Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac (1622-1698)

This French-Canadian politician was appointed Governor General of the French possessions in North America in 1672. His achievements included extending the boundaries of New France down the Mississippi, launching attacks on New England villages, holding back the British siege of Quebec (1690), and breaking the power of the Iroquois in 1696.

Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maissoneuve (1612-1272)

In 1642, he founded Montreal along with his followers of missionary priests, nuns and settlers. They endured the primitive conditions and the threat of attack from the Iroquois.

John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979)

He was the leader of the Progressive Conservatives (1956) and Prime Minister (1957-63). Previously, the Liberals had rules for 22 years. His government was responsible for introducing important agricultural reforms.

Jean Drapeau (1916- )

As Mayor of Montreal in 1954, he tried to improve municipal services and eliminate gambling. When the October Crisis of 1970 began, he persuaded Prime Minister Trudeau to implement the War Measures Act. Because of his strong stand on crime, he was voted in as Mayor with 92 percent of the vote. He backed Expo 67 and Montreal’s successful bid for the 1976 Olympic Games.

Maurice le Noblet Duplessis (1890-1959)

He led the Union Nationale to power in Quebec in 1936. He gained power through an exploitation of nationalisme and the fear of anglicization. He claimed that the government was invading provincial rights through the War Measures Act . This caused his defeat in 1939 yet he regained power in 1944.

Lord Durham=s Report, 1838

In 1838, a British noble, Lord Durham, was put in charge of a special committee to examine the causes of the 1837 Rebellions and to suggest what responses if any should be made. While there had been little serious fighting in Upper Canada, Lower Canada had seen open battles between rebel forces, largely French speaking, and British regulars. While recognizing the political and social problems that provoked rebellion in both colonies, Durham judged that the situation had turned much more dangerous in Lower Canada due to French Canadian nationalism. Durham concluded: AIf the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated at 400,000, the English inhabitants of Lower Canada at 150,000, and the French at 450,000, the union of the two provinces would not only give a clear English majority, but one which would be increased every year by the influence of English emigration; and I have little doubt that the French, when once placed, by the legitimate course of events and the working of natural causes, in a minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality. I do not mean that they would immediately give up their present animosities, or instantly renounce the hope of attaining their end by violent means. But the experience of the two unions in the British Isles may teach us how effectively the strong arm of a popular legislature would compel the obedience of the refractory population; and the hopelessness of success would gradually subdue the existing animosities, and incline the French Canadians population to acquiesce in their new state of political existence.@ The result was the Act of Union in 1840 (see AUnion Act@).