Canadian and french relations

4.9 of 5.0 (60 reviews)

Download now!

Contains
1123 words

Category
History

The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Canadian and french relations

Throughout the ages, many colonies of earlier empires have arisen from

their colonial status to become their own country. For many of these, such

as the United States, French Indochina and many African nations, their was

a common culture which served as a base for uniting their population. In

Canada however, their were two very different cultures present, the French

and the English. These two peoples had originally had many battles to see

who would hold dominance over the colony, and now they had to unite if

their was any hope of achieving confederation. The French people of lower

Canada and the English people of Upper Canada had many differences, and

weren't extremely trustworthy of each other. The French Canadians were in

a tough spot when the call for confederation came around. They were afraid

of losing their culture if they joined the Canadian confederacy, but they

also didn't want to get assimilated into the United States. The French

Canadian attitudes towards confederation in the eighteen sixty's, can best

be seen through the views of the leading French Canadian politicians of the

day.

In French Canada around the period of confederacy, their were two main

political parties, the bleus and the rouges. In the 1860's, the leading

French Canadian party was the conservative bleu party. This party, had the

largest bloc of French Canadian legislative seats in parliament.1 The

leader of this party at the time that confederacy was being debated by

leading Canadian politicians was George Etienne Cartier. Cartier was born

in 1814,2 and his grandfather had been a member of the Lower Canadian

assembly in 1809.3 Prior to becoming a French leader in the move towards

confederation, Cartier had been involved in the Rebellion of 1837 that was

lead by Louis Joseph Papineau.4 When the question of confederation came

up, Cartier was quick to add his support to the movement. At the time,

their had been debates whether the current Parliament like assembly should

be elected on the basis of representation by population. This was not an

idea that any French Canadian would have been in support of, because of the

substantial population difference between the English and the French. This

idea of "rep by pop" had many French Canadians worrying about losing their

culture because of the lack of governmental representation for their

people. Cartier was one of the leading opposition to "Rep by pop" in

Canada. He didn't want to see the French Canadian culture squeezed out of

the people because the English were making all of the laws.

One of the main problems that many people saw with Canadian confederacy

was the differing cultures. No one thought that these cultures would be

able to work together in running a country. The leading English politician

of the time, was John A. Macdonald. He and Cartier were long time

political allies.5 When Cartier heard Macdonald's plan for confederation

he was quick to jump on the confederacy bandwagon. Cartier`s opinion was

that the local control of provinces under confederacy would be instrumental

in the survival of French culture.6 Cartier thought that a federal union

would prove to be very prosperous, and no one culture would come to

dominate it, because of the diversity of the nations population.7 Also on

the subject of differing cultures, Cartier compared the confederation of

Canada to the United Kingdom. He said that their are three very different

cultures residing in the United Kingdom, and that hasn't stopped them from

prospering, or becoming one of the most powerful nations in the world.8

Cartier didn't seem to think that the differing cultures were that much of

a problem. He believed that having multiculturalism within the nation

would lead to each party involved contributing to the general wealth of the

nation and that because of this, prosperity of the new nation would

increase.9

Another one of Cartier's concerns for French Canada was if they didn't

join the Canadian confederation, that they would be annexed into the United

States and completely lose their French identity.10 In the end, Cartier's

attitude towards Canadian Confederation can be summed up in one of his

speeches in parliament in 1865 when he said "Shall we be content in mere

provincial existence, when, by combining together, we could become a great

nation"11

All of French Canada's politicians weren't as optimistic about

confederation as Cartier. Joseph Perrault a member of Quebec's Rouge

party didn't share Cartier's view of a United prosperous Canada. Perrault

thought that under the new confederate parliamentary system, French Canada

would not have enough representation to hold up their views.12 Perrault

felt that if confederation occurred, French Canada would have to be in

constant defense of their own political rights because of their lack of

representation in the new parliament. Perrault's party shared his

pessimistic view of confederation. They thought that confederation was a

threat to the culture of French Canada.13 One of Perrault and his parties

other concerns was that within the new parliamentary system, the two French

Canadian parties would have to ban together to get any voice heard, and if

they did this, the English parties would ban together and crush the French

vote.14

Another member of Quebec's rouge party, Antoine Aime Dorion shared

Perrault's view on confederacy. Dorion, leader of the rouge party in

1865, thought that the power given to the federal government under

confederation to control the local legislatures was the same as Britain's

veto power that was held over non-confederate canada.15 This is

illustrated in Dorion's speech at the debates on confederation in 1865 in

Quebec when he said "Now, sir, when I look into the provisions of this

scheme, I find another most objectionable one. ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 1123 words of 2246.

Read the full essay

Keywords: french and english canadian relations, french and english canadian relations since 1914, relationship between canada and france, are canada and france allies, tension between french and english relations in canada

Similar essays

Pyramids

When most people mention Ancient Egypt the first thing that comes to mind is the . To construct such monuments required a mastery of art, architecture and social organization that few cultures would ever rival. The pyramids are said to have built Egypt by being the force that knit together the kingdom's economy. Their creations were so substant...

81 reviews

Download

How the Treaty of Versailles Effected Germany

When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, peace talks went on for months due to the Allied leaders wanting to punish the enemy and ?dividing the spoils of war.? A formal agreement to end the war was made and called the Treaty of Versailles. The issue that took the most time were the territorial issues because the empi...

107 reviews

Download

Chinese History Emperor Kang hsi

Chinese History - Emperor Kang-hsi Emperor K?ang-hsi ruled China from 1661 to 1722 and his reign is captured by Jonathan D. Spence?s book Emperor of China. The different chapters of the book deal with certain aspects of the Emperors life. Aspects that the history books to normally deal with. The information in Spence?s book is...

141 reviews

Download

The Rise And Fall Of Hitlers Reich

Feeling that all was lost, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. By orders formally given by him before his death, SS officers immersed Hitler's body in gasoline and burned it in the garden of the Chancellery. Soon after the suicide of Hitler, the German forces surrendered. The war was officially over; however, the world was only beginning to r...

92 reviews

Download

Islam 2

in North Africa/Southwest Asia The North Africa/Southwest Asia realm has spread itself from the Atlantic shores of Morocco to the mountains of Afghanistan. Sometimes this part of the world is referred to as the Arab world. This realm is one the richest in the world of historical and cultural point of view. It has been the origin of three of four re...

77 reviews

Download