The Election in Terrebonne, 1841 Following the rebellion in Lower Canada, and the similar
rebellion in 1837 in
Upper Canada (now
Ontario), the British government decided to merge the two provinces into a single province, as recommended by
Lord Durham in the
Durham Report. The
Union Act, 1840, passed by the
British Parliament, abolished the two provinces and their separate parliaments. It created the
Province of Canada, with a single Parliament for the entire province, composed of an elected
Legislative Assembly and an appointed
Legislative Council. The Governor General initially retained a strong position in the government. In 1841, McCulloch stood for election to the Legislative Assembly for the riding of
Terrebonne, north-west of Montreal. The election in Terrebonne became a major political battleground. McCulloch was in favour of the union of the Canadas, and a
Tory supporter of the government of the Governor General,
Lord Sydenham. McCulloch's opponent was
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, a former member of the
Parti patriote. LaFontaine had been a supporter of
Louis-Joseph Papineau in the run-up to the Lower Canada Rebellion, but he had changed his position and favoured an electoral alliance with the reformers of Upper Canada (now
Ontario), to achieve constitutional reforms through
responsible government. LaFontaine's "Address to the Electors of Terrebonne" set out his new platform. The election turned violent, which was not unknown in that period. Voting was at a single polling location, and was done by
open-ballot, where each voter publicly declared their vote for their preferred candidate. McCulloch's supporters planned in advance to try to prevent LaFontaine and his supporters from being able to vote, even though the French-Canadian population of the riding was much larger than the English-speaking population. One English-language newspaper in Montreal made this point clear: McCulloch's supporters were armed, many with clubs and some with firearms. Approximately 500 men were blocking the road to the poll, many of them brought in from outside of the constituency. LaFontaine, conscious of the great risk of harm to his supporters, withdrew from the election. McCulloch was declared elected by
acclamation. The entire episode was part of Lord Sydenham's plan to use threats of violence to intimidate French-Canadians from exercising their right to vote. Although McCulloch was returned as the member, the violence and exclusion of French-Canadian voters from the poll strengthened LaFontaine's resolve and his goal of building an alliance with Upper Canada reformers. It also led to support from the Upper Canada reformers led by
Robert Baldwin, who personally invited LaFontaine to stand for election in a vacant seat in Canada West,
York Fourth, where he was welcomed by the reform voters.
Étienne Parent, a leading journalist from Quebec, accompanied LaFontaine to Canada West, and reported on their reception from the reformers: "Ils élisent M. Lafontaine pour montrer, disent-ils, leur sympathie envers les Bas-Canadiens, et leur détestation des mauvais traitements et des injustices auxquelles nous avons été exposés." LaFontaine's victory in York First was the beginning of the reform alliance which would lead to responsible government and popular control of the government of the Province.
Term in the Legislative Assembly In the first session of the new Assembly, the major issue was a resolution to condemn the way the union had been imposed on Lower Canada.
John Neilson, one of the leaders of the
French-Canadian Group, introduced the resolution. In the vote on the resolution, McCulloch supported the union and voted against the resolution, which was defeated. For the rest of his term as a member, McCulloch was a dependable vote for the Governor General, opposed to the policies of the reform groups from Canada East and Canada West. He was part of a group of English-Canadians from Canada East, informally referred to as "British" Tories. == Later life and death ==