A LIBERAL BACK-BENCHER IN THE MACDONALD REGIME: THE
POLITICAL CAREER OF JOHN HENRY
FAIRBANK 0F PETROLIA.
By
Edward Phelps*
- 1 -
Introduction
John Henry Fairbank, Member of
Parliament for the riding of East
Lambton between 1882 and 1887, entered
politics in the midst of a pros-
perous business career. A
staunch Liberal, he had never previously
held elective office apart from that
of village Reeve, nor did he take
an active part in politics after he
retired from parliament. As an
Opposition back-bencher, during the
years when the Conservative Party
under the leadership of Sir John A.
Macdonald enjoyed a strong majority,
Fairbank exerted little or no
influence on government policy, nor made
any lasting mark in the political
annals of the country. His surviving
papers, however, afford an interesting
view of the activities of a
typical Ontario M.P. during this
period.1
A descendent of a long line of New
England colonists and soldiers,
J.H. Fairbank was born at Rouses
Point, New York, on 21 July 1831. With
no resources but his capacity for hard
work, he left his home in 1853 at
the age of 22 to make a living in
Ontario, then called Canada West.
Settling at Niagara Falls, he boarded
at the home of Hermanus Crysler,
and worked as a surveyor. On 8
September 1855 he married Edna Crysler,
his landlord's daughter, and settled
down to a quiet life of farming,
with occasional surveying work and a
fire insurance agency as sidelines.
In March 1861 Fairbank accepted an
assignment to survey some bush
land in the recently opened Lambton
County oil field, 150 miles to the
west. This opportunity proved to
be the key to Fairbank's future career,
for it introduced him at first hand to
the booming oil industry and a way
of life very different from the placid
existence to which he had been
accustomed. Leaving his wife and
two small sons on the farm at Niagara
Falls, he returned again to Oil
Springs after the survey was finished
to try his luck in oil. He
risked his own meagre savings and all the
money he could borrow in drilling a
well. After an agonizing period
of initial failure, his first venture
succeeded and after three years
of hard work during which he acquired
several more wells and a small
refinery, Fairbank was launched on a
successful career in the oil
business. From a shoe-string
operator, like hundreds around him, he
*Mr, Edward
Phelps, Secretary of the Lambton County Historical Society
and
a member of the Library staff at
the University of Western Ontario,
completed
his degree of Master of Arts
in May 1965. The Subject of his
M.A.
thesis is John Fairbank - A
Canadian Entrepreneur.
1-'The Fairbank Papers were generously
donated to the U.W.O. Library by
Mr.
Charles 0.
Fairbank, a grandson of the subject of this article.
*
The collection is
described by the writer in Western Ontario Historical
Notes,
XVII, 2
(Sept. 1961), pp. 89-91.
2
rose rapidly to command the confidence
of the business community at Oil
Springs and secured for his absent
family whom he frequently visited, a
standard of living much higher than
they had known before. When in 1865
Oil Springs declined, nearly becoming
a ghost town, its oil wells having
given out, Fairbank became one of the
pioneers who opened up a rich new
and permanent oil field six miles to
the north at Petrolia. By 1866 he
had definitely cast in his lot with
the oil industry, He therefore sold
his old farm and moved his family into
a new home on the main street of
this thriving village which had so
recently sprung from the wilderness.
Over the next forty years Fairbank
built up a local business
empire by investing the growing
profits from oil in closely related
enterprises. In 1865 he started
a grocery, liquor and hardware store
which in 1874 evolved into a hardware
and oil well supply business.
This enterprise was undertaken in
partnership with Major Banjamin
VanTuyl. Now (1966) in its one
hundred and first year, VanTuyl &
Fairbank may be the oldest business in
Petrolia. In 1866 Fairbank took
a leading role in building a railway
line to join Petrolia with
Wyoming, five miles to the north on
the Great Western Railway. An
important link to the oil fields, the
little railroad was soon after-
wards purchased by the latter
company. Fairbank also took an active
interest in civic affairs throughout
his long career: to name
only
three of his community services, he
acted as Reeve of Petrolia during
the years 1868 to 1870, as Fire Chief
from 1874 to 1889, and as
Chairman of the Board of Health for
several years.
