Bourassa’s Nationalistes took shape in the spring of 1910. It gave rise to a group who set out on a province-wide crusade to vilify every aspect of the bill establishing a Canadian navy that had been introduced in January. In their view the passage of this measure would lead to obligatory participation in imperial wars and to conscription. Working on the fringes of the two traditional political parties, the group intended to get enough mps returned in the 1911 federal election to hold the balance of power and overthrow any government that opposed their opinions on the naval question. Led by Monk, they formed an electoral alliance with Borden’s Conservative party, for no other purpose than to work for the defeat of the Laurier government. Unfortunately for Monk,the Conservatives formed a majority government after the election.

As leader of a minority group in the House of Commons, Monk felt he had no alternative but to come to terms with the Conservative government in order to save at least the essential principle for which he had fought during the past few years: the autonomy of Canada within the British empire. He therefore agreed to take the portfolio of public works, a time-consuming assignment that quickly forced him to neglect the faction under his leadership. Worse still, the cabinet solidarity to which he was sworn compelled him on the Keewatin school question in 1912 [see Borden] to abandon his long-held principle of the equality of French and English in Canada. The Conservative government refused to accede to Monk’s