To recap: the election in the province of the United Canada, completed in January 1848, gave Reformers a solid majority. The old ministry selected by the governor general decided to meet the legislature when it returned (as noted below for February 25). After the speech from the throne, Robert Baldwin for the reformers moved an amendment that constituted non-confidence in the governor's chosen cabinet.
The confidence motion was voted on today, March 3, 1848. The reformers won the vote 54-20.
Up to this point, only one Canadian governor had accepted the decision of a legislature and replaced his ministers with a new cabinet as a result of a vote of the elected legislature; in Nova Scotia Joseph Howe's reformers had taken power in January 1848. It remained to be established whether a pattern had been fixed.
