Gough Barry M. Historical Dictionary of Canada

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320 • PACIFIC CABLE

multilateral tariffs but, because of various complications, ended with

certain bilateral arrangements. The conference adopted limited impe-

rial preference as the result of a new protective tariff adopted by the

British earlier that same year. See also COMMONWEALTH OF

NATIONS.

– P –

PACIFIC CABLE. A brainchild of Canadian scientist and telecom-

munications genius Sandford Fleming, the Pacific Cable stretched

underwater 6,000 kilometers from Bamfield, British Columbia, to

Fanning Island, south of Hawaii in the mid-Pacific, and became oper-

able on 31 October 1902. From Fanning Island, links were made to

Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and elsewhere. Altogether, the

Pacific Cable was known as the All-Red Route. The cable station at

Bamfield relayed the first telegraph message to circle the globe and

had military significance in both world wars. It set in motion commu-

nication advancements that led to fiber optic cable and satellite tech-

nology. The link gave the British Empire the ability to communicate

around the world in 10 to 12 hours. Radio diminished the value of

cable for commercial but not military traffic. The Bamfield cable sta-

tion, at one time employing 45 persons, was decommissioned in 1959.

The grounds are now used by the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center.

PACIFIC SCANDAL. It has been said that Canada was the creation

of the railway age. The completion of the transcontinental railway on

Canadian soil in 1885 (regular service established 1886) marked the

material link of communication from Atlantic to Pacific. Along the

way, there were many physical and technical difficulties. There were

also political and financial complications, as shown by the particulars

of the Pacific Scandal.

As of 1876, the Intercolonial Railway linked the Atlantic seaboard

and St. Lawrence waterways (essentially Halifax to Montréal, with

links to Toronto and Chicago). But British Columbians and oth-

ers were calling for a Canadian link to the Pacific (rather than via

the Union Pacific and Central Pacific route in the United States).

In fact, by the Terms of Union whereby British Columbia joined

Canada (1871), the Canadian government guaranteed completion of

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PACIFIC SCANDAL • 321

a railroad from central Canada to the Pacific within 10 years. Apart

from the physical, engineering, and topographical impediments, the

supreme question was how to finance this grand design, and this

brought government and private capital into a special relationship.

The key date was 1872, when the railway charter for a Canadian

Pacific Railway line was granted to Hugh Allan, a Montréal ship-

ping magnate and investor.

Information leaks revealed that Allan had contributed $300,000

to Conservative party coffers and to the personal bankrolls of John

A. Macdonald, the prime minister, and George Étienne Cartier. A

telegram from Macdonald to Allan read: “I must have another ten

thousand; will be the last time of calling; do not fail me.” These rev-

elations forced Macdonald to resign in November 1873.

An election was held in 1874, and the Liberal Party and its leader,

Alexander Mackenzie, were swept into power. The Liberals were

always lukewarm on building such a railway, arguing that trade by

rail could flow north and south via spur lines from U.S. railroad

systems. Macdonald was put into opposition for four years; the Con-

servatives had been discredited. Although the Liberals attempted to

pacify British Columbia (called by some at the time “the spoilt child

of confederation”), various delays ensued, owing to construction,

surveying, and engineering requirements or other difficulties. There

was also an economic depression in the late 1870s.

In 1878, the Conservatives were reelected. Under the Canadian

Pacific Railway Act (1880), the national enterprise was given new

life. This biggest corporate arrangement in 19th-century Canadian

history required various cash subsidies (originally $25 million), land

grants (25 million acres “fit for settlement”), 700 miles of existing

track, a 20-year holiday from paying corporate taxes, and 20 years to

complete the project. Another $27 million was required to complete

the railway, and this came from the public purse. On 7 November

1885, the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, near Golden, in

the heart of British Columbia’s mountain wilderness—bringing to

an end the saga of the Pacific Scandal. This was the biggest, most

significant issue in public policy making in the 1800s in Canada,

but Macdonald and the Conservatives survived it, and the Liberals

did not make sufficient gains at the expense of their rivals. See also

TRANSPORTATION.

