Howe, Joseph

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: J. Murray Beck, “HOWE, JOSEPH,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/howe_joseph_10E.html
  • DCB profile:
    • Journalist, politician, and public servant; b. 13 Dec. 1804 at the Northwest Arm in Halifax, N.S., son of John Howe and Mary Edes; d. 1 June 1873 at government house in Halifax. 
    • The most lasting influence upon Howe was exercised by his father, loyalist John Howe, whom he once described as “my only instructor, my play-fellow, almost my daily companion.” The one member of his family who sided with Britain in revolutionary times, John Howe had a reverent, almost mystical, attitude towards the British connection, and he passed this attitude on to his son; indeed, it was one of two qualities which, more than any others, determined the son’s conduct and shaped his career. The second quality was “a restless, agitating uncertainty” which made an ordinary, humdrum existence intolerable.
    • Howe delineated the issues more clearly than ever before, and the election of 5 Aug. 1847 was as much a referendum on the single issue of responsible government as a British-style election is likely to be. The Reformers’ margin in seats was only seven, but their victory was certain, for none of the new assemblymen fell into the category of “loose fish.” It was simply a question of voting out the Tories on 26 Jan. 1848; a Reform administration was installed a few days later. Nova Scotia had become the first colony to achieve responsible government.
    • James Boyle Uniacke rather than Howe, the architect of victory, headed the new administration. Howe was paying the price for his intemperate conduct. 
    • None the less, Howe is a difficult man to categorize. Basically he was a conservative reformer, even though his name is primarily associated with radical, even revolutionary objectives. Although he personally thought of himself as a liberal, he outdid even the most ardent Tory in his devotion to Britain. As a man who felt that land, easily acquired in Nova Scotia, should be the basis of the franchise, and whose government abolished the universal suffrage which had been operative for a decade, he could hardly be labelled a democrat. Yet he did insist that the people had a right to be consulted directly on intercolonial union.
  • Son of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9751
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10944/joseph-howe