• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Great Ministry

October Gold

28 Thursday Oct 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada's Great Ministry, Canadian art, Canadian Confederation, Métis

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Gabriel Dumont, Great Ministry, John Ralston Saul, Joseph Boyden, Louis Riel, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Red River Colony, Robert Baldwin

October Gold by Franklin Carmichael, 1922 (WikiArt.org)

Franklin Carmichael was a member of the Group of Seven (Art, Canada)

Dear Readers,

I have not published a post for several days. I was diagnosed with pericarditis earlier in the month of October and got better after taking anti-inflammatory medication. However, the diagnostic was not entirely correct. The pain came back. I therefore returned to the Emergency Room. The muscles of my rib cage and part of my left arm are inflamed. I can barely use my left arm. Doctors performed an electrocardiogram today. My heart is fine, but the inflammation is very real.

Posts

I had returned to the subject of Canadian confederation. Canadian scholar and thinker, John Ralston Saul, wrote an excellent book on the “great ministry” of Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The book is entitled Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. www.amazon.ca/Extraordinary-Canadians-Hippolyte-Lafontaine-Robert/dp/0670067326. The book was published in 2010. Other extraordinary Canadians are Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel. We have a post entitled A Métis Leader, Gabriel Dumont. Joseph Boyden wrote a book on Dumont and Louis Riel. Extraordinary Canadians: Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel. 

Confederation played itself out around Winnipeg (the Earl of Selkirk’s Red River Colony). Louis Riel formed a government and intended for Manitoba to remain bilingual and multicultural. His government condemned to death a violent young man, Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, from Ontario. Louis Riel’s government would not be recognized. So, the execution of Thomas Scott would cost Riel his life. As for the Métis of Manitoba, many had moved west to Saskatchewan hoping they could build lots on each side of a river. Gabriel Dumont had moved west, but he and other Métis could not settle along a river. Dumont went to see Louis Riel, who then lived in the United States. He sought his help. Dumont did not know Riel.   

Louis Riel’s view of Canada is not unlike to John Ralston Saul. Saul does not ignore John A. Macdonald, the main father of Confederation, but Canada was not born in 1867, when Confederation was signed. It was the product of the “Great Ministry” and that of a unified country longing for a responsible government, which it was granted in 1848.

John A. Macdonald sent Amerindians to reserves and their children to Residential Schools where many were molested and died. As for French-speaking Canadians, after Confederation, they could not be educated in their mother tongue outside Quebec. John A. Macdonald attempted to assimilate both Amerindians and French-speaking Canadians.

At the time of Confederation, the Red River Colony was bilingual and multicultural. It was a miniature portrait of what Canada could have been and became, officially, after the Official Languages Act of 1969. The Red River Colony, or Fort Garry, the future Winnipeg, had been bought from the Hudson’s Bay Company by the Earl of Selkirk, Thomas Douglas 5th Earl of Selkirk. It was not part of Rupert’s Land. When Confederation was signed, half the people of Manitoba were francophones and the other half, anglophones. However, one hundred and two years after Canadian Confederation (1867), most Canadians living west of Quebec spoke English only. Fortunately, there are realities of the mind that override a seemingly more verifiable “reality.” There have been extraordinary Canadians. They shaped Canada. 

John A. Macdonald wanted Canada to stretch from East to West and built a railroad. He was able to do so after Canada purchased Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

But Canada started earlier than Canadian Confederation. It started during the “great ministry” of Baldwin and LaFontaine and may have started earlier. In other words, there were extraordinary Canadians who took Canada forward despite colonialism and/or imperialism, and Confederation. French Canadian nationalism dates back to the early 1800s and it had English-speaking supporters. The Rebellions of 1837-1838 occurred in both Upper Canada and Lower Canada. 

RELATED ARTICLES 

  • The Métis in Canada (4 June 2015)
  • The Red River Settlement (30 May 2015)
  • Canada’s Amerindians: Enfranchisement (24 May 2015)
  • Residential Schools for Canada’s Amerindians (21 May 2015)
  • The Art of Kenojuak Ashevak (19 May 2015)
  • Inuit Art (17 May 2015)
  • Au pays des jours sans fin (16 May 2015)
  • The North West Rebellion, concluded (15 May 2015)
  • Aboriginals in Canada (14 May 2015)
  • A Métis Leader, Gabriel Dumont (10 May 2015) 
  • From the Red River Rebellion to the North West Rebellion (8 May 2015)
  • The Royal Proclamation of 1763 (Indigenous Foundations) (6 May 2015)
  • The Métis in Canada (4 June 2015)
  • Louis Riel as Father of Confederation (22 May 2012)

Sources and Resources

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin : Saul, John Ralston: Amazon.ca: Livres
Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont: A Penguin Lives Biography : Boyden, Joseph: Amazon.ca: Livres
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine et Robert Baldwin – Saul John Ralston – 9782764621264 | Catalogue | Librairie Gallimard de Montréal (gallimardmontreal.com)

Love to everyone 💕

https://nationtalk.ca/story/featured-video-of-the-day-joseph-boyden-on-louis-riel-and-gabriel-dumont

© Micheline Walker
28 October 2021
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Le Vent du Nord’s “Confédération”

