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From Rebellions To Confederation
The path of when CANADA BECOMES A DOMINION starts with TROUBLES BREWING IN UPPER CANADA -
REBELLIONS IN LOWER CANADA
Political leader Louis-Joseph Papineau spearheaded the revolt, which simmered for years before erupting on November 23, 1837. On that day, rebel forces won a battle at Saint-Denis. The fighting continued at Saint-Charles and Saint-Eustache, where British troops looted and torched houses and barns. It finally ended in November 1838, when British and colonial forces overcame the Patriotes at Beauharnois, Odelltown and Lacolle. -
TROUBLE BREWING IN UPPER CANADA
There had long been a feeling that the government was not democratic and the executive committee had failed in all attempts to maintain the confidence of the elected officials. Visitors walk through Montgomery Tavern in Toronto and find themselves amidst the rebels led by journalist William Lyon Mackenzie. Furious because their proposed democratic reforms were rejected, the rebels left the tavern on December 4, 1837, armed with muskets, pitchforks and staves. -
LORD DURHAM ARRIVES IN QUEBEC
Lord Durham, the Governor General, recommended the establishment of responsible government and a merger of Upper and Lower Canada after investigating the cause of the rebellions. He angered French Canadians by calling for their assimilation. This led to the 1841 Act of Union, which united the two regions, made English the only official language, and gave Canada East (Lower Canada) proportionally fewer elected representatives. -
THE ACT OF UNION IS PASSED
By the terms of the Act of Union 1840, the capital of the new province would be Montreal. English would be the official languages of the Assembly; the united colony would assume the debts of Upper Canada; the Assembly would consist of 84 members – 42 from Upper Canada and 42 from Lower Canada. This arrangement did not set well with Lower Canada as they did not have a debt. -
UNITED PROVINCE OF CANADA IS FORMED
The hope was that in fusing these two colonies together under a single parliament, the Colonial Office hoped that the anglophone majority would take control of the colony. This would not happen. Under responsible government, the provincial Parliament became the forum in which the politica power of the grancohone minority of what is now Canada was permanetly established. However, it became apparent that the equality in the division of votes that Canada East would become a cohesive bloc. -
JOHN A. MACDONALD
In 1844, he entered provincial politics becoming a member of the Assembly of Canada West. He held the position of Provincial Secretary in the coalition: a temporary alliance of political parties for some purpose.coalition government of 1864 and attended the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences emerging as leader of the movement for Confederation. He became the first prime minister of Canada in 1867 and except for one term from 1874-1878, he served as prime minister until his death in 1891. -
CORN LAWS REPEALED
In 1846, the British government repealed the Corn Laws, whitch were part of the Navigation Acts and gave preferential treatment to British colonies. Canadian grain came into Britain with lower tariffs than grain from other countries. The end of the Corn Laws drove the colonies into an economic depression. With the old economic relationship was now in tatters, and with few factories or industries, Canadians began to look at the union of all the colonies as a way of helping their economy. -
GEORGE-ÉTIENNE CARTIER
In 1848, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Canada for the county of Verchères. He continued to represent Verchères until 1861, when he was elected for Montreal; and for this constituency he sat in the Legislative Assembly and the House of Commons until his death. He first entered office in 1856, when he was appointed first provincial secretary and then attorney-general for Lower Canada, in the MacNab - Taché ministry. From 1857 to 1862 he along John A. Macdonald as co-premier. -
GEORGE BROWN
George Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1851. He was a reformer and reorganized the Clear Grit Party in 1857. This party supported representation by population, the separation of church and state and the annexation of the North-Western Territory. It was during these years that he developed the idea of a legislative union; with the political instability of the 1860s, he began to promote the concept more and more. And in 1864, he proposed the Great Coalition to John A. Macdonald. -
CHARLOTOTTETOWN CONFERENCE
The conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in September of 1864 was initially meant to be a conference for the premiers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI about a union of their colonies. Seizing this opportunity Macdonald, Brown, Cartier and Alexander Tilloch Galt attended the meeting and conviced New Brunswicks's Samuel Tilley, Nova Scotia's Charles Tupper, and PEI's Edward Whelan that Confederation could work and agreed to work out the details at the Quebec Conference. -
QUEBEC CONFERENCE
The delegates of the Quebec Conference, which was held in October of 1864, were planing a new nation, a dificult and time-consuming task. After much discussion, the delegates decided that provincial governments should retain many powers. Macdonald had wanted a strong national government, but he had to compromise. In the end, the Quebec Conference produced 72 Resolutions and a blueprint for Canada. -
ATTACK OF THE FINIANS
When the American Civil War ended in 1865, an Irish organization known as the Fenians planned to attack the British Empire in revenge for the injustices inflicted on Ireland by the English. The Fenian attacks convinced many colonists, including those in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, that the American threat was real. Most of the Irish people in the colonies stayed loyal to their governments and with this now present fear, Macdonald was able to use the raids to gain support for Confederation. -
LONDON CONFERENCE
In London, Macdonald, Cartier and the others fine-tuned their bill. Only one important change was made to the Quebec deal. A new article was quietly inserted giving English Protestants in Lower Canada special rights.The bill was finally signed by Queen Victoria on March 29, 1867, and Macdonald and his colleagues left for home. On July 1, 1867, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada were proclaimed the Dominion of Canada, with John A. Macdonald its first prime minister. -
CANADA BECOMES A DOMINION