In the year 1869 Fairbank greatly
expanded his business operations
by establishing, in partnership with
Leonard B. Vaughn, one of Petrolia's
most useful institutions: a
bank. This firm operated for fifteen years
before it encountered competition from
branches of regular chartered
banks. Vaughn & Fairbank
thus
played a leading role in the orderly
commercial development of the crude
oil industry in Western Ontario.
Despite the size and variety of his
other interests, Fairbank
remained first and foremost a producer
of crude oil. At the height
of his career he was the largest
single producer in Canada and for
this reason was the chief of the
acknowledged leaders of the industry.
He participated in several
combinations formed by the producers be-
tween 1862 and 1889 when they were
contending with the refiners for
domination of the Western Ontario oil
industry. 2
2 The first of
these combinations appears to have been the Canada Oil
Association,
formed at Oil Springs in 1862. It is described in this
writer's
article, "The Canada Oil Association - an Early Business
Combination,"
in Western Ontario Historical Notes, XIX, 2 (Sept.
1963),
pp. 31-39. James Kerr, a contemporary of Fairbank, assigned
the
latter first place among the oil producers in an article, "The
Oil
Belt," in the Toronto Mail, 1 December 1888. (Reprinted as "An
early
view of Petrolia. Ontario," in Western Ontario Historical
Notes,
XVII, 2 (Sept. 1962), pp. 57-91.)
Notes.XVII, 2 {Sept. 1962 }, pp. 57-91}
3
Sometimes this involved
setting up a refinery in competition with those
already established. Fairbank was
involved, by his own account, in no
less than seven refining ventures over
a period of thirty years. Apart
from his interests in banking, oil and
hardware, Fairbank also engaged
in manufacturing and farming.
While many of his contemporaries found
that their heavy business
responsibilities precluded them from
taking an active part in politics,
Fairbank was an exception. At
some time in his career, he evidently
took the Oath of Allegiance which
permitted him to become a naturalized
Canadian citizen, and later took
enough interest in party politics to
become a conscious adherent of the
Liberal Party.3
As Fairbank left no papers concerning
his early involvement in
politics, one can only speculate on
the circumstances leading to his
choice of the Reform, rather than the
Tory party. The constituency of
Lambton had been traditionally Liberal
since its formation in 1854.
From 1861 to 1882 it was the riding of
Alexander Mackenzie, who was
Canada's Prime Minister for the years
1873 to 1878. During Mackenzie's
tenure, however, a pocket of
Conservative opposition had emerged in
the heart of the riding. Here,
at Petrolia and Oil Springs, the
growing population of oilmen
traditionally voted Conservative because
the survival of their industry
depended upon the maintenance of
strong protective tariffs against
American imports. Doctrinaire
Reformers had been making disturbing
statements for years in favour
of free trade, which oilmen feared
would wipe out the oil trade of
Canada along with many other home
industries.
In the face of disapproval from the
majority of his business
colleagues, Fairbank's choice of the
Reform Party is rather surprising.
As a strong individualist, of course,
Fairbank was accustomed to making
up his mind independently on political
matters. At the start he quite
possibly contributed to the campaign
funds of both parties, as has been
the custom of many wealthy individuals
and corporations. As a prominent
Lambton businessman, however, Fairbank
soon came to know Alexander
Mackenzie, his representative at the
capital. It seems safe to assume
that personal regard for the future
Prime Minister, rather than political
expedience, dictated his choice of the
Reform Party. To a certain extent
the careers
3
The terms "Liberal" and "Reformer" have been used interchangeably
by
the writer, following the usage of recent Canadian historical
writing.
Contemporary writers and speakers generally used the
name
"Reform" to distinguish that party from the "Liberal-Conser-
vatives,"
more often simply called the "Conservatives."
