Outside
of the British Isles Orangeism has had its strongest base in Canada or British America as
Ulster-Scot immigrant loyalists prefer to call it.Canada
Outside
of the British Isles Orangeism has had its strongest base in Canada or British America as
Ulster-Scot immigrant loyalists prefer to call it.
At one time during the 19th Century one in three of male adults in the Protestant population of Canada held membership and though the numbers have fallen sharply from the 100,000 figure 60 years ago, the present strength of 25,000 remains a significant bulwark for the Protestant witness there.
Orangeism in Canada can be traced back to 1799 and the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada is now in its 159th year, being formed in 1831 by among others one Ogle R. Gowan, the son of a Wexford landlord.
The Order grew steadily through Canada during the 19th Century, reaching its peak at the early part of the 20th century with almost 2,500 lodges scattered from the farmlands of Ontario and Quebec to the mining regions of Nova Scotia, to the prairie lands of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the fishing grounds of Newfoundland.
Carried from Ireland after the Diamond lodge formation at Dan Winter's Cottage in 1795, Orangeism was introduced and initially supported in Canada by the large number of Ulster immigrants and it eventually achieved a position of such power and respectability that it was able to attract thousands of non-Irish into its ranks.
Protestantism and loyalty to the British connection - the central themes of Orange theology - were not values peculiar to Protestant Irishmen and on that basis Orangeism, once established in Canada, was able to appeal to a wide cross-section of the Canadian population.
The Orange Order grew as Canada grew and became an integral part of what might be called the Canadian colonial identity.
Military
It is recorded that as early as 1799 a military Orange Lodge was in operation in the Canadian town of Halifax and a year later one functioned in Montreal. Many British soldiers, after being demobilised, settled in the new country and they, together with the mass of Irish immigrants, established the solid foundation of the Canadian Order.
One story of the pioneering Orangemen involved a John Murphy and son, who, in 1803 took up their service allotment of land in the Clarendon district on the Quebec side of the Ottowa Valley. They had been released from the Irish Yeomanry and came to the area from Ulster via Liverpool and the Canadian maritimes.
Together with their neighbours, the Armstrongs and McCords, the Murphys recreated in the midst of Roman Catholic Quebecc and new Ulster, a colonial outpost, "an implanted enclave". Lumbering, land clearance, and subsistence agriculture characterised the family's first years on the frontier.
Today descendants of the early Ulster-Scots settlers remain in mainly Roman Catholic French-speaking Quebec - a community separate from the Province as a settlement whose heritage, distinguished by Anglican churches and Orange lodges, is strikingly recognisable.
The British and largely Protestant colony of Ontario was an area conducive to the growth of Orangeism. Settlement of the Province had been initiated by the movement of United Empire Loyalists rejecting the new American republic. They contributed a monarchical and British tone to a territory subsequently separated from French Quebec.
It was to this area that the bulk of Ulster Scots immigrants came and down the years more that 50 per cent of the entire Orange membership in Canada was based in the region.
In 1831 the Grand Orange Lodge of Canada was formed with Ogle Gowan elected Deputy Grand Master, but the title of Grand Master was retained for the Duke of Cumberland, then Grand Master of the Empire. From 1832 warrants were issued and soon the order took off throughout the Dominion. Outside Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec were the first areas of growth for the Order and it was not until 1870 that the first prairie lodge was formed at Fort Garry in Winnipeg. At that time about 930 lodges operated in Ontario with Toronto and Kingston, the "Derry of Canada", forming the largest concentrations.
Orangeism was a powerful force in the administration of Toronto and the sense of its power and its control of patronage made its strength self-perpetuating. After 1860 immigration had been an insignificant factor in the city's development and Orange recruits were drawn largely from the native-born Torontonians and the thousands of rural-urban migrants, some of them English, Scots and even German.
Mayors
Most of the city's mayors throughout the 19th century and early 20th century belonged to the Order and for a long period political progress depended upon lodge affiliation.
The Order's influence extended from the city council to the Canadian Parliament. The last Orange premier in Canada was Conservative John Dieffenbaker in the 1960s and another leading politician then was Leslie H. Saunders, a former Grand Master of British America, now retired. William Dennison was the last Orangeman to hold the mayorship of Toronto in 1972.
The impressive Cooke's Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto, founded in 1851 when Ulstermen and women were pouring into Canada by the boatland, has for nearly 140 years provided a meeting place for Ulster exiles anxious to maintain the links with their native heath.
One are of Canada where the Orange Order continues to expand is Newfoundland. The island did not receive its first warrant until 1863, but the Order made big strides during the 1870s and in the first two decades of the 20th century and it has held its position of 200 lodges since then.
Newfoundland Orange brethren descended mainly from English settlers, find that because of the demands of the summer fishing industry they are unable to march on July 12. Instead their celebrations are commemorated either on St. Stephen's Day or Candlemas Day, in the middle of winter. On the Change Islands of Notre Dame Bay Orangemen have the Candlemas tradition of parading through the village, a church service, and a big supper and dance in their respective halls.
Canadian Orangeism has its own insurance scheme, formed in 1881 to raise money for the widows and orphans of deceased brethren. Today Orange insurance plays an important role in Canadian Orange ranks.
Growth
Orangeism grew in Canada because of two factors. It provided in an adequate manner a social and to some extent, religious focus for community development.
Secondly, it developed as part of widely-held colonial sentiments of Protestantism and Britishness, and their corollaries - anti-Roman Catholicism and distrust of republicanism.
Enthusiasm for the traditional Orange principles still lies deep at the heart of tens of thousands of Canadians, who if they may not all hold active membership of the Order are still very sympathetic to its aims and objectives. The order maintains its own newspaper "The Sentinel" and has a sound central administration, something Ulster Orange leaders find when they visit the country.
Down the years Canadian Orangeism attracted men from many walks of life and to a large extent it was socially egalitarian. In the rural lodges farmers and labourers mixed with the local merchants, clergy and teachers, and religious denominations mattered little as long as the members hold strongly to the Reformed Presbyterian tradition.
Today these social patterns still exist in the fabric of Orangeism throughout Canada.
Billy Kennedy
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