• Libraries
    • Log in to:
    View Item 
    •   MSpace Home
    • Faculty of Graduate Studies (Electronic Theses and Practica)
    • FGS - Electronic Theses and Practica
    • View Item
    •   MSpace Home
    • Faculty of Graduate Studies (Electronic Theses and Practica)
    • FGS - Electronic Theses and Practica
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Reluctant politician : a biography of Sir Hugh John Macdonald

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Guest, RESTRICTED ACCESS note in MSpace.pdf (23.39Kb)
    Date
    1973
    Author
    Guest, Henry James.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    In 1850 the future looked bleak to John Alexander Macdonald, then a rising young star on the political horizon of Canada West. As the year began he faced a series of crises which threatened to put an end to his ambitions for the years ahead. His career in politics seemed almost doomed and his law business was on the verge of failure. This state of affairs was complicated further when his invalid wife announced that she was expecting a child. The fortunes of the Conservative party in the province of Canada were seriously imperilled at the end of 1849. The Tories were an impotent minority in the legislative assembly of the province at a time when the traditional colonial system upon which they had relied seemed about to collapse. The repeal of the Corn Laws and Timber Duties removed Canada's exports from the preferential position they had occupied in imperial markets, and the British acceptance of the principle of free trade destroyed the old foundation of the colonial Tories' political supremacy. The passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill by the Canadian assembly, and Lord Elgin's assent to it, completed the ruin of the Tories' philosophy. With their faith and loyalties rattled, the Conservatives groped toward new policies and new principles. No one was more aware of the Conservative dilemma than John A. Macdonald, the Receiver-General in the last Conservative administration. Macdonald had entered public life in 1843 as an alderman in Kingston, and the next year had become that city's representative in the Legislative Assembly of the United Province of Canada. In three years on the back-bench he had gained recognition as a moderate and disciple of William Henry Draper, and in 1847 was elevated to the cabinet. With Draper's resignation, Macdonald remained the moderates' spokesman and undeclared candidate for the party's leadership. However, the victory of the Reformers in the 1848 election, and the subsequent passage of legislation anathema to traditionalist Tories, drove the Conservatives to desperation. The political crisis led many of the Conservative rank and file to form the British American League, which met in convention in Macdonalds's home town in July 1849...
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3522
    Collections
    • FGS - Electronic Theses and Practica [25494]
    • Manitoba Heritage Theses [6053]

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV
     

     

    Browse

    All of MSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    Theme by 
    Atmire NV