Dieu du Liberal, Le (The Idol of His Party)

DESCRIPTION: Canadian French. "Peuple, ecoutez devotement, Un recit bien interessant." Listeners are asked to hear the tale of "A famous Doctor friend of ours," who, although "a great blockhead," goes into politics. Despite their loathing, he becomes an M.P.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba)
KEYWORDS: political nonballad Canada
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1840-1896 - Life of Sir John Christian Schultz, M.P 1871-1882, Senator 1882-1888, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba 1888-1895. Although the "Doctor" of the song is unnamed, MacLeod is certain it refers to Schultz
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacLeod-SongsOfOldManitoba, #10, pp. 60-66, "The Idol of His Party" (1 French text plus English translation, 1 tune)
NOTES [182 words]: According to W. Stewart Wallace, Editor, The Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, fourth edition revised and enlarged by W. A. McKay, Macmillan of Canada, 1978, p. 751, Sir John Christian Schultz (1840-1896) was born at Amherstburg in what was then Upper Canada. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio, Queen's University at Kingston, and Victoria University, Cobourg, earning his MD there (although Wikipedia, when I checked some time in 2017, claimed that he never actually graduated medical school but called himself a doctor anyway).
Medical doctor or not, he practiced medicine at what was then Fort Garry and is now Winnipeg. A loyalist during the North West Rebellion of 1869-1870 (for which see "Riel's Song"), he was taken captive by Louis Riel and sentenced to death, but managed to escape. That gave him a big boost in politics, and as the Historical References show, he held some sort of office fro 1871 until 1895. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 1895 became K.C.M.G. So I doubt he was actually a blockhead, though no doubt he was highly opinionated. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: Macl10

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