The Atlantic Provinces and the Confederation Debates of 1865

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SPRING 2016

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES DEBATING THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES OF 1865 Reconsidering the debates over Canadian confederation tional arrangement of 1867 (enshrined A PRE-ORDAINED BY COLIN M. COATES NORTHERN COUNTRY? AND PHILIP GIRARD in the British North America Act, passed ith the 150th anniversary of Con- by the British Parliament in 1866) exist- Colin M. Coates teaches Canadian studies ed: at the conclusion of the debates in Wfederation approaching, it is an at Glendon College and is the former appropriate time to review the process- director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian the Canadian legislature that this collec- es and historical contexts that framed Studies. Philip Girard is professor of law at tion of essays considers, politicians vot- the formation of Canada in 1867. The Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. ed 91 to 33 in favour of Confederation in Canada that took shape on July 1, 1867 1865. The other British colonies negoti- looked very different from the Canada many politicians believed fervently in ated their entry later (British Columbia that we know today. Comprising only the expansion of the country. They may in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, southern Ontario and southern Quebec have embraced too readily a northern and Newfoundland and Labrador even- and the provinces of New Brunswick version of the “manifest destiny,” how- tually in 1949), while title to other large and Nova Scotia, this new dominion ac- ever, when they assumed that the cre- tracts (the western prairies and the Arc- counted for less than 10 percent of the ation of a northern country from sea to tic) was transferred with no consultation current land mass of the country. But as sea to sea was preordained in the 1860s. of the inhabitants. Some of the Métis the essays in this publication show, Considerable opposition to the constitu- Reconsidering, page 3 The Atlantic provinces and the Confederation debates of 1865

features—people from one of these prov- THE EMERGENCE OF BY PHILIP GIRARD “ATLANTIC CANADA” inces generally feel more at home in the Philip Girard is professor of law at he phrase “Atlantic Canada” is of others than they do in the rest of Can- Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. ada. But in the 1860s and still today, the Trelatively recent vintage, having He has published extensively on the been coined as a convenient way of history of law in Canada, his best-known region contains geographic variety, dis- referring to the four eastern provinces work being Bora Laskin: Bringing Law to parate resource endowments and econ- after Newfoundland joined Confedera- Life (2005; reissued in paperback, 2013). omies, and considerable ethno-cultural tion in 1949.1 Before 1949 no one spoke The Atlantic provinces, page 4 of Atlantic Canada—in the debates of As purely geographic shorthand, the 1865 these colonies were referred to as phrase cannot be objected to (though of The contents of this issue are listed the maritime provinces, the lower prov- course Quebec is an “Atlantic province” in the Features box on page 2. inces, or the eastern provinces. After too). Nevertheless, insofar as it suggests 1949, the Maritimes plus Newfoundland a common identity, a common culture, became “Atlantic Canada” in bureau- the term must be approached with cau- cratic and eventually popular parlance. tion. There are certainly some unifying

Canada Watch is a publication of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies of York University CANADA WATCH SPRING 2016

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES Debating the Confederation EDITOR Gabrielle Slowey, Director Debates of 1865 Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, York University FEATURES GUEST EDITORS Reconsidering the debates over “Canada was … just like a farmer”: Colin M. Coates Canadian Studies and former director Canadian confederation Confederation from the perspective Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies By Colin M. Coates and Philip Girard...... 1 of agrarian society Philip Girard By Colin M. Coates...... 21 The Atlantic provinces and Osgoode Hall Law School the Confederation debates The nature of Confederation and faculty associate Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies of 1865 By Sean Kheraj...... 24 By Philip Girard...... 1 A workingman watches MANAGING EDITOR An example for the world? By Craig Heron...... 27 Laura Taman, Coordinator Confederation and Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Gender and the French Canadians York University Confederation debates By Marcel Martel...... 7 By Kathryn McPherson...... 30 COLUMNISTS IN THIS ISSUE Confederation as Colin M. Coates Elsbeth Heaman an intra-Christian pact Confederation comes at a cost: Indigenous peoples Philip Girard Dennis Pilon By David Koffman...... 10 and the ongoing reality of Marcel Martel Sean Kheraj Revisiting the 1865 Canadian colonialism in Canada David Koffman Craig Heron debates on Confederation: By Gabrielle Slowey...... 33 David R. Cameron Kathryn McPherson Rights and the Constitution Using history to justify Jacqueline D. Gabrielle Slowey By David R. Cameron, Krikorian Marlene Shore Jacqueline D. Krikorian, Confederation Robert C. Vipond and Robert C. Vipond...... 13 By Marlene Shore...... 37 Ged Martin

Confederation and taxation The Robert Harris PRODUCTION By Elsbeth Heaman...... 16 group portrait WordsWorth Communications By Ged Martin...... 40 Canadian Confederation CONTACT FOR INFORMATION and democracy Suggested readings...... 44 Canada Watch By Dennis Pilon...... 18 7th Floor, Kaneff Tower 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Phone 416-736-5499, Fax 416-650-8069 http://robarts.info.yorku.ca The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and For information regarding future issues, contact Laura Taman, Coordinator, Robarts Centre.

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES Please address comments to Gabrielle Slowey, Director, Robarts Centre.

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2 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Reconsidering continued from page 1 inhabitants in the Red River region of current-day Manitoba objected to the process, and under the leadership of Louis Riel they staged a resistance that led to the entry of a small portion of southern Manitoba into Canada in 1870. Beyond its geographical boundaries, Canada differed in many other ways from the country in 2016: it was less eth- nically diverse, even though the politicians dedicated substantial efforts to bridge the chasm that was perceived to exist in the Western world at the time between Protestants and Catholics, and between English and French. The country was largely agrarian. Few Canadians lived in cities then, while the vast majority do so today. Women had a constrained political role, labour interests had little effective voice, and Indigenous peoples were defined outside of the polity, all with consequences that still require substantive attention today. Con- cepts and practices of democracy dif- PROVINCES OF CANADA: July 1, 1867 to July 15, 1870. fered as well: to take one example from the 1867 general election, only slightly had been raised in different guises for From the Quebec meeting, the prop- more than 5,000 voters participated in many years, historians often focus on ositions were then debated, with no the election that returned Thomas two key meetings, Charlottetown in Sep- room for further modifications, in the D’Arcy McGee in the constituency of tember 1864, where delegates from legislature of the United Canadas. (The Montreal West in Canada’s largest city, “Canada” (that is, Ontario and Quebec) United Canadas comprised Canada East and the men would have voted in public took over another meeting planned to or southern Quebec, and Canada West for their candidate in conditions that we discuss the confederation of the Atlantic or southern Ontario. The older terms would fail to recognize today as demo- provinces. After achieving some level of Lower and Upper Canada remained in cratic. In contrast, in the 2015 election, agreement, delegates from the five Brit- use.) The government of the day clearly, the smallest constituency in population ish colonies in eastern North America and not surprisingly, saw this debate as was Nunavut, with over 18,000 voters. convened in Quebec City in October being worthy of a permanent record, 1865 to propose the specific details of a and it supported the publication of REVISITING THE DEBATES constitutional arrangement that would those debates a short while afterward. OF 1865 bring all the British North American col- Lasting from February 3 to March 13, As one part of York University’s desire onies together. After three weeks, the 1865, and totalling over 1,000 pages in to recognize the 150th anniversary of delegates had hammered out a series of printed form, these debates are avail- Confederation, we convened a group of resolutions to take back to their legisla- able for consultation in print and online. scholars to examine the same published tures. These were practical proposi- In the 1960s, at a time when the Canad- source, the debates in the legislature of tions. As Christopher Moore points out, ian government was celebrating the the United Canadas in 1865, and explore “There is no poetry in the Quebec reso- Centennial of Confederation, Professor a series of important issues that arise lutions.”1 Nonetheless, the Quebec P.B. Waite of Dalhousie University, one from reading that document. As a result, meeting later inspired one of the iconic of the leading specialists in the politics the debates serve as a prism for examin- images of the Confederation process, of the period, edited a condensed ver- ing some of the suppositions and the dif- the Robert Harris painting The Fathers sion of the debates.2 In this edition, he ferences of opinion between the of Confederation, which Ged Martin appropriately dedicated much attention politicians. Although the idea of confed- explores in detail in this collection. to capturing the words of the leading erating the British North American lands Reconsidering, page 4

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 3 Reconsidering continued from page 3 figures, John A. Macdonald, attorney “From the vantage point of 2016, how general for Canada West (Ontario), We have attempted can we read the Confederation debates George-Étienne Cartier, attorney gen- to read the document in 1865 in the Canadian legislature from eral for Canada East (Quebec), George the perspective of the chosen topic?” Brown, leader of the Grit Party (a fore- both for what the The reader will readily see that many runner to the Liberal Party), Thomas divergent readings of the same docu- D’Arcy McGee (Conservative politician politicians expressed ment are possible. and one of the most compelling speak- We would like to acknowledge the ers), and the (essentially titular) pre- and for what they Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies mier Étienne-Paschal Taché, a life did not feel the need and the Vice-President for Research and member of the Legislative Council, Innovation at York University for their which had a function similar to today’s to express. support for this project, and of course Senate. He also conveyed the opinions all the contributors. Laura Taman, coor- of some of the key opposition speak- dinator of the Centre, has overseen the ers—Christopher Dunkin and Antoine- largely from York University, but also publication process. We hope that this Aimé Dorion, for instance. Many other including scholars from other universi- publication will help readers under- members of the Legislative Assembly ties, chose a wide variety of topics. stand better the context of the central and Council contributed to the debates. Some selected issues that were central Canadian debate over the terms of Con- We asked the contributors to this collec- to the discussions (the Atlantic colonies, federation and to reflect on the suc- tion to read the Waite edition as a start- definitions of democracy, religious cesses and the failures of the politicians ing point, and some of them have minorities, French Canadians, and taxa- who agreed to the constitutional chosen to privilege the longer edition of tion). Others examined issues that were arrangement of 1867. the debates. We believe that readers important in the context of the period may benefit from reading the Waite edi- and some of which would become cen- NOTES tion, still accessible today in a second tral to subsequent understandings of the 1. Christopher Moore, 1867: How the edition with a new foreword by Ged country, but which the politicians of the Fathers Made a Deal (Toronto: Martin. Janet Ajzenstat and her col- day may have discussed only obliquely McClelland & Stewart, 1997), 129. leagues have provided a more compre- (agrarianism, the environment, labour, 2. P.B. Waite, ed., The Confederation hensive edition of the debates in the Indigenous peoples, historical con- Debates in the Province of Canada, Canadas and elsewhere in British North sciousness, rights, and gender). We 1865, 2nd ed. (Montreal: McGill- America in their book Canada’s Found- have attempted to read the document Queen’s University Press, 2006). Note 3 ing Debates. both for what the politicians expressed that all page references to this version of This publication of Canada Watch and for what they did not feel the need the debates in subsequent essays are shows the variety of readings that the to express. We have also tried to exam- indicated in brackets within the text. same document may inspire, depending ine the debates in a longer time frame— 3. Janet Ajzenstat et al., eds., Canada’s upon one’s focus and interests. The the starting point of the project was to Founding Debates (Toronto: University group of scholars assembled here, ask contributors the following question: of Toronto Press, 2003).

