The creation of Lower Canada

In 1791, the settlers of the St. Lawrence Valley were presented with a new constitution, drafted by the area's English-speaking Tories, which without entirely repealing the Quebec Act of 1774 modified it considerably. Passed by Parliament in London, the Constitutional Act divided the province of Quebec into two culturally distinct halves: English-speaking Upper Canada inland, and French-speaking Lower Canada at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

For administrative purposes, Lower Canada was divided into four districts: Gaspé, Québec, Trois-Rivières and Montréal. It was further divided into twenty-five counties. Though the French-speakers were in the majority, they didn't make up the entirety of the population; of about 160 000 in 1791, 20 000 were Anglophone.

The political structure of Lower Canada was amended from that created by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 to include an elected House of Assembly along with an appointed governor and legislative council. Members of the House assisted the council with the creation of new laws and the amelioration of older ones; as such, Lower Canada was an early example of the principles of responsible government brought into action.

After some reservations among the English elite, in 1792 an executive council was established, with members appointed directly by the British crown. This council was accountable to the governor, rather than to the elected officials; the governor in turn was accountable to the King. Thus, the elected House had little real influence; this was the parliamentary system without democracy.

Political development and the emergence of the party system

As established by the Constitutional Act, Upper and Lower Canada each had fifty seats in the House of Assembly. The first election in Lower Canada was held in 1792. With little time to prepare and forge allegiances beforehand, there were no structured political parties nor were there any particularly strong leaders. The election resulted in 34 Francophone and 16 Anglophone representatives; the House of Assembly was opened officially late in 1793 in the capital, Québec City, at the Bishop's residence.

This last, though it seems a technicality and almost irrelevant at best, was significant in that it showed the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the political affairs of Lower Canada. Despite a seeming predilection of the English to espouse the separation of church and state, and despite the relatively strong Anglophone presence in the House, the French-Canadian majority showed its strength without an overt display of power.

Of course, as it turned out, it was little more than a display. After the election of a president of the Assembly -- Jean-Antoine Panet, elected on December 18, 1793 -- parliamentary debate hinged on the issue of an official language for Lower Canada. Members quickly divided themselves into two blocs: those who felt that French should be granted official status, as it had not yet been granted this, and those who felt that English should be the sole official language of Lower Canada.

A vote was taken, after a great deal of debate, and it resulted in the passing of a law which decreed that both French and English were to have equal status as official languages. All seemed fair and democratic -- until word came from London, through the mouthpiece of the Governor, that English was to be imposed as the single official language of Lower Canada, with French to be used only where necessary for translation purposes.

The rest of the first session of Parliament was of little importance, overshadowed as it was by the language conundrum.

Emerging from the debate, two distinct sides or parties took shape: the Tory Party, uniting the English-speaking members of the Assembly, most of whom held traditional and conservative values, and the Canadian Party, French-speaking and in the majority. Despite their majority, bills brought forward by the Canadian Party were contested by the Tories and generally rejected without much consideration by the Executive Council which, of course, was made up English Tories, appointed by Britain.

Over the next decade, the gap between the Tories -- proponents of whom consisted mostly of wealthy Anglophone merchants -- and the Canadians -- working-class Francophones -- widened, exacerbated by the emergence of powerful political minds and leaders on either side. Things came to a head in 1808, when after winning another majority in the House the Canadian Party voted to expel two English members. Outraged, Governor James Henry Craig dissolved Parliament and had the press machines of a newspaper sympathetic to the Canadian cause seized.

The Canadian Party won again. Evidently the cultural division ran far too deeply to be resolved so quickly.

The War of 1812 served to bring the French and the English in Lower Canada into a sort of uneasy truce as they found a common enemy in the United States. It didn't last for long.

Ideological differences quickly created new and greater tensions. The Tories felt that Lower Canada should be governed in the British style, with power given to a class of aristocrats under a constitutional monarchy, underscored by staunch Protestantism. The Canadian Party advocated power in the hands of the working class, with emphasis placed on trade in local markets, agriculture, and Catholicism. The sides entrenched themselves firmly, each refusing to concede any ground to the other, and political development was brought to a grinding halt.

Genesis of insurrection: The 1837 Lower Canada rebellion

In light of the political stalemate and the economic disparity between the mostly-Francophone working classes and the Anglophone Tory elite, a sense of nationalism developed among French Canadians in Lower Canada. Hostilities grew with the revelation of severe abuses of subsidies on the part of the Governor and Legislative Council; salaries for fictitious positions were submitted and requests for pensions were denied, and each time the elected Assembly voted in opposition to the Tories the Council vetoed their decision.

In 1827, 87 000 citizens signed a petition that condemned the actions of the "ruling class", known colloquially as the Chateau Clique. The denouncement came to nothing.

A movement arose in Britain, calling for the unification of the two Canadas into a single province. Many were outraged, and the powerful orator and thinker Louis-Joseph Papineau was selected to go to London to contest the issue. The Governor of Lower Canada, Lord Dalhousie, also returned to England, where both men were assured that the question of unification was one that must be addressed only after careful consideration with input from both sides.

Papineau was elected Speaker of the House in 1827, much to the dismay of Dalhousie. More and more grievances were brought forward by the Canadian Party (by now renamed the Patriot Party) and their supporters, most of them legitimate ones. A number of different ministers were cycled through the colony as Governors, to try and calm the nerves of those on edge. The Patriots drew up a list of ninety-two grievances and accompanying demands for reform, bypassing the Legislative Council and sending it directly to London; their requests were denied.

In essence, Papineau and his followers were forced to choose between submitting to the autocratic rule of the British imperial government and revolting against them.

With little to lose, they chose violence. 1837 saw armed rebellion break out, spreading rapidly from city to city and resulting in thousands of arrests and a great deal of damage.

The Durham Report and the Act of Union

After the rebellions, the Earl of Durham, John George Lambton, was appointed by the British crown to investigate the causes and propose solutions. He concluded that the rebellions had arisen out of racial tension rather than political; in order to ensure peace in the future, he felt, it was necessary to establish an Anglophone majority and assimilate the French Canadian culture entirely. To effect this he brought back the idea of the unification of the two Canadas.

The Act of Union took effect on February 10, 1841. Lower Canada as such disappeared from the map. Now, there was only United Canada, though geographical nomenclature quickly took effect; Upper Canada became Canada West, and Lower Canada became Canada East.

Sources: Lower Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/2/18/h18-2002-e.html. Library and Archives Canada. 27 May 2004. Lower Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Canada. Wikipedia. 27 May 2004. Ouellet, Fernand. Lower Canada 1791-1840: Social Change and Nationalism, trans. Patricia Claxton. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980. Wade, Mason. The French-Canadian Outlook. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1964.