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The Canadian Party promoted the annexation of the Red River colony by the Canadian government. It also encouraged anglophone/Protestant settlement from the province of Ontario.

Schultz's goal was to reconstruct the Red River settlement in the image of Protestant Ontario. To this end, his followers were engaged in extensive land speculation in the region. They were regarded with suspicion by most of the established settlers, and particularly by the local Metis population led by Louis Riel.

Members of the Canadian Party engaged in military skirmishes with Riel's provisional government in 1869- 70, and Schultz was primarily responsible for turning Protestant opinion in Ontario against Riel.

The Canadian government captured the Red River settlement through the use of Ontario soldiers in mid-1870. The Canadian Party, however, was not accepted into the new governing structure of the age. The federal government of John A. Macdonald favoured a policy of conciliation among the province's ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, and Lieutenant-Governor Adams George Archibald kept Schultz's followers out of his first cabinet.

In Manitoba's first general election ( December 30, 1870), Schultz's followers were the only real opposition to the governing alliance. They won only five seats, one of which was overturned on appeal. Schultz was personally defeated in Winnipeg and St. John .

The Canadian Party continued to exist as a loose alliance after the election. At one stage, Lt. Governor Archibald warned Macdonald that its members were plotting the "extermination" of the Metis.

The party did not long survive as a coherent organization, however. Edward Hay appears to have turned against Schultz in 1872, and later joined the government of francophone Premier Marc-Amable Girard. Some members of the Canadian Party would later resurface as LiberalsThe Manitoba Liberal Party is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late 19th-century, in the period following the province's creation in 1870. Originally, there were no official political parties in Manitoba, although many, and some as ConservativesThe Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is a right-of-centre political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is currently the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. The origins of the party lie at the end of the nineteenth centu.