To
become a Canadian (i.e. British) citizen, an alien had
to
prove three years' residence in Canada, declare his intention
to
remain, and take an oath of allegiance. This procedure entitled
the
naturalized citizen to all the political rights enjoyed by a
British
citizen,
(Canada.
Revised Statutes, 1886, cap.113, sec.15)
4
of Fairbank and Mackenzie were
parallel: both men rose 'to the top from
humble beginnings, and both were
practical, direct, honest, and un-
sophisticated in their approach to
politics and business. Fairbank
could not of course, follow the Reform
leader without accepting the
Reform policies. Mackenzie,
however, was inclined to be realistic in
his views on free trade, and favored
the protection of industries
already established. Both
Fairbank and Mackenzie were convinced that
free trade, or unrestricted
reciprocity, was an unacceptable policy
for any Canadian party. (Not
until 1891 did the Liberal Party fight
an election mainly on this
issue. This action was bitterly denounced
by the two men, by then retired from
politics.) Since Fairbank flew
in the face of local opinion when he
cast in his lot with the Liberals
he must have been delighted when, in
1876, the government of Alexander
Mackenzie confirmed the protective oil
tariff previously imposed by
the Conservatives.
Fairbank's importance in the political
hierarchy of his home
riding of Lambton was established by
1872-3 when he was chosen on
two separate occasions to nominate
Alexander Mackenzie as the local
candidate for the House of
Commons. In a traditionally Reform riding
which had no dearth of political
stalwarts, this choice would come
as a distinct honor to any man.
The first nomination took place on
21 August 1872 in the general election
when Mackenzie was leader of
the opposition, the second occurred
fifteen months later. The Pacific
Scandal had just brought about the
downfall of the Macdonald govern-
ment on a want of confidence motion,
and Alexander Mackenzie was
named Prime Minister. He
immediately returned home to Sarnia for the
by-election rendered necessary by his
appointment to the government.
On 25 November 1873 Mackenzie was duly
nominated, and re-elected by
acclamation amidst great rejoicing
among the Reformers of Lambton
and the entire country.
Fairbank during the next ten years was
one of the prominent
supporters to whom Mackenzie, first as
Prime Minister and then again
(1878-1880) as Leader of
the Opposition, turned for advice on local
matters. Fairbank
probably never imagined in those years that he
would be called upon to succeed
Mackenzie when the latter ultimately
relinquished the Lambton riding.
-ii-
J.H. Fairbank's election to
Parliament, 1882.
Between 1873 and 1882 Fairbank devoted
the major share of his
attention to his business affairs,
following closely the progress
of the Mackenzie administration in
Ottawa through the Toronto Globe
and other Reform papers. When
his ministry fell in the general
election of 1878 Mackenzie easily
retained the safe Lambton seat.
In 1881, his health failing, the
leader decided to contest the riding
of York East, close to his new home in
Toronto, instead of attempting
5
to represent Lambton and his old
neighbors whom he now saw but seldom. 4
Thus deprived of Mackenzie, the
Reformers of Lambton cast about
for the man in their midst best
equipped to carry the Liberal standard.
They considered Fairbank, knowing of
his popularity, his competence,
his loyalty, and his fortune.
Fairbank declined to stand for the riding,
maintaining that the state of his
health would not permit the necessary
canvassing and the physical
inconveniences of a campaign in what was
then a sizeable riding.5 He
consented, however, to act as Chairman
of a Mackenzie Testimonial
Committee. During the year 1882 this group
collected $5,500 as a gift to
Alexander Mackenzie in appreciation of
his years of service to Lambton
County, which had seen the loss of his
health and most of his money.6
While the Lambton reformers debated
the choice of a successor
to the illustrious Mackenzie, events
in Ottawa complicated their problem,
During the session of 1882 the
Conservative government of Sir John A.
