What is John A. Macdonald鈥檚 second most famous saying? Everyone knows about 鈥淎s for myself 鈥� a British subject I was born. A British subject I will die.鈥�
Or everyone did know when history was compulsory and dealt in important dates and famous people. But what鈥檚 second on the list?
My bet is: 鈥淚 must have another $10,000. Will be the last time of calling. Do not fail me. Answer today.鈥� That was from his telegram to railwayman Sir Hugh Allan just before the 1872 election.
Some historians say it was a Liberal forgery, but all agree Macdonald鈥檚 campaign received big cash injections from the railway syndicate his government favoured for fulfilling the National Dream.
When I learned 91原创 history, just as Marxism crested in the universities, there was even a view that Confederation itself was mainly for the convenience of British bondholders, for whom a larger political entity would reduce the risk of owning colonial debt.
If wealth did have such power in those days, well, bully for wealth! Both Confederation and the CPR were very good things.
In the interests of bipartisanship, recall that in 1930, when Liberal prime minister Mackenzie King lost the federal election and discovered the office of leader of the opposition did not come with a car, Sam McLaughlin, president of General Motors of Canada, simply sent him a Cadillac. King could afford his own Cadillac.
In the 1920s, a business group headed by the president of the Salada Tea Company had put together a fund of $225,000 鈥� $2.9 million in today鈥檚 money 鈥� to enable him to pursue politics.
There was also the famous case of the senator/head of a power company building dams for the government who picked up the tab for a vacation he and King spent in Bermuda and New York 鈥� and then stupidly billed it to his company. Cost in today鈥檚 dollars: $10,999.
Such easy contact with prominent politicians must have given wealthy 91原创s great influence over government policy, not to mention that in Canada鈥檚 first decades, there were still property requirements for voting.
Things are different today. Politicians may yet spend more time with people at the top than the bottom of the income ladder, if only because the employees, consultants, lobbyists and media people they deal with daily are from the upper ranges.
But we are much more fastidious about money and contact. People who want to pitch policy to the government must register as lobbyists and record all contacts.
At the Lobbyist Registration website you can search by public official to find out who鈥檚 been seeing whom. I鈥檓 happy to report that last year my own industrious university was 12th by number of contacts with 鈥淔laherty, James.鈥�
Election finance is similarly transparent and there are strict limits on both contributions and party spending. Elections Canada鈥檚 search engine lets you see who contributes how much to which federal parties.
Politicians鈥� lifeblood is votes, and voters are mainly middle class. Even the NDP worries less about 鈥渨orking 91原创s鈥� and now focuses on the middle class, as does Justin Trudeau, as does Stephen Harper, who, as Toronto elites keep reminding us, is as middle-class as you get. These days, parties identified with wealth are going to lose.
Of course, in 2013 the whole idea that anyone has power seems a little dated, as former Foreign Policy editor-in-chief Moises Naim argues in a new book only slightly longer than its title: The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being in Charge Isn鈥檛 What It Used to Be.
Sir John A. eventually got his railway. Today鈥檚 91原创 power elite wants a pipeline to the 91原创. Does anybody believe that鈥檚 going to happen?
William Watson teaches economics at McGill University.
