Penguin Canada, Toronto, 2010
270 pp., $26 hardcover
You would expect nothing less from the general editor of Penguin’s Extraordinary Canadians series than a riveting tale that forces us to think differently about some of Canada’s most familiar historical figures. John Ralston Saul’s contribution, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine & Robert Baldwin, certainly meets its mark.
On at least two occasions, Saul states that LaFontaine and Baldwin, the founding fathers of Canada’s system of government, were pioneers in the politics of restraint and peaceful conflict resolution, leading the way for such future leaders as M.K. Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The case is compelling, but runs so contrary to typical Canadian perceptions of our place in history that it seems, well, incredible.
Most Canadian high school graduates will vaguely recall responsible government as an example of how inconspicuous is our history, riddled with paperwork and constitutional pronouncements, and devoid of any real bravado and bloodshed. Saul rises to his own challenge for the series — helping Canadians see the cast of characters who shaped this pivotal time in our history “in a new and unexpected way.”
His narrative is filled with plenty of drama. The first chapter begins with LaFontaine and Baldwin anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lord Elgin to give assent to a controversial bill just passed by Canada’s first democratically elected Parliament. As the Governor General slowly navigates the rioting streets of Montreal, rocks and eggs are pelted at his carriage.
Would Elgin — would England — turn against the colonial Parliament? Saul examines the events leading up to this pivotal moment: the rebellions of 1837, the Family Compact, the Château Clique, Lord Durham’s report, the Union Act, and the fight for a Canadian democracy.
In particular, this book traces the parallel lives of two principled Canadian-born men, one English, one French, who grow up in turbulent economic and political times that shaped their own ideas as well as their passion for justice and equality. The two reached the same conclusions and entered political life as reformers determined to create a unique Canadian brand of the growing global trend toward popular representation and accountability.
They became friends, and then overcame extraordinary electoral challenges, such as the barely imaginable yet nonetheless successful campaigns to keep each other in office by electing LaFontaine in Toronto in 1841 and Baldwin in Rimouski, Quebec, two years later. Finally, they secured a majority of seats in the 1848 election, and the “great ministry” began.
Readers familiar with Saul’s earlier work A Fair Country will know how passionately he writes about the achievements of these men and their roles in laying the foundation for most of Canada’s modern governance structures.
Indeed, the advances they made within a span of three years would secure our system of parliamentary democracy, our judiciary, and our secular educational institutions, begin the construction of roads and railways, repeal colonial trade restrictions, and initiate bilingualism.
LaFontaine’s confidence that the British parliamentary system would better protect the cultural aspirations of French Canadians inside a united Canada, and Baldwin’s principled insistence that any union of Canada must be based on justice and equality for its francophone peoples, were visionary but unpopular ideas within their respective communities. That these men were able to lead the young country in such a leap of faith is remarkable. That they were able to accomplish all this without once resorting to the use of force is even more outstanding.
The likes of Gandhi and Mandela? It seems extraordinary, but that is precisely the point of the Penguin series. Saul packs two complicated lives into less than three hundred pages, but he’s not satisfied with simply making their story readable — he incites us to become their champions, just as they were ours so many years ago.
— Deborah Morrison (Read bio)
Deborah Morrison is the executive director of SEVEC and the former president and CEO of Canada’s History Society.