Macdonald introduced a redistribution
bill with the purpose of giving
the country more adequate
representation by population, using the
figures compiled for the census of
1881. The Prime Minister "decided
4. Dale C.
Thomson, Alexander Mackenzie; Clear Grit (Toronto, 1960), p.370.
5.
The Watford Advocate-Adviser, 26 May 1882, carried a lengthy report
on
the Reform Convention held at Watford on 23 May.
J.H. Fairbank and his son Major Charles Fairbank compiled two books
of
clippings concerning their political activities, which
the
present owner, Mr. Charles 0. Fairbank, of Petrolia, made avail-
able
to the writer. Most of the newspapers cited in connection with
the
election of 1882 have been consulted through these clippings.
The
collection of clippings is of outstanding value for two reasons.
No
files have survived for some of the papers clipped, while the
Fairbanks
saved items hostile to their cause, as well as those that
were
sympathetic. Unfortunately, in some cases neither the name
of
the newspaper nor the date was recorded.
6.
A two-page circular, entitled "To the Reformers of Lambton," and
dated
28 February 1882, probably compiled by Fairbank (copy in
Fairbank
Papers), was composed to bring the matter before Mackenzie's
Lambton
friends. Thomson, op.cit., p. 375 records the presentation.
The
Toronto Globe said, "It is rare indeed that any statesman, how-
ever
eminent his rank or distinguised his career, has received such
a
signal mark of esteem and friendship as was presented to the Hon.
Alexander
Mackenzie, M.P., last evening at his residence by a depu-
tation
from his former constituency of Lambton." (October 1882;
exact
date unavailable at time of writing.)
6
to take the opportunity, as he put it,
to 'hive the Grits'. Ignoring
municipal and county borders, he
rearranged the constituencies in a
brazen attempt to give his candidates
every possible advantage in the
election. Reform-minded Lambton
was divided."7
Sarnia, the county
town, together with the townships of
Plympton, Sarnia, Moore, Sombra,
Dawn, and Euphemia were reluctantly
conceded to the Liberals as the
old stronghold of Mackenzie. The
town of Petrolia and the townships
of Enniskillen, Brooke, Warwick, and
Bosanquet, which together had
generally yielded a majority for the
Conservatives, were erected into
a new riding known as East
Lambton. Because of the past voting record
and known Conservative leanings, of
the oil district, this constituency
had obviously been "cut out as a Tory
preserve".8
In the election of
1878 as part of the Lambton riding the
area had returned a Conservative
majority of eighty-six.9 In
1882 the Lambton Reformers had to find
not one candidate, but two.
Although Fairbank, for reasons of
health, had declined to canvass
all Lambton as a candidate for the
House of Commons, he agreed to stand
for the much smaller new riding of
East Lambton, where he was more widely
known than in the rest of the
county. On 23 May 1882, he was unanimously
chosen as the Liberal candidate at a
large and enthusiastic convention
at Watford.10
About the same time, the West Lambton Reformers chose
Joseph F. Lister, a prominent Sarnia
Lawyer, to contest that seat, regarded
as a safe Liberal constituency.11
7.
Thomson, op.cit, p. 373. D.G. Creighton, John A. Macdonald:
the
Old
Chieftain (Toronto, 1955), p. 335, says, "The redistribution
was
designed to secure a party advantage. Liberal voters were to
be
concentrated in as few ridings as possible, thus increasing the
Conservatives'
chances of success."
8
."Mr. Fairbank's election for a constituency that was especially cut
out
for a Tory preserve was doubly gratifying." (Unidentified
clipping,
Fairbank scrapbooks).
9.
In a letter thanking his supporters, Fairbank said, "Starting
against
an adverse majority of 86, you have won by 165." (Petrolia
Advertiser,
30 June 1882).
10.
Watford Advocate-Adviser, 26 May 1882; Toronto Globe, 24 May 1882.
11.
Mr.
Lister's return, though regarded as certain, was very grati-
fying
by reason of the large majorities he received in all parts
of
the riding, testifying to his personal popularity as well as
proving
that old Lambton is sound to the core, politically."
