CLEAR GRITS

political movement and party that arose in Canada West (now in Ontario) in opposition to the moderate Reform administration of Robert Baldwin, premier of the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) from 1848 to 1851. The movement originated in 1849 within the Reform Party of Canada; the Clear Grits opposed Baldwin's policies toward the use of crown lands to support the Protestant churches (Clergy Reserves), judicial reforms, and the method of selecting legislators. Its name is said to have originated from the fact that its members wanted their party to be all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through. Peter Perry was the early leader of the Clear Grits, but he died in 1851, and control of the movement eventually passed into the hands of George Brown, editor of the Toronto Globe. The Clear Grits eventually became one of the groups that formed the Liberal Party (q.v.) in Canada.