Robert Christie (Quebec politician)

This article relates to the early Canadian historian and politician in the Gaspé region. For other people with the same name, see Robert Christie (disambiguation).

Robert Christie (January 20, 1787 – October 13, 1856) was a lawyer, journalist, historian and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East.

He was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1787, the son of a Scottish immigrant. He attended King's College in Windsor and went to Quebec in 1805. He became an attorney in 1810 and served in the militia during the War of 1812. In 1816, he became the editor for the Quebec Telegraph, a weekly bilingual newspaper. In 1827, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada representing Gaspé and was appointed chairman of the Court of Quarter Sessions. He came into conflict with the assembly for removing magistrates who opposed the governor and, in 1829, he was expelled from the Legislative Assembly. However, the constituents of Gaspé continued to vote him back in and he was expelled four more times. The government in Britain supported Christie.

Later, Christie attempted to start a movement in Gaspé to separate from Lower Canada and join the province of New Brunswick. This alienated the voters of the region and he was not re-elected in 1833.

In 1841, however, he was elected to the 1st Parliament of the Province of Canada, again representing Gaspé, and he continue to represent the region until 1854. He introduced the motion in 1842 to move the capital from Kingston to Montreal. He edited the newspaper Quebec Mercury from 1848 to 1850.

He died at Quebec City in 1856.

Works

• Memoirs Of The Administration of the Colonial Government Of Lower-Canada, By Sir James Henry Craig, And Sir George Prevost published in 1818
• A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada, Quebec City: T. Cary/R. Montreal: Worthington, 1848-1855 (Internet Archive: All 6 volumes). Fifty years later, it was judged "one of the few works of importance written by English-Canadians during all these years".

External links

• Photographs of plaque by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board