- Representative Government: representatives are elected by the people to make laws on their behalf
- Responsible Government: representatives who have been elected already, can be voted out if they fail to please the majority
- Democratic Government: both representative and responsible
- Oligarchy***: power in the hands of a small group of rich and influential men
1791 Constitutional Act
- Colony of Quebec divided into two
- Gave the people of Upper and Lower Canada their own legislative assemblies (elected-body) - this is a form of representative government
- Legislative Assemblies - elected members voted in by the people to pass and amend laws
- Only male, property owners could vote for members
Life in Lower Canada 1815 - 38
- French-speaking tenant farmers
- Threatened by population growth, filled up available farmland
- Young people left to work in the towns or the lumber camps of the U.S.
- Poverty, starvation, low prices, wheat destroyed by weather and disease
- English-speaking newcomers made them fearful of losing their French language, Roman Catholic religion, and agricultural traditions
- French-speaking professionals
- Newest group to Lower Canada, prominent after 1800
- Educated people, mostly lawyers or doctors
- Wanted a separate French-Canadian nation to preserve their way of life
- Formed a new political party called "Parti Canadien"
- English-speaking merchants
- Ruling elite, rich and powerful
- Mostly members of the Château Clique
Family Compact & Château Clique
- Small group of powerful people
- Took for themselves and gave to their friends favors such as jobs, land, and contracts
- Favored the British point of view and system of government
- Opposed change and defended tradition
Family Compact
- Upper Canada
- Loyalist descent or British immigrants who arrived before 1800
- Did not want people from the U.S. to be part of the government
- Church of England should be powerful
Château Clique
- Lower Canada
- British background or wealthy French Canadians who allied with the British
- Wanted more English-speaking settlers in the colony
- Roman Catholic Church should be powerful
Government in Upper and Lower Canada
- Oligarchy: power in the hands of a small group of rich and influential men
- Britain appointed a governor to control the oligarchy, but in reality, ruled according to the Family Compact/Château Clique's wishes
- The councils were made up of the wealthy, ruling elite
- Could veto (stop authority) any laws passed by the Legislative Assembly (L.A. represented the ordinary people)
- Therefore, the ordinary people and L.A. had no power in the government, which led to....
- Legislative Assembly wanted to spend money to help the ordinary people (e.g. schools, churches, roads) vs. the elite (councils and governor) wanted to spend money for themselves (e.g. improve businesses, build canals, take farm land)
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