(Unidentified
clipping; Fairbank scrapbooks).
7
Feeling sure of winning East Lambton,
the Conservatives had already
chosen on 18.May 1882 another
Sarnia lawyer, John Alexander Mackenzie
(1837-1894), to carry their standard
against Fairbank .12
"He was un-
doubtedly the ablest, and individually
the strongest man in the ranks
of the Tory party in Lambton;"13
possibly his intended election from
a safe seat/was meant to herald a
lifetime parliamentary career. Al-
though unrelated.to the former member,
Alexander Mackenzie, the new
rival had the advantage of possessing
his famous name, which may have
delivered a few votes to him from the
ranks of the politically un-
sophisticated portion of the
electorate. (His Christian names had an
entirely different political
significance.) Because Mackenzie lived
outside the riding, however, he was
unable to counter Fairbank's
appeal to the local loyalties, which,
in the view of this writer,
was the key to Fairbank's victory in
the election of 1882.
The election campaign was short and
sharp, with the outcome in
doubt to the end. A contemporary
newspaper eloquently summarized the
East Lambton situation.
The thought that one of its ridings
might be made a resting
place for a Tory representative nerved
the Reformers of the
county to unwonted exertions. In
the East the fight was un-
usually sharp and exciting. The
odds there, judging by the
result of the 1878 elections, were
greatly in favour of the
Government candidate. [John A.
Mackenzie] ... Failure under
his leadership meant a long farewell
to Tory hopes in either
riding of the county. Men threw
themselves into the contest,
on each side, who had never exerted
themselves in an election
before; excitement grew to fever heat
as the polling-day
approached, and both sides counted
upon victory as certain.14
During the four-week campaign the two
candidates canvassed the
small riding energetically and spoke
at numerous election meetings where
they often confronted each other over
the issues at stake. While
Mackenzie generally received warm
support from his hearers for his
enunciation of Macdonald's National
Policy, which found favour in
East Lambton, Fairbank made a
wide-ranging attack on the whole record
of the Conservative government as well
as its National Policy. Indeed,
12.
Petrolia Advertiser, 2 June
1882. As if to emphasize their lack
of
concern over the riding, the
Conservatives nominated their
absentee
candidate at a convention
held outside the riding - at
Wyoming,
five miles north of
Petrolia. Wyoming was in West Lambton.
13.
Quoted from an unidentified
clipping entitled "The Lambtons".
(Fairbank
scrapbook ]
14.
Ibid.
8
Mackenzie "thought it very unfair of
Mr. Pardee and Mr. Fairbank to
introduce other questions than the
N.P., which was really the Issue now
before the electors."15.
Mackenzie proved no match for Fairbank's
speaking and debating skill.
It was plain ... that the progress of
the canvass was favourable
to Mr. Fairbank. In every way
the comparison between the two
candidates was to the latter's
advantage. He developed unexp-
ected strength on the platform,
proving more than a match for
his opponent in argument, while his
friends worked like heroes
in his behalf among the electors ...
Mr. Fairbank ... is so
full of dry humour, that ... his
political speeches are made
doubly interesting by his pointed
sallies of wit.16
15.
The Sarnia Observer commented
sarcastically, "Mr. J. A. Mackenzie
repeated
the speech made by him at
Thedford the previous evening,
the
only variation being the laughable
simplicity with which he read
extracts
of Sir John Macdonald's
speeches, and sought to Impose them
on
his audience as evidence of such
unimpeachable veracity, that
they
could not be any possibility be
doubted." (2 June 1882).
16.
Unidentified clipping, "The
Lambtons," in the Fairbank scrapbooks,
The
Toronto Grip, 3 June 1882, printed
a cartoon on the front page
entitled,
"The Skippers in the
Cheese," which was inspired by a remark
of
Fairbank's. On page 2, under
"Cartoon comments," Grip said, "At
length
a nickname has been invented to
describe the Tories and offset
their
stinging phrase, "Flies on the
Wheel," as applied to the Grits.
