History

Unit 1A: The Great Enterprise

Summary Notes
John A. Macdonald
• Born in Scotland, but spent most of his life in Canada West.
• A politician from Kingston, he spent much time away from home, even as his first wife suffered from a mysterious
illness.
• He suffered personal tragedy. His first wife, Isabella, died from her illness, and an infant son died before reaching his
first birthday.
• He thought about leaving politics and withdrawing from public life, but the threat from the United States compelled
him to remain a politician.
• He was known as the “Sly Fox,” due to his ability and willingness to do whatever might be necessary to advance a
cause. In Kingston, where there was a strong anti-Catholic feeling, Macdonald joined the Loyal Order of Orange in
order to win support. Yet, at the same time, he was negotiating an alliance with Georges-Etienne Cartier to gain the
support of French Catholics in Quebec (Canada East)
• Macdonald was a regular drinker, and would often use social events as a way to create contacts and forge alliances.
• Macdonald knew that, in order to break the political deadlock in the government of the Canadas, there would need to
be a breakthrough for his party in Canada East. This was the basis for his alliance with Cartier.
• Macdonald was a political enemy of George Brown.

Georges-Etienne Cartier
• In his youth, he participated in the Lower Canada Rebellion. After it was crushed by the British, Cartier fled to the
United States.
• Missing his home, Cartier applied to the Governor of Canada East to be allowed to return. He pledged an oath of
loyalty to the British Crown, and promised to be a faithful subject.
• Cartier was a lawyer. He fit in very well with the upper class of Quebec society, especially with the powerful English
minority that held most of the power.
• Cartier was very out-going. He was a gifted talker, and would often play original music at dinner parties where he was
a guest.
• His marriage to his wife Hortense was an unhappy marriage between two prominent French-Canadian families.
Hortense was Cartier’s opposite, an introverted, quiet woman who kept to herself and shunned social events.
• Cartier was elected to the legislature, and worked tirelessly to advance the cause of French-Canadians within a Canada
owned by Great Britain. His dream was to transform Montreal into a city that would be the rival of any of the great
American cities of the time.
• Cartier was a political enemy of George Brown.

George Brown
• Born in Scotland, moved to Canada West an began the operation of a newspaper called the Globe. Also became a
politician sitting in the Canadian legislature.
• Brown used his newspaper to constantly attack his political opponents, especially Macdonald and Cartier. He
particularly hated Macdonald, who he accused of “selling out” the interests of English-Canadians by making a political
alliance with Cartier and French Catholics. He also thought of Macdonald as a “drunk.”
• Brown was very proper and religious. He did not drink.
• Brown disliked Quebec, mostly for being French and Catholic. He felt that Quebec was always complaining about never
being treated properly and, as a result, got a better deal than the English Protestants of Canada West.
• He believed in “representation by population,” or rep by pop, in which Canada West would get more seats in the
legislature due to its larger and growing population.