Confederation of Canada was the union of British colonies that formed the Dominion of Canada in 1867. The dominion was established by the British Parliament under terms of the British North America Act. At first, it consisted of four provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. It expanded across North America and developed into present-day Canada.
Early colonies of Canada.
After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Britain still had four colonies in North America. These colonies, which spread across what is now eastern Canada, were Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, St. John’s Island, and Quebec. New Brunswick was established in 1784, and St. John’s Island was renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799.
Most of the people outside of Quebec were of English descent. The majority of them had come directly to Canada from England. Others were people loyal to the British government who had left the United States after the Revolutionary War in America. In Quebec, however, most of the people were of French descent. Quebec had been a French colony from 1608 until 1763, when Britain acquired it as a result of its victory in the French and Indian War.
In 1791, Britain divided Quebec into the colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Upper Canada occupied the region along the Great Lakes and the upper part of the St. Lawrence River. Most of its people were of British descent. Lower Canada lay to the northeast of Upper Canada and consisted primarily of French Canadians.
In 1837, minor rebellions broke out in both Upper and Lower Canada. The leaders of the revolts, William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada and Louis Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada, both sought more authority over local affairs for their colonial legislatures. Conflicts between the French-speaking majority and the English-speaking minority contributed to the revolt in Lower Canada. Neither rebellion gained broad support, and British troops easily put them down. However, the events moved the British government to send a representative to examine the causes of the rebellions. The representative, the Earl of Durham, arrived in Canada in 1838. See Rebellions of 1837.
Lord Durham’s Report
was submitted in 1839. It took the position that the Canadian colonies would wish to remain in the British Empire if Britain allowed them to govern their local affairs. Lord Durham also recommended the eventual union of all the Canadian colonies under a central government. As a step toward this goal, he suggested combining Upper and Lower Canada. These proposals had been suggested earlier, and the British Parliament largely disregarded his report.
In 1840, however, Parliament passed the Act of Union. This act, which took effect in 1841, joined Upper and Lower Canada into a new colony called the Province of Canada. In 1848, Britain allowed a new form of government, called responsible government, in the Province of Canada. Under this system, an elected Legislative Assembly, rather than the British government’s representatives in the colony, had the chief authority over local affairs. By 1855, similar governments had been set up in nearly all the Canadian colonies.
Continuing problems.
During the 1850’s, the political balance between the English- and French-speaking groups in the Province of Canada broke down. The colony’s Legislative Assembly consisted of an equal number of members from each of the former colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. But the united colony had more English-speaking than French-speaking people, and the English began to resent the equal political strength of the French minority. Because the two groups were almost evenly represented, it became more and more difficult for a government formed by either group to win broad support and stay in power.
Other conflicts arose because some people in the colony wanted to expand westward into the vast areas north and west of the Great Lakes. The British government had entrusted these areas to the Hudson’s Bay Company, a large English fur-trading firm. Still other people pushed for construction of a railroad to link the Province of Canada with the Atlantic Coast colonies. Also, by the 1860’s, all the Canadian colonies had become worried about military defense. The Civil War had begun in the United States in 1861, and many Canadians feared an invasion by American forces if Britain openly supported the rebelling Southern States. In addition, the colonies feared U.S. expansion into the territory north and west of the Great Lakes.
Moves toward confederation.
During the mid-1860’s, a group of political leaders in the Province of Canada finally decided that a strong union of all the colonies offered the best solution to their problems. The leaders of this group were John A. Macdonald, a conservative from the old area of Upper Canada; George Etienne Cartier, a conservative from Lower Canada; and George Brown, a liberal journalist and member of the colonial assembly. In September 1864, they met with political leaders from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. At this meeting, called the Charlottetown Conference, the delegates from the Province of Canada convinced the leaders of the other colonies that a confederation of the North American colonies should be created.
The details of the confederation were worked out the following month in Quebec City. This meeting, which included representatives from Newfoundland, became known as the Quebec Conference. The Fathers of Confederation, as the delegates to Charlottetown and Quebec came to be called, planned a new nation. They outlined their plan in 72 points called the Quebec Resolutions. The new nation would have two levels of government—provincial and national—and, like the United States, would be a federation. But it would follow the British system of parliamentary government. It would be a self-governing community within the British Empire, not an independent country. The plan also called for the creation of a province that the French-speaking Canadians would control. See Quebec Conference.
The plan for confederation did not easily win acceptance. Many people in the Atlantic Coast colonies were satisfied with their existing status. They feared they would lose control over their affairs in any union with the larger Province of Canada. Voters in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island rejected confederation. Strong opposition blocked the plan in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. The Province of Canada approved confederation. But many French Canadians there worried that their rights might be diminished in the new nation.
Approval of confederation.
Resistance to the plan weakened as it became clear that Britain strongly favored the union. The British government hoped it would cost less to defend and assist a united colony than it would a group of separate colonies. The plan for confederation attracted additional support in 1865, when the United States decided to end an agreement that had helped increase trade with the British colonies. The colonies then realized they would have to cooperate, either to get a new trade agreement with the United States or to stimulate trade among themselves.
Confederation became even more appealing when the Fenian Brotherhood began to launch attacks on Canada in April 1866. The brotherhood, an organization of Irish-Americans, planned to capture Canada and hold it until Britain agreed to free Ireland. American and Canadian forces stopped the Fenian raiders, but the attacks persuaded many people in the colonies that a united Canada offered them the most effective defense.
During the height of the Fenian scare, the Nova Scotia legislature approved confederation. New Brunswick voters defeated the anticonfederation government in the colonial elections of June 1866. Samuel L. Tilley, the new premier, quickly succeeded in getting the legislature to approve the proposal for union.
Later in 1866, leaders of the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia met in London to prepare the final details. They adopted the Quebec Resolutions with only minor changes. The British Parliament readily approved the necessary legislation in March 1867. The legislation, which consisted chiefly of the Quebec Resolutions, was called the British North America Act. It provided for the formation of the Dominion of Canada and served as the new dominion’s constitution.
The British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867. The dominion it created consisted of four provinces—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Ontario and Quebec had been formed by dividing the Province of Canada. The British North America Act also provided that other provinces could be added to the Dominion of Canada. The dominion’s population totaled about 31/2 million. John A. Macdonald, one of the leading confederation supporters in the Province of Canada, became the first prime minister of the newly formed nation (see Macdonald, Sir John Alexander).
Confederation set the stage for the development of a great country. Through the years, other provinces joined the Dominion of Canada. In 1931, Canada formally became an independent nation.
See also British North America Act; Canada, History of (The struggle for responsible government); Hudson’s Bay Company.