21 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian Confederation, Indigenous People, Québec, The Great Ministry

≈ Comments Off on Le Vent du Nord’s “Confédération”

Tags

Confederation, Great Ministry, Le Vent du Nord, Louis Riel, Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Quebec in Confederation, Robert Baldwyn, Sir John A Macdonald, The Act of Union, The Northwest Rebellion

“La Confédération”


Although it is quite long and somewhat repetitive, I am publishing this post. In Confédération, Le Vent du Nord ensemble tells that French-speaking Canada was created three times.
1) New France was defeated.
2) Patriots were exiled after the Rebellions of 1837-1838.
3) Confederation isolated Quebec.
However, it is difficult to say to what extent being confined to a single province harmed French-speaking Canadians. What I know for certain is that English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians are two compatible populations.

—ooo—

On 1st July 1867, four provinces of Canada federated: Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These provinces were suffering attacks by the Fenians, an Irish brotherhood whose mission was to free Ireland. Fenians lived in the United States, but some lived in Canada. Moreover, the United States purchased Alaska on 30 March 1867, three months before Confederation. Canadians feared annexation which led to the purchase of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company and a motivation to bring British Columbia into Confederation. On 20 July 1871, after being promised a transcontinental railroad, British Columbia entered Confederation. Canada would stretch from sea to sea. (See Maps of Canada.)

Confederation

  • a continuation of the “Great Ministry”
  • a new Canada

Confederation, however, was not a continuation of the ‘Great Ministry‘ formed by Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine. The Great Ministry unified Ontario and Quebec, or the Province of Canada. It was a bilingual and bicultural Canada where French-speaking and English-speaking citizens were equals. Such was the Canada Métis leader Louis Riel envisaged. He therefore “halted the Canadian land surveys on 11 October 1869.” (See Louis Riel, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) The arrival of Orangemen at the Red River Settlement was premature and could be described as a landrush. The purchase of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company had yet to be finalized. In addition, no policy governing the allocation of land would exist until the Dominion Lands Act was passed. It received Royal assent on 14 April 1872. (See Dominion Lands Act, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) 

The Act of Union

  • the Rebellions of 1837-1838
  • Lord Durham’s recommendations
  • the Great Ministry (Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine)

Confederation would not reflect the “Great Ministry.” It would instead be consistent with John George Lambton, Lord Durham‘s recommendations. After investigating the Rebellions of 1837-1838, Lord Durham recommended the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The Act of Union was passed in Britain in July 1840 and in Canada on 10th February 1841. Upper Canada and Lower Canada would constitute the Province of Canada.

Lord Durham expected that, in a Province of Canada, English-speaking Canadians would soon outnumber and absorb the French-speaking minority. The Act of Union was passed in Britain in July 1840 and in Canada on 10th February 1841, but it was followed by the “Great Ministry” In 1848, Canada obtained the responsible government it sought in 1837-1838.

Lord Durham also recommended that the language of the Assembly be English. The languages of the Assembly would remain French and English. When Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, the first Prime Minister of the Province of Canada, addressed the Assembly, he spoke French shortly and then switched to English. He set a precedent.

The Terms of Confederation

Confederation marginalized Quebec. Under the terms of Confederation, the British North America Act, 1867, the children of French-speaking families could not be educated in French outside Quebec. In public schools, the language of instruction was English. The assimilation of French-speaking Canadians had been Lord Durham’s intent when he proposed a united Canada, the Province of Canada. So, as immigrants arrived in Canada, their children attended English-language schools. John A Macdonald (10 or 11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was an Orangeman and the Orange Order was anti-French and anti-Catholic. (See Orange Order, The Canadian Encylopedia.)

By 1864, the ‘great ministry’ seemed a memory. It was replaced by the great coalition of Canada, the government that would usher in Confederation. George-Étienne Cartier, the premier of Canada East, had good reasons to lead Quebec into Confederation. Confederation offered a secure environment, but Quebec would not be an equal partner. Outside Quebec, the children of French-speaking Canadians would be educated in English, unless they attended private schools, which was another problematic. So, bilingualism and biculturalism played itself out as la question des écoles,[1] the school question, i. e. publicly funded French-language schools outside Quebec. Therefore, John A Macdonald was Prime Minister of Canada after Canadian Confederation, a Confederation that was not bilingual and bicultural, except in Quebec.

“Macdonald has come under criticism for his role in the Chinese Head Tax and federal policies towards indigenous peoples, including his actions during the North-West Rebellion that resulted in Riel’s execution, and the development of the residential school system designed to assimilate Indigenous children.” (See John A Macdonald, Wikipedia.)

RELATED ARTICLES

Maps of Canada (15 October 2020)
About Confederation, cont’d (6 October 2020)
About Confederation (15 September 2020)
Sir Wilfrid Laurier: the Conciliator (15 July 2020)
Canadiana.1
(page)

_________________________
[1] Comeault, G.-L. (1979). La question des écoles du Manitoba — Un nouvel
éclairage. Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 33(1), 3–23.
https://doi.org/10.7202/303748ar

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Sir John A Macdonald (Britannica)

© Micheline Walker
20 April 2021
WordPress




Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: