User:Mr Serjeant Buzfuz/Groupe canadien-français

French-Canadian group Groupe canadien-français
Leaders (1841–1843)	Denis-Benjamin Viger and John Neilson
Leader (1843–1851)	Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Founded	1841 (1841)
Dissolved	1851 (1851)
Preceded by	Parti patriote
Succeeded by	Ministerialists Parti bleu Parti rouge
Ideology	French-Canadian nationalism Democracy Responsible government

The French-Canadian group (French: Groupe canadien-français) was a parliamentary group in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1841 to 1851, representing electoral districts in Canada East (formerly Lower Canada, now the province of Quebec). The members of the group were primarily French-Canadians, but with some British-Canadians as well. The group was initially led by Denis-Benjamin Viger and John Neilson.

The main goal of the group was to protect the interests of the largely French-Canadian population of Canada East. The members of the group protested the way the British government had united Lower Canada with Upper Canada, creating the Province of Canada. As time passed, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine gained the leadership of the group and formed a coalition with Robert Baldwin, the leader of the reformers from Canada West (formerly Upper Canada, now Ontario).

Working together, LaFontaine and Baldwin established the principle of responsible government, where the elected members of the Legislative Assembly controlled the provincial government, reducing the power of the Governor General, who was appointed by the British government. In 1848, they formed the first government chosen by the Legislative Assembly, rather than by the Governor General.

Once responsible government was achieved and LaFontaine retired from politics in 1851, the members of the French-Canadian group broke into different groups aligned on other issues. The main successor was the conservative Parti bleu, while a smaller group joined the Parti rouge.

Creation of the Province of Canada

Province of Canada, 1841 to 1867

Charles Thomson, Lord Sydenham, who persuaded the Parliament of Upper Canada to vote for the union

Following the Rebellions of 1837–1838 in Lower Canada and Upper Canada, the British government decided to merge the two provinces into a single Province of Canada, as recommended by Lord Durham in the Durham Report. The British governor, Charles Thomson, persuaded the Parliament of Upper Canada to vote in favour of the union in 1839.

No similar parliamentary vote was held in Lower Canada. In 1838, the British Parliament had suspended the Parliament of Lower Canada and created the Special Council of Lower Canada to govern Lower Canada. The Special Council was not elected; all its members were appointed by the Governor General. Composed primarily of British-Canadians, the Special Council voted in favour of the union. The British Parliament then passed the Union Act, 1840.

There were several factors about the new union which triggered dissatisfaction among the French-Canadians. The main concern was that the union was designed to assimilate French-Canadians within the British colony:

• The Union Act abolished the separate parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and created a new Parliament of the Province of Canada, with each of the former provinces having equal representation in the new Parliament, even though Lower Canada had a larger population;
• The act prohibited the use of French in the records of the new Parliament, unlike the former Parliament of Lower Canada, which had published its records in both English and French;
• The British government had rejected Lord Durham's recommendation for responsible government, which would have increased popular control of the provincial government, at the expense of the Governor General.
• The Governor General, appointed by the British government, retained significant power in the government of the new province, including the power to appoint the members of the Executive Council;
• The Governor General initially only appointed English-Canadians to the Executive Council, excluding French-Canadians from the government.

There was also a concern that the financial terms of the union were unfair to Lower Canadians. The Union Act established a single consolidated fund for the new province, and merged the debts of the former governments of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Since the Upper Canada debt was much larger than the Lower Canada debt, and the population of Upper Canada smaller than that of Lower Canada, this meant that the population of Lower Canada was paying a greater share of the Upper Canada debt than the population of Upper Canada.

Role of the French-Canadian group

Origins

John Neilson, who introduced the motion condemning the union

Denis-Benjamin Viger, who supported Governor General Metcalfe

Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, eventual leader of the French-Canadian group

Étienne Parent, advocate for responsible government

In the first general elections, held in the spring of 1841, the main issue was the union of the two Canadas. Although the union had been created, there was still considerable opposition to it in Lower Canada, which had forty-two seats in the Legislative Assembly. Twenty of those districts elected members who were opposed to the union. Those twenty members formed the cohesive French-Canadian group in the Assembly, opposed to the union and generally to the policies of the governor general, who had been enobled as Lord Sydenham.

