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Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, (3 July 1870 – 26 June 1947) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from 7 August 1930, to 23 October 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years. Following his defeat as prime minister, Bennett moved to England, and was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Bennett. Most (but not all) historians consider his premiership to have been a failure at a time of severe economic crisis.〔 Larry Glassford, "Review of Boyko, John, Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation." Boyko says he was a success.〕 Blair Neatby says categorically that "as a politician he was a failure."〔 H. Blair Neatby, ''The Politics of Chaos: Canada in the Thirties'' (Toronto: Macmillan, 1972), p 53.〕 J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, comparing him to all other Canadian prime ministers concluded, "Bennett utterly failed as a leader. Everyone was alienated by the end—Cabinet, caucus, party, voter and foreigner."〔J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer, ''Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders'' (Toronto: HarperCollins, 1999), p 113.〕 ==Early life== R. B. Bennett was born on 3 July 1870, when his mother, Henrietta Stiles, was visiting at her parents' home in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick, Canada. He grew up nearby at the home of his father, Henry John Bennett, at Hopewell Cape, the shire town of Albert County, then a town of 1,800 people. His father was descended from English ancestors who had emigrated to Connecticut in the 17th century.〔http://sunnyokanagan.com/TheBennettStory.pdf〕 His great-great-grandfather Bennett migrated from Connecticut to Nova Scotia c. 1765, before the American Revolution, taking the lands forcibly removed from the deported Acadians during the Great Upheaval. R. B. Bennett's family was poor, subsisting mainly on the produce of a small farm. His early days inculcated a lifelong habit of thrift. The driving force in his family was his mother. She was a Wesleyan Methodist and passed this faith and the Protestant ethic on to her son. His principle ever after was: work as hard as you can, earn all you can, save all you can, and then give all you can. Bennett's father does not appear to have been a good provider for his family, though the reason is unclear. He operated a general store for a while and tried to develop some gypsum deposits. The Bennetts had previously been a relatively prosperous family, operating a shipyard in Hopewell Cape, but the change to steam-powered vessels in the mid-19th century meant the gradual winding down of their business. However, the household was a literate one, subscribing to three newspapers. They were strong Conservatives; indeed one of the largest and last ships launched by the Bennett shipyard (in 1869) was the ''Sir John A. Macdonald''. Educated in the local school, Bennett was a good student, but something of a loner. In addition to his Protestant faith, Bennett grew up with an abiding love of the British Empire, then at its apogee. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「R. B. Bennett」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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