Description:
When Charles Clarke settled in Elora, Ontario, in 1848 he joined the ranks of the province's radical reformers, becoming a vigorous critic of everything in Canada that smacked of the old regime -- rank, privilege, and monopoly -- and an enthusiastic supporter of everything promised by the new -- equity, democracy, and individual opportunity. He played a prominent role in drafting the "Clear Grit" platform of 1851, supporting such ideas as a householder's suffrage, the secret ballot, and representation by population. He later espoused the two great causes of nineteenth-century Anglo-Canadian liberalism -- provincial rights in Canada and Irish Home Rule in Britain.
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Using Clarke's journalistic writings, his private diary, and a memoir he wrote later in life, Kenneth Dewar paints a vivid picture of Clarke's evolving sense of himself and his world in an age of profound transformation.

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