Negotiations led directly to Confederation on July 1, 1867, an attempt to carefully balance regional and national governments and introduce democratic reforms, economic links, and legal foundations for language rights. When the British Parliament passed the British North American Act, which created the new Dominion of Canada. Thirty years after the Rebellions set the process in motion, most—but not all—Reformers embraced the new country. -
QUEBEC JOINS CONFEDERATION
The "parti bleu" under George-Étienne Cartier said that the Confederation project drafted in Québec adequately recognized and protected the rights of Francophones as a distinct cultural and ethnic group, as well as the rights of Quebec as a province. Confederation was an object of debate in Quebec. But the well-oiled political machine of the "parti bleu", supported by the persuasive power of the Catholic clergy, assured that such debate did not impede the Confederation project. -
NOVA SCOTIA JOINS CONFEDERATION
While there were celebrations around the province, such as those described in a Lunenburg resident's diary, in Yarmouth there were buildings draped in black crepe in protest. Effigies of Tupper and other union supporters were burned at Halifax, and at other communities around the province. Some people welcomed union, while others were resentful at being forced into it. -
ONTARIO JOINS CONFEDERATION
As a result of these negotiations and deliberations, in 1867, the province of Ontario was created. The word Ontario is believed to be derived from the Iroquoian for "vast body of water." The province bears the same name as Lake Ontario, first referred to by this name in the Jesuit Relations toward 1641. -
NEW BRUNSWICK JOINS CONFEDERATION
July 1, 1867 was an official holiday in New Brunswick, though not everyone was in a festive mood -- feelings towards Confederation were mixed. In Saint John, the Volunteer Artillery fired a 21-gun salute to mark the beginning of the new Dominion, and an impromptu gathering of several thousand people paraded through the city streets. As the parade passed through an anti-Confederation neighbourhood, street fights broke out, and according to one newspaper report multiple people were badly injured. -
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The Growth of Canada as a Dominion
From THE SIGNING OF THE QUEEN to NORTHWEST TERRITORIES SPLITS IN TWO -
CANADA PURCHASES RUPERT'S LAND
The Hudson's Bay Company was prepared to sell to the Americans who would pay top dollar, but the British government made it clear it wanted the territory to be sold to Canada. On March 20, 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company reluctantly, under pressure from Great Britain, sold Rupert's Land to the Government of Canada for $1.5 million. The sale involved roughly a quarter of the continent, a staggering amount of land, but it failed to take into account the existing residents - mainly Indians and Mtis. -
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES JOINS CONFEDERATION
In 1870, when Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory became the property of Canada and were renamed the Northwest Territories, they were governed directly by Ottawa. The Act for the temporary government of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory when united with Canada created an interim government led by a lieutenant-governor (the first was William McDougall), and a council appointed by Ottawa. -
MANITOBA JOINS CONFEDERATION
Most of the Métis' demands were met. Manitoba would henceforth have responsible government, provincial status, bilingual institutions, denominational schools and a property rights guarantee for Aboriginal lands.
An agreement was reached, and Manitoba became the fifth Canadian province. On May 12, 1870, the Manitoba Act received Royal Assent and was enacted on July 15, 1870. -
BRITISH COLOMBIA JOINS CONFEDERATION
In 1870, a delegation from British Columbia went to Ottawa to negotiate terms and made the modest yet wildly impractical demand that a wagon road be built from Lake Superior to the Pacific. Ottawa's negotiator, George Étienne Cartier, surprised the B.C. group by offering them a railway instead. Construction would begin within two years and be completed in ten years. Cartier also agreed to take over the colony's considerable debt of almost $1.5 million and provide an annual subsidy of $216,000. -
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND JOINS CONFEDERATION
The terms under which the Island joined Canada included those it had sought in Québec in 1864, and more. Canada was to assume Prince Edward Island's railway debt; the Island would be given an $800,000 grant to purchase land from absentee landlords, and a grant of $50 per head; a guarantee of continuous communication with the mainland was provided for; and, finally, Prince Edward Island was allotted six members of Parliament, one more than the five they had been offered at the Québec Conference. -
YUKON TERRITORY JOINS CONFEDERATION
Rapid population growth soon made the government realize that further action was required. As well, the people living in the Yukon were clamouring for more governmental representation -- at least at the local level. As a result, Canada passed the Yukon Act in 1898, designating the Yukon as a separate territory, with the capital at Dawson City. To administer the area, James M. Walsh was appointed Territorial Commissioner. -
ALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN JOIN CONFEDERATION
In January 1905, Haultain and G.H.V. Bulyea arrived in Ottawa to resume negotiations. Also present were Sir William Mulock, Charles Fitzpatrick and Thomas Walter Scott. Territorial self-government was within reach. Negotiations were difficult for four reasons: the question of how many provinces to create, the proprietary issue of Crown lands, financial arrangements and the schools question. Also Alberta and Saskatchewan each received $1,030,375 plus an anual allowence of $62,500 for five years. -
NEWFOUNDLAND JOINS CONFEDERATION
Economic problems have been a constant plague on Newfoundland and in the depths of the depression, it was forced to give up its Dominion status and go back to being a colony of Great Britain so that England would cover its debts. After the Second World War the debate began again.The leading Confederationist was a feisty broadcaster and labour leader, Joey Smallwood. After two plebiscites, Confederation won by a narrow margin. -
NUNAVUT JOINS CONFEDERATION
By the 1970's the aspirations of the Inuit people in the Northwest Territories were recognized by the Federal Government and the creation of a Territory, separate from the rest of the Northwest Territories, to accommodate their desires for a legal territorial area.Final agreement was reached in September of 1992 and another vote in the new area of Nunavut was passed by 85% of the voters. The Canadian Parliament passed the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the Nunavut act on July 9th, 1993.
