POLITICAL PIONEER

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4347, 11 January 1938, Page 2

POLITICAL PIONEER

SIR FREDERICK HAULTAIN WORK IN CANADIAN NORTH-WEST Central figure in the political birth of Western Canada and distinguished iurist for a quarter of a century, bir Frederick W- G. Haultain was honoured by all Saskatchewan on November 25, his eightieth birthday. He is still active as Chief Justice of Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan (writes Robert Kenneth Taylor in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor ). Sir Frederick’s role in Canadian history is unique. For 25 years he was the outstanding political leader in the Northwest Teritories during a period of political and economc evolution in that frontier country. , , Sir Frederick in the long ago led the fight of the Canadian West to get representative government, meanwhile giving wise and honest administration during a difficult epoch Nuture hi* torians, it seems probable, will see himnot only as one of the foremost statesmen in' Canadian history but as a man whose foresight led him to oppose policies which, forced on the West by federal authorities, are fundamental economic causes of contemporary contusion in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Sir Frederick is the descendant of a family of Huguenots who left France in 1572 to escape religious persecutions. After living in Holland for a time, they moved to Britain, where for two centuries they contributed generals and colonels, admirals and captains to the British Army and Navy A Both of Sir Frederick s grandfathers were generals under Wellington at the Battle ol Waterloo. Col. F. W. Haultain, father of Sir Frederick, served im the British Army in Canada for manj years, and in 1860, when he retired, he returned to Canada, where he was an i engineer, a member of an early govern--1 ing body of Canada, and county land recorder at Peterborough Ontario Sir Frederick was born in 1857 at Woolwich England, and came to Canada as Cl Youthful Frederick William Gordon Haultain expected to become a soldier, but his father could not undertake the heavy expense of maintaining the son as a British army officer. So he chose to be a lawyer. He attended schools at Montreal and Peterborough, graduating from the University of Toronto m 1879, with first class honours in the classics. , , - „ The path of steady advancement in a comparatively stable country and m his profession was before him. After being admitted to the Bar at Ontario he served in. a law office in l oronto for two years. , - For generations members of his family had fought the battles of empire on distant horizons. Frontiers had been pushed back by their kind. Savage territories had been colonised and civilised under the direction of those soldier-statesmen. They were not men of dull commercial cities. So in August, 1884, the young lawyer set out for the Canadian frontier, the Northwest Territories. He settled at Fort Macleod, then the headquarters .ot the Northwest Mounted Police, the force that became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Most of his journey was over the Canadian Pacific Kailway, then under construction; the latter part of his trip was by stagecoach. Frederick Haultain, as the on |y lawyer in the outpost town, was made Crown Prosecutor, and he prospered. In 1887 he was elected Fort Macleod’s representative on the Northwest Council, his constituency consisting ot 1000 square miles of territory with 1000 population. For 18 years, without election, he represented Fort Macleod constituency in the governing of the Northwest Territories, winning acclamation after acclamation. The Northwest Council, which was followed by the Legislative Assembly ot the Northwest Territories, governed a o-reat area, consisting of the present Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Yukon, the present North-west Territories in Canada and part of Northern Quebec In this council and the later Legislative Assembly, Haultain became the leader in a constitutional fight waged by the territorial government to gam a greater measure of self-government from the federal authorities, the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada. Youngest in years as well as political experience, he displayed political coinage as he led the fight throughout the years, ever insisting that constitutional means should be used to obtain greatei freedom. Chosen by the Lieutenant Governor, who was practically a political commissioner ut that time, to be one of the committee of four to advise the Lieutenant Governor, Haultain soon afterward resigned from the committee, refusing to accept responsibility for expenditure of government funds without a corresponding right of control. By a parliamentary blockade, Haultain was able to outmanoeuvre the Lieutenant Governor and force the federal authorities to grant an extension of self-government in 1891. As a result, Haultain was made Premier when that office was created. Those years in Western Canada from 1887 until 1905. with their influx of settlers from all parts of the world, pushing back the frontiers of a vast agricultural empire, and laying wisely and well the solid foundations of anew nation, were indeed years dramatic. Haultain was Premier, Treasurer and Commissioner of Education during those formative years when immigration on an unprecedented scale brought new problems to the territorial government From 1891 until 1910 the population increased 238 per cent., and from 1901 until 1906 270 per cent. Revenues of the territorial government were necessarily meagre, for the Dominion Government retained control of the land and mineral resources of the territories, giving in exchange a comparatively small subsidy. Need for further revenues forced upon the territorial legislators the idea of obtaining provincial autonomy and wider powers of obtaining revenue. In 1904 Hauftain drafted a Bill to he used as the basis for provincial autonomy, and to-day it is an accepted viewpoint that, had this Bill been used as the basis, many of the major faults in the present Western economy would not have developed. Haultain, as Premier of the Northwest Territories, unsuccessfully urged the establishment of one province, not two, which he considered an unnecessary duplication of political machinery which would hear too heavily on the

