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Why Is The Upper Canada's Constitution Revolutionary

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Starting with the Constitution Act of 1791, Canada was divided into two parts: Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Upper Canada was where the wealthy British, known as the Family Compact, resided. Lower Canada was where the less wealthy French resided. Although Lower Canada had its own branch of government, known as the Legislative Assembly, it had tremendously limited power. After many Canadians voiced their anger towards this circumstance, the Constitution of 1867 was created (Billingsley, 2013). The constitution combined Lower Canada and Upper Canada, and it gave the people much more rights, although it did not actually make Canada an independent country. Canada’s road to independence was, to a large extent, evolutionary and not revolutionary because it was unoriginal and because it took much too long of a time for its changes to be considered revolutionary. …show more content…

Initially, Canadians were upset because they were being taxed without any sort of representation since the Legislative Assembly had very limited power. However, in 1775 (History.com, 2018), the United States began a war with England because they were upset about taxation without representation as well. Clearly, Canadians were not fighting for an original cause. In addition, Canadians desired a government that gave more power to the Legislative Assembly. The American Revolution already fought so that they could have a government that listened to the people, so Canada’s desires were not original either. Nothing about Canada’s independence movement dramatically altered the world. Canada’s independence movement certainly benefited Canadians, which made it evolutionary, but it simply did not have enough of an impact on the rest of the world for it to be considered

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