The forgotten PM from Canada
The forgotten PM from Canada
Arthur Milnes, For Canwest news serviceÂ 
09.23.2008
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Since his tragic death in 1923, only months after he became Britainâs prime minister, Andrew Bonar Law (who served only 209 days as prime minister) has not done well in the historical sweepstakes.
Despite his significance in British politics during the early part of the 20th century, especially considering his service as Tory leader in the run-up to the First World War and beyond, he has, sadly, remained, âThe Unknown Prime Minister.â This sad descriptive is said to have been bequeathed him by Herbert Henry Asquith the very day Bonar Law was interred at Westminster Abbey. Asquith is reputed to have remarked it was very fitting the âUnknown Prime Ministerâ was buried near the Unknown Soldier in the Abbey. Few biographies have been written, and his name is rarely invoked by either historians or his heirs to leadership in the modern-day British Conservative party.
This week is the 150th anniversary of Bonar Lawâs birth. And since the Brits have done as much as possible to forget him, it high time we Canadians fill the void. Bonar Law, after all, was the only British prime minister to have been born in Canada â and the only one ever born outside the U.K. It also has to be noted that his closest friend in adult life was none other than his fellow New Brunswicker (and Canadian) Max Atkien, known in British society, and now, before history, as Lord Beaverbrook.
Since the British donât want him, this week we begin the campaign to repatriate Bonar Lawâs historical reputation back to Canada, where at least we do our best to honour it already. The Presbyterian manse in Rexton, N.B., where the future statesman of Britain and Empire was born on Sept. 16, is already a historic site. (It was called Kingston at the time of Bonar Lawâs birth). It is proudly funded by the residents of the tiny village and only a year ago, the provincial government of New Brunswick provided a generous infusion of funds. (Bonar Lawâs father ministered to the congregation there for more than 30 years).
Open from June until mid-September each year, the Bonar Law Historic Site, restored to interpret life on a 19th century working farm in Canada, boasts free admission, offers guided tours in French or English, has a gift shop, and has a place where visitors can picnic.
Thanks to concern for the historical memory of a British prime minister, visitors to the Canadian site â located on Andrew Bonar Law Avenue and featuring a cairn to honour Bonar Law unveiled in 1925 â will continue in the years ahead to learn about â in Canada mind you â about the early years of a British PM. Though the population of Rexton is only about 1,000 people, the villageâs website â www.villageofrexton.com â proudly trumpets the fact a British prime minister was born there and villagers have taken the time to place a biography of Bonar Law on their homepage.
It might not be Trafalgar Square or Chartwell, but it is something.
So, I have to ask my British friends the age-old question: What have you done for Bonar Law lately?
Only a year ago I stood in awe at your Westminster Abbey, breathing in millennia of British history in that hallowed place. During a special moment on the tour for me as a Canadian, I was able to look down at the simple marker of Bonar Lawâs in the Abbey floor. My British tour guide, in a gesture Iâll always be grateful for, had taken the time to find my âfellowâ Canadian for me on my first-ever visit to your land. Afterwards, I purchased a copy of R.J.Q. Adamsâ Bonar Law, the first full-length biography of my âCanadianâ comrade in decades (published in 1999). Back at my hotel in Covent Garden, I was shattered after I cracked it open, expecting to read about the 12 years of his early life this British prime minister had lived amongst us as a fellow Canadian who went to bigger things in the mighty Empire my grandparents use to tell me we once belonged to.
It wasnât to be.
âAndrew Bonar Law is often recalled as Britainâs Canadian Prime Minister,â the Professor wrote. âTechnically, this is not the case â¦ in those days, nine years before Canadian federation. New Brunswick was a separate colony.â
I searched for British sources to counter the good Professorâs claim in his (otherwise) excellent book. Back in Canada, and using the Internet, I finally found it, more than a year after that terrible night at the Mountbatten in Covent Garden. It was a staring straight at me the whole time: Number10gov.uk â the official site of the British Prime Ministerâs office on the Internet.
âAndrew Bonar Law was the Canadian-born son of a Scottish clergyman,â the site announces. âHe worked as a boy on his fatherâs smallholding. At 12 he went to live with his late motherâs cousins who were rich Glaswegian merchant bankers in Scotland.â
So, if Bonar Lawâs Canadian bona fides are good enough for No. 10, they are good enough for me. And they should be good enough for all Britons.
And Canadians today.
In fact, Downing Streetâs generosity has given me a thought on this, the 150th anniversary of the birth of a New Brunswick boy who went on to become prime minister of one of the great powers of his time. Letâs share him and jointly, starting now, honour Bonar Law together and resolve in the future to do as much as we can to trumpet the joint friendship and historical ties between our two great nations.
Bonar Law, I suspect, would like that.
The Unknown Prime Minister no more.  
Arthur Milnes, a journalist who writes about Canadian political history, is a Fellow of the Queenâs University Centre for the Study of Democracy in Kingston, Ont. He served as former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroneyâs researcher on his 2007 Memoirs.
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