Editing Robert Baldwin (section)

== Political principles ==
[[File:Robert Baldwin Quebec.JPG|thumb|left|[[Alfred Laliberté]]'s Robert Baldwin sculpture in front of [[Parliament Building (Quebec)]]]]

=== First Principles ===
Baldwin's political principles must be viewed in the context of the eighteenth-century British “[[Country Party (Britain)|Country Party]],” a loose coalition of Parliamentarians whose influence was also felt in the [[American Revolution]] and subsequent Jacksonian politics. The Country party embodied a [[Classical republicanism|civic humanism]] that drew on ancient Greek and Roman conceptions of citizenship, and the value of selfless political participation for the public good; those selfish few who placed their private interests before the public good threatened the moral commitment of all citizens to political participation. The civic humanism of the Country party rejected the commercial ideology of the royal "Court” party. The Country party had a republican emphasis that sought to preserve the power of a democratic parliament from the encroachments of the crown during the vast expansion of state administration, public credit, and the financial and commercial revolutions in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth centuries.  It was similar to American conceptions of “[[Republicanism in the United States|civic republicanism]]” as they developed after the revolution among Jacksonian Democrats, as well as in the [[Chartism|Chartist]] movement in Britain in the late 1830s.{{sfn|Smith|1995|pp=48-49}}

=== Responsible Government ===
{{main|Responsible Government}}

The concept of "responsible government" has been attributed to Dr. William W. Baldwin and his son, Robert. Although the idea of colonial ministerial responsibility to a colonial parliament had been touted since the late 18th century, the Baldwins were among the first to successfully implement the principle.{{sfn|Patterson|1989|pp=186-187}} The meaning of the phrase evolved. In an 1828 Upper Canadian petition to the British Parliament on colonial ills, it was an assertion that the Constitutional Act was a treaty between the British Parliament and the colonial peoples, and could not be arbitrarily altered by one or the other party.{{sfn|Romney|1999|pp=50-51}} In 1836, when Baldwin convinced the members of the Executive Council to resign over Lt. Governor Bond-Head's refusal to consult them on administrative appointments, it did not mean ministerial accountability to the elected Assembly (Executive Councillors were not ministers) but the Crown's obligation to consult that Council. The slipperiness of the phrase points to its real goal, 'sovereignty by stealth,' without rebellion.{{sfn|Romney|1999|pp=61-65}} It was not until after the [[Rebellions of 1837]], and the implementation of [[Lord Durham's Report]], that the Executive Council became a cabinet of ministers that were heads of departments, and the phrase "responsible government" came to mean their responsibility to the elected Assembly, not the appointed Governor.

=== Municipal government ===
{{main|Municipal government in Canada}}
Municipal government in Upper Canada was under the control of appointed magistrates who sat in [[Court of Quarter Sessions|Courts of Quarter Sessions]] to administer the law within a District. A few cities, such as Toronto, were incorporated by special acts of the legislature. After the Union of the Canadas, the new governor, [[Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham|Charles Poulett Thomson]], 1st Baron Sydenham, spearheaded the passage of the District Councils Act which transferred the municipal government to District Councils. His bill allowed for two elected councilors from each township, but the warden, clerk, and treasurer were to be appointed by the government. This thus allowed for strong administrative control and continued government patronage appointments. Sydenham's bill reflected his larger concerns to limit popular participation under the tutelage of a strong executive.{{sfn|Whebell|1989|page=194}} Baldwin was one of the few Reformers who opposed the District Council Act; he considered its reform by the Baldwin Act in 1849 one of his greatest accomplishments. The Baldwin Act made the municipal government truly democratic rather than an extension of central control of the Crown. It delegated authority to the municipal governments so they could raise taxes and enact [[by-law]]s. It also established a hierarchy of types of municipal governments, starting at the top with cities and continued down past towns, villages and finally townships. This system was to prevail for the next 150 years.{{sfn|White|2001|p=134}}