The Atlantic provinces continued from page 1 diversity: Acadians; African Canadians fairly light. The Atlantic provinces hold Canadians as reasons for entering into a (Nova Scotia had the largest black com- approximately 6 percent of the Canad- larger union with them. The combined munity in Canada before the immigra- ian population and their MPs fill 9 per- populations of the eastern provinces tion boom of the 1960s); Mi’kmaq, cent of the seats in the House of were much more important relative to Wulstukwiuk, Innu, and Inuit peoples; Commons.2 The four provinces together the Canadas than they are today, and and the increasingly multicultural popu- represent only 32 seats out of the 338 in both the size and the character of that lations in the region’s larger cities. the newly enlarged House of Commons. population were attractive. The relative Most Canadians who live west of The situation was quite different in populations of the colonies were as fol- New Brunswick are not obliged to think the 1860s, when both the population lows according to the 1861 census, of the Atlantic provinces of Canada very and the geography of the eastern col- except for Newfoundland, where figures often. Today, their political weight is onies appealed to Upper and Lower from the 1869 census have been used:

4 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 (57). Moreover, as John A. Macdonald Quebec 1,100,000 [T]he strength of the reminded his audience, Canada West Ontario 1,400,000 new union, he shared ties of language and the English common law with the lower provinces. New Brunswick 250,000 warned, would be Although the two regions had remained Nova Scotia 330,000 relatively unknown to one another, Prince Edward Island 80,000 “the kind of strength advocates of Confederation sought to portray the population of the Atlantic col- Newfoundland 150,000 which a fishing rod onies as possessing shared values that TOTAL 3,310,000 would make them desirable partners in would obtain by the new nation. Total (minus PEI and NF) 3,080,000 fastening to it some COSTS AND BENEFITS During the debates of 1865, it was still OF GEOGRAPHY possible that all four Atlantic colonies additional joints.” would join the new nation being dis- Geography also seemed to point the way cussed, though it was far less likely that to the new union. No nation could be Newfoundland would do so. The col- the players: the wares of the Canadas great, asserted Sir Étienne-Paschal onies possessed a population of 810,000, would be carried “unquestioned into Taché, if it “had not seaports of its own nearly three-quarters of the population every village of the Maritime Provinces,” open at all times of the year” (2). The St. of Quebec, and would have represented while they “shall with equal freedom Lawrence might carry trade to the heart a quarter of the population of the new bring their fish, and their coal, and their of the continent, but it could do so only Canada. Even taking just Nova Scotia West India produce to our three millions seven months of the year. The American and New Brunswick, which actually of inhabitants” (46). Indeed, some have Civil War revealed the need for rail joined in 1867, their combined popula- argued that Nova Scotia coal was a key access to the sea within British North tion amounted to 19 percent of the total reason the Canadas were interested in a America, when it became more difficult population of the new dominion, about broader union. But it was not just as sup- for central Canadian produce to reach the same as the proportion of Canad- pliers of raw materials that the eastern the Atlantic via the US rail route to Port- ians who live in the three prairie prov- region was valuable. According to land, Maine. With the Americans poised inces today. Brown, with the large numbers of ships to abrogate the Reciprocity Treaty in constructed in the Atlantic provinces, 1866, which had freed up trade between AN EXPANDING MARKET the new nation would be the third- them and the British colonies for a dozen George Brown, leader of the Clear Grit largest maritime nation in the world, years, the arguments of those favouring (Liberal) Party, was thrilled at the pros- after Britain and the United States (46). union seemed even more convincing. pect of this enlarged market. With the Beyond their abstract identities as But geography could be a double- exaggeration characteristic of political consumers and producers, the inhabit- edged sword. With the question of de- debate, he asserted that “the addition of ants of the eastern provinces were also fence on everyone’s mind in light of the nearly a million of people to our home prized by Canadian statesmen for their Civil War, the creation of a national mil- consumers [swept] aside all the petty character, at least on the public record. itary force produced by the union of objections that are averred against the (George Brown was less flattering about four or more colonies could seem scheme” (45). Other countries sought the delegates from the Maritimes in pri- attractive. As Joseph Rymal of South to enlarge themselves by war or pur- vate.) Proponents of Confederation such Wentworth pointed out, however, the chase, but the new union represented as James Ferrier, a Montrealer and mem- additional population would come with an opportunity to do so in a peaceful ber of the Legislative Council of Canada, a huge amount of extra real estate to de- manner—and for free! Brown faced an thought they were “an energetic, active, fend; the strength of the new union, he obstacle here. As he knew, there was industrious people, quite equal to our- warned, would be “the kind of strength relatively little trade between the Cana- selves” (13). In Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s which a fishing rod would obtain by fas- das and their prospective partners in the view, their delegates to the Quebec City tening to it some additional joints” 1860s: only 5 percent of the Maritimes’ talks were “as able and accomplished a (120). Relative to its defence needs, exports and imports involved the Cana- body as … any new country in the world even the enlarged population of the new das. The eastern colonies had thrived could produce, [while] some among nation would be far less than what was on oceanic trade with Britain, the West them would compare not unfavorably in required. Atlantic Canada offered op- Indies, and the eastern United States. ability and information with some of the portunities to the Canadas, but these Nonetheless, Brown predicted, a cus- leading commoners [i.e., members of came with costs. toms union would free up the trade of all the House of Commons] of England” The Atlantic provinces, page 6

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 5 The Atlantic provinces continued from page 5 In order to counter these doubts, Confederation not hear these voices in the debates in John A. Macdonald raised the “what-if” the legislature of the Canadas. The Can- question: what if a union with the sea- ultimately had both adas were the dominant partner, and board colonies did not transpire? In that believed they had much to gain and lit- case, he thought, they would “revive the benefits and tle to lose from the union, while the original proposition for a union of the Maritimers were more dubious but had Maritime Provinces. … [T]hey will not drawbacks for the few realistic options. remain as they are now, powerless, scat- Newfoundland’s decision to go it tered, helpless communities, they will maritime provinces alone ultimately had disastrous conse- form themselves into a power, which, and Newfoundland. quences. It essentially went bankrupt though not so strong as if united with during the Depression and had to sur- Canada, will, nevertheless, be a power- render self-government in 1934 to an ful and considerable community” (22). colonies joining each other were never appointed commission of three British Macdonald did not necessarily believe very bright. Prince Edward Island’s inter- and three Newfoundland officials, a sit- his own prediction: his veiled threat of est in the Confederation project waned in uation that would last until Confedera- maritime independence was made pri- 1864-65 when it was clear that the Cana- tion in 1949. Would the Maritimes have marily to draw his listeners into the pro- das were not prepared at that time to put suffered a similar fate had they Confederation camp. Still, it poses an money up front to buy out the island’s remained outside Confederation? Their interesting counterfactual. Without the large landlords. It is unlikely that the economies were somewhat more diver- Canadas, might some or all of the four other Atlantic provinces would have sified than Newfoundland’s, and their Atlantic colonies have had their own been able or willing to float the $800,000 populations better educated. Still, it is confederation? If they did, would it have loan that the young nation of Canada was doubtful whether maintaining their survived? Might we be marking “twin” able to offer the island in 1873 to end autonomy, singly or together, could have confederations in 2017? landlordism and cement its entry into impeded significantly the strong eco- Confederation. Newfoundland’s decisive nomic forces drawing people out of the ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS LIMITED rejection of Confederation in the election region for employment elsewhere, or Some thought the Atlantic colonies in of 1869 suggests that it was committed to stimulating the centralization of capital the 1860s had no need of a union with its autonomy and would not have em- and industry in central Canada. In the the Canadas. With the “age of sail” at its braced a union with Nova Scotia and three decades after Confederation, 40 height, the seaboard colonies had prof- New Brunswick. Without the two island percent of the population of the mari- ited by building wooden ships in the provinces, why would the two latter prov- time provinces left the region, most hundreds of small coves in the region inces have joined in a federal union with headed to New England’s thriving indus- perfectly suited to this activity, and each other? A customs union, short of a trial towns. (Of course, rural Quebec too carrying produce in them all over the political union, was possible. Their prin- experienced strong out-migration.) Con- globe. Those most involved in this trade cipal customers were not each other, federation ultimately had both benefits had the least interest in a larger union. however, but clients outside the region, and drawbacks for the maritime prov- However, others could see that with the making such a union of limited value. inces and Newfoundland, but their rela- constant movement of population west- The rhetoric of the Canadians might tively small populations and internal ward, rail transport would become the also have given pause to some in the divisions left them without a lot of bar- pre-eminent mode of North American Atlantic provinces. George Brown’s dis- gaining power in the negotiations lead- transport, a shift that would undermine cussion of the union sometimes ing up to 1867. the seaward-facing economy of the sounded as if it entailed an “acquisi- Atlantic provinces. If they rejected a tion” of the Maritimes by the Canadas, NOTES union with the Canadas now, they might as the United States had acquired Loui- 1. Newfoundland was officially renamed be obliged to join later on, on less siana from France, instead of the Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001. advantageous terms, or might turn to launching of a free and equal union of 2. Manitoba and Saskatchewan are also the United States, where their propor- four autonomous entities. In some slightly overrepresented in the House of tional influence would be even less than respects, this is an accurate portrayal of Commons relative to their populations, in a new British North American union. the events of 1864-1867: to many in the as are the three territories. In spite of the Charlottetown meeting east, Confederation seemed more like a Learn more about Canada Watch and the Robarts Centre of 1864 at which maritime union was to quasi-hostile takeover than a consen- for Canadian Studies at http://robarts.info.yorku.ca be explored, the prospects of the Atlantic sual merger, though of course we do

6 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 An example for the world? Confederation and French Canadians such as John A. Macdonald and Alexan- A PEACEFUL UNION BY MARCEL MARTEL hile debating the merits of the der Tilloch Galt in the Assembly but Marcel Martel teaches Canadian history also the Catholic Church in Quebec, new constitutional agreement in at York University and is the holder W insisted upon several key points during 1865, supporters in the Canadian Legis- of the Avie Bennett Historica Chair lative Assembly focused on the difficult in Canadian History. the debates over Confederation: the cre- challenges involved in creating the larg- ation of political institutions that, under er federation and the various benefits Opponents made their the new constitutional arrangement, that the new Dominion of Canada sup- would ensure the protection of French posedly offered to all Canadians. George voices heard, despite Canadians’ rights, most notably the Brown, who was known for his hostility exercise of their religion; language guar- toward Catholics and minority rights in the congratulatory antees (albeit limited); and the preser- general, but who was also a strong pro- vation of their system of civil law. For ponent of Confederation, identified tone adopted by those Cartier and other members in the assembly, the political package was clearly what was at stake and why the Fa- who favoured expected to address pressing issues thers of Confederation ought to be con- among both French Canadians, espe- gratulated for resolving their differences Confederation. cially those living in Canada East, and through dialogue and negotiations: English Canadians. The presence of two Here is a people composed of two national communities created tensions distinct races, speaking different hardly less momentous than those that interfered with colonial govern- languages, with religious and social that have rent the neighboring re- ance, since it made the formation of and municipal and educational public and are now exposing it to “stable” governments that enjoyed the institutions totally different, with all the horrors of civil war. (36) confidence of the House almost impos- sectional hostilities of such a char- sible, particularly in the 1860s. Confed- acter as to render government for By referring to other countries that many years well-nigh impossible, had to reconcile minority and majority eration also was in many respects a with a Constitution so unjust in the rights and create political structures that visionary project. French Canadian pol- view of one section as to justify any were respectful of various national com- itical and business elites were asked to resort to enforce a remedy. (36) munities, Brown and others who were take part in the creation of a dominion inspired by him raised the bar high that would soon acquire the Northwest Although the risks were great, Brown enough to make it difficult for oppon Territories, then under the control of the was not modest in assessing the accom- ents to ridicule what the Fathers of Con- Hudson’s Bay Company, and open the plishments of the Fathers of Confedera- federation accomplished. At the same region up to immigrants and native-born tion, as he went out of his way to point time, this rhetorical argument took place settlers alike. out that the final agreement came about in the context of parliamentary debates Opponents made their voices heard, through peaceful means while similar in which proponents had to “sell” the despite the congratulatory tone adopted tasks in other parts of the world often merits of their proposal, highlight its by those who favoured Confederation. led to violence and armed conflict: qualities, and minimize the appeal of Among the strongest opponents were We are striving to do peacefully and counterarguments. Although the audi- the Rouges, who were defined as radical satisfactorily what Holland and Bel- ence consisted primarily of elected offi- liberals because of their views on the gium after years of strife were un- cials in the House, the people of Canada relations between the state and the Cath- able to accomplish. We are seeking also had to be reassured through the olic Church. Their leader, Antoine-Aimé by calm discussion to settle ques- press that the creation of the Dominion Dorion, questioned the merits of the tions that Austria and Hungary, that of Canada was the best course of action new constitutional package. He deliv- Denmark and Germany, that Russia available to them at the time. ered his criticisms in English and justi- and Poland, could only crush by fied his conduct by the fact that the the iron heel of armed force. We majority of elected officials did not are seeking to do without foreign PROTECTING FRENCH intervention that which deluged in CANADIAN RIGHTS understand French. What was the blood the sunny plains of Italy. We French Canadian politicians, led by nature of the proposed confederation? are striving to settle forever issues George-Étienne Cartier, and their allies, An example, page 8

