The Rebellion of Upper And Lower Canada Essay

The rebellion of 1837 was not achieving responsible government for Upper and Lower Canada. Causes of the rebellion were major and included the government fighting the people in both Upper and Lower Canada. The causes were people not able to have much of a say in laws, because laws that the legislative council made did not make the people happy in the society. People such as Gourley, Mackenzie and Papineua did not like the laws that the government wanted so they both tried to take over the family compact and the Chateau Clique  to make the government a responsible one.  The British were really racist to the French and wanted an English Government. They wanted to kick the French out slowly so they could keep their language and religion.

The Durham report was a report of reasons and solutions of how to make the government a responsible one. The government had the same number of people in the groups such as the legislative assembly that made the laws and worked for the governor. Durham was a dictator and ignored many British laws since he did not like them at all. Durham went to Canada after the rebellion telling the Family Compact and Chateau Clique they had to change the laws since the British knew everything had to change. His thoughts were that if Upper and Lower Canada were formed together with responsible government and the colonies of North America as well. Therefor people have one legislative assembly and council with lots of people in it that could take votes from the people and make responsible laws. Durham included in his report that the French should be included in the English culture and not kicked out, because they were French.

The Act of Union in 1840 was another document filled with articles explaining how to government was responsible and how it was not. The Union was a Quebec Act describing how the laws and rules made by the British were not responsible. It shows that the big problems that affected Canada, because he was spilt in two parts not just one whole country. All the articles in the act show the laws that were made by the Family Compact and Château Clique. From the Act alone everyone knew and could tell that the government of Canada was not responsible at all and had lots o problems, which had to change.  Article 12 said “in the Legislative Assembly of the Province "the parts of the said Province which now constitute the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada shall [ . . .] be represented by an equal number of representatives.” Article 38 says “The British government may, within two years of its passage, disallow a bill passed by the Assembly and Council and assented to by the Governor.” The Act represented how non-responsible the government was and how much they needed to change.

The Rebellion Losses Bill was a bill that paid for anyone who lost property in the rebellion using taxes. Elgin made this bill using Durham’s solutions of a responsible government. Elgin was the governor general and after the rebellion he had to make a responsible government to stop the rebellion from happening again. So in 1846 he took Durham’s ideas and put them together and made the bill so he could make everyone happy buy replacing damage from the rebellion that should of not been caused if the people felt the government was responsible. After the bill was made and he signed it the English did not like that and attacked his carriage and burned down the parliament buildings. He did not agree with the bill, but it was a good thing for the people, which is important for the society. The government does not just make up the country it is the population of people as well.

The rebellion of 1837 was not achieving responsible government for Upper and Lower Canada.  The essay talked about the causes of the rebellion, Durham’s Solutions achieving responsible government, the Act of Union of 1840, and the Rebellion Losses Bill. The Rebellion is importance today, because it told the government they had to change the laws to make the people happy. Today the government and society is good today. People can vote and the government makes fair laws for the people and allowed them to do more things. If the rebellion did not happen most of the laws back then could of still of been hear today.