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The Great Coalition was a grand coalition of political parties that brought an end to political deadlock in the Province of Canada. It existed from May 1864 until Confederation in 1867. [1]
Four different ministries had failed in the previous six years, when the eight-month-old Liberal government of John Sandfield Macdonald and Antoine-Aime Dorion (the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Ministry) resigned in March 1864, becoming the fifth cabinet to collapse. Governor-General the Viscount Monck sought out several widely respected leaders to attempt to form the next government, including Alexander Campbell of Kingston and Adam Johnston Fergusson Blair of Guelph. Each of the men approached refused, citing the extreme difficulty of the task. Finally, Parti bleu stalwart Étienne-Paschal Taché and Liberal-Conservative leader John A. Macdonald agreed to take on the task, in that same month of March 1864. A new government was sworn in; it fell after less than three months, in May 1864, to become the sixth government to fall in six years.
It had become clear to most political leaders that continued governance of Canada East and Canada West under the 1840 Act of Union was no longer tenable. [2] To reform the political system, however, a coalition was formed between the Liberals under George Brown, the Parti bleu under George-Étienne Cartier, and the Liberal-Conservatives under John A. Macdonald. The formation of this coalition took place between June 14 and 30 and was officially completed on June 22, [3] under George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald.
The formation of the Great Coalition did not go smoothly. George Brown demanded a ministry of twelve members that included four Liberals out of six members from Canada West (as Liberals commanded an overwhelming majority of political support in Ontario), and two from Canada East (as they received a significant minority of support in Quebec). Also, Brown himself did not want to serve in the ministry, hoping instead to arrange for his allies to serve in his stead. In the end, he was convinced to accept only three spots on the Canada West side of the ministry, and to accept one of those spot himself, as it was agreed the Great Coalition would only work if George Brown was a member. [4]
In the end, the Great Coalition was really only a modified version of the Taché-Macdonald Ministry of March-May 1864, with two moderate Reformers (Isaac Buchanan of Hamilton and Michael Hamilton Foley of Waterloo) and one Conservative (John Simpson of Niagara) replaced by three robust Liberals, two of whom (Oliver Mowat and William Mcdougall) having sat in the most recent Liberal ministry, that of Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion (the third Liberal being the reluctant George Brown). The Canada East side of the ministry was unchanged. [5]
The Great Coalition was created to eradicate the political deadlock between Canada West and Canada East. The government at that time was unable to pass any legislation because of the need for a double majority. For a bill to pass in the Legislative Assembly, it had to be approved by a Majority of both the Canada East and Canada West sections of the assembly. As the French speakers and the English speakers seldom agreed, this caused political deadlock. The Great Coalition was intended to resolve the deadlock with a long-term solution for some of these problems, and to unify Canada.
The Great Coalition arranged three conferences that preceded Confederation. The first was the Charlottetown Conference, which was convened to negotiate Maritime Union. However, the politicians began to discuss the possibility of a larger union that would include all of British North America. This continued at the Quebec Conference where they further discussed the union of British North America and defined the details of the government's shape. They also settled on the division of provincial and federal responsibilities. The London Conference revised the Quebec Resolutions
(Blue = Conservative; Pink = Liberal)
| Canada West | Canada East | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General West DEPUTY PREMIER | John A. Macdonald (Kingston) | ||||
| Attorney General East | George-Étienne Cartier (Montreal East) | ||||
| President of Executive Council | George Brown (Oxford South) | ||||
| Finance | Alexander Galt (Sherbrooke) | ||||
| Postmaster General | Oliver Mowat (Ontario South) | ||||
| Receiver-General PREMIER | Étienne-Paschal Taché (Legislative Council) | ||||
| Provincial Secretary | William McDougall (Ontario North) | ||||
| Commissioner of Public Works | Jean-Charles Chapais (Kamouraska) | ||||
| Commissioner of Crown Lands | Alexander Campbell (Legislative Council) | ||||
| Agriculture (and Immigration) | Thomas D'Arcy McGee (Montreal West) | ||||
| Solicitor General West | James Cockburn (Northumberland West) | ||||
| Solicitor General East | Hector-Louis Langevin (Dorchester) | ||||
There were several changes in the membership of the Great Coalition over its three years of existence:
All fifteen members of the Great Coalition are remembered as Fathers of Confederation. With the exception of Étienne-Paschal Taché, who died in 1865, all members of the Great Coalition went on to play prominent roles in the early years of Confederation. Nine members went on to join the 1st Canadian Ministry, sworn in just before Confederation in 1867. James Cockburn became the first Speaker of the House of Commons (1867-1874). Oliver Mowat pursued provincial politics, becoming the second Premier of Ontario (1872-1896), and later was elder statesman in the Ministry of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1897). Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau became the first Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1867-1873).