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322 • PADLOCK LAW

PADLOCK LAW. Québec province’s anti-communist legislation, the

Padlock Law was enacted in 1937 by the Union Natíonale led by

Maurice Duplessis. The law authorized closure of premises suspected

of producing communist propaganda. Inasmuch as “communist” was

not defined or limited, the government hindered growth of the left-

wing Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and also used the

law against unions. In 1957, the Supreme Court of Canada declared

it unconstitutional.

PALLISER EXPEDITION. This 1857–1860 British expedition was

made under the sponsorship of the Royal Geographical Society and

was led by its initiator, Capt. John Palliser of the Royal Engineers.

The expedition examined three significant regions: the Canadian

Shield between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg, the prairies of

south Saskatchewan, and the passes of the Rocky Mountains. Pal-

liser kept a journal and made comprehensive reports, notably to the

Colonial Office in London. In the southwest of the western interior,

north of the 49th parallel, he found abundant good soil but decried

the extensive sandy wastelands that became known as Palliser’s Tri-

angle. These wastelands he thought unsuitable for settlement, but he

had visited this locale in a particularly arid year.

Scientific knowledge of this area was also advanced by the Henry

Youle Hind expedition, 1857–1858. Hind was a geologist and in-

structor at Trinity School in Toronto. The Canadian Red River,

Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition, to give it its

exact name, was funded by the Province of Canada. It gave a more

promising account of the possibilities of settlement in Saskatchewan

than Palliser. In consequence, the findings of the Hind expedition

were of value to the arguments of the Canadian expansionists who

looked west for enlargement of the political sphere of the Province

of Canada.

PAPINEAU, LOUIS-JOSEPH (1786–1871). As speaker of Lower

Canada’s House of Assembly, Papineau, a French Canadian lawyer,

championed independence from Great Britain, more self-government,

and separateness from Upper Canada. In 1832, he championed

legislation to allow Jews to be elected to the legislative assembly. As

one of the most remarkable and serious republican theorists of Cana-

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PARLBY, IRENE MARRYAT • 323

dian history, he led the Patriotes during the Rebellions of 1837 and

was charged with treason. Escaping to the United States, he returned

to his homeland after the General Amnesty of 1844. He left public

life to devote time to his family and his seigneurie. In 1850, he built

Manoir Papineau, a magnificent seigneurial house overlooking the

Ottawa River. It is a National Historic Site.

PARIS, TREATY OF. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven

Years War. The definitive treaty of peace and friendship between

the British, French, and Spanish kings was concluded in Paris on 10

February 1763. It is also known as the Peace of Paris. By it, France

ceded Canada to the British, retaining only St. Pierre and Miquelon

Islands as shelter to French fishers, and some residual fishing rights

(of fishing and drying on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland as

specified in the Treaty of Utrecht) and also in the Gulf of St. Law-

rence a distance of three leagues off shore. France also ceded all

territories east of the Mississippi River, Cape Breton Island, the St.

Lawrence Islands, Dominica, Tobago, the Grenadines, and Senegal

to Great Britain. The French renounced all pretensions to Nova Sco-

tia or Acadia, guaranteeing the whole to the British. Britain thereby

established its preeminence in North America. The British granted

the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada and

allowed worship of it as far as the laws of Great Britain permitted.

Spain surrendered East Florida to Great Britain but received by secret

arrangement the Louisiana Territory and New Orleans from France.

Great Britain returned Cuba to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique,

and other captured islands to France.

PARLBY, IRENE MARRYAT (1868–1965). Born in London, Eng-

land, to a military family, Parlby settled in Alberta in 1896. Married

to Oxford-educated Walter Parlby, she struggled to improve the lives

of Alberta farm women and children, who suffered from isolation,

poor health and dental care, and inadequate schooling. A suffrag-

ist, she stood for women’s rights. Becoming part of the populist

conservatism of Alberta, she joined the United Farmers of Alberta,

became its president in 1916, and was elected to the provincial leg-

islature in 1921. She represented the riding of Lacombe for 14 years.

