The first Canadian red scare came in the 1860s as elites from four British North American colonies pushed ahead with the project of Confederation against widespread popular opposition in the Maritimes and Quebec.
The Quebec Tories, led by George-Étienne Cartier and allied to John A. Macdonald's Upper Canadian Tories, were strong political allies with the Catholic Church, such as Montreal Bishop Ignace Bourget. Together, parliament, the pulpit, the courts and newspapers worked in concert to defeat Les Rouges, a democratic and republican political movement originating out of Montreal's Institut Canadien.
The Quebec Tories, led by George-Étienne Cartier and allied to John A. Macdonald's Upper Canadian Tories, were strong political allies with the Catholic Church, such as Montreal Bishop Ignace Bourget. Together, parliament, the pulpit, the courts and newspapers worked in concert to defeat Les Rouges, a democratic and republican political movement originating out of Montreal's Institut Canadien.
Red Workers
Les Rouges had been around since the 1840s and carried on the radical democratic and republican politics of the 1837-38 rebellions and 1848 revolutions.
In the 1860s, as colonial elites sought to stitch together what would become Confederation, some rougistes began to organize among workers, advocating a collectivist economics, and independence from the British Empire.
The thousands-strong Grande Association de protection des ouvriers du Canada (Grand Association of Canadian Workingmen) was formed to spearhead this new movement. The organization aimed to improve the lot of workers, to fight for jobs and stop economic migration to the United States for work.
The GAPOC held mass rallies in their thousands at Montreal's Champs de Mars. In March 1867, some 5,000 workers rallied. In June, another rally pushing ten thousand was organized - five years before the equally large rally in Toronto which ushered in the legalization of unions. Rougistes and workers began building a network of food and consumer cooperatives and credit unions in Montreal as part of their economic vision for national and working-class independence.
In the 1860s, as colonial elites sought to stitch together what would become Confederation, some rougistes began to organize among workers, advocating a collectivist economics, and independence from the British Empire.
The thousands-strong Grande Association de protection des ouvriers du Canada (Grand Association of Canadian Workingmen) was formed to spearhead this new movement. The organization aimed to improve the lot of workers, to fight for jobs and stop economic migration to the United States for work.
The GAPOC held mass rallies in their thousands at Montreal's Champs de Mars. In March 1867, some 5,000 workers rallied. In June, another rally pushing ten thousand was organized - five years before the equally large rally in Toronto which ushered in the legalization of unions. Rougistes and workers began building a network of food and consumer cooperatives and credit unions in Montreal as part of their economic vision for national and working-class independence.
A key founder of the new movement was Médéric Lanctôt, who was only in his late 20s at the time, but was an effective speaker, and was founder and editor of La Presse, which advocated nationalist, republican and cooperative ideas, including petitioning against the Confederation scheme. His politics came from his upbringing in republican political circles in the 1840s and 1850s while his father was in Australia, deported for his role as a local Patriote commander in the Rebellion of 1837-38.
By his early twenties, Lanctôt had already earned himself a reputation as a committed, if reckless militant, having smashed the windows of the Bishop Ignace Bourget's library after Bourget's public declaration of war on rougisme as the party enjoyed success in the 1854 and 1858 elections. For his sins, Lanctôt was fined and managed to avoid a short sentence of hard labour.
Lanctôt would build up his reputation and support in working-class communities by attacking the railway monopolies, their connections to figures like Cartier, and the dominance of the British Empire. On this basis, he ran for municipal office in early 1866 and defeated one of Cartier's men, Alexis Dubord. His victory and presence and Montreal's city council infuriated the establishment. He became a bonafide threat when he continued to use his position on city council to promote the construction of the GAPOC, cooperative bakeries, and credit unions.
Not satisfied with knocking off one of Cartier's allies, Lanctôt challenged Cartier himself in Montreal East in September 1867 during the first federal elections. Lanctôt was subjected to relentless slander and denunciations in the opposition press. He was even called as a Fenian terrorist amidst the overblown Fenian Scare.
Then, in the middle of the election campaign, an Anglo-Tory judge ruled that Lanctôt's municipal election victory be annulled because he lacked, as his opponent Dubord alleged, the property qualifications to run for office. Lanctôt was then booted off city council.
