DISCONTENT IN UPPER CANADA

COMPLAINTS:• land

Speculators Absentee landlords

overpriced land Clergy and crown reserves

-many protests, petitions and newspapers articles criticized the govt.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE Robert Gourlay: land

surveyor• wrote a list of grievances (petition) on behalf of the settlers and presented it to the govt. Arrested and exiled Govt. was not prepared to listen/change

Strengthened opposition to the Family Compact

William Lyon MacKenzie journalist

• Used his newspaper ‘The Colonial Advocate’ to criticize the govt. Newspaper office was

destroyed• became a member

of the Legislative Assembly in 1828 and fought for reform.

LOWER CANADA land had been divided for centuries

not a problem• Seigneurial system- the old system of

New France whereby seigneurs (lords) were granted large areas of land by France

Seigneurial SystemSeigneurial System (artwork by Michael Lee).

different language and culture: did not adjust well to British rule

influenced by American and French Revolutions• wanted democracy • opposed the Anglophone oligarchy (Chateau

Clique)

MAIN PROBLEMS IN LOWER CANADA

1. discrimination against French-English had more benefits though smaller population 80 000/ 420 000

• felt discriminated: economically and politically (language, culture, ideas)

• make English the official language• Attempts to join Upper and Lower Canada seen as a

threat to French culture2. unequal taxation raise taxes for farmers

not businesses3. lack of power in the govt. : CHATEAU

CLIQUE mostly wealthy British merchants

NATIONALISMDEFINITION: Devotion to the interests or

culture of one's nationmany factors created a stronger sense of

identity/unity among the French:• Fear of British bringing in more English-speaking

immigrants to outnumber the French• land speculators were buying up land in the

Eastern Townships• Thought the British were trying to kill them with

diseases when many Irish people arrived to Quebec on coffin ships sick with Cholera