Upper Canadian

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada (French: Province du Haut-Canada) was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 1791 to 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario and, until 1797, the Upper Peninsula of what is now part of the U.S. state of Michigan. Its name reflected its position closer to the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River than Lower Canada was, the same relationship between Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.

Upper Canada included all of modern-day southern Ontario and all those areas of northern Ontario in the 'pays d'en haut' which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior. It did not include any lands within the watershed of Hudson Bay.

It passed from French control into British control with the Treaty of Paris (1763). It was incorporated into the Province of Quebec by the Quebec Act of 1774. Upper Canada became a political entity on 26 December 1791 with the Parliament of Great Britain's passage of the Constitutional Act of 1791. The Act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. The division was effected so that Loyalist American settlers and British immigrants in Upper Canada could have English laws and institutions, and the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain French civil law and the Catholic religion.

The colony was administered by a lieutenant-governor, legislative council, and legislative assembly. The first lieutenant-governor was John Graves Simcoe. On February 1, 1796 the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to York (now Toronto), which was judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans.


Additional districts were created from the existing districts as the population grew until 1849, when local government mainly based on counties came into effect. At that time, there were 20 districts; legislation to create a new Kent District never completed. Up until 1841, the district officials were appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor, although usually with local input. A Court of Quarter Sessions was held four times a year in each district to oversee the administration of the district and deal with legal cases.

War of 1812 (1812–1815)


Detroit was captured by the British on August 6, 1812. The Michigan Territory was held under British control until it was abandoned in 1813.

Major battles (or attacks) fought on territory in Upper Canada included;

Many other battles were fought in American territory bordering Upper Canada, including the Northwest Territory (most in modern day Michigan), upstate New York and naval battles in the Great Lakes.

The Treaty of Ghent (ratified in 1815) ended the war and restored the status quo ante bellum between the combatants.

Dissidents and 1837 Rebellion

After 1800 there emerged a dissident faction that questioned the direction and handling of the colony by the Tories, including both colonial and imperial officials. The leaders were Robert Thorpe, Joseph Willcocks, Robert Gourlay, and especially, William Lyon Mackenzie. They challenged the establishment about taxes, land policy, the privileges of the Anglican Church and the Family Compact, appropriations, and freedom of the press. They claimed that all citizens and not just the enfranchised were entitled to a voice, but they did not form a political party; there were no parties. In 1831 the Tories expelled MacKenzie from the Assembly, and the conflict escalated. Their brief armed rebellion in 1837 failed. Officials blamed American influence, "In this country unfortunately the settlement of American citizens has been too much permitted and encouraged, and thus in the bosom of this community there exists a treacherous foe... in many parts of the Province the teachers are Americans.... These men are utterly ignorant of everything English and could not if they tried instruct their pupils in any of the duties which the connection of the Province with England casts upon them." [Rea] The oligarchic Family Compact was defended by Tories who explained, "The Radicals, Revolutionists or Destructives was composed of all the American settlers and speculators in land, some of the more simple and ignorant of the older class of farmers, and the rabble of adventurers who poured in every year from the United States or from Britain, to evade the laws of their respective countries." [Rea] Lord Durham's support for "responsible government" undercut the Tories and gradually led the public to reject what it viewed as poor administration, unfair land and education policies, and inadequate attention to urgent transportation needs. Finally there emerged responsible government under Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine by the late 1840s.

Land settlement

Land had been settled since the French regime, notably along the Detroit River and the Saint Lawrence River. However, impetus to land settlement came with the influx of Loyalist refugees and military personnel in 1784 after the American Revolution. As a result, prior to the creation of Upper Canada in 1791 as a separate colony, much land had been ceded by the First Nations to the Crown in accordance with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This land was surveyed by the government of the Province of Quebec, particularly in eastern Ontario along the Saint Lawrence River, as the Western Townships, while the Eastern Townships were in Lower Canada.

Rudimentary municipal administration began with the creation of districts, notably Western (including present day Brantford), Eastern, Gore (including present day Hamilton) and Home (including present day Toronto).

The Act Against Slavery passed in Upper Canada on July 9, 1793.

Organized settlement tracts were laid out with portions set aside for the clergy reserves, one exception was the Talbot Settlement on the north shore of Lake Erie which was set up in 1804.

These land tracts expanded in reach well beyond the St. Lawrence-Lake Ontario-Lake Erie shores after the war of 1812. In 1828, Britain appointed Upper Canada's first Chief Agent of Emigration, A.C. Buchanan. His title reflected the centrality of Britain's perspective on migration in the colonies at the time, especially since most new arrivals in Upper Canada were from the United Kingdom.

