Canada's Constitutional Documents

Saskatchewan Curriculum Objectives

Grade 12 Objectives (History 30)
Unit 1: Relationships: People and Paradigms
Foundational Objective 3
Know that within every society, there will exist a contest among groups to gain influence over the societal decision-making processes.

Core Concepts: Responsible Government

Know that the process leading to the implementation of responsible government involved an active debate among competing ideological paradigms, each defining the relationship between the individual and the societal decision-making processes and institutions.
Know that responsible government permits those who govern to administer laws on the basis of the authority they obtain from the elected representatives of the general population.

Core Concepts: Representative Government

Know that representative government is practised when the public elects persons to act on its behalf in deliberations surrounding political decision making.
Know that those elected representatives are periodically accountable to the public.

Core Concepts: Loyalists

Know that the Loyalists expected to retain their existing political rights, including representative government, upon their migration to British North America.

Core Concepts: Oligarchy

Know that an oligarchy is a political structure in which societal decision making is controlled by a small group of individuals.
Know that political and economic elites held significant control over the decision-making processes in both Upper Canada and Lower Canada, and were reluctant to entertain meaningful political change.
Know that members and supporters of the economic and political elites in early nineteenth century British North America were often referred to as "Tories."

Core Concepts: Reformers

Know that between 1820 and 1850, reform movements emerged in all the British North American colonies, and competed for influence over the political decision-making processes and institutions.
Know that Canadian reformers believed that society needed a government that represented the interests of the general population, not a wealthy elite.
Know that reformers believed that government should be held accountable to the general populace by means of an elected assembly and periodic elections.

Foundational Objective 4
Know that the well-being of every society will be influenced by sustained contact with other societies.

Core Concepts: Acculturation

Know that British colonial policies, directed towards French Canadians and the First Nations, fluctuated between attempts to assimilate those populations and attempts to accommodate them.

Core Concepts: Assimilation

Know that British authorities believed that long-term political stability in British North America would require the assimilation of the francophone population of the former New France.

Unit 2: The Nineteenth Century: The Road to Democracy
Foundational Objective 1
Know that within societies, there exists a competition among interest groups for influence over the society's decision-making processes, and that those groups will vary in terms of their ability to influence those processes.

Core Concept: Federalism

Know that the Canadian federal system of government is one in which political decision making is constitutionally allocated to either the national government or to provincial governments.
Know that federalism balances the desire for overall unity with a desire to retain local or regional autonomy.
Know that establishment of provincial governments reflected the concern of the both the francophone population of Québec, and the Maritime Provinces, that a single national government would be dominated by Central Canada and would not represent the interests and well-being of other regions and populations of the nation.