Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:06:52.018Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Nationalism and Confederation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

F. R. Scott
F. R. Scott*
Affiliation:
McGill University
Get access

Extract

To Canadians living in the 1860's, as to Canadians of the 1940's, the world seemed a very dangerous place. In many respects the threats to Canadian survival must have appeared even greater then than now. The American Civil War brought large-scale fighting closer than the present campaigns in Europe or Asia. The Fenian raids, apparently backed by wide American support, looked more ominous than U-boats in the St. Lawrence. The most disastrous international alignment that could ever befall Canadians—a war between the United States and Great Britain—appeared once again imminent. Internally there were equivalent dangers. The constitution of 1841 had broken down in the province of Canada, rendering stable government impossible. Political deadlock had been reached. Though French Canadians were able to enjoy the gratifying spectacle of British Canadians caught in the very constitutional trap—equal representation regardless of population—which had been designed to assure British supremacy, the situation could not continue. The economic outlook was no brighter. Imperial preferences had disappeared with the free trade movement, and though a successful readjustment had been made by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 this too was about to end. Notice of the cancellation of the Treaty was given by the United States in March, 1865. Thrust out into the economic world first by England, Canadians were rejected a second time by their other mainstay. And when they looked westward for new frontiers, they saw an advancing wave of American settlement, backed by western railways, threatening to engulf the unsettled prairies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , August 1942 , pp. 386 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1942

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The Northern Pacific was chartered in 1864.

2 The fullest account of this transaction will be found in Trotter, R. G., Canadian Federation: Its History and Achievements (London, 1924), chap, xiii ff.Google Scholar; and in the same author's “British Finance and Confederation” (Canadian Historical Association Annual Report, 1927, p. 89).Google Scholar See also Glazebrook, G. P. deT., A History of Transportation in Canada (Toronto, New Haven, 1938), pp. 193–4, 230.Google Scholar

3 Letter to his constituents, 1859. Quoted by Brady, A. in Thomas d'Arcy McGee (Toronto, 1925), p. 53.Google Scholar

4 SirLucas, Charles P. (ed.), Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America (3 vols., Oxford, 1912), vol. II, p. 305.Google Scholar

5 Memorandum of 1851. Cited by Martin, Chester, “Sir Edmund Head's First Project of Federation” (Canadian Historical Association Annual Report, 1928, p. 25).Google Scholar

6 Martin, Chester, Empire and Commonwealth: Studies in Governance and Self-government in Canada (Oxford, 1929), p. 351.Google Scholar

7 The Hon.Whelan, E., The Union of the British Provinces: Written Immediately after the Conferences Held in Charlottetown and Quebec in 1864, on Confederation, and the Accompanying Banquets Held in Halifax, St. John, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto (reprinted, Gardenvale, Toronto, 1927), p. 24.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 59.

9 Gray, John Hamilton, Confederation: or, the Political and Parliamentary History of Canada, from the Conference at Quebec, in October, 1864, to the Admission of British Columbia, in July, 1871 (Toronto, 1872), p. 37.Google Scholar

10 SirPope, Joseph (ed.), The Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada (2 vols., Ottawa, 1894), vol. I, p. 303.Google Scholar

11 Whelan, , Union of the British Provinces, p. 145.Google Scholar

12 Doughty, A. G. (ed.), “Notes on the Quebec Conference, 1864” (Canadian Historical Review, vol. I, 03, 1920, p. 28).Google Scholar

13 E.g., Joseph Howe and Sir Edmund Head.

14 See Ewart, J. S., The Kingdom Papers (Ottawa, 1911–1914), vol. II, pp. 369 ff.Google Scholar

15 Whitelaw, W. M., The Maritimes and Canada before Confederation (Toronto, 1934), p. 260.Google Scholar

16 Even consular powers for Canada were suggested at the London Conference, though no decision was taken. See SirPope, Joseph (ed.), Confederation: Being a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Documents Bearing on the British North America Act [hereafter referred to as Pope, Confederation Documents] (Toronto, 1895), p. 112.Google Scholar

17 July 31, 1880.

18 Prince Edward Island Assembly, Debates, 1867, p. 152 (speech of May 8, 1866).Google Scholar

19 Ibid., p. 153.

20 Canada, Province of (1841-66), Parliamentary Debates on the Subject of Confederation of the British North American Provinces [hereafter referred to as Confederation Debates] (Quebec, 1865), p. 825.Google Scholar

21 Nova Scotia Assembly, Debates, 04 10, 1865, pp. 210–11.Google Scholar

22 Ibid.

23 Confederation Debates, p. 370.

24 Quebec, no. 71; London, no. 68. See also Pope, , Confederation Documents, p. 74.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., p. 43.

