ABSTRACT
George Brown and Alexander Mackenzie both emigrated to Canada from Scotland in the 1840’s, during the period when Quebec and Ontario constituted the unified but sorely distracted Province of Canada. The antagonism between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians, which led to the Confederation of the Dominion of Canada, is one of the better-known examples in modern history of ethnic conflict. George Brown shared most of Toronto’s qualities: ambition for business success and political eminence; deep religious sensibilities; a dislike for American democracy; and preternaturally strong British loyalties. Toronto was the bastion of warm attachment to the British Empire. George Brown was seeking a reform that would go far to Americanize Upper Canada, and the Conservatives, recognizing this fact, made the most of it. Like George Brown, Mackenzie sprang directly from Scottish Liberalism, and in his premiership he drew on this tradition.
