prime Ministers of Canada. Boyko, John Toronto: Key Porter Books. Creighton, Donald Canada's First Century. Macmillan of Canada. Glassford, Larry A. Bennett, — University of Toronto Press. Gray, James Henry Bennett: the Calgary years. The next few years saw R. In the new prime minister, Arthur Meighenoffered R.

During his time in Opposition, he supported the introduction of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. In he was elected leader of the Conservative Party. In his acceptance speech, he admitted that he was a wealthy man, but emphasized that he had made his money from hard work. The Conservatives won the election of by promising measures that would lessen the effects of the Great Depression on Canadians.

It was a promise that R. Although his initiative to adopt preferential tariffs helped somewhat, as the Depression dragged on, he was seen as an ineffectual leader. InR. It was given in recognition of his unsalaried work during World War II in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, which was managed by his lifelong friend Lord Beaverbrook.

Bennett took an active role in the House of Lords, attending until his death in