The Pre-Confederation Premiers: Ontario Government Leaders, 1841-1867

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of History at Brock
University and author of TheWar of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won.

Pre-Confederation Premiers’ is a paperback reprint of the original (hardcover) edition published in 1980 (see CBRA 1981, entry 4017). One of the six areas offered in the Ontario Historical Studies Series is “biographies of premiers” in the reasonable belief that “through biography the past comes alive most readily for the general reader as well as the historian” (p.ix). This collection was the second volume in that group.

Professor Careless’s introduction is a highlight of the book. In “The Place, the Office, the Times, and the Men,” he establishes the case for the existence before 1867 of a developed Ontario community. He also discusses the evolution of the office of premier and raises questions that the following essays are bound to answer concerning the development of careers and the forces that shaped the men who held the premier’s office. The omission of biographies of Sir Allan MacNab and George Brown, even if the editor has some valid reasons, is still regrettable.

All the contributors are established scholars with strong publication records. They address the issues raised by the editor but the results, not surprisingly, are varied.

Outstanding are the biographies of John A. Macdonald by Professor Keith Johnson and of Robert Baldwin by Maurice Careless. Johnson’s informative examination of Macdonald’s character and career evolution sparkles with stimulating insights and provocative judgments. He critically assesses Macdonald’s contribution to Ontario’s development but, in the end, sees him as a highly significant national as well as provincial figure.

In his discussion of Baldwin’s career generally, Careless clearly explains the man’s contribution to Canada’s constitutional development as well as the evolution of ministerial government.

The biographies of William Henry Draper by George Metcalfe, of John Sandfield Macdonald by Bruce Hodgins, and of Francis Hincks by William Ormsby give the expected information rather than fresh or exciting insights. Perhaps they should have undergone some rewriting for this reprint.

Careless’s “Epilogue” neatly ends the collection and provides a useful introduction to the social forces already at work which would further transform post-Confederation Ontario. A general reader interested in Canadian history will find Pre-Confederation Premiers informative and reliable, and students of the Union era will find it invaluable.