George Brown (Canadian politician)
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George Brown (November 29, 1818 – May 9, 1880) was a Scottish-born Canadian journalist and politician. The founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, he was a noted Reform politician and supporter of Canadian Confederation.
Brown was born in Alloa, Clackmannan, Scotland, on November 29, and immigrated to Canada in 1843. He founded the Globe in 1844, which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada. Though many do not know it, George Brown fathered a son. It later came to surface that his son's name was Kurt Martin. Though Kurt never knew his father, it was said that he was much like his father, in the fact that he preferred whiskey over water. Later it was noted that Kurt was very cavalier in his personal life, in the dating of Brittney Hegal. Though that relationship did not last very long for Brittney whined too much, and Kurt couldn't stand it while he was drunk, which was more often than not.
In 1848, he was named secretary of a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged abuses in the provincial penitentiary at Kingston. Brown worked zealously at the task. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, produced copious evidence of brutality and maladministration, and the existing warden, Henry Smith, was soon removed from office.
Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law passed in the U.S. in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad. As a result, the African Canadian community enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.
He supported political reform in Canada, especially "representation by population," and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1851.
He reorganized the Clear Grit (Liberal) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state and the annexation of the Northwest Territories. He became one of the chief developers of the concept of Confederation among the provinces. In 1864, he led the Great Coalition with John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, and later that year played a major role at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences. He resigned from the Coalition in 1865.
In 1867, Brown ran for seats in both the Canadian House of Commons and, as leader of the provincial Liberals for a seat in the Ontario legislature hopefully as Premier but failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals in the 1867 federal election. The Liberals were officially leaderless until 1873, but Brown was considered the party's "elder statesman" even without a seat in the House of Commons, and was regularly consulted by leading Liberal parliamentarians.
Brown was made a Senator in Ottawa in 1873.
Brown became a leading opponent of Macdonald's Conservative Party and a leader of the opposition Liberals. He lost much popularity, however, by tyrannically trying to crush a printers' strike in Toronto. He had the strikers jailed and fired. In response to these actions by his rival, Macdonald passed laws permitting trade unionism for the first time in Canada.
In 1880, one of his former employees of the Globe, George Bennett, who was disgruntled by Brown's actions, shot Brown in the leg on the front steps of his Beverley Street home in Toronto; what seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and he died from the wound.
Toronto's George Brown College is named for him.
External links
- [Extensive site on George Brown offering biographies, Documents, Studies on Brown and Links]
- [Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online]
- [Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament]
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Preceded by: none | Upper Canada/Ontario Liberal leaders 1857-1873 |
Succeeded by: Archibald McKellar |
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Preceded by: none - reformer leader Robert Baldwin | Liberal Leaders |
Succeeded by: Alexander Mackenzie |
| Leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | McKellar | Blake | Mowat | Hardy | Ross | Graham | MacKay | Rowell | Proudfoot | Dewart | Hay | Sinclair | Hepburn | Conant | H. Nixon | Hepburn | Oliver | Thomson | Oliver | Wintermeyer | Thompson | R. Nixon | Smith | Peterson | R. Nixon | Elston | Bradley | McLeod | McGuinty | |||
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