Week 11- Confederation and Its Discontents 19 November 2012
I. The “Day of Humiliation” in Yarmouth, NS
-July 1 , 1867; procession headed by wagon carrying musicians (Ottawa Band) pro-
confederation sound
-“Unity is Strength” banner, four cats with tails tied together, Nova Scotia trying to escape
-set effigy of Charles Tupper burned with a live rat
-French Canadians, nationalist historians interpret things differently
- explained to French Canadians, if they participated then they would really be getting a divorce
from Canada
A. Confederation as Liberal-Capitalist Moment
-Confederation was a change engineered by thinkers who placed Canada under the
political control of liberals and under economic control of upper class merchants?
II. The Road to Confederation
A. Political Deadlock in the United Province of Canada
-political deadlock in united Canada, English and French constantly saying no to each
other‟s proposals
-falls on this issue 15 times in 15 years
-capital city Kingston to Montreal where they burned the house of assembly down,
government moved back and forth between Toronto and Quebec City
-1859 capital was placed in Ottawa to please English and French
B. George Brown, the Clear Grits, and „Rep by Pop‟
-George Brown: representation by population, intense Francophobe
-Census said West was larger than the East
C. The “Great Coalition”: Brown, Macdonald, Cartier
D. Britain: Unloading Colonial Burdens
-British were for confederation because they would only be responsible for one colony as
opposed to five
E. The Three Confederation Conferences: Charlottetown, Quebec, London
-started in Maritimes, got together to discuss Maritime Union
-Expected a crowd to see MacDonald and Brown when they arrived in PEI to hijack the
conference, but there was a circus in town so nobody showed up
-delegates agreed on confederation, senate rep by pop in house of commons
-The Quebec Conference 1864: 72 Resolutions (declaring what was discussed in
Charlottetown) but had no legal standing
-had to get resolutions passed in their respective colony
-those who opposed Confederation went to London
-London Conference, basically saying it‟s going to stppen so get over it
-BNA Act of 1867, proclaimed into law on July 1
III. Confederation as Economic/Class Strategy
A. Saving Central Canada‟s Bacon
-Canada on the verge of bankruptcy
-canal system and railroad, more money than they had was being pumped into them
-between 64 and 65, 50% of money went to paying interest charges on their debt -Confederation = potential credit and borrow more money on the international scale
-central Canadian benefits economically
-Britain repeals the corn laws (1846)- Canada then looked to US as profits and struck up
a reciprocity deal and this is repeated in 1866
B. An Emerging Bourgeois Class
i. Politics and/as Business
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