Successful Initiatives 203 
     
    
   
   
    
     However, L’Impartial had a hard time maintaining this neutrality. 
     
     Various political, religious and economic circumstances forced the 
     
     editors to take sides. They first turned to the Conservative Party, 
     
     especially from 1896 and onward. It was during that year that L’Impar- 
     
     tial directed a bitter campaign against the Acadian Liberal Member of 
     
     the House of Commons, Stanislas F. Perry, accusing him of treachery 
     
     for having voted against the Catholic cause in a Bill pertaining to 
     
     French Catholic Schools in Manitoba. L’Impartial was thus partially 
     
     responsible for Perry’s defeat in the federal elections of 1896. After 
     
     that, the paper continued to flog the federal Liberal Party and its 
     
     leader, Wilfred Laurier, whom it accused of neglecting Acadian support- 
     
     ers in public offices. But around 1904, disillusioned by the Conserva- 
     
     tive Party, the Buotes stopped supporting it and sided with the Liberal 
     
     Party then in power”. The latter had just appointed the first Acadian 
     
     judge on the Island, Stanislas Blanchard”. The paper remained faithful 
     
     to the Liberal Party until its own demise in 1915. In its final years, 
     
     this Acadian publication even claimed to be “the French-language 
     
     organ of the Liberal Party in the Maritime Provinces” (TR). 
     
    

    
     Despite its shifting loyalties, L Impartial played an important role 
     
     in Acadian political life. First of all, it often tried to make Acadians 
     
     realize that they were sufficiently numerous in certain electoral ridings 
     
     to be able to elect one of their own—if they united rather than 
     
     dividing their strength between different parties. L’Impartial also con- 
     
     stantly demanded that Acadians be treated fairly by being given their 
     
     share of public positions, even in the highest echelons. It made one 
     
     of these pleas on the eve of the 1904 elections: 
     
    
   
   
    
     The only way to claim our right is to unite. Let us put politics aside in order 
     
     to consider our situation. If the law of the land guarantees us equal rights, we 
     
     are certainly far from enjoying this equality. Why not make demands, and if 
     
     they are refused, we make them again. The time has come, the time is right. 
     
    

    
     Let us urge our candidates on both sides to defend our cause, after all 
     
     we only want fairness, nothing more. 
     
    

    
     There is undoubtedly enough intellectual ability amongst our Acadians 
     
     to be able to fulfil the requirements of these positions just as advantageously 
     
     as English, Irish and Scottish gentlemen. (TR)”* 
     
    
   
   
    
     One question which L’Impartial was the first to raise, and which 
     
     still preoccupies Acadians today, is that of an Acadian senator for 
     
     Prince Edward Island. Shortly after the appearance of the newspaper