What follows is a summation of the material we covered over the last two or three classes.
We looked at the evolution of government in Canada from the 1837 Rebellions to present day. In general, the influence of British institutions is clearly apparent.
Rebellion and Reforms in Upper and Lower Canada
The years between 1812 and 1850 were a time of economic growth in Canada. Wheat and lumber became the staples of the St. Lawrence colonial economy, the Montreal based fur trade pushed farther and farther into the northwest regions, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick became centers of trade with the U.S. More immigrants were arriving from Britain and the United States, settling especially in Upper Canada.
Nonetheless, it was during this time that popular movements to reform the government sprang up, especially in Upper and Lower Canada. The political system then in place gave the real power to the British appointed governors and to their executive councils who were appointed for life. These men formed an Oligarchy.
Not only did they make up the governor’s councils, but they also held the highest bureaucratic and judicial positions. They were well connected men of property with commercial and financial interests to defend.
In Upper Canada this elite group was known as the Family Compact, and in Quebec or Lower Canada they became known as the Chateau Clique. Both these groups held a strong hold over the commercial and political life of their colonies. As the oligarchy members made all government appointments, they were able to control the legal, religious, and educational systems in the colonies. Using their political power, they put policies in place that were favorable to themselves and their interests rather than to the majority of citizens in the colonies. They could, and did, spend public money on canals that would further their business interests rather than on roads that the settlers needed.
This lead to rebellions and reforms in both Upper and Lower Canada. By 1815, the French were growing uneasy about their position in Canada because they were worried about the increasing number of British immigrants that were flooding the colony. They were slowly being outnumbered and feared assimilation.
The French in Lower Canada were excluded from government as the Chateau Clique was made up of English speaking colonists and made decisions that only helped their own personal situations, thus making the French even more fearful. Louis-Joseph Papineau rose up among the common man and called for the colonists to rebel against the Chateau Clique, demanding responsible government and a change in the colony’s situation. He argued this was necessary for the cultural survival of the French in Canada. He wanted to see that the French majority had more say in colonial affairs. His group was called the Patriotes.
The Patriotes raised support for their cause through a series of meetings in the countryside that called for the overthrow of the government. The government called in troops to protect and to try and arrest the leaders of the rebels. On November 23, 1837 at St. Denis, 800 Patriotes (only ½ of which were armed) battled the troops for an entire day behind wooden barricades, forcing the troops to withdraw. A few days later, Papineau escaped to the United States and later returned to France, but not before burning the parliament building in Montreal. Other Patriote leaders were not so lucky and were arrested.
In Upper Canada, there was also a division between the colonists and the Oligarchy there that was called the Family Compact. The colonists in Upper Canada wanted to have more input into government affairs, as the Family Compact also ruled in their own best interests. The family Compact feared the democratic ideas of the colonists because they believed that democracy equaled mob rule.
William Lyon Mackenzie was the leader of the rebels in Upper Canada. His group was called the Reformers. Mackenzie used the same methods as Papineau and the Patriotes had used in Lower Canada and made speeches in order to organize the people of Upper Canada against the Oligarchy and towards overthrowing the government in favor of responsible government. On December 5, 1837, 700 reformers marched on Toronto to overthrow the government, but the defenders of the oligarchy fired on them and the rebellion was crushed. Like Papineau, Machenzie fled to the United States and was later allowed to return to Toronto without any persecution.
Although both rebellions were unsuccessful, the British government took notice of the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada and realized that serious problems existed with the way that the colonies were run. They sent Lord Durham to the colonies to investigate and to make suggestions on two issues: How to improve the relations between the governments and the colonists, and to try and prevent any further rebellions from the colonists that lived there.
Here is some additional background to the 1837 rebellions.
http://www.edunetconnect.com/cat/rebellions/1837f05.htmlSee the chart of how government operated in the 1830's. As a result of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council getting its power from the
Governor, the government could not be described as "responsible government".
http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1791/1791-02-gov-structure.htmlResponsible government exists when the decision making authority of government is directly accountable or responsible to the people. Because the executive, the legislative councils and the Governor himself were appointed without the consent or approval of the legislative assembly, the people had no real influence over who governed them and thereby lacked any way to show their displeasure with these powerful individuals. The
public's increasing dissatisfaction with conditions and their inability to influence decision making led to both rebellions, but did not yield responsible government.
