While He was Head of the Liberals (excluding
term as PM)
The Liberal Leader Edward Blake, who had succeeded
Mackenzie as leader of the
Liberals had sympathy for the Liberal loss and resigned in 1887. Even though the
Liberals had never before been led by a French Catholic, Mr.Blake advised them
to choose Laurier as his successor, the people agreed with them and he was
elected.
Wilfred Laurier led a strong campaign against Macdonald in the election of 1891.
The Liberals' main campaign issue was to have free trade with the United States.
The Majority for the conservatives held but it was greatly reduced. In 1891,
John A. Macdonald died. He was followed as prime minister by Sir John Abbott,
Sir John Thompson etc. but none of them managed to deal with the question of
church schools in Manitoba. In 1891 the Protestant members of the Manitoba
legislature passed a law closing the separate schools attended by Roman
Catholics. The Tompson government though this was wrong but left it to the
courts to decide. In 1895 the judicial committee of the Privy Council in Britain
declared the Manitoba law to be legal, but also said that the federal government
had the power to reverse it. The federal government was forced to act, since it
had the duty of protecting the educational rights of minorities. Laurier refused
to give his opinion on what should be done until the government showed its hand.
Tupper introduced a new bill in 1896 that would restored separate schools in
Manitoba. The Catholic community backed the measure and called on Laurier to
support it. He refused, and said to Parliament "I am here representing not Roman
Catholics alone, but Protestants as well, and I must give an account of my
stewardship to all classes." Thus, Tupper failed to pass the bill and was forced
to seek support from the people in a general election.
