In addition, the colonial system showed serious shortcomings. The Governor General ran the province of Québec (or Lower Canada), the only predominantly French-speaking colony, which did not have a Legislative Assembly until 1791. Newfoundland did not get one until 1832. Only landowners and certain tenants had the right to vote, and did so orally in just one polling station per riding.

In time the balance of powers swung in favour of the legislative assemblies, which brought about resentment and confrontation between the Reformers and the Conservatives, especially in Lower Canada, where an English governor and a Council dominated by the British decided to flout the Legislative Assembly composed of a francophone majority. The inhabitants of all the colonies became less and less tolerant of the discretionary power of the Governor General and the lieutenant-governors, as well as the privileges of the conservative cliques that gravitated around the Governor.

Before London passed the Constitutional Act, Governor Guy Carleton (who had become Lord Dorchester) had presented a draft Constitution quite different from the one finally presented to the British Parliament. Lord Dorchester had envisioned a federation of all British colonies (Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, St. John's Island, and Cape Breton Island). The laws would have required the support of a double majority: a majority of elected members of a colony and a majority of all colonial members. This system would have forced Lower Canada, which was much more heavily populated in 1791, to submit to majority rule by the provinces. The draft Constitution was developed by chief justice William Smith, a supporter of francophone assimilation and strong British nationalist. For Colonial Office minister Lord George Grenville, this attempt to unite peoples that shared neither laws nor language and join the victor and vanquished seemed absurd and conducive to discord. He, therefore, thought it better to create two separate colonies, even though it risked creating a mainly francophone and Catholic province.

In fact, it was the small western Loyalist minority that called for and obtained from London the separation of Upper Canada from Lower Canada. To limit risk, Minister Grenville stipulated that the powers of the Legislative Assembly (Chamber of Assembly) would be limited by a non-responsible Executive Council (it would later be derided as an "irresponsible" council) and a Legislative Council is chosen by London, as well as a governor with right of veto over all laws. The system was similar in the other colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, St. John's Island, etc.), except in Rupert's Land, which was given to the Hudson's Bay Company as a private colony.

In practice, the decision meant that laws related to civil law and the Catholic religion had to be in French and those related to common law or the Protestant religion had to be in English. Governor Lord Dorchester approved the use of both languages "provided that all bills be passed in English." This provision did not please British officials.

In September 1793, His Majesty's government decreed that English would be the only official language of Parliament, with French being recognized only as a language of translation. During this period, the French language, therefore, remained without any constitutional protection or legal value, though it continued to be used in debates, minutes, and the writing of laws (in translation). This was the practice from 1793 up until 1840, when the adoption of the Union Act made English the only official language. In reality, legislative bilingualism was taking root and in the coming years would continue a tradition not only in Lower Canada (Québec), but also later in the Canadian federal system.

In 1787, Governor Lord Dorchester created the first committee to investigate the state of teaching in the province of Lower Canada. The goal was to provide instruction to all, even the most disadvantaged and remote. The quality of teaching proved lamentable, as educating the children of Francophone Catholics was the responsibility of settlers and the parish. It was hard for peasants to build churches and schools while paying teachers' salaries. Accordingly, in 1790 French Canadians had only around 40 schools for some 160,000 inhabitants, or an average of one school per 4,000 inhabitants, while the English had 17 schools for 10,000 inhabitants, or one for fewer than 600 inhabitants. As for the Francophone literacy rate, it dropped to 13% in 1779 and 4% in 1810, before slowly rising starting in 1820 to reach 27% around 1850.

Francophones refused en masse to send their children to government schools and sometimes even burned them down, with the result that in 1830 only 2,000 of 400,000 Canadians (0.5%) knew how to write French: French Canada had become illiterate! Many historians believe this dramatic regression in schooling was above all due to the clergy's opposition to the schools offered by the British government. The government should never have proposed that the Anglican Church control the province's schools! It was obviously a very unwise move by the governor.

At the same time, "ethnic quarters" had already formed in cities like Montréal and Québec, as well as other small urban centres. Anglophones lived in commercial areas, while Francophones (workers, small workshop artisans, etc.) lived in the other quarters. Banks, insurance companies, administrative offices, and retail stores were virtually all run by  Anglophones, which was reflected in the architecture of public buildings and Anglican churches, where the tastes of the British predominated.

The War of 1812 had no linguistic consequences for the two Canadas, but at least demonstrated that Anglophones and Francophones could cooperate when their common interests were at stake. Upper Canada was much more affected by the war than the other British colonies (e.g., Lower Canada) since the Americans launched a massive attack against it and burned down the Legislature in Toronto in 1813. Support for the British among the residents of Upper Canada was not automatic, because of many settlers, called "last minute Loyalists," were relatively sympathetic to the American cause. Major General Isaac Brock, determined to whip up support among the population for British North America, launched a preemptive attack against the city of Detroit. His victories convinced many Canadian settlers (including Francophones in Lower Canada) to fulfill their militiaman duties in the fighting that continued on for over two years. British forces invaded the city of Washington in 1814 and burned down the Capitol building and the home of the president of the United States, known since as the "White House" because it had to be repainted white to mask the traces of the fire. In Lower Canada, Colonel Charles-Michel De Salaberry fought off the Americans at Châteauguay with the help of Les Voltigeurs, a French Canadian army contingent. After the fall of Napoleon at Waterloo, the United Kingdom transferred considerable troops from Europe to North America (about 14,000 soldiers).

Demographic change and the ensuing economic expansion brought about a flurry of public works (road construction, new canals, schools, hospitals, etc.) that caused constant budget deficits. When John Colborne (1778–1863) took over as lieutenant-governor in 1828, he ran up against stiff opposition from the Reformers. Two Anglophones political groups were doing battle—the Tories (or Conservatives) on one side and the Reformers (the predecessors to the Liberals) on the other. The Tories belonged to families close to the governor—The Family Compact—and were part of the “United Empire Loyalist” elite of businessmen and professionals, mostly members of the Church of England and fiercely anti-American. Opposing them were the Reformers led by Scotsman William Lyon Mackenzie, who deeply distrusted British colonialism.

The Reformers of Upper Canada broke into two clans—radicals pushing for a U.S.-type republican system and moderates more open to British institutions. When London refused to allow the governor to use colonial revenues without the approval of the Legislative Council, the Reformers decided to take up arms, which led to the first skirmishes of the Rebellion of 1837–1838.

