On Jan. 15, 2025, outgoing President of the United States Joe Biden stated in his farewell address that an oligarchy was taking shape in America.
He feared that a tech-industrial complex would threaten democracy, basic rights and freedoms.
When I heard that statement… I thought…
Oligarchies have popped up throughout history.
But what about Canada?
When was the last time a select few controlled everything? Did it impede social progress?
Whether it’s happening now, due to wealth disparity and influence in politics by the rich is a question for another podcast… I look at history, so it is not for me to say.
My eyes are always fixed on the past.
Afterall… I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and today we travel back to a time when a powerful oligarchy controlled present-day Canada and did everything it could to keep the power away from the people.
This is the story of the Family Compact!
Before we start… What is an oligarchy?
Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristotle described it as a system where men of property held the government in the palm of their hands.
He considered it the opposite of democracy, which he defined as the place where the poor ruled.
With that in mind let’s travel to the dawn of the 19th century.
A proto-Canada was beginning to take shape as we took our first steps towards Confederation.
In 1791, the Constitutional Act established Upper and Lower Canada.
Upper Canada was English speaking and included southern Ontario the northern part of the Great Lakes west across towards the current Manitoba border.
Lower Canada covered half of modern-day Quebec, north and south of the St. Lawrence River, all the way to Labrador and the Atlantic Ocean.
Now I am going to answer the question I get all the time before you even ask it.
Despite being further south, Upper Canada was named because it was up river of Lower Canada.
Okay, now that is cleared up let’s move on.
The man appointed to watch over the new government of Upper Canada was Lt. Governor James Simcoe.
He was a highly decorated soldier, who had risen through the ranks of the British Army.
Today, he is primarily remembered for three things.
One – Establishing York in 1793… today you might know it as the old city of Toronto.
Two – he started work on Yonge Street, arguably the most famous road in Canada.
Three – He failed to end slavery in Upper Canada.
However, he did one thing many people forget about.
Simcoe was a firm believer in the power and importance of British society, and he wanted to recreate it in Upper Canada.
There was one major problem.
There was no true nobility in the colonies.
British and European families held titles for centuries and were passed down through generations.
If he was going to create an aristocracy, Simcoe would need to start from scratch.
And so, he gave a few people leadership positions and formed a ruling class and by extension… the oligarchy.
Let me explain… The government of Upper Canada was made up of three Houses.
First there was the Executive Council where members were appointed for life to be advisors to the Lt. Governor.
Most importantly, they had a say in the appointments to other prominent positions.
Second, there was the Legislative Council which was modelled on the British House of Lords. Here…Members were appointed for life as well.
Finally, there was the Legislative Assembly, which was the Lower House of the Government and was made up of elected, land-owning white men.
The Assembly meant to be nothing more than an illusion of power to those outside the ruling class.
It made them believe they had a hand in government.
In truth, they were powerless.
Decisions made by the Legislative Assembly could be vetoed by the Lt. Governor, Executive Council and Legislative Council and since they were all lifelong members and appointed by their choosing, they could ensure nothing could stop them.
The governmental system of Upper Canada was tailor made for the Canadian aristocracy that Simcoe so desperately wanted.
Of course… on paper, the councils were designed to be independent of each other as outlined in Section 38 of the Constitution Act of 1791.
And things were different over in Lower Canada.
Their Lt. Governor Sir Guy Carleton believed that the two councils should be independent of each other.
He knew of the importance of limiting the power of certain individuals.
But in Upper Canada, Simcoe was looking for a way to consolidate power to a few in the upper class.
And he had help when British Foreign Secretary, and future British Prime Minister, Lord Grenville pointed out to Simcoe that there was nothing in the Constitution Act that legally prevented him from appointing one person to both councils.
It was a significant loophole, and the perfect solution for Simcoe.
Now he could choose his Canadian aristocracy like a fantasy football team.
In July 1792 he appointed five men to the Executive Council.
William Osgoode.
William Robertson.
Alexander Grant.
Peter Russell.
And James Baby.
Simcoe next filled nine spots on the Legislative Council.
Of the five men in the Executive Council only James Baby was left out
The rest of the Legislative council was made up of Richard Duncan, Robert Hamilton, Richard Cartwright and John Munro.
All of the men were from the upper class and wealthy and all were well connected politically.
