George-Etienne Cartier

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George-Etienne Cartier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier , KCMG , PC (born September 6, 1814 in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu , Lower Canada ( Québec ), † May 20, 1873 in London , Great Britain ) was a Canadian Francophone politician . From 1857 to 1862 he was Prime Minister of the Province of Canada . Cartier promoted the construction of railways and, as one of the fathers of the Confederation, was one of the pioneers of the Canadian state founded in 1867. His main merit is the integration of the French-speaking province of Québec into the predominantly English-speaking Canada. He was Canada's first defense minister from 1867 until his death.

biography

Early years

Cartier came from a wealthy family of grain traders . The English form of his first name is due to the fact that he was named in honor of the British King George III. George was called. He received his education at the Collège de Montréal , a Catholic boarding school. At that time, there were no law faculties, so that future lawyers could acquire their knowledge as employees of an established lawyer after passing the entrance examination. Cartier received approval in 1835. He was involved in the Patriotes movement , which called for liberal and democratic reforms in Lower Canada . In 1834 he was one of the founding members of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal , which is committed to the preservation of French-Canadian culture to this day; In 1854/55 he was its president.

Inspired by the reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau , Cartier joined the paramilitary organization Société des Fils de la Liberté . He participated in the Battle of Saint-Denis during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837 , in which the British troops were repulsed. Shortly afterwards he had to flee into exile in Vermont to avoid arrest. Due to a general amnesty, Cartier was able to return to Montreal in 1839 and resume his practice as a lawyer. He became politically active and led the election campaigns of Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine .

Political career in the province of Canada

In 1848 Cartier won a by-election and entered the Canadian parliament . He mainly dealt with the expansion of the railway network and presided over the railway commission. In 1852 he introduced a bill that led to the creation of the Grand Trunk Railway . In January 1855, Cartier was appointed to the government, where he took over the post of provincial secretary for Lower Canada. From May 1856 he served as Attorney General .

After the resignation of Étienne-Paschal Taché , Cartier was elected the new Co-Prime Minister on November 26, 1857, together with John Macdonald, who was responsible for Upper Canada . He held this office until May 24, 1862. During this time he continued to work as Attorney General. A government crisis broke out in August 1858 when Parliament refused to support Queen Victoria's decision to make Ottawa the new permanent capital and overthrew the Macdonald Cartier government, which had recommended it, with a vote of no confidence. However, the new government lasted only four days, after which Cartier and Macdonald resumed government responsibility.

Cartier saw the amalgamation of the British colonies to form a common state as the best way to implement political reforms. He also wanted to push back US expansionism, as he feared a marginalization of French-Canadian culture. In 1858 in London, for example, he presented a corresponding proposal to the British government, which was initially ignored. He played a leading role in the reform of the legal system, which ended the era of the semi-feudal rulership system in Lower Canada and led to the adoption of the civil code in the later province of Québec .

In February 1864, as leader of the opposition in Parliament, Cartier gave a 13-hour speech in which he severely criticized the entire policy of the government. John Sandfield Macdonald and Antoine-Aimé Dorion then resigned as co-prime ministers. He refused to be appointed by the Governor General as the new head of government, but took a seat in the government as Attorney General. Together with John Macdonald and George Brown , Cartier led the grand coalition that worked towards the unification of the British colonies. He took part in the conferences in Charlottetown , Québec and London , at which his ideas for a federal state were approved.

Defense Minister

After the Canadian Confederation was established on July 1, 1867, Cartier was a member of Macdonald's first federal government and was appointed Minister of Militia and Defense. Double mandates at federal and provincial level were still allowed at that time and he was elected to both the lower house and the parliament of the province of Québec. Cartier's importance went beyond that of a simple minister. As Prime Minister Macdonald's right-hand man, he was primarily responsible for negotiating with the United Kingdom and the Hudson's Bay Company for the Canadian state to purchase Rupert's Land and Northwest Territories . He also took part in the negotiations that led to the accession of the provinces of Manitoba and British Columbia . In 1872 he introduced the bill to create the Canadian Pacific Railway .

Cartier Monument in Montreal

In the general election in 1872 , Cartier lost his mandate to Louis-Amable Jetté . Since the election took place on different dates, he decided to run in the province of Manitoba in the Provencher constituency. The other two candidates, including Louis Riel , the leader of the Red River Rebellion , withdrew. Cartier was then elected by acclamation without ever having visited the constituency. Above all, his promise to stand up for Riel's amnesty may have contributed to this.

In April 1873, it was revealed that the federal government had accepted bribes in exchange for the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway to a consortium led by Hugh Allan . Cartier himself had also received a large sum of money, but he did not live to see the effects of the Pacific scandal . He had already traveled to London six months earlier to have a severe kidney disease treated. He died there on May 20, 1873 at the age of 58. The body was transferred to Canada and buried in Montreal in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery.

The Highway 401 , the main highway of the country, named Macdonald-Cartier Freeway . The Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport and the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau are also named after these two Canadian founding fathers . Many streets and schools as well as a subway station in the city of Laval bear the name Cartier . In Montreal, the George Etienne Cartier Monument and the George Etienne Cartier House commemorate him.

literature

  • Alastair Sweeny: George-Étienne Cartier: A Biography . McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 1976, ISBN 0-7710-8363-7 .
  • Jean Charest , Antoine Dionne-Charest: Sir George-Étienne Cartier, un des pères de la Confédération, in Bâtisseurs d'Amérique. Des Canadiens français qui ont faite de l'histoire. La Presse, Montréal 2016; engl. Edition: Legacy. How french Canadians shaped North America. Ed. André Pratte, Jonathan Kay. McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2016, ISBN 0-7710-7239-2 ; again TB 2019, pp. 84-103 (slightly abbreviated: English, Maclean's , June 27, 2017)

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Cartier, George-Etienne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu , Lower Canada
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1873
Place of death London , UK