In November 1838 at the Battle of Prescott (or Battle of the Windmill) near Kingston, some 2,000 militiamen and regular soldiers of the British army crushed a contingent of some 300 men who had come from the United States (the New York Hunter's Lodge, a patriotic organization committed to driving the British from North America) to help those Canadians seeking to overthrow the British government of Upper Canada. The leader of the patriots and ten of his comrades were hung while sixty others were exiled to Australia (on the Island of Tasmania). William Lyon Mackenzie sought refuge in the United States until the government of United Canada granted amnesty to the rebels in 1849. He resigned his seat in the Legislative Assembly in 1858.

The French inhabitants of Lower Canada, today distanced from their fellow subjects by their particularities and national prejudices, and ardently aiming to become, through the current state of affairs, a distinct people, would be gradually assimilated into the British population and with it merge into a people of British character and sentiment.

For Governor Craig, it was unthinkable for the Assembly to have only 10 Anglophone members out of 50 and that they be "in the hands of illiterate peasants under the direction of several of their fellow countrymen." There was already talk at the time of a "distinct nation" and "distinct people," an idea that would resurface 200 years later in the 1990s with the expression "distinct society." In 1836, a movement even pushed for partitioning Montréal Island and the county of Vaudreuil (on the western border near Ontario) to reattach them to English Upper Canada. The outcry from Anglophone Townshippers and the City of Québec put a stop to the movement.  

In politics, Francophone members became increasingly aggressive and formed Le Parti Canadien, while Anglophones gathered in the Tory Party. Each group had its own newspaper: Le Canadien (Parti Canadien) and the Québec Mercury (Tory Party), which vied with each other. Antagonism grew between Francophones and Anglophones, and debates turned poisonous. In 1805, the ruling British business bourgeoisie, which opposed political concessions for French Canadians, founded a militant newspaper, the Québec Daily Mirror. On October 27, 1806, the Québec Mercury attacked Canadians in these terms:

This province is already much too French for an English colony. To defrancize it as much as possible, if I may use this expression, should be our primary goal.  

The Montréal Gazette put forward equally extremist views in 1836: "The time for indecision has passed. The British must either crush their oppressors or meekly accept the yoke that has been prepared for them." Anglophones feared to fall under the supremacy of a "French republic." They called for the union of the two Canadas and spoke openly of assimilation, while Canadians denounced favouritism, the governor's corruption and arbitrariness (the "Chateau Clique"), and  Anglophone control of the councils. Francophones wanted an elected Legislative Council, oversight of government spending, and the maintenance of the seigniorial system and even threatened to join the U.S. Year after year, the abuse continued and even grew worse, profiting a group of the governor's personal friends. In 1827, a petition with 87,000 names denounced the profiteers known as the "Chateau Clique." The Gosford-Gipps-Grey Commission(Royal Commission for the Investigation of all Grievances Affecting His Majesty's Subjects of Lower Canada) had predicted in 1837 that British settlers "would never consent without an armed struggle to the establishment of what they see as a French republic in Canada." T. Fred. Elliott, the secretary of the Gosford-Gipps-Grey Commission, seems to have clearly understood the issue of Lower Canadian duality:

French Canadians could not have failed to notice that the English have seized all the riches and all the power in each country where they have set foot. In all parts of the world, civilized or savage, the English have shown, whether as British subjects in the East or as settlers in revolt on this continent, the same inability to mix with others, the same need to predominate. One must admit that this could not be an agreeable thought for the gentle and easy-going race that finds itself caught in the midst of growing institutions and nations of English origin.

For him, the solution was to placate French Canadians and train them to govern themselves with the help of their fellow British citizens. But Elliott was only speaking personally and had little authority as secretary.

Through several strong-arm tactics, Governor James Henry Craig succeeded in arbitrarily dissolving certain Houses of Assembly. Francophones and Anglophones bunkered down for several years in a hardened conflict that totally paralyzed the state. In 1834, French Canadian MPs went to London to present "92 resolutions" designed to update the 1791 Constitution. They called for an elected Legislative Assembly and greater political powers (responsible government and tax administration). Mired in its domestic problems, the British government took its time. In the meantime, as a pressure tactic, the House of Assembly refused to vote on the budget until London accepted its demands. The official response came three years later in May 1837. The British government rejected the proposals of the Parti Canadien (which had become the Parti Patriote) and flatly refused the House of Lower Canada's requests.

The armed revolt of the Patriots broke out in fall 1837. They engaged the British army in combat near Montreal and in Saint-Denis, Saint-Charles, and Saint-Eustache. British officials soon intervened and quickly crushed the rebellion, spreading terror by looting and burning several villages, while the Catholic clergy preached loyalty, obedience, and resignation. The following pastoral letter of October 24, 1837, by then Bishop of Montréal Mgr. Jean-Jacques Lartigue is telling in this regard:

Everybody, said Saint Paul to the Romans, shall be subject to the powers of God. And it is He who has established all those in existence. Therefore, he who opposes these powers disobeys God's order. And those who disobey earn damnation for themselves. The prince is God's minister to do well. And since it is not in vain that he wears the gladius, he is also His minister to punish evil. You must therefore obey him not only through fear of punishment, but also as a duty of conscience. [...] And you must see at present that we cannot, without neglecting our duties and placing our own salvation in peril, omit to purge your conscience of such a slippery step.

However, some historians believe that the 1837 Patriots' Rebellion was staged by Montréal loyalists, who provoked the Patriots to be able to accuse them of treason and thereby fight them legitimately. In any case, this is what Patriot militant Dr. Edmund B. O'Callaghan believed, who compared the situation in Lower Canada to that of his native Ireland:

They wanted, as in Castlereagh in Ireland, to incite the people to violence, then abolish their constitutional rights. In the history of the union of Ireland with England, you will retrace as in a mirror the 1836–1837 plot against Canadian liberty.

For O'Callaghan, the government had knowingly armed volunteers and issued arbitrary orders to inflame the population and then cry rebellion once people were up in arms. During the 1837–1838 rebellion, between 200 and 300 Patriots died. Some 9,000 people participated in the uprising in Lower Canada and 1,000 in Upper Canada.

The failure of the 1837–1838 rebellion was key to the development of Francophone society in Lower Canada. Bitterly disappointed, French Canadians turned further inwards and resigned themselves to their fate. For over a century, they took refuge in obedience, religion, agriculture, and conservatism. There was no Lower Canada Assembly for the next four years, as the main political figures were all in exile. The Catholic clergy filled the political vacuum. The French language accordingly suffered the consequences of these events: it rooted itself in conservatism while incorporating English terms.