And so… Simcoe gave birth to the oligarchy and the reign of the Family Compact.
Simcoe’s dream would need a place to live.
In 1792, Lt. Governor Simcoe visited a 1,000 square kilometre site that had been purchased from the Mississaugas four years earlier.
He was immediately taken with the area and felt that the harbour would help make a future community prosper.
Simcoe named it York, after King George’s son, the Duke of York.
He had rejected the First Nations name Taronto, which meant The Narrows.
Once the name was selected Simcoe decided that this new settlement would be the capital of Upper Canada.
And the centre of power for the Family Compact.
The name Family Compact can be misleading.
A family didn’t control Upper Canada, although some members were related by marriage.
In actuality, it was described as a close brotherhood of men.
The elite of York and Upper Canada.
Their control over the Upper Houses of the government helped them guide everything to their advantage.
And they exerted that influence to control the lives of the lower classes.
This was seen through their control of one of the most important organizations in Upper Canada –the Law Society.
It regulated the legal profession, and The Family Compact controlled them by, giving them immense power over legal matters.
When you control the law, you can pretty much do as you please.
The society was led by a treasurer and from the moment the Law Society was established in 1797, until it ceased to exist in 1841, all but one was a member of the Family Compact.
Their control over the law was seen in 1826 with the Types Riot.
At the time, William Lyon Mackenzie was an agitator with no love for the Family Compact.
He vilified the group through his newspaper as a corrupt cancer on the government of Upper Canada.
He published a satirical series under the name Patrick Swift.
It was especially harsh and turned members of the Family Compact into a laughing stock among readers.
They took that personally.
One night, a group of young lawyers from the Juvenile Advocates Society beat up Mackenzie.
For good measure, they took his printing press and threw it in the lake.
It wasn’t a random act of violence.
They had been sent by the attorney general, solicitor general and the magistrates of Toronto to teach Mackenzie a lesson.
The power of the Family Compact was so complete that the theft and destruction of the printing press was conducted in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses.
William Allan, the local magistrate and president of the Bank of Upper Canada was present and did nothing.
No one was charged in the incident.
But Mackenzie wouldn’t forget the incident and we’ll see him later in this episode.
You may be thinking. The law being controlled by a few doesn’t seem too far fetched…but what about religion?
At the time, the Church held a lot of colonial power.
Most people were members of a congregation, and a lot of money flowed through it from parishioners.
The Family Compact was not about to let it escape their sticky fingers.
In 1819, the Clergy Corporation was formed to manage their lands.
John Strachan, a member of the Family Compact, was appointed to the Executive Council at the same time.
He had his former student and the current Attorney General John Robison, another Family Compact member, prepare the Act.
That Act created the board of the Clergy Corporation and included positions of inspector general and surveyor general which would be appointed and filled by the Family Compact
This allowed them to control religious matters in Upper Canada.
With law and religious control over Upper Canada, it only made sense to extend their reach to the banks.
The Bank of Upper Canada was formed in 1821 thanks to John Strachan and William Allan.
Both were members of the Family Compact, and if you’re keeping track, their hands in a lot of jars.
John Strachan was the president of King’s College, which allowed him to be closely aligned with the Family Compact and as you just heard it allowed him to be involved in religious matters.
As for Allan, he witnessed William Lyon Mackenzie’s printing press go into a lake and did nothing about it.
He was also a member of both the Executive Council and Legislative Council.
Henry John Boulton, another member of the Compact, was the author of the bank’s incorporation bill and the bank’s lawyer.
If you’re keeping track this family tree looked more and more like a tumbleweed.
Of the 8,000 shares issued by the bank, 5,381 were owned by members of the Family Compact.
The Lt. Governor even appointed four of the bank’s 15 directors which were from the Compact. The rest also had links to the group.
During the 1830s, 44 men served as bank directors.
11 sat on the executive council, 11 sat on the legislative council and 13 were magistrates in York.
Nearly all of them were members of, or associated with, the Family Compact.
From the schools to the banks, from the court to the church, the Family Compact controlled everything.
But it wasn’t a perfect system.
Anything they did could be undone by the Lt. Governor or the Colonial Office in London.
To get around them, they often established a close relationship with the Lt. Governor, who could then influence the Colonial Office.
But before long, people got fed up.
They were like Icarus flying too close to the sun.
The Family Compact didn’t know their demise began the day they threw a printing press into the lake.
