While Americans apparently flocked to his banner in significant numbers, Mackenzie found it difficult to recruit significant numbers of supporters in Upper Canada, since rebels and revolutionaries were linked to the experience of Loyalist refugees at the hands of the Committees of Public Safety during the War of Independence (1775-1783). In more recent memory, they were also indelibly linked to the experience of Canadians burned out of their homes by a dozen invading American armies and their sympathizers during the War of 1812-14.

In fact, certain groups in Upper Canada were absolutely opposed to Mackenzie. The Indigenous population, many of them also refugees from the growing United States, would fight against his uprising. They had been threatened with extermination and extirpation by American revolutionaries, politicians and generals for decades. Not surprisingly, they had no interest in joining the United States after fleeing from their ancestral homelands, which were now being cut up for new states and the now-26 stars on an expanding American flag. 

The Black population in Canada would also serve against the rebellion. To his credit, unlike most American revolutionary leaders—and six of America’s eight presidents between 1789 and 1837—William Lyon Mackenzie did not own people and was considered to have anti-slavery views. But even he could not ignore the connection between slavery and the United States. In January 1837, he wrote to the American Anti-Slavery Society: “I regret that an unfounded fear of a union with the United States on the part of the coloured population should have induced them to oppose reform and free institutions in this colony.” 

This attitude was consistent, since large numbers of enslaved people had supported the British in the War of Independence and had been settling in Canada since the end of that conflict. The passing of the provincial Act Against Slavery in 1793 increased the numbers arriving from the new republic. Still more arrived during and following the War of 1812, when thousands of enslaved people fled to British-held territory and British ships. With the passing in 1833 of the Slavery Abolition Act by the British Parliament, the institution was finally being dismantled across the entire British Empire. While the liberal reformers of the province were not having much luck recruiting certain segments of the population, they could, however, use the same issues to stoke fear. In October 1837, for example, the London Liberal reported that “150 squalid Orangemen and NEGROES!” had broken up a reform meeting.

...As a new arrival to the “Canadas,” he did not fully understand the people or the recent history of his new home.

Not only did every able-bodied Black man in the province serve against Mackenzie’s rebellion, many served as officers. William Allen and Josiah Henson served as officers in the Canadian militia and commanded Black troops. Henson is better known as the inspiration for the character of Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. As the fear of rebel raids continued, the Black militiamen remained on duty, but they seemed to be employed more in keeping the newly arrived British regulars from deserting to opportunities in America than they were in hunting rebels. All that being said, the only man killed in the cutting out of the supply ship Caroline from the American shore of the Niagara River on December 29, 1837—after rebels invaded, occupied and fired artillery from Navy Island—was a free African American serving on the ship by the name of Amos Durfee.

Even as Mackenzie was making his plans in the Autumn of 1837, the few British soldiers stationed in Upper Canada were sent to the neighboring province of Lower Canada (today’s Québec). The rebellion in Lower Canada was a larger affair and involved much higher casualties. It was led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, who is universally seen as a hero in Québec today.   From a wealthy family, Papineau was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a leading reformer in his province. He also spent some time in exile after the rebellion, but later returned to Québec where he carried on with a long, successful business and political life.The rebellion still resonates today with the Nationalist movement in Québec, and even the FLQ [Front de libération du Québec]insurgents of the 1970 October Crisis used the image of an 1837-1838 Patriote as their symbol.

In today’s Ontario, school children do not learn about the “Patriot War.” It is usually referred to as the Upper Canada Rebellion—and most Ontarians of a certain age would probably be more likely to recognize the name from a short-lived brand of beer rather than the short-lived attempt to create the Republic of Canada. Again, in Québec the perception is different and the events of 1837-38 are certainly looked upon as a patriotic struggle. La Guerre des patriotes is remembered as a rallying cry for those still working towards an independent nation of Québec.