Although the members of the French-Canadian group had links to the pre-Rebellion Parti patriote, they tended to be more moderate than the former party, whose members had largely supported the Rebellion. One reason for the difference was that some of the more radical members of the Parti patriote, such as Louis-Joseph Papineau and Wolfred Nelson, were in exile, while others, such as Jean-Joseph Girouard, had retired from politics after the Rebellion. Some veteran members of the French-Canadian group, such as John Neilson and René-Joseph Kimber, had been supporters of the Parti patriote but were committed to change by constitutional means and had opposed the Rebellion. Another veteran member, Denis-Benjamin Viger, had had an ambiguous role in the Rebellion, and was prepared to try electoral politics again. Some younger members, such as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Étienne Parent, had also opposed the Rebellion and been imprisoned, and were now strong supporters of responsible government. All of these factors led to the French-Canadian group being more moderate in its approach than the Parti patriote, while firmly defending the rights of French-Canadians under the new constitutional provisions.

Motion condemning the union

When Parliament met in June 1841, one of the first issues considered was the union of the two Canadas. Neilson introduced a motion condemning the union. He argued that the manner in which the union had been imposed on Lower Canada, without any vote by elected representatives, had been unfair and contrary to the Lower Canada constitution, set out in the Constitutional Act 1791. After a lengthy debate, the motion was defeated, 50 to 25, with majorities from both Lower Canada and Upper Canada voting against the motion and in favour of the union. All of the members of the French-Canadian group present in the Assembly voted for the motion, condemning the union.

There were also votes supporting Neilson's motion from six of the members from Upper Canada, the Ultra Reformers led by Robert Baldwin. LaFontaine and Baldwin shared the goal of responsible government, where the Governor General would appoint the Executive Council based on the parties which controlled the Legislative Assembly. Baldwin's support of the motion, insisted on by LaFontaine, was one of the first concrete steps of the alliance, working towards popular control of the government.

LaFontaine and Baldwin appointed to Executive Council, 1842–1843

In 1841, Governor General Sydenham tried to form a government that was largely controlled by British Canadians from Upper Canada and Lower Canada, and exclude the French-Canadians. This approach was part of the policy of assimilation favoured by the British government. However, the equality of seats in the Assembly between the two sections gave the French-Canadians significant political power, and LaFontaine's growing alliance with the Upper Canada Reformers made it difficult for the English-only Executive Council to pass legislation in the Assembly.

The next year, in 1842, the new Governor General, Sir Charles Bagot, found it necessary to include French-Canadian members in the Executive Council, in spite of his instructions from the British government to avoid doing so. The cohesion of the Reform alliance forced his hand, as he found it not possible to govern without including them in the Executive Council. Bagot appointed LaFontaine and Baldwin to the Council. The new Council was mainly Reform members, but there remained some Tory members and supporters of the Governor General.

Political evolution

After the LaFontaine–Baldwin government was appointed in 1848, the members of the French-Canadian group began to refer to themselves as "Ministerialists", meaning supporters of the LaFontaine–Baldwin ministry. With responsible government achieved, members of the group began to form new political alliances, particularly after LaFontaine's retirement in 1851. Most of its parliamentary members formed the new conservative Parti bleu, while a smaller number of liberal members of the group joined the more left-leaning Parti rouge established by Papineau, who had returned from exile and was elected to the Legislative Assembly.

Name of the group

The name, "French-Canadian group", was not an official party name, but rather an informal way to refer to the parliamentary group of members from Canada East. The name is used by the National Assembly of Quebec in its biographies of the members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, published on the Assembly's website. It was also used by Paul Cornell, a political historian who studied the period. Another historian, J. M. S. Careless, used the more generic "French party" to describe the group, as well as "French-Canadian party".