Classical Canada

In 1849, when Governor General Lord Elgin gave his assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill, which remunerated allies of the Patriotes in the 1837 rebellion, the result was a loyalist riot in the streets of Montreal and the burning of the city’s parliament. Much more importantly for the long term, Elgin’s act also launched responsible government in the province of Canada.

What sparked this event and others like it in colonial Canada and Australia? Was it something entirely new, inspired by liberal thinkers such as John Locke, the beginnings of a distinct Canadian state grounded in ideas of equality and independence that would gradually usurp traditional notions associated with its monarchical and colonial roots? Or was it a nod to far older conceptions concerning an active citizenry and the promotion of political virtue, as first enumerated by classical writers such as...