Parti canadien
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Template:Politics of Canada The Parti canadien (also Parti patriote) was a political party in what is now Quebec, Canada, that was founded by members of the liberal elite of Lower Canada at the beginning of the 19th century. Its members included François Blanchet, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, John Neilson, Jean-Thomas Taschereau, James Stuart, Louis Bourdages, Denis-Benjamin Viger, Andrew Stuart, and Louis-Joseph Papineau.
Under the leadership of Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, the party campaigned for ministerial responsibility and a responsible government in which the members of the Legislative Council of Quebec would be appointed by the Legislative Assembly's majority party. At that time, the council was chosen by an appointed British Governor, which the Parti canadien considered to be severely corrupted and hostile to the interests of the majority of the population.
In 1806, the Parti canadien imitated its political adversaries, the Tories, in founding a newspaper named Le Canadien. At the time, tensions esclated between Britain, and hence her colonies, and were exacerbated by the actions of France who had been the ally behind the Americans during the American Revolutionary War. The implemention of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's "Continental System," that began in November 1806 with his issuance of the Berlin Decree, was designed to destroy British trade, particularly the re-export of goods from Canada and other British colonies to Europe. In March of 1807, Bonaparte's Milan Decree ordered the confiscation of any ship that stopped at a British port before sailing into French territorial waters. Neutral countries, the most important of which was the United States, had to risk detention by the British Navy or confiscation in Napoleon's ports. The U.S. Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807 that placed an embargo on trade to both countries in 1807 which did the most damage to Britain and caused economic harm to her Canadian colony. As a result, a great deal of apprehension arose over the international crisis and the writings in Le canadien were extreme enough that Governor General of Canada, James Henry Craig came to believe that the writings were seditious and accused the newspapers backers of being ready to play into the hands of both France and the United States.
In May 1809 the House of Assembly to vote to exclude Ezekiel Hart, the newly elected member from Trois-Rivières, who was of the Jewish faith. Gvernor Craig dissolved the assembly and, calling another election, he appealed to the electorate to put an end to such racism. Nevertheless, he suffered a defeat and was forced to repeat the same scenario in March of 1810. Amidst the heated debate, on March 17th, Charles Lefrançois, the printer of Le Canadien was arrested for treasoness writings and his presses seized. Two days later those responsible for the newspaper, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, François Blanchet, and Jean-Thomas Taschereau, were also thrown into prison on charges of carrying on treasonable activities. All were released a few months later with the exception of Pierre-Stanislas Bédard whom the Governor had decided to take to trial. The Parliament in Britain was unhappy with the manner in which Governor Craig had handled matters and as a result, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard was released in March of 1811 and Craig was replaced by the French-speaking George Prevost. However, the lack of support from certain party members caused a rift and Bédard later declared: "Mr. Papineau and Mr. Viger are no real friends of mine."
In 1811, James Stuart became leader of the Parti canadien in the assembly and in 1815, reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau was elected Assembly speaker. Papineau's reformist ideas gained in authority and popularity until the suspension of the Constitutional Act in 1837.
In 1826, the party took the name of Parti patriote following a change of strategy. The new strategy was considered too radical by some of its members who eventually left the party, most notably John Neilson.