How could this be accomplished?
Before we talk about how this could be accomplished, we need to have a look at the context of how the 1840 Act of Union came about.
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http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/readings/1840.htm>
If there is to be a unitary Canada, the best idea would be to start with the 1840 Act itself, and if not that then afterwards. Now, the Durham Report heavily mis-characterized the 1837-8 rebellions as being ethnic in origin (which was not the case until the very end, when things were well and truly going downhill for the Patriotes) and hence the very racist (or class-ist, if you want) view he puts forward of French-Canadians having no history, no culture, and all that (which, of course, was not true). Therefore, lost among his recommendations for responsible government and all that for which is justifiably celebrated in modern Canada, he also believed the only good thing that should be done was to assimilate French-Canadians into English-Canadians. For that reason, Lord Durham is a villain in French Canada, and it let into efforts to prove him wrong - not only sparking an insane obsession with history, but also indirectly helping the Catholic Church into power and dominating over French-Canadians' lives as the guardian of the nation.
This fear was even more so the case with the panic in French Canada surrounding the 1840 Act of Union - and I do mean panic. First off, from the link at the top of this post:
In several respects, the Union Act showed unfairness toward Lower Canada:
Art. 1 Eliminated the small amount of self-government the
Canadiens had enjoyed between 1791 and 1838.
Art. 12 Required equality of representation between the two sections of the province even though Lower Canada had a population which exceeded that of Upper Canada by 200 000 people (L.C. had 650 000 people and Upper Canada had only 450 000).
Art. 28. With a Lower Canadian population on the average much poorer than that of Upper Canada, it will be difficult for the average Canadien to run in elections because of the high property qualification.
Art. 41. The French language is reduced to a second class status, that of a translation language.
Art. 46. The French civil law system may be threatened by the existence of an anglophone majority in the House.
Art. 50. Revenues were higher in Lower than Upper Canada.
Art. 55. The consolidation of the public debts of Upper and Lower Canada is in fact a fictional one since Lower Canada entered the Union with a credit balance of $190 000 while Upper Canada had a debt of $5 900 000. (Different sources provide different figures)
It became evident from the start that the Union Act did not have a chance to stand the test of time for three reasons:
- The lack of responsibility in government was sure to displease every reformer in the province and the problems evident in the period of 1791 to 1840 were bound to resurface.
- The Union of Upper and Lower Canada could only be successful if both partners saw a distinct advantage in such a union and if the principle of duality was respected; however, it is clear from the start that the Union was set up as an instrument of assimilation founded on the domination of one people over another.
- To be successful the Union would have had to call on the loyalty of all of the people in the province; with equality of representation the members of the two sections will tend inevitably, to speak out in favour of their section of the Province; thus, sectionalism is bound to appear rapidly because the unity of interests of the people of the two sections of the Province was not great enough to counterbalance their great difference.
Thus, the failure of the Union Act, as the main cause of Confederation, could have been predicted from the beginning... The Union, with its clear intent of assimilation, was to generate trauma and political realignment in Quebec. Its effects were to be felt for over a century in the
ultramontane form of nationalism that dominated the province for so long and in the ideology of ‘
la survivance’ .
Thus, the 1840 Act showed clear bias towards Upper Canada in an effort to force Lower Canada to conform, which fortunately did not happen. The easiest solution, therefore, is to eliminate the offending language and disregard the assimilationist stuff (which means Upper Canada's railway and canal debt would have to be disposed of elsewhere). Or, even better, have the 1840 Act of Union not see the light of day in the first place and keep both Upper Canada and Lower Canada separate, because all it did was create a lot of damage. To do that, of course, would require a POD
before the enactment.
Now, what ultimately made the United Province of Canada work as it did was how politicians on both sides of the Ottawa River ultimately came together to make the best of a bad situation. People in power knew that assimilation was never going to work, so they tried to work with their French-Canadian colonies to try to ameliorate the situation. So, if the 1840 Act of Union is going to work, it would have to take into account Lower Canada (well, at this point, Canada East's) distinctiveness and unique national characteristics and therefore give it special status. After all, Scotland and Ireland were not forced to give up anything when they merged with England, so why should French Canada vis-à-vis English Canada? On top of that, Lower Canada (soon to become Quebec upon Confederation IOTL) insisted on having federalism for its own reasons during the Confederation debates. So something should be done to accommodate those who want French-Canadians in control of their own affairs.
So, a unitary Province of Canada would have to submit amendments to the British Parliament of the 1840 Act of Union that would remove much of the pro-assimilationist language. French would be restored to pride of place alongside English;
pre-Revolutionary French civil law would be restored, and lower the property qualification (if not abolish it altogether), among other things. Furthermore, responsible government (not introduced in the 1840 Act of Union) should finally be granted to the Province; if it's possible, though probably not until later on, Lower Canada having Home Rule within the responsible government structure would be most desirable. However, one bit that should remain under central control would be the educational system, which would guarantee equality of the two languages throughout the country (and for that, something would eventually need to be done to address the Orange Order, which would probably end up being a massive threat to the whole project).
Why single out education, you might ask? Much of the support base for the 1837-8 rebellions lay in the growth of the professional classes between 1791 and 1837, which lost its power after the failure of the rebellions. However, many of their grievances were commonplace and lay at the heart of the concept of responsible government in the first place (having a government accountable to the people, and hence by extension having a capacity for self-government), and which was finally implemented by the Baldwin/La Fontaine Government. To make it work in the long term requires rebuilding the professional classes while also having their grievances addressed at the same time, which would cool the temperature and prevent any serious challenge to the government (hence why autonomy in Canada East should be an ultimate goal - and which can be accommodated in a unitary system). The easiest form to do that, and to get around the Church's monopoly on education viz. the classical colleges, would be the educational system - and hence a different take on the
separate school (which Quebec used to have until it deconfessionalized its schools and reorganized them on the basis of language; only Ontario retains the classic formula as such). So there would be English and French secular schools alongside English and French Catholic schools (English secular schools would originate from Protestant schools, so English Protestant schools coexisting with the secular and Catholic schools could be a reality, in which case "secular" would basically mean non-denominational and with alternate means of moral and religious instruction), which have the same curriculum but which ensures French-Canadians are not left behind their English-Canadian counterparts (so no abolition of Québec's Ministry of Public Instruction, like OTL - where it would not be reconstituted until the Quiet Revolution) and provides alternate economic opportunities to, well, agriculture (which nationalists explained as being God's natural vocation for French-Canadians to carry out their messianic vision).
Just some ideas to throw out there, but they highlight what I think is the crux of it. Having the 1840 Act of Union survive would actually mean rejecting the assimilationist bias of the Durham Report and backing away from it as official policy, and instead treating French Canada with dignity and recognizing/helping to fulfill its aspirations (a good portion of which are held in common with Reformers in Upper Canada, hence responsible government). Otherwise - well, there's the rest of my posts in this thread. Best the United Province didn't exist at all and easier to concentrate on Lower Canada first and separate from Upper Canada.