Sir George Arthur and His Administration of Upper Canada

In the turbulent years before Upper Canada ceased to exist as a separate colony, one man stood at the center of its political earthquakes. Sir George Arthur, the last Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, governed a province tearing itself apart: reformers demanding responsible government, rebels plotting armed uprising, and British officials increasingly uncertain whether the old colonial order could survive. W. N. Sage's meticulous account traces Arthur's administration through the 1837-1838 rebellions, his fractious relationship with the ambitious Lord Durham, and his desperate attempts to reconcile authoritarian tradition with the rising tide of democratic aspiration. The book illuminates how a conservative administrator, committed to the old ways of the Family Compact, found himself caught between a reforming imperial government and a population increasingly unwilling to accept aristocratic rule. Sage reveals the human drama behind the constitutional crisis: the political calculations, the personal ambitions, and the genuine ideological conflicts that shaped a decisive moment in Canadian history. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the contradictions of colonial governance led to the birth of responsible government.