Family Compact - Current Status

Current Status

The Family Compact began to reconfigure itself after 1841 as it was squeezed out of public life in the new Province of Canada. The conservative values of the Family Compact was succeeded by the Upper Canada Tories after 1841. The current Canadian establishment grew out of the Family Compact. Although the families and names changed, the basic template for power and control remained the same through to the end of World War II. With greater immigration from a variety of nations and cultures came the meritocracy so desired during the early years of Upper Canada.

However, as John Porter noted, a form of Family Compact in Canadian business and politics is to be expected.

Canada is probably not unlike other western industrial nations in relying heavily on its elite groups to make major decisions and to determine the shape and direction of its development. The nineteenth-century notion of a liberal citizen-participating democracy is obviously not a satisfactory model by which to examine the processes of decision-making in either the economic of the political contexts. ... If power and decision-making must always rest with elite groups, there can at least be open recruitment from all classes into the elite.