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Date: 1864-07-29
By: True Witness
Citation: “What About the Double Majority”, True Witness (29 July, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

WHAT ABOUT THE DOUBLE MAJORITY.

“The agreement which forms the basis of the Ministerial policy provides that in the popular branch of the proposed federal or general Legislature, Upper Canada shall have the full representation to which her more numerous population entitles her.”—Toronto Globe, July 11.

This is clear, and explicit, as to the question of “Representation by Population.” It shows that the interests of Upper Canada have been well looked after, and amply protected in the late arrangements, wherein “the basis of the Ministerial policy” was laid down and agreed upon. We wish that we could say as much, and as positively, with respect to the interests of Lower Canada.

The personal interests of the several members of the Ministry have been carefully provided for—the Clear Grit section securing to themselves three seats in the Cabinet, with corresponding salaries, perquisites and patronage. The interests of the Conservative section of the Ministry cannot be said to have been neglected, seeing that all the other seats in the Cabinet have been assigned to them. To Upper Canada “Representation by Population” in the general legislature, as well as a local legislature to manage its particular affairs, has been assured; but we do not yet see that one single precaution has been taken to secure the interests of Lower Canada, or to guarantee her against having imposed on her, and against the wishes of her people, a novel and hostile system of Government.

And yet there was one precaution, so self-evidently necessary, so self-evidently just—(if it were intended to give Lower Canada and her people fair play)—that it must have suggested itself to the merest tyro in politics. We mean, of course, the application of what is known as the “Double Majority,” to the particular case of the projected Constitutional changes. As a permanent arrangement, as applied to Ministers, we have always looked upon the “Double Majority” as impossible; but as applied to any one particular question, it is very feasible; and in the case before us, is indispensable—if Catholic Lower Canada is not to be sacrificed to the Protestant Province.

So obviously just and necessary indeed in the case of the proposed Federal Union Bill, is this principle of the Double Majority, that we can not understand how it came to pass that our Lower Canadian ministers, in arranging the basis of the Coalition, did not assign to it the most prominent place amongst the Ministerial arrangements, and make it the condition sine qua non of their policy, and support of the Federal scheme. We do not say that they have not done so; but nothing as yet appears on the face of the record to show that they have done so, or that this just and most necessary precaution has been taken and mutually accepted by Clear Grits and Conservatives as one of the well understood conditions of their political alliance,—as the condition sine qua non, of Conservative support of the Bill to be laid before Parliament for a Federal Union of the Provinces.

Legally, according to the letter of the existing constitution, we cannot demand the application of this principle. By treachery, or apathy, or stupidity we have allowed the “two-thirds clause”—or clause of the Union Act requiring a majority of two-thirds of the united legislature to any measure affecting the terms of the Union of the two Provinces—to be repealed. A single majority of one—as the Witness truly boasts—now suffices to effect all constitutional changes; and thus, though all but one of the representatives of Lower Canada were to vote against a Federal Union, yet that one vote, added to the united votes of the Upper Province would suffice legally to impose upon the Lower Canadians a system the most oppressive and the most unjust as respects their national and religious interests. We cannot therefore demand the application of the Double Majority in the present instance as a legal right, or right guaranteed to us by the letter of the constitution; and yet if this principle be not applied, it is in the power of Upper Canada to force on us changes the most ruinous to us and to rule us with a rod of iron.

This indispensable safeguard then to Lower Canadian autonomy seeing, that it cannot be legally insisted upon, should by our Lower Canadian ministers have been insisted upon as one, indeed as the indispensable, condition of their alliance with Mr. George Brown, and his friends. The trusted guardians of the interests of Lower Canada, they should have expressly stipulated that, only upon the condition that, after a new election, it should appear that the majority of the people and representatives of Lower Canada were in favor of a Federal Union—whether of all the B. N. A. Provinces, or of the Canadas only—would they, the Lower Canadian Ministers, give their support to such a measure, or refrain from opposing it with all their energy. It is late, even if not too late, to insist upon this condition now—Mr. George Brown might retort—“It is not in the bond; it forms no part of the basis of the Coalition; and you have no right now that the bargain has been ratified, to insist upon the introduction of conditions which you did not propose and insist upon when the terms of our alliance were still under discussion.

