The Question, from a divisive moment in
Canadian history:
Should Manitoba, by 1890 a largely Anglophone Protestant region of Canada, continue to support two sets of schools, one English Protestant; and one French Catholic, as required in the Manitoba Act of 1870?
To this
Gordian Knot, there seemed to be no solution.
Today it doesn't seem like much. At the time, however, radicals seized the political agenda and polarized the young nation. Citizens of
Quebec sympathized with the French minority in Manitoba (a province that had seen massive immigration of English Canadians). English
Orangemen felt no need to pay extra taxes to prop up
Catholic schooling, even if it was a prerequirement for entry into
Canada.
In 1896, Prime Minister
Mackenzie Bowell resigned from office for his support of
Catholic schooling. He was briefly replaced by
Sir Charles Tupper, who also couldn't fix the problem and in turn was replaced by
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's first
French Prime Minister.
At last, Laurier was able to effect a compromise, and was able to calm the acrimony that the Question had sown between regions of
Canada.