ederation; and the rapid expansion of Canadian
territory over half a continent stimulated national pride and national
self-consciousness Opinion in England regarding Canadian independence
was still more outspoken. There imperialism was at its lowest ebb. With
scarcely an exception, English politicians, from Bright to Disraeli,
were hostile or indifferent to connection with the colonies, which
had now ceased to be a trade asset and had clearly become a military
liability.

But no concrete problem arose to make the matter a political issue. In
England a growing uneasiness over the protectionist policies and the
colonial ambitions of her European rivals were soon to revive imperial
sentiment. In Canada the ties of affection for the old land, as well
as the inertia fostered by long years of colonial dependence, kept
the independence movement from spreading far. For the time the rising
national spirit found expression in economic rather than political
channels. The protectionist movement which a few years later swept
all Canada before it owed much of its strength to its claim to be the
national policy.

But it was not imperial or foreign relations that dominated public
interest in the seventies. Domestic politics were intensely absorbing
and bitterly contested. Within five years there came about two sudden
and sweeping reversals of power. Parties and Cabinets which had seemed
firmly entrenched were dramatically overthrown by sudden changes in the
personal factors and in the issues of the day. In the summer of 1872 the
second general election for the Dominion was held. The Opposition had
now gained in strength. The Government had ceased to be in any real
sense a coalition, and most of the old Liberal rank and file were
back in the party camp. They had found a vigorous leader in Alexander
Mackenzie.

Mackenzie had come to Canada from Scotland in 1842 as a lad of twenty.
He worked at his trade as a stonemason, educated himself by wide
reading and constant debating, became a successful contractor and,
after Confederation, had proved himself one of the most aggressive
and uncompromising champions of Upper Canada Liberalism. In the first
Dominion Parliament he tacitly came to be regarded as the leader of all
the groups opposed to the Macdonald Administration. He was at the same
time active in the Ontario Legislature since, for the first five
years of Confederation, no law forbade membership in both federal and
provincial Par