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The United States of America passes the “Fugitives Slave Act”
A law passed by the American congress obliged the participation of citizens in the return or assistance in the return of runaway slaves. This resulted in an increase in migration to British-owned Canada via the underground railroad in order to escape slavery. Tens of thousands made the trips, most eventually settling around Nova Scotia and Southern Ontario. -
Queen Victoria selected Ottawa as the permanent new capital of Canada.
Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the new capital in 1857 because it was centrally located between the cities of Montreal and Toronto, and was along the border of Ontario and Quebec, which was the center of Canada at the time. It was also far from the American border, making it safer from attacks. -
Creation of British Columbia
As a result of the migrations caused by the Fraser River Gold Rush, the British government established New Caledonia as the colony of British Columbia to establish sovereignty in the area. -
Fraser River Gold Rush
After the discovery of gold by the banks of Fraser River, around 30,000 miners traveled to New Caledonia, which we now know as British Columbia in the first significant gold rush of the time. The arrival of large numbers of miners resulted in numerous conflicts with local indigenous communities, as the land of the first peoples was being destroyed and mined without permission, fishing sites were occupied and a smallpox epidemic was released. -
Charlottetown Conferences
Political leaders from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada, which was made up of Canada East and West, met in Charlottetown, where a framework for a political union of all colonies was established. -
Quebec Conferences
A month after the Charlottetown Conferences, the colonies met up again in Quebec and passed 72 resolutions that laid out a legalistic and contractual framework for the new country. These resolutions outlined the concept of federalism, where powers and responsibilities would be divided between the provinces and the federal government, which is part of the system we still use today. -
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London Conferences and the British North America Act
The last of a series of conferences attended by 16 delegates from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada and British government officials concerning the Canadian Confederation. This resulted in an act passed by the British Parliament that joined the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into one federal union. This would later come to be known as the British North America Act, marking the birth of a nation. -
Confederation
Composed of only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of modern-day Ontario and Quebec, the British North America Act officially created the Dominion of Canada. On July 1st, 1867, Sir John A. Macdonald became the first prime minister of the new country, and Canada was born. Years later, all across the country, July 1st is celebrated as Canada Day. -
The Rupert’s Land Act
After over 200 years in the possession of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the vast expanse of land draining into Hudson’s Bay was purchased by Britain and transferred to the new Dominion of Canada via the Rupert’s Land Act. This included what would become the Northwest Territories a few years later. However, the Indigenous peoples of the land, who had lived in these areas for centuries, were not consulted in any of these negotiations, despite being the ones affected the most. -
Red River Resistance
Under the leadership of Louis Riel, a Metis leader, the Red River Metis took up arms and attempted to defend their land and culture from being taken away. They seized Upper Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, and hoped-for negotiations. The rebels formed a provisional government to negotiate terms, however, after the execution of an English-speaking prisoner, the government refused to grant them an unconditional amnesty. -
The Creation of the Northwest Territories
The largest land purchase in Canadian history, the Rupert's Land Act, saw the entrance of the Northwest Territories into the Confederation of Canada, and had originally included land that would later become Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Yukon, and Nunavut, as well as the northern extents of Ontario and Québec. -
Creation of Manitoba
The Manitoba Act of 1870 saw the creation of a small province with the intention of providing Métis inhabitants certain land and cultural rights. However, this was not exactly the case, as these benefits and protections were neglected, causing many Metis to move north. The act saw Manitoba joining the confederation as the fifth province of the Dominion of Canada. -
British Columbia Joins Confederation
Four years after it was established, the Canadian confederation saw its sixth province, extending the country all the way to the west coast. British Columbia joined to diminish debt to pay for the building of roads and other infrastructure, as well as to see an added measure of security. The confederation brought the responsible government to the former colony and promised to build a railroad from Montréal to the west coast. -
