The spirit of Canadian unity is in the air as the 2010 Winter Olympics come down the home stretch, and nowhere is it more evident than in the apparent closeness and acceptance of French-Canadian athletes, including skier Alexandre Bilodeau, who won the nation’s first gold medal on home soil, and figure skater Joannie Rochette, who captivated the world with her brave performance Tuesday night just two days after her mother’s sudden death.
But much of Canada’s union is credited to a couple of politicians from the mid 1800s: Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin.
This week’s Heritage Minute whisks us back to 1841, when LaFontaine preached a message of non-violence even when his French-Canadians supporters were blocked from the voting polls and deterred from casting their ballots for him in his run for political office. He lost the election, but his message endured.
Robert Baldwin would later convince LaFontaine to take public office in Toronto, planting the seed for French-British cooperation that carries on to this day — despite some hiccups along the way.
“Canada’s existence owes much to the partnership of two moderate reformers: Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin,” Historica Dominion writes. “By the end of the 1840s, Baldwin and LaFontaine had succeeded in convincing the British government that legislative power should rest in the hands of the elected assembly of the colony. Moreover, their historical compromise showed that French and English Canadians could work together to solve their political problems.”
This week’s Heritage Minute covers quite a bit of ground, starting with the 1841 election in which LaFontaine kept his supporters from responding to violence with more violence, and ending with a historic union between LaFontaine and Baldwin that many believe set the unified nation on its course for the future.
Heritage Minutes are 60-second short films that are shown in between some TV shows in Canada — and they’re amazing. We’re planning to bring you a “Heritage Minute” every Thursday on COTW.
Enjoy.