British regiment soldiers who were veterans of the war were offered free land, some remained despite the harsh winters. Unlike the period prior to the war, immigration was now directed at Europe and more specifically to the United Kingdom and Ireland, not from the US, which was the largest source of immigration before the war. Very cheap or even free land was offered with advertisements to entice immigrants to settle there, even those in financially meager circumstances. Passage could be obtained across the Atlantic on returning empty lumber ships for little fare. During the early 1830s, the population increased more than 10% of its total each year. In the 1820s many German speaking Mennonite immigrants came to the Grand River region of Upper Canada from Pennsylvania, they were joined as well by many German speaking Amish immigrants. This region was sometimes called "Little Pennsylvania", however this term is no longer used today. Many of their descendants continue to speak a form of German called Pennsylvania German.

It is estimated that thousands of escaped slaves entered Upper Canada from the United States, using the Underground Railroad.

Upper Canada ceased to be a political entity with the Act of Union (1840), when, by an act of the British Parliament, it was merged with Lower Canada to form the United Province of Canada. This was principally in response to the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions of 1837 and 1837-38, respectively. At Confederation in 1867, the Province of Canada was re-divided along the former boundary as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

The name 'Upper Canada' lives on in a few historical forms, most notably the Law Society of Upper Canada, Upper Canada Lumber, Upper Canada College, Upper Canada Mall (in Newmarket, Ontario), and the Upper Canada Brewing Company. When the capital was first moved to Toronto from Newark (present-day Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1796, the Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada were located at the corner of Parliament and Front Streets, in buildings that were burned by United States forces in the War of 1812, rebuilt, then burned again by accident. The site was eventually abandoned for another, to the west. In 2001, some remnants of the original Parliament building were found. Today, there is an ongoing fight by preservationists and historians who propose the government develop and interpret the historic site. Currently the government leases most of the site.


Population of Upper Canada, 1806–1840
Year Census estimate
1806 70,718
1811 76,000
1814 95,000
1824 150,066
1825 157,923
1826 166,379
1827 177,174
1828 186,488
1829 197,815
1830 213,156
1831 236,702
1832 263,554
1833 295,863
1834 321,145
1835 347,359
1836 374,099
1837 397,489
1838 399,422
1839 409,048
1840 432,159
(see United Province of Canada for population after 1840)
Source: Statistics Canada website Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871.

Numismatic history

See Coins of Upper Canada.

Canada West

Canada West was the western portion of the United Province of Canada from February 10, 1841 to July 1, 1867. Its boundaries were identical to those of the former Province of Upper Canada.

The area of Canada West covered all of modern-day Southern Ontario and all those areas of Northern Ontario in the pays d'en haut which had formed part of New France, essentially the watersheds of the Ottawa River, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior.

Canada West was a political entity and a geographic way of referring to the former Province of Upper Canada, following its merger into the United Province of Canada. Canada West was given 42 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Canada, exactly the same number as Canada East.


The population of Canada West had grown substantially during the period it existed, mostly due to unprecedented immigration and a high birth rate. In 1841 it was 455,000 but grew to approximately 1,500,000 people or more than 300% at the time of Confederation in 1867.

Censuses were conducted in 1851 and 1861 and the population in those years was 952,004 and 1,396,091 respectively.

See also



  • Armstrong, Frederick H Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology Dundurn Press, 1985. ISBN 0-919670-92-X
  • Craig, Gerald M Upper Canada: the formative years 1784-1841 McClelland and Stewart, 1963, the standard history online edition
  • Dieterman, Frank Government on fire: the history and archaeology of Upper Canada's first Parliament Buildings Eastendbooks, 2001.
  • Dunham, Eileen Political unrest in Upper Canada 1815-1836 McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
  • Errington, Jane The lion, the eagle, and Upper Canada: a developing colonial ideology McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987.
  • Edward Grabb, Jeff Duncan, Douglas Baer; "Defining Moments and Recurring Myths: Comparing Canadians and Americans after the American Revolution" The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 37, 2000
  • Lewis, Frank and Urquhart, M.C. Growth and standard of living in a pioneer economy: Upper Canada 1826-1851 Kingston, Ont. : Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University, 1997.
  • McCalla, Douglas Planting the province: the economic history of Upper Canada 1784-1870 University of Toronto Press, 1993.
  • McNairn, Jeffrey L The capacity to judge: public opinion and deliberative democracy in Upper Canada 1791-1854 University of Toronto Press, 2000.
  • J. Edgar Rea. "Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837" Manitoba Historical Society Transactions Series 3, Number 22, 1965-66 online, historiography
  • Wilton, Carol. Popular Politics and Political Culture in Upper Canada, 1800-1850. McGill-Queen's University Press, (2000). 311pp
  • Winearls, Joan Mapping Upper Canada 1780-1867: an annotated bibliography of manuscript and printed maps. University of Toronto Press, 1991.erdvrv

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