Idea Of Confederation In British North America example essay topic

In the year of 1867 the nation we know as Canada came into being. The Confederation in this year only came about after things had been overcome. Many political and economic pressures were exerted on the colonies and a federal union of the colonies seemed to be the most practical method of dealing with these pressures and conflicts. While Confederation was a solution to many of the problems, it was not a popular one for all the colonies involved.

In the Maritime colonies views differed widely on the topic. Some were doubtful, some were pleased, others were annoyed and many were hopeful for a prosperous future. 1 It was the initiative of the Maritime Provinces that first created the concept of union. Leaders of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia had been discussing the possibility of a Maritime union for many years.

Lieutenant Governor Arthur Hamilton Gordon and Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick, Premier Charles Tupper of Nova Scotia and Colonel Gray and W. H Pope of Prince Edward Island were all advocates of the concept of maritime union for solutions to the problems which they were encountering. 2 Trade was important to the Maritimes. Up to 1846 Britain had provided the British North American colonies with a market for their goods, but then began a policy of free trade. Because there were no tariffs placed on any country the colonies lost a sure market for their goods. Many colonists were concerned that some might consider union with the United States and the British North American colonies was brisk with large amounts of lumber and grain being imported by the U.S. When the Americans ended the Reciprocity Treaty in 1865, many Maritimers became uneasy about the economic future. It became apparent that in order to develop thriving trade; new economic links would have to be developed.

3 George Coles, a persistent politician, insisted that Prince Edward Island was not being provided with strong leadership, Gray was forced to drop the topic of Confederation. To the Islanders, a government dominated by Upper and Lower had little appeal. A colony as small as Prince Edward Island would have very few representatives in a federal government. They were not prepared to pay taxes to build an Intercolonial Railway, which could not run on their island. Islanders also opposed Confederation over the issue of absentee landlords.

Their dislike of the landlords in Britain, they felt, would only be replaced by the dislike of landlords in Britain, they felt, would only be replaced by a dislike of a dislike of landlords in Ottawa. By 1865 Prince Edward Island had turned down the Confederation plan. The people of Newfoundland were no more enthusiastic about the idea of a large Union. Newfoundland had always maintained close ties with Britain, having more in common with them than the people in Western Canada.

Although the pro-Confederation people argued that financial benefits for the struggling fisheries would result, most Newfoundlanders could not understand how that could happen, instead they feared heavy taxes and an involvement in a possible battle between Canada and the United States. The Newfoundland government did not even bring the Confederation idea to vote. Newfoundland would maintain its status quo. If the Maritime colonies had been able to isolate themselves, they could have lived contentedly for a long period of time, but other pressures would force Maritimers to reconsider Confederation. One of these outside pressures was the support Great Britain was giving to this idea of Confederation in British North America.

Great Britain no longer wanted to be concerned with nor did they wish to provide the financial assistance to support Canada in any war. By the 1860's railways were being hailed as an answer to economic problems. Those people in the Maritimes who supported Confederation argued that a transcontinental railway would improve among the colonies and would also help to unify the country. Goods could be moved much more efficiently throughout the colonies. The isolation of the Maritimes from Upper and Lower Canada would be broken, Joseph Howe of Nova Scotia was one of the keen supporters of an Intercolonial Railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but while it was an exciting concept even Howe realized that no colonial government could ever afford the task.

However the Maritime leaders felt that if they could unite into one province, they could produce a strong government that could afford to complete its own railway. While the Maritimers wondered if they could unite to solve all their economic problems, they became more afraid of incidents that were occurring in the United States. In recent years the United States had taken over a great deal of land in North America. During the war of 1812 the Americans had invaded and occupied parts of the colonies.

After the rebellions of 1837 a number of border raids on Canadian settlements had taken place. Now in the 1860's the American Civil War was raging and it appeared that the North would be the winner over the South. Since Britain was a supporter of the South, would the North, if victorious over the British in the South, attack the British colonies in the Maritimes and Upper Canada? The concept of confederation seemed to offer the possibility of creating a unity against the threat of an American invasion. Another issue that would be directly affected by the concept of Confederation was the one of political deadlock because of language and religion between Upper and Lower Canada. While this was not a significant issue to Maritimers, it provided the governments of Upper and Lower Canada with a desire to interest the Maritime colonies in a British North American Union.

