Like all referenda, the local option effectively lifts from the shoulders of legislators the burden of making a choice on behalf of their constituents. It necessitates the involvement of the local electorate in direct decision-making around an ideal that has not been expressed in the form of a policy. Members of Parliament debate actual bills that they can see and hold and on which they may offer editorial suggestions; referenda typically ask for general agreement on a broad principal without providing any of the details.
The likelihood of winning a national referendum on prohibition was slim but at the municipal level, it might succeed. New Brunswickers seized upon the possibility of prohibiting public consumption of alcohol in the s. Ten counties out of fifteen voted in favour of prohibition, and yet the sale of alcohol continued unabated. No other province would advance the temperance campaign as far as New Brunswick until the 20th century. Of course, not everyone in the middle or working classes wanted to go dry.
Working men, returning soldiers, and members of the non-evangelical churches were highly unlikely to favour diminished access to booze. But this was the face of public drinking; the consumption of alcohol in private spaces was also a target of temperance agitators, and that aligned the elites and many middle class households against temperance.
Insofar as the ranks of prohibitionists overlapped with anti-Catholic forces, they drove the Catholic Church into the arms of the wets although where they were unbothered by assimilationist Protestants, the Catholic leadership was as likely to be dry.
The efforts of the temperance movement peaked in and were stayed by the outbreak of war. Unwilling to fight on two fronts, the issue was put to one side until it became clear that the Great War was not going to be brief. Increasingly, the consumption of liquor at home seemed an offence to the sacrifice being made abroad. Concerns were raised about productivity as well a familiar theme in temperance circles in the industrial age.
Province-wide referenda were organized, and by , prohibition had arrived or was on its way in every province but Quebec, where one could buy wine or light beers, but not hard alcohol see Section 6. Quebec and British Columbia were the first to abandon prohibition in favour of regulation and government-controlled liquor sales in The Dominion of Newfoundland prohibited possession or drinking of liquor from to Thereafter, the legal and illegal production of liquor in both Dominions exploded in an attempt to meet demand for the banned substance south of the border.
While the heaviest traffic passed between the vicinity of Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan there was also extensive illicit trade between the nominally-dry Maritimes and the whole American East Coast. The chain of Gulf and San Juan Islands provided some cover, as did the multitude of tiny bays and inlets around Puget Sound.
Historical studies of rum-running mention women too often to suggest that their involvement was exceptional. The production of small quantities of home-brew liquor was almost certainly work that women did, but they also played frontline roles in the sale and delivery of banned cargo.
One study explains that high unemployment rates in the Maritimes in the s were more crippling for women than for men, a fact that propelled many single mothers — some of them, of course, war widows — into smuggling.
A Mrs. Donnie Hart of Saint John stands as a good example: arrested no less than once every year between and , she worked as a bootlegger in order to provide for her family. Prohibition combined several contradictory forces. It was a manifestation of democratic will, a case of state intervention in the economy, and it was instrumental in building up urban police forces as well. Simultaneously, it diminished the rights of the individual, curtailed urban enterprise, and made public policy of private morality.
It was both a modern and anti-modern force see Chapter Both sides in this debate advanced the use and sophistication of modern advertising as they campaigned for, on the one side, hearts and minds, and on the other, dry throats and vulnerable livers. The campaign against liquor, then, introduces a panoply of historical themes. They organized large anti-prohibition protests in response to the ban.
As the patriotic fervor of WWI faded away with the passage of time, more Canadians grew unhappy with prohibition and sought way to get around the law. I will discuss the prohibition era and the consequences of the ban in the next blog post.
Belshaw, John Douglas. BC Open Textbooks. Pg Chouinard, Annie. Hallowell, Gerald. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Canada, Like Like. I guess prohibitionists wanted people to be happy with their lots in life?
Thanks for reading! The numbers in favour of prohibition in Nova Scotia are crazy!! Like Liked by 1 person. The rate of participation just counts all eligible voters.
Prohibition was really popular in the Maritimes! April 25, May 1, Alcohol Consumption in 19th Century Canada Taking a beer break c. The Failed Referendum By , the temperance movement had grown strong enough to convince the Laurier government to hold a national referendum on prohibition. Take a look at the numbers: [ Source ] Note : To learn more about the referendum, click here. World War I and Prohibition The Great War gave the temperance movement the boost it needed to succeed in obtaining prohibition.
