In this activity, you will learn about Lord Durham's Report and understand the significance of the Durham Report in the development of Canada as a nation.

Durham arrived in Canada with his own ideas, but he soon realized that the situation was very difficult and complex. He concluded that the problem was the conflict between two nations, French and English, living in a single state.

Durham made several recommendations:

• Upper and Lower Canada should be united into one colony with one government. He had little appreciation for French culture and believed the French settlers should be assimilated into British culture as quickly as possible.

• The French should have more representatives in this government than the English citizens because there were 200,000 more French-Canadians than there were English-Canadians.

• A type of responsible government should be introduced. This meant that those who were in positions of power in the government would have to act based on how the other elected representatives voted. They could no longer simply do as they wished. This recommendation was the most significant to Canada's future.

Durham was a very strong statesman, and he gained a lot of support for his ideas among the British citizens in both Upper and Lower Canada. The French settlers greatly feared the loss of their culture if his recommendations were implemented. He could not, however, get Britain to understand the complex nature of this developing nation with two strong cultures.

 The British government agreed with most of Durham's recommendations, but they were not prepared to grant responsible government to the colony. The British ministers worried that allowing responsible government would lead to the disintegration of the British Empire. Nevertheless, they decided that uniting the two Canadas was an opportunity to solve the French problem once and for all.