Nova Scotia's political prostitutes

Tuesday, 06 October 2009 05:00

October 6, 1870. There was widespread opposition when Nova Scotia lost its status as a British colony to become one of the four founding provinces of Canada. Three years later, when the politicians who lead Nova Scotia into Confederation received appointments to the Senate, the judiciary and other patronage plums, the Halifax Acadian Recorder (as reprinted in the Yarmouth Herald) branded them "political prostitutes."

Chief among the alleged political prostitutes was Joseph Howe, editor, publisher and former premier of Nova Scotia. Howe had lead the fight against Confederation, only to become a federal cabinet minister. "For betraying all parties in Nova Scotia," said the Recorder, he "has been rewarded with a Secretary-of-Stateship and $5,000 a year," a lot of money in 1870. Charles Tupper, who led the fight for Confederation and later became a prime minister of Canada, was said to be guilty of "betraying the Conservatives." Others accused of "ratting to Confederation" included former Nova Scotia Liberal Leader Adams Archibald, appointed Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, and "a host of small fry" who received appointments as Senators and judges.

"Truly this is a pleasant state of things for the people of this province to contemplate," grumbled the Recorder. "Political consistency and public virtue are literally banished from the Province; all preferment is closed against men of integrity, and the Senate and courts of justice have been converted into mere… asylums, for the refuge and maintenance of political prostitutes."

The birth of Canada still soured sections of the Maritimes.