Family Compact

The Family Compact is the epithet applied by their opponents to a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political and judicial power in Upper Canada (modern Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1830s. It was noted for its conservatism and opposition to democracy.

Upper Canada did not have a hereditary nobility. Senior members of Upper Canada bureaucracy, the Executive Council of Upper Canada and Legislative Council of Upper Canada, made up the elite of the Compact. The uniting factors amongst the Compact were its loyalist tradition, hierarchical class structure and adherence to the established Anglican Church. Leaders such as John Beverley Robinson and John Strachan proclaimed it an ideal government, especially as contrasted with the rowdy democracy in the nearby United States. Not all views of the elite were universally accepted, but total loyalty was expected.

The Family Compact emerged from the War of 1812 and collapsed in the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837. It is the resistance to separate Executive and Legislative Councils in Parliament and responsible government and personal agendas that led directly to the excesses of the Compact and its short life. At the end of its lifespan, the Compact would be condemned by Lord Durham as "a petty corrupt insolent Tory clique".