| At this time when the governments of the Canadian
Provinces are demanding money and power from the Federal Government,
when the political right is demanding less centralized government in
Ottawa and the pressure to merge Canada with the USA (currency, trade
and politics) is at a zenith, it may
be an good exercise to look back at the history of Canada to understand
what we are potentially "giving up".
When we talk about the birth of Canada, what do you think of as the
pivotal events? The Plains of Abraham? The British North
America Act?
What if I told you that the birth of Canada was the result of fear of
invasion and/or annexation by the Americans?
For example, the initial border between Canada and the US was
negotiated as part of the Treaty of
Versailles in 1783. The Treaty of Versailles was the
treaty which acknowledged the independence of the US from Britain.
The boundary
between the United States and British North America was to run,
following various rivers, lakes and latitude 45°, west to the Lake
of the Woods and then to the Mississippi. In 1791 the Constitutional Act
divided the province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. This
was done because after the American Revolution
many United Empire Loyalists left the United States and emigrated
north. The division into Upper and
Lower Canada gave the Loyalists who settled west of the Ottawa River
the chance to organize and develop along their own lines.
In 1818 the line between Canada and the US stopped at the Ontario
border. In order to protect its sovereignty the Treaty of 1818
extended the international border from the northwest corner of the
Lake of the Woods due south to the 49th parallel and along it to the
Rocky Mountains. This was done even though neither Manitoba,
Saskatchewan or Alberta were part of Canada.
Finally in a treaty of 1846 The 49th parallel was established
as a border all the way to the Pacific.
In 1867 the British
North America Act finally established the terms of
Canada. The most common view of Confederation under this Act is a
bunch of guys around a table waxing poetically on Canada as a
nation. But was that the reason they met to do the deed?
For years the US had been trying to talk the British and the
Canadians into joining them. The Americans were convinced that
Canada could not make it on their own. Since 1850, William Seward,
the American Secretary of State during the Civil War, had been an
annexationist who felt that British North America (Canada) was destined
to become part of the United States. As it became obvious that the North
would emerge victorious from the War, there was a fear that American
expansionism would rear its head and turn its eyes to the north.
In the Canadas and the Maritimes many thought that invading BNA would
give the victorious Union army something to do. The possibility of
annexation was even more real in the northwest of what is now
Canada. In 1860 Seward praised the people of Rupert's Land for
conquering the wilderness and creating a great state for the American
Union.
In the election of 1864 the Republican Party used annexation as a
means to gain support from Irish Americans and the land-hungry. An
Annexation Bill introduced by
General Banks was passed in the United States House of Representatives
in July of 1866. It intended that the United States acquire all of what
is now Canada.
Whether based in reality or not, the fear of annexation played a
definite role in the achievement of Canadian Confederation and in
shaping its constitution. Seeing the horror of war that resulted from
the divisiveness of American federalism, the Fathers of Confederation
decided that Canada should have a stronger federal government than the
one south of the border (more abut that later). Sir É.-P.
Taché, Premier of Lower Canada, said it best in 1866:
| "If the opportunity [for
Confederation] which now presented itself were allowed to
pass by unimproved, whether we would or would not, we would be
forced into the American Union by violence, and if not by
violence, would be placed upon an inclined plain which would
carry us there insensibly." |
In 1867 the British North America Act brought together the
provinces of Canada, divided into Ontario and Quebec, Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick, to form the Dominion of Canada. In 1869, having
acquired the rights from the Hudson's Bay Company, the Dominion
transformed the former Rupert's Land and the area beyond the Rocky
Mountains into the North West Territories. In 1870, the old Red
River settlement joined the Dominion as the province of Manitoba.
In
1871 British Columbia joined the union. In 1873 Prince Edward Island
joined Confederation.
In 1905 Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces and finally in 1949
Newfoundland made up the final piece of the provincial puzzle.
Now that we understand why Canada came into being, let us now examine
what it looked like politically
in 1867 and why.
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