Lord Durham

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, known in British reform politics as "Radical Jack," was dispatched to Canada in 1838 as Governor General and High Commissioner following the armed Rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada.

His 1839 Report on the Affairs of British North America (the Durham Report) became the foundational document of the modern British Commonwealth. Durham famously diagnosed "two nations warring in the bosom of a single state" and recommended uniting the Canadas and granting colonial assemblies executive responsible government. While his assimilationist views on French Canadians drew justified resentment, his constitutional blueprint created Canadian autonomy.