In 1864 when John A. MacDonald and George-Etienne Cartier announced that their deadly political enemies George Brown and his Reformers were joining them in a coalition government the wider consideration of the union of all of British North America would naturally follow. On September 1, 1864 the first Confederation conference was called to discuss the idea of Maritime Union. It was agreed that it would be held in Charlotte, Prince Edward Island because Islanders would not be interested enough to attend a Conference any where else. 4 Islanders cared little about the Conference or the scheme that was about to be discussed. Most islanders were prosperous and content.

They felt that in a central government located in Upper Canada, their small island would have very little representation. They also did not to a solution to their age old problem of absentee landlordism; landlords in Upper Canada did not differ a great deal from landlords in Britain. 5 Recognizing the presence of this opposition, Tupper wrote to Tilley " I confess I have a strong impression that our difficulty is likely to be with the Island and that our presence there would not do any harm". 6 When the Great Coalition learned of this Conference they asked for and received an invitation to attend.

Fifteen delegates from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick attended. Newfoundland sent no one to the meeting as they had little interest in uniting with anyone. Newfoundland was experiencing destitute conditions; the fishing industry was in decline and the agriculture and timber trades were facing difficulties. Upper Canada seemed much farther away from them than did England.

Accordingly, Newfoundlers were in indifferent to the idea of the union. 7 Maritimers postponed their discussion of Maritime Union until the delegates from Upper and Lower Canada presented their views on a much larger Union. John A. MacDonald, George Cartier, Alexander Galt and George Brown presented their case for a federation; which would consist of two levels of government: one central government would govern the entire country while each province would maintain its own identity with its own local government. The Canadians did their best to convince the Maritimers that their plan would work for the benefit of all and that all they had to do was to agree to future meetings to work on the formation of a new nation. 8 The Maritimers were more skeptical.

"It was only too clear that their distrust of the Canadians, their doubts about federalism and their defensive attitude towards their own plan of legislative union were all potent forces working against confederation in the Maritime provinces". 9 Throughout five days of meetings and lavish social events the Maritimers concluded that it might be a more practical idea to discuss a federal union and that at worst they had not much to loose. "Yet despite all this Maritimers showed, again and again, that they could not help but feel that their ultimate destiny lay in British North American union. Even the sharpest critics of the Canadian plan admitted that everybody had dreamed of a future when the British possessions in America should become a great nation". 10 When the Charlottetown Conference adjourned on September 6 the Maritimers had accepted an invitation to attend an official conference on Confederation in Quebec. 11 The Quebec Conference began on October 10, lasted for two weeks and was attended by not only delegates from the three Maritime provinces but also two delegates from Newfoundland, who had come to observe the proceedings and to decide whether their colony should be urged to join the union.

Politicians from Upper and Lower Canada spent two weeks arguing and debating over complicated issues such as the divisions of powers and regional representation in a federal government. The delegates produced Seventy-two resolutions, also known as the Quebec resolutions, which were a plan of the political structure of a new nation. The new structure would have a federal union, with the capital located in Ottawa. While many of the English speaking delegates from Upper Canada and Lower Canada and the Maritimes would have preferred a legislative union, they generally realized that the French Canadians would never agree to one level of government for the whole nation for they would lose control of their language and culture.

12 Maritimers too were reluctant to lose their own provincial assemblies. The central government would be the House of Commons where members would be elected based on the concept "representation according to population". The other part of the Parliament would be the Senate where members would be appointed on a regional basis by the Governor General on the Advice of the Prime Minister. The Senate was to be set up in order to protect the rights of the smaller provinces and act as a check on the power of the House of Commons. There was much discussion over the division of powers between the provinces and the central government. John A. MacDonald was determined to relinquish as little power to the provinces possible and as a result insisted that the central government maintain the right to disallow any legislation passed by a provincial government.

These Seventy-two Resolutions were simply an outline to be used as the basis of any formation of a federal union. The plan would be the subject of many debates in each of the colonies. Yet the concept of Confederation could not proceed until each colonial government would approve it. This approval would not be easily obtained in any of the colonies and although the largest percentage of the population of British North America live in Upper Canada and Lower Canada, Confederation would not occur without Atlantic Canada. In the Maritimes opposition to Confederation was keen, some because they were opposed to Confederation on any terms and others because they disliked some of the terms in the Quebec resolutions. Generally people of the Atlantic colonies felt little in common with the people in Upper and Lower Canada.

