 Map of Upper Canada (orange) within British North America (pink) | |
| Dissolved | 1848 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Informal political clique |
| Location | |
Region served | Upper Canada |
Official language | English |
| Leader | Sir John Robinson (26 July 1791 – 31 January 1863) |
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The Family Compact[1][2] was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (today's Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in Lower Canada. It was noted for its conservatism and opposition to democracy.
The Family Compact emerged from the War of 1812 and collapsed in the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837–1838. Its resistance to the political principle of responsible government contributed to its short life.[3] At the end of its lifespan, the compact would be condemned by Lord Durham, a leading Whig, who summarised its grip on power:
Fortified by family connexion, and the common interest felt by all who held, and all who desired, subordinate offices, that party was thus erected into a solid and permanent power, controlled by no responsibility, subject to no serious change, exercising over the whole government of the Province an authority utterly independent of the people and its representatives, and possessing the only means of influencing either the Government at home, or the colonial representative of the Crown.[4]
- ^ "Family Compact". CanadaHistory.com. 2013. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
- ^ Mills, David; Panneton, Daniel (March 20, 2017) [February 7, 2006]. "Family Compact". The Canadian Encyclopedia (online ed.). Historica Canada. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
- ^ Lee, Robert C. (2004). The Canada Company and the Huron Tract, 1826-1853: Personalities, Profits and Politics. Dundurn. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-896219-94-3.
- ^ Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America (London: 1838); reprinted edition prepared by Sir Charles Lucas (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912), vol. 2, p. 78.