To
Mr. J. H. Fairbank, of Petrolia,
the Oppositionists are Indebted
for
this addition to their political
vocabulary. In the course of
his
speech accepting the nomination
for East Lambton, Mr. Fairbank
christened
his opponents "Skippers in
the Cheese," and proceeded at
some
length to point out the aptness
of the parallel. Both sides
are
now happy."
The
Watford Advocate-Adviser (26 May
1882) reported of this
episode,
"As an offset to the
courteous designation of "flies on
the
wheel" it struck him [Fairbank]
that "Skippers in the Cheese,"
could
be appropriately applied to the
present Ministry and its
attendant
hordes of
office-seekers. (Laughter.) In many respects
they
closely resembled each other;
indeed, there was quite a resemblance,
Their
habits were very similar.
Skippers get blown into the curd,
or
cheese, and this is the way the
Tories get into power - generally
by
some neglect on the cart of the
people. When the skippers get in
they
don't want to leave. So it
is with the Tories. Indeed, the
latter
appear to think that they have
some sort of a Divine right to
the
position, and that the cheese is
far better for their being there,
although
a good many other people
think differently. He knew of only
one
more unhappy sight than a skipper
out of cheese, and that was a
Tory
out of office.
9
Fairbank's personal victory in the
election of 1882 was doubly
significant in the light of the
political issues involved. The great
issue of the campaign was Macdonald's
National Policy, and its coro-
llary, protective tariffs.17
The
life of Canada's oil industry, to-
gether with the economy of East
Lambton, depended entirely upon the
maintenance of a high duty against
American oil.18.
For this reason
the oil district was mainly
Conservative. The Liberals, on the other
hand, were committed to low tariffs
and a laissez-faire economic policy,
at least in theory.19. Fairbank,
as a Liberal, and a leader of the oil
industry, was trying to reconcile
contradictory policies, according to
his opponents, who gleefully made the
most of his apparent predicament.
Mr. Fairbank has done what Mr. Lister
has had sense enough
to avoid doing - he has put himself
squarely on record as
in favour of absolute Free
Trade. That is, in everything
but oil. When Mr. Fairbank talks
oil in Petrolia, he is a
ver-y good protectionist; when he gets
twenty miles from
home, beyond the disturbing influence
of the oil trade and
the oil men's votes, he is a Free
Trader after Bastiat's own
heart ... The sum of the whole matter
... is that the po-
sition of the candidate who appeals
for the support of the
oil interest of Lambton on a Free
Trade platform is so utter-
ly illogical and untenable, that it
only needs to be stated
in plain English for its absurdity to
be made clear.20.
17.
Sarnia Observer, 2 June 1882;
Petrolia Advertiser, 9 June 1882.
18.
Petrolia Advertiser, 9 June
1882. The tariff issue occupied as
much
as half of the total newspaper
coverage of the East Lambton
election.
19.
Creighton, op.cit., p. 337-8, and
Thomson, op.cit., p. 372-77,
describe
the difficulties experienced
by Blake and the Liberals
over
their tariff policies.
20.
Petrolia Advertiser, 16 June 1882;
quoting from the Sarnia
Canadian;
Frederic Bastiat
(1801-1850), a French political
economist,
legislator, and writer,
"was an influential opponent
of
the protective system and of
socialism". (New Century
Cyclopedia
of Names, New York, 1954,
v.l. p. 382.)
10
Fairbank countered these objections,
which he had foreseen, by reminding
the voters that the previous Liberal
government, given the occasion to
change the high protective duty on
oil, had confirmed it in principle.21.
Fairbank pointed out that the present
tariff was seriously defective in
many qualities. He said the
proper line for this country was between a
moderate and an extreme tariff.
He quoted the words of Hon. Alex.
