wn colony, also had concerns with the Constitution Act of 1791. The French population consisted mainly of habitants, and other lower class trades. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the English population who dominated the industrial and commercial sectors of Lower Canada(particularly the region around the St. Lawrence). This gave the English a huge advantage over the French, economically and socially. The French and English who basically lived independent from one another, did feel immediate tensions, yet for the Canadiens it was the threat of assimilation that always lingered. The implementation of the British Parliamentary system in Lower Canada that saw the tensions between French and English reach a peak. Under the British Parliamentary system there was a governor of Lower Canada, who was appointed by the British; an executive council and a legislative council, which were appointed and an elected assembly. The appointments of these councils were decided by the British and hence a system of heritoscracy was in place. This developed a situation in which the Canadiens were a distinct minority in the non-elective branches of the government: in the legislative council they had seven out of sixteen members, and in the executive council they had four out of nine. The only possibility that could allow Canadien representatives in the government was the elected assembly. However, with the results of the first election it showed that this was not even guaranteed. With the English population, only a fifteenth of the total had almost a third of the seats in the assembly. With the English minority having the majority in the government the Canadien were virtually unrepresented within the new political system. To make matters worse the governor had the ability to veto any bill the assembly brought forth. The Canadiens ignorance to the Brit...
