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.