Annexationist movement

The changes in British imperial policy at the end of the 1840s provoked a violent reaction among Montreal Tories, many of whom signed the Annexation Manifesto of October 1849. This document, which advocated the political and economic union of Canada and the United States, was signed by scores of important politicians and business leaders whose world had been turned upside down when the empire of protection and preference ended and British “ascendancy” was replaced by “French domination.” The solicitor general for Canada East deprived some annexationists of their public office, and in 1850 the movement experienced rapid decline.