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The Queen’s representative in Canada: the Governor General

Detail from a painted portrait of a man in a black coat with gold buttons, wearing a white cravat and a badge on his chest. He has brown hair and trimmed sideburns. He stands slightly in profile, one hand resting on the wooden armrest of an armchair.

Cornelius Krieghoff, after Alvah Brandish, “Charles Theophilus Metcalfe” (detail), 1847, Musée du Château Ramezay, 1998.1865.

Following the union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada in the wake of the 1837–1838 rebellions, the Constitution of the Province of Canada provided that the Governor General would form Parliament together with the Legislative Council (the equivalent of the Senate) and the Legislative Assembly. As head of state, he received his commission and instructions directly from London.

Canada was a constitutional monarchy, but in 1848, the principle of responsible government was slow to be recognized.

Between the Act of Union in 1840 and the burning of the Parliament in Montréal in 1849, five governors succeeded one another. Here are portraits of two of them—names that left their mark on history.

Sir Charles Metcalfe

Painted portrait of a man in a black coat with gold buttons, wearing a white cravat and a badge on his chest. He has brown hair and trimmed sideburns. He stands in slight profile, one hand resting on the wooden armrest of an armchair.

Cornelius Krieghoff, after Alvah Brandish, “Charles Theophilus Metcalfe”, 1847, Musée du Château Ramezay, 1998.1865.

Charles Theophilus Metcalfe was 58 when he arrived in Canada as Governor General in 1843. The British Tory government ordered him to oppose any form of “responsible government.” The result was a direct confrontation with Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, who led the Reform government.

In November 1844, Metcalfe opened the first parliamentary session in Montréal. His entire term was shaped by his determination to preserve the Crown’s prerogatives and the governor’s control over the colonial administration.

Stricken with cancer, he returned to Great Britain, where he died in 1846.

Metcalfe Street was named in his honour in downtown Montréal, not far from Union Avenue and Peel Street (Robert Peel was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1841 to 1846).

Lord Elgin

Painted portrait of a man in formal attire, wearing a blue sash and a badge. He stands before a backdrop featuring architectural elements and a landscape, partly concealed by a red curtain.

Théophile Hamel, “James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine”, 1854, Musée du Château Ramezay, 1998.598.

James Bruce, Earl of Elgin, arrived in Montréal in January 1847. Unlike Metcalfe, and although he was a Tory, Elgin supported the principle of responsible government championed by Canadian reformers.

In 1848, he asked Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine to form the first truly responsible government. But the passage of the Act to compensate victims of the Lower Canada Rebellions sparked fierce protests among the Tories: on April 25, 1849, demonstrators set fire to Montréal’s Parliament.

After this tragedy, Parliament was moved, alternating between Toronto and Québec City. Elgin remained Governor General until he left Canada in 1854.