Dubious Allegiance

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It is the fall of 1837 and the colonial provinces of Upper Canada (later Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) are on the eve of open revolt. The Reform Party of Upper Canada has tried for years to secure legislation that will alleviate the many grievances suffered under the stern and self-serving Family Compact. This small group of Tories holds control of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council and uses its power to block any such legislation forwarded by the democratically elected Legislative Assembly. Moreover, the new lieutenant-governor, Sir Francis Bond Head, secured a majority of Tories in the Assembly in the election of June 1836. The Reformers are left without hope for relief or justice from the governing institutions. A radical wing of the Reformers under the leadership of fiery William Lyon Mackenzie has begun to agitate in the hinterland, threatening insurrection.

In Lower Canada, the restless French population is suffering harsh oppression at the hands of the English minority and the land-owning French seigneurs. An economic depression brings many habitants in rural Quebec to the brink of starvation, while those in the cities see their numerical majority threatened by massive immigration from Britain. All that is needed is leadership, and the Reform-minded patriotes find two in former members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, Montreal lawyer Louis-Joseph Papineau and Wolfred Nelson, an English-speaking doctor and politician.

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