26 Cited in New Brunswick Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 149 (italics mine).Google Scholar

27 Confederation Debates, p. 527.

28 New Brunswick Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 126.Google Scholar

29 Nova Scotia Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 260.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 268.

31 Gray, , Confederation, p. 45.Google Scholar

32 Whelan, , Union of the British Provinces, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

33 The third and fourth drafts. See Pope, , Confederation Documents, pp. 158, 177.Google Scholar

34 The story of this first struggle for equal status is best told, as one might expect, in J. S. Ewart, “Imperial Projects and the Republic of Canada” ( Ewart, , The Kingdom Papers, vol. II, pp. 374–85Google Scholar). See also Groulx, Lionel, La Confédéralion canadienne, Ses Origines: Conférences prononcées à l'Université Laval (Montreal, 1917–1918), p. 225.Google Scholar Most Canadian historians treat the incident as though it had little significance.

35 Macdonald's phrase ( Pope, , Memoirs of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, vol. I, p. 313 Google Scholar).

36 Ibid. It is odd that the Fathers, who knew the Americans better than Lord Derby did, never anticipated this objection. The only suggestion I have found in the Confederation debates to the possible dislike in the United States of a Canadian monarchy was in Perrault's speech (at pp. 621-2), and he was an opponent of the whole scheme. It has been suggested that it was the British who were offended at the implication of equality. See Skelton, O.D., The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Gait (Toronto, 1920), p. 410.Google Scholar

37 Cited in Ewart, , Kingdom Papers, vol. II, pp. 384–5.Google Scholar

38 Confederation Debates, p. 525. Tache also expected the continuance of colonialism (ibid., p. 228). Dunkin, who preferred an imperial federation, was inconsistent in his attack, since at one moment he was arguing that Confederation would leave Canada a colony and at the next that it would make her independent.

39 Reg. v. Taylor, 36 U.C.Q.B. at p. 220; Smiles v. Belford, 1 O.A.R. 436. See Clement, W. H. P., The Law of the Canadian Constitution (ed. 1, Toronto, 1892), pp. 57 ff.Google Scholar

40 Confederation Debates, p. 944.

41 For an expansion of this idea see my article “The Privy Council and Minority Rights” (Queen's Quarterly, vol. XXXVII, 10, 1930, pp. 668 ff.)Google Scholar; Canada, House of Commons, 1935, Proceedings, Evidence and Report of Special Committee on the British North America Act (Ottawa, King's Printer, 1935), pp. 82–3.Google Scholar

42 Pope, , Confederation Documents, p. 55.Google Scholar

43 See Dafoe, J. W., “Revising the Constitution” (Queen's Quarterly, vol. XXXVII, 01, 1930, pp. 6–7).Google Scholar

44 Confederation Debates, p. 623.

45 Hon.Palmer, Edward as quoted in Gray, , Confederation, p. 118.Google Scholar Macdonald spoke in the same sense ( Pope, , Confederation Documents, p. 55 Google Scholar).

46 Quebec and London Resolutions, no. 2.

47 Confederation Debates, p. 131.

48 Pope, , Confederation Documents, pp. 54–5.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., p. 86.

50 Ibid., p. 27.

51 Confederation Debates, p. 33.

52 Ibid., p. 41.

53 Ibid., pp. 55, 60.

54 Ibid., p. 9.

55 Ibid., pp. 108.

56 Ibid., p. 70.

57 Ibid., p. 144.

58 Ibid., pp. 367-8.

59 Ibid., p. 368.

60 Ibid., p. 823.

61 Nova Scotia Assembly, Debates, 1865, pp. 207–8.Google Scholar

62 Confederation Debates, p. 176.

63 Ibid., pp. 360-1.

64 Ibid., p. 623.

65 Ibid., p. 250.

66 P.E.I. Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 68.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., 1866, p. 109.

68 Ibid., at end of 1867, pp. 151-2.

69 New Brunswick Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 116.Google Scholar

70 Ibid., p. 111.

71 Nova Scotia Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 235.Google Scholar

72 Ibid., p. 247.

73 P.E.I. Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 65.Google Scholar

74 Nova Scotia Assembly, Debates, 1865, p. 266.Google Scholar

75 Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 3rd Series, vol. 185, Cols. 563-6.

