" It enjoyed a limited degree of self-government through an elected legislature that could enact laws and levy taxes for local purposes. However, executive power was vested in the governor which was appointed by the British government. He was to be assisted by an appointed advisory council, which also acted as a second chamber of the legislature.
Britain's largest and most important Canadian colony at the time was Quebec, which Britain acquired from France in 1763 through the signing of the Treaty of Paris at the end of the Seven Years' War. Quebec's inhabitants, almost all French-speaking Roman Catholics, were thought to be uninterested in the representative legislature. Furthermore, English law did not allow Catholics to hold public office. However, the Treaty of Paris preserved the religious rights of Catholics, the power of the Church, the French civil law, and the position of the French language. Thus French Canadians were able to preserve their distinct culture, and Canada from the beginning was compelled to recognize its existence.
The Quebec Act of 1774 gave Catholics the right to hold office, but it also set up a colonial government consisting only of a governor and an appointed council, with no elected assembly. "The provisions regarding the machinery of government were simple. There was to be a Governor and Council. . . and a new, simplified oath which would make it possible for French-Canadian Roman Catholics to be appointed members of the Council. . . granted complete religious liberty to the Canadians." The creation of this Act caused the other colonies to fear for their own representative institutions.
In fact, the Quebec Act did not represent a permanent change in British colonial policy regarding representative institutions. The American War of Independence which was occurring at this time would have certain side-affects on British North America. One of the consequences of the American War was the movement northward and the settlement in British North America by many English-speaking Loyalist who had remained faithful to the British connection.