Sir John Alexander Macdonald was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 until his death in 1891. He was the dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, and had a political career that spanned almost half a century.
Canadian Confederation was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867. This process occurred in accordance with the rising tide of Canadian nationalism that was then beginning to swell within these provinces and others. Upon Confederation, Canada consisted of four provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which had been split out from the Province of Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The province of Prince Edward Island, which had hosted the first meeting to consider Confederation, the Charlottetown Conference, did not join Confederation until 1873. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of ten provinces and three territories.
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, was a Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation. The English spelling of the name—George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling—is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III.
Jean-Charles Chapais, was a Canadian Conservative politician, and considered a Father of Canadian Confederation for his participation in the Quebec Conference to determine the form of Canada's government.
George Brown was a British-Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He attended the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences. A noted Reform politician, he is best known as the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, Canada's most influential newspaper at the time, and his leadership in the founding of the Liberal Party in 1867. He was an articulate champion of the grievances and anger of Upper Canada (Ontario). He played a major role in securing national unity. His career in active politics faltered after 1865, but he remained a powerful spokesman for the Liberal Party. He promoted westward expansion and opposed the policies of Conservative Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.
Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché was a Canadian medical doctor, politician, and Father of Confederation. His family had a long history in New France, but suffered serious financial reverses due to the Seven Years' War and the siege of Quebec. He was considered a self-made man, who became a physician, a militia soldier, and a politician. He served twice as joint premier of the Province of Canada.
Sir Oliver Mowat was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Ontario Liberal Party leader. He served for nearly 24 years as the third premier of Ontario. He was the eighth lieutenant governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is best known for defending successfully the constitutional rights of the provinces in the face of the centralizing tendency of the national government as represented by his longtime Conservative adversary, John A. Macdonald. This longevity and power was due to his maneuvering to build a political base around Liberals, Catholics, trade unions, and anti-French-Canadian sentiment.
The Quebec Conference was held from October 10 to 24, 1864, to discuss a proposed Canadian confederation. It was in response to the shift in political ground when the United Kingdom and the United States had come very close to engaging in war with each other. Therefore, the overall goal of the conference was to elaborate on policies surrounding federalism and creating a single state, both of which had been discussed at the Charlottetown Conference around a month earlier. Canada West leader John A. Macdonald requested Governor-General Charles Monck to invite all representatives from the three Maritime provinces and Newfoundland to meet with the candidates who formed the United Canada to Quebec in October 1864. Although Newfoundland sent two observers, it did not participate directly in the proceedings.
Joint premiers of the Province of Canada were the prime ministers of the Province of Canada, from the 1841 unification of Upper Canada and Lower Canada until Confederation in 1867.
John Sandfield Macdonald, was the joint premier of the Province of Canada from 1862 to 1864. He was also the first premier of Ontario from 1867 to 1871, one of the four founding provinces created at Confederation in 1867. He served as both premier and attorney general of Ontario from July 16, 1867, to December 20, 1871.
The Parti bleu was a political group that contested elections in the Eastern section of the Province of Canada. The Blue Party was ideologically located on the political right, and was defined by its support for the Catholic Church, and later for supporting confederation.
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