young country. He urged that the now province or provinces be given back their natural resources, but the Federal Government refused, paying instead a subsidy. Haultaiu argued that the provinces would be speedily plunged into debt if this policy was followed. Financial statements of Alberta and Saskatchewan down the years show how accurate were his forecasts. Haultain asked the Federal authorities, even in the ’9o’s, for control of the south-west corner of Saskatchewan and the south-east portion of Alberta, so the territorial Government could administer it as a grazing and ranch country and oat settlers from breaking up the land, Ottawa refused. The land was opened to settlers To-day it is Canada a dust bowl.

Opposition to any dual jurisdiction on water r gbts was vop-ed by Haultain during those eafih years before provincial autonomy H~s Government had made a atan m providing irrigation for the territories, out found itself hampered by the fact that the Dominion had control oi «.avjg.ab.e waters, the territories oi unnavjgab.e waters.

He urged that the new province should have sole right to undertake irrigation measures. His request was denied, and it us only durng the past two years that the irrigation programme oi the Ha ; ts n party ■ »•> o»-ei resumed.

Attempts to briug \m federal .political parties, Combinative and Liberal, into the provincial arena won Haultain’s opposition. Hi.tn.tfcil a tin id Conservative. he usually had more members of the Federal Libera! Party in

his territorial Cabinet than he had lei-low-Conservatives. He contended there were no differences between the parties in the provincial field. The parliamentary opposition to his party in the terntorial Government was led fay P. B Bennett, then the member of the terri-

torial Government from Calgary, latei Rt. Hon. R. B Bennett. Prime Ministei oi Canada. Because of the lack oi art.baa. parrgroups, tiiere was no party patronage. In 1905. when the Dominion Government divided part of the North-west Territories into the present Alberta and Saskatchewan, the Liberal Prime

Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. chose Walter Scott, the Liberal leader in Saskatchewan, as the first Premier of Saskatchewan, setting aside the Premier of the then territories. After autonomy, Sir Frederick led the Provincial Rights Party, which i contended the basis on which Saskatchewan was founded was unfair, and that the Federal Government should return the natural resources to Saskatchewan control and pay annually for the Saskatchewan land the Dominion Government gave to the railway companies. 'R. B. Bennett, who became the leader of a similar party jn Alberta, advanced the same arguments Neither Haultaiu nor Bennett was successful in obtaining enough members to gain control of either provincial Legislature, so the validity of the autonomy Bills was not tested. From 1905 to 1912, Haultain was the leader of the Opposition in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. Extremists in his party wished him to use his wide experience to obstruct the legislative plans of the Liberal Govern meat in the House. He refused, declaring that while he was leader of the Opposition he was in the House to assist in the passage of legislation for the welfare of the province. If the Government were about to make a mistake, even though it would be to his later nolitical advantage, Haultain declared he would point it out to aid the province. He did, time and again. It was in 1912 that the Dominion Government named Sir Frederick to be Chief Justice of Saskatchewan and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Saskatchewan Later, the Supreme Court >vas divided into the Court of King’s Bench and the Court of Appeal, with Sir Frederick as Chief Justice of the appellate division. Sir Frederick, as statesman and jurist, has made a large contribution to the development of education in the West. Dr Walter O. Murray, until this year the president of the University of Saskatchewan, attributes much of the wisdom and farsightedness displayed in the educational system of Saskatchewan to the efforts or Sir Frederick Haultain was a member of the Senate of the University of Saskatchewan when that body was formed in 1907, and for the past 20 years he has been chancellor of the university. The college of agriculture there is on an equal footing and closely related to the colleges of arts and of sciences Never has provincial politics played any role in university and for this credit is given to Sir Frederick. It was in 1916 that Haultain was knighted for his work as statesman, jurist, and educationist. ; He plays IS holes of golf almost daily when the weather is favourable. He has never married. . , Ho is a link with a day that has passed, a statesman whose career will be truly evaluated only by historians of another generation.