As I have stated at the beginning of this blog, my goal for 2010 was to write more. In order to accomplish this, I started 365 Random Questions, but I also enrolled in a creative writing class at George Brown College. I am very excited! Most of the writing (with the exception of this) is quite bland - I summarize data, I type e-mails and I take minutes of provincial meetings - very dull. So, I'm looking forward to learning about techniques on how to get the stories in my head, out and onto paper. Thinking about the college I became curious about the college's namesake; I know that George Brown was a politician involved in confederation and that he has a statue outside of Queens Park, but I don't really know much more than that. Today's question is: who was George Brown?
A: George Brown was born in 1818 in Scotland, and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. In 1844 he founded The Globe newspaper (now known as The Globe and Mail after merging with other papers) to propagate the Reform notion of responsible government. Brown also used the newspaper to publish articles and editorials attacking the slavery movement in the Southern United States and was instrumental in the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. Additionally, Brown used the newspaper to express his negative views on church-state ties. In 1851, George was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Canada representing the Reform party and focused on separating the church and state and the idea of representation by population (rep by pop). This drew strong opposition from the less populous, largely French-Catholic, Lower Canada. Amongst these strains, the Reform regime collapsed in 1854. In 1857, George reorganized the Clear Grit (Liberal) party and swept the Upper Canada elections later that year. Brown focused on building a federal union of the Canadas to remedy sectional divisions, however Parliamentary discussion quickly broke down on the topic. Brown offered to support a new government for constitutional change, and joined forces with Conservative leader John A. Macdonald, Alexander Tilloch Galt and George-Étienne Cartier to form a coalition to seek a federal union. He then put in motion the notion of Confederation, speaking at the Charlottetown and the Quebec Conferences. However, Brown later resigned from the coalition over government's opposition of pursuing a free-trade policy with the United States.
Despite his resignation, Brown continued to support Confederation and ran for the first federal elections in the fall of 1867. He was defeated by John A. Macdonald and left parliament to focus on The Globe newspaper. Brown was seen as an informal leader to the Liberal party and in 1874 was appointed as a senator.
George's death was a result of a tragic event. In March 1880, a dismissed Globe employee, George Bennett, shot Brown in the leg with a revolver. Initially thought to be a surface wound, later turned gangrenous, that resulted in his death 7 weeks later.
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