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 7 An example continued from page 7 Was it truly a federal union? Dorion minority status within that province led argued that it was not. The power of dis- While anglophones their representatives to seek a measure allowance that the federal government formed a majority of protection in the new constitutional could exercise over any provincial legis- order. As for other minority groups, lation meant that “laws passed by the outside Quebec, their such as Jews, Indigenous peoples, and local legislatures and demanded by a ethnicities other than British or French, majority of the people of that locality” minority status within they were ignored. would be ignored by federal authorities The issue of minority rights was divi- (66). He reminded everyone that he that province led their sive. George Brown, for one, rejected had been a strong advocate of a true representatives to any form of constitutional protection for Confederation where “all local ques- Catholics. We should not be surprised to tions could be consigned to the deliber- seek a measure of learn, then, that the issue of minority ations of local legislatures” and the rights for Catholics and French-speaking central government would be dealing protection in the new people in the British colonies (save Que- with issues of “general interest” (61). bec) did not monopolize the attention Also, he warned the Chamber that the constitutional order. of politicians. Except in the future prov- union of British colonies would pave the As for other minority ince of Quebec, where Catholics way toward a legislative union that formed a majority, they were minorities would be detrimental to French Canad- groups, such as Jews, in the other colonies: about 18 percent ians. For his part, Joseph-Xavier Perrault in Canada West, 20 percent in New categorically stated that Confederation Indigenous peoples, Brunswick, and 25 percent in Nova Sco- was “a political organization which is tia. In Prince Edward Island, Catholics eminently hostile” to French Canadians and ethnicities other comprised about half of the population.1 (97). These criticisms of the dangers than British or French, The creation of a Senate and a House of that the British North America Act, 1867 Commons and the fiscal arrangements posed for French Canadians re-emerged they were ignored. between the federal government and throughout the 20th century, especially the provinces assumed much greater when Quebec went through its Quiet prominence in the debates than con- Revolution in the 1960s. These attitudes some extent. However, power relations cerns about religious minorities. have often fuelled a call for a reorganiza- between the main linguistic and reli- tion of Canada’s constitutional structure. gious groups in the colonies at the time QUEBEC-ONLY MINORITY RIGHTS often shaped their discussions. When The debates over Confederation also A LIMITED CONCEPTION OF the Fathers addressed minority rights, suggest that the rights of French-speak- MINORITY RIGHTS they debated the rights of two groups in ing people, especially those who lived The debates in the Canadian Legislative particular: French Canadians and Cath- in the future province of Ontario, did not Assembly suggest that the Fathers of olics, who formed minority commun- capture the attention of most MPs. How Confederation had a limited conception ities in every British colony except can we explain this lack of concern for of minority rights. Can we blame them? Quebec. At the time, there were about them? According to historian Arthur Sil- After all, most of these politicians were one million French-speaking people in ver, the rights of French Canadians were part of a legal culture based on the the British colonies. The vast majority, not expected to go beyond the bound- supremacy of Parliament that afforded more than 85 percent of them, lived in aries of the future province of Quebec.2 courts very limited scope for reviewing Canada East; about 90,000 Acadians French Canadian Fathers of Confedera- governmental action. In addition, it lived in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, tion were unwilling to sacrifice the must be noted that this was the age of and Prince Edward Island. There were autonomy and control that the future empire building and national affirma- about 40,000 French Canadians living in province of Quebec would have over its tion. In these circumstances, the idea Canada West (the future province of “local affairs” in exchange for stronger that minority rights should enjoy some Ontario) and 6,000 French Métis in the constitutional guarantees for minority form of constitutional recognition and Prairies. There was also another linguis- groups. When Hector-Louis Langevin, protection was often ignored. tic group whose rights preoccupied the one of the Fathers of Confederation, was Yet, despite their backgrounds and Fathers of Confederation: English speak- in London in 1866 to oversee the adop- biases, the Fathers of Confederation did ers in Quebec. While anglophones tion of the British North America Act by address the issue of minority rights to formed a majority outside Quebec, their the British parliament, he rejected a pro-

8 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 though French Canadians in Ontario be- While George Brown stated that the Fathers lieved that section 93 protected French of Confederation dealt with delicate issues as a language of instruction, the courts stated otherwise. These school crises in 1864 at the Charlottetown and Quebec demonstrated the limitations of constitutional guarantees to minority groups conferences and the constitutional package and greatly influenced the discussions, started in the 1960s, that led to the patri- should be inspirational, the guarantees to ation of the Constitution in 1982. While minority groups failed miserably, when tested. George Brown stated that the Fathers of Confederation dealt with delicate issues in 1864 at the Charlottetown and Que- posal to give control over education to reflected the balance of power and influ- bec conferences and the constitutional the federal government in order to pro- ence between the dominant political package should be inspirational, the tect the rights of Catholics in the new groups of the time: Catholics and Prot- guarantees to minority groups failed dominion. For him, this was a danger- estants, but also French Canadians and miserably, when tested. However, for ous proposal that could jeopardize English Canadians. French Canadians in Quebec, the sub- French Canadians’ rights in the future stantial powers over key institutions province of Quebec. THE LIMITS OF CONSTITUTIONAL such as education, health, and welfare In dealing with language and educa- GUARANTEES served to solidify the power and autonomy of French Canadians in Canada, tion, proponents of Confederation, espe- Catholics but mostly French Canadians and therefore largely fulfilled Cartier’s cially French-speaking MPs, demon- would discover shortly that this balance dream of protecting French Canadians strated that they understood what this of power and influence was not favour- in his home province. new constitutional package meant, even able to those living outside Quebec. In though their understanding of minority 1871, the province of New Brunswick de- NOTES rights was limited. Indeed, the constitu- cided to fund only non-denominational tional guarantees apply to language and schools. Despite protests by Acadians 1. P.B. Waite, The Life and Times of Con- federation, 1864-1867: Politics, News religion. In the British North America and Catholics, the federal government papers, and the Union of British North Act, section 133 recognizes French and agreed not to intervene. A few years lat- America (Toronto: University of Toronto English as official languages only in er, the government of Manitoba abol- Press, 1962), at 117, 179, 193, and 229. Quebec and federal institutions. When ished French as an official language in 2. Arthur I. Silver, The French-Canadian Acadians took part in the New Bruns- the province, and cut funding to separ- Idea of Confederation, 1864-1900 wick elections in 1865 and 1866, they ate schools in 1890. Despite favourable (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, noticed that the language provision that court decisions, the provincial govern- 1982). the Fathers of Confederation had agreed ment ignored them, and the federal gov- 3 3. Gaétan Migneault, “Le Canada français upon excluded them. With regard to ernment, led by Wilfrid Laurier, agreed et la Confédération : Les Acadiens du education, section 93 protects public to compromise on the issue of separate Nouveau Brunswick,” in Jean-François and separate schools and grants minor- schools by negotiating an agreement Caron and Marcel Martel, eds., Le Can- ities the right to appeal to the governor with the Manitoba government, which ada français et la Confédération : fond- general in council if a provincial legisla- allowed religious instruction for an hour ements et bilan critique (Quebéc : ture restricted access to these schools a day. Finally, in 1912, the government of Presses de l’Université Laval, 2016). or abolished them. In the case of anglo- Ontario limited the use of French as a 4. Silver, The French-Canadian Idea of phones in Quebec, they received addi- language of instruction in schools. Al- Confederation, at 56. tional protections besides language and education. Quebec’s provincial parliament initially included both a Legislative Assembly and a Legislative Council, the THE POLITICS OF EVIDENCE latter eventually abolished in 1968, and in 12 ridings, dominated by anglo- Where science and technology intersect phones, the “boundaries could not be with social and environmental justice changed without the additional approval https://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com of a majority of their own MPPs.”4 When the Dominion of Canada emerged in 1867, the rights granted to minorities

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 9 Confederation as an intra-Christian pact

NASCENT PLURALISM than the major Protestant denomina- BY DAVID KOFFMAN rom the vantage point of 2016, the tions and Roman Catholics (the single David Koffman teaches history at largest religious demographic). The FConfederation debates in the Prov- York University and is the co-editor only named religious minority in the ince of Canada show remarkable clarity of Canadian Jewish Studies. about and commitment to the ideal of Waite edition of the debates were Irish religious accommodation and liberty. At There was virtually no Catholics, whom Christopher Dunkin the same time, the debaters’ vision of insisted had distinct political interests. pluralism and their policy for enshrining mention, no provision, No mention was made of Buddhists, it was tightly narrow, and all but blind to Confucians, or Muslims, some of whom the lengths and measures that would no acknowledgment of had already settled in what was about to eventually ensure the religious pluralism become Canada, or Jews, already a 1 Canadians now take for granted. any religion other than fairly prominent group in the country. The debaters certainly shared a gen- Smaller Christian minorities like Hugue- uine interest in protecting the rights of the major Protestant nots, Mennonites, Adventists, Mormons, the two dominant religious minorities, denominations and Pentecostals, and Eastern, Russian, the Protestant minority in Catholic Ukrainian, and Greek Orthodox Chris- Lower Canada, and the Roman Catholic Roman Catholics. tians went unmentioned too. minority in Protestant Upper Canada. Still, Christianity was of central con- The debaters safeguarded these minori- cern. The Confederation project, wrote ties constitutionally, setting the stage, in tion, and sowed the seeds that would George Brown, was meant to “establish a limited fashion, for the myriad reli- later contribute to the weakening of a government that will … strive to gious groupings to come. Though some Christian institutions and leadership in develop its great natural resources—and statesmen voiced suspicion about how national public life altogether. The pro- that will endeavor to maintain liberty, their traditions might be harmed by the tection scheme served, imperfectly, as and justice, and Christianity throughout pact, it was a relatively effortless an expandable avenue for other reli- the land” (37). The part Christianity achievement. Overall, the debaters gious minorities. played in this semi-established govern- viewed the compromise with a pride ment would be an axiom of coherency, they felt was well earned, for they had A NARROW WORLD both an afterthought and a natural, a overcome long-standing intra-Christian On the other hand, the debates show given. Confederation, first and foremost, rivalries and achieved the mutually consideration for neither Indigenous implied command over natural assured survival of Christianities. The religiosity nor the great explosion of resources for trade. Second to resources efforts to preserve two spheres of reli- non-Christian religious immigrant were liberty and justice. “Christianity gious autonomy unfolded with mutual- imports, which would begin to trans- throughout the land,” though included ity, with only a trace of acrimony. The form—even in the lifetimes of the as an essential element of the new Roman Catholic Church and a handful Fathers themselves—the religious land- national project, was listed last. The of Protestant churches (Anglican, Bap- scape we now know in Canada. The new state would be Christian, with par- tist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Meth- Fathers protected just two of the three tial and plural establishment, making it odist) would continue to receive some groups we now consider to be the different from Britain, with its estab- support from the new state. Practical “founding peoples” of this country, Prot- lished Anglican Church, and from the and enlightened politics had triumphed estants and Roman Catholics, each in United States, which had erected an over old differences. the others’ domain. Indigenous reli- explicit wall separating church and The religious rapprochement gious actors, commitments, and inter- state. between rival sects of Christians that ests—however internally diverse they In reading the debates 150 years emerged from the debates would pro- were and however uncomfortably the later, one cannot help but sense how foundly impact policy and cultural life in category of “religion” fit into anyone’s inadequately they reflect the profound the subsequent 150 years. Insofar as reli- world view or lexicon—were entirely ways that Christianity dominated and gion is concerned, the political and eco- elided. The debates betrayed just how shaped 19th-century Canadian life, its nomic compact that made Canada was narrow a world the Fathers lived in, in customs, its culture, and its expecta- thus, on the one hand, a minorities pro- terms of religious diversity. There was tions for the future. Political elites—secu- tection scheme. It laid the groundwork virtually no mention, no provision, no lar, deist, or Christian—spoke little of for pluralism, a tradition of accommoda- acknowledgment of any religion other Christianity, despite the general commit-

10 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 ment of the vast majority of Canadians One reads an impressive lack of religious to it. Religion itself seems to have been far from central to the debaters, even enthusiasm for the project in the debates. those who considered themselves churched. The religious differences Politicians likely cared a great deal about what between Catholics and Protestants were generally subsumed under national and clergymen, who had significant public clout in linguistic identities. John A. Macdonald, John Rose, A.A. Dorion, and Christo- the 1860s, said in support of or against pher Dunkin all shared the sense that Confederation, particularly in Quebec. Though religion was but one element of regional identities. George Brown, who fought many consulted religious leaders, not one against separate schools, celebrated the pact as compensation for all the strife of uttered a word about it in Parliament. the previous years, making religious dif- ference but a small part of the harmoni- ous and peaceful union, composed, as Christianity is notably absent from the doxically, they were also far less radical he put it, of two distinct “races,” speak- debates themselves. in separating religion and statecraft. ing different languages, with unique Yet another notable absence—reflect- (The British North America Act, 1867 social, municipal, educational, and reli- ing the general absence in the subse- included no disestablishment clause.) gious institutions. quent course of Canadian religion—is the absence of civic religion at the gene- THE SECULARIZING ROAD EVANGELICAL CONSENSUS sis of the nation. Neither the Fathers of As much as Christianity was a given and The debates themselves were largely Confederation nor leaders in the young civic religion absent, the debates also silent about their deep-seated assump- state used the tools of religion to provide some evidence of the diminish- tions, but Christianity was clearly an develop federalism. Though some ment of Christianity in the overtly polit- intimate partner of opportunity, expan- debaters discerned the hand of God in ical sphere, perhaps hinting at the sion, and national self-possession. The uniting political enemies, or sprinkled a secularizing road to multiculturalism central concern for fostering the auton- reference to Psalm 72’s “God’s Domin- ahead. Confederation itself devolved omy of Britain’s remaining North Amer- ion” in their speeches, as P.B. Waite’s educational decisions to the provinces. ican colonies included preserving their introduction to the edited debates With the exception of Quebec, which respective religious and legal differ- noted, the new national ideology, such abolished its Ministry of Public Educa- ences, but the Fathers lived in a world of as it was, did not evoke divine blessing. tion in 1875 to turn over educational de- “evangelical consensus,” in John Web- One reads an impressive lack of reli- cisions to the Catholic Church and the ster Grant’s terms, one that crossed the gious enthusiasm for the project in the “Protestants,” it was inside those prov- 2 Catholic–Protestant divide. It was so debates. Politicians likely cared a great inces’ secular ministries of education— obvious it didn’t need to be debated. deal about what clergymen, who had and not among Church leaders per Canadian Christians built temperance significant public clout in the 1860s, said se—that so many religious tensions organizations, missionary associations, in support of or against Confederation, would later play out. The courts, the Bible and tract societies, and estab- particularly in Quebec. Though many state, and its provinces slowly but surely lished the Lord’s Day Alliance and consulted religious leaders, not one assured neutrality in matters of religion. YMCA/YWCAs, all with both nationalis- uttered a word about it in Parliament.3 The most obvious vestiges of Christian tic and millennial overtones. Churches No one suggested the creation of new privilege—oaths, clergy salaries, state- ran hospitals, orphanages, social agen- rituals or holidays. They cast no new funded theology schools, and prayer in cies, and schools—Indian residential symbols or anthems. The debaters did civic ceremonies—were removed. schools among them. The federal not even deploy religious tropes in their (Since the 1960s, for instance, colleges government consulted these semi- debate rhetoric to heighten the import- and universities were forced to sever established churches about the levels ance of the work or vest spiritual mean- confessional ties in order to be eligible and mix of immigrants who would be ing in new statehood. They did not use for provincial funding.) The Charter of allowed to enter Canada. The Christian- the language of faith, salvation, or grace, Rights and Freedoms, much later, izing impulse profoundly impacted so common in the “New Jerusalem” of would consistently support the rights of Indigenous – European relations, to put it the United States. Canadians imbued individuals over and against the rights of mildly, just as it would impact later new- their new state with less religious mean- comers as well. But this consensus ing than Americans did, though para- Confederation as an intra-Christian pact, page 12

