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The Globe

George Brown · 1844

A Toronto newspaper founded by George Brown in 1844 as the voice of Reform politics in Upper Canada.

Brown founded and edited The Globe, using it as his main political voice and platform for Reform politics.

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Colour lithograph cover of The Globe Christmas Number 1889. A woman in a green dress with black fur wrap sits on a stone plinth holding a small plate, with two turkeys and small birds in snow below. Pink flowers and holly surround the masthead.
Cover of The Globe, Christmas Number, 1889.

About this source

What it is

The Globe was a newspaper founded in Toronto in 1844 by George Brown, a Scottish-born immigrant who had earlier worked on newspapers with his father. It began as a weekly, later publishing several times a week and eventually daily. The Globe continued after Brown's death and in 1936 merged with another paper to become The Globe and Mail.

Why it matters

The Globe became the most influential newspaper in British North America, giving George Brown a powerful platform to campaign for Reform causes, oppose slavery in North America, and attack his political and religious opponents, including Catholics and the Irish and French communities in Toronto. It shows how newspapers could shape political debate and build a politician's public career in the 19th century.

Look closer

  • Why might owning a newspaper have given Brown more political power than other politicians of his time?
  • What does the Christmas cover shown here suggest about the paper's audience, beyond politics?
  • Whose voices might be missing from a newspaper controlled by one editor with strong opinions?

This newspaper article is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of George Brown on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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