When the election rolled around, Cartier won by only 300 votes or 54 percent against Lanctôt's 46 percent. Cartier's narrow victory was surrounded by allegations of corruption, intimidation, and vote-rigging. These were all common enough practices at the time.
Defeat and dispersal
In the wake of the federal election, Les Rouges was systematically destroyed as a political force in Montreal. The Catholic Church banned the major rougiste publications, and excommunicated its members. By 1871, the Institut Canadien, ceased operations as a political society.
Anti-Confederation efforts in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were also contained in the first few years after 1867, and its associated political organizations dispersed and dissolved. In newly-formed Manitoba, the Red River Expeditionary Force helped unleash the Orange Terror against Métis, Indigenous and allied settlers.
Accepting Confederation as a done deal, many became involved in the loosely-federated Liberal Party opposition to Macdonald's Tory machine.
Lanctôt had no interest in joining the Liberals, whose leader and owner of the highly influential Globe, George Brown. Brown was a rabid anti-Catholic sectarian, British imperialist, and had successfully advocated for an unelected senate at the Confederation conferences as a check on democracy itself.
Accepting Confederation as a done deal, many became involved in the loosely-federated Liberal Party opposition to Macdonald's Tory machine.
Lanctôt had no interest in joining the Liberals, whose leader and owner of the highly influential Globe, George Brown. Brown was a rabid anti-Catholic sectarian, British imperialist, and had successfully advocated for an unelected senate at the Confederation conferences as a check on democracy itself.
The federal Liberals were still a loose formation when they won the 1874 federal election after Macdonald was personally implicated in the Pacific Scandal, exposing corruption at the heart of Confederation. Among these new Liberals was Wilfrid Laurier, who had been vice-president of the Institut Canadien in the mid-1860s and had established a law firm in that period with Lanctôt. Laurier had in fact represented Lanctôt in the court case regarding his 1866 municipal election.
With the decline of Les Rouges, Laurier established himself as a prominent lawyer. Meanwhile, Lanctôt's subsequent efforts at launching a new independence movement failed. He left Canada for the United States where he tried to organize French Canadian support for a free federation of Quebec and the United States independent of British control.
Lanctôt returned to Montreal in the year of the Paris Commune to relaunch his labour-backed political career, but the Institut Canadien was closed and Les Rouges had been wiped out as a political force. With little organizational support to draw upon, he was pummelled in the riding of Montreal East in the 1871 Quebec election. He did, however, win support from the illegal and pathbreaking shoemakers union, the Knights of St Crispin, which had also been loudly denounced by the Church.
Lanctôt returned to Montreal in the year of the Paris Commune to relaunch his labour-backed political career, but the Institut Canadien was closed and Les Rouges had been wiped out as a political force. With little organizational support to draw upon, he was pummelled in the riding of Montreal East in the 1871 Quebec election. He did, however, win support from the illegal and pathbreaking shoemakers union, the Knights of St Crispin, which had also been loudly denounced by the Church.
Capital and labour
A year later, Lanctôt published a treatise on capital and labour aimed at a working-class readership. Lanctôt built upon the widely-held idea in North America that labour and capital could operate in a "harmony of interests".
Such ideas had already been widely promulgated by early labour advocates, republicans, and sections of the business class who sought to avoid the misery and radicalism first bred in Britain's nightmarish industrial districts. One prominent contemporary supporter of these ideas was Horace Greeley, the Radical Republican and publisher of the New York Tribune (which carried a regular column by Karl Marx). Hamilton merchant Isaac Buchanan was an Upper Canadian example of someone promoting the "harmony of interests", and went so far as launching Canada's first labour newspaper in 1864.
Such ideas had already been widely promulgated by early labour advocates, republicans, and sections of the business class who sought to avoid the misery and radicalism first bred in Britain's nightmarish industrial districts. One prominent contemporary supporter of these ideas was Horace Greeley, the Radical Republican and publisher of the New York Tribune (which carried a regular column by Karl Marx). Hamilton merchant Isaac Buchanan was an Upper Canadian example of someone promoting the "harmony of interests", and went so far as launching Canada's first labour newspaper in 1864.
