George Brown (Canadian politician)
Encyclopedia
George Brown was a Scottish
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
.
, Clackmannanshire
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
at Kingston
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
(Liberal
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
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 "[w]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.
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
.
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
in Ottawa
(sculpted by George William Hill
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
.
, Clackmannanshire
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
at Kingston
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
(Liberal
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
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 "[w]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.
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
.
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
in Ottawa
(sculpted by George William Hill
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
.
, Clackmannanshire
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
at Kingston
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
(Liberal
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
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 "[w]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.
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
.
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
in Ottawa
(sculpted by George William Hill
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
Reform Party (pre-Confederation)
The Reform movement, sometimes referred to as the Reform Party, began in the 1830s as the movement in the English speaking parts of British North America . It agitated for responsible government....
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
.
Biography
Brown was born in AlloaAlloa
Alloa is a town and former burgh in Clackmannanshire, set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on on the north bank of the Firth of Forth close to the foot of the Ochil Hills, east of Stirling and north of Falkirk....
, Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire, often abbreviated to Clacks is a local government council area in Scotland, and a lieutenancy area, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife.As Scotland's smallest historic county, it is often nicknamed 'The Wee County'....
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
Province of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....
at Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
Henry Smith
Henry Smith may refer to:*Henry Smith , English Puritan preacher*Henry Smith , English politician and jurist*Henry Smith , Governor of Rhode Island...
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
Anti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
Clear Grits
Clear Grits were reformers in the Province of Upper Canada, a British colony that is now the Province of Ontario, Canada. Their support was concentrated among southwestern Ontario farmers, who were frustrated and disillusioned by the 1849 Reform government of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte...
(Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land, or Prince Rupert's Land, was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was nominally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the...
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
Act of Union 1840
The Act of Union, formally the The British North America Act, 1840 , was enacted in July 1840 and proclaimed 10 February 1841. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them...
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
Alexander Tilloch Galt
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Sir Antoine-Aimé Dorion, PC was a French Canadian politician and jurist.-Early years:He was born in Lower Canada in 1818, the son of Pierre-Antoine Dorion, a merchant and member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada who supported Louis-Joseph Papineau...
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
Brown and Confederation
Great Coalition
The Great Coalition was a grand coalition of the political parties of the two Canadas in 1864. The previous collapse after only three months of a coalition government formed by George-Étienne Cartier, George Brown and John A. MacDonald. The Great Coalition was formed to stop the political deadlock...
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
Quebec Conference, 1864
The Quebec Conference was the second meeting held in 1864 to discuss Canadian Confederation.The 16 delegates from the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island had agreed at the close of the Charlottetown Conference to meet again at Quebec City October 1864...
, Brown argued strongly in favour of an appointed Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
. 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 "[w]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
Parti rouge
The Parti rouge was formed in the Province of Quebec, around 1848 by radical French-Canadians inspired by the ideas of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Institut canadien de Montréal, and the reformist movement led by the Parti patriote of the 1830s.The party was a successor to the Parti patriote...
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
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
view of Confederation, closer to that supported by Cartier
George-Étienne Cartier
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, PC was a French-Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation.The English spelling of the name, George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling, is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III....
and the Bleus
Parti bleu
The Parti bleu was a moderate political group in Quebec, Canada that emerged in 1854. It was based on the moderate reformist views of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, and was a rival to the radical Parti rouge....
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
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. As leader of the provincial Liberals
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
, he also ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
. His intention was to become Premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
but he failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
in the 1867 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1867
The Canadian federal election of 1867, held from August 7 to September 20, was the first election for the new nation of Canada. It was held to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons, representing electoral districts in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec in the...
. 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.
Brown's post-parliamentary career
On March 25, 1880, a former Globe employee, George BennettGeorge Bennett (murderer)
George Bennett was charged with the murder of George Brown, one of the Fathers of Confederation. He was convicted of this crime and hanged on 23 July 1880 in Toronto, Ontario....
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
Toronto Necropolis
Necropolis Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Toronto, located on the west side of the Don Valley near Riverdale Farm. Opened in 1850 to replace "Strangers' Burying Ground" , the cemetery is the resting place for many dead Torontonians including:* Joseph Bloor* William Lyon Mackenzie - Toronto's...
