Editing Province of Canada (section)

====Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe (1843–1845)====
[[File:Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe by George Chinnery.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.57|Charles Metcalfe]]
{{main|Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe}}
The Baldwin–LaFontaine ministry barely lasted six months before Governor Bagot also died in March 1843. He was replaced by Charles Metcalfe, whose instructions were to check the "radical" reform government. Metcalfe reverted to the Thomson system of strong central autocratic rule. Metcalfe began appointing his own supporters to patronage positions without Baldwin and LaFontaine's approval, as joint premiers. They resigned in November 1843, beginning a constitutional crisis that would last a year. Metcalfe refused to recall the legislature to demonstrate its irrelevance; he could rule without it. This year-long crisis, in which the legislature was prorogued, "was the final signpost on Upper Canada's conceptual road to democracy. Lacking the scale of the American Revolution, it nonetheless forced a comparable articulation and rethinking of the basics of political dialogue in the province."<ref>{{cite book |last=McNairn |first=Jeffrey |title=The Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada 1791–1854 |year=2000 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |pages=237}}</ref> In the ensuing election, however, the Reformers did not win a majority and thus were not called to form another ministry. Responsible government would be delayed until after 1848.<ref>{{cite DCB|url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=3561|title=METCALFE, CHARLES THEOPHILUS, 1st Baron METCALFE}}</ref>