Toward Confederation 1839-1867 Presented By: Adam Lynch October 24, 2018

John George Lambton In 1838, Britain sent John George Lambton (Lord Durham) to Upper and Lower Canada to mediate rebellions. When Durham arrived in British North America he appointed five of his staff who accompanied him to assist rather than choosing executive councilors from the French or English parties. After five months of being in Canada he resigned and went home to England. Upon returning to England he wrote one of the most impactful reports on Canada in 1839.

Lord Durham’s Report Lord Durham’s report was on whether Canada should unite except for the French Canadians. He believed that if they united upper and lower Canada this would stop many of the revolutions happening in Canada East. Throughout much of his report he stated that whether or not the French left the English race would end up predominating them numerically in lower Canada. He wanted the Britain’s to enforce many of there law’s and religion as he saw that the English people had more power in Canada so they could assimilate many of the French. This would allow them to make new union under a federal or legislative government that would be ruled only one group instead of their being two clashing government’s.

Free Trade In 1840 Britain abolished its trading system with the British colonies ending mercantilism. Britain started moving into the industrialization age . Once Britain moved into industrialization they decided to abolish the Corn Law in Canada since many of the wheat and other grain farmers struggled as more then half there market diminished over one year. Although Colonial trade with the British was slowing down , Canada decided to focus on trading with the 13 colonies instead. Canada decided this was a great idea for their economy and proceeded to build railroads to increase volume of trading. In 1854 Canada and the United States signed a reciprocal treaty which lasted for twelve years and benefited many of the Atlantic colonies.

Railways Originally the railways were created for trading , however, they also connected cities together creating more larger urban centres. One of the biggest issues with the railroads was not only the expense, but also the politicians who tried to invest and promote the railways by attempting to become an office member for a railroad company. In Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia invested around 100 million dollars, one of the biggest projects was creating the Grand Trunk railway which took 5 years to build (1852-1857). This was the largest railway system in the world with 2055 km of track.

Thomas Coltrin Keefer Keefer was a civil engineer who wrote a pamphlet on the philosophy of railroads in 1850 . The pamphlet described many benefits of the railroads such as quicker trading, less deadly form of transportation, and more navigable since trains could travel over mountains and sharp turns with greeter speed then a horse. One of his biggest arguments throughout the pamphlet was that with trains they can carry certain goods such as fresh meats across Canada which benefited many farmers and merchants.

Political System for East and West Canada The British government decided to act on Lord Durham's Report in 1841 by uniting upper and lower Canada. The act of union was when Britain made Canada East and Canada West be ruled by its own elected governor, with one elected assembly and they must only speak English. Although Britain united the two Colonies both of them had fears of the other getting more power and taking over even though they had equal representation. Canada East feared this as they believed this action was to assimilate the French into forgetting their culture. The British never had the chance as many of the French Canadians banded together and was able to defeat Canada West in these elections.

La Fontaine La Fontaine was one of the few reform political leaders in Canada East. La Fontaine was a strong believer that the British were just doing this to appease the French so they would assimilate into the English culture. In 1841 Robert Baldwin was forced to give up his position since the governor refused to grant him a responsible government. He influenced his father in allowing La Fontaine to run for his position. La Fontaine won the election. Eight (8) years into La Fontaine being an elected legislature, he sponsored a bill to compensate the people in Canada East for their losses in the rebellions in Lower Canada. Governor Lord Elgin refused to sign the bill. He was eventually forced to sign after being overruled by the elected assembly. This prompted riots in Montreal which resulted in the burning of the parliament buildings.

John A. Macdonald John A. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland and at a young age moved to Canada. He was a lawyer by profession. Macdonald believed that if we were to unite Canada the government would need to build a cross-continental railway. Throughout his early political career he was opposed by George Brown who was a Britain supporter. Macdonald believed that they could unite Canada with its diverse culture, but Brown gained many supporters by arguing that Canada should unite under one language and one religion. After four failed governments ,who believed in many of Brown’s ideologies , it prompted Brown to return to Britain to talk with politicians who he believed were needed to unite Canada; not divide the Colonies. Upon his return, Brown formed a coalition with John A. Macdonald and George Cartier.

Population The population in Canada nearly doubled over 20 years in its colonies. During this time many people were immigrating to Canada from many European countries and America. The only Colony to lose people over this time was British Columbia . Approximately half of their population was natives.

Charlottetown Conference This was a Conference held by Arthur Gordon , Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, who believed that the four Atlantic Colonies should create a union over which he would be in charge. The union was opposed by George Brown who believed that Macdonald wanted this so he could get more supporters to sway the vote in his direction. This was not the case, as was simply for financial aid to some of the colonies, such as PEI ,who were in debt during this time. Alexander Galt, the Minister of Finance agreed with this union. Galt believed in an economical view that would raise these colonies revenue and possibly abolish their debts.

Quebec Confederation In 1864, thirty-three delegates met in Quebec to talk about the future of Canada. The confederation talked about two important subjects during the meeting. First whether Canada should keep ties with Britain and secondly, whether they should have a two level government with shared power. They quickly agreed in keeping ties with Britain for aid in case there was another invasion from the South. Much of the meeting was focused on a two level government since many of the smaller colonies believed they would be forced to join the larger provinces. This meeting contained many important topics, but ignored women and aboriginals rights since they believed it was of little importance at the time.

Questions Did Lord Durham’s Report have any significance creating modern Canada? Were railways truly the way of the future or were they being suggested so politicians could make more money? Why would Canada consider separating ties with Britain as they were still not a united country?

Works Cited Lord Durham’s Mission to Canada, by Chester New, 1963 The Critical Years: The Union of British North America 1857-1873, by W. L. Morton, 1964 Defining Canada, by Nick Brune, Senior Author, 2003