Canada: Confederation

John A. Macdonald, who'd led the Province of Canada for most of the decade before 1867, became the Dominion's first Prime Minister, in power for 19 of the next 24 years. One of the federal government's first projects was purchasing Rupert's Land from Hudson's Bay Company, and $1.5 million was paid in an 1870 deal. Dominion land between Manitoba and British Columbia and north of them was organized into the Northwest Territories in 1870, and the North West Mounted Police--now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police--was created in 1873. (The British government transferred its sovereignty over the Arctic region to Ottawa in 1880.)

Canada's expansion triggered a crisis in the Red River Colony, and Metis leader Louis Riel formed a provisional government in the 1870 Red River Rebellion. In the end the colony became the Province of Manitoba, but Riel was viewed as an outlaw and had to flee. (In the 1870s he was elected to Parliament but they wouldn't let him take his seat.)

The industrial revolution was starting to transform Canada, but some regions benefited more than others. Macdonald's tariff policy encouraged domestic industry in the economic heartland but meant higher prices in other regions. New infrastructure was a high priority, and the Intercontinental Railway connecting the Maritimes to central Canada was opened in 1872. But the biggest project was yet to come.

British Columbia joined the Dominion in 1871 with the understanding that Ottawa was committed to build a transcontinental rail line to the remote province. But construction on the Canadian Pacific Railway only seriously started in 1881. The new influx of settlers led to a second crisis west of Manitoba, and Riel returned in 1885 and led indigenous allies in the North West Rebellion.

The Mounties defeated this rebellion in a few months, and Riel was hanged later that year. (The decision to execute him was unpopular in Quebec, and the ruling Conservative Party never quite recovered there.) Paradoxically, the rebellion saved the hated CPR from bankruptcy, and it opened in 1885. In the following years Ottawa pursued a punitive policy toward the First Nations, even the ones that had stayed loyal!

Our discussion will include: The continuing anti-Confederation faction in provincial politics. Settlement of the west and Indian policy. Oliver Mowat's Liberal Ontario government. The engineering challenge in building the CPR. New waves of immigrants. Law and order on the Canadian frontier. Politics in the Province of Quebec.

A weekly discussion on a history topic. We'll meet at Yorkville Village food court, at the round table near the west entrance.