Prince Edward Island Joins Confederation
Back in 1867, Prince Edward Island had not chosen to join the other colonies in Confederation despite being present at both the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, however, pressure and debt forced the colony to approach Canada and negotiate a deal. The country would assume the colony's debt, and in return, Prince Edward Island became the seventh province of Canada. -
Secret Ballot is introduced in Canada
Up until this point, voting was done verbally in public, which caused accusations of bad conduct and voter intimidation during several elections, resulting in riots and violence. After this, a new system for voting was introduced, which allowed electors to anonymously select and submit candidates, and is a system that we still use today. -
The Supreme Court of Canada is established
Originally designed to standardize Canadian laws and interpret the constitution on current issues, the General Court of Appeal was founded in 1875. At this time, the court was not at the final level of appeal, as cases could still move on to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain, however, later years would see the removal of this, turning the General Court of Appeal into the Supreme Court of Canada. -
Alexander Graham Bell sends the first telephone message
On August 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the world's first long-distance telephone call, from his parents' home in Brantford, Ontario, to Robert White's Boot and Shoe store in Paris, Ontario, which equaled a distance of 13 kilometers. This call was famously marked as the invention of the telephone, a device that would prove to be an incredible advancement in technology and engineering. -
The Indian Act
A Canadian Federal Law put in place to govern matters with regards to First Nations identity, political structures, governance, cultural practices, and education. Over time, the act banned important religious and cultural ceremonies and implemented the idea of assimilation. First Nations were also restricted to reserves, which has had lasting impacts on generations of Indigenous people, as limitations on mobility caused damage to Indigenous economies, cultures, and societies. -
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Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway
With the extension of the country of Canada to the west coast, a project to construct a transcontinental highway was planned as promised to British Columbia. This project took effect in 1881 and was completed in 4 years, with thousands of labourers working in dangerous conditions with minimal pay to complete the railway. Most notably, around 15,000 Chinese workers were employed in these life-threatening conditions, resulting in at least 600 deaths. -
Chinese Head Tax
Politicians in British Columbia worried about the potential economic and cultural impact of this influx of Chinese workers who came to Canada to work on the railroad, which led to a head tax against anyone of Chinese origin entering the country. This tax was an attempt by the government to curtail Chinese immigration since, according to the prevailing attitudes of the day among whites, they were not seen as “desirable” citizens. -
Manitoba Schools Act
Up until this point, Manitoba had two different public school systems, French Catholic and English Protestant. The Manitoba Schools act saw the defunding of French catholic schools due to the influx of immigrants from Ontario’s English-Protestant majority. This caused backlash due to it being in direct violation of the previous Manitoba Act, which established the country back in 1870. -
Klondike Gold Rush
After gold was discovered near Bonanza Creek, Yukon, a steadily increasing stream of hopeful prospectors entered the Yukon River basin far north in search of the metal. The journey was seen as a shared experience involving gold, adventure, challenge, and the North, as well as gathering popularity in literature and name. However, the gold rush brought tremendous upheaval and disenfranchisement for the people indigenous to the region, as they were pushed aside and marginalized. -
Creation of Yukon
Following the Klondike gold rush in Yukon, many stayed, cramming the settlement of Dawson, a town by the river, which grew to accommodate them. In 1898, after the sudden growth in population, the Yukon Territory Act recognized Yukon as a separate Canadian territory, as it officially joined the Dominion of Canada. -
Alberta and Saskatchewan become Provinces
Massive immigration to the Prairies and rapid economic growth in farming, forestry, and mining prompted the creation of Saskatchewan and Alberta, becoming the eighth and ninth provinces in 1905. -
Regulation 17 in Ontario
Since 1846, the ministry of education in Ontario had French taught in bilingual schools, however, in 1912, after years of anti-Catholic and anti-French movement in English Canada, the government set in place a regulation to restrict the use of French in Ontario schools to one hour a day. The French community was enraged at these new regulations, which played a part in the Conscription Crisis of 1917, where linguistic divide caused issues when it came to the act of fighting for your country.