George Brown (Canadian politician)

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The Honourable

George Brown
George Brown.jpg
Premier of Canada West
In office
August 2, 1858 – August 6, 1858
Preceded byJohn A. Macdonald
Succeeded byJohn A. Macdonald
Senator for Lambton, Ontario
In office
December 16, 1873 – May 9, 1880
Appointed byAlexander Mackenzie
Personal details
Born(1818-11-29)November 29, 1818
Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland
DiedMay 9, 1880(1880-05-09) (aged 61)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
CitizenshipCanadian
NationalityScottish
Political partyClear Grit Party
ProfessionJournalist, publisher, politician
Signature
 • Father of Confederation •

George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish-Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation; attended the Charlottetown (September 1864) and Quebec (October 1864) conferences.[1] A noted Reform politician, he is best known as the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, Canada's most influential newspaper at the time, and his leadership in the founding of the Liberal Party in 1867. He was an articulate champion of the grievances and anger of Upper Canada (Ontario). He played a major role in securing national unity. His career in active politics faltered after 1865, but he remained a powerful spokesman for the Liberal Party promoting westward expansion and opposing the policies of Conservative Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.

Early life[]

Scotland[]

George Brown was born in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, on November 29, 1818. His father, Peter Brown, ran a wholesale business in Edinburgh and managed a glassworks in Alloa. His mother was Marianne. George was the eldest of six children. He lived in Alloa until he moved to Edinburgh before he turned eight. He attended Royal High School and upon his graduation he worked in his father's business ventures. Peter mismanaged funds while working as a collector of assessments. Although he was not accused of corruption, he sought to repair his reputation and recoup lost funds. During the 1837 economic depression, Peter decided to emigrate to New York City to seek business opportunities and rebuild his reputation. George accompanied his father to North America.[2]

New York City[]

In June 1837, Peter opened a dry goods store and George worked as his assistant. In June 1842 Peter began a newspaper called the British Chronicle and George became the paper's publisher in 1843. He traveled to Canada to speak with politicians and promote the paper. Peter Brown supported the evangelical faction during the Disruption of 1843 within the Church of Scotland and members of their new church, called the Free Church of Scotland, invited Peter and his paper to move to Canada. George supported the move, as he felt there were more opportunities to succeed in Canada and he became an ally of the Canadian Reform movement. George convinced his father to move to Canada and published their last issue of the British Chronicle on July 22, 1843.[2]

Toronto[]

December 2, 1845

The Browns began the Banner in Toronto on August 18, 1843, and George managed the Secular Department of the newspaper. It initially did not commit to any political causes, but later that year it supported Reform policies after the governor-general of the province, Charles Metcalfe, dissolved the Reform-dominated assembly. The Browns were offered £250 (equivalent to £25,000 in 2019) to begin a new paper by Reformers, and on March 5, 1844, began The Globe while simultaneously publishing issues of Banner. George bought a rotary press developed by Richard March Hoe, which enabled more efficiency in printing papers. This allowed Brown to establish a book publishing and printing office business. He established Western Globe in London, Canada West, in 1845 to distribute papers to the southwestern region. In 1848 his father closed the Banner. In October 1853 The Globe started printing new issues daily and claimed that the paper had the largest circulation in British North America.[2]

Robert Baldwin asked Brown to run Francis Hincks's 1848 re-election campaign. Hincks was in Britain during the campaign and was unable to campaign for his seat representing the constituency of Oxford in the Parliament of the Province of Canada. Hincks was successfully reelected, and reformers won the majority of seats in the election to form an administration led by Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. Brown was appointed by the administration to lead a Royal Commission to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Canada West in Kingston. The commission's report, drafted by Brown in early in 1849, documented abuse within the penitentiary and recommended changes in the jail's structure such as separating juvenile, first-time, and long-term prisoners and hiring prison inspectors. The findings of the report caused the termination of its warden, Henry Smith.[2]

Early political career[]

A dark-grey statue of a man standing upright with his left foot forward and his right arm crossed in front of his body
Statue of Brown on Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Election win and opposition member[]

