Sir Guy Carleton

Picture: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Sir Guy Carleton, the First Baron Dorchester, served as the Governor of Quebec between 1768 and 1778. Born in County Tyrone in 1724, this long-serving Anglo-Irish soldier became a lieutenant-colonel in 1757.

A friend of James Wolfe, Carleton was as a quartermaster in the Quebec campaign. Later he became the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec and in 1768, the Governor. During his tenure, he used his political influence to conciliate the French seigneurs and the clergy as outlined in the Quebec Act of 1774. In 1775-6, he helped repel the U.S.  invasion of Canada that took place during the Revolutionary War. His term as Governor General of British North America (1785 and 1795) saw the passage of the Constitution Act.

Following the American Revolution, Loyalists flooded into the colony from south of the border. To make governing the expanding and culturally diverse province manageable, the old Quebec was divided into two new provinces: Upper and Lower Canada. The former (eventually Ontario) would follow the British Common Law and remain under the Protestant church, and the latter (later Quebec) would live under French Civil Law and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Constitution Act (1791) also provided for representative assemblies in both colonies. Even so, the governor and executive council retained the power. Yet although the institutions created by Carleton's administration did not provide true representative government, they did provide its early outlines for history to later fill in during the next century. It was the lack of true representation that led to the colonial rebellions of 1837 and 1838. Lord Durham was dispatched from England to look into the situation, but representative government had to wait three more decades, until Confederation in 1867.

Sir Guy Carleton was married and had nine children. After governing British North America, he retired to England where he lived near Basingstoke in Hampshire and later at Maidenhead in Berkshire. He died in 1808 at the age of 84.

Carleton University in Ottawa is named after him, and so are many other educational institutions including an elementary school in Vancouver and a high school in Nepean, Ontario.

The Marquis de Montcalm

Picture: Canadian Military Heritage

Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Vozon, the Marquis de Saint- Veran is better known, at least, among English Canadians, as the Marquis de Montcalm. He was born at Nimes, in France, and began his military life as a young boy. Montcalm later fought in the War of the Austrian Succession and was given a pension after being wounded and taken prisoner.

In 1756, he arrived in New France. He gained his first military victory with the aid of Indian allies. They captured Fort Oswego (New York side of Lake Ontario), taking guns and prisoners. The commander was killed and the fort destroyed. Following this battle, the Seneca and Oneida, two tribes from the Six Nations of the Iroquois confederacy, went over to the French side.

Though Montcalm expressed open disagreement with Governor-General Vaudreuil, he went on to attack and capture Fort William Henry (Champlain Valley, south of Fort Ticonderoga)*, and the following year, in 1758, he successfully defended Fort Carillon, on Lake Champlain, against the English.

Promoted to commander of all the military forces in Canada, Montcalm withdrew to Quebec, which he considered "unattackable." Wrongly, as it turned out. When Wolfe's troops arrived, Montcalm attacked late and unsuccessfully.

After giving Vaudreuil "a carte blanche to surrender" (Canada: a People's History), Montcalm died on the field at Quebec with his enemy James Wolfe. He was 47 years old.
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*Fort Ticonderoga is featured in Outlander series, the outlandishly popular historic fiction series by bestselling author Diana Gabaldon. 

General James Wolfe

Photo from Freemason's Grand Lodge of BC and Yukon

Though he was on the winning side, General James Wolfe, like his rival general,  the Marquis de Montcalm, died on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. The long struggle between British and French culminated in this decisive engagement at Quebec.

As is the case with nearly every war, the outcome of this battle cast long shadows on the political and cultural landscape that followed. It is well-known that the fall of Quebec, once the capital of the newly evolving nation, was a dark moment for French Canadians.

What is less talked about is the divided loyalties of the troops used by Wolfe to achieve a decisive victory for the British side.

Referring to this aspect of the history, the Scottish descendant and Canlit writer extraordinaire, Alistair MacLeod OC, titled his great sweeping novel of 20th century Canada No Great Mischief (1999), a phrase used by Wolfe in which he refers to his own Scots Highland soldiers as hardy and intrepid, but untrustworthy.