Named minister without portfolio, the first woman cabinet member

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324 • PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS

in Alberta, she sponsored the Minimum Wage for Women Act

(1925). She was one of the Famous Five in the Persons Case. Prime

Minister Richard Bedford Bennett appointed her a Canadian del-

egate to the League of Nations, Geneva, in 1930, a position she held

to 1934. She was a reluctant politician who did not like campaigning.

She was the first woman to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from

the University of Alberta.

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. Canada’s parliament has inherited

much of the British traditions as exhibited in the Houses of Parlia-

ment, Westminster, England. In fact, Canada’s parliament represents

Canadian institutions in public decision making and democracy. The

Parliament of Canada resides in Ottawa, Ontario; the Government

of Canada is headquartered in the National Capital Commission’s

domain, which embraces Ottawa and Hull, Québec. Parliament Hill,

on a bluff jutting into the Ottawa River, puts its buildings into spec-

tacular relief. The architecture is mainly in the Gothic style.

The Parliament Buildings are evocative symbols of Canada.

Flanked by the East and West Blocks, the Center Block of Parlia-

ment—with its distinctive Peace Tower and library—is familiar

to Canadians and many people around the world. These buildings

represent, too, the echoes of past times and personalities. Around

Parliament Hill are many statues of great personages of yesteryear:

Samuel de Champlain, John A. Macdonald, Wilfrid Laurier, and

William Lyon Mackenzie King, to name a few.

In the 1840s, the government of the Province of Canada could not

agree on a site for the capital—Montréal, Québec, Kingston, and

Toronto were considered. In 1857, Queen Victoria, whose opinion

was requested, chose Ottawa (previously Bytown) as permanent cap-

ital. Ottawa was then a rough-and-tumble lumber town. The choice of

Ottawa was a political compromise; it also lay a more secure distance

from the American border.

The Center, East, and West Blocks of the Parliament Buildings

were built 1859–66 (excluding the Peace Tower and library). When

the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, the buildings were

immediately chosen as seat of government for the new federation,

which assembled there for the first time on 6 November 1867. The

library was completed in 1876.

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PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS • 325

On 3 February 1916, a fire started in the Parliamentary Read-

ing Room in the Center Block. The fire claimed seven lives and

reduced all but the northwest wing and the library to a charred shell;

the library was saved by its closed iron doors. Rebuilding immedi-

ately began, despite the war, and the new structure embraced the

Gothic Revival style of the original. The new building was opened

on 26 February 1920 and completed in 1922. Architectural features

include stateliness and vibrancy: vaulted ceilings, marble floors,

dramatic lighting (giving an atmosphere of solemnity), bright detail,

gargoyles, bird and animal sculptures, and stone friezes recounting

events of Canadian history.

The Library of Parliament, a showpiece of Gothic Revival archi-

tecture, is the jewel of national architecture. A white marble statue

of young Queen Victoria is to be found there. The library services

parliamentarians and their staffs. Rising above the Parliament Build-

ings is the distinctive, massive Peace Tower built to commemorate

the end of World War I. On its third floor is the Memorial Chamber,

a tribute to Canadians who died in armed conflicts of the nation. In

front of the Peace Tower, and inside the central gates, is the Centen-

nial Flame, first lit on 1 January 1967 to mark the second century of

Canadian confederation.

The East Block’s rooms have been restored to appear as in John A.

Macdonald’s time. Other government buildings nearby include the

Confederation Building, Wellington Building, Langevin Building,

and Victoria Building.

Parliament consists of the House of Commons Chamber, where

elected representatives known as members of Parliament (MPs)

gather to debate legislation, move financial motions, and conduct the

nation’s legislative business, and the Senate Chamber, where sena-

tors review bills passed in the House of Commons and introduce their

own legislation (other than money bills). The Senate is the upper

house of Parliament through which all legislation must pass before it

becomes law. Its members, chosen in all 10 provinces and territories,

are appointed by the governor general on recommendation of the

prime minister. The throne in the center of the Senate’s dais is used

by the queen or the governor general on ceremonial occasions such

as the Opening of Parliament. The Senate is ruled over by a speaker.