Dispatched urgently by London, John George Lambton (Lord Durham) arrived in Quebec City with full authority to investigate and report on the situation in Canada. Durham, a career diplomat, was known in Great Britain for his liberal ideas and was nicknamed "Radical Jack."

English as the Official Language of Parliament

United Canada was created to give the English-speaking community an advantage over the French-speaking community. In the mid-19th century, political decision makers took little interest in language issues, except when they had to. The notion of institutional bilingualism was still foreign to them. In 1848, Switzerland (probably overlooked) was the only country in the world practicing institutional bilingualism (French/German). In such circumstances, it went without saying that English would be the only official language of the new Parliament, as set out in Section 41 of the Act of Union:  

Section 41

And be it enacted, That from and after the said Reunion of the said Two Provinces all Writs, Proclamations, Instruments for summoning and calling together the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, and for proroguing and dissolving the same, and all Writs of Summons and Election, and all Writs and public Instruments whatsoever relating to the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, or either of them, and all Returns to such Writs and Instruments, and all Journals, Entries, and written or printed Proceedings, of what Nature so ever, of the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, and of each of them respectively, and all written or printed Proceedings and Reports of Committees of the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly respectively, shall be in the English Language only: Provided always, that this Enactment shall not be construed to prevent translated Copies of any such Documents being made, but no such Copy shall be kept among the Records of the Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly, or be deemed in any Case to have the Force of an original Record.

It was the first time since the Conquest that Great Britain (officially the United Kingdom since 1801) had proscribed the use of French in a constitutional text, testifying to the British government's newfound assimilationist intentions. French was to become but a language of translation, with no legal value. Section 31 did not, however, formally prohibit the use of French in the parliamentary debate: in fact, of this, it made no mention.

Not unexpectedly, the Act of Union sparked a wave of protest in Canada East (Québec). From the outset, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine (1807–1864), lawyer and joint head of the Executive Council, tried to convince Parliament to accept the use of French. After having demanded the Chamber meet as a general committee in 1842, he addressed the members from United Canada in these terms:

To begin, I must make allusion to the attack by the honourable member for Toronto, who has so often been presented to us as a friend of the French Canadian people. Has he already forgotten that I belong to that nationality which has been so horribly ill-treated by the Act of Union? If so, I would find it most regrettable. He asks me to deliver in a language other than my maternal tongue the first speech I have to deliver in this house! I distrust my ability to speak the English language. But I must inform the honourable members that even if I knew English as well as French, I would still make my first speech in the language of my French Canadian countrymen, if only to protest solemnly the cruel injustice of that part of the Act of Union which aims to proscribe the mother tongue of half the population of Canada. I owe it to my countrymen, I owe it to myself.

The purpose of the Union, in the mind of its author, was to crush the French population: but a mistake has been made, for the means employed will not achieve this result. Without our active cooperation, without our participation in power, the government cannot function in such a way as to re-establish the peace and confidence essential to the success of any administration. Placed by the Act of Union in an exceptional situation, as a minority with respect to the distribution of political power, should we succumb, we shall at least succumb by commanding respect.

The Parliament of United Canada sought to temper the impact of Section 41 by adopting various measures to facilitate the translation of laws and other parliamentary documents. During the session of 1844, Francophone members presented a motion requiring that the speaker of the assembly be able to speak English and French. As a result, Allan McNab, an eminent but unilingual member of the William Henry Draper government (1843–1846), was not eligible for re-election and was replaced by Augustin-Norbert Morin. The following year (February 17, 1845), Francophone members presented another resolution demanding that official versions of parliamentary texts also be produced in French. Allan McNab rejected the resolution, sparking a vote in the assembly which his side won by a single vote. Subsequently, Francophone members decided to ask the British government to simply abrogate Section 41 of the Act of Union. They had to endure endless parliamentary procedural maneuvering and the bad faith of Governor Charles Theophilus Metcalfe (1843-1845) but in the end, the Parliament of United Canada unanimously approved the request and forwarded it to the British government.

Spurred on by Louis-Hyppolite Lafontaine, Lord Elgin pestered the British government to agree to the demands of the Canadian Parliament regarding bilingualism. Writing to Lafontaine on June 15, 1848, Elgin affirmed, "I am certain that the next post from Downing Street will inform me of what you intend to do to secure the repeal of the restrictions imposed by the Act of Union with respect to the use of French." The Francophone opposition had been so intense since 1841 that London finally decided to accept use of the French language. It repealed Section 41 to restore the de facto bilingualism that had existed prior to the Act of Union by passing An Act to repeal so much of an Act of the Third and Fourth Years of Her present Majesty, to re-unite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada, as relates to the Use of the English Language in Instruments relating to the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. Here are paragraphs 11 and 12 Victoria, ch. LVI, of the 1848 amendment rescinding Section 41 of the Act of Union of 1840, which made English the sole language of parliamentary record.

WHEREAS by an Act [1841] [...] it is amongst other things enacted, that all Writs, Proclamations, Instruments for summoning and calling together […], and all Writs of Summons and Elections, and all Writs and Public Instruments whatsoever relating to the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, or either of them, and all Returns to such Writs and Instruments, and all Journals, Entries and written or printed Proceedings of what Nature soever, of the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, and of each of them respectively, and all written or printed Proceedings and Reports of Committees of the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly respectively, shall be in the English Language only: Provided always, that the said Enactment should not be construed to prevent translated Copies of any such Documents being made, but no such Copy should be kept among the Records of the Force of an original Record: And whereas it is expedient to alter the Law in this respect, in order that the Legislature of the Province of Canada, or the said Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly respectively, may have Power to make such Regulations herein as to them may seem advisable:' Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Act so much of the said recited Act as is herein-before recited shall be repealed [...].

The 1848 amendment did not formally allow for the use of French, but rather repealed the provisions imposing English as the only language. In any case, as of 1849, the official texts of all laws were passed in both French and English. It could be said that the act revoking Section 41 of the Act of Union was a remedial law that restored a legitimacy to the French language that a poorly inspired piece of legislation had taken away for a number of years. Since no simultaneous interpretation was available during parliamentary debates, members expressing themselves in French were "condemned" to being understood solely by their French-speaking colleagues. The inverse was also true. The repeal bill did not change the de facto institutional unilingualism prevailing in Upper Canada (which became Canada West), but did establish the de jure bilingual character of the joint Legislative Assembly of Upper (Western Canada) and Lower Canada (Eastern Canada). Lord Elgin, the governor general, opened the session of the United Canada Parliament in Montreal by giving part of his throne speech in French. It was the first time since the end of the French regime that a representative of the Crown had formally conducted this parliamentary ritual in both languages.

