III. On the road to confederation.

(1763-1867)

After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the British were faced with governing a colony that had a large French population (some 65,000 people). There were important differences in culture between the English and French. These still affect Canada today. Besides different languages, the French were mostly of the Catholic religion while the English were mostly Protestants. The French also had their own system of law and courts. They reacted strongly against British attempts of assimilation and laws discriminating against Roman Catholics.

It was finally decided by the British government that the best way to govern Canada was to allow the French to keep their own ways of living. In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act, which allowed the French Canadians to keep their religion, their laws and court system, their traditional landholding system of seigneurs and tenant farmers, and ensured the continued use of the French language. As the result of it, the French decided not to take part, when the American Continental Congress invited them to join the struggle for independence against British rule.

Canadian relations with the United States did not improve after the American War of Independence (1775-1783). Some American colonists who wished to retain their British ties fled from the newly-created United States to Canada, to the Maritimes and Quebec. The arrival of about 30,000 of these Loyalists in Nova Scotia led to the creation of a new colony, New Brunswick in 1784. Similarly, the influx of 10,000 of these colonists into Quebec in 1791, led to the division of the colony and the formation of Upper Canada (the western part of the colony of Quebec – the nucleus of today’s Ontario) and of Lower Canada (the nucleus of today’s Quebec).

Canadian relations with the United States did not improve after the American War of Independence, there was still friction between them. Resentment grew until June 1812, when the USA declared war on Britain. The war lasted for two years, and by 1814 both sides were exhausted. British and US negotiators signed the Treaty of Ghent in December 1814, to end the war. In 1818 the US and Britain agreed on the 49^th Parallel as the border between Canada and the USA.

The middle years of the 19^th century were both satisfying and disturbing for British North Americans. Immigrants streamed into colonies, more land was cleared, the towns grew. Local industries were started, while lumbering and shipbuilding activities increased over previous levels. Montreal and Toronto became commercial centres and the ports of the Maritimes engaged in widespread shipping ventures. Transportation improved as roads, canals, and, by the 1850s, railways were built.

Yet, there were problems. and Canadian politicians were searching for the best solution of these problems, and that solution was Confederation.

The real drive for a union between the British colonies in North America came as a result of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Britain had supplied the out-law Southern Confederacy with arms and had allowed Confederate warships to use British ports freely. And these ships inflicted a great deal of damage on Union ports and naval forces during the Civil War. After the Civil War ended, US politicians held Britain directly responsible, and sought territorial compensation to make up the losses.

The ceded territory was expected to come from the largest, the most sparsely inhabited territories left in North America, all located to the west – those of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory. Nearly all politicians of the two largest British North American territories, Ontario and Quebec, favoured this united scheme and persuaded representatives of the other British North American territories, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland to form a Confederation. The initiators of this union – known in Canada as the Fathers of the Confederation – would dominate federal politics in the first two decades after Canada’s formation. The representatives of the Canadian territories met in 1864 at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and at Quebec to work out details of a federation among themselves.

The eventual result of this work was the British North America Act of 1867 which brought about confederation of the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and the New Brunswick. Sir John Macdonald became the first Prime Minister of the new nation of the Dominion of Canada, its birthday being July 1.

The fathers of Confederation made it clear in the Constitution Act of 1867 that other British North American colonies were welcome to join Canada in the future. Slowly, other provinces and areas joined the new confederation: in 1870, the Province of Manitoba; in 1871, British Columbia; in 1873, Prince Edward Island; the prairie provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905. Newfoundland became Canada’s tenth province in 1949.

Thus, in the space of forty years, Canada territorially stretched from sea to sea, one of the original and most treasured goals of the Fathers of Confederation.