On July 16, 1874, 150 years ago, the Conservative government of Gédéon Ouimet was tarnished by a sinister bribery affair. The scandal revealed by the English-speaking Montreal press would lead to the fall of the second premier in the history of Quebec.
Gédéon Ouimet has left little trace in the collective memory. “He has the misfortune of being the second,” observes historian Justin Dubé in an interview with The duty. “Everyone knows that the first pope was Saint Peter, but no one knows the second, Saint Linus!”
The brevity of Ouimet’s mandate, interrupted after 18 months in office, of course contributed to the bearded politician’s low profile. His anonymity was also fueled by the uncertainty that followed the establishment of the “Confederation” of 1867. “In Ouimet’s time, you could still be an MP in Ottawa and Quebec at the same time,” Dubé recalls. “In the minds of voters, the federal and provincial Conservatives were the same thing.”
The possibility of making a name for oneself as premier of Quebec was also limited by the embryonic nature of the state. “There were almost no civil servants, which meant that politicians had to work for real!”
Storm
On June 22, 1874, Gédéon Ouimet had to put on his boots to personally inspect a farm that his government planned to acquire southwest of Montreal in exchange for a 25-acre lot located not far from there, near the village of Tanneries, in the current district of Saint-Henri.
Back in Quebec, the Prime Minister informed his cabinet members of the beauty and healthiness of this farm, which seemed to him to be “of equal value to that of the government land.” The elevated position of the site would be ideal for accommodating the planned hospital for the picotés that was languishing in the pipeline. Deal concluded!
However, taxpayers have been cheated, warns the Montreal Herald in its edition of July 16, 1874. The farm acquired by Quebec would be worth 10 times less than the tanneries lot. The treasurer of the Conservative Party, Arthur Dansereau, would also have received a juicy commission of $65,000 as an intermediary, adds the daily.
“We will also learn that ministers Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau and Louis Archambeault put pressure on their colleagues to ensure that the transaction was settled as quickly as possible,” explains historian Alexandre Dumas, contacted by The duty.
Ministerial solidarity did not withstand the media storm. George Irvine, the government’s attorney general, was the first to abandon ship on July 30. “He blamed the partisan spirit that pushed his colleagues to defend the indefensible,” Dumas reported. “For him, the land swap should be cancelled altogether.”
Irvine would go so far as to join the Liberal opposition led by Henri-Gustave Joly. “It was still quite common at the time to move from one party to another, especially since there weren’t many differences between the Conservatives and the Liberals.”
The linguistic parity of the Ouimet cabinet is turning against its leader. “The English speakers were fairly unanimous in condemning the Tanneries affair, while the French speakers remained in solidarity with the government,” notes Dumas.
Investigation
Gédéon Ouimet hoped for a commission of inquiry to clear his reputation. John A. Macdonald’s federal Conservative Party made it clear to him that he would do better to give up his position to the ultramontane Charles-Eugène Boucher of Boucherville. “We realize that Ouimet is really tainted by the Tanneries scandal in public opinion,” explained Alexandre Dumas.
The Prime Minister resigned on September 8, 1874. He was cleared the following year. “The committee of inquiry concluded that the ministers had lacked vigilance,” Dumas recalled. This return to grace allowed Ouimet to occupy the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction for nearly 20 years before ending his career in the comfort of the Legislative Council, the Quebec Senate.
Gédéon Ouimet’s fall echoes that of Premier Honoré Mercier, who would lose power in another bribery scandal in the early 1890s. “Ouimet and Mercier knew full well that their party’s financing was not honest,” Dumas recalled. “Both were careless in not paying attention to how the funds were coming in. Then, eventually, it caught up with them.”
The stature of the conservative Ouimet, however, cannot be compared to that of the autonomist Mercier, whose bronze silhouette has overlooked the gardens of the National Assembly for over a century. “Ouimet was committed to institutions that had proven themselves,” Dumas notes, giving the example of the debate surrounding the introduction of the secret ballot. “He was one of the only ones to oppose it. For him, voting with an uncovered face allowed one to show that one was not ashamed of one’s choice; it was the most virile way to vote!”
For Justin Dubé, Ouimet nevertheless appears as a builder as attorney general of the Chauveau government between 1867 and 1873. “He was the one who wrote the bills and coordinated the activities of the executive council. He was not yet premier, but he was part of the team that established the Quebec state,” concludes the historian.