1. Chapter 10 Expanding Confederation
What factors led British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and then Newfoundland to become provinces of Canada, and what were the consequences?

2. British Columbia Joins Confederation
Many newcomers to Canada were lured by the promise of fertile farming land
British Columbia, at first, seemed like it was all rock and mountain
People began rushing to British Columbia for another reason: GOLD!
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3. Gold Colony
The First Nations who lived along the Fraser River had been mining gold for hundreds of years.
When the Hudson’s Bay Company set up a trading post nearby, the First Nations miners brought their gold to trade
Word that there was gold in the mountains quickly spread to the outside world
In 1858, about prospectors were scrambling along the banks of the Fraser River

4. The Road to Gold
The prospectors started moving more North and more gold was discovered along the Quesnel River in the Cariboo Mountains
The Governor decided to build a wagon road called the Cariboo Road
It cost more than a million dollars to build

5. After the Gold Rush
The Gold Rush only lasted until about 1968, 8-10 years
After the rush, the sleepy town of Victoria was transformed into a thriving centre
Many newcomers stayed on, they build farms and started up businesses
Logging became extremely important to the economy
British Officials arrived to setup a government – this was a colony for Britain

6. One Colony on the Pacific
The purpose of colonies was to provide wealth and power for the home country
As the gold rush wound down, the colonies almost went bankrupt
The colonists became unhappy with their relationship with Britain – the colony was deeply in debt
A lot was changing – Canada was expanding West and the United States were expanding North
British Columbia had three options:
To remain a British colony
To become a province of Canada
To join the United States

7. BC would join Confederation if:
They wanted Canada to pay the colony’s debts.
They wanted a road to build across the prairies to the Pacific. It would link British Columbia with the rest of Canada.
They wanted Canada to make payments to the new province every year.
Much to their surprise, Canada agreed! They also offered to build something better than a road. They offered to build a transcontinental railway.
On July 20th 1871, British Columbia became Canada’s sixth province

8. Prince Edward Island Joins Confederation
PEI was one of the colonies that originally took part in the talks that led to Confederation in 1867
The islanders decided not to join Canada
The islanders wanted more money and more Members of Parliament (from PEI)

9. Rethinking Confederation
4 main reason they re-thought confederation:
The “Land Question” – British landowners technically owned the land. The farmers didn’t own their homes or farms. If PEI joined Canada the government promised to buy the land for them
In 1871, the government of PEI wanted to build a railway to increase jobs and help farmers move their produce. If they joined Canada, the federal government would help pay for it
PEI was trying to make a trade deal with US to sell their goods. This angered the British government.
Britain wanted to rid itself of the cost of running the colony. Canada was worried that the American secretly planned to take over the island. As a result, both Canada and the Britain put pressure on PEI to join the union.

10. A Better Deal In 1873, delegates from PEI went to Ottawa
Their were tough negotiations but Canada agreed to:
Pay the island’s debts
Pay the province an annual sum of money
Take over the cost and building of the island railway
Provide year-round steamboat service between the island and the mainland
Give PEI six MPs in the House of Commons
Buy back land from the absentee landowners in Britain

11. Two New Provinces in the West
After PEI and BC had joined Confederation, Canada stretched from Sea to Sea
But in the middle, lay the North-West Territories – they were a part of Canada but they were not provinces
The North-West Territories were granted full responsible government – which means the elect their officials, rather than depend on the monarch

12. Provincial Status
Responsible government wasn’t enough for the people of the North-West Territories
They needed services from the government, due to their growing populations (roads, schools, railway, etc)
The North-West territories was different than PEI and BC because they were already part of Canada – they needed to decide the number of provinces to be created, the division of powers and ownership of resources, and minority rights

13. One Province or Two, Federal vs. Provincial Power, and Minority Rights
One or two provinces – it was argued that a single province would be too large to manage and have too much power.
In 1905, the Saskatchewan Act and the Alberta Act created two new provinces
Federal vs. Provincial Power
The Federal government kept control of public lands and resources
In return, it paid each province just over a million dollars
Minority Rights
Concerned with minority education for Francophone and Catholic schools

14. Review Why did people start flocking to British Columbia?
What was BC classified as before it became a province?
What were some of the reasons PEI joined confederation the second time?
What was Alberta and Saskatchewan called before they were provinces?
Why didn’t people want Alberta and Saskatchewan to be one large province?

15. Newfoundland and Confederation
Newfoundland also chose not to join Confederation in 1867
However, in the 1930s thing began to change
The economy of the colony of Newfoundland was based on exporting natural resources but during the Great Depression of the 1930s, no one had the money to buy natural resources
The colony was about to go bankrupt
The British government took control of the colony’s affairs by replacing the government with the commission but things didn’t get better until the Second World War

16. Confederation Revisited
After World War II Newfoundland had three options:
Return to colonial status
Leave the commission in place
Become the tenth province of Canada
In 1948 the people of Newfoundland voted in a referendum
The first referendum was unclear
The second referendum results were 52.3 per cent voted to join and 47.7 per cent voted to stay a British colony – MAJORITY RULES!