Judged by the methods of representative government the Council was
rather a burlesque.
Sheriff Alexander Ross, though a member of the Council, says: "To guard
against foolish and oppressive acts, the sooner the people have a share
in their own affairs the better. It is only fair that those that have to
obey the laws should have a voice in making them."
Hon. Donald Gunn, who was not on the Council, says: "The majority of the
Council thus appointed were, no doubt, the wealthiest men in the Colony
and generally well-informed, and yet their appointment was far from
being acceptable to the people who knew that they were either
sinecurists or salaried servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
consequently were not the fittest men to legislate for people who
retained some faint recollection of the manner in which the popular
branch of the legislature in their native land was appointed, and who
never ceased to inveigh against the arbitrary manner in which the
Governor-in-chief chose the legislators."
Notwithstanding the writer's perfect sympathy with both of these
opinions, it is but fair to state that the Council of Assiniboia did in
ordinary times do many things which were most beneficial and helpful to
the Red River Community.
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