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TheGreat Coalition was agrand coalition of political parties that brought an end topolitical deadlock in theProvince of Canada. It existed from May 1864 untilConfederation in 1867.[1]
Four different ministries had failed in the previous six years, when the eight-month-oldLiberal government ofJohn Sandfield Macdonald andAntoine-Aime Dorion (the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Ministry) resigned in March 1864, becoming the fifth cabinet to collapse. Governor-General theViscount Monck sought out several widely respected leaders to attempt to form the next government, includingAlexander Campbell of Kingston andAdam Johnston Fergusson Blair of Guelph. Each of the men approached refused, citing the extreme difficulty of the task. Finally,Parti bleu stalwartÉtienne-Paschal Taché andLiberal-Conservative leaderJohn A. Macdonald agreed to take on the task, in that same month of March 1864. A new government was sworn in; it fell after less than three months, in May 1864, to become the sixth government to fall in six years.
It had become clear to most political leaders that continued governance of Canada East and Canada West under theAct of Union 1840 was no longer tenable.[2] To reform the political system, however, a coalition was formed between the Liberals underGeorge Brown, the Parti bleu underGeorge-Étienne Cartier, and the Liberal-Conservatives under John A. Macdonald. The formation of thiscoalition took place between June 14 and 30 and was officially completed on June 22,[3] under George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald.
The formation of the Great Coalition did not go smoothly. George Brown demanded a ministry of twelve members that included four Liberals out of six members from Canada West (as Liberals commanded an overwhelming majority of political support in Ontario), and two from Canada East (as they received a significant minority of support in Quebec). Also, Brown himself did not want to serve in the ministry, hoping instead to arrange for his allies to serve in his stead. In the end, he was convinced to accept only three spots on the Canada West side of the ministry, and to accept one of those spot himself, as it was agreed the Great Coalition would only work if George Brown was a member.[4]
In the end, the Great Coalition was really only a modified version of the Taché-Macdonald Ministry of March-May 1864, with two moderate Reformers (Isaac Buchanan of Hamilton andMichael Hamilton Foley of Waterloo) and one Conservative (John Simpson of Niagara) replaced by three robust Liberals, two of whom (Oliver Mowat andWilliam Mcdougall) having sat in the most recent Liberal ministry, that of Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion (the third Liberal being the reluctant George Brown). The Canada East side of the ministry was unchanged.[5]
The Great Coalition was created to eradicate the political deadlock between Canada West and Canada East. The government at that time was unable to pass any legislation because of the need for adouble majority. For a bill to pass in theLegislative Assembly, it had to be approved by a Majority of both the Canada East and Canada West sections of the assembly. As the French speakers and the English speakers seldom agreed, this caused political deadlock. The Great Coalition was intended to resolve the deadlock with a long-term solution for some of these problems, and to unify Canada.
The Great Coalition arranged three conferences that preceded Confederation. The first was theCharlottetown Conference, which was convened to negotiateMaritime Union. However, the politicians began to discuss the possibility of a larger union that would include all ofBritish North America. This continued at theQuebec Conference where they further discussed the union of British North America and defined the details of the government's shape. They also settled on the division of provincial and federal responsibilities. TheLondon Conference revised theQuebec Resolutions
(Blue = Conservative; Pink = Liberal)
| Canada West | Canada East | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General West DEPUTY PREMIER | John A. Macdonald (Kingston) | ||||
| Attorney General East | George-Étienne Cartier (Montreal East) | ||||
| President of Executive Council | George Brown (Oxford South) | ||||
| Finance | Alexander Galt (Sherbrooke) | ||||
| Postmaster General | Oliver Mowat (Ontario South) | ||||
| Receiver-General PREMIER | Étienne-Paschal Taché (Legislative Council) | ||||
| Provincial Secretary | William McDougall (Ontario North) | ||||
| Commissioner of Public Works | Jean-Charles Chapais (Kamouraska) | ||||
| Commissioner of Crown Lands | Alexander Campbell (Legislative Council) | ||||
| Agriculture (and Immigration) | Thomas D'Arcy McGee (Montreal West) | ||||
| Solicitor General West | James Cockburn (Northumberland West) | ||||
| Solicitor General East | Hector-Louis Langevin (Dorchester) | ||||
There were several changes in the membership of the Great Coalition over its three years of existence:
All fifteen members of the Great Coalition are remembered asFathers of Confederation. With the exception of Étienne-Paschal Taché, who died in 1865, all members of the Great Coalition went on to play prominent roles in the early years of Confederation. Nine members went on to join the1st Canadian Ministry, sworn in just before Confederation in 1867. James Cockburn became the firstSpeaker of the House of Commons (1867-1874). Oliver Mowat pursued provincial politics, becoming the thirdPremier of Ontario (1872-1896), and later was elder statesman in the Ministry ofSir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1897). Narcisse-Fortunat Belleau became the firstLieutenant Governor of Quebec (1867-1873).