The Man from Halifax: Sir John Thompson, Prime Minister

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Sir John Thompson was one of the group of Conservative Prime Ministers who served after Macdonald’s death and before Laurier’s election victory in 1896. Most of those Prime Ministers have been forgotten by Canadians, and even those who do remember them quite probably cannot place them in the proper order. Insofar as Thompson is concerned, this is unfortunate. Thompson died in office at the age of 49. One wonders what would have happened had he lived.

Professor Waite is to be commended for this book. It is a magnificent biography of Thompson, but it is also a first-rate social history of Canada, particularly of Halifax and Nova Scotia during the period of Thompson’s life, from 1845 to his death at Windsor Castle in 1894. Whether or not one agrees with Waite’s assumption that Thompson had the potential to be “a greater Prime Minister” than Macdonald or Laurier is perhaps unimportant. What does come forth from this book is that Thompson deserves to be remembered not for the fact that he was a Minister at the time of Riel’s execution, on that he was the only ex-provincial Premier (other than Sir John A.) to become Prime Minister, or that not only was his death at 49 a loss to his party and his country, but it altered Canadian history. If Thompson had lived, would Laurier have won in 1896?

Waite is a compassionate biographer. Indeed, he can be accused of falling into the trap that seems to ensnare many biographers — the trap of becoming too close to their subject.

He might also be criticized for being loquacious — indeed, longwinded. However, as one reads the book, one obtains a better understanding of the need for length and an appreciation for the exactness of many of his descriptions.

It is also obvious that the book has been written by an academic, in that 83 pages are devoted to footnotes. However, these notes are most beneficial and the book would be the poorer without them.

Waite’s own description, contained in the Preface, of how the Thompson papers languished in the family basement in Toronto for many years, and then in the basement of the Rideau Club, should be required reading for not only every archivist, but every public figure. One shudders with horror at the thought that the fire that destroyed the Rideau Club might also have destroyed Sir John Thompson’s papers if they had not been moved some years earlier to the Archives.

In short, Waite has produced what must be classified as one of the finest historical biographies to be written in this country in many years. Not only is it a work of interest to the general public, but it is a gold mine of information for students. For those, like this reviewer, who currently reside in Nova Scotia, it has the additional bonus of being a useful social history of their province. But it is a social history not just of Nova Scotia, but of much of Canada, as the description of Thompson’s 1894 holiday in Muskoka illustrates.

The book is well written and a joy to read. Professor Waite deserves the praise he has received for this work.