It may be worth mentioning another element related to the absence of language provisions in the Act of Union of 1840. Certain legal specialists argue even though the act did not concern language, it gave French quasi-official status by recognizing French civil law. Since this law was originally written in French, this amounted to implicit recognition of French alongside English. The same thing happened in Louisiana after the colony was sold to the United States by Napoleon Bonparte on April 30, 1803. When Louisiana became an American state on April 30, 1812, English was named the only official language, but French civil law was also recognized. The courts even ruled in 1825 that in the event of a conflict of interpretation, the French version took precedence over the translated English version. However, after the U.S. Civil War (Louisiana was a slave state), the new 1868 Constitution prohibited the use of any other language than English.

The laws, public records, and judicial and legislative proceedings of the State shall be promulgated and preserved in the English language; and no law shall require judicial process to be issued in any other than the English language.

This marked the end of institutional bilingualism in Louisiana. In 1870, the Civil Code was overhauled and adapted in English only. The Code of Civil Procedure was also revised, and any obligation regarding the use of French removed. Then, out of patriotic duty (see the famed slogan "One flag, one nation, one language"), the Irish-descended high clergy eliminated French from the schools. In other words, the law is nothing without the force of law!

Starting in 1847, the Parliament of United Canada met in Montréal (Canada East) instead of Kingston (Canada West). In 1849, the Parliament building was to become the site of one of the saddest chapters in Canadian parliamentary history. The first piece of legislation introduced under the responsible government of Lafontaine and Baldwin was the Lower Canada Rebellion Losses Act. Its purpose was to compensate inhabitants of Lower Canada who had suffered reprisals by British soldiers and Anglophone militias during the rebellions of 1837–38. A similar measure had been adopted by the Tory government in 1845 to compensate victims of destruction in Upper Canada. This time, the law sparked virulent debate because the victims were not Anglophones, but rather Francophones.

Certain Anglophones felt it was indecent and immoral to use funds from English-speaking Protestants to compensate French-speaking Catholics. Despite an initial claim of £250,000, an inquiry commission concluded that £100,000 would be enough to pay for the damages suffered in Lower Canada (Canada East). In the end, the government authorized a £10,000 payout, sparking an outcry in both Canada East, where the amount was viewed as utterly ridiculous, and Canada West, which opposed the very idea of compensating the "papist rebels." The Tory opposition did everything it could to block the bill, but in vain. In its view, only loyalists to the Crown had been compensated in Upper Canada, whereas those who had shown disloyalty were to get a share in Lower Canada. The leader of the Tory Party and the member for Hamilton, Allan McNab, proclaimed his indignation:

The Union has completely failed its purpose. It was created with the sole design of submitting the French Canadians to English domination. The opposite has occurred. Those who were to be crushed dominate! Those in whose favour the Union was concluded are the serfs of the others.

Sir McNab warned the ministry that the compensation plan would plunge the people of Upper Canada into despair and that it would be better to be governed "by a people of the same race, rather than by those with whom they have nothing in common, neither blood, nor language, nor interests." Despite the warnings from Anglophones in English-dominated Montreal (only 19,000 of its 43, 0000 inhabitants were Francophone at the time) angered by what they felt was French Domination, Lord Elgin nonetheless gave the bill royal assent on April 25, 1849. The Montreal Gazette immediately called on people to riot.

The end is nigh, Anglo-Saxons, you must live for the future; your blood and your race shall hereafter be your supreme law, if you are true to yourselves. You shall be English, if you may no longer be British. In the words of William IV, Canada is lost and delivered. The crowd must assemble at Armoury Square tonight at eight o’clock. To arms, the time has come.

Two days later, the "friends of peace" attacked Governor General Elgin, who decided it would be wise to leave town for a few days. On September 5, 1849, inhabitants of Brockville, a town between Kingston and Cornwall on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, raised black flags and made death threats to Elgin on his way through town. Elgin offered to resign, but the colonial secretary assured him that British authorities approved his action. Agitation continued and chapters of the "Anglo-American League" of Montréal were established in Toronto, Kingston, and other towns in Upper Canada. Feeling abandoned by London, and angry with Great Britain's decision to abolish the protectionist regime, Anglo-Montréal merchants called for Canada's annexation to the United States, giving Lord Elgin ample reason to consider them "pocketbook loyalists." As one Canadian historian ironically commented, "Montréal was like the Wild West back in those days." The fire marked the end of Montréal's stint as the home of Parliament. No seat of government was ever permanently fixed there. Parliament subsequently alternated between Toronto and Québec City every four years before moving definitively to Ottawa in 1866.

The well-known Montréal Herald polemicist also declared that French Canadians were a pampered lot who had received more than their share of attention since the Conquest, whereas "English subjects" had been neglected. He believed that the policy of conciliation promoted by Governor Gosford (1835–1838) had allowed the vanquished French Canadians to dictate colonial policy to the victorious British. Loyalists denounced this policy, fearing that London would look favourably on the French Canadians and end up giving in to their grievances by granting them more powers.

Loyalist organizations banded together in an umbrella committee—the Montréal Constitutional Association (MCA)—in January 1835. A similar organization—the Québec Constitutional Association (QCA)—had been founded in Québec City in December 1834. These bodies were set up to defend the Constitution of 1791 and preserve the Legislative Assembly in its existing form. But the loyalists were not content to form constitutional associations and hold public meetings, they also began setting up armed organizations. Adam Thom, the leader of the "British" of Montréal, defended these militias in the December 12, 1835, edition of his paper:

The organization, to combine moral determination and physical force, must be both military and political. We as much need an Army as a Congress. We need pikes and rifles as much as wisdom (...) Therefore let us call a provincial congress immediately and increase the British Rifle Corp. of Montréal to 800, which is its full complement, let us send deputies to win the sympathies of the neighbouring provinces.

It was increasingly clear that the English minority had no intention of letting itself be governed by French Canadians, and was even prepared to put up armed resistance. Adam Thom freely called for the ransacking of Francophone villages.

Past history proves that nothing short of their disappearance from the land and the reduction of their homes to dust will prevent new rebellions south of the St. Lawrence, or new invasions by the Americans.

After the British Rifle Corp was disbanded in January 1836, another paramilitary organization—the Doric Club—was founded by a group of young armed loyalists. In their manifesto of March 16, 1836, club members declared that they would rather give their lives than submit to a French Canadian republic.

