"I would draw welfare rather than sit or sleep in the Red Chamber."

This was the view of one veteran of Canadian politics who had won election to the House of Commons in seven successive General Elections.

In an August article, "Democracy Denied--The Appointed Senate of Canada", reflecting on Prime Minister Trudeau’s acquired political acumen, or so-called "smarts", it was related how he used his power to appoint persons to lifelong membership of the Senate for political party purposes.

"When he learned that a Conservative in a vulnerable constituency might be amenable to becoming a Senator, thus opening his Commons seat to a possible Liberal win in a by-election, Trudeau was willing to take the gamble."

"Trudeau was using the tools he had available to try to eliminate PC representation from the political map of Quebec. A number of his emissaries came to visit me in my West Block office, ostensibly for a friendly chat, but more precisely to see if, after twenty years of hard fighting, I wouldn’t welcome a comfortable seat in the Red Chamber. They soon got my answer. I have never hidden my distaste for the Canadian Senate. Whatever potential for useful activity the Senate might have had in the original scheme of things has been sabotaged by the cynicism of successive prime ministers. I would draw welfare rather than sit or sleep in the Red Chamber. The young Canadians who have gone there in the past few years, sacrificing whatever other potential they might have had for real service to the Canadian public, should be ashamed of themselves."

Grafftey, of whom more anon, was one of a select few to decline appointment to the unelected Senate of Canada.

Another was an Irishman in the early years of the twentieth century, and since this web site creates a link between Ireland and Canada, his contributions to his adopted country are worthy of recall. As a matter of record, his story was retold during Labour Day celebrations in Ottawa in 2001.

His name was Daniel O’Donoghue. His parents, survivors of the Great Famine, emigrated to Canada in 1852, when Daniel was a child of eight years. Six years later his father died, and the boy of fourteen had to seek employment, thus ending his formal education.

He became an apprentice printer, a.k.a. "printer’s devil" (see "The Vindicator Story") and moved to the United States where he first came in contact with the early labour movement in that country.

Returning to Canada, he became a full fledged printer with the Ottawa Times, and in 1866, at the age of 22, he organized the first printers’ union in Canada’s capital, which in 2001 remains Ottawa’s oldest union.

His subsequent career in Canada’s young labour movement spanned terms as assistant secretary of the Trades and Labour Council and vice-president of the Canadian Labour Union, a forerunner of the present Canadian Labour Congress.

Early on he had foreseen "the time when working men could look forward to the day when they could put a man of their own class into Parliament."

True to his forecast, Daniel O’Donoghue was elected a member of the Ontario provincial legislature in 1874, the "first independent labour legislator in Canada."

In later years he held positions in the provincial and federal Departments of Labour.

Even though he left at school at age 14 after his father’s untimely death, O’Donoghue was a literate man, but not to the degree that he wished. Believing he did not have the necessary educational qualifications to become deputy minister of the federal department, he declined promotion and recommended that William Lyon Mackenzie King take the position in his stead. Mackenzie King, it should be noted, later went on to become Prime Minister of Canada for a total of 22 years, the longest service of any Canadian Prime Minister.

O’Donoghue’s pioneering role as an organizer and spokesperson for Canadian workers, and his selfless giving way to the young Mackenzie King, brought him the offer of an appointment to sit in the Senate of Canada, an offer he also declined, and by his refusal demonstrated yet again his integrity when tempted by the prospect of personal advancement.

A qualification for appointment to the Canadian Senate stipulated that an appointee own land to the value of $4,000. O’Donoghue didn’t own any. A wealthy Liberal Party supporter offered to transfer the necessary amount of land to his name. O’Donoghue thanked him but refused the offer.

Daniel O’Donoghue died in 1907. His name became forgotten, and it was not until 2001 that his story again came to light.

The Ottawa and District Labour Council has asked that a street be named in his honour.

Irrespective of his place in the pantheon of labour, Daniel O’Donoghue deserves at least that a street be named after him for his refusal to accept a seat in the (still) appointed Senate of Canada.

And to copper-fasten the link between Canada and Ireland, readers should note that the annual Labour Day statutory holiday in Canada was first introduced by another Irish Canadian, Sir John S. D. Thompson of Nova Scotia, who became Prime Minister of Canada on 5 December 1892, and died during a visit to Windsor Castle on 12 December, 1894.

He was the son of John Sparrow Thompson, born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1795.

There is little doubt that O’Donoghue and Thompson knew each other.

Fuller accounts of the Thompsons, father and son, appear in The Hansard Chronicles, by John Ward, Deneau and Greenberg Publishers Ltd 1980.