So how did most returning soldiers feel about prohibition? One half mile of barmen along Yonge Street during anti-prohibition parade in Toronto March 8, [Source: LAC ] As the patriotic fervor of WWI faded away with the passage of time, more Canadians grew unhappy with prohibition and sought way to get around the law.
Did You know? All provinces went dry between and except Prince Edward Island, which outlawed booze in Sales of liquor in provincial liquor control commission stores began again in the s, and public drinking was allowed around the same time or a few years later, depending on the province.
Last Call: Canadians and Alcohol more Alcohol devastates developing brains A House of Commons report sounds the alarm on the preventable problem of fetal alcohol syndrome. LCBO celebrates 60 years Ontario's liquor commission begins opening specialty wine boutiques. Moonshine on the Island An old tradition of making one's own homebrew is still thriving on Prince Edward Island. Alcohol and Aboriginal people Fed up with the devastation caused by drinking, some reserves in Canada ban alcohol altogether.
Moreover, as the prominent prohibitionist Francis Spence noted in , too much beer, like too much wine or spirits, would result in drunkenness. Spence was speaking from experience. He grew up in Toronto—with its more than a thousand grog shops in —and personally witnessed the type of inebriation that caused Buckingham such concern. The Dominion Alliance would pressure the government to prohibit the production and consumption of booze, and simultaneously change the culture surrounding tippling.
Unlike his predecessor, Prime Minister Mackenzie abhorred drink. Nevertheless, he felt that on this issue the people should decide. Consequently, in , his government passed the Scott Act, giving local governments the right to prohibit, by popular vote, the retail sale of alcohol.
The passage of the act was the first federal legislative salvo launched in the battle over the bottle, and it came as a wake-up call for those engaged in brewing. Shortly thereafter, John Carling, the brewer-turned-Member of Parliament, wrote to a few of his brewing friends calling for collective reaction.
It was a new approach for Carling. He was usually content to work alone, behind the scenes, promoting his interests and, incidentally, those of other London-Middlesex brewers. During the s, the brothers Carling expanded their plant to take advantage of emerging technologies and markets.
The brothers decided to protect this huge investment by having John Carling enter local politics. The sop did not go unnoticed. As an MP, Carling represented London almost continuously between and The only time he was out of politics was during the Liberal years of to The latter period also saw the formation of the Dominion Alliance and the ratification of the Scott Act. The brewing lobby had reason to be optimistic about its chances. But on Parliament Hill there was no craving to revisit the liquor question.
Even Macdonald—a man who enjoyed his drink almost as much as he did his political power—was unwilling to defend the liquor traffic.
Like such contemporary issues as abortion, marijuana use, and gay marriage, the prohibition of alcohol split nineteenth-century Canadians down the middle. In Quebec, support was negligible, whereas in the rural communities of English-speaking Canada support was relatively high. A man whose paramount concern was always unity, Macdonald was unwilling to take any action that might divide his party and the country.
The brewers were themselves divided. But there were some who lobbied the Senate for an exemption to the act that would allow for the sale of beer. Still others actually supported the law the way it was because it contained a loophole: nothing stopped brewers in dry municipalities from shipping their beer elsewhere.
Lacking a businesslike structure, the CBMA was unable to maintain the solidarity of brewers and rein in dissidents within the industry. To make matters worse, while the brewers were becoming increasingly divided, the prohibitionists were becoming more united. Furthermore, the prohibitionists realized something the brewers did not: this was a cultural battle as much as a political one; a fight for the hearts and minds of Canadians, as much as for having influence in the corridors of power.
As early as , Francis Spence recognized this was going to be a long war. Culture and morality would take time to change. The prohibitionists might lose battles along the way, he thought, but by changing mindsets they would ultimately win the war.
Prohibitionists kept driving home the message that the liquor traffic had to go. Alcohol, they said, caused poverty, misery, crime, poor health, and insanity. In the s, prohibitionists worked to have this message heard by the most impressionable members of society. The brewers counterattacked with ads that promised better health with beer. Were they being worn down by the prohibitionist rhetoric?
In the twilight of his career, John Carling spent much of his time lobbying for government funds to build an insane asylum, perhaps motivated by a sense of guilt and the prohibitionist rhetoric linking alcohol consumption to insanity. The ambivalence of brewers to their own profession was further reflected during the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic, appointed to study the feasibility of a national prohibition law.
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