Monthly Archives: October 2014

The first Canadian canal was built at Lachine, toward the western end of the island of Montreal. It opened in 1825, bypassing the Lachine rapids, long a barrier to navigation and the site of a now-ancient portage. The Lachine Canal had … Continue reading →

Upper Canada was the principal beneficiary of British emigration in these years — the destination of choice.[footnote]Hugh J.M. Johnston, British Emigration Policy 1815-1830: “Shovelling Out the Paupers” (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 51–4.[/footnote] One consequence was that the sale of lands (and the speculation … Continue reading →

As the oldest settlement colony in British North America, Lower Canada had certain advantages. The infrastructure of banks, warehouses, shipping capacity, merchant houses, schools and hospitals, and the military were all much more evolved than in any of the other … Continue reading →

The war in Europe and the War of 1812 were over in 1815. British North America would not face another external threat to its survival until the American Civil War in the 1860s. It is worth remembering that a generation had been … Continue reading →

The late 18th century was a period of unprecedented intellectual excitement. Revolutions associated with political power structures were driven by new ideas that were themselves revolutionary. Political ideas like democracy and those set out in Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man proposed to … Continue reading →