76 Ibid., Col. 1168.

77 Ibid., Col. 1179.

78 Cardwell to Monck, Dec. 3, 1864 (see Journals of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1865, Appendix 3).

79 P. 56.

80 Cited by Morris, , Confederation Debates, p. 440.Google Scholar The Times suggested Canada's motto should be, not E Pluribus Unum but In Uno Plura.

81 This use of imperial sovereignty to eliminate provincial sovereignty appears as early as 1851 in Sir Edmund Head's memorandum ( Martin, , “Sir Edmund Head's First Project of Federation,” p. 18 Google Scholar). It is found too in the letter of Cartier, Gait, and Ross to Lytton, Oct. 25, 1858 ( Kennedy, W.P.M., Statutes, Treaties and Documents of the Canadian Constitution, 1713-1929, ed. 2, Oxford, 1930, at pp. 537–8Google Scholar). See also quotations from Macdonald, supra: and Morris, , Confederation Debates, p. 440.Google Scholar

82 Speech on B.N.A. Act, cited in SirHardinge, A., The Life of Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, Fourth Earl of Carnarvon (3 vols., London, 1925), vol. I, p. 326.Google Scholar

83 Macdonald and D'Arcy McGee both praised the United States constitution very highly while criticizing it in detail.

84 Pope, , Confederation Documents, p. 57.Google Scholar

85 Ibid., p. 55.

86 This idea first finds judicial acceptance in the Reference re Alberta Statutes, 1938 S.C.R. 100, per Duff C.J., at p. 134 and Cannon J., at p. 143.

87 No. 3.

88 See schedule to Order-in-Council of May 16, 1871, admitting British Columbia to the union.

89 The Pacific Railway was begun by the Dominion government, and the portions thus built were handed over to the C.P.R. later.

90 Sept. 30, 1866. Cited by Stacey, C. P., Canada and the British Army, 1846-1871: A Study in the Practice of Responsible Government (London, 1936), p. 193.Google Scholar

91 18 Vict. c. 77.

92 Stacey, , Canada and the British Army, p. 94.Google Scholar

93 The Canadian attitude is set out in a Minute of Council of October 28, 1862, in Canada, Sessional Papers, 1863, no. 15.Google Scholar

94 SirCartwright, Richard John, Reminiscences (Toronto, 1912), p. 55.Google Scholar

95 Despatch of Cardwell, 06 17, 1865, cited in Stacey, Canada and the British Army, p. 187.Google Scholar

96 The agreement as to future military arrangements is in Stacey, , Canada and the British Army, p. 226.Google Scholar

97 See 4 Edw. VII, c. 23, s. 30.

98 Stacey, , Canada and the British Army, p. 238.Google Scholar

99 Nos. 29-34 and 28-33.

100 See Macdonald, in Pope, , Confederation Documents, p. 82.Google Scholar

101 B.N.A. Act, sec. 98; contrast sec. 97, showing the local selection of common-law judges was meant to be temporary.

102 Canada, Sessional Papers, 1871, no. 16.Google Scholar See my article “Section 94 of the B.N.A. Act” (Canadian Bar Review, vol. XX, June, 07, 1942, 525–44).Google Scholar

103 See Lord Cairns's memorandum to Blake, cited in Cannon, L. A., “Some Data Relating to the Appeal to the Privy Council” (Canadian Bar Review, vol. III, 10 1925, at p. 464).Google Scholar Also Haldane, R. B., “Lord Watson” (Juridical Review, vol. XI, 1899, p. 280).Google Scholar

104 For a full account of this see Underhill, F. H., “Edward Blake, The Supreme Court Act, and the Appeal to the Privy Council, 1875-6 (Canadian Historical Review, vol. XIX, 09, 1938, pp. 245–63).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

105 Ibid., p. 247.

106 The overwhelming weight of Canadian authority outside the courts now acknowledges that the Privy Council has interpreted the B.N.A. Act in a manner contrary to the intentions of the Fathers.

107 Macdonald's exasperation at the sacrifice of Canadian interests in the negotiations appears in his correspondence to his colleagues: see Pope, Memoirs, chaps. xx-xxi.

108 Kennedy, W. P. M., The Constitution of Canada: An Introduction to Its Development and Law (Toronto, 1922), at p. 344.Google Scholar

109 Kennedy, , Documents of the Canadian Constitution, at p. 676.Google Scholar

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid.

112 For the list of reserved bills see ibid., at p. 672.