After the Canadian rebellions of 1837, the British government recognized that reforms were needed in its North American colonies and unified Upper and Lower Canada as the first step toward responsible government.
After the Canadian rebellions of 1837, it became clear to the British government that some form of self-government should be granted to its North American colonies. The British colonial secretary, Lord John Russell, was determined to act upon the recommendations of the 1839 report of Lord Durham, who had been commissioned to assess conditions in Canada. Russell and Durham shared a common reformist vision for the colonies. They certainly wanted Canada to remain under British control; however, as liberals, they also wanted Canada to emulate Great Britain and possess some form of responsible government, a term peculiarly associated with the British parliamentary system. In responsible government, ministers are entirely responsible to a parliamentary majority that has been elected by the people. Responsible government requires government ministers always to be accountable to the much broader parliament. Any time that a government loses its parliament’s confidence, the parliament is dissolved and a new government must be formed.
Russell and Durham believed that responsible government would eliminate most of the corruption and self-interest that was rampant in Canadian politics. More important, they hoped it would quell the stirrings of national self-assertiveness that had been manifested in the rebellions of 1837. What they did not want was full independence for Canada. They wanted a responsible government in Canada to exercise control only over certain fiscal and administrative matters and leave other matters to Great Britain.
To carry out their plan, Russell turned to a wealthy Manchester industrialist, Charles Poulett Thompson, a self-made man who embodied many of the liberal virtues of individualism and self-reliance. Before embarking to Montreal
Sydenham’s principal achievement was to preside over Canada’s becoming a united province. Before unification was achieved on February 10, 1841, Canada was divided into two provinces: Upper and Lower Canada—names alluding to their positions on the St. Lawrence River
It was hoped that these steps would foster Canadian national unity. Behind this hope was the assumption that the division between English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians could be overcome. Durham’s
The Province of Canada in 1841
Like most colonial governors entering countries they had never even visited, Sydenham experience a rocky initiation into his office. In dealing with the Canadian legislature, he had to contend with a number of determined personalities representing entrenched and vested interests in the Canadas. Like Sydenham, most of these people were self-made merchants, but they lacked the governor’s theoretical commitment to liberalism and free markets. They were mainly concerned with protecting their own stakes in the Canadian economy. On one hand, these Canadian political leaders helped to make up the body politic that Sydenham was supposed to galvanize into fully responsible government. On the other hand, they often frustrated Sydenham’s goals, which were to help unify the country. Regional interests often undermined Sydenham’s policies.
The most prominent French-speaking politician of the era was Louis Lafontaine.
Sydenham found himself in an anomalous position. As governor, he was theoretically responsible both to the Colonial Office in London and to the Canadian legislature in Montreal
Another problem with the operation of Sydenham’s government was his own ambiguous status. As governor, he was theoretically the representative of the Crown. However, in the British constitutional system, kings and queens reign but do not rule, as Parliament exercises actual authority. Thus, as the representative of the Crown, Sydenham in theory merely should have presided over the political process, while leaving the actual governing to ministers.
In practice—and in a manner certainly endorsed by Russell—Sydenham essentially acted as his own prime minister. He believed he had to act in that way or the competing Canadian political interests would not have permitted his program of reform to succeed. Sydenham usually managed to assemble a group within the legislature to support a particular bill he had sponsored, but each group of supporters was different. Lacking a permanent power base, he had to take whatever votes he could and hope that somehow he would continue to find a way to scrape together a coalition. Even were he able to do this as a matter of course, it would not have provided a stable or consistent form of government. Moreover, Sydenham’s greatest political asset—his impartiality and his representation of the state itself and not just a particular political interest—was compromised by the petty lobbying he had to do among members of the legislature to advance his reform program.
The untenability of Sydenham’s reform program was clear in the fall of 1841. Sydenham did not live to realize his failure fully. He died during the autumn of that year in a riding accident, ending his life at the relatively young age of forty-two. His successor, Sir Charles Bagot, attempted to carry on in his stead, but the problems that had overtaken his predecessor remained. Russell’s vision of a government that was responsible but not totally so was unstable and self-contradictory. It also stood against the rising currents of Canadian nationalism that were to swell in the next two decades. Sydenham’s government did, however, provide the first vision of a united self-ruling Canada, and for that he is an important figure in Canadian political history.
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Ajzenstat, Janet. The Political Thought of Lord Durham. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988. Explores the theoretical program for colonial government laid out by Lord Durham upon which Sydenham attempted to act. -
Baskerville, Peter A. Ontario: Image, Identity, and Power. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2002. Illustrated survey of Ontario history that includes useful information about the era during which Upper and Lower Canada were united. -
Careless, J. M. S. The Union of the Canadas. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967. History of the unification era by a famed Canadian historian. Provides a general overview of the major currents of political life. -
Craig, Gerald. Upper Canada: The Formative Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963. Centers on the English-speaking population and its rising national consciousness. -
Durham, John George Lambton. The Durham Report. Edited by Sir Reginald Coupland. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1945. The first abridgment, aimed at acquainting post-World War II generations about to embark on a new phase of Commonwealth with Durham’s ideas. Excellent brief introduction elucidating the report’s main features. -
Greer, Alan, and Ian Radforth. Colonial Leviathan. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. A systematic study of the rise of Canadian nationhood, taking a largely sociohistorical approach. -
McNairn, Jeffrey L. The Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada, 1791-1854. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. Study of the debate over responsible government that was central to the unification of Upper and Lower Canada. -
Scherer, Paul. Lord John Russell: A Biography. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1999. Scholarly biography of the British colonial secretary who sent Sydenham to Canada. -
Sewell, John. Mackenzie: A Political Biography of William Lyon Mackenzie. Toronto: J. Lorimer, 2002. Biography of a major Ontario politician who played an important role in the achievement of responsible government in Canada.
Irish Immigration to Canada
Rebellions Rock British Canada
Aroostook War
Webster-Ashburton Treaty Settles Maine’s Canadian Border
First Test of Canada’s Responsible Government
British North America Act
Dominion Lands Act Fosters Canadian Settlement
Supreme Court of Canada Is Established
Canada’s Indian Act
Macdonald Returns as Canada’s Prime Minister
Robert Baldwin; First Earl of Durham; William Lyon Mackenzie; John Russell.