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 11 Confederation as an intra-Christian pact continued from page 11 particular religious communities when- ever the two came into conflict. Scholar It was religious communities who Lois Sweet has shrewdly observed that successfully lobbied to have “freedom of pluralism and the accommodation of religious minorities were achieved largely conscience and religion” included in the by ignoring religion altogether (except in Quebec).4 That de-Christianization Charter. Since 1982 this key phrase has would pave the path to pluralism might have shocked or disturbed the debaters provided the legal basis for court challenges of Confederation. to legislation about religious rights. Finally, and most obviously, from today’s perspective the debates show a glaring absence of representation of re- tinue to fight for inclusion and redress of NOTES ligious communities that are now at the many sins committed against them. 1. In the larger debates, over 1,000 pages, home in Canada. Of course, the reli- Federal and provincial exclusions and “religion/religious” comes up over 200 gious pluralism of today was unforesee- race-based policies not only impacted times: Catholics are referred to 110 able in 1865. Canada was visibly the obvious realms of public education, times, “Papists” twice, Protestants 80 Christian until the end of the Second immigration, and naturalization, but also times, Church 41 times, God 17 times, World War, despite large communities drove policy limiting voting rights and and Presbyterian 6 times. Narcisse of Jews in the major cities. African, public office limitations, as well as pol- Belleau referred to Jewish emancipation Asian, and Latin American immigra- icy with regard to religious accommoda- in Lower Canada (183). Étienne-Paschal tions brought religious traditions and tions in gender, health, housing, and Taché echoed him (236), as did variations of Christianity, as well as labour. These were all battles that had Alexander Mackenzie (432), and Baha’ism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, to be fought largely by religious minori- Charles Alleyn (672). Lotbinière Harwood referred to Jews (and Sikhism, and many other traditional re- ties themselves. Religious minorities religious diversity in Germany and ligions or modern derivations thereof. would have, in all likelihood, supported England) (830, 833). New religious movements and spiritual a fuller disestablishment from the very 2. John Webster Grant, A Profusion of groups have exploded. These religions beginning. One of the main motivations Spires: Religion in Nineteenth Century and movements did not even appear as for migrants to come to Canada was, Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto available categories in the 1941 or 1971 after all, freedom from religious perse- Press, 1988); see also “the shadow censuses. (The 1991 census had, for the cution. Many religious communities establishment” in Martin David, first time, on the other hand, but one have wished for the same constitution- “Canada in Comparative Perspective,” category for all Protestants.) That Chris- ally guaranteed privileges that Roman in David Lyon and Marguerite van Die, tianity would have been woven into the Catholics have enjoyed (enshrined in eds., Rethinking Church, State and social fabric of the nation in 1865 the British North America Act) extended Modernity (Toronto: University of seemed a natural given in the debates; to their own groups. Chinese leaders, Toronto Press, 2000). the short version of them made no men- Jews, Muslims, and Sikhs led the charge 3. Marcel Bellavance argued that the tion of Jews, Africans, or Asians, despite for their own language and culture Catholic Church swung the argument having religious (as well as racialized) schools, for vouchers to remit school (unfairly) in favour of Confederation in bodies on the ground. tax to pay for separate religious schools, Quebec: Marcel Bellavance, Le Québec and for charter schools. It was religious et la Confédération : Un choix libre? “FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE communities who successfully lobbied (Québec : Septentrion, 1992). AND RELIGION” to have “freedom of conscience and 4. Lois Sweet, God in the Classroom: The Lest I paint a picture of a natural evolu- religion” included in the Charter. Since Controversial Issue of Religion in Canada’s High Schools (Toronto: tion of Protestant – Catholic coordination 1982 this key phrase has provided the McClelland & Stewart, 1997). toward a broader religious pluralism, I legal basis for court challenges to legis- should add by way of conclusion that lation about religious rights. religious groups (often as ethnic groups Over the last 150 years, the religious Learn more about Canada who minimized their own religious ide- liberty clearly visible in the debates Watch and the Robarts Centre ologies and the extent of their religious evolved in new directions and to further for Canadian Studies at commitments in order to make their extremes than the debaters themselves http://robarts.info.yorku.ca cases more palatable) fought and con- could have known.

12 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Revisiting the 1865 Canadian debates on Confederation: Rights and the Constitution n February 3, 1865, the legislators tion that the new dominion was to have BY DAVID R. CAMERON, Oof the Parliament of Canada began JACQUELINE D. KRIKORIAN, “a Constitution similar in Principle to discussing the merits of the proposed AND ROBERT C. VIPOND that of the United Kingdom.” union of the colonies of Canada, Nova Individual rights were thus not the David Cameron is professor of political Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, science and dean of the Faculty of Arts primary focus of the debates. Rather, 1 and Prince Edward Island. These and Science at the University of Toronto. two collective or minority rights issues debates were both framed and informed Jacqueline D. Krikorian is associate dominated the discussions—minority by 72 resolutions adopted at a colonial professor at York University and teaches education rights and the rights of French conference held in Quebec City four in political science and the law and society Canadians to protect their language, reli- months earlier. Combined, the resolu- program. Robert Vipond is professor of gion, and institutions in Lower Canada. political science at the University of tions provided the basis for the pro- Toronto and has published widely in the These issues were addressed exten- posed colonial government and area of Canadian constitutional politics. sively and passionately throughout the effectively laid the foundation of what debates. With regard to minority educa- was to become the new nation’s first tion rights, for example, Aquila Walsh, written constitution, the British North [T]wo . . . issues member of the Legislative Assembly for America Act, 1867.2 The debates about dominated the Norfolk, reflected the views of many of the resolutions are important because his colleagues when he underscored they give us an insight into the nature discussions—minority that it was justice itself that necessitated and expectations of the proposed new the protection of denominational government, as well as a sense of how education rights and schools in the new nation.4 some key colonial politicians under- The rights of French Canadians in stood the meaning of the words they the rights of French Lower Canada also were extensively were putting down on paper. Canadians to protect addressed during the Confederation Despite Lord Sankey’s famous dic- debates. To ensure that these rights tum that the Constitution was like a living their language, were acknowledged and protected, sev- tree “capable of growth and expansion eral provisions were included in the res- within its natural limits,”3 those drafting religion, and olutions to secure them—for example, it in 1865 were not thinking a great deal article 46 guaranteed the right to use the about its future evolution. Its proposed institutions in French language in the courts and legis- provisions were meant to address a lature of Lower Canada and in the fed- number of contemporary problems and Lower Canada. eral courts and Parliament. challenges, and designed to provide a But specific provisions in the 72 reso- fixed set of rules to govern the new na- limited. Some rights issues were dis- lutions were not the only features of the tion. While many of the measures that cussed explicitly, some were implicit, proposed new Confederation arrange- were adopted proved to be enduring while others were outright ignored. The ments that were intended to address the and “capable of growth” over the dec- legislators assumed the existence of interests of French Canadians in Lower ades, others were less fecund and less certain individual rights and civil liber- Canada. Several features of the British able to rise to the historic occasion. This ties protected by the British constitution system of government also were to be is particularly true with rights issues. and the common law, such as the right carried forward into the new order to Even the judiciary’s liberal interpreta- to a jury trial in serious criminal matters, support the protection of the rights of tions of the imperial statute have proven access to the writ of habeas corpus to the French minority. to be unable to address these deficien- test the validity of any imprisonment, The British Crown, the parliamentary cies over time. and the right to hold and enjoy property. system, and the common law were to be These rights had been elaborated on retained. Legislators widely believed THE RIGHTS DISCUSSION over the centuries, and while subject to that the British system of government The issue of protecting rights was a some limitation by legislatures, had a was preferable for the protection of focal point of the Canadian Parliament’s relatively well-defined content. In the French-speaking minorities. As the 1865 debates on Confederation. But the British North America Act, such rights attorney general for Lower Canada, nature of these rights discussions was were subsumed in the preamble’s direc- Revisiting, page 14

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 13 Revisiting continued from page 13 George-Étienne Cartier, explained to his tive union, while at the same time it pre- world; they are quite willing that they colleagues in the Legislative Assembly, served that liberty of action for the should enjoy their rights, provided that French Canada learned early on that “it different sections” (23). all live peaceably together.”13 was better for them to remain under the In the 1865 Canadian debates on English and Protestant Crown of Eng- Confederation, the nature and scope of OPEN-MINDED TOLERANCE … land, rather than to become republi- rights issues for the new nation were TO EQUALS cans” like their neighbours to the south.5 discussed extensively. Rights were to be Canadian parliamentarians, however, He emphasized that it was “precisely addressed and protected in three ways: were open-minded and tolerant only to because of their adherence to the Brit- specific resolutions that eventually those they deemed to be equals. The ish Crown” that French Canadians had formed the basis of the country’s first rights rhetoric of the period, and it did “their institutions, their language and written constitution, adoption of specific indeed exist, was layered and nuanced, their religion intact to-day.”6 features of the British system (the targeted only to a select few. Rights pro- Crown, parliamentary government, and tection was not envisioned to apply to HOW NOT TO PROTECT RIGHTS: common law), and a government racial minorities or women. A racial slur THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE founded upon federal principles. But delivered in the form of a “joke” by In fact, the American experience sup- make no mistake, the beneficiaries of Christopher Dunkin, member of the plied a powerful example of how not to these rights were limited and narrowly Legislative Assembly for Brome, against protect rights. Careening between “the defined. Cartier emphasized that the Asians was met with “Laughter” in the tyranny of a single despot”7 on the one 1865 Confederation scheme was Legislative Assembly.14 Similarly, Joseph hand, and the tyranny of “mob rule”8 on designed to ensure that “there could be Dufresne, member of the Legislative the other, the events leading to the Civil no danger to the rights of and privileges Assembly for Montcalm, ridiculed one War had underscored, as Cartier of either French Canadians, Scotch- of his colleagues by making a negative described, the “hollowness” of Amer- men, Englishmen or Irishmen.”11 comment about him in relation to black ican democracy.9 The combination of George Brown underscored that “[o]ur Americans. It, too, was met with “Laugh- the Crown, well-designed legislatures, scheme is to establish a government ter” in the chamber.15 And throughout and the common law provided a much that will seek to turn the tide of Euro- the debates, women were either por- better institutional recipe for protecting pean emigration into this northern half trayed as damsels in distress or viewed both individual and minority rights. The of the American continent … and that through the lens of demeaning stereo- superiority of the British approach to will endeavor to maintain liberty, and types. In other words, only some groups what John A. Macdonald called “consti- justice, and Christianity throughout the and communities were viewed as equals tutional liberty” was so clear to most of land” (36). The new nation, in other and thus deserving of rights. Others the legislators that it required no elabor- words, was intended to safeguard the were disregarded altogether. ate defence.10 interests of French Canadians in Lower Indigenous people were likewise In addition to a British system of gov- Canada, linguistic communities (the given no status or recognition whatso- ernment, another feature of the pro- French and the English), and religious ever in the debates on Confederation. posed union that was designed to act as communities (Catholic and Protes- They were virtually invisible. No one a guardian of the French Canadian com- tants). But that was all. spoke on their behalf. No one advo- munity was federalism. As the premier Parliamentarians did not see this lim- cated for their rights. Indeed, at least as of Canada, Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché, ited approach to rights as narrow or many references were made to the state emphasized, a federal union “would be problematic. Indeed, they envisioned of Indiana as to the condition of British tantamount to a separation of the prov- themselves as progressive liberals. North American Indians. While John A. inces, and Lower Canada would thereby Repeated references were made to the Macdonald repeatedly made reference preserve its autonomy together with all actions of Lower Canada in 1832 to to the Confederation agreement as a the institutions it held so dear, and over accord legal rights to members of the treaty among the British colonies,16 he which they could exercise the watchful- Jewish community before most other neglected to refer to any of the treaties ness and surveillance necessary to pre- governments had done so.12 As Sir Nar- between the British government and serve them unimpaired” (4). John A. cisse F. Belleau, life member in the Indigenous people in North America. Macdonald underscored that unlike a Legislative Council from Quebec City, On the few occasions where Indigenous pure legislative union, a government explained, this measure underscored people were mentioned in the debates, formed upon federal principles “would that, “far from wishing to oppress other there was nothing positive. Brown spoke give to the General Government the nationalities, all that the French Canad- about the importance of opening up the strength of a legislative and administra- ians ask is to live at peace with the “Indian Territories” between Upper Can-

