SS 10- Chapter 2
1) Lack of say in the government the governor and councils had all the power 2) Upper Class ruled the colonies Family Compact (Upper Can) and Chateau Clique (Lower Can) acted with their own best interests in mind- didn’t care about the fate to the average person 3) Unfair distribution of LAND Crown reserves (1/7 of the land for government) Clergy reserves (1/7 of the land for Anglican Church) Land was often untouched and blocked road development
4) Government funded CANALS instead of ROADS this development benefited businesses (Fam. Compact and Chateau Clique) because they used the canals to move goods that were being bought and sold the farmers needed roads for their line of work 5) Lack of funding for farmers, lack of focus on farming conditions 6) ONLY LOWER CANADA French colonists worried about the lost of their culture and language
Rebellions occurred in Lower Canada (November- December 1837) In Lower Canada, Louis Joseph Papineau led the rebels (Party was called The Patriotes) In Upper Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie led the rebels (Party was called Radical Reformers)
In Lower Canada, open rebellion started with the attempted arrest of Papineau, who fled to the US. The Patriotes won the battle in the village of St. Denis. However, the Patriotes lost battles in both Saint Charles and Saint Eustache. The rebellions in Lower Canada lasted less than one month. If the Catholic Church had supported the rebels in Lower Canada, the rebels might have won. Instead, the church encouraged members to stay loyal to Britain.
Mackenzie and other radical leaders decided that they wanted a more democratic system and to be tied to the United States. Mackenzie planned to attack York (now Toronto) and seize weapons and ammunition, take the governor prisoner and set up a new government. He and the radical reformers marched on Mongomery’s Tavern (a local hang out of the governor and the Family Compact) on Dec 5, A battle started and the reformers were disorganized and had to flee. Mackenzie escaped to the US.
Captured rebels were imprisoned. Many were issued the death penalty for taking up arms against the government. Many of the arrested reformers were shipped to Tasmania in Australia to work as slaves on plantations, farms and government projects. Many of Australia’s early colonialists were transported convicts.
Britian sent Lord Durham (aka John George Lambton) to the Canadas in May 1838 to investigate the causes of the rebellions Durham did not bend to the Chateau Clique or the Family Compact and he pardoned many of the captured rebels - this caused a lot of controversy because the rebels who caused damage to homes, businesses etc were not punished for their actions
1) Upper and Lower Canada should be united to become ONE COLONY - this would give the English a huge majority in the colony 2) The new colony should have RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT - the Executive Council members would be chosen by the leader of the largest group in the Legislative Assembly rather than the Governor - the governor would sign into law any bills recommended by the Executive Council
The British only acted on ONE of Lord Durham’s recommendations In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada joined together - they were now called the UNITED PROVINCE OF CANADA - now called CANADA EAST (Lower Canada) and CANADA WEST (Upper Canada) Canada East and Canada West had the same number of seats in the Legislative Assembly However, the EC and LC still had VETO POWER over the (elected) Legislative Assembly’s laws
The purpose of this bill was to pay the people of Canada East (Lower Canada) for property that was damaged during the Rebellions The EC and LC did NOT like this bill LORD ELGIN (the Governor of the Colony at the time) did NOT like it either, but he passed it because the majority of the people in the Legislative Assembly approved the bill
This was the first time that the desires of the people (through the Legislative Assembly) were listened to by the government. Even though the EC, LC and the Governor did not like the bill, it was passed anyway