Mackenzie, "No honest statesman can
disregard industries already
established." 22
In typical laissez-faire fashion,
Fairbank disposed of the National,
Policy. John A. Mackenzie,
criticizing the previous Liberal administra-
tion for not trying to relieve the
depression by legislative means, said,
"The present government ... gave us
protection called the National Policy,
and immediately there was a revival in
trade; confidence was restored.23.
Fairbank, on the other hand, scoffed
at government intervention in the
economy.
The increase of our exports in 1881
over 1879 from ... the farm
and the forest was $32,000,000.
This has largely increased our
purchasing power and benefitted
business generally. When the
Government claims that to it (the
Government) is due credit for
the improvement of the times, it
simply offers an insult to your
intelligence.24...
All men who
had studied the question, knew
that these depressions occur
periodically and that they were
totally out of reach of
government. When a government has
21.
Fairbank promised East Lambton that
he would "resist to the uttermost
any
attacks on our established
business rights: rights which were con-
firmed
to us by the Mackenzie
Government six years ago in spite of
strong
opposition". (Petrolia
Advertiser, 9 June 1882)
Fairbank
must have been referring to
the protective duty on crude oil,
which
the Mackenzie government had
maintained at 6 cents per gallon
in
1877, although it had reduced the
duty on refined oil to 6 cents
from
15 cents. (Canada.
Statutes, 1877, 40 Vic. c.11, 3.2). In
1879
the Conservative government
maintained the duty on oil at the
same
level in the protective tariff in
the National Policy. (Canada,
Statutes,
1879, 42 Vie., c. 15,
Schedule "A") The duty of 7 1/5
cents
per imperial gallon in this act
was the same as 6 cents per
wine
gallon in the previous act.
22.
London Advertiser, 24 May 1882;
confirmed in Thomson, op.cit.,
p.
372.
23.
Petrolia Advertiser, 9 June 1882,
"To the Electors of the East
Riding
of Lambton".
24.
J.H. Fairbank, "To the Electors of
East Lambton", in Petrolia
Advertiser,
9 June 1882.
11
provided for maintaining order, and
for carrying on works of
too great magnitude for private
enterprise, it hc.s exhausted
its ability to deal satisfactorily
with internal affairs.25
The candidates waged a warm battle
over subsidiary issues of the
campaign. Fairbank attacked Sir
John A. Macdonald for his admitted
gerrymandering, which had caused the
creation of the East Lambton riding;
Mackenzie countered by accusing Oliver
Mowat, the Liberal Premier of On-
tario, of the same tactics.
Mackenzie supported his party's Canadian
Pacific Railway policy, while Fairbank
condemned the government for
setting up this monopoly and then
handing it over to a group of American
capitalists, when, he said, the
contract could have been let on better
terms to Canadians. Fairbank
claimed, and Mackenzie denied, that On-
tario's rights had been infringed when
its Streams and Waterways Act
had been disallowed, and the Manitoba
boundary award, favourable to
Ontario, had been rejected by the
federal government.26
Fairbank
appealed to the temperance cause in
Lambton for support as a fellow-
worker. Knowing that the
temperance vote was largely Liberal, the
Conservatives tried to split the
Liberal vote by encouraging temper-
ance men to run their own third
candidates in the election.27
The political issues of the day,
important as they were, took
second place in East Lambton to the
debate over the fitness of the
candidates to represent their
electorate. Fairbank, conceded a Con-
servative newspaper, was "a very
popular man in the oil regions."28
The Liberal papers sung his praises
eloquently.
Few gentlemen who have been long
associated with the trade
in this district but can recall some
pleasing remembrances
of his business contact with John H.
Fairbank.” 29
Mr. Fairbank ... has been a resident
of Canada for about
thirty years; he has discharged all
the duties of citizen-
ship during that time in a manner that
has commanded the
respect of all who know him; he has
filled public offices
25
Watford Advocate-Adviser, 26 May
1882.
26
The Sarnia Observer, 2 June 1882,
carried a lengthy report on the
Fairbank-Mackenzie
debates. See
Creighton, op.cit. , Vol.11, pp.