They regarded the government which existed in the Provinces of Canada as almost an unworkable one since it was now faced with political deadlock. They feared the high taxes which might result from debts incurred by railway construction and the loss of their own local governments if Confederation was imposed on them. While the Atlantic colonies shared many of the same concerns each one had its own local concerns. 13 In Nova Scotia the anti-Confederation movement was lead by Joseph Howe. Howe, a newspaper editor, was the best known politician in the Atlantic Region.

He was genuinely concerned that Confederation would be disastrous to the region and he expressed these concerns, successfully reducing local support for the Confederation idea. : Yet the twelve' Botheration Scheme' articles, which ran from the 11th of January to the 2nd of March, did what only Howe could have done with such magical effectiveness. They roused Nova Scotia's local patriotism against the Quebec scheme". 14 Premier Charles Tupper, a pro-Confederate, realized that convincing people of the benefits of Confederation would not be easy. Nova Scotia was reasonably prosperous and satisfied with their self-government. Recognizing the strength of the opposition and fearing the defeat for his government, Tupper hesitated to have the legislative vote on the Quebec resolutions.

As a result he postponed an election. 15 In New Brunswick Premier Leonard Tilley faced the same opposition but unlike Howe he decided to fight an election on the question of Union. The anti-Confederates worked hard on the campaign. They predicted higher taxes, a loss of New Brunswick's control of its own affairs and a loss of local trade if Upper and Lower Canada were to send in cheap goods.

The only benefit which Tilley promised the people was the Intercolonial Railway but even this idea was not accepted by everyone since some business people felt it would be more practical to develop a railway plan linking the province's railways to the American ones through Maine. When the election was held March 6th 1865 Tilley and his government were badly defeated, he himself losing his seat. The new provincial government lead by A. J Smith was solidly opposed to the Quebec Resolutions. 16 To the people in Prince Edward Island the advantages of Confederation appeared very minimal. J. H Gray did not take a strong public stand on the question of Confederation, although he believed in it himself. However, George Coles, a persistent politician, insisted that Prince Edward Island was not being provided with strong leadership.

To the Islanders, a government dominated by Upper and Lower Canadians had little appeal. They were not prepared to pay taxes to build an Intercolonial Railway which would have little benefit for their island. Islanders also opposed Confederation over the issue of absentee landlords in Ottawa. Premier Gray resigned in December of 1864 as a result of his own party's opposition to Confederation. 17 The Newfoundlanders were no more enthusiastic about the idea of a large Union.

Newfoundland had always maintained close ties with Britain, having more in common with them than the people in Upper and Lower Canada. Although the pro-Confederate people argued that financial benefits for the struggling fisheries would result, most Newfoundlanders could not understand how that could happen, instead they feared heavy taxes and an involvement in a possible battle between Canada and the United States, Support for the Confederation concept gradually diminished and eventually disappeared. The Newfoundland government did not even bring the Confederation idea to a vote. 18 If the Maritime colonies had been able to isolate themselves, they could have considered only a Maritime union, but other pressure would force Maritimers to reconsider Confederation.

Great Britain no longer wanted to be concerned with nor did they wish to provide the financial assistance to support Canada in any war which might occur between Canada and the United States. Confederation would mean British North Americans would be taking responsibility for their own defense. The British Cabinet enthusiastically supported the Quebec resolutions and they realized that although the Province of Canada seemed to want confederation, the people of the Maritimes, although a much smaller group disapproved of the idea. Consequently, the British Government decided to apply pressure to change the Maritimers' minds about Confederation. 19 In Nova Scotia, a new pro-Confederation lieutenant governor was appointed to replace Mcdonnell who was openly opposed to Confederation. Fenwick Williams backed Premier Tupper in his pro-Confederation stand and used all his influence to gain support for the idea.

In New Brunswick, Lieutenant-Governor Arthur Hamilton Gordon was instructed to arrange for a pro-Confederation decision. Because of this political interference in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia many of the colonists felt they were being subjected to an undemocratic way of forcing them into a federal union. "Because of the important role played by the British government, it is Tempting to see Confederation as a measure imposed on the colonists against their will. But Government pressure could not haven been effective if the majority of the provincial leadership in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had not been convinced that Confederation, even on the basis of the Quebec Resolutions, was unavoidable".