14 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 ada and British Columbia to “civiliza- Federal and provincial legislatures tion” (37). He underscored the “vast importance that the [northwest] region remained virtually unchecked as they should be brought within the limits of civilization, and vigorous measures had adopted a myriad of statutory and been taken to ascertain what could be done with that view.”17 regulatory frameworks that discriminated In other words, the legislators of the Canadian Parliament in 1865 did believe against various groups or communities. in the importance of rights and the need to entrench them into the country’s new difficult. Federalism itself could occa- NOTES constitution. But they narrowly framed sionally be invoked to protect rights in- who would be the beneficiaries of those 1. The debates are printed in English in directly, as when the courts declared in their entirety in Canada, Parliamentary rights. Minority education rights were 1899 that British Columbia could not Debates on the Subject of Confedera- clearly spelled out in the 1864 resolu- pass a law prohibiting the employment tion of the British North American Prov- tions and later in the British North Amer- of Chinese workers in mines because it ince, 3rd Session, 8th Provincial ica Act. Similarly, language rights were dealt with the status of aliens, a topic of Parliament of Canada (Quebec: Hunter, accorded to the French and the English federal jurisdiction.18 However, litigation Rose, 1865). Quotations in this essay are in both the resolutions and the imperial was expensive, inaccessible to most, cited either to the Waite edition or, legislation. Freedom of religion would and not a reliable vehicle for expanding where they are excluded from that edi- be guaranteed, as long as one was Prot- the circle of rights protection.19 Federal tion, to the original record (herein re- estant or Catholic. Lower Canada was and provincial legislatures remained ferred to as Debates). given the legislative authority to protect virtually unchecked as they adopted a 2. British North America Act, 1867 (UK), the interests of French Canadians via myriad of statutory and regulatory 30 & 31 Vict., c. 3. the federal structure of governance, and frameworks that discriminated against 3. Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General), the continuing institutions of the Crown, various groups or communities. Indigen- [1930] AC 124 at 136-37. Parliament, and the common law would ous people, for example, were not en- 4. Debates, 808. be relied on to protect minorities more titled to vote in federal elections until 5. Cartier, Debates, 57. generally. But those outside the privil- 1960. It was not until the introduction of 6. Cartier, Debates, 59. eged Scottish, Irish, English, and French a number of human rights codes in the 7. Macdonald, Debates, 44. communities were not explicitly recog- aftermath of the Second World War and 8. Cartier, Debates, 59. nized as rights holders. the passage of the Canada Act 198220 that rights issues began to be recog- 9. Ibid. THE RIGHTS CONSTITUTION: nized and addressed in a broader con- 10. Macdonald, Debates, 44. INCAPABLE OF GROWTH text in any meaningful way. 11. Cartier, Debates, 55. Looking back from the perspective of a 12. Belleau, Debates, 183; Taché, Debates, century and a half of Canadian political A HISTORICAL EFFORT 236; Alexander Mackenzie (member of experience, it is apparent that the coun- TO ACCOMMODATE the Legislative Assembly for Lambton), try’s living constitution was not capable There is, however, one way in which Debates, 432; Charles Alleyn (member of addressing these deficiencies particu- Canada’s relatively narrow 19th-century of the Legislative Assembly for Quebec larly well. Whereas the federal constitu- rights approach may have laid the foun- West), Debates, 672. tion was able to adapt to facilitate dation for a critically important dimen- 13. Belleau, Debates, 183. changes to federal – provincial relations sion of Canada’s contemporary identity. 14. Dunkin, Debates, 531. throughout the 20th century (even with Our historical effort to live with, and 15. Dufresne, Debates, 928. the stresses and strains associated with constitutionally accommodate, the 16. Macdonald, Debates, 15, 16. the sovereignty movement in the latter French – English, Catholic – Protestant 17. Brown, Debates, 18. half of the century), the same cannot be divide may have equipped Canadians 18. Union Colliery v. Bryden, [1899] AC 580 said with regard to Canada’s “rights con- with the capacity to accept and in fact (JCPC). stitution.” welcome the more extensive cultural Although the courts and constitution- and religious diversity that has been the 19. For example, see Cunningham v. Tomey Homma, [1903] AC 151 (JCPC) and al scholars envision constitutions as be- product of postwar immigration—an Christie v. York Corporation, [1940] ing capable of growth and change, the emerging social reality that has proven SCR 139. achievement of a more inclusive under- so vexing and difficult for many other 20. Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c. 11. standing of rights proved to be relatively Western nations to digest.

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 15 Confederation and taxation

istorian P.B. Waite, the authority on and agitated against much direct provin- BY ELSBETH HEAMAN HConfederation for a whole genera- cial involvement in education, while the tion of Canadians, saw two Confedera- Elsbeth Heaman teaches history at province subsidized transport infrastruc- tion debates rather than one. There was McGill University. She is completing a book about taxes and tax revolts in ture. The maritime provinces also relied the maritime perspective, mentioned Canada from 1867 to 1917. heavily on provincial spending for both only glancingly by him here, which was education and infrastructure. Thus, interested in taxation; and then there George Brown remarked, though he had was the debate in the Canadas, which George Brown did strongly advocated “defraying the whole was more concerned with difficulties not just want “rep. of the local expenditures of the local around nationality (xli). As a conse- governments by means of direct taxa- quence, Waite wrote concern for taxes by pop.”; he wanted tion,” the thing was impossible. “Our out of the Canadian Confederation friends in Lower Canada, I am afraid, debates. But that’s misleading. Maritim- something more like have a constitutional disinclination to ers argued about taxes more than did direct taxation. … The objection, more- Canadians (mention of “taxes” or “taxa- “rep. by prop.,” or over, was not confined to Lower Can- tion” occurs once every 4 pages in the representation and ada—all the Lower Provinces stood in Nova Scotia debates and once every 12 exactly the same position. They have not pages in the Canadian debates), but influence according a municipal system such as we have, dis- that’s only to say that Canada had many charging many of the functions of gov- more speakers who ranged over other to property. ernment; but their General Government questions. Some of the most important performs all the duties which in Upper speakers addressed taxes at no small Canada devolve upon our municipal expenditure of the public moneys than length, especially A.T. Galt and Christo- councils, as well as upon Parliament” pher Dunkin from Lower Canada and the people of Lower Canada.” Under the (42). Because those local governments George Brown from Upper Canada. new scheme, by contrast, “the taxpay- would now lose their customs duties, Brown put his cards on the table in ers of the country, wherever they reside, the federal government must provide the extracts printed in Waite’s edition of will have their just share of influence subsidies. But the subsidies were strictly the debates. “Had we continued the over revenue and expenditure. (Hear, limited to 80 cents a head, “in full settle- present Legislative union, we must have hear.)” (41). ment of all future demands upon the continued with it the unjust system of General Government for local pur- taxation for local purposes that now CONFEDERATION: poses,”1 and the sum would decline as exists—and the sectional bickering A TAX REFORM populations grew. Brown admitted a would have gone on as before” (49). Brown and Galt together were the archi- short-term compromise to his tax pro- That is to say: the bickering does not fol- tects of the fiscal deal done at Quebec in ject, expecting in the long term that low nationality; it follows unjust sec- 1864, and they described it similarly. tional taxation. That was not an aside: Confederation was a tax reform because people outside Upper Canada would Brown made the point repeatedly. The it made local expenses largely, though gradually be educated up to Upper Can- two great accomplishments of the pro- not exclusively, reliant on local (provin- adian standards of direct taxation. posed Confederation plan, he argued, cial and/or municipal) taxation. Federal were to remedy unjust representation governments would provide a top-up for REPRESENTATION BY PROPERTY (granting “rep. by pop.”) and unjust tax- provincial revenues, but their ability to George Brown did not just want “rep. by ation: “But, MR. SPEAKER, the second transfer revenue from one jurisdiction to pop.”; he wanted something more like feature of this scheme as a remedial another would, Brown predicted, be “rep. by prop.,” or representation and measure is, that it removes, to a large severely limited. The top-ups and subsid- influence according to property. Once extent, the injustice of which Upper ies were necessary because only Upper responsible government had given the Canada has complained in financial Canada/Ontario had extensive direct colonial population control over policy, matters. We in Upper Canada have com- taxation, exacted by local authorities, to the great question of the day became plained that though we paid into the build infrastructure and run schools. how to balance the interests of the prop- public treasury more than three-fourths Quebec spent far less locally on school- ertied against those of the scantly prop- of the whole revenue, we had less con- ing—there, the Catholic Church provided ertied or unpropertied. Tinkering with trol over the system of taxation and the cheap schools run by priests and nuns franchises was one mechanism; writing

16 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 caps on fiscal transfers directly into the Poverty has a claim that the Fathers of new constitution was another. These debates squarely pitted the rich and the Confederation would never have granted it, poor against one another, but in Can- ada, those socio-economic confronta- but the seeds of that claim were laid in the tions were always interlaced with the language of competing identities or fiscal arrangements of 1864. “races.” Upper Canadians bought more imported goods than did Lower Canad- all be satisfied; while, on the other hand, municipal debts in Upper Canada to jus- ians but customs revenue was dispro- the debts of all the provinces are to be, tify his spending in Lower Canada). portionately spent in Lower Canada. for all practical ends, raised to the full Principles of transfer have become pol- George Brown resented the transfer of level of the most indebted.”2 Provincial itical truths for 21st-century Canadians. Upper Canadian wealth to Lower Canad- politicians would campaign on their suc- Poverty has a claim that the Fathers of ian pockets. cess in getting higher federal subventions Confederation would never have grant- From the late 1850s, he kept up a and the system would encourage not ed it, but the seeds of that claim were string of tirades against that transfer in cheap government but excess and debt. laid in the fiscal arrangements of 1864. the Globe that made the United Prov- ince of Canada increasingly ungovern- PRINCIPLES OF TRANSFER CONFEDERATION: able. In the plan for Confederation, Dunkin proved prescient. As prime min- A QUANTITATIVE QUESTION Brown sought to rein in those transfers. ister, John A. Macdonald found one jus- Reading taxes more explicitly into the The maritime provinces threatened his tification after another for fiscal Canadian Confederation debates has an fiscal austerity project because they transfers, beginning with Joseph Howe’s important payoff. It shows that Canad- clamoured for transfers from the begin- demand for “better terms” for Nova Sco- ians and Maritimers had more in com- ning, but he was confident that they tia. Every province had its own more or mon than the classic historiography would be assimilated to Upper Canad- less expansive claims. In 1871, for suggests. The binary that contrasts Nova ian fiscal prudence over the long term. example, New Brunswick pointed out Scotia’s very material concerns with Can- If Maritimers were like Lower Canad- that the federal government had paid for adian principled debates has always ians in lacking infrastructure, they were the lighthouses that the colony had done a disservice to both communities. like Upper Canadians in being substan- built, but not for the furniture (“materi- For both communities, Confederation tial consumers, so they could confi- als and stores”) in those lighthouses. was both an either/or question and a dently be expected to contribute to Upper Canadian politicians and press “how much” question. How much would federal coffers by means of customs spluttered with rage to see their tax this or that colony benefit from or lose duties. Any subsidy would effectively reform go so badly awry and protested by Confederation? That was a quantita- be paid out of their own pockets, rather bitterly but fruitlessly. Macdonald and tive question, based on fiscal calcula- than as a transfer from Upper Canada. Cartier were, one suspects, somewhat tions, rather than a qualitative They too, in short, had an interest in less surprised to find federal powers of constitutional question. That was a point federal austerity. patronage largely enhanced. British economist Stanley Jevons was The member for Drummond- The fiscal battles continued. But they making about economic questions more Arthabaska, Christopher Dunkin, was continued, in part, because many found generally in the 1860s: “There can be but unpersuaded. Waite gives us the begin- the austerely liberal arguments behind two classes of science—those which are nings of a long speech on taxation (“But the movement for Confederation in- simply logical, and those which, besides I have to turn now, MR. SPEAKER, to creasingly repellent over time. Dunkin’s being logical, are also mathematical. If another branch of my comparison—the critical observation—that “[t]he need of there be any science which determines financial” (90-91)) but not the substance the neediest is made the measure of the merely whether a thing be or not be— of it. Where Brown and Galt saw power- aid given to all”—fit with orthodox whether an event will happen, or will not ful restraints on local spending, Dunkin laissez-faire arguments to delegitimize happen—it must be a purely logical sci- saw weak ones that let provinces the claims of the economically needy. ence; but if the thing may be greater or demand subsidies instead of taxing dir- Brown, Galt, and Dunkin resented trans- less, or the event may happen sooner or ectly: “The need of the neediest is made ferring money from the rich to the poor, later, nearer or farther, then quantitative the measure of the aid given to all. The and they foresaw the inevitable conse- notions enter, and the science must be most embarrassed is to have enough for quence that rich and influential com- mathematical in nature, by whatever its purposes, and the rest are to receive, munities would demand comparable name we call it.”3 I do not suggest that if not exactly in the same ratio, at least so transfers (Macdonald had responded to the Fathers of Confederation read Jevons nearly up to the mark as that they shall Brown’s tirades by voting money toward Confederation and taxation, page 18