379,
388-9 regarding these issues.
27
Ibid.
28
London Free Press, 21 June 1882.
29
Petrolea Topic clipping; date
unknown (Fairbank scrapbooks).
12
of trust to the satisfaction of
everybody, and as a business
man has proved himself far-seeing and
successful. As one of
the pioneers in the oil industry in
Lambton and an extensive
operator, he has done more to develop
the resources of this
county and to build up thriving towns
and villages, where but
a few years ago the country was a
tangled network of forest and
swamp, than any half-dozen of those
who endeavor to scoff him
down as an alien.30
Even Fairbank's business success came
under attack. While a Liberal
paper observed, "Fairbank is a
practical business man and has made a fortune
in our own county in the last thirty
years,"31
opposition papers linked
his wealth to monopoly.
Mr. Fairbank has grown rich by a
monopoly which is protected to
.the extent of over 500 percent ...
When Mr. Lister wants to find
a man who has reaped a princely
fortune at the expense of the
great mass of consumers, against whom
to bring his crusade, where
will he find one who more aptly
answers his description than his
colleague, the Reform Candidate for
East Lambton, Mr. John H. Fairbank?"32
Whatever their opinions at election
time, the voters of East Lambton had no
intention of faulting Fairbank for his
wealth; most of them were engaged in
a mad scramble for money and envied
his success.
By way of contrast to Fairbank, whose
wealth was all invested locally,
John A. Mackenzie was pictured as the
representative of a town (Sarnia)
whose businessmen sought to wrest the
refining trade away from Petrolia.
The great objection always offered to
imported candidates in their
want of personal interest in the
welfare of the constituency and
their would-be constituents. The
candidature of John A. Mackenzie
is doubly objectionable to the people
of Petrolia. He is not only
an imported candidate, but is a
prominent citizen of a town which
makes no secret of its opposition to
the progress of this Corpor-
ation. Think of it, business
men, before you vote.33
... Petrolia is solicited to ...
assist in voting John A. Mackenzie
into a position where he will have
increased opportunities to gratify
the grasping proclivities of his
fellow-townsmen in Sarnia. Mer-
chants and businessmen ... can you
afford to give your support to a
candidate whose interests are
identical with a people avowedly your
business rivals, and who, if not
hostile to your prosperity, is at
least indifferent to it? ...
30.
Sarnia Observer, 9 June 1882.
3l.
Watford Advocate -Adviser, 16 June
1882.
32.
Petrolia Advertiser, 16 June 1882.
33.
Petrolea Topic, 15 June 1882.
13
In voting for Mr. John H. Fairbank you
drop your ballot for
a man largely interested like
yourselves in the town, and
the whole weight of whose influence
would be given to ensure
your, individual and collective
welfare, because it would at
the same time advance his own.34
As if to give credence to his alleged
indifference to the aspir-
ations of East Lambton, Mackenzie
"told the electors ... that for the
past twenty years he had been kept in
the County by the hope that 'some-
thing would turn up' in the oil
business for his benefit."35 The
Petrolea
Topic capitalized on this remark,
pressing its attack with evident relish:
When Mackenzie foolishly admitted this
to the electors of
the oil district he virtually sealed
his political doom.
The people who wait in this region of
active enterprise
invariably get left ... 36 while
he
has been standing
around, hands in pockets, idly waiting
for something to
turn up, John H. Fairbank has laid off
his coat and turned
the "something" up for himself.
This is just the glaring
difference between the two men, and as
it has been at home
so it would be in Parliament.
Mackenzie would wait for
favorable opportunities to turn up to
advance the interest
of his constituents, while Mr.
Fairbank, with the levers of
his intelligence, industry, and
energy, would turn up the
opportunities, and make them redound
to your advantage.37
While Fairbank and Mackenzie refrained
from personal attacks on each
other, their ardent followers were
less careful about avoiding putting slan- 
