Mackenzie and His Cabinet, 1873–1878

Abstract

tobans all jealous of each other and striving to obtain some advantage or concession. I always knew it was very hard to keep liberals together but my experience has been far in excess of my utmost belief. • This plaintive remark of Alexander Mackenzie has found an echo in life of every Canadian prime minister, who, upon coming to office, is deluged with suggestions and pleas for appointment of this or that favourite son to cabinet. Too frequently, he has had to overlook men of talent because he is bound by constitutional convention to form a cabinet representative of various provinces and special interest groups within country. As Christopher Dunkin had predicted during Confederation debates in 1865, since the provinces are not really represented to any Federal intent in Legislative Council cabinet would have to be constructed on federal principle; that is, it would have to be distinctly representative of Provinces? Forming a cabinet hat would represent divergent regional, provincial, sectional, religious, and ethnic interests of this centrifugal, pluralistic Canadian society was no easy task and it became increasingly difficult as divisive issues plit up parties into warring factions. Obviously, only a strong prime minister, a manipulator of men, cotfid bring and hold together a team representing such conflicting forces. Fortunately for Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald was such a man. By end of his first administration, role of cabinet as coordinator and conciliator of diverse interests of Canadian