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The Citizen, 1987-09-09, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1987. PAGE 5. In the frontier days Huron's elections were exciting, even downright dangerous BY KEITH ROULSTON The election campaign seems tohavegoneon forever. You 're tired of hearing all the propaganda and you may even wonder if you’ll taken time out on Thursday to vote. Perhaps for a little perspective, we should lookatthedayswhen voting was a real privilege and people took it very seriously indeed. In hisbook “TheTigerofCanada West", W. H. Graham describes an election in Huron county in 1841. It was a time of excitement. The county was still sparsely settled. The area north of what we know as County road 25 wasn’t yet open for settlement. The Canada Company which had owned all the land in the “Huron Tract" was a dominant force in the region, supporting the infamous “Family Compact" in Toronto. The high­ handed actions of this group had led to the short-lived 1837 “Farm­ ers Rebellion" which in turn led to constitutional changes to open up the country to more democracy. In 1841 the first election for the new united parliament of Ontario and Quebec (Canada West and Canada East) was held. The famous Tiger Dunlop decid­ ed to run in the election, replacing his recently-deceased brother Robin who had been the local member of the legislature. We often complain today that there is too little difference between the parties in an election but things weren’t much different in 1841. Dunlop may have been running for anew, more democratic legislature but he didn’t trust democracy. He was supported by a group of well-heeled Colborne Township landholdersknownasthe “Col­ borne Clique . The opposition was led by the Canada Company which hand-picked a candidate. “The Clique’’, Graham says, “was loyalist, against the Act of Union (joining Ontario and Quebec in one legislature), anti-reform and anti­ Compact. The company was loyal­ ist. against the Act of Union, anti-reform and pro-Compact." The right to vote was a precious thing in those days because so few could vote. Women, of course, weren’t worthy of casting a ballot. Neither were those who didn’t hold land. In fact the rules said that one had to have held land for at least 12 months to be eligible to vote. 1 The method of voting was different too. There was only one voting place, in Goderich. People from as far away as parts of Perth county had totravel through the bush to Goderich to vote. The voting procedure was differ­ ent as well. The polling place was to be the British Hotel. “Each voter came forward identified himself, proved his right to vote by presenting the much-folded deed to his land, then declared his choice. His vote was marked by his name in the book and he stood before his friends and neighbours and declared Tory or Reformer.’’ This lack of secret ballot greatly affected the choosing of a member of parliament. Today parties may like to think they know that some people on their list will vote for them but they never know for sure how people mark their ballots when they get in the secrecy of the polling booth. In those days, everybody knew. It gave the Canada Company, for instance, a lot of leverage to get their man Capt. James Strachan, brother-in-law of the infamous Bishop Strachan of Toronto, leader of the Family Compact, elected. Anyone owing money to the company would be foolhardy to vote against the Company’s man if theycouldn’taffordtoinstantly pay off the loan. There was noelection day either, although votingbeganon Monday, March 22, 1841. Because of the long distances to be travelled votingcouldgoon, aslongasat Election went all week long least one person voted each hour, until the following Saturday. Since many of the Tiger’s supporters lived in distant parts of the riding, it was essential that the voting be dragged on as long as possible. The Company supporters were all close to Goderich and so they’d prefer to have the voting end soon. The Tigers campaign people had to plot to string out the vote as long as possible, letting one voter per hour into the polls. With thd election to start Monday, the tension on Saturday was thick in the streets of Goderich. Voters and supporters without votes flooded into the villagefromthe bush and farms along the muddy roads. Dunlop’s men in balmoral bonnets paraded around the square behind their pipers, who had blue ribbons fluttering from their drones. Stra­ chan’s men with red ribbons at their shoulders marched to the Orange fife and drums.’’ The Company had recruited the Orange movements to their side, a group known more for violence than anything else at that time in history. Graham reports that all the Irish gangs were in town: The Black Hawks, the Dandy Jims, the Tips and the Far Downs. They had armed themselves with axe hand­ les that they fondly called “twigs". Even the taverns declared their allegiances with yards of bunting. Drinking and threatening went on all afternoon. Fights broke out, mainly of a personal nature, full of flying fists and boots as various champions clashed, but so far there were no large scale battles between supporters of the two camps. By Saturday evening, however, it seemed things might get out of hand. Many wives and children had been moved to Bayfield or out to farms in the country for safety until the election was over. In the middle of Sunday morning a group of Highlanders from Williams township, supporters of the Tiger, arrived at the edge of the village but were stopped by a log barricade manned with Canada Company supporters. They forced their way through, however, with­ out loss of life or apparently even blood. Although it was Sunday the taverns were still full of men drinking, though in defference to the day, the Canada Company supporters drank champagne, a more gentlemanly drink, courtesy of Captain Strachan. By Sunday afternoon the atmosphere was so much like a riot that Dunlop’s supporting committee felt some­ thing had to be done and young John Galt Jr. agreed to go to London to bring back troops. He made the trip on foot so as not to arouse suspicionsand made the trip in 24 hours. Monday began the election process. The first necessity was to nominate the candidates. The hustings had been erected in the centre of the square, a high platform where the nominations and supporting speeches would be made. “From Fisher’s Tavern came Dunlop and his committee, banners and blue ribbons flying, and a piper marching at their head. They took their places to the cheers and boos of the crowd. From the big house of the Canada Company came Captain Strachan with his fifes and drums and red ribbons flying, and with his escort, swing­ ing their twigs, also to a roar of cheers and boos.’’ Once the noisy nomination speeches were over the voting began. But to vote one first had to get into the building and that could be a chore. Dunlop’s highlanders quickly surrounded the tavern before the club-wielding Irish gangscoulddothesamefor the Canada Company. Butafterthe Tiger’s supporters voted, they generally went back to their farms. The Company’s gangs, many of whom were there for the fun, not for voting, stayed around. By nightfall of the first day the town had many more Company support­ ers than supporters of the Tiger and the Company men rioted. There was fighting all over the Square. Known Dunlop supporters were beaten up. Some were dragged from their beds, driven on sleighs out into the bush and dropped off to try to survive the chill March weather. A group attacked the British Hotel, where the voting would continue the next day, smashed the bar-room win­ dows and beat up the proprietor to the point he suffered a concussion. Only the news that the troops were camped at Clinton, only 11 miles away, kept things from getting worse. “Whenthe polls reopened in the morning," Graham recounts, “the Company men occupied the porch of the hotel so solidly that it took not only courage but brute strength for a Dunlop voter to get through. One man claimed to have been squeezed so tighly that he was never right again in the heart. It was hardly safe for any but Orangemen to be abroad in the street.’’ By the afternoon the troops arrived and things cooled down. Dunlop claimed that if they hadn’t come when they did none of his voters would have gotten through. As it was, at the end of the second day of voting Strachan had a 31 vote majority. That evening Tiger’s committee dispatched riders to all corners of the area to get supporters in to vote. The Canada Company how­ ever had its own way of getting the vote out. Oaths were taken that men had owned land for 12 months when they’d received their land only hours earlier. Minorswere also sworn in to vote. With the troops present voting went peacefully but by Saturday the final vote count showed 159 for Captain Strachan and 149 for Tiger Dunlop. Knowing they had been cheated Dunlop’s supporters didn’t take it sitting down. As the two sides assembled for victory parties, itappearedforatime there might be more riots. Saner heads prevailed. The Dunlop committee began a new campaign to have the election investigated and eventually pro­ duced enough evidence that peo­ ple had been either bullied into voting for the Company’s candi­ date or into not voting at all, that a committee of 23 legislators was set up to investigate. They met in mid-August, 1841 and quickly, by examining the Canada Company’s books, found 58 of the voters for Captain Strachan had been ineligible to vote because of iack of land holdings or other reasons. The Tiger won the election and took his seat in the new legislature in Kingston on August 20th. All of which makes one wonder, when people complain that our 1987 campaign was a dull election, would they like to return to 1841 ?