If we are deserted by the British government and the British people, rather than submit to the degradation of being subject of a French-Canadian republic, we are determined by our own right arms to work out our deliverance..., we are ready... to pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

In the English-language papers, certain journalists publicly shared their views with the Queen's representative, Lord Durham, as evidenced by this June 1838 excerpt from the Missiskoui Standard, published in Frelighsburg in the Eastern Townships:

It is foolishness for the French Canadians to fight their destiny. It is impossible that a handful of Frenchmen in the extreme north-east can rise to the state of a nation, against the entrepreneurial genius of a race that has already covered most of this continent. It's more than foolishness. Since 1791 and until last year, the French sought to defy their fate; and despite having all manner of legislative facilities, they did not succeed. They oppressed the Anglo-Saxon race residing in this province, and sought to keep away those who wanted to come. And what was the result of all this? They failed. The legal power they possessed was not proportionate to their end; and when in desperation they had recourse to force to accomplish their favourite desire, the Anglo-Saxon race, like a boa constrictor, wrapped itself around them, pressed them on all sides, and crushed them.

The October 18, 1838, edition of the Montréal Gazette also featured an interpretation of the source of problems with the French Canadian community:

What is, we ask, the real cause of the state of division in which this province finds itself, and of the maladministration and anarchy to which it has long been submitted? What is it, other than that the majority of its inhabitants are of foreign origin, custom, law, language, and institutions to that of the nation at large, and that no attempt has yet been made to assimilate them into the ways of the Mother Country.

For various reasons, Lord Durham had little contact with French Canadians during his six-month stay in Canada. Instead, he surrounded himself with Anglophone advisers who viewed the French Canadians as a backward and illiterate people constantly manipulated by irresponsible leaders. In contrast, these same advisers were convinced that the English-speaking minority was well governed and had the province's best interests at heart. It was not without irony that French immigrant and journalist Napoléon Aubin (1812 – 1880), founder of the newspaper Le Fantasque, warned Lord Durham against using words such as British in 1838:

It would seem, Milord you have taken it upon yourself to make French Canadians understand that their hour has come, hope has run out, and they now must endure slavery and contempt to atone for the grave sin of not being English. All the trappings man covets are denied them: titles, honours, and consideration are taken from them and offered to those who insult them at will […] You plan to defend British interests! Ay, My Lord, do change this word, for it is a vile one. Say you shall defend colonial interests, provincial interests or whatever you may choose, but not British interests; for you see, you will not be understood here. All that is abuse and cruelty, all that is tyranny, ignorance, oppression, and intolerance, has been shrouded by your compatriots in the word British.

In these conditions, it is no surprise that Lord Durham developed such a poor opinion of the French Canadians. Here are several excerpts from his report on the topic:

They (the Canadiens) are an old and stationary society, in a new and progressive world. In all things and places they have remained French, but Frenchmen who in no way resemble those of France. Rather, they resemble the French of the Ancien Régime. [...]

The French Canadians, on the other hand, are but the remains of an ancient colonization, and are and ever must be isolated in the midst of an Anglo-Saxon world. [...]

There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people, than that which is exhibited by the descendants of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their retaining their peculiar language and manners. They are a people with no history, and no literature. The literature of England is written in a language which is not theirs; and the only literature which their language renders familiar to them, is that of a nation from which they have been separated by eighty years of a foreign rule, and still more by those changes which the Revolution and its consequences have wrought in the whole political, moral and social state of France. [...]

In Durham's eyes, the English, on the other hand, were a superior race, and English the dominant language:

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 there in a condition of inferiority. It is to elevate them from that inferiority that I desire to give to the Canadians our English character. I desire it for the sake of the educated classes, whom the distinction of language and manners keeps apart from the great Empire to which they belong. At the best, the fate of the educated and aspiring colonist is, at present, one of little hope, and little activity; but the French Canadian is cast still further into the shade, by a language and habits foreign to those of the Imperial Government. [...]

The English have already in their hands the majority of the larger masses of property in the country; they have the decided superiority of intelligence on their side; they have the certainty that colonization must swell their numbers to a majority; and they belong to the race which wields the Imperial Government, and predominates on the American Continent.

Anglicization of the French Canadians and their transformation into a minority went hand-in-hand, and were to be the main objective of colonial authorities. To this end, Lord Durham encouraged London to promote massive English immigration:

Without effecting the change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample on the welfare of the existing generation, it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British Government to establish an English population, with English laws and language, in this Province, and to trust its government to none but a decidedly English legislature. [...]

I believe that tranquility can only be restored by subjecting the province to the vigorous rule of an English majority; and that the only efficacious government would be that formed by a legislative union.

But, I repeat that the alteration of the character of the Province ought to be immediately entered on, and firmly, though cautiously, followed up; that in any plan, which may be adopted for the future management of Lower Canada, the first object ought to be that of making it an English Province; and that, with this end in view, the ascendancy should never again be placed in any hands but those of an English population. Indeed, at the present moment this is obviously necessary: in the state of mind in which I have described the French Canadian population, as not only now being, but as likely for a long while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control over this Province would be, in fact, only facilitating a rebellion. Lower Canada must be governed now, as it must be hereafter, by an English population; and thus the policy, which the necessities of the moment force on us, is in accordance with that suggested by a comprehensive view of the future and permanent improvement of the Province [...]

For Lord Durham, perpetual negligence by the British government was the explanation for the lack of freedom and civilization among French Canadians. "It has left them without instruction and without the organizations of local responsible government, which would have enabled it to assimilate their race and customs easily and expeditiously, for the greater benefit of the Empire to which they belong." Durham saw "no hope for their nationality," in part because they could never break away from the British Empire unless they decided to go it alone (in "a wretched semblance of feeble independence"), joined some sort of potential "English Confederacy," or eventually opted for "merging in the American Union."

In short, the British Empire needed to act quickly to definitively resolve the problem of "two nations warring in the bosom of a single state" and "squelch the mortal hatred that now divides the inhabitants of Lower Canada into two hostile groups: the French and the English." Obviously, many French Canadians were outraged by the report's recommendations with respect to assimilation as well as by the insinuation that they possessed neither culture nor history.

After the Act of Union, Francophones stood helplessly by in the face of anti-French determinism. Encouraged into submission by the clergy, they believed in their "grand" spiritual destiny while the Anglophone community took control of the economy and secured the capital required for industrialization and urbanization.

