Laurier, "Peace Hath Her Victories No Less Renowned Than War,".
The Montreal Star, 7 Oct., 1899, p. 13. The question of Canadian participation in the war soon turned into a heated political controversy. The partisan pro-war press, trading heavily on the cultural animosity between English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians, attempted to discredit Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier. They pictured him as an eloquent, polished but facile, cowardly grandee, the first to celebrate the famous Diamond Jubilee of 1897 (where he had won extravagant applause from the British press, a fact which Canadian Conservatives could neither forget nor forgive), but the last to offer material assistance in time of need. This cartoon, by the well-known artist Henri Julien, is less offensive than many others. Letters to the editor were often more shrill. "This man," one respected Toronto citizen wrote, "rules British Canada. It is time, sir, to wake up in this country to the fact that we may have questions to settle which may not be set to rest by the ballot," an old and tried Toronto threat during previous years of cultural conflict.