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 17 Canadian Confederation and democracy

electors with representation, even if DEMOCRATIC DISDAIN BY DENNIS PILON n over a thousand pages of the original such representation could not be said to Dennis Pilon is an associate professor have had decisive influence on what IConfederation debates very little was in the Department of Political Science said about democracy, and what did at York University. governments did. Perhaps not surpris- appear was almost entirely negative.1 In ingly, John A. Macdonald offered some 1865 politicians across the spectrum of the clearest insight on democracy were united in their disdain for anything John A. Macdonald and why it was anathema to the Fathers claiming to be “democratic,” with only a offered some of the of Confederation: it was seen as a threat few Rouges in Canada East prepared to to those with property. offer it some grudging and highly quali- clearest insight on The discussion was entirely in tune fied consideration. What does emerge with the anti-democratic ethos of the from the scant references to democracy democracy and why era. While the Canadian British colonies in the debates is that the politicians had voting, a fairly broad franchise at themselves in this period did not have a it was anathema various times and places, and govern- clear idea just what democracy was or ment executives accountable to elected would amount to in concrete terms. For to the Fathers of assemblies, this was not seen by col- some, democracy was what the United Confederation: it was onial politicians as “democracy.” Dem- States had, and in their view it had led to ocracy, as C.B. Macpherson once noted, chaos, “mob rule,” and civil war. For seen as a threat to would be “rule by the people or govern- others the concern was that democracy ment in accordance with the will of the would put the uneducated and the poor those with property. bulk of the people” and this was seen as in charge, resulting in larceny (i.e., a a “bad thing, fatal to individual freedom redistribution of wealth) and disorder. and to all the graces of civilized living … Still others spoke of democracy as if it acteristic of political rule. Thus speakers [a] position taken by pretty nearly all the 2 were just one element in a larger govern- would refer to the “democratic element” men of intelligence.” To forestall such ing system rather than the defining char- of the British constitution that provided Confederation and democracy, page 19

Confederation and taxation continued from page 17 precociously; rather, I suggest that “yes” to the principle of coexistence, great insight that few things are cheaper Jevons accurately described prevalent shared patriotism, and nationhood; not than a bit of federal money. Although, modes of economic reasoning of the Jevons but perhaps something more like where Macdonald only troubled to buy day. The fiscal architects of Confedera- Molly Bloom’s great reaffirmation of con- off the strong interests, neglecting the tion took precisely that sort of quantita- jugal union at the end of Ulysses: “yes weak, his successors learned, very grad- tive approach when they reasoned about and his heart was going like mad and yes ually, that they must tax the strong to pro- how the deal would work in practice. I said yes I will Yes.” vide for the weak. Confederation was and remains, to no small degree, a mathematical science. TAXING THE STRONG NOTES But in Canada, the work of turning That primordial Canadian “Yes” still rings 1. The Quebec Resolutions, Resolution 64 that quantitative question into a qualita- in our ears. It is important that some Can- (October 1864), online: https://www tive one went ahead more flamboyantly adians not pride themselves on being .collectionscanada.gc.ca/ and effectively than in the maritime prov- higher-minded than other Canadians. confederation/023001-7104-e.html inces. That was the task of the chief ad- However, it is also important not to (accessed April 27, 2016). vocates of Confederation: John A. reduce politics to tax politics. Speaking 2. Parliamentary Debates on the Subject of Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier, historically, it may be precisely because the Confederation of the British North Thomas D’Arcy McGee, and George Canadians have preferred to insist that American Provinces (Quebec: Hunter, Brown himself. They laboured to make higher principles were at stake, that Can- Rose, 1865), 517-18. Confederation not a careful calculus but adians have not seen such crippling 3. W. Stanley Jevons, The Theory of a take-it-or-leave-it, once-in-a-lifetime deal debates around taxation as the United Political Economy (London: Macmillan, that was simultaneously a great, patriotic States. It was, perhaps, Macdonald’s 1871), 8.

18 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Confederation and democracy continued from page 18 democratic outcomes, colonial elections at this time were often crude and [Cartier] claimed proudly that French Canada open conflicts between rival factions, had resisted the entreaties of the American conducted without a secret ballot or clear administrative rules. Many histor- revolutionaries to “cast their lot with the ians have recounted the quite shocking violence and intimidation present at the democratic element—they knew the hustings. A farmer who voted against the wishes of the local political leader- hollowness of democracy.” ship might find himself cut off from the crucial patronage that kept him quite lit- of the American system (90). Canada audience” because “the will of the erally alive in the off season, while a East Parti Bleu leader George-Étienne majority is law” (827-28). Harwood and worker who could vote would find his Cartier went further, arguing that Confed- others felt that democracy as they boss sitting on the hustings ready to fire eration as a project was designed to op- understood it was inconsistent with the him for not voting the right way. Can- pose the democratic ethos of the United preservation of liberty. “Democratic ada’s founders were so concerned States by “perpetuating the monarchial institutions have no charms for me!” he about too much public influence that element” (59). “I oppose the democratic told the Speaker, just before launching they actually restricted the franchise in system … in the United States,” he pro- into a speech that blamed democracy Ontario and Quebec even further before claimed bluntly in the House, associat- for the terror following the French Rev- the first Canadian election. How and ing it with the “will of the mob” (62, 59). olution (828). why they responded thus is not clear, as Indeed, he claimed proudly that French Other members did not seem so cat- we know much less about the founders’ Canada had resisted the entreaties of egorically opposed to democracy—for ideas about democracy than is generally the American revolutionaries to “cast them it was more a matter of degree. For assumed, though the Confederation their lot with the democratic element— Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “universal dem- debates do make a small contribution to they knew the hollowness of democ- ocracy is no more acceptable to us than our knowledge. racy” (59). Canada East Conservative a universal monarchy in Europe,” imply- Thomas D’Arcy McGee echoed Car ing that a less than universal democracy OPPOSING UNIVERSAL tier’s view of Confederation as an anti- might be acceptable (143). Here McGee SUFFRAGE democratic project, declaring that the and others were grasping for a way to de- The Confederation debates began in the “proposed Confederation will enable us scribe what they understood as the Brit- partially appointed, partially elected up- to bear up shoulder to shoulder to resist ish governing compromise, one that per house of the United Province, the the spread of this universal democracy while linking royalty to a voting public Legislative Council, with speeches pro- doctrine” (143). was equally free from too much mon moting the initiative from most of the The debate over Confederation in the archical or public influence. At one point government ministers. John A. Macdon- Province of Canada’s lower house, the Cauchon even described it as “British ald, a Canada West Conservative, took elected Legislative Assembly, also democracy,” a system of “monarchy the opportunity to clarify that “universal tended to equate America with democ- tempered by the parliamentary system suffrage is not in any way sanctioned, or racy and democracy with crisis. Parti and ministerial responsibility” (561), admitted by these resolutions, as the Bleu member for Montmorency Joseph- though just a few pages later he would basis on which the constitution of the Édouard Cauchon argued that “[w]e confusingly argue that England’s upper popular branch should rest” (35). He have also seen, not far from our own house is a “great defence against demo- was keen to underline that “not a single homes, that same democracy … moving cratic invasion” because of its wealth, one of the representatives of the govern- at a rapid pace towards demagogy, and land, and power (572). Thus it would ap- ment or of the opposition or anyone of from demagogy to an intolerable despot pear that “British democracy” at this the Lower Provinces was in favor of uni- ism” (561). Another Quebec member, time was one that could defend itself versal suffrage” because, in line with the Antoine Chartier de Lotbinière Har- against “democratic invasion.” Stated British constitution, “classes and prop- wood (representative for Vaudreuil), plainly, such members clearly favoured erty should be represented as well as suggested that under American democ- the maintenance of the Canadian colon numbers” (39). His sentiments were racy “no man can venture to speak ial status quo of responsible government echoed by Canada West Reform Party frankly what he thinks, and must take combined with a restricted franchise. leader George Brown, who claimed that care that what he says is in the unison universal suffrage was the greatest defect with the opinions of the majority of his Confederation and democracy, page 20

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 19 Confederation and democracy continued from page 19 PRO-DEMOCRACY— As for Confederation, Dorion thought “this ANTI-CONFEDERATION The few positive comments about dem- scheme of an independent monarchy” would ocracy heard during the debates came from opponents of Confederation. L.A. “lead but to extravagance, ruin and anarchy!” Olivier, elected member of the Legisla- tive Council for de Lanaudière, did not understand how stripping the proposed people will ever estimate them both at sentation is that not even the repre- upper house of elected members was a their proper value, and will ever know sentative principle shall alone good idea. To shift to a fully appointed that which will suit them best” (869-70). legislate. We have taken the pre- second chamber was to take away a As for Confederation, Dorion thought caution to protect the rights and right the public had “acquired after long “this scheme of an independent mon property of Englishmen by the pre- rogatives of the Crown, the privil- struggles,” a move he characterized as archy” would “lead but to extravagance, eges of the Lords, and the “retrograde” and a “step backwards.” By ruin and anarchy!” (870). authority of a representative contrast, it was his view that “as much When the question of Confederation Assembly. All these constitute the political liberty as possible should be was finally put to the lower Legislative three-fold and invaluable shelter conceded to the masses.” Though he Assembly it easily passed, but its oppon which we have raised over the prefaced his comments by noting that ents continued to raise procedural rights and property of the meanest he “neither loved nor approved of mob- objections about what should come subject in the realm. (1005) rule,” he was prepared to declare to the next, with a number of members calling Operating under such assumptions, house that “I am favorable to democ- for an election or referendum so as to it is hardly surprising that members of racy,” a very rare admission for a politi- get some direct public input on the the Province of Canada’s parliament cian of this era (175). There were others, issue. In his response to the question of had so little (and even less positive) to like Luc Letellier de St. Just (elected why such steps were unnecessary in the say about democracy in their debates member of the Legislative Council for British system, John A. Macdonald over Confederation. Grandville) and William McMaster offered up an extensive quotation from (elected member of the Legislative a British Liberal parliamentarian, Wil- NOTES Council for Midland), who also ques- liam Henry Leatham, described as an tioned removing elected members from “advanced Whig” in one volume of par- 1. Canada, Parliamentary Debates on the Subject of the Confederation of British the new upper house, claiming that liamentary biography.3 Leatham’s views North American Provinces, 3rd Session, such a move was against the trend of nicely capture the governing and repre- 8th Provincial Parliament of Canada the age they were living in (186-87, 230). sentative model preferred by the great (Quebec: Hunter, Rose, 1865). Unless Other opponents of Confederation, majority of Canadian parliamentarians. otherwise noted, all citations refer to like Parti Rouge leader Antoine-Aimé Macdonald quoted him thus: this source. Dorion, questioned whether most It is the essence of representative 2. C.B. Macpherson, The Real World of people really cared that much what kind government that the electing class, Democracy (Toronto: CBC Enterprises, of system they lived under, monarchy or which is analogous to the class 1965), 1. democracy, as long as things were good paying the rates, shall possess no 3. Robert Henry Mair, Debrett’s Illustrated economically and socially (869). He direct legislative power; and the House of Commons and the Judicial claimed that Canadians regularly heard principle of parliamentary repre- Bench (London: Dean & Son, 1881), 136. first-hand from family and acquain- tances in the United States that things were not so bad, that they had political rights and a degree of equality (867). This line of reasoning cut little ice with most members, who tended to charac- terize opponents of Confederation as closet annexationists and/or democrats. But Dorion was undeterred, informing members that they may “decry as much As part of our partnership with Canada Watch, these essays as you choose the democratic system, will also be available on ActiveHistory.ca in summer 2016. and laud the monarchial system—the

20 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 “Canada was … just like a farmer”: Confederation from the perspective of agrarian society anada was, in fact, just like a ascribed came from the agricultural BY COLIN M. COATES “Cfarmer,” stated Sir Étienne- class. (The “professional class,” the Paschal Taché, premier of the Province Colin M. Coates teaches Canadian studies source of almost all the Fathers of Con- at Glendon College and is the former of Canada, in opening the debate on the federation, accounted for 4 percent of director of the Robarts Centre for Confederation agreement in the Legisla- Canadian Studies. the population. See the accompanying tive Council in 1865 (2). His simile table for the backgrounds of the underlined how access to ice-free ports Fathers.) The census of 1871 noted only in the Maritimes could link the products The men who wrote 20 towns of over 5,000 inhabitants, 17 of of central Canada to external markets, them in Ontario and Quebec. Only just as a farmer needed roads to trans- the British North Montreal, Quebec City, and Toronto had port goods to market. The homey char- America Act lived in over 50,000 inhabitants, and agriculture acter of the metaphor would have made was never far from even the larger sense to his audience. Christopher an agrarian world, towns. In 1871 there were 172,258 farms Dunkin, a critic of the proposed Confed- in Ontario and 118,086 in Quebec, and eration from Brome, Canada East, and Canada would the numbers of individual farms employed a similar agrarian metaphor increased after that decade in both in expressing his fear that “the provin- remain largely provinces. Not until 1951 would the cial constituencies, legislatures and agrarian for many number of farms in Ontario drop below executives will all show a most calf-like the figure for 1871; in Quebec, this pro- appetite for the milking of this one most decades after. cess took one decade longer.1 The men magnificent government cow” (92). who wrote the British North America Although Dunkin’s and Taché’s fellow Act lived in an agrarian world, and Can- members of the Assembly were primar- Macdonald articulated this fact: “the ada would remain largely agrarian for ily small-town lawyers and business- agricultural class … form the great body many decades after. men, they lived in an overwhelmingly of the people” (21). agrarian world. The agrarian nature of According to the 1871 census, almost AGRICULTURE: THE CONCEPTUAL Canada was latent in their discussions. half the population (48.4 percent) of BASIS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM They did not foresee its eventual decline Ontario and Quebec was listed as being The economic basis of Canadian soci- in preponderance, nor did many of members of the “agricultural class,” and ety was therefore vastly different in 1871 them feel the need to emphasize it. Still, the figures were only slightly smaller in from what it is today. Agriculture and the in recognizing that the laws relating to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. relatively low population density associ- property could not be standardized Almost 400,000 of 800,000 men and ated with it held implications for throughout the new country, John A. women to whom an occupation was “Canada was … just like a farmer,” page 22

Backgrounds of the Members of the Assembly of the Province of Canada, 1865

Lawyer Businessman Civil –notary –merchant Journalist Farmer Educator Physician Surveyor servant

Canada East 26 33 10 11 7 7 1 6

Canada West 15 38 4 7 1 2 3 17

To provide a perspective on the backgrounds and interests of the importance of businessmen, members of the legal profession (particu- elected members of the House of Assembly in 1865, Dr. Stacy larly from Canada East), and civil servants from Canada West. Nation-Knapper compiled this list of occupations, largely from entries In addition, of the 130 elected members, 10 held largely honorif- from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography or Wikipedia pages. ic positions as justices of the peace (6 in Canada East and 4 in Can- Note that many of the members had multiple occupations, as was typ- ada West), 34 were involved in the militia (17 from each section), ical of the 19th century. One could be a farmer and a businessman and at least 39 had significant interests in railways (20 in Canada at the same time, or a lawyer and a civil servant. The table shows the East and 19 in Canada West).

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 21 “Canada was … just like a farmer” continued from page 21 political, cultural, and social life. To grate to the United States, to the chagrin ing municipal powers, the most “local” make an obvious point, people living on of politicians like George Brown. Mean- of all orders of government, to be farms would have seen the world differ- while, others took on waged labour in defined by the provinces. The debaters ently than today’s Canadian urbanites lumber camps or other resource indus- in 1865 spoke at great length about the do. Agriculture, involving a fairly dis- tries that effectively subsidized marginal composition of the upper chamber, and persed population, provided the main- family farms. the powers of the central and provincial stay of the economy and formed the governments. But they said little about conceptual basis of the political system. LIVING LOCALLY the level of authority closest to the The property-owning male father- Because of the rural nature of the Cana- ground. Municipal and county-level gov- farmer was an ideal political subject in das, people lived locally, that is, in small- ernments were barely mentioned in the the 19th century: invested in the land, scale settlements. One of the words that debates, and indeed there is still no dis- attentive to the whims of weather and appears most frequently throughout the tinct constitutional basis for municipal market, yet to a large degree autono- debates is “local.” (See the Wordle illus- governments in Canada. This gap in the mous of the state. Farming, in Jefferson tration.) While this was a code word for debates has consequences today, when ian thought, served as the basis for a “provincial,” it also reflects the smaller- the vast majority of Canadians live not stable republic, and a similar agrarian scale vistas of the men in the legislature. only in cities, but in large conurbations. dream underlay the thoughts of many of (Who in Ontario or Quebec today The numbers for 2011 are the exact the Fathers of Confederation. The farm would refer to Toronto or Quebec City opposite of 1871: 81 percent of Canad- family reflected virtue and stability, in as their “local” government?) Of neces- ians are urban-dwellers today, while contrast to the dangers the city posed sity, to convince the disparate parts of only 19 percent live in rural areas. Nor is with its diseases, anonymity, and poten- British North America to join in the new the family farm at the centre of Canad- tial social unrest. Production largely country, political elites had to balance ian political thought today, with only depended on the labour of the family; in the local with the national. This involved 650,000 Canadians—2 percent of the the 1860s, farms in the Canadas tended weighing the interests of different levels population—living on farms.2 to focus on a mix of field crops and live- of government, provinces versus the stock, with some of the produce aimed federal government, for a group of men CONFEDERATION AS A BACK- at external markets. These were not the who were ultimately jockeying for power TO-THE-LAND MOVEMENT industrial-scale monoculture farms of in the new polity, and many of whom Yet the future that the politicians of 1865 the early 21st century. Nor were they the distrusted the others. foresaw involved even more agriculture peasant holdings of pre-industrial Eur- The politicians of the 1860s may have than existed in 1865, and it implicitly ope. Farmers never starved in mid-19th- differed on many issues, but they largely revolved around the image of the family century British North America—although embraced a liberal view of the econ- farm. In the Quebec Resolutions, the many may have eked out a difficult exist- omy, where the state played a limited central and provincial governments ence on marginal soil. By the 1860s, role, particularly in the redistribution of were given shared authority over “agri- much of the good agricultural land in wealth. The British North America Act, culture,” but the order in which it was the Canadas had already been occu- 1867 provided extensive powers to the listed as a priority is telling: 36th of 37 pied, leading thousands to leave from “local” level of government, while keep- for the central government, 4th of 18 for Canada West for the Red River settle- ing the major tax-raising powers at the the provinces. Agriculture was one of ment and much larger numbers to emi- level of the central government and leav- the few areas of shared jurisdiction

UPCOMING CANADA WATCH CANADA: HOMELAND OR HOSTILE LAND? PAPERS FROM THE 2016 ROBARTS CENTRE GRADUATE CONFERENCE

http://yorkrobartsgraduateconference.org

22 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 between the two levels of government, Well into the 20th ent, and political elites now determined along with immigration, and public constitutional revisions to be necessary. works. The collective interest in agricul- century, the dynamics The Rowell-Sirois commission con- ture related to understandings of poten- cluded that new approaches were tial future development. After all, one of the country tended required to provide security for the Can- way to conceive of Confederation was adian people: the “temporary retreat to as a “back-to-the-land” movement, or to shore up agrarian the family homestead” could no longer perhaps more accurately, as a “make- serve as a safety valve for the popula- farms” project. Brown saw the great and rural tion. The welfare state emerged largely promise of Confederation in opening up perspectives. out of the context of the Second World the west and north to economic activity, War, and the Rowell-Sirois commission oblivious to any prior claims on that ter- provided a blueprint. Most strikingly, in 1940, in recognition of the fact that ritory. If “Saskatchewan,” a territory he in which the raw products tended to be “local” (i.e., provincial) taxes had had never seen, could be settled by shipped to distant markets, having been proved insufficient in dealing with the Euro-Canadian farmers (47), fields and only lightly transformed before export. economic problems of the Great towns would spring up, replacing the Given the rhythm of much resource pro- Depression, the British North America boundless forests (54). The settlement duction, the family farm was the eco- Act was amended to allow for the cre- of western Canada was a “projet de nomic fallback for many male workers, ation of a nationwide unemployment société”: by attracting European immi- with seasonal waged work in the lumber insurance scheme. grants away from the United States, camps subsidizing a marginal agricul- In 1865, such problems lay well into Brown proclaimed Canada could tural holding. the future, and it would not be fair to crit- “develop its great natural resources … Well into the 20th century, the dynam- icize the politicians of 1865 for failing to and that will endeavor to maintain lib- ics of the country tended to shore up foresee economic and environmental erty, and justice, and Christianity agrarian and rural perspectives. The developments 70 years later. The local, throughout the land” (37). Alexander population in the Prairies grew quickly agrarian nature of Canada in the 1860s Galt, the member for Sherbrooke and a after 1896, thanks to extremely high lev- produced a constitution that had to be railway investor, was a bit more finan- els of immigration from Europe. By 1911, dramatically reconsidered when the cially practical in his assessment: the these homesteaders had enabled Sas- overextension of agriculture in Western “valuable mines and fertile lands” in the katchewan to surpass Nova Scotia to Canada became apparent, the country west offered “additional sources of rev- become the third-largest province in had become more industrial, and taxes enue for government” (32). population, and it would remain in that could not meet the needs of the cit- The creation of Canada, then, would position until after the devastation of the izenry as a whole. By the end of the allow business leaders to pursue and Great Depression, which revealed that 1930s, the agrarian vision of Canada lay expand the same types of economic the overexpansion of farming had been in shambles, and the constitutional activities in which the population was a historical error of grand proportions. arrangements had to be renegotiated in already deeply engaged. Railways, After the First World War, the federal order to erect the welfare state. Canada another key component of the Confed- government attempted to resettle veter- was no longer “just like a farmer.” eration deal—how many countries have ans by providing them with access to a clause for railways in their constitu- land, even when it was located in mar- NOTES tion?—could move the farmers’ goods to ginal agricultural locations like Vancou- distant markets. Farmers could export ver Island. Under the leadership of men 1. Statistics Canada, “Section M: their produce more easily (as they like curé Ivanhoé Caron, the Catholic Agriculture,” in Historical Statistics of Canada would in fact do in the late 19th century, Church encouraged the settlement of , catalogue no. 11-516-X, table M12-22, “Farm Holdings, Census Data, sending wheat, cheese, pork, beef, and the Abitibi district in northern Quebec, Canada and by Province, 1871 to 1971,” even eggs and livestock in large vol- while further west, settlers moved into http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-516-x/ umes across the Atlantic, to the United the Peace River district on the border sectionm/4057754-eng.htm. Kingdom in particular). Industries, between northern British Columbia and 2. Statistics Canada, “Highlights,” in largely unspecified in the debates, Alberta. By 1936, the three prairie prov- Human Activity and the Environment, would employ labourers and, presum- inces had over 300,000 farms. catalogue no. 16-201-X, http://www ably, they would transform primary into .statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-201-x/2014000/ finished products for local and distant THE FADING OF THE aftertoc-aprestdm1-eng.htm. markets. At the same time, “industry” AGRARIAN VISION may have equally referred to resource In the late 1930s, the dangers of reliance Learn more about Canada Watch and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at http://robarts.info.yorku.ca production, such as mining and forestry, on the family farm were readily appar-

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 23 The nature of Confederation

ature mattered to Confederation.1 BY SEAN KHERAJ GEOGRAPHIC LOGIC NIn the minds of many of the legisla- Alexander Galt captured this sentiment tors from the Province of Canada in Sean Kheraj is an associate professor of Canadian and environmental history completely in his first speech on the 1865, the union of the colonies of British at York University. He is also the director matter of Confederation. He outlined North America was providential and evi- and editor-in-chief of the Network in the following vision of Canada: dent in the natural environment. The Canadian History and Environment. land, minerals, forests, waters, and ani- Possessing as we do, in the far western part of Canada, perhaps the mals of the territories of British North most fertile wheat-growing tracts on America served as evidence of a geo- They were more this continent,—in central and east- graphic logic to the movement for Con- ern Canada facilities for manufac- federation. While the legislators’ akin to boosters, turing such as cannot anywhere be rhetoric was often exaggerated and surpassed,—and in the eastern or overly deterministic, nature itself was often exaggerating Maritime Provinces an abundance one of the primary points of argument in and overestimating of that most useful of all minerals, the debates over Confederation in 1865, coal, as well as the most magnifi- and it shaped the constitutional resolu- the vastness of the cent and valuable fisheries in the tions and vision for the future Dominion world; extending as this country of Canada. natural riches of does for two thousand miles, tra- versed by the finest navigable river the country. In many in the world, we may well look for- A “DEVELOPMENT ETHOS” ward to our future with hopeful an- In 1865, when Canadian legislators ways, the nature of ticipation of seeing the realization, spoke of nature, they did so in particular not merely of what we have hitherto ways. The debates over Confederation the Canada they thought would be the commerce of did not include any consideration for en- Canada, great as that might be- vironmental protection or stewardship. envisioned was come, but to the possession of At- Instead, they focused solely on nature as lantic ports, which we shall help to a resource for exploitation. Broadly more caricature build to a position equal to that of speaking, their collective views of the the chief cities of the American than reality. Union. (Debates, 63) natural environment were driven by what Laurel Sefton MacDowell has Thomas D’Arcy McGee described called a “development ethos,” a view of the proposed union as having a “natural nature that, she argues, drove much of sound familiar to later historians of Can- oneness” to its geography: Canadian history in the 19th and 20th ada. Étienne-Paschal Taché, Alexander There is not one port or harbour of 2 centuries. The natural environment was Galt, George Brown, Thomas D’Arcy Mc- all the provinces now proposing to a foundation upon which a nation would Gee, and others could easily be mistak- confederate, which cannot be be built. As William McGiverin, member en for students of Harold Innis and Don- reached from any other by all ves- of the Legislative Assembly for Lincoln, ald Creighton. For these political leaders, sels, if not of too great draught, with- said in his support of the Quebec Resolu- the exploitation of staple resources and out ever once leaving our own tions, “Nature has bountifully given us all the geography of the St. Lawrence – Great waters. From the head of Lake Su- she could well give towards making us a Lakes basin proved the wisdom of their perior the same craft may coast unin- great and prosperous people.”3 In think- Confederation scheme. But unlike Innis terruptedly, always within sight of our ing about nature in British North Ameri- and Creighton, they saw no critical prob- own shores nearly the distance of a ca, proponents of Confederation saw lems or weaknesses in an export-led voyage to England—to [St. John’s], Newfoundland. (Debates, 139) these resources as natural capital that economy based on the extraction and could best be unlocked through political exploitation of staple resources. They Galt and McGee were not the only union and geographic integration. were more akin to boosters, often exag- ones to hold this geographic view of The arguments many politicians gerating and overestimating the vastness Confederation. Members of the Legisla- made during the course of the 1865 Con- of the natural riches of the country. In tive Assembly who were not part of the federation debates in the Province of many ways, the nature of the Canada ministry expressed similar views. For Canada concerning the natural re- they envisioned was more caricature instance, despite his opposition to the sources of British North America would than reality. Quebec Resolutions, Joseph-Xavier

