7 - The Beginnings of Democracy PDF

16 Your Canadian Citizenship Study Guide The first elected Assembly of Lower Canada, in Quebec City, debates whether to use both French and English, January 21, 1793 The Beginnings of Democracy Democratic institutions developed gradually and peacefully. The first representative assembly was elected...

16 Your Canadian Citizenship Study Guide The first elected Assembly of Lower Canada, in Quebec City, debates whether to use both French and English, January 21, 1793 The Beginnings of Democracy Democratic institutions developed gradually and peacefully. The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758. Prince Edward Island followed in 1773, New Brunswick in 1785. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking. The Act also granted to the Canadas, for the first time, legislative assemblies elected by the people. The name Canada also became official at this time and has been used ever since. The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America. (Bottom from Left to Right) Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe was Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founder of the City of York (now Toronto). Simcoe also made Upper Canada the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey was an outspoken activist in the movement to abolish slavery in the U.S.A. In 1853 she became the first woman publisher in Canada, helping to found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper dedicated to anti-slavery, black immigration to Canada, temperance (urging people to drink less alcohol) and upholding British rule Abolition of slavery A growing economy Slavery has existed all over the world, from Asia, Africa and the Middle East to the Americas. The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade emerged in the British Parliament in the late 1700s. In 1793, Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition. In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire. Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network. The first companies in Canada were formed during the French and British regimes and competed for the fur trade. The Hudson’s Bay Company, with French, British and Aboriginal employees, came to dominate the trade in the northwest from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) and Fort Edmonton to Fort Langley (near Vancouver) and Fort Victoria—trading posts that later became cities. The first financial institutions opened in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832. For centuries Canada’s economy was based mainly on farming and on exporting natural resources such as fur, fish and timber, transported by roads, lakes, rivers and canals.