{"id":21541,"date":"2018-09-06T14:54:01","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21541"},"modified":"2018-09-06T14:54:01","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:54:01","slug":"time-travellers-diary-decency-in-demonstration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/time-travellers-diary-decency-in-demonstration\/","title":{"rendered":"TIME TRAVELLER’S DIARY: Decency in Demonstration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the morning of Tuesday, September 5, 1893 and the platform of the Aurora train station is overflowing with onlookers. The station yard is at capacity and a procession of empty carriages are waiting for their passengers to arrive. At 9:30 a.m. the train pulls in and off steps the Honourable Wilfrid Laurier M.P, leader of Her Majesty\u2019s Loyal Opposition, accompanied by his wife, Zoe Laurier. The 12th Battalion Band begins to play \u2018The Maple Leaf Forever\u2019 and Aurora\u2019s mayor along with members of council greet the esteemed guests.
\nAfter the official greeting at the station, the dignitaries proceed into the yard, step into their horse-drawn carriages, and embark on a procession that travels west on Wellington to Yonge, south on Yonge to Mosley, then east down Mosley to Town Park. Like the station platform, the Town\u2019s streets are filled with residents and visitors eager to welcome Laurier and experience this historic day.
\n\u201cThe welcome given to the Liberal leader was not confined to Liberals alone. Many of the leading Conservatives of Aurora and Newmarket joined in it, and gave the demonstration largely a non-partisan aspect\u201d (Aurora Banner, Sept 8, 1893).
\nThe turnout for Laurier\u2019s visit 125 years ago was impressive, and certainly historic, but what is most commendable about his visit was the way that politicians across political parties spoke about and to one another. This exercise in political decency began in Town Park, when Mayor Herbert Fleury gave an address that observed, \u201cComposed as we are of persons of widely different political views, you will readily see that our action on this occasion has no political signification\u201d (Aurora Banner, Sept 8, 1893). When replying to Fleury\u2019s remarks, Laurier commented that he was pleased to know that people who shared diverse political views were \u201cdwelling together in harmony\u201d (Aurora Banner, Sept 8, 1893). He went on to reflect on his own relationship with a political opponent, Sir John A. Macdonald, and noted that while they stood on opposite sides of the table, Laurier had considerable respect and admiration for him.
\nThe paper goes on to report that, \u201cthe Conservatives had nothing but good wishes for the gathering and the kindest feelings personally to Mr. Laurier, who has won the respect of the people of all parties by frank and honest discussion of the public questions of the day without bitterness\u201d (Aurora Banner, Sept 8, 1893).
\nAfter Mr. Laurier\u2019s introduction in Town Park, the procession made its way to Mr. William\u2019s Grove, located just south of the neighbouring Town of Newmarket, where a large picnic was held and more speeches delivered.
\nLaurier\u2019s visit came to be known as the Laurier Procession & Picnic and had an estimated attendance of 10,000 people. In the days following, the visit was reported on as being, \u201cthe greatest open air demonstration in the history of Canadian Politics\u201d (Aurora Banner, Sept 15, 1893).
\nLaurier was triumphant in the 1896 federal election and would go on to become Canada\u2019s 7th Prime Minister serving from 1896-1911.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Johnson It is the morning of Tuesday, September 5, 1893 and the platform of the Aurora train station is overflowing with onlookers. The station yard is at capacity and a procession of empty carriages are waiting for their passengers to arrive. At 9:30 a.m. the train pulls in and off steps the Honourable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Br","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 07:12:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}