A Very Canadian Coup

A fresh take on the Manitoba schools question and the Conservative Coup that toppled Canada’s fifth prime minister. When Mackenzie Bowell became Canada’s fifth prime minister in December 1894, everyone — including Bowell — expected the job would involve nothing more than keeping the wheels on the Conservative wagon until a spring election. Plans for a quiet caretakership were dashed in January 1895 when the courts ruled that the Manitoba government had violated Roman Catholics’ constitutional ri