The Canadian Press Views the 1908 American Presidential Election

"How many people appreciate the tragedy of the defeat of Mr. Bryan," asked the anti-Bryan Toronto World on 5 November 1908. This expression of sympathy for the Great Commoner's defeat by Republican candidate William Howard Taft, represented the opinion of a minority of the Canadian press. Newspapers representing western agrarian progressives, trade unions, militant Protestant nativists, independent reformers, and social reform Liberals regretted Bryan's defeat since he symbolized reform that might creep across the 49th parallel. If Bryan's third defeat did not prompt the majority of Canadian editors to dance in the streets it did prompt them to raise their editorial voices in jubilation at the downfall of the Nebraskan. Members of Canada's financial elite and the sympathetic Liberal and Conservative Party press welcomed the election of the safe, sane, and conservative Taft. Most Canadian editors viewed Bryan as a fickle peddler of social panaceas and quack remedies for American social and economic problems. While critical of Bryan's policies, like the radical guarantee of bank deposits, the anti-Bryan Canadian press emphasized a distinction between Bryan, the politician, they despised, and Bryan, the man, they admired for his sincerity, integrity, and morality.