The Conservative Party and the Ogdensburg Agreement

Abstract

Canadian public's response to the Ogdensburg Agreement of 17 August 1940 was generally favourable. Prime Minister Mackenzie King's mail once brought nothing congratulations. Correspondents lauded King's master stroke and marvelled at happy, almost miraculous event. Editorial reaction in the national press was similar in tone, and there seemed to be no outright opposition to the outcome of the King-Roosevelt conversations. The verdict of cartoon in Toronto newspaper summed up the general reaction: 'It's sensible, it's sensational'.1 Sensible and sensational, perhaps. But not everyone in this country wrote to Mackenzie King to express their pleasure. There was undoubtedly an undercurrent of resentment and even disgust at the Agreement. This feeling found its outlet, both privately and publicly, through the leaders of the Conservative Party. Conservative Party was near death in the summer of 1940. Tories had managed to elect only forty Members of Parliament in the general election in March. leader, Dr. Robert J. Manion, had been unceremoniously dumped by the caucus at its first post-election meeting. There was no money in the party coffers and scant prospect of finding any. Conservative headquarters had been kept in operation only by squeezing $50 contributions from the reluctant Senators and M.P.s. party seemed bereft of policies. All that remained were the visceral reactions of group of old men. leader of the party at this low point in its history was Richard B. Hanson of Fredericton. He had been Minister of Trade and Commerce in the last months of the Bennett government, and, although he performed his duties competently, he fell victim to the Liberal sweep of 1935. Re-elected in 1940, Hanson had been chosen as leader of the Opposition by the party caucus. He was not a politician of brilliant abilities or any high debating powers, the Canadian correspondent of the Round Table reported, but he is an able lawyer and has, along with judicial temper and an agreeable personality, vein of shrewdness and an instinct for parliamentary strategy. . .2 Hanson would do his best for the party. Parliament was out of session when Hanson heard the announcement of the signing of the Ogdensburg Agreement on the radio at his home. I got quite worked up about the whole thing, he wrote to Arthur Meighen, former Prime Minister and the Conservative leader in the Senate, so went to Ottawa Monday night [August 19].