Canadian Party

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The Canadian Party was a political grouping founded by John Christian Schultz in 1869 in the Red River Colony , the center of which Fort Garry is now Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba .

It was not a political party in the strict sense of the word, but rather an association of ultra-Protestant settlers who were advancing from the east into the areas of the Hudson's Bay Company bought by Canada in 1869 .

The primary goal of the Canadian Party was the annexation of the Red River Colony by the Canadian government and its settlement by Anglophone Protestants from Ontario , which resulted in the expulsion of the Cree , Assiniboine , Métis and Scottish settlers already living there . To this end, Schultz and his colleagues carried out extensive land speculation in the area around Fort Garry, which aroused great suspicion, especially among the Métis under Louis Riel, who were mainly based there .

history

Many Canadian Party members were involved in skirmishes with Riel's Provisional Government of Manitoba during the Red River Rebellion from 1869 to 1870 . Schultz fled to Ontario in early 1870, where, with the help of supporters of the Canada First movement, he used the execution of Thomas Scott by the Provisional Government to turn the Protestant majority of the local population against Riel.

Following the passage of the Manitoba Act in May 1870, the Canadian government "pacified" the Red River Colony by sending militias under Colonel Garnet Joseph Wolseley , driving the Provisional Government into exile and leaving the Métis without its leadership. The Canadian Party was not included in the government of the new Manitoba Province, however, because the Canadian government under John A. Macdonald relied on a conciliatory policy towards local ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, and the first installed Governor Adams, George Archibald , did not take any of Schultz's comrades-in-arms in his government.

In the first election to Manitoba's parliament in December 1870, the Canadian Party was the only opposition to the provincial government, winning only five seats. Schultz himself lost in the constituencies of Winnipeg and St. John. After the election, the Canadian Party remained as a loose interest group of violent, extremist Protestants, prompting Governor Archibald to warn Prime Minister Macdonald about their attempts to evict the Métis. In fact, attacks by the Canadian Party and the remaining militias on the Métis were also a reason for their retreat to the west, but the main reason may have been the extermination of the buffalo in the area, which were essential for the Métis' livelihood. But the Canadian Party also disbanded in the following years and some of its members later ran for Conservatives or Liberals.

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