The people of Lower Canada resisted so strongly that in 1848, seven years after the Act of Union was passed, England was forced to formally recognize and accept the use of French.
Lord Durham, in missing the mark so clearly with his recommendation to assimilate the French, had made a fatal error. It was an error that the country’s future founder – and subject of this book – would never have made. Throughout his entire life, John A. Macdonald urged English-speaking Conservatives to work in partnership with French Canadians.
“Treat them as a nation and they will act as a free people generally do – generously. Call them a faction, and they become factious.”
– John A. Macdonald
Manifest Destiny
This was an unofficial government policy in 1800’s America. Manifest destiny referred to a widely-held belief by many Americans at the time that the U.S. was destined to rule over the entire North American continent.
Technically, this term was not yet around during the events of this book. However, the idea of ‘continentalism’ was, which was a precursor to manifest destiny. The term manifest destiny did actually not get used until the 1840s. An early proponent of continentalism was President John Quincy Adams, to whom the character Darius Marshall refers to in this book.
Books and Sources Used in Writing This Book
Biggar, E.B. Anecdotal Life of Sir John Macdonald;
Montreal, John Lovell & Son; 1891.
Creighton, Donald. John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician. The Old Chieftain; Toronto, University of Toronto Press; 1952.
County Magazine, Issue Numbers 19, 101 and 102.
Gwyn, Richard. John A: The Man Who Made Us;
Toronto, Random House Canada; 2007.
Napanee Beaver, ‘The Great Drowning,’ April 30, 1897 edition.
Phenix, Patricia. Private Demons: The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald; Toronto, McClelland & Stewart; 2006.
Pope, Joseph. Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, Ottawa; 1894.
Sewell, John. Mackenzie: A Political Biography of William Lyon Mackenzie; Toronto, J. Lorimer & Co; 2002.
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Murder and mystery on the Canadian prairies!
August, 1908. One hundred years ago, under the light of a full moon, 12-year-old John Diefenbaker and his younger brother, Elmer, are nearby when their neighbour is shot to death in a field. The murder in small-town Saskatchewan ignites a desperate search for the killer by the Royal North West Mounted Police.
When a family friend of the Diefenbakers is arrested for the murder, a man from a Plains Cree band, John is certain they have the wrong person. With the help of the man’s 11-year-old daughter, Summer Storm, John and Elmer set out to prove his innocence. But with only five days left before the murder trial, time is running out.
Meanwhile a charismatic Metis man named Andre Dumont, claiming to be related to the famous military commander Gabriel Dumont, is trying to stir up anger against the federal government. The last thing the police need is another full-scale rebellion on their hands.
From a smooth-talking Rawleigh’s salesman, to a testy general store owner, to mysterious strangers…all is not what it seems. See how these colourful characters not only challenged the Canadian west but also the sense of justice and fairness in a young boy who would one day lead the nation.
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The Legends of Lake on the Mountain Page 14