George Brown (Canadian Politician) - Brown and Confederation

Brown and Confederation

George Brown resigned from the Coalition in 1865 over the government's position towards reciprocity with the United States. Brown thought Canada should pursue a policy of free trade, while the conservative government of John A. Macdonald and Alexander Galt thought Canada should raise tariffs.

During the Quebec Conference, Brown argued strongly in favour of an appointed Senate. Like many reformers of the time, he saw Upper Houses as inherently conservative in function, serving to protect the interests of the rich, and wished to deny the Senate the legitimacy and power that naturally follows with an electoral mandate.

The success of the Quebec Conference pleased Brown particularly by the prospect for the end of Lower Canadian interference in the affairs of Canada West. "Is it not wonderful?" he wrote to his wife Anne after the Quebec Conference, "French-Canadianism is entirely extinguished." By this he may have meant either that he was of the view that English-speaking Canada West had emerged triumphant over French Canadians or that Confederation would put an end to French Canadian domination of the affairs of what would become the province of Ontario.

Brown realized, nevertheless, that satisfaction for Canada West would not be achieved without the support of the French-speaking majority of Canada East. In his speech in support of Confederation in the Legislature of the Province of Canada on February 8, 1865, in which he spoke glowingly of the prospects for Canada's future, Brown insisted that "hether we ask for parliamentary reform for Canada alone or in union with the Maritime Provinces, the views of French Canadians must be consulted as well as ours. This scheme can be carried, and no scheme can be that has not the support of both sections of the province". Following the speech, Brown was praised by the Quebec newspaper Le Canadien as well as by the Rouge paper, L'Union Nationale. Although he supported the idea of a legislative union at the Quebec Conference, Brown was eventually persuaded to favour the federal view of Confederation, closer to that supported by Cartier and the Bleus of Canada East, as this was the structure that would ensure that the provinces retained sufficient control over local matters to satisfy the need of the French-speaking population in Canada East for jurisdiction over matters essential to its survival. However Brown, like Macdonald, remained a proponent of a stronger central government, with weaker constituent provincial governments.

In 1867, Brown ran for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons. As leader of the provincial Liberals, he also ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. His intention was to become Premier but he failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals in the 1867 federal election. The Liberals were officially leaderless until 1873, but Brown was considered the party's "elder statesman" even without a seat in the House of Commons, and was regularly consulted by leading Liberal parliamentarians.

Brown was made a senator in 1873. On March 25, 1880, Brown was shot, and the wound was eventually fatal.