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The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs (1904)
The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs - 1904 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: special organ, declared that Liberalism in the Province of New Brunswick had sustained the greatest loss in its history, and the City of St. John the most powerf... more »ul advocate it had ever had in the Councils of the nation. " Never, perhaps, since Confederation, has one man wielded the influence in Liberal circles in New Brunswick which Mr. Blair has wielded since 1896; for never before has one man been so closely acquainted with the people of the Province and with the forces, political, economic, and social, which go to make up the body politic. This, apart altogether from the question of ability, energy, and determination, which so eminently fitted him to be a leader of men." The general Liberal feeling was that Sir Wilfrid Laurier had once more, as in the case of Mr. Tarte, indicated the strength of his personality and shown that he was, indeed, the Leader of his Government and his party. The Opposition feeling was one of natural elation at obtaining so strong an ally in their antagonism to the Government's Railway policy, and of hope that it might mean the beginning of some wider disintegration. The Montreal Star, of July 15th, declared that Mr. Blair " sees the folly of the scheme, its waste, its pillaging of public property, its arrogant selfishness; and he is prepared to cut short his political career at this point rather than share in the impudent transaction." The London Free Press pointed out that Mr. Blair had recently saved Liberalism in New Brunswick and claimed that now, without him, the party there would be in a perilous condition. " Two forceful Ministers," declared the Mail and Empire, " have gone out within a year. This is the most rapid process of disintegration in the history of Canadian Governments." The longest Session in the history of the Do- Th Par- mini...« less