Different Perspectives: The Durham Report and Act of Union

Saskatchewan Curriculum Expectation/Outcomes/Objectives

Grade 12 (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: Decision Making

• Know that the colonizing powers were determined to institute their decision-making paradigm on their colonies in North America.
  

• Know that colonial decision making was the prerogative of the governing European power rather than either the residents of the colonies or the First Nations.

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: 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.