Talk:Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal

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Roadmap to improving this article

At the moment, there are various red links for a lot of objects that really should (and easily could) have their own articles: St. Anne's Market, British American League, Parliament of Upper Canada, The Courrier (Montreal), The Herald (Montreal), The Transcript (Montreal), The Pilot (Montreal), etc.
The long "Rebellion Losses Bill" section could be moved to Rebellion Losses Bill, leaving only a summary in this article. However, parts of the section could also be relevant to an article entitled Second Balwin-Lafontaine administration. It would also make a nice complement to this article if the parliamentary debates on the Rebellion Losses Bill were transcribed to Wikisource. The speeches are pretty much all in Debates of the Legislative Assembly of United Canada, 1841-1867, Montreal: Presses de l'École des hautes études commerciales, 1970, volume 8 (1849).
One key English-languages source is not available online: Alfred Perry's account. When I wrote the original French-language version of this article, I quoted from a recent French-language translation of Perry's account. For the present English-language article, it would obviously be best to quote straight from the original. -- Mathieugp (talk) 17:41, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Another English source -- mentions Perry, has some of Ermatinger's documents. Not sure if it adds anything new.

The Last Cannon Shot: A Study of French-Canadian Nationalism 1837-1850 by Jacques Monet -- references Perry (I only have snippet view; Worldcat says UMontreal has it)

I wouldn't be surprised if you have to go to the Montreal Gazette archives to get Perry's account in English. Magic♪piano 21:41, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the input. I made use of Borthwick's History of the Montréal Prison which I think must be a different edition of the one you found. I do not know about the other book.

I made a trip to the Grande Bibliothèque thinking there was nothing I wouldn't find there if it has anything to do with our history. Yet I couldn't find Perry's account myself and the personnel working there were not able to find it either! But somehow historian Gaston Deschênes got his hands on a copy of it since in 1991 he published it in translation in Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849. The original article, entitled "Who Burnt the Parliament Buildings?", is a special February-1887 "Carnival Number" of the Montreal Daily Star. I saw advertisements of this "Carnival Number" in the Daily Star pages for January-February 1887 while I was searching in the newspaper archives at the GB. Maybe I'll try e-mailing Deschênes to ask him where he found his copy. :-) -- Mathieugp (talk) 02:31, 5 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mr. Deschênes, a très aimable gentleman, mailed me a transcribed copy of the original English article, which I immediately typed up in Wikisource: A Reminiscence of '49. Who burnt the Parliament Buildings?. -- Mathieugp (talk) 06:02, 11 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fantastic work. I haven't read it all because it's too long, but the idea is good. Parliament of Upper Canada = Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, no? The section on the rebellion losses bill is WAY too long, and needs to be subdivided or merged out. A reader should be able to jump in to the middle of an article without seeing acres of undivided text. Keep up the good work, though. --Kevlar (talk • contribs) 04:55, 26 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you!

I believe Parliament of Upper Canada should have its own article modelled on Parliament of Canada, which itself is modelled on Parliament of the United Kingdom. Today I created fr:Parlement du Bas-Canada whereas it used to redirect straight to fr:Chambre d'assemblée du Bas-Canada. I also decided to put a common navigation box (Législatures du Québec) on fr:Conseil pour les affaires de la province de Québec, fr:Parlement du Bas-Canada, fr:Conseil spécial du Bas-Canada, fr:Parlement de la Province du Canada and fr:Parlement du Québec. I am merely copying the navigation box linking Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of the United Kingdom.

I will start thinking of a way to summarize the section on the adoption of the bill and move what's currently there to Rebellion Losses Bill. -- Mathieugp (talk) 05:49, 26 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

So will "Parliament of Upper Canada" be about the building or the institution, or both?--Kevlar (talk • contribs) 21:56, 27 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think it should be modelled on Parliament of Canada and others, so both. (Template:Legislature, headings for "History", "Composition", "Procedure", etc.) -- Mathieugp (talk) 02:43, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Parliament of Canada is mainly about the institution. The buildings are covered under Parliament Hill. Similarly Palace of Westminster vs. Parliament of the United Kingdom, United States Capitol vs. United States Congress. See what I'm saying? --Kevlar (talk • contribs) 19:47, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See also Old Parliament Building (Quebec), which is about the building in question (I think [the article needs work]).--Kevlar (talk • contribs) 20:57, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you are right. The "Parliament of ..." articles are principally focused on the institution and say little about the buildings. That is how it should be. The Old Parliament Building (Quebec) is not really necessary I believe. In fr:Hôtel du Parlement du Québec, the two provincial parliament buildings built before the current one (1887) are mentioned under the "Historique" heading. I think we should do the same in English. All these articles need so much work... I have just finished fr:Liste des législatures du Bas-Canada. I get dizzy just thinking of all the subsequent legislatures that need to be done! -- Mathieugp (talk) 23:04, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"d'un mauvais œil"

Can someone familiar with the topic please rephrase the sentence that includes the line "d'un mauvais œil?" This article is to be read by people all over the world, and not all of them speak French. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:58, 25 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

just dug this up...

...is it worth a mention?

"Canada's ex-parliament to be excavated from under Montreal parking lot". Toronto Star. Canadian Press. 17 July 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2013.

K7L (talk) 03:59, 22 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Burning of Parliament which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 15:29, 8 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Move proposal: Disambiguate Burning of Parliament (British) and Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal

There is a proposal to move Burning of Parliament to Burning of British Parliament and Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal to Burning of Canadian Parliament. Please take part in the discussion at Talk:Burning of Parliament#Requested move 8 May 2015. Curly Turkey ¡gobble! 15:16, 8 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]