20 A.J. Smith's anti-Confederation government in New Brunswick experienced many conflicts in its attempts to govern. Although business in New Brunswick had hoped for closer economic relations with the United States using railway connections to Maine, it was obvious that the New Brunswick government could not afford to build the railway on its own and no private investors had come forward to provide the money. When the United States government decided that it would not renew the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 with the British North American colonies, Smith experienced a severe setback. He realized that the new tariff barriers against British North American products would shut the New Brunswickers and the other Maritimers out of the huge American trade market. The ship building industry and the timber industry had flourished New Brunswick during the reciprocity years. Smith realized that New Brunswick could not prosper in isolation.

Some kind of Union with the rest of Canada seemed inevitable. In 1866 Lieutenant-Governor Gordon insisted that the legislature consider Confederation. Smith resigned claiming that the Lieutenant Governor was exceeding his authority at the encouragement of Britain. Nevertheless, New Brunswick would be given a second chance to express their views on Confederation. 21 Another pressure which contributed much to the acceptance of Confederation to Maritimers was the threat of the Fenians.

These were an Irish group organized in Ireland and the United States who were determined to free Ireland from British rule. In the United States this would be accomplished by attacking the British colonies north of the American border. Although their attacks were few in number, located in Upper Canada, and very ineffective, the threat was greatly exaggerated in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and this fear did much to promote a loyalty to the idea of a British North American Union. "They also raised the bogey of the Fenians, militant Irish Nationalists who were amassed along the American border and who assisted the Confederates by making the loyalty cry more creditable. Without the Fenians, the Unionist majority might have been smaller but Pro-Confederates believed - probably correctly -that they would still have carried the day".

22 By 1866 Premier Tupper decided to bring the Confederation issue before the Legislature. Capitalizing on the opportunity provided by the Fenians scare, the Nova Scotia assembly passed a resolution to accept Confederation, or at least some kind of union, but did not go to the people of Nova Scotia for their approval in an election. As a result, opposition continued in Nova Scotia right up to the time of Confederation. In New Brunswick, Leonard Tilley put renewed energy into gaining support for the idea of Confederation. Monies for his campaign came from Upper Canada, Britain, railway builders, and some private businessmen all hoping for monetary gain if Confederation would become a reality. In June of l 866 Tilley and his Confederate supporters swept the election, New Brunswickers had obviously changed their minds and were now willing to accept a union.

In December 1866 delegates from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Upper and Lower Canada met in London, England at a conference to draw up the final legislation that would make British North America a new nation. One politician, who was not particularly welcome in London, arrived. Joseph Howe went to investigate the idea of a possible Nova Scotian separation from Canada. Surprised by the solid British support for Confederation, Howe realized that the future of Nova Scotia was with Canada and having little personal choice in the matter he decided that his best move was to gain the best terms possible for Nova Scotia in a union with Canada. "The imperial tie", which Howe had defended throughout his long career, was about to be repudiated, not by the colonies, but by England itself".

23 The tasks of the London Confederation became to select a name and to revise the Seventy-Two Resolutions so they would become an acceptable constitution for the new county. "Canada: became the obvious choice of names of the delegates. With little revision, the Seven-Two Resolutions became the basis of the British North America Act and became law in March 1867. Instead of a 'federation " the new union would be called a "confederation".

The subsidies guaranteed to the provinces would become a grant form the federal government rather than the eighty cents a head stated in the Seventy-Two Resolutions. Provincial governments would male their own laws concerning education and separate schools. While the central government would control finance, the postal system, defense and banks, the provincial governments would look after roads, healthcare and other local concerns. Both the English and French languages could be used in the debates in the Parliament of Canada and in the judicial courts.

The Intercolonial Railway would be completed between Nova Scotia and Quebec. Provisions were made permitting the entrance of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island or any of the Western provinces into Confederation should they decide to join Canada at later date. The Native peoples had lands reserved for them and this was the only reference in the act to Canada's Aboriginal peoples. These lands were "usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture".

24 The British North America Act went into effect July 1st, 1867 creating a union known as the Dominion of Canada, but this did not complete the debate on the Confederation issue. Many Nova Scotians continued their opposition to the idea and it would take considerable time before all Nova Scotians would accept the fact of Confederation. "These Nova Scotians, disgruntled at their treatment by Great Britain, found that their loyalty had markedly diminished. The more they considered taking over the responsibility for their own affairs from England, however, the greater trust they had to place in Confederation". 25 Confederation struck a balance between the rights of English and French speaking Canadians.

Nevertheless, many divisions, conflicts, and debates would occur not only in Quebec but also in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick over this balance. Economic disparities between the Maritimes and the rest of Canada would also create many problems for the years following 1867. As a result, Confederation can be viewed as a beginning and not an end..