Edward Blake

The Honourable Dominick Edward Blake
The Hon. Dominick Edward Blake
2nd Premier of Ontario
In office December 20, 1871 – October 25, 1872
Monarch	Victoria
Lieutenant Governor	William Pearce Howland
Preceded by	John Sandfield Macdonald
Succeeded by	Oliver Mowat
Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada)
In office May 4, 1880 – June 2, 1887
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Sir John A. Macdonald
Preceded by	Alexander Mackenzie
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Laurier
Personal details
Born	(1833-10-13)October 13, 1833 Adelaide Township, Upper Canada
Died	March 1, 1912(1912-03-01) (aged 78) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Ontario Liberal Party Liberal Party of Canada
Other political affiliations	Irish Parliamentary Party (Anti-Parnellite)
Spouse(s)	Margaret Cronyn
Relations	William Hume Blake, father Benjamin Cronyn, father-in-law George MacKinnon Wrong, son-in-law H. H. Wrong, grandson
Religion	Anglican
Signature

Dominick Edward Blake, PC, QC (October 13, 1833 – March 1, 1912), known as Edward Blake, was the second Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of only three federal permanent Liberal leaders never to become Prime Minister of Canada, the others being Stéphane Dion and the latter's immediate successor Michael Ignatieff. He may be said to have served in the national politics of what developed as the affairs of three nationalities: Canadian, British, and Irish. Blake was also the founder, in 1856, of the Canadian law firm now known as Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

Early years

Blake was born in 1833, in Adelaide Township, Upper Canada (Ontario) the son of William Hume Blake and Catherine Honoria Hume, and was educated at Upper Canada College.

In 1856, after Blake was called to the bar, he entered into partnership with Stephen M. Jarvis in Toronto to practice law. When his brother Samuel Hume Blake joined soon thereafter, it was Blake & Blake and today the firm is known as Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

As a consequence of the ruling of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Long v The Bishop of Cape Town, Blake offered a legal opinion to His Lordship, The Rt. Rev'd Benjamin Cronyn, the Bishop of Huron, on the legality of the convening of a Provincial Synod of the various Diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada by the Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Montreal. He determined that the concurrence of all of the Diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province would be required prior to the creation of the Provincial Synod and therefore no Synod could legally be convened until the entity first existed. This opinion was read into the Minutes of the seventh session of the Synod of the Diocese of Huron, which convened June 21, 22, and 23, 1864, by The Rt. Rev'd Benjamin Cronyn, Bishop of Huron.

Political career

Blake was recruited into active politics by George Brown, became leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1868 and premier in 1871, but left provincial politics to run in the 1872 federal election, in which he was re-elected. The "dual mandate" rule that allowed a politician to sit simultaneously in a provincial and federal house had been abolished, and Blake chose to abandon his career in provincial politics. He played a major role in exposing the government of Sir John A. Macdonald's complicity in the Pacific Scandal forcing the government's resignation. Blake was offered the prime ministership, but turned it down due to ill health.

When the Liberals won the subsequent 1874 federal election, Blake joined the cabinet of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie and served as Minister of Justice and President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada.

From 1876 to 1900, he was the chancellor of the University of Toronto.

The Liberals were defeated in the 1878 election, and Blake succeeded Mackenzie as party leader in 1880. He failed to defeat Macdonald's Conservatives in the 1882 or 1887 elections. Blake resigned as Liberal leader in 1887, recruiting Wilfrid Laurier as his successor, and left the Canadian House of Commons in 1891.

In the 1892 election, Blake entered the British House of Commons as an Irish Nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of South Longford in the centre of Ireland. He served until 1907 when he resigned following a stroke and retired to Canada.

Contributions to Canadian federalism

He is perhaps best remembered for the arguments he made to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in favour of the Provinces in interpreting the British North America Act. In 1888 he argued the case of St. Catherines Milling v. The Queen, where the federal government was claiming the right to issue timber licenses. This speech was quoted in its entirety in the 1960 report of the Quebec Royal Commission of Inquiry on Constitutional Problems, which influenced many Quebecers including René Lévesque:

“

The word federal is the key which unlocks the clauses and reveals their contents. It is the glass that enables us to discern what is written. By its light the Act must be construed....

What then was the general scheme of this Act? First of all, as I suggest, it was to create a federal as distinguished from a legislative union, but a union composed of several existing and continuing entities. It was not the intention of Parliament to mutilate, confound and destroy the provinces mentioned in the preamble, and having from their mangled remains stewed in some legislative cauldron, to evoke by some legislative incantation absolutely new provinces into an absolutely new existence.... it was the design, I say, ... by gentle and considerate terms to preserve the vital breath and continue the political existence of the old provinces. However this may be, they were being made, as has been well said, not fractions of a unit but units of a multiple. The Dominion is the multiple and each province is a unit of that multiple...

”

He won the case and the Privy Council consistently afterwards took the side of the provinces.

Family

Mrs Margaret Blake wife of Edward Blake

Edward Blake married Margaret Cronyn, the daughter of the Right Rev. Dr. Cronyn, Lord Bishop of Huron, and his wife, Margaret Ann (Bickerstaff) in 1856. She was born in 1835 and was educated at London, Ontario and in Toronto. Mrs. Blake practiced benevolent and other useful work. She was a member of the Toronto Ladies' Educational Association and served as the Honorary President of the Canadian Branch of the McAll Association in Toronto. She also frequently accompanied her husband on his political tours. The couple had seven children, four of whom survived them. Their daughter Sophia Hume Blake married George M. Wrong and was the mother of Hume Wrong.

The personal and family papers of Edward Blake can be found at the Archives of Ontario, and the majority of these records were received on indefinite loan from the University of Toronto Library in June 1952.

External links

• "Edward Blake". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016. 
• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History

• Edward Blake – Parliament of Canada biography
• Ronan O'Brien, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, 13 August 2007 (subscription required)
• Ontario's Historical Plaques
• The University of Toronto Archives and Record Management Services holds Edward Blake's papers.
•  "Blake, William Hume". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 

Party political offices
Preceded by Archibald McKellar	Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party 1868–1872	Succeeded by Oliver Mowat
Preceded by Alexander Mackenzie	Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada 1880–1887	Succeeded by Wilfrid Laurier
Political offices
Preceded by none	Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature 1869–1871	Succeeded by Matthew Crooks Cameron
Preceded by John Sandfield Macdonald	Premier of Ontario 1871–1872	Succeeded by Oliver Mowat
Preceded by Télesphore Fournier	Minister of Justice 1875–1877	Succeeded by T. A. R. Laflamme
Preceded by Joseph Édouard Cauchon	President of the Privy Council 1877–1878	Succeeded by John O'Connor
Preceded by Alexander Mackenzie	Leader of the Opposition 1880–1887	Succeeded by Wilfrid Laurier
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by none	MP for Durham West, ON 1867–1872	Succeeded by Edmund Burke Wood
Preceded by none	MPP For Durham West 1867–1872	Succeeded by John McLeod
Preceded by none	MPP For Bruce South 1867–1872	Succeeded by Rupert Wells
Preceded by Francis Hurdon	MP for Bruce South, ON 1872–1878	Succeeded by Alexander Shaw
Preceded by Harvey William Burk	MP for Durham West, ON 1879–1891	Succeeded by Robert Beith
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by James Gubbins Fitzgerald	Member of Parliament for South Longford 1892–1906	Succeeded by John Phillips
Academic offices
Preceded by Joseph Curran Morrison	Chancellor of the University of Toronto 1876–1900	Succeeded by William Ralph Meredith