George Brown (Canadian politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 10, 1880) was a Scottish-born Canadian journalist, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation. The founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, he was a noted Reform politician.
Brown was born in Alloa, Clackmannan, Scotland, on November 29, and immigrated to Canada in 1843. He founded the Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada. In 1848, he was named secretary of a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged abuses in the provincial penitentiary at Kingston. Brown worked zealously at the task. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, produced copious evidence of brutality and maladministration, and the existing warden, Henry Smith, was soon removed from office.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law passed in the U.S. in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad. As a result, the African Canadian community enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
He supported political reform in Canada, especially "representation by population," and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1851.
He reorganized the Clear Grit (Liberal) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state and the annexation of the Northwest Territories. He became one of the chief developers of the concept of Confederation among the provinces. In 1864, he led the Great Coalition with John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, and later that year played a major role at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences. He resigned from the Coalition in 1865.
In 1867, Brown ran for seats in both the Canadian House of Commons and, as leader of the provincial Liberals for a seat in the Ontario legislature hopefully as Premier but failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals in the 1867 federal election. The Liberals were officially leaderless until 1873, but Brown was considered the party's "elder statesman" even without a seat in the House of Commons, and was regularly consulted by leading Liberal parliamentarians.
Brown was made a Senator in Ottawa in 1873.
Brown became a leading opponent of Macdonald's Conservative Party and a leader of the opposition Liberals. He lost much popularity, however, by tyrannically trying to crush a printers' strike in Toronto. He had the strikers jailed and fired. In response to these actions by his rival, Macdonald passed laws permitting trade unionism for the first time in Canada.
On March 25 1880, one of his former employees of the Globe, George Bennett, dismissed by a foreman for drunkenness, shot Brown in the leg at the Globe office in Toronto. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and weeks later on May 10, Brown died from the wound.
His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation as a conference center and offices.
Toronto's George Brown College is named for him.
[edit] External links
- Extensive site on George Brown offering biographies, Documents, Studies on Brown and Links
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament
| Preceded by: Sir John Alexander Macdonald |
Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada - Canada West 1858 |
Succeeded by: Sir John Alexander Macdonald |
george brown married elmo
|
Preceded by: |
Upper Canada/Ontario Liberal leaders 1857-1873 |
Succeeded by: |
|
Preceded by: |
Liberal Leaders |
Succeeded by: |
| Leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | McKellar | Blake | Mowat | Hardy | Ross | Graham | MacKay | Rowell | Proudfoot | Dewart | Hay | Sinclair | Hepburn | Conant | H. Nixon | Hepburn | Oliver | Thomson | Oliver | Wintermeyer | Thompson | R. Nixon | Smith | Peterson | R. Nixon | Elston | Bradley | McLeod | McGuinty | |||
Categories: 1818 births | 1880 deaths | Fathers of Confederation | Historical Members of the Canadian Senate | History of Ontario | Leaders of the Liberal Party of Ontario | Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada | Natives of Clackmannanshire | Presbyterian Canadians | Newspaper publishers of the 19th century (people) | Premiers of the Province of Canada | Scottish immigrants to Canada | People from Toronto