In 1853, the Clear Grits ( meaning tenacious or dedicated), the radical party of Canada West led by George Brown (1818–1880), began denouncing the French Domination of a government it felt to be imposing its will on Canada West. The Clear Grits were Francophobes with a virulent anti-Catholic streak. On November 22, 1850, Lord Elgin wrote to Albert Henry George (Earl Grey), who would be Canada's Governor General from 1904 until 1911:

Every day, the hatred of the Clear Grit Party for Francophones is more and more apparent. Mr. Boulton, the former chief justice of Newfoundland and a leader of sorts of the Clear Grits is said to have declared at a public dinner the other day that "Negroes are the great difficulty of the United States, and French Canadians that of Canada," a sentiment likely to catch in the craw of a somewhat sensitive and distrustful people.

But the Clear Grits also defended liberal ideas, demanding non-denominational schools, the annexation of the West, proportional representation in Parliament, universal and secret suffrage, an elected legislative council, etc. They also denounced a system that forced the Legislative Assembly to pass separate bills for Canada West or Canada East, and sometimes for the two Canadas. The double majority principle applied for all legislation with implications for both Canadas, which is why Parliament was becoming so inefficient and costly. But the Liberals did not have sufficient parliamentary representation to push George Brown's reforms through.

The Anglophones of Canada West were frustrated with equal Anglophone and Francophone representation in the Assembly given that Canada West's population had outgrown that of Canada East by 60,000 people. With English immigration broadening the gap, the political situation could only get worse. The Clear Grits were categorically opposed to what they considered the French Domination of Canada. In 1856, George Brown described the situation reigning in the United Canada Legislative Assembly as one of two countries, two languages, two religions, and two ways of thinking and acting. He wondered whether it would be possible for the two nations to share a single Legislature and a single Executive.

Anglophones demanded constitutional reform that would ensure them proportional representation in Parliament. In light of the continual parliamentary instability, they began to toy with the idea of a federation of all the British colonies. Anglophone reformers had no particular interest in the maritime colonies, but they were fed up with the so-called French Domination. However, they needed Québec, because they wanted to hang on to its numerous canals and railways, as well as the port of Montréal. For them, the ideal solution was two provinces with separate cultural and political institutions, but joined by a common market.

The Confederation Initiative

Eventually, the Clear Grits earned the support of the electoral majority in Canada West, where their opposition to the business capitalists earned them the support of peasants and workers. In 1857, John Alexander Macdonald, a Conservative from Canada West, joined forces with Catholic Conservative George-Étienne Cartier (often written Georges in French) of Canada East. As Lord Elgin had predicted, the Francophobic attitude of the Clear Grits in Canada West had pushed numerous liberal-leaning citizens in Canada East into the Conservative camp, transforming the party into a national organization. In 1864, George Brown proposed that the Conservative leaders of the two Canadas join him and the Liberals of Canada West in establishing a coalition government favourable to a federal union of the two provinces. To avoid political isolation, George-Étienne Cartier, the leader of the Canada East reformers, joined the coalition, where he played an active role in establishing a federal union. This "Grand Coalition," as it would come to be known, included three of the four main political groups in United Canada: Macdonald's Anglophone Conservatives, Cartier's Francophone Conservatives, and Brown's reformers.

At the same time, the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island were exploring the possibility of a Maritime federation and a possible economic union with the other provinces. Brown's proposal proved of central importance in negotiations for the confederation of the British North American colonies. The idea was to establish a confederation with a central government that would handle the federation's general and national affairs, along with a government in each province responsible for local affairs. In September 1864, the coalition government of United Canada was invited to Charlottetown, in the colony of Prince Edward Island, for a conference attended by Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. The coalition piqued the interest of the Maritime Provinces with its proposal, and a second conference was held one month later in Québec City. It was here that the negotiators, later known as the "Fathers of Confederation," drafted the "72 resolutions" that were to form the basis of the future Canadian constitution.

During this same period, Great Britain was beginning to find that Canada was a heavy financial burden on the British Treasury. The cost of maintaining a contingent of 50,000 troops was at least two million pounds a year, a sum deemed enormous. British authorities grew convinced that by grouping the British North American colonies together, they could solve their spending problems. Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1864 to 1866, made his intentions clear in this letter:

Her Majesty's government firmly believes that it is most desirable that all the British colonies of North America agree to come together in a single government. [...] The provinces of British North America are incapable, separated and divided as they are, of making the necessary preparations for their national defence, a task that could easily be assumed by a single province counting all the population and all the resources of the land at its disposal.

Language Question

When negotiations on establishing a Confederation of the British North American colonies got underway in 1864, the legal status of English and French was as follows: in the province of United Canada, made up of Canada West and Canada East, French and English were recognized as official languages in the joint House of Assembly and joint courts, whereas in the other colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland), English was the only language in use. Under the projected federal framework, where two or more provinces would have their own government, two linguistic groups would find themselves in a situation of heightened minority status: the French Canadians, already a minority in the province of Canada (Canada West and Canada East), would become even more of a minority when the other colonies joined the federation; and the Anglophones of Canada East, who would in some respects be "cut off" from their Canada West compatriots because they lived in a province with a French majority.

Among the resolutions adopted at the Québec Conference in 1864, only one concerned language. It was Resolution No. 46, and it read as follows:

Both the English and French languages may be employed in the General Parliament and in its proceedings, and in the Local Legislature of Lower Canada, and also in the Federal Courts and in the Courts of Lower Canada.

This version was somewhat different from the original proposal by Alexander Tilloch Galt, one of the negotiators and defenders of the provision respecting the protection of Protestant minority education rights in Québec. Galt's text only made allusion to the federal courts in Canada East, which did not go over very well with the French Canadians. Once the debate on the resolutions got underway in Canada East, Francophones pointed out that the clause provided no guarantees and called for replacing the word "may" by the word "shall" with respect to the language of Parliament and the legislature. Their demands were not to go unheeded!

Influence of the American Civil War

Another element affecting the Confederation debate was the thorny matter of the Civil War that had been raging in the United States since 1861, and did not end until 1865. The main cause of the conflict was slavery in the Southern states. This issue interested the negotiators of Confederation because it touched upon the rights and powers of the states (and by extension the potential powers of the provinces) with respect to those of the Union (and by extension, the federal government). Macdonald wanted to avoid the breakup of the central government by granting it as many powers as possible, and leaving the provinces with the strict minimum necessary for a federal system. He seems to have envisaged the central government as the "master" and the provinces as being at its beck and call. In the long term, he hoped to reduce the provincial governments to the rank of glorified municipalities (as in New Zealand).

Since the United Kingdom and its North American colonies supported the South in the war, the tension between the United States and the British North American colonies soon escalated into a political crisis. As a result, the Civil War convinced many Canadians that Confederation was undoubtedly the best way to keep British North America independent from the United States. Certain politicians believed that a union of the British colonies would protect them against eventual annexation by the Americans.

