Home > 1836 in Canada

1 Events

• Opening of Canada's first railway line, from St. Johns, Quebec, to La Prairie, Quebec.
• February - Lord Aberdeen approves of Lord Aylmer's conduct. The Governor declares that, in filling offices, he has more considered qualifications than nationality; that 80, of 142, places of emolument, and 295 of 580 unsalaried offices, are filled by Frenchmen.
• Lieutenant-Governor Francis Bond Head dissolves parliament and calls a new election.
• July 4 - First issue of The Constitution published.
• August - The Commission reaches Quebec, and consists of Lord Gosford, Sir Charles Grey and Sir James Gipps. A congratulatory address is presented to them at Quebec.
• October - Lord Gosford informs Parliament of the purposes of the Commission and of the intended changes. He exhorts members to be conciliatory, saying: "Consider the blessings you might enjoy, but for your dissensions. Offspring, as you are, of the two foremost nations of the earth, you hold a vast and beautiful country, having a fertile soil, with a healthful climate, while the noblest river in the world makes seaports of your remote havens."
• November - Commissioner Grey embarks for England.
• Mr. Papineau's following is 40 to 27, of the House. Mr. Papineau declares "Our task is not light, indeed, for we are called on to defend the rights of all British Colonial dependencies, as well as that we inhabit. The same evil genius, whose workings drove provincials of the neighboring States, unwittingly into the paths of a righteous and glorious resistance, presides over our affairs also. ...These Commissioners' instructions imply refusal, of those who prepared them, to listen heedfully to any representation of the many grievances either Canada has to complain of."
• Eastern Townships, members desert Mr. Papineau.
• Lord Gosford disappointedly declares "I will not predict all the consequences which may result from the factious oppostion."
• In Upper Canada the 92 resolutionsThe Ninety-Two Resolutions were drafted by Louis-Joseph Papineau and other members of the Parti patriote of Lower Canada in 1834. The resolutions were a long series of demands for political reforms in the British-governed colony. Papineau had been elected are expunged from the journals.

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3 Deaths