Richard Bedford Bennett was born on July 3, 1870 in Hopewell, New Brunswick. At age 23, Bennett graduated from Dalhousie Law School where he was known for his complex speeches and his austerity in matters of tobacco, alcohol, and fun.
Extremely successful as a lawyer in Calgary, Bennett was first elected to Parliament in the 1911 Conservative landslide. When Prime Minister Borden refused him a Cabinet post or senatorship, "Bonfire Bennett," as he was called, left politics.
Fulfilled Ambitions
In 1921, Arthur Meighen named Bennett his Minister of Justice. Five years later, he became Minister of Finance in Meighen's second government. Finally, at the Conservative party's first leadership convention in 1927, Bennett's ambition was fulfilled when he was elected party leader.
He ran an innovative 1930 electoral campaign using mechanized mailing and radio. Unlike King, Bennett radiated success and confidence, promising grand national projects, funds for the unemployed and elderly, and jobs. Bennett won the election with 137 seats.
Depression
Bennett was a one-man show, dominating his ministers and annoying even his followers with his swollen ego. He had promised to end unemployment by raising the tariff. When this policy failed, he received full blame for his government's failure to relieve the terrible hardships of the Great Depression.
On the eve of the 1935 election, Bennett announced a "New Deal," regulated working hours, minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and improved regulation of corporate practices.
But Bennett's "deathbed conversion" was too late. He had alienated both rich Conservatives and the suffering public and had been unable to deliver on his grandiose promises. Bennett's Conservatives took only 40 seats to 171 for King's Liberals.
Viscount Bennett
Bennett continued as opposition leader until 1938, when he left Canada for England. Lord Beaverbrook secured him an appointment as Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary, and Hopewell. He died on June 26, 1947.
As prime minister, Bennett created two powerful institutions, the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Corporation (CRBC), forefather of the CBC. Despite his late-blooming interest in other reforms, he had little chance of surviving the politician-destroying hurricane of the Depression.
