Canada’s forty-fifth general election concluded on April 28. Though the margin was relatively slim from a historical standpoint and this will again be a minority Parliament, the Liberal Party increased both its popular support and its seat count. Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely hold the reins of power until the New Democratic Party selects […]
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Before Lord Durham
Quebec historians and mythmakers have accorded a lot of attention to Lord Durham, the governor who spent five months in Lower Canada in 1838. Today, he might be remembered for granting a broad amnesty to people implicated in the first rebellion, if remembered at all, were it not for the report he submitted in Britain […]
Continue readingHistoire du Québec : Rectifier le tir
À lire ce qui s’écrit sur les réseaux sociaux, bon nombre de Québécoises et de Québécois vivent un combat quotidien—une petite guerre amorcée à la fin du régime français et loin d’être achevée, une petite guerre qui anime tous les aspects de la vie publique du Québec. Entendons-nous : le fait français est minoritaire dans son […]
Continue readingDepopulation and Despair, 140 Years Ago
So declared Sir Richard Cartwright in the House of Commons in Ottawa exactly 140 years ago, February 29, 1884, while offering a vigorous response to the government’s proposed budget. Not that he knew any other kind of response: in the 1870s, Cartwright had emerged as one of the most outspoken and effective critics of John […]
Continue readingDebating Emigration in Ottawa: 5 Takeaways
Quebec’s nineteenth-century legislative debates on emigration are available virtually in two searchable volumes (1867-1880 and 1881-1900). These compilations reveal policymakers’ ambivalence about industrialization as a viable means of curbing outmigration and the rise of domestic colonization as a projet national drawing bipartisan support. Excerpts are available here. Emigration to the United States was not confined […]
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