William Lyon Mackenzie was a fresh-faced 25-year-old man from Scotland in 1820.
He was fired, having just been in Europe where strikes and unrest demanded reform from governments and the ruling class… all inspired by the French Revolution.
Upon arriving in York, he set his sights on the Family Compact.
Four years later, he started the Colonial Advocate which he used to attacked the Family Compact in almost every issue.
In one issue, he said that the Bank of Canada was quote,
“a terrible engine in the hands of the provincial administration, entirely under the thumb of Strachan and his pupils.”
The people may have loved his attacks on the elite, but his venomous tirades made him public enemy number one among the oligarchy.
The government refused to advertise in his newspaper, so he just attacked newspapers that did.
He called the Hamilton Western Mercury “openly in the pay of those who have sought for 30 years to keep the people in ignorance, squander the fruits of their industry, who dared to stand up for the British constitution and the good of the country.”
He labelled the publishers of those newspapers sycophants and called them men who would bow and scrape, fetch and carry, for the Family Compact.
Wow Mackenzie… tell us how you really feel.
His words began to have an impact, and a reform movement emerged by the early-1830s.
After his printing press was thrown into the lake, he pursued a civil case and won a large settlement.
He put that money to repairing the damage done to his press and office.
The public for their part took notice that no one was charged for the attack on Mackenzie.
That led many residents to get fed up with the Family Compact.
The Colonial Advocate was in print until 1834 and by then Mackenzie was known across Upper Canada.
The same year he published his final newspaper, he became the first mayor of Toronto, previously known as York.
He was riding a growing wave calling for reform in Upper Canada.
In response, in March 1837, the British government stated the Lt. Governor’s authority was not to be questioned.
There would be no Responsible Government.
Realizing that words could only go so far, Mackenzie planned for rebellion.
Throughout the summer of 1837, he organized and advocated for self-government in Upper Canada.
His fame brought out large crowds, but he also faced attacks from supporters of the Family Compact.
On Nov. 6, 1837, the Lower Canada Rebellion began in response to a need for reform.
Seeing his opportunity, Mackenzie gathered those around him and proposed seizing power by force.
On Dec. 7, 1837, the Upper Canada Rebellion began, led by William Lyon Mackenzie.
Did the rebellion topple the government?
No.
British forces routed the rebels and Mackenzie fled to the United States.
He returned later and even served in the Legislative Assembly from 1851 to 1858.
His grandson, William Lyon Mackenzie King, became our 10th prime minister. He served for 21 years, longer than anyone else in our history.
The rebellion may have failed, but change came with time.
After the rebellions, the British government realized that it had to do something about the troublesome colony.
Lord Durham was sent to Canada, and he released his report calling for reform and self-government.
He also condemned the Family Compact for their control over the colony.
The report was heavily criticized by the Family Compact who saw reform as a threat to their power.
They were right to be worried.
Although the British Government refused Responsible Government until the end of the decade.
They did institute the Act of Union, which combined Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada.
And that proved to be the death knell for the Family Compact.
Charles Thomson was appointed as the first Governor General of the Province of Canada.
He was not a fan of self-government and immediately enacted new laws that strengthened his power.
He minimized the power of French-Canadians and created a middle party that answered to him.
This cut off the Family Compact from power.
Squeezed out, the Family Compact reorganized to become the Upper Canada Tories after 1841.
Formed by like-minded men considered to be the conservative elite, it existed for the next 26 years until Confederation.
After 1867, the Upper Canada Tories merged with Parti bleu to form the Conservatives.
Leading this new party, and country was Sir John A. Macdonald.
He joined the Upper Canada Tories in 1843.
The Conservative Party eventually became the Progressive Conservatives in the 1940s.
In the 1980s, a branch broke off to become the Reform Party.
By the early-2000s, the Reform Party became the Canadian Alliance which merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the modern Conservative Party of Canada.
In a long stretch of evolution and change, the present-day Conservative Party can trace their origins to the Family Compact.
But they’re not the only ones…every major political party in Canada has its roots in that group.
The Family Compact as it was, may be long gone.
But we still have an elite who often call the shots.
Canadians may wonder just how much their vote truly matters, just like Upper Canadians did two hundred years ago.
The answer is… it matters more than you think… because as we’ve learned on this podcast… change comes with time.