In 1851, Brown ran in a byelection to represent Haldimand County in the Canadian parliament but lost to William Lyon Mackenzie. In the 1851 general election for the Parliament of Canada, Brown ran as an independent aligned with the Reform movement in the constituency of Kent and was elected with the support of voluntaryists in the region. He supported an administration led by Hincks and Augustin-Norbert Morin as successors to the Baldin-Lafontaine government. Brown worked to end state support for religious institutions, opposed government funding for a religious separate school system and endorsed representation by population in the legislature. For the 1854 general election, Brown was elected in the constituency of Lambton, formed after the Kent constituency was divided. At the election's conclusion, Hincks formed a new Liberal-Conservative administration with Allan MacNab, causing Brown to become a member of the opposition.[2]

He assumed an unofficial leadership position with the Clear Grits and worked with the Parti Rouge to oppose provisions in legislation and investigate government corruption. Later that year the Canadian legislature passed a bill creating a separate school board in Upper Canada without the support of the majority of Upper Canadian legislators. Although Upper Canadians called for the dissolution of the Province of Canada, Brown used the event to campaign for representation by population, in which electoral districts would be divided so that each one contained a roughly equal number of electors.[2] Brown's pursuit of that goal of correcting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West[3] 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 a predominately anglophone and Protestant Canada West. He referred to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."[4]

In 1856, Liberals in the Hincks-MacNab administration defected to the opposition, and MacNab was replaced by John A. Macdonald to become the new joint-premier of the province with Hincks. Macdonald accused Brown of falsifying evidence and coercing witnesses in the Royal Commission on the Kingston Provincial Penitentiary in 1848. A committee of inquiry was formed that heard evidence exonerating Brown, but the inquiry produced a report that was non-committal and damaged Brown's political reputation. This caused the political rivalry between Brown and Macdonald to deepen.[2]

1857 election and subsequent legislature[]

Brown organized a political convention on January 8, 1857, to unite his followers with Liberals who left the Hincks administration and Clear Grits. This convention marked the Reform party's transition away from a radicalism and towards a political ideology more closely aligned with the liberal ideology in Britain. An election for the Parliament of the Province of Canada was held in November 1857. Brown was elected in two constituencies: Toronto and North Oxford. Although Brown's reformers won the majority of seats in Canada West, their allies in the Parti Rouge were unsuccessful in Canada East and Brown returned as an opposition member.[2]

On July 28, 1858, the cabinet of the Macdonald-Cartier administration resigned when the legislature rejected Ottawa as the new permanent capital of the province. Edmund Walker Head, the governor-general of Canada, asked Brown to form a new administration. Although Brown did not have a majority of support in the legislature, he nevertheless proposed a cabinet under a co-premiership with Antoine-Aimé Dorion. The Brown-Dorion administration was rejected by the legislature on August 2. Brown resigned on August 4 when Head refused to call a general election,[2] and Macdonald and Cartier were able to form a new ministry with Alexander Tilloch Galt.[5]

In 1859 the Globe, influenced by Brown's encouragement, published articles in favour of a new federal government. This would allow Canada East and Canada West to govern their own affairs in their own provincial legislatures and the federal legislature would pass bills concerning mutual concerns. The newspaper also supported representation by population within this proposed federal government. He organized a Reform convention in November at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto and obtained support for federalism and begin a process of uniting all the colonies of British North America into one federal government. On April 30, 1860, Brown proposed a bill in the Province of Canada's legislature to form a convention that would discuss federalism. The bill was defeated, but the Reform party's support for federalism was documented in the vote.[2]

Election defeat and marriage[]

Brown's health deteriorated and in the winter of 1861, he stayed in his bed for two months to recover. He did not attend the 1861 parliamentary session and lost his re-election campaign in the constituency of Toronto in the June 1861 general election. His newspaper supported the union in the American Civil War and opposed the influence of the Grand Trunk Railway in Canadian politics.[2]

In 1862 Brown's illness was still affecting him and he decided to recover in Great Britain. He spent a month in London before moving to Edinburgh. He met Anne Nelson, the sister of his friends from the High School, and they wed on November 27 at the Nelson's home. The couple returned to Toronto the following month.[2]

Return to legislature[]

With his health recovered, Brown won a by-election for the constituency of South Oxford in March 1863 and returned to a leadership position within the Reform party. He won re-election during the 1863 general election, while Reformers won the majority of seats in Canada West while Conservatives won the majority of seats in Canada East. This created a deadlock in the legislature that made governing the province difficult.[2]

Return to the legislature[]

Monument to George Brown at Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, circa 1910