See also PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM.

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326 • PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM

PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. The parliamentary structure in Can-

ada consists of the queen, represented by the governor general, the

Senate, and the House of Commons. The governor general summons

Parliament, brings its sessions to an end by prorogation, and formally

assents to every bill before it can become law. In practice, the gov-

ernor general exercises all these powers on the advice of the prime

minister and the cabinet.

A bill must be agreed to by both Houses and receive the Royal

Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament. The powers of the

Senate and the House of Commons are constitutionally equal except

that financial legislation may not be introduced in the Senate.

All senators are appointed by the governor general on the advice

of the prime minister. Members of Parliament in the House of Com-

mons are elected by the people. The House of Commons plays the

most important part in the parliamentary process. English and French

enjoy equal status in both houses of Parliament; members are allowed

to deliver speeches in either language.

The Senate consists of 104 members, appointed by the govern-

ment. The numbers are based on regional location: 24 from Québec;

24 from Ontario; 24 from the maritime provinces (10 each from

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, four from Prince Edward Is-

land); 24 from the western provinces (six each from Manitoba,

Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia); six from New-

foundland and Labrador; and one each from the Northwest Ter-

ritories and Yukon Territory. At the time of confederation, Québec

and the maritime provinces insisted on equality in the upper house

to counterbalance the weight of Ontario in the lower house, where

representation is based on population.

All bills must be passed by the Senate before they can become law,

and the upper chamber has the constitutional right to reject any bill,

and keep rejecting it as often as it sees fit. As well, it can amend bills,

although it cannot initiate or increase the amount of any bill dealing

with taxation or expenditure. Senators represent provinces. In recent

years, there has been much discussion about having senators voted

in by the region they represent, so as to make their actions more ac-

countable to the people.

The Canadian House of Commons was modeled after the British

Parliament. The rules and procedures stem directly from Westmin-

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PEARSON, LESTER BOWLES • 327

ster, the British House of Commons. The House of Commons is the

center of parliamentary activity and public attention. It is here that

the prime minister and the leader of the opposition regularly confront

one another and where the nation’s business is freely and openly

transacted. By law, a general election must be held at least once every

five years. Parliament may be dissolved and an election called before

five years has elapsed. The power to dissolve Parliament resides with

the governor general, but only on the advice of the prime minister.

PARTI QUÉBE

COIS (PQ). The Parti Québécois was formed by René

Levesque after the defeat of the Liberal Party in Québec in 1968, es-

sentially for being insufficiently nationalistic. It began as a protest party

rooted in ethnic and cultural solidarity for French-language protection.

Members, sometimes called Pequistes, gained widespread support from

business and labor. The PQ suffered bitter defeats in 1970 and 1973 but

formed a government after the electoral victory of 19 November 1976;

it was reelected in 1981. Urging various forms of independence such as

“sovereignty association” and later complete independence, the PQ lost

the 1980 provincial referendum that asked the people of Québec if they

wanted to remain within Canada. In 1995, the leader, Jacques Parizeau,

introduced a bill in the National Assembly of Québec calling for public

ratification of independence, to be proclaimed. Lucien Bouchard be-

came the PQ’s leader in January 1996 and also premier of Québec, but

he resigned on 11 January 2001.

PATTISON, JAMES A. (1928– ). A business executive and philan-

thropist, Pattison was born in Lakeland, Saskatchewan, educated

at the University of British Columbia, and lives in Vancouver. A

self-made billionaire, he first bought a Vancouver car dealership,

and then built the Jim Pattison Group into the largest privately held

company in Canada. The Group, with 26,000 employees and assets

of $5 billion plus (2009), has sectors in signs and advertising, auto

leasing, dealerships and fleet management, fishing and fish packing,

forest products, and television and radio stations. He was chair and

president of Expo 86, a world-class exposition held in Vancouver.

