Editing Durham Report (section)

== Content ==
Durham had become the Governor-General in Lower Canada in 1837 but soon submitted his resignation because of his conflict with British Parliament mostly because of his progressive nature. He believed the British Parliament should give the colonies more power by a [[responsible government]]. Lord Durham was sent back to Canada in 1838 by British Parliament and the Crown to investigate the cause behind the rebellions of both Upper and Lower Canada and propose suggestions to fix any remaining problems and lessen the chance of future rebellions.

Lord Durham found that although the rebellions of Upper and Lower Canada were over, peace and unity were yet to be found in Canada. The people living in both colonies in Canada were struggling, as the economic situation in both areas all but collapsed. Poor farming conditions that year led to reduced harvests and increased poverty for farmers. As well as increased political tension and bitterness between parties and races of people, particularly in Lower Canada. Both Canadas were in a state of distress. Durham brought along a small but highly talented staff, most notably including [[Charles Buller]] and [[Edward Gibbon Wakefield]].  The three of them collaborated to prepare and write the report. It was generally disparaged or ignored in Britain but did draw attention from some leading British intellectuals such as [[John Stuart Mill]].<ref>Anna Plassart, and Hugo Bonin, "Democratic struggle or national uprising? The Canadian rebellions in British political thought, 1835–1840." ''Global Intellectual History'' (2020): 1–19 [https://oro.open.ac.uk/68260/3/68260.pdf online]</ref> Much more important was the impact on Anglophone Canada, where led by [[Joseph Howe]], [[Robert Baldwin]], and [[Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine]] it produced dramatic reforms.<ref>David R. Cameron, "Lord Durham Then and Now" ''Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes'' 25#1 (1990), pp. 5–23.</ref>

The report was entitled "Report on the Affairs of British North America". It was considered controversial as it suggested radical ideas for the time, such as for the British Parliament granting the Canadas a responsible government.

The two most well-known suggestions from Lord Durham's report were the fusion of Upper and Lower Canada, to become a single unified colony, the Province of Canada, ruled under a single legislature, and to introduce a responsible government. Durham had believed that to be inevitable because of the progressive nature of the colony's neighbour, the United States. He believed as those ideas were already available to the people and understood, nothing less would be accepted or tolerated and so it must be embraced to satisfy the people and maintain the peace: "establishing a representative government in the North American Colonies. That has been irrevocably done and the experiment of depriving the people of their present constitutional power is not to be thought of."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Lord Durham's Report|publisher=The Canadian Publishers|year=1963|editor-last=Craig|editor-first=Gerald M.|location=Toronto|pages=139}}</ref>

Durham also recommended the creation of a municipal government and a supreme court in British North America. He was interested in not only unifying Upper and Lower Canada but also including Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He also wanted to resolve the issue of land over Prince Edward Island, but those suggestions failed to come to fruition since the [[The Maritimes|Maritime Provinces]] were then uninterested.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/durham-report|title=Durham Report {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia|website=thecanadianencyclopedia.ca|access-date=2019-12-11}}</ref> Those suggestions would be put into place decades later, during the [[Confederation of Canada]].

However, Durham believed that the problems in mostly Lower Canada were not of a political nature, but rather of an ethnic one. The assimilation of French Canadians would solve this issue, and the unification of the two Canadas would provide an effective way of doing so, first by giving the union an English majority, which would rule over the French Canadian population minority and second, by reinforcing its influence every year through English emigration. <blockquote>[T]he strong arm of a popular legislature would compel the obedience of the refractory population; and the hopelessness of success would gradually subdue the existing animosities, and incline the French Canadian population to acquiesce in their new state of political existence.<ref name=ecodurham/>{{rp|99}}</blockquote>

===Racial context===
Several references to "race" are made in this report, referring to French Canadians or Canadiens as a one race and to the English or Anglo-Canadians as another.

<blockquote>It will be acknowledged by every one who has observed the progress of Anglo-Saxon colonization in America, that sooner or later the English race was sure to predominate even numerically in Lower Canada, as they predominate already, by their superior knowledge, energy, enterprise, and wealth. The error, therefore, to which the present contest must be attributed is the vain endeavour to preserve a French Canadian nationality in the midst of Anglo-American colonies and states.<ref name=ecodurham/>{{rp|22}}</blockquote>

<blockquote>And is this French Canadian nationality one which, for the good merely people of that people, we ought to strive to perpetuate, even if it were possible? I know of no national distinctions marking and continuing a more hopeless inferiority. The language, the laws, the character of the North American continent are English; and every race but the English (I apply this to all who speak the English language) appears in a condition of inferiority. It is to elevate them from that inferiority that I desire to give to the Canadians our English character.<ref name=ecodurham/>{{rp|94}}</blockquote>

This is because, at the time of the report, English-speakers used the word race to mean ethnicity, referring to the populations of European states as "the English race", "the German race" etc.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/race | title=Websters Dictionary 1828 - Webster's Dictionary 1828 - Race }}</ref>