|
Union of the Canada's
| Stalemate |
Responsible
Government | Elgin Report
|
Responsible Government Maritimes |
Newfoundland |
Barkerville
In February of 1841 the Union of the
Canada's took place and Upper and Lower Canada were
united as Canada West and Canada East as Canada. The
capital of the new Union was in Kingston where the
Legislative assembly was to meet in the newly designated
legislative assembly which was a large building built as
a hospital but never used.
Both Canada East and Canada West were to
have 42 representatives in the Assembly even though the
predominately French speaking Canada East spoke French
and had 200,000 more people then Canada West. The
Assembly conducted business in English only which was
one of the recommendations of the Durham Report which
argued that assimilating the French population was
important in order to maintain the peace of the land.
Canada West was growing much faster then Canada East and
it was felt that this would also eventually overwhelm
the French minority.
Upper Canada had spent its way in to debt
as it's quick expansion and growth had required
infrastructure development. Some of this development was
not so much essential for the province as a scam to make
money for some of the business interests or Family
Compact members who control the purse strings. Lower
Canada was financially sound and had been relatively
well run with it's more established society and more
stable growth rate. The Union was a political solution
for reducing the per capita debt of Upper Canada by
rolling it into the books of Lower Canada. This was also
to be an issue 20 years later when a larger
confederation began to be debated.
The first election of 1841 also witnessed
intimidation of French Canadian voters at the polling
booth in an attempt to discourage French Canadian
voters. This was particularly effective through placing
the voting booths some distance away from the French
population and close to English centres.
The Union was achieved
and the Canada's would learn how to deal with the
regional and federated issues as French, English,
merchant, religious and many other interest groups. |