Lanctôt's treatise could be mistaken today as a radical social democratic program. He called upon Canadian workers to join the international movement for the emancipation of the working classes to defeat poverty, and social inequality. He called for laws forcing capitalists to share profits and use labour-saving machinery to enrich all through a just distribution of wealth.
Lanctôt believed capitalists were only interested in profit and could not be trusted to care for the working class. He pointed out that the rise of capitalism had already caused great suffering among the mass of workers, and that was reason enough to be distrustful of capitalists.
Lastly, Lanctôt argued that capital tended towards monopoly. Through competition, big capital squeezed out little capital, impoverishing all but the biggest capitalists. Only through a system that shared collectively could this inevitable tendency to monopoly be stopped.
Lanctôt believed capitalists were only interested in profit and could not be trusted to care for the working class. He pointed out that the rise of capitalism had already caused great suffering among the mass of workers, and that was reason enough to be distrustful of capitalists.
Lastly, Lanctôt argued that capital tended towards monopoly. Through competition, big capital squeezed out little capital, impoverishing all but the biggest capitalists. Only through a system that shared collectively could this inevitable tendency to monopoly be stopped.
After the publication of his treatise, Lanctôt got some revenge by helping organize Louis-Amable Jetté campaign to defeat Cartier in Montreal East in the 1872 federal election. Jetté, a nationalist, had only just formed the Parti National which helped regroup old rougistes with new nationalist radicals. Among its founding members was 31-year-old Honoré Mercier, also elected as a Liberal in 1872, who famously denounce Sir John A. Macdonald's execution of Louis Riel and was later elected Quebec Premier.
Amazingly, Macdonald, with help from Manitoba's Lieutenant Governor Adams George Archibald, was able to successfully parachute Cartier into the Manitoba riding of Provencher. Because of Cartier's efforts to protect French Catholics in the province, Macdonald's scheme only worked because Riel himself stepped down as a candidate. Riel would win the seat a year later in a by-election after Cartier's death.
After the election, Lanctôt moved to Hull where he gained some political influence in municipal politics by being appointed the town's lawyer. But once he began publishing a new local paper advocating his ideas, the same coalition of political and religious forces drove him out of his new office. Exhausted, defeated and isolated, Lanctôt retired from politics and took up a quiet life on a farm.
A little bit later, Laurier delivered his famous speech on liberalism where he buried anti-Confederation politics and stated terms for a truce with the Catholic Church. Within months Laurier was serving in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. A few weeks later, in July of 1877, Lanctôt died at the age of 39.
Amazingly, Macdonald, with help from Manitoba's Lieutenant Governor Adams George Archibald, was able to successfully parachute Cartier into the Manitoba riding of Provencher. Because of Cartier's efforts to protect French Catholics in the province, Macdonald's scheme only worked because Riel himself stepped down as a candidate. Riel would win the seat a year later in a by-election after Cartier's death.
After the election, Lanctôt moved to Hull where he gained some political influence in municipal politics by being appointed the town's lawyer. But once he began publishing a new local paper advocating his ideas, the same coalition of political and religious forces drove him out of his new office. Exhausted, defeated and isolated, Lanctôt retired from politics and took up a quiet life on a farm.
A little bit later, Laurier delivered his famous speech on liberalism where he buried anti-Confederation politics and stated terms for a truce with the Catholic Church. Within months Laurier was serving in the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie. A few weeks later, in July of 1877, Lanctôt died at the age of 39.
Recovering our history
While Macdonald is now facing the wrath of new generations increasingly aware of Confederation's exploitative, corrupt foundations, Laurier is still regarded as a great prime minister, and often ranked by historians and journalists as the greatest ever. Lanctôt is an unknown figure today. If you read anything about him, he'll be described as a lunatic, a zealot, and a dangerous, selfish demagogue.
As with the similar description of Louis Riel, this discrediting of Lanctôt as a marginal fringe figure is all about burying the history of the popular movements which opposed the construction and consolidation of Confederation. It obscures the essential story of how Confederation was a project of class rule and colonial domination, not of democracy and self-determination.
As with the similar description of Louis Riel, this discrediting of Lanctôt as a marginal fringe figure is all about burying the history of the popular movements which opposed the construction and consolidation of Confederation. It obscures the essential story of how Confederation was a project of class rule and colonial domination, not of democracy and self-determination.