.
Legacy
Upon being rescued from drowning in the Don River by one William Peyton HubbardWilliam Peyton Hubbard
William Peyton Hubbard , City of Toronto Alderman from 1894 to 1914, was a popular and influential politician, of particular historical note as the city's first politician of African descent.-Early years:...
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
George Brown College
George Brown College is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown Toronto, Ontario...
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
(sculpted by George William Hill
George William Hill
George William Hill , was an American astronomer and mathematician.Hill was born in New York City, New York to painter and engraver John William Hill. and Catherine Smith Hill. He moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from...
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown was a Canadian-born Scottish publisher who also followed a political career. As a publisher, he produced Arthur Conan Doyle's books; as a politician, he beat him to win election to the House of Commons....
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
External links
- Claude Bélanger. "George Brown", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia. Marianopolis College, March 2006
- A website for an upcoming documentary film on George Brown (Biography by John LewisJohn Lewis (Canadian senator)John Lewis was a Canadian author and journalist who was, variously, editor of the Toronto Daily Star and the Toronto Globe and served in the Canadian Senate for the last ten years of his life....
)
George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
Reform Party (pre-Confederation)
The Reform movement, sometimes referred to as the Reform Party, began in the 1830s as the movement in the English speaking parts of British North America . It agitated for responsible government....
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
.
Biography
Brown was born in AlloaAlloa
Alloa is a town and former burgh in Clackmannanshire, set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on on the north bank of the Firth of Forth close to the foot of the Ochil Hills, east of Stirling and north of Falkirk....
, Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire, often abbreviated to Clacks is a local government council area in Scotland, and a lieutenancy area, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife.As Scotland's smallest historic county, it is often nicknamed 'The Wee County'....
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
Province of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....
at Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
Henry Smith
Henry Smith may refer to:*Henry Smith , English Puritan preacher*Henry Smith , English politician and jurist*Henry Smith , Governor of Rhode Island...
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
Anti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
Clear Grits
Clear Grits were reformers in the Province of Upper Canada, a British colony that is now the Province of Ontario, Canada. Their support was concentrated among southwestern Ontario farmers, who were frustrated and disillusioned by the 1849 Reform government of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte...
(Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land, or Prince Rupert's Land, was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was nominally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the...
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
Act of Union 1840
The Act of Union, formally the The British North America Act, 1840 , was enacted in July 1840 and proclaimed 10 February 1841. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them...
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
Alexander Tilloch Galt
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Sir Antoine-Aimé Dorion, PC was a French Canadian politician and jurist.-Early years:He was born in Lower Canada in 1818, the son of Pierre-Antoine Dorion, a merchant and member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada who supported Louis-Joseph Papineau...
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
Brown and Confederation
Great Coalition
The Great Coalition was a grand coalition of the political parties of the two Canadas in 1864. The previous collapse after only three months of a coalition government formed by George-Étienne Cartier, George Brown and John A. MacDonald. The Great Coalition was formed to stop the political deadlock...
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
Quebec Conference, 1864
The Quebec Conference was the second meeting held in 1864 to discuss Canadian Confederation.The 16 delegates from the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island had agreed at the close of the Charlottetown Conference to meet again at Quebec City October 1864...
, Brown argued strongly in favour of an appointed Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
. 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 "[w]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
Parti rouge
The Parti rouge was formed in the Province of Quebec, around 1848 by radical French-Canadians inspired by the ideas of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Institut canadien de Montréal, and the reformist movement led by the Parti patriote of the 1830s.The party was a successor to the Parti patriote...
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
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
view of Confederation, closer to that supported by Cartier
George-Étienne Cartier
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, PC was a French-Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation.The English spelling of the name, George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling, is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III....
and the Bleus
Parti bleu
The Parti bleu was a moderate political group in Quebec, Canada that emerged in 1854. It was based on the moderate reformist views of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, and was a rival to the radical Parti rouge....
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
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. As leader of the provincial Liberals
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
, he also ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
. His intention was to become Premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
but he failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
in the 1867 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1867
The Canadian federal election of 1867, held from August 7 to September 20, was the first election for the new nation of Canada. It was held to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons, representing electoral districts in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec in the...