PEARSON, LESTER BOWLES (1897–1972). A history lecturer,

diplomat, and politician, Lester Pearson was born in Aurora,

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328 • PEMMICAN

Ontario, son of a Methodist minister. He was educated at Toronto

and Oxford. After teaching at the University of Toronto, he joined the

Department of External Affairs in 1928, rose in its ranks, and served

as Canada’s ambassador to the United States from 1945 to 1946.

Appointed the senior advisor to the Canadian delegation to the San

Francisco Conference in 1945, he then served as secretary of state for

external affairs in 1948–57. His plans for the resolution of the Suez

Crisis through UN-sponsored peacekeeping attracted widespread ac-

claim. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. He then

followed a career in national politics.

Elected to Parliament as a Liberal for Algoma, Ontario, Pear-

son became leader of the Liberal Party and leader of the opposition

in succession to Louis St. Laurent. He fought several elections

but never succeeded in commanding a majority in the House of

Commons. All the same, his administrations consolidated various

pieces of social, medical, and welfare legislation. Of particular

note, as prime minister (1963–68), he introduced the Canada Pen-

sion Plan and the Canadian Health Act (universal medical care)

and sought to counter separatism in Québec. He introduced the

Flag of Canada, led Canada’s centennial celebrations in 1967, and

launched the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Bicultur-

alism. An activist politician right for the times, his achievements

within a short period were many and fundamental to the nature of

modern Canada.

PEMMICAN. The essential portable provision of fur traders and

western travelers, pemmican was made from buffalo meat, cut

with the grain in strips and dried, then pounded and covered with

melted fat in a sewn-up bag the size of a flour sack (each weighing

90 pounds). Kept in a seam-greased bag, this high-protein food

would keep for years. Berries could be added. Three-quarters of

a pound was a reasonable daily ration. As bison are nowadays a

protected species, modern recipes begin with the requirement “to

procure a moose, or other large animal.” Pemmican, fundamen-

tal to the fur trade and its expansion north and west, was made

principally in and around Red River and the South Saskatchewan

River. In Athabasca, in the region of Peace River, it was made by

the Beaver peoples.

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PERSONS CASE • 329

PERSIAN GULF WAR. On 2 August 1990, armed forces of Iraq

under the orders of Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait.

The United States rallied allies against this aggression and the threat

to world oil supplies. With UN approval, a U.S.-led coalition at-

tacked Iraq in January 1991. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mul-

roney pledged support. Canadian armed forces sent to the theater

consisted of several elements, none of them combat ground troops.

The Canadian government sent a 530-person hospital unit to attend

to wounded coalition personnel during the buildup leading to Opera-

tion Desert Storm. Also, a three-unit naval task force was dispatched

to the Persian Gulf with a destroyer tender. The hurried reequipping

of these ships showed glaring inadequacies in Canada’s defensive

systems. These ships, which took up station as part of an international

maritime task force, were used to enforce the embargo on Iraqi ship-

ping and to support the land-based forces. Two squadrons of CF-18

fighters were stationed at Qatar and flew 2,700 sorties to give air

support to allied and neutral shipping in the gulf. The Air Command

Transport Group supplied logistical support for Canada’s first mili-

tary operations in the Middle East. Iraq accepted the terms of cease-

fire on 3 March 1991. After the war ended, Canadian forces helped in

the cleanup of Kuwait and aided in clearing some of the millions of

mines laid down. There was no significant casualty among the 2,400

Canadians deployed. Saddam Hussein remained in power for another

12 years until the Iraq War swept him from power in 2003.

PERSONS CASE. In Henrietta Muir Edwards and Others v. Attorney

General for Canada and Others, popularly known as the Persons

Case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on 24 April 1928 that the

word “persons” in section 24 of the Constitution Act of 1867 could

not be understood to include women and therefore women were

ineligible for Senate membership. The ruling was on technical or

narrowly constitutional grounds rather than sexism. On appeal, the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in favor of “a large and

liberal interpretation” rather than “a narrow and technical construc-

tion,” concluded on 18 October 1929 that “persons” applied to both

the male and female sexes.

Joining journalist Edwards in the challenge were suffragist Nel-

lie Mooney McClung, Alberta cabinet minister Irene Marryat

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