From the United Kingdom's point of view, a federation of British North American colonies seemed very appealing, since the new federation would assume its own defence spending. The British government made its position known in December 1864 and brought pressure to bear on the governors posted in Halifax, N.S., Fredericton, N.B., Charlottetown, P.E.I., and St. John's, Newfoundland. Colonial authorities eventually replaced a recalcitrant governor in Nova Scotia, threatened two others in Newfoundland and P.E.I., and sparked a coup d'état in New Brunswick. The strategy was partially successful.

Four Provinces Sign On

In 1865, provincial representatives gathered at the Parliament of United Canada to review the constitutional resolutions. Speaking on February 7, 1865, George-Étienne Cartier declared his belief that the various national groups would preserve their respective identities under Confederation:

In our own Federation we should have Catholic and Protestant, English, French, Irish and Scotch, and each by his efforts and his success would increase the prosperity and glory of the new Confederacy [...]. It was a benefit rather than otherwise that we had a diversity of races. [...]

When the vote was held, the project won massive approval among delegates from Canada West, the colony most in favour of Confederation; Canada East approved by a bare two-vote majority (due to strong divisions among Francophones), thanks to the appeal of getting a new provincial government; but strong resistance remained in the Maritimes. Despite pressure from the British government, only New Brunswick and Nova Scotia voted for Confederation.

All of these negotiations were held without consulting the populations concerned, even though the new federal framework would affect them for centuries to come. Nova Scotia reformers led by Joseph Howe (1804–1873) reproached the "federalists" for not having received a mandate from the population to negotiate a deal. John A. Macdonald wrote most of the new constitution himself. As he confided to Justice Gowan of Barrie, "All that is good or bad in the Constitution is of me." Macdonald took his inspiration from both the British model (constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary regime) and the American model (a federation with a central government that shares jurisdictions with regional governments).

Finally, on May 8, 1867, the British Parliament passed the British North America Act (which was officially renamed the Constitution Act, 1867). The new constitution received Queen Victoria's royal assent on March 29, 1867, and was proclaimed at noon on July 1 of the same year. Confederation, therefore, came into effect on July 1 under the official name of the Dominion of Canada. The inhabitants of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were very disappointed and objected strongly, but had no legal grounds for action. Macdonald and his Conservatives emerged victorious from the first federal election and went on to form Canada's first government and dominate the federal scene for the next three decades.

Francophones saw the use of French decline throughout the British North American colonies, except in the "province of Quebec" (1763), which became Lower Canada in 1791 and Canada East in 1840, before becoming the province of Quebec once again in 1867. Let's start with the Atlantic Provinces (the Maritimes).

The Maritimes

In the Maritimes, the deportation of the Acadians in 1755 stripped the region of the vast majority of its French speakers. Technically speaking, the deportation was an effective way to weaken or eliminate a language, though many Acadians later returned to the region. Overall, the data available on the Acadian population covers the period from 1800 to 1870. During this time, the francophone population grew from 8,408 in 1803 to 87,000 in 1870 (according to the 1871 federal survey). The population hit 45,000 in New Brunswick, nearly 33,000 in Nova Scotia, and under 9,000 in Prince Edward Island.

Once Acadia was ceded to Great Britain in 1713, restrictive laws were passed against Acadians (and Catholics) that hindered Francophones’ development, first because they were Catholic, and second because they spoke French. Throughout the 19th century, the Acadian community had no official status and had to adapt to British rule. In the three colonies with French-speaking populations (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), Acadians experienced ongoing religious, linguistic, educational, and political segregation. It was only starting in 1830 that certain laws began to be lifted. Today, such discriminatory measures would spur countless legal challenges, but in the past authorities paid these issues little heed.

For example, in Nova Scotia a 1758 law forbade any Catholic from owning land. Catholics had to wait until 1783 before the restriction was lifted, as the law affected the English-speaking Irish as well. Catholics—namely Acadians and Irish—were subject to heavy fines if they opened a school, a measure that lasted until 1786. They only won the right to vote in Nova Scotia in 1789 and the right to sit in the legislative assembly in 1830. Simon d'Entremont was the first Acadian to be elected to a legislative assembly, that of Nova Scotia, where he immediately sided with the Reformers.

Nova Scotia's colonial authorities denied Acadians the right to equal education. A 1786 law prohibited any Catholic from teaching Anglican children under 14. Acadians had to wait until 1826 for annual funding for their schools. An 1841 Nova Scotia law made English the language of instruction for all schools in the colony, but the teaching of French, Scottish, Irish, and German was tolerated. The existence of these schools was precarious, as they were often supported by parental donations. Each parish was free to choose the headmaster and his or her salary.

In New Brunswick, 1846 marked the election of the first francophone, Armand Landry. Generally, Acadians had very little say in the political process, mainly because they did not have easy access to government services. The fact that they were Catholic certainly did not help. Prior to 1850, Acadian schools were virtually non-existent, as the first school laws were closely tied to the Anglican religion. The first law of its type in New Brunswick dates back to 1802. It provided for the construction of Anglican schools. A network of schools known as Grammar Schools was organized starting in 1816, but they were reserved for children of landowners, which excluded Acadians. School conflicts sprung up until francophone religious orders decided to get involved in running schools. At that point, future teachers were trained only in English.

In Prince Edward Island, Acadians won the right to open their first school in 1815, in Rustico. The few Acadian schools operated without government assistance up until 1825. The rare schools that did exist were seen as inferior, as students were taught only in French.

Throughout the Maritimes, logging and fishing companies were owned by English or English-Norman (Jersey and Guernsey) businessmen. English was the language of business (Robin, Fruing, and Lebouthiller), but Acadian workers spoke French to each other.

Quality of French in Canada

The differences between the French spoken in France and that spoken in Canada deepened in the 19th century, especially in the cities. However, these differences, which often went unnoticed in the countryside, caused no real worry. Canadian peasants (called "habitants") thought they spoke "French from France," but Francophones in the cities began to have doubts.

Though "habitants," workers, and lumberjacks were unilingual, the francophone elite, which was in contact with the British, saw that English was omnipresent and eroding the French language in politics, the economy, industry, and more. Generally, rural residents in Quebec or Acadia—with the exception of Anglophone enclaves (Ottawa Valley, Eastern Townships, Gaspé)—seemed better protected linguistically. However, as capitalism made headway in the countryside, English followed. For example, the railroad, post office, and telegraph helped introduce manufactured products and their English instructions.