. 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.
Brown's post-parliamentary career
On March 25, 1880, a former Globe employee, George BennettGeorge Bennett (murderer)
George Bennett was charged with the murder of George Brown, one of the Fathers of Confederation. He was convicted of this crime and hanged on 23 July 1880 in Toronto, Ontario....
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
Toronto Necropolis
Necropolis Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Toronto, located on the west side of the Don Valley near Riverdale Farm. Opened in 1850 to replace "Strangers' Burying Ground" , the cemetery is the resting place for many dead Torontonians including:* Joseph Bloor* William Lyon Mackenzie - Toronto's...
.
Legacy
Upon being rescued from drowning in the Don River by one William Peyton HubbardWilliam Peyton Hubbard
William Peyton Hubbard , City of Toronto Alderman from 1894 to 1914, was a popular and influential politician, of particular historical note as the city's first politician of African descent.-Early years:...
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
George Brown College
George Brown College is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown Toronto, Ontario...
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
(sculpted by George William Hill
George William Hill
George William Hill , was an American astronomer and mathematician.Hill was born in New York City, New York to painter and engraver John William Hill. and Catherine Smith Hill. He moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from...
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown was a Canadian-born Scottish publisher who also followed a political career. As a publisher, he produced Arthur Conan Doyle's books; as a politician, he beat him to win election to the House of Commons....
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
External links
- Claude Bélanger. "George Brown", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia. Marianopolis College, March 2006
- A website for an upcoming documentary film on George Brown (Biography by John LewisJohn Lewis (Canadian senator)John Lewis was a Canadian author and journalist who was, variously, editor of the Toronto Daily Star and the Toronto Globe and served in the Canadian Senate for the last ten years of his life....
)
George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform
Reform Party (pre-Confederation)
The Reform movement, sometimes referred to as the Reform Party, began in the 1830s as the movement in the English speaking parts of British North America . It agitated for responsible government....
politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
.
Biography
Brown was born in AlloaAlloa
Alloa is a town and former burgh in Clackmannanshire, set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies on on the north bank of the Firth of Forth close to the foot of the Ochil Hills, east of Stirling and north of Falkirk....
, Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire
Clackmannanshire, often abbreviated to Clacks is a local government council area in Scotland, and a lieutenancy area, bordering Perth and Kinross, Stirling and Fife.As Scotland's smallest historic county, it is often nicknamed 'The Wee County'....
, Scotland, on November 29, 1818 and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and The Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada
Province of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission
Royal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary is a maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario between King Street West and Lake Ontario....
at Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith
Henry Smith
Henry Smith may refer to:*Henry Smith , English Puritan preacher*Henry Smith , English politician and jurist*Henry Smith , Governor of Rhode Island...
. Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened...
passed in the United States in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada
Anti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...
. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit
Clear Grits
Clear Grits were reformers in the Province of Upper Canada, a British colony that is now the Province of Ontario, Canada. Their support was concentrated among southwestern Ontario farmers, who were frustrated and disillusioned by the 1849 Reform government of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte...
(Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
, the annexation of Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land
Rupert's Land, or Prince Rupert's Land, was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was nominally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the...
, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed representation by population, or commonly known as "rep by pop".
From the Act of Union (1840)
Act of Union 1840
The Act of Union, formally the The British North America Act, 1840 , was enacted in July 1840 and proclaimed 10 February 1841. It abolished the legislatures of Lower Canada and Upper Canada and established a new political entity, the Province of Canada to replace them...
, the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone-dominated Lower Canada had a larger population, and the British colonial administration hoped that the Canadiens in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of Loyalists from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the Canadien population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."
For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt
Alexander Tilloch Galt
Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, GCMG, PC was a politician and a father of Canadian Confederation.He was born in Chelsea, England, the son of Scottish novelist and colonizer, John Galt, and Elizabeth Tilloch Galt. He was a cousin of Sir Hugh Allan.Alexander Galt is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery...
declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Antoine-Aimé Dorion
Sir Antoine-Aimé Dorion, PC was a French Canadian politician and jurist.-Early years:He was born in Lower Canada in 1818, the son of Pierre-Antoine Dorion, a merchant and member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada who supported Louis-Joseph Papineau...
. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in by-elections. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Province of Canada
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.
Brown and Confederation
Great Coalition
The Great Coalition was a grand coalition of the political parties of the two Canadas in 1864. The previous collapse after only three months of a coalition government formed by George-Étienne Cartier, George Brown and John A. MacDonald. The Great Coalition was formed to stop the political deadlock...
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
Quebec Conference, 1864
The Quebec Conference was the second meeting held in 1864 to discuss Canadian Confederation.The 16 delegates from the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island had agreed at the close of the Charlottetown Conference to meet again at Quebec City October 1864...
, Brown argued strongly in favour of an appointed Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
. 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 "[w]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
Parti rouge
The Parti rouge was formed in the Province of Quebec, around 1848 by radical French-Canadians inspired by the ideas of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Institut canadien de Montréal, and the reformist movement led by the Parti patriote of the 1830s.The party was a successor to the Parti patriote...
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
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
view of Confederation, closer to that supported by Cartier
George-Étienne Cartier
Sir George-Étienne Cartier, 1st Baronet, PC was a French-Canadian statesman and Father of Confederation.The English spelling of the name, George, instead of Georges, the usual French spelling, is explained by his having been named in honour of King George III....
and the Bleus
Parti bleu
The Parti bleu was a moderate political group in Quebec, Canada that emerged in 1854. It was based on the moderate reformist views of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, and was a rival to the radical Parti rouge....
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
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. As leader of the provincial Liberals
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
, he also ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
. His intention was to become Premier
Premier of Ontario
The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...
but he failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
in the 1867 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1867
The Canadian federal election of 1867, held from August 7 to September 20, was the first election for the new nation of Canada. It was held to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons, representing electoral districts in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec in the...
. 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.
Brown's post-parliamentary career
On March 25, 1880, a former Globe employee, George BennettGeorge Bennett (murderer)
George Bennett was charged with the murder of George Brown, one of the Fathers of Confederation. He was convicted of this crime and hanged on 23 July 1880 in Toronto, Ontario....
, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Brown caught his hand and pushed the gun down, but Bennett managed to shoot Brown in the leg. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and seven weeks later, on May 9, 1880, Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis
Toronto Necropolis
Necropolis Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Toronto, located on the west side of the Don Valley near Riverdale Farm. Opened in 1850 to replace "Strangers' Burying Ground" , the cemetery is the resting place for many dead Torontonians including:* Joseph Bloor* William Lyon Mackenzie - Toronto's...
.
Legacy
Upon being rescued from drowning in the Don River by one William Peyton HubbardWilliam Peyton Hubbard
William Peyton Hubbard , City of Toronto Alderman from 1894 to 1914, was a popular and influential politician, of particular historical note as the city's first politician of African descent.-Early years:...
, Brown took him under his wing and encouraged his political career. Hubbard would go on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sit on the powerful Board of Control, and become Toronto's first black deputy mayor, functioning as acting mayor on several occasions.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust
Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture, responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural heritage of Canada's most populous province. It was initially known as the Archaeological and Historic Sites Board...
as a conference centre and offices.
Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario
Brantford, Ontario
Brantford is a city located on the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. While geographically surrounded by the County of Brant, the city is politically independent...
. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.
Toronto's George Brown College
George Brown College
George Brown College is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three full campuses in downtown Toronto, Ontario...
(founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...
in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
(sculpted by George William Hill
George William Hill
George William Hill , was an American astronomer and mathematician.Hill was born in New York City, New York to painter and engraver John William Hill. and Catherine Smith Hill. He moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from...
in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.
Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown
George Mackenzie Brown was a Canadian-born Scottish publisher who also followed a political career. As a publisher, he produced Arthur Conan Doyle's books; as a politician, he beat him to win election to the House of Commons....
(1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
External links
- Claude Bélanger. "George Brown", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia. Marianopolis College, March 2006
- A website for an upcoming documentary film on George Brown (Biography by John LewisJohn Lewis (Canadian senator)John Lewis was a Canadian author and journalist who was, variously, editor of the Toronto Daily Star and the Toronto Globe and served in the Canadian Senate for the last ten years of his life....
)