Brown proposed a select committee to investigate the sectional problems in Canada and try to find a solution. Brown worded the proposal to be non-partisan, and his bill passed on May 24, 1864. Under his chairmanship, the committee reported on June 17 a strong preference for a new federal system of government. That same day, the administration of John A. MacDonald and Étienne-Paschal Taché was dissolved. Brown stated that he would support any government administration that committed to solving the deadlock in the legislature. Brown, MacDonald, Taché and George-Étienne Cartier agreed to form an administration dubbed the "Great Coalition" and seek a federal union with the Atlantic provinces. Brown became the president of the council, a cabinet-level position, under the premiership of Taché.[2]

Confederation[]

Brown attended the Charlottetown Conference where Canadian delegates outlined their proposal for Canadian Confederation with the Atlantic provinces. On September 5, 1864, Brown outlined the proposed constitutional structure for the union. The conference accepted the proposal in principle and Brown attended subsequent meetings in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint John, New Brunswick to determine the details of the union.[2]

During the Quebec Conference, Brown argued for separate provincial and federal governments. He hoped the provincial government would remove local concerns from the federal government, which he thought were more politically divisive.[2] He also argued for an appointed Senate because he saw upper houses as inherently conservative and believed they protected the interests of the rich. He wished to deny the Senate the legitimacy and power that naturally follow with an electoral mandate.[6] He was also concerned that two elected legislative bodies could create a political deadlock, especially if different parties held a majority of seats in each body. The result of the Quebec Conference was the Quebec Resolutions. Brown presented the Quebec Resolutions in a speech in Toronto on November 3.[2]

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, he spoke glowingly of the prospects for Canada's future,[7] and he insisted that "whether 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."[8] Following the speech, Brown was praised by the Quebec newspaper Le Canadien[9] as well as by the Rouge paper, .[9] Although he supported the idea of a legislative union at the Quebec Conference,[10] Brown was eventually persuaded to favour the federal view of Confederation, which was closer to that supported by Cartier and the Bleus of Canada East, as it 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 that it considered to be essential to its survival.[9] However Brown, like Macdonald, remained a proponent of a stronger central government, with weaker constituent provincial governments.[9]

Brown resigned from the Great Coalition in 1865 because he was not happy with the policy towards the United States. Brown thought Canada should pursue free trade, but the Conservative government of John A. Macdonald and Alexander Galt thought that Canada should increase tariffs.

In 1867, Brown ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada. As the leader of the Ontario 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 though he had a seat in the House of Commons, and he was regularly consulted by leading Liberal parliamentarians. Brown was made a senator in 1873.[11]

Post-parliamentary career and death[]

Fatal shooting of George Brown, Toronto

Brown fought endless battles with the typographical union from 1843 to 1872. He paid union wages, not because of generosity but only when the power of the union forced it upon him.[12]

On March 25, 1880, a former Globe employee, George Bennett, dismissed by a foreman, shot George Brown at the Globe office. 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.[13] Bennett was hanged for the crime.

His wife, Anne Nelson, returned to Scotland thereafter where she died in 1906. She is buried on the southern terrace of Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. The grave also commemorates George Brown. In 1885 his daughters Margaret and Catherine were two of the first women to graduate from University of Toronto.

The grave of Anne Nelson, George Brown's wife, Dean Cemetery

Legacy[]

After an accident involving a horse-drawn sleigh in which Brown nearly drowned in the Don River, Brown took William Peyton Hubbard under his wing and encouraged his political career. Popular legend has it that Brown was rescued by Hubbard, but Hubbard stated that he was not present and that he had agreed to work for Brown only as a favour to his brother, who operated the livery service. Hubbard went on to 13 straight years as alderman for the elite Ward 4, sitting on the powerful Board of Control and becoming Toronto's first black deputy mayor; he functioned as acting mayor on several occasions.[14]

Brown's residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street, Toronto, was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust as a conference centre and offices.[15]

Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario. Bought in 1826, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.[16]

Toronto's George Brown College (founded 1967) is named after him.[17] A statue of Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park[18] and another on Parliament Hill in Ottawa (sculpted by George William Hill in 1913).[19]

Brown married (d. 1906) in 1862 and had three children. After his death, Anne and the children moved to her hometown of Edinburgh in Scotland, where one of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown (1869–1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, representing Edinburgh Central.[20][21]

