Although Macdonald's System Was Undoubtedly One of Corruption, the Only Excuse Is the Difficulty or Impossibility of Holding This Heterogeneous and Ill-Cemented Mass Together in Any Other Way

If the United States, with its "spoils system," was a couple of decades behind leading European countries in the ethics of government, Canada lagged by about a half-century. All these practices were sanctified by history: the great pre-Confederation achievement of Responsible Government, or self-government, had been mostly about a transfer of patronage from the governor general to local politicians; Confederation itself had been accomplished by money being poured into New Brunswick to defeat an anti-Confederation government.

Patronage in Canada could be justified as necessary to accommodate the differing interests of the various regions, races and religions. In the best study of patronage in Canada, Spoils of Power, political columnist Jeffrey Simpson concluded that "patronage, whatever its costs, has done its bit for national integration and stability." This necessity was well understood. Goldwin Smith wrote that, although Macdonald's system was "undoubtedly one of corruption . . . the only excuse is the difficulty, if not to say the impossibility, of holding this heterogeneous and ill-cemented mass together in any other way." The journal The Week pointed out that Macdonald "did not come up through a trap door" but rather "he and his system are mainly the offspring of a necessity . . . among the members of Confederation [,] who can be held together only by such means."

--Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald; His Life, Our Times, 1867-1891 (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2012), 207-208.