These men, ironically, were the first the very British Wolfe sent to scale the cliffs from the river to the Plains of Abraham, while their general below judged that it would be "no great mischief if they fall."

At the decisive battle for North America, Wolfe's army was smaller than Montcalm's by half. As mentioned in The Seven Years' War website, shortly before he fought the French at Quebec, Wolfe wrote to his mother that while Montcalm was at the head of many bad soldiers (many members of untrained militia), he, Wolfe, led a small number of good ones.

As the campaign dragged on, Wolfe was suffering from dysentery. Possibly worse, he did not get on with his military superiors, Viscount George Townshend and James Murray. According to a letter written by his aide-de-camp Mr. Bell in the summer, Wolfe also had some trouble from Colonel Guy Carleton, even though Wolfe had a 'particular regard' for him (ibid).

In the end, the day was won when Wolfe succeeded in capturing Quebec by employing a combination of surprise and subterfuge. He chose the battle site and predicted accurately how the French general would react to his tactics. As noted earlier, when the battle came, the general died in the field,. He was 32.

Weird afternoon fog hangs over the river

As the train crossed the river beneath a sunny blue sky, I managed to get this picture of the heavy scarf of mist that blanketed the water.

Yesterday was gloriously sunny; today we're back to our typical winter rain.

This was the SkyTrain bridge; on the nearby Port Mann, there was icy chaos -- again.

On the one hand, spoiled Vancouverites refuse to believe in winter. They tend to shun snow tires and go too fast in wintry conditions. On the other, we heard of these problems only on the one bridge -- again.

Winter parsley flourishes

Photo: a thriving crop of winter parsley waits beside the door.

What food can we make with so much parsley? Tabouleh salad perhaps, or boiled white beans with onions and parsley.

Or I could use it to flavour and garnish soup.

The trouble with parsley is that there is either too much of it, or none at all. At the moment, we're in surplus mode.

Polar bear swim

Photo by Darryl Dyck (AP/CP Huffpost)

They've plunged in each New Year's day for the past 93 years. This year, says the Vancouver Sun, the Polar Bear Swim attracted over 2200 participants and 20,000 fans.

Following a long tradition, some participants came in costume, and others took part in swim races. The weather was clear and cold -- well, cold by Vancouver standards. About 3 degrees Celsius in the air, and 7 in the water. At those temperatures, few spent more than five or ten minutes in the water. Some spend only a few seconds.

I was one of those. It was a similar day many years ago -- sunny and chilly, when I decided to do my own Polar Bear swim. But I didn't want to look for parking near the packed downtown beach and rush into the water with hundreds of others.

Instead, I recruited a friend to drive me to Kits Beach, near the Planetarium. While my friend waited with towels, a warm sweatsuit and a thermos of hot tea with brandy, I took my dip. It was very cold but I was glad I'd done it.Like many who took the plunge yesterday, I never did it again.

Still have a Polar Bear swim still on your bucket list? The City of Vancouver has some info and advice for you here.

Crossing Bridges

Photo: CT December 25, 2012

On a rainy Christmas Day, it was a tame ride across the new Port Mann, the bridge that just a few days before dumped icy snumps on motorists, breaking windshields and denting vehicles.

The tower shows how, unlike with the Alex Fraser, the Golden Ears or the old Lions Gate, the cables pass over the heads of those crossing.

On the right, the familiar old span still remains; eventually, it will be dismantled. Back in the 1960's, an engineer friend long since retired, worked on that project. When the old bridge was new, I drove across it in a snowstorm, knuckles white on the wheel of my Volkswagen bug.

The theme this year is crossing bridges. We have already crossed one bridge into the time beyond the Mayan prophecies, feared by some, and celebrated by others as heralding a new world.

In a slightly more practical vein is the Italian proverb printed on my new 2013 "Crossing Bridges" calendar: "Mistakes are the usual bridges between inexperience and wisdom."

May this be a year of useful mistakes that lead to ever-increasing wisdom, and may all of us human beings and our world enjoy a New Year filled with the joys of adventure, learning and wonder.