After the union of Canada West and Canada East in 1840, the language of politics was generally English. Though it was on more or less equal footing to English in the United Canada parliament in Kingston, in reality French was seriously threatened. Laws were written in English, then translated into French. French-speaking members could not understand English-speaking members, and vice versa. In Canada east (which was still called Lower Canada), English remained the only language used in administration, business, the economy, trade, and industry. The industrialization of the country led to the arrival of English-speaking bosses and managers, which increased knowledge of English terms. Anglophone businessmen and Anglo-Scottish immigrants mainly dominated the new economy. In the early 19th century, the working language of bosses was English but, as the accounts of numerous visitors attest, including France's Alexis de Tocqueville (1831 voyage), English was also the language of signs in all cities in French Canada. Below is an account from November 18, 1848, in Le Fantasque, a satirical Quebec City newspaper that targeted political leaders and landed Editor Napoléon Aubin in prison during the 1837–1838 Rebellion:

A resident of Great Britain arriving in our city would not believe that two-thirds of the population are French Canadian. With each step he takes, he sees the front of boutiques and stores with signs bearing the words Dry Goods Store, Groceries Store, Merchant Taylor, Watch and Clock Maker, Boot and Shoe Maker, Wholesale and Retail, etc.

In cities, English had started to invade economic and social life. In 1841, the publication of Manuel des difficultés les plus communes de la langue française by Thomas Maguire (who was American) marked the start of linguistic purism, especially with regard to anglicisms. The author attracted a following throughout French Canada, and several similar works were published in the years to follow. Various past accounts revealed the influence of English on French on the one hand, and the preponderance of English in business on the other.

To foreign visitors in the second half of the 19^th century who imagined they heard the contemporaries of Montcalm (who lived 100 years earlier) speaking, this simply meant that, in the words of Lord Durham, Canada's Francophones had remained "an old and backwards society in a new and progressive world.":

French Canadians have stayed an old and backwards society in a new and progressive world. Overall, they have remained French, yet in no way resemble the French in France. They resemble the French of the Ancien Régime.

In 1864, French deputy Ernest Dubergier de Hauranne spent some time in Lower Canada, noting: "Nearly all aristocratic families in Quebec have forged ties with the English and more often speak the official language than their native tongue. Government is full of them."

The proliferation of businesses owned by Anglophones or Francophones imitating them put an English face on cities. In addition, the colony's economic growth brought British products into all homes, resulting in the adoption of British customs. Anglophilia was slowly winning over Canadians, as it had conquered the Acadians.

Isolated in their world of agriculture, peasants continued to speak their French, without being too affected by the English that was gaining ground in Lower Canada's cities. However, the renewal of ties with France alerted French Canadian intellectuals to the fact that "habitant" French was unlike that used in France. It had become an increasingly different and archaic French. Théodore Pavie (1850), a French visitor to Lower Canada, wrote of the language of Canadian peasants:

They speak an old, inelegant French; their thick pronunciation devoid of stresses closely resembles that of the Lower Normans. In speaking with them one quickly sees that were separated from us before the time when everyone in France took an interest in literature and debate.

In fact, what the biased Théodore Pavie had noted was that Canadian French had changed little since the Conquest. This observation is echoed in the accounts of several French travellers throughout the 19^th century. Two accounts deserve a closer look. First is that of J. F. M. Arnault Dudevant (1862):

The Canadian spirit has stayed French. But one is struck by the form of the language, which seems outdated by some hundred years. This is in no way disagreeable, for though peasants have the accent of our provinces, city dwellers speak somewhat in the manner of our 18th century writers, and this made such an impression on me from the first day that, by closing my eyes, I imagined I had been whisked into the past and was hearing the contemporaries of the Marquis de Montcalm speaking.

The second comes from another Frenchman, Henri de Lamothe (Cinq mois chez les Français d'Amérique: Voyage au Canada et à la Rivière-Rouge du Nord, 1875): "One hundred years of isolation from the mother country has crystallized Canadian French as it were, enabling it to faithfully retain expressions in use in the first half of the 18th century." In actual fact, it was impossible that the French spoken in Canada had not evolved, but these accounts clearly reveal that Canadian French had become archaic in relation to that of France.

Up to that point, French had played a relatively positive role in the French Canadian collective identity. However, in the decades to follow, it started to be seen as something negative. This marked the first signs of the poor self-image French Canadians would later develop.

The English spoken in Canada also differed from that spoken in Great Britain. However, the English used by British visitors to Canada (e.g., administrators and military personnel) differed from that used by the peasant and working classes. The English of "true" Britons who only lived in the colonies to further their careers was identical in every way to that used in London. Strongly nationalistic, these Anglophones were generally learned (except low-ranking soldiers), and their English was a sign of prestige for other citizens. This "English from England" remained in Canada up to the 20^th century.

The English spoken by peasants, workers, and fishermen was much different, divided between two main regions: the Maritimes and Upper Canada/Canada West (Ontario).

The Maritimes

There were few Loyalists in the Maritimes and virtually all came from New England. The English spoken in the region was more similar to that of southeast England than that spoken by Loyalists elsewhere in Canada. The most distinctive contribution came from Gaelic languages such as Scottish and Irish, which gave "Atlantic English" a special character. The English of the colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island picked up Scottish and, to a lesser degree, Irish words and expressions. This explains some of the fishing terms used in the region (e.g., fiddler: small salmon, flake: fish drying platform) and other words (e.g., lolly: ice cream). There were also unique pronunciations—today no longer used—for certain words that were quite different from Standard English (London English).

As for Newfoundland English, it had become much different by the 19th century and seemed very archaic as compared to other forms of English. The English spoken on the island was the product of 300 years of isolation and had become quite regionalized, the result of Irish on the one hand and Southeast English on the other, which had already broken from London English. Newfoundland English was unique in its grammar, pronunciation, and archaic vocabulary. In this sense, it was similar to the French of rural Quebec and Acadia (Atlantic Provinces), which spoke an archaic language, too.

Canada West (Ontario)

Working class English in Canada West (which would soon become Ontario) was that of the American Loyalists. It resembled American English from the Northeast U.S. The differences between American English and Canada West English were no doubt subtle, but they represented a fairly unique British-American linguistic hybrid. The numerous immigrants that settled in this region of Canada learned this form of English, which then spread west.

In short, the French and English spoken in Canada's rural regions in the 19^th century was linguistically different from that spoken in Great Britain and France, with archaic elements in the East (Quebec and the Maritimes) and standard forms used by the educated only. The most distinctive forms were found in rural Quebec, Acadia, and Newfoundland.