"One great excellence of the English constitution consists in the limits it imposes on the will of a king, by requiring responsible men to give effect to it. In Upper Canada no such responsibility can exist. The lieutenant-governor and the British ministry hold in their hands the whole patronage of the province; they hold the sole domination of the country, and leave the representative branch of the legislature powerless and dependent."

Joseph Howe was elected to the legislature in 1836 in Nova Scotia.
In Halifax, political tension was mounting.

"I am approaching now the root of all our evils," wrote Howe in the Nova Scotian on February 23, 1837, "... that gross and palpable defect in our local Government... Compared with the British Parliament, this House has absolutely no power."

Howe also drew up a list of demands for political change. But he remained a moderate reformer; his Loyalist roots prevented him from going as far as Papineau and Mackenzie. He did not wish for a complete breaking of ties with Great Britain.

"I know that I shall hear the cries of republicanism and danger to the constitution...
But the idea of republicanism, of independence, of severance from the Mother Country, never crosses my mind... I wish to live and die a British subject - but not a Briton only in name."

Three years later, the British government refused all change and rejected the Ninety-Two Resolutions. The British government believed that accepting the demands of the Patriotes would mean the end of its colonial hold over British North America