Robert Grant Haliburton

Q.C. QC may refer to: Places * Quebec, a Canadian province ** Quebec City, its capital * Quezon City, Philippines * The Quad Cities, an American metropolitan area along the Mississippi River * QualiEd College, a Hong Kong high school Arts and entert ...

, D.C.L. (3 June 1831 – 6 March 1901) was a Canadian lawyer and anthropologist. He became famous after founding the

Canada First The Canada First movement is a Canadian nationalist movement organized in 1868 that promoted the British Protestant component as central to Canadian identity. It was at first supported by Goldwin Smith and Edward Blake. Ontario residents, George ...

organization that saw English Canadian society as the "heirs of Aryan northmen" and that the French Canadians were a "bar to progress."

Early life

Haliburton was born in

Windsor, Nova Scotia Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Nova Scotia Highway 101, Highway 101. The community has a history d ...

. His father was Judge Haliburton who wrote the best selling ''Clockmaker series'' about the humorous adventures of the

Sam Slick Sam Slick is a character created in 1835 by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Nova Scotian judge and author. With his wry wit and Yankee voice, Sam Slick of Slicksville put forward his views on "human nature" in a regular column in the '' Novascot ...

character. Like his father he graduated from

University of King's College The University of King's College is a public university, public Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia.Roper, Henry. "Aspects of the History of a Loyalist College: King's College, Windsor, and ...

and was part of the local volunteer militia where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel. He was a lawyer, called to the bar in 1853.

Canada First and the Aryan North

The ''Canada First'' movement was organized in Ottawa in 1868. It was at first supported by

Goldwin Smith Goldwin Smith (13 August 1823 – 7 June 1910) was a British-born academic and historian who was active in both Great Britain and North America. From 1856 to 1866, he was a professor of modern history at the University of Oxford. Smith taught a ...

and

Edward Blake Dominick Edward Blake (13 October 1833 – 1 March 1912) was a Canadian politician and lawyer who was the second premier of Ontario from 1871 to 1872 and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1880 to 1887. He is one of three federal perm ...

. Ontario residents, George Denison, Charles Mair, William Alexander Foster and Robert Grant Haliburton founded the movement. Haliburton and like minded authors that made up the Canada First movement saw that the milder southern climate was said to lead to "degeneration, decay, and effeminacy." The harsher northern climate they argued was said to produce the most Canadian of characteristics, "the inclination to be moderate". The Canada First movement saw the French Canadian and

Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...

cultures as dead weight that was holding the advancement of English Canada back.

Later life

Ill health required Haliburton to move to warmer climates and he spent his winters in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. After a lucrative career in law he was able to live off his investments and spent some time as an anthropologist and was instrumental in discovering the "dwarf races" of northern Africa and the Atlas region. A "rover", he died in

Pass Christian, Mississippi Pass Christian (), nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...

, United States, on 6 March 1901; he was 69.

Works

* ''An Address On The Present Condition...British North America'', (1857) * ''The festival of the dead,'' (1867) * ''The coal trade of the New Dominion'', (1867) * ''Explorations in the Pictou coal field,'' (1867) * ''Men Of The North And Their Place In History...'', (1869) * ''Explorations in the Pictou coal field, in 1867 and 1868,'' (1869) * ''A Sketch Of The Life And Times Of Judge Haliburton'', (1897) * ''Voices From The Street'' Source:

References

External links