R. B. Bennett (Canadian Repubic)

Richard Bedford Bennett (3 July 1870 – 26 June 1947) was a Canadian lawyer, writer, businessperson, politician, and philanthropist. He served as President of Canada from 7 August 1930 to 23 October 1939, during the Quebec Crisis. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England and apparently spent his retirement in seclusion.

Early life
Bennett was born on 3 July 1870, when his mother, Henrietta Stiles, was visiting at her parents' home in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada. He grew up nearby at the Bay of Fundy home of his father, Henry John Bennett, in Hopewell Cape, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people.

His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut in the 17th century. His great-great-grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia c. 1765, before the American Revolution, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadians during the Great Upheaval.

R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum deposits.

The Bennetts had previously been a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam-powered vessels in the mid-19th century meant the gradual winding down of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers. They were strong Conservatives; indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the Sir John A. Macdonald.

Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire, then at its apogee.

Early political career
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the North-West Territories in the 1898 general election, representing the riding of West Calgary. He was re-elected to a second term in office in 1902 as an Independent in the North-West Territories legislature.

In 1905, when Alberta was carved out of the territories and made a province, Bennett became the first leader of the Alberta Conservative Party. In 1909, he won a seat in the provincial legislature, before resigning and switching to federal politics. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1911.

At age 44, he tried to enlist in the Canadian military once World War I broke out, but was turned down as being medically unfit. In 1916, Bennett was appointed director general of the National Service Board, which was in charge of identifying the number of potential recruits in the country.

While Bennett supported the Conservatives, he opposed Prime Minister Robert Borden's proposal for a Union Government that would include both Conservatives and Liberals, fearing that this would ultimately hurt the Conservative Party. While he campaigned for Conservative candidates in the 1917 federal election he did not stand for re-election himself.

Confronting Quebec
The legacy of Bennett's presidency would forever be tainted by his handling of the Quebec Crisis of the 1920's and 1930's. Following the Entente's defeat in the First World War, many Quebecois felt as though millions of young Canadians had died for nothing. The separatist Parti National du Québec had been formed in 1924, and would be in power from 1926 until the 1930 implementation of the War Measures Act. Due to the federal government's refusal to discuss constitutional issues with the provincial government, Premier Maurice Duplessis actively encouraged protests and civil disobedience as a way to "get Ottawa's attention."

In 1930, weeks after his election, Bennett implemented the War Measures Act and essentially established martial law in Quebec and Ottawa, stripping the provincial government of its power, and restricting basic freedoms such as speech, assembly, and movement. Several prominent Quebec politicians, including Duplessis, were arrested without charges or trial, and imprisoned indefinitely.Soldiers patrolled the streets of urban centres, and checkpoints were established at city limits and throughout rural areas. In 1938, the Supreme Court declared the War Measures Act unconstitutional, returning Quebec to a state of normalcy, and releasing Duplessis and other political prisoners. Quebec held its first provincial election in eight years, with Duplessis' PNQ winning by a landslide. The election results were a prime example of Quebec's anger with the federal government and the clear need for fundamental constitutional change at the federal level. Nowadays, Bennett's actions are largely considered to be a major abuse of power by separatists and federalists alike, and some consider him a dictator.