Important Vocab

1. Representative government – A representative government is one in which representatives are elected by people to make laws on their behalf.
2. responsible government – responsible government can be voted out if elected representative fail to please a majority of the people who elected them.
3. oligarchy – power is placed in the hands of a small group of rich and influential men
4. democracy – these governments are representative and responsible
5. Constitutional Act – A law that separated Upper Canada from Lower Canada and established an elected law-making assembly, a governor and two appointed councils (1791)
6. veto – To stop something with authority i.e. to veto a law is to cancel the law without having to confer with anyone
7. Family Compact – Small group of rich business people in Upper Canada – the Council was made up of members of the Family Compact.
8. Chateau Clique – Same as the Family Compact but in Lower Canada.
9. Legislative Assembly – An elected law-making body of men
10. governor – The head of the government in the Canadian colonies appointed by the British Crown.
11. appointed – Selected by a higher authority.
12. elected – Voted in by the majority of the voting public.

Upper and Lower Canada's Problems

Upper and Lower Canada. Both part of the same country but completely different. Upper Canada consisted of the British colonists while Lower Canada was made up of the French. But they both had similar problems, like their problems with their government. The British argued about the land, and the French argued about their culture/language. In Upper Canada, there was no progress. No roads were being built because of the crown and clergy reserves while the French felt as if the British would kill them off with the Irish colonists (during their potato famine) or even bring more English-speaking people into their homes to make them learn English. It wasn't until Louis-Joseph Papineau came along and help fight for the french. Unfortunately, they failed at their attempt to rebel against the British and were only left with injured and killed "frenchies". The British, however, had a newspaper-owner named William Lyon Mackenzie who ended up trying to fight for new government ways, but he too failed. If none of these things had happened, we would still today have an Upper and Lower Canada, separated by race.