Vincent Massey - Diplomatic Career

Diplomatic Career

Later in 1926, on November 25, Governor General the Marquess of Willingdon acted on Mackenzie King's advice to appoint Massey as the first Canadian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States for His Majesty's Government in Canada, making Massey Canada's first ever envoy with full diplomatic credentials to a foreign capital. Despite this first in international relations, Massey's time in Washington, D.C., was free of notable events and he returned to Canada in mid-1930, as Mackenzie King had put his name forward for appointment as high commissioner to the United Kingdom. But, merely five days after Massey relinquished his posting to Washington, Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was defeated in the federal election, seeing Richard Bennett appointed as prime minister. The new premier objected to Massey as the government's representative to the UK, on the grounds that, as a former Liberal Cabinet member, Massey did not enjoy the political confidence of the new Conservative government that was needed by the individual occupying the position.

Starting in 1932, Massey became the first president of the newly formed National Liberal Federation of Canada, before which the Liberal Party was a loose and informal association of national, provincial, and regional entities without a permanent central organization. Three years later, the Liberals were again returned to a majority in the commons and Mackenzie King was once more installed as prime minister. Within a month, on November 8, 1935, Massey was appointed as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom for His Majesty's Government in Canada and arrived at Canada House to find as his secretary the man who would be his future successor as governor general of Canada, Georges Vanier. The two men set about regular diplomatic business, but, throughout 1936, Massey had to contend with the death of King George V and the accession and then—before the proposed Canadian postage stamps even arrived for Massey to pass on for the King's approval—abdication of Edward VIII in favour of his younger brother, Prince Albert, Duke of York.

Throughout his time as high commissioner, Massey used his connections to bring to Canada House a litany of personalities from "the highest quarters." Two such persons were the Viscount and Viscountess Astor, who were both the nucleus of the Cliveden set, which itself was a group of aristocratic individuals rumoured to be Germanophiles not only in favour of the appeasement of Adolf Hitler, but also supporters of friendly relations with Nazi Germany. Though these allegations were historically challenged as exaggerations, Irving Abella and Harold Troper claimed in their book None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948 that Massey was an enthusiastic supporter of the Munich Agreement and worked in concert with various elected and non-elected people in government, including Mackenzie King and Ernest Lapointe, to put obstacles in the way of Jewish refugees fleeing Europe for Canada, or even using Canada as a stopover en route to some other country. However, Canadian immigration policy at the time favoured trained farmers, which excluded most Jews, who were largely city dwellers, and the Cabinet of Mackenzie King was already resistant to changes in the law. Seven decades later, these accusations against Massey resulted in a campaign in Windsor, Ontario, to rename a high school that had originally been named in his honour.

Nevertheless, Massey was a Canadian and British patriot and worked not only to maximize Canada's war effort once World War II broke out, but also concurrently served through 1936 as the Canadian delegate to the League of Nations, between 1941 and 1945 as a trustee of the National and Tate Galleries, and additionally as chair of the Tate's board of governors from 1943 to 1945. Though, Massey was honoured for all this work by being inducted in 1946 by King George VI into the Order of the Companions of Honour, upon his return to Canada Massey continued in the same fields. He sat as chair of the National Gallery of Canada from 1948 to 1952 and was selected as Chancellor of the University of Toronto between 1948 and 1953. In 1949, Massey's artistic expertise was of benefit when he was appointed as the head of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, which ultimately resulted in the Massey Report of 1951 and from there to the establishment of the National Library of Canada and the Canada Council of the Arts. All this Massey continued despite the death of his wife in July 1950.