After serving time in a Western New York prison and living in New York City, William Lyon Mackenzie eventually returned to Canada and lived out his days in Toronto. He had been an elected member of the Provincial Legislature from 1827 to 1834 and the city’s first mayor when the town’s name of York reverted to Toronto in 1834. Upon his return to that growing city, he also returned to peaceful politics and sat in the elected legislature for seven years, from 1851 to 1858, but left disgusted with the lack of further reforms. He did not attempt to lead another armed insurrection and died on August 28, 1861, at the age of 66.

. . . Most Ontarians of a certain age would probably be more likely to recognize the name from a short-lived brand of beer rather than the short-lived attempt to create the Republic of Canada.”

Canada also had another famous rebel/reformer—Louis Riel—who didn’t follow Mackenzie’s example. Much like Mackenzie, he had very legitimate concerns for his people in Manitoba.   But unlike the Scottish immigrant, Riel was Métis (French and Native) and very committed to his Catholic faith. Like our 1837 rebel, Riel also returned from the Unites States following his first unsuccessful uprising (known as the Red River Rebellion of 1869-70), but he made a fatal error. In the mid-1880s, he led a second rebellion—and the relatively new Confederation of Canada attacked him and his followers with overwhelming force. He was hanged for treason on November 16, 1885. Despite this inglorious end, Riel is now remembered as a reformer and a hero to the Métis and most Canadians consider him a positive figure in our collective history.

In today’s Canada, Mackenzie’s Rebellion—or the Patriot War—is still with us. William Lyon Mackenzie would not be pleased to know that Canada’s Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II, nor that we still have a “perpetual Senate,” an institution he once railed against. The election in 1921 of Mackenzie’s grandson, William Lyon Mackenzie King—who would become the longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history (21 years in total)—certainly improved his image, and today there are two museums honoring the former rebel, one in Toronto and another in Queenston. Both buildings were saved and restored in the 1930s, during his grandson’s time as the Prime Minister, and both can be toured today.  In another interesting connection to 1930s history, during the Spanish Civil War the Canadian unit of volunteers called themselves the “Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion” in honor of these Canadian revolutionaries.

To Conservatives, Mackenzie was viewed as a self-serving traitor, a troublemaker and a failure. A triumphal arch was built in Niagara Falls, Ontario, during Prime Minister King’s time in office, and it included the names of Canadians executed and transported following the rebellion. Thirty years later, a Conservative government had it torn down to improve traffic flow. 

The names of political parties in Canada have not changed much since 1837. The Liberal Reformers of Mackenzie’s day would split off in the 1840s and be called “Grits.” Today, the nickname is still used as a reference to the Liberal Party of Canada. In the 21st century, Mackenzie would still be confronted by Tories in the legislature, as the nickname is still applied to the Conservative Party of Canada, but they generally refrain from attacking newspaper offices or leading militia companies against rebels. In every part of Canada, Liberals and Conservatives still debate the events of the day, but they have been joined by other parties with more radically liberal or more radically conservative views.  In the last Federal election, there were seven options for the Niagara riding. Mackenzie would have been pleased to see the number of options, but he may not have supported the Tory who won the seat in Parliament.  

Many of William Lyon Mackenzie’s ideas would lead to a united Canada in 1840, and to Confederation in 1867. And many of his reforms have become essential aspects of parliamentary democracy in Canada.   The elected legislature would dominate political decisions and even appoint judges. The Anglican Church would cease to be the official faith. The House of Commons and the Prime Minister would eventually appoint the “perpetual Senate,” and elite families would lose control in politics even if they continued to dominate the economy. 

As a military leader and revolutionary, William Lyon Mackenzie fell short. But as a political reformer he succeeded in giving generations of Canadians a significant gift—a functioning representative government. So, even with an unelected Head of State, an unelected Senate, with unelected Judges and unelected law enforcement officials, Canadians enjoy the benefits of living in one of the most successful democracies in history. It is a place where “Peace, Order and Good Government” are considered cornerstones of our country and its laws. That little Scottish firebrand can be thanked for that “good government” part.