He was portrayed by Peter Outerbridge in the 2011 CBC Television film John A.: Birth of a Country.[22]

George Brown appears on a Canadian postage stamp issued on August 21, 1968.[23]

George Brown

References[]

  1. ^ "BROWN, The Hon. George". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Careless, J.M.S. (1972). "Brown, George". In Hayne, David (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
  3. ^ Waite, P. B. (2001). The Life and Times of Confederation 1864-1867 (2nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 98–99.
  4. ^ Gwyn, Richard (2009). John A: The Man Who Made Us. Toronto: Random House Canada. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-3073-7135-5. Retrieved August 5, 2015. What has French-Canadianism been denied? Nothing. It bars all it dislikes – it extorts all its demands – and it grows insolent over its victories. Letter from George Brown
  5. ^ Careless, JMS (1967). The Union of the Canadas. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.
  6. ^ Moore, Christopher (1997). 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. pp. 107–109. ISBN 978-1-5519-9483-3.
  7. ^ Waite (2001), p. 139
  8. ^ "George Brown on Confederation". The Quebec History Encyclopedia. Marianopolis College. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Waite (2001), p. 140
  10. ^ Gwyn (2009), p. 330
  11. ^ Carlyle, Edward Irving (1901). "Brown, George (1818-1880)" . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  12. ^ Sally Zerker, "George Brown and the Printers Union," Journal of Canadian Studies (1975) 10#1 pp 42-48.
  13. ^ "Historicist: The Assassination of George Brown". Torontoist. May 2009. Retrieved December 12, 2009..
  14. ^ Gray, Jeff (October 21, 2016). "Park to be named after William Peyton Hubbard, the first black person elected to Toronto city council". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  15. ^ "George Brown House (Toronto)". Ontario Heritage Trust. Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved January 6, 2011.
  16. ^ Bow Farms Archived January 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "History". George Brown College. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  18. ^ "George Brown Statue, 1884". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  19. ^ "Explore the statues, monuments and memorials of the Hill". Public Works and Government Services Canada. Government of Canada. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  20. ^ Skikavich, Julia (July 7, 2015). "Anne Brown". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  21. ^ "Mr George Brown (Hansard)". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  22. ^ Weekes, Renee (September 15, 2011). "John A: Birth of a Country – Two-Hour Political Thriller Airs on CBC Television Monday, September 19 at 8:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT)" (Press release). Veritas Canada. Retrieved November 27, 2018 – via Cision.
  23. ^ "OTD: George Brown co-founds Anti-Slavery Society of Canada". Canadian Stamp News. February 26, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.

Further reading[]

  • Bélanger, Claude. "George Brown", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia. (Marianopolis College, March 2006) online
  • Careless, J.M.C. Brown of the Globe: Volume One: Voice of Upper Canada 1818-1859 (1959) online
    • Careless, J.M.C. Brown of the Globe: Volume Two: Statesman of Confederation 1860-1880. (Vol. 2. Dundurn, 1996) excerpt
  • Careless, J. M. S. "BROWN, GEORGE," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 18, 2015, online
  • Careless, J.M.C. "George Brown and Confederation," Manitoba Historical Society Transactions, Series 3, Number 26, 1969-70 online
  • Caron, Jean-François. George Brown: la Confédération et la dualité nationale, Québec: Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2017.
  • Creighton, Donald G. "George Brown, Sir John Macdonald, and the "Workingman"." Canadian Historical Review (1943) 24#4 pp: 362-376.
  • Gauvreau, Michael. "Reluctant Voluntaries: Peter and George Brown: The Scottish Disruption and the Politics of Church and State in Canada." Journal of religious history 25.2 (2001): 134-157.
  • Mackenzie, Alexander. The life and speeches of Hon. George Brown (Toronto, Globe, 1882)

External links[]

Political offices
Preceded by
Sir John A. Macdonald 		Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada – Canada West
August 2–6, 1858 		Succeeded by
Sir John A. Macdonald
Party political offices
Preceded by
none 		Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada West/Ontario Liberal Party
1857–1873 		Succeeded by
Archibald McKellar
Preceded by
Robert Baldwin
as Reformer Leader 		Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
unofficial
1857–1873 		Succeeded by
Alexander Mackenzie
Retrieved from ""