Parliamentary facts from 1950s Canada

TORONTO—In 1950, the leader of the opposition, Conservative George Drew, uttered, “Mr. Speaker, I spy strangers,” an archaic phrase used to order the Commons gallery cleared to hold a secret session. Dating to the time of King Charles I, the device had never been used in Canada. Seated in the gallery was a Canadian Peace Congress delegation that was lobbying MPs for recognition of Communist China. Drew’s gambit was defeated on division. In 1951, an amendment to the Indian Act permitted First Nations peoples to practise their customs and culture, wear ceremonial clothing off-reserve without permission of the Indian Agent, go to pool halls, gamble, and hire lawyers. First Nations women were granted the vote in band council elections. Liberal citizenship minister Walter Harris said First Nations peoples did not want the right to vote; he said they preferred to retain their status as wards and allies of the King. In 1952, Parliament discovered that the military had purchased bayonets for $130,000 ($1,400,000 in 2022 money). Some MPs opined that the weapons were obsolete. Deputy defence minister C.M. (Bud) Drury, a future minister of defence production for Pierre Trudeau, retorted that the bayonet was effective in the Korean war; he said most soldiers thought of it as a psychological rather than a physical weapon. In 1953, the CBC and the political parties held discussions about the parties' use of television during that year’s election campaign. Unable to agree on the allotment of time and format, the parties decided to forgo the new medium. In Moncton, external affairs minister Lester Pearson and Conservative MP John Diefenbaker spoke at election rallies on the same night that a circus was performing. The next day, the Moncton Transcript rated their performances: “Circus first, Diefenbaker second, Pearson third.” In 1954, Conservative MP Rodney Adamson told Parliament that “all the people who formed the International Monetary Fund and its officers, or at least a large number of the original executive, were Communists.” Social Credit MP John Blackmore endorsed Adamson’s opinion, and moved to create a parliamentary committee to seek out Communists and their sympathizers in the civil service. Blackmore used his free mailing privileges as an MP to send out anti-Semitic literature. In 1955, there were 73 Liberals and only seven Conservatives in the Senate. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent considered filling some Senate vacancies with opposition party members and distinguished Canadians. The daughter of one of Canada’s first woman judges urged that women be appointed to fill all the vacancies, while Conservative MPs proposed a study of Senate reform. Liberal MPs dissuaded St. Laurent from his idea, and voted down the Conservative proposal. In 1956, a wild, bitter, and tense debate regarding a pipeline transfixed the public. Closure was invoked four times to which the opposition parties responded: “shame.” CCF MP Stanley Knowles exclaimed, “The guillotine!” Speaker René Beaudoin lost control; angry MPs stormed the aisle separating the two sides of the House and gathered around the mace. Beaudoin retreated to his office, attended by a nurse, while Liberal MPs sang Onward Christian Soldiers. In 1957, the Bank of Canada proposed changes to the regulation of banks. Conservative Leader Diefenbaker said the changes would reduce banks to “sycophants answerable to the government.” Refusing to wear makeup and declining to use a teleprompter in his free-time television broadcasts, St. Laurent stared downward at his text, avoiding the camera. “I will be more interested in seeing people than talking to a camera,” he told a reporter. Diefenbaker was elected prime minister, forming a minority government. In 1958, Conservative MPs laughed at opposition leader Pearson’s demand that the Conservatives cede power to a government “pledged to implement Liberal policies.” Diefenbaker had Parliament dissolved despite not having secured its approval to spend public funds. He attracted 5,000 people to the Winnipeg Auditorium; hundreds unable to enter stood outside in near-zero cold. More than 10,000 people greeted him in a single day in Edmonton. Pearson was heckled half a dozen times at a Hamilton rally of 900. The Conservatives won a record 54 percent of the popular vote and 78 percent of the seats. In 1959, a CBC strike divided the Conservative government: one minister termed it “illegal,” another insisted the opposite, and the labour minister said he had no opinion. Diefenbaker never acted without his cabinet. Asked how many cabinet meetings had been held, a deputy minister replied, “Just one. It started on June 22, 1957, and it’s still going on—with occasional brief adjournments.” Nelson Wiseman’s most recent book is 1950s Canada: Politics and Public Affairs, published by the University of Toronto Press. The Hill Times