Again, we repeat it, we do not know whether the Double Majority forms one of the planks—as the Yankees say—of the Coalition platform; but since it does not appear on the record that it does so, we must act as if in this essential particular, the interests of Lower Canada had been overlooked: and by prompt, vigorous and united action—we must do what we yet can, to make up for the apparent remissness of those who should have acted for us. We must insist, day and night, in season and out of season, that no matter at what cost to the Coalition or to the fortunes of the Ministry, the “Double Majority” be accepted as essential to any proposal that may be laid before the Legislature for a Federal Union, or other measure of Constitutional Reform. We must insist that any such measure which shall not command a majority of the representatives of Lower Canada, elected expressly to legislate upon the question, shall be deemed rejected, even though all the representatives of Upper Canada should vote in its favor. We must force our representatives, our Ministers, and all who ask us to trust in them, to speak out immediately and unequivocally on this vital question of the Double Majority: and we must exact from them the pledge before God and man, that they will never—directly or indirectly—be parties or accessory to imposing a Federal Union on Lower Canada, unless after a general election it shall clearly appear that the people of Lower Canada are in favor of that measure.

If Lower Canada has no right to rule or govern Upper Canada, as little right has Upper Canada to rule or govern this section of the Province; but to refrain in the present crisis from insisting at all hazards, upon the application of the Double Majority to the Federation scheme even to the most minute of its details, is to place Lower Canada beneath the heel, and at the mercy of Upper Canada. This must be obvious to the meanest intelligence; and therefore until the contrary shall have been proved to us by clearest evidence, we will continue to indulge the hope that all our Lower Canadian statesmen have made and will make the application of the Double Majority, the condition of their support or countenance to the impending constitutional changes. Perhaps we say they have done so already; perhaps there may be articles of agreement betwixt George Brown and the Conservative chief that have not yet been made public. On these points we know nothing, and we insinuate nothing; but we have no hesitation in expressing our conviction that unless some such agreement or well defined and mutually understood arrangement already exist, the interests of Lower Canada have not been well looked after, and are in considerable danger. The Clear-Grits will strenuously object to the introduction of any new conditions, or conditions other than those already mutually agreed upon at the formation of the Coalition. Legally, or according to the letter of the Constitution, we cannot demand the application of the Double Majority, and are therefore at the mercy of a Single majority—which might be a majority of, say sixty Upper Canadians and one Lower Canadian representative, against fifty-nine of the representatives of this section of the Province. It was therefore above all things essential to the security of Lower Canadian autonomy that this important, indeed vital principle of the “Double Majority” should have been expressly included, or stipulated for amongst those arrangements which formed the basis of the Coalition—arrangements which assigned three seats to the Cabinet to Mr. George Brown and his friends: the remainder of the seats to M. Cartier and his friends ; and which expressly secured to Upper Canada an ascendency in the lower branch of the Federal Legislature, as well as a local Parliament to legislate for its particular interests. We of course cannot speak with any knowlege of the facts; but we hope—and believe that it is the intention of our French Canadian Ministers to to insist upon the application of the “Double Majority” principle to the Federation scheme: and if they do this we shall certainly have no cause to oppose them.

And in justice to them we must add, that their reputed organs of the press in Lower Canada distinctly proclaim that Federation is not a Ministerial measure,—in the sense that Ministers deem themselves bound to stand or fall with it. As a disagreeable necessity of their position, they will allow the obnoxious and most dangerous measure to be brought forward, but they do not pledge themselves or their fortunes to its success. This is an encouraging symptom, and gives us hopes that we may yet be spared the infliction of a Federation. At all events we will hope for the best until our worst fears are realised, and in the meantime would again urge all Catholics, all frends of Lower Canada, to immediate, united, and energetic action against the danger which menaces us.