24 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Perreault, member of the Legislative Advocates of in the northwest, especially through Assembly for Richelieu, outlined nearly agricultural colonization. It was in this the same geographic concept of Confed- Confederation saw region that legislators expressed their eration: some of the greatest most explicit imperial ambitions. George Those who consider the inexhaust- Brown was a leading voice for western ible resources of the Provinces of potential to exploit expansion. “What we propose now is British North America have no but to lay the foundations of the struc- doubt that we possess all the ele- nature in the ture,” Brown argued, “to set in motion ments of a great power. In territory the governmental machinery that will we have a tenth part of the habit- northwest, especially one day, we trust, extend from the Atlan- able globe, capable of supporting a tic to the Pacific” (Waite, 38). In that population of 100,000,000 of per- through agricultural enormous territory between the head of sons. Bounded on the east by the Lake Superior and the Pacific coast, Atlantic, on the west by the Pacific, colonization. It was in Brown claimed, “vast sources of wealth our territory is further accessible to the fur trader, the miner, the gold by the navigation of the internal this region that hunter, and the agriculturalist, lie there seas, which bound it on the south. Our rivers complete the incompar legislators expressed ready to be developed” (Debates, 98). able network of communication by Brown, of course, was not alone in this water, and, like vivifying arteries, their most explicit imperial vision of Confederation. Robert bear on their bosom to the ocean imperial ambitions. MacFarlane, member of the Legislative and the markets of the world the Assembly for Perth, was one of many to heavy produce of the western hold similar ideas: “Before long we shall plains, the lofty pines of our for- see population extending over these ests, our ores of gold and copper, member of the Legislative Council from vast plains, across the basin of the Win- our furs collected in our hunting Toronto, who argued that “[a] large por- nepeg [sic] and the valley of the Sas- grounds, and the produce of our tion of the population are devoted to katchewan, and thence to Vancouver fisheries in the gulf. In this vast fishing, and skilled in drawing from the [Island], and all the sooner if this meas- field of productiveness, where all bosom of the deep the inexhaustible ure be adopted, supplying as it will a the materials of immense wealth treasures which will be a perennial government for the encouragement of exist, we need a moving power, source of wealth and prosperity to that its settlement and the protection of its and the inexhaustible coal fields of Nova Scotia are at hand to furnish country” (Debates, 831). But in addition settlers; for the country is as fertile and it. (Debates, 585-86) to its fisheries, Nova Scotia would also productive as our own province, and its fuel the industrial growth of the new domain as wide” (Debates, 1024). In this vision of Confederation, the nation with its mineral inheritance. Nature would make Canada an em- proposed union of British North Amer- Thomas D’Arcy McGee was just one of pire. “With such an extent of territory ica was a natural system, like a human many in the Legislative Assembly to and so fertile a soil,” Taché told the body, connected by the “vivifying arter- highlight the coal deposits of Nova Sco- Legislative Council, he had “no doubt ies” of its lakes and rivers and its metab- tia. “But there is one special source of whatever that in less than half a century olism fuelled by its mineral wealth. wealth to be found in the Maritime Prov- Canada would embrace a population Each region of the proposed union inces,” McGee exclaimed, “which was equal to that of the large empires of the brought with it an abundance of natural not in any detail exhibited by my hon. old world” (Debates, 6). The idea of na- wealth. Canada was, to these legislators, friends—I allude to the important article ture as a divine inheritance and founda- the agricultural and emerging industrial of coal. I think there can be no doubt tion for a new transcontinental empire heart of the proposed federation. New that, in some parts of Canada, we are animated the imaginations of Confeder- Brunswick, while geographically small fast passing out of the era of wood as ation’s vocal proponents in the Prov- and lacking in agricultural potential, fuel, and entering on that of coal.” Not ince of Canada. It was a view of nature offered rich stocks of timber and fish. only would coal soon replace wood for that was often hyperbolic and overly op- As Taché described New Brunswick, “If heating, but it would fuel the growth of timistic. It was also singular in vision, it did not produce wheat, it produced manufacturing in Canada (Debates, 141). driven by a development ethos without timber in immense quantities. It had a much concern for many of the prob- very extensive fishing coast which was a A VISION OF NORTHWEST lems associated with export-led natural source of great wealth” (Debates, 8). EXPANSION resource exploitation or the need to Nova Scotia also contributed its fisher- Advocates of Confederation saw some conserve or even protect elements of ies, according to John Jones Ross, life of the greatest potential to exploit nature The nature of Confederation, page 26

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 25 The nature of Confederation continued from page 25 the natural environment. The resources extent, historians have not paid much 3. Canada, Parliamentary Debates on the of the country certainly fed the growing attention to this element of the debate Subject of the Confederation of the economy of Canada in the 19th and in Canada. British North American Provinces, 3rd 20th centuries, but Canada never 2. Laurel Sefton MacDowell, An Session, 8th Provincial Parliament of achieved the levels of population Environmental History of Canada Canada (Quebec: Hunter, Rose, 1865), 472. Unless otherwise noted, references growth envisioned by legislators in (Vancouver: University of British in the text are to the Debates. 1865, nor were its resources nearly as Columbia Press, 2012), 6. “inexhaustible.” By the 1990s, even the seemingly endless stores of cod in the north Atlantic reached their limits. This logic and understanding of Canada as Canadian Studies Network an interconnected web of abundant natural resources, however, would come Réseau d’études canadiennes to shape the country for many years after 1867, and it arguably continues to he CSN-REC facilitates communication shape the country into the present. Tamong Canadianists and holds an NOTES annual meeting to discuss issues of 1. Rather than using P.B. Waite’s abridged mutual concern and new developments version of the 1865 debates, I drew from in Canadian Studies. the full text of the debates. For the most part, Waite did not include much of the discussion of the natural resources and http://www.csn-rec.ca geography of the country. To some

Wordle illustration of the most common words in the Confederation debates. The larger a word is, the more frequently it was used. The unabridged version of the debates was used in creating this Wordle.

26 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 A workingman watches

abernacle! Finally they’re gone. bounds. Now we’ve got a railway con- BY CRAIG HERON T Pity the poor caretaker! I’ve had to necting us with Montreal. wait for these windbags to finish their Craig Heron is a professor of history at Câlice! I’ve heard a lot about railways speeches almost every night for six York University. He is the author of here in this chamber over the past few numerous articles and books, including weeks before I could close up the Parlia- Working in Steel: The Early Years in weeks. The speakers on the government ment Building. So, night after night, I’ve Canada, 1883-1935; The Canadian side liked to sing the praises of the new sat waiting and listening. Grab that Labour Movement: A Short History; line to the maritime colonies, the Inter- broom and give me a hand to clean up Booze: A Distilled History; The Workers’ colonial, as they’re calling it. It’s part of all their mess, and I’ll tell you about Festival: A History of Labour Day in the deal between the colonies. To be Canada; and Lunch-Bucket Lives: what’s been going on. Remaking the Workers’ City. He has been sure, there are men like my cousin Luc So many speeches, hour after hour. vice-chair of the Ontario Heritage who will be glad to have work again as All about trying to pull together the col- Foundation, co-chair of the Workers’ navvies building railways, and lots of onies to make a new country, a “new Arts and Heritage Centre, and president towns down east will get a boost as nationality,” as some of them like to call of the Canadian Historical Association. those construction gangs pass through. it. I must admit that a few of them really But this Intercolonial idea sounds like a know how to pitch an idea. That D’Arcy [E]very week I see giant swindle. Who’s behind it? Why, as McGee can win a few hearts. But most Monsieur Antoine-Aimé Dorion, that of them didn’t make much impact on hundreds of smart guy from Montreal, said last week, this workingman. It’s pretty clear that it’s the Grand Trunk Railway. They want they don’t care about those of us who workingmen and their the new government to foot the bill for a earn our bread by the sweat of our brow new line to the east that will boost the anyway. Not one of them talked about families getting off the business of the Grand Trunk. He said how working people would benefit from boats down on the that company’s investors got assurances this new “Confederation.” of “the enhanced value which will be Oh, sure, lots of them wanted to con- waterfront, ready to given to their shares and bonds, by the vince the others that the economy adoption of the Confederation scheme would be in better shape if Confedera- get jobs in industry. and the construction of the Intercolo- tion came to pass. More trade between nial.” M. Dorion also thinks that the the colonies, it seems, and maybe some Hudson’s Bay Company is behind that new mines and logging camps in places with the United States back in 1854 has project, because they would like a line pretty far from here. So I guess that will brought us good trade, and there’s been heading westward as well. As I look mean more jobs for the likes of us. That lots of work in the British colonies here around that chamber over the past few smooth-talker from Kingston, John A. during that civil war they fought in the weeks, I saw so many men with busi- Macdonald, talked about how this new States. In fact, we’ve got new manufac- ness interests that would benefit from deal will sweep away “the evils which tories popping up all across the col- Confederation. Take that James Ferrier retarded our prosperity,” and that Scot- onies, and every week I see hundreds of in the Legislative Council, who every- tish guy from Toronto, George Brown, workingmen and their families getting body knows is a director of the Grand had a lot to say about the great eco- off the boats down on the waterfront, Trunk. He got up and declared: “We nomic advantages of the colonies join- ready to get jobs in industry. There are want the road at the present moment for ing together. This union of the colonies moulders heading up to Montreal to the business of the country.” And, of “will give us control of a market of four work in the big foundries and carpen- course, there’s that fat cat George- millions of peoples,” he claimed. It will ters and masons looking for work in Étienne Cartier, with all his connections be a “great gain to our farmers and man- every town along the lakes in Upper to the banks and railways. This is what ufacturers.” I’m not sure what he thinks Canada. Lots of guys, like my cousins politics has become in our part of the has been so bad up to now. Oh, to be Benoît and Étienne, have been heading world. The men who employ us have sure, lots of our families have been off to the lumber camps every winter easy access to government and all the migrating to the States to look for work. too. Here in Quebec City, the shipyards goodies that can flow their way. As I lis- If the politicians are right, maybe my and woodworking shops are booming. tened night after night to these guys, it cousin Jean-François will find work here My niece Joséphine even got a job in sounded like they were working out a in Quebec and can return from Lewis- one of the new shoe factories. The pop- ton. But the reciprocity deal we signed ulation has been rising by leaps and A workingman watches, page 28

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 27 A workingman watches continued from page 27 big business deal to make everything It’s no wonder that federation. It’s too “complicated,” ac- easier for themselves and their friends. cording to Macdonald. They’re going to As far as I could tell from all the workingmen here in whisk it off to London to get the British speechifying, we workers will fall into Parliament to pass it into law, leaving us the category of “property rights” in the Quebec, and other to just accept what comes back down to new constitution, and they’re being left us here on the St. Lawrence. There’s a to the new provincial governments. places, are starting to lot about the way the new constitution is That seems to be a way of saying we’re set up that seems paternalistic—leaving not too important, since the new think that they need our betters to decide what’s best for us. national government is set to take on all to get together to Sacrament! There are a lot of us who the really big jobs like promoting the have had enough of the kindly, old- economy and defining criminals. Even protect their own fashioned master and the patient, obe- policies about sending our kids to dient servant. We know our masters school will be left to the provinces. interests from the likes have often looked out for our best inter- Did we hear anything in these ests, but we always have to let them debates about workers’ rights? No! of these bigwigs. decide what those interests are. Too Actually, nobody seemed to want to talk often these days, they seem to be more about rights at all. They spent hours concerned with their profits and less explaining how the new national gov- ing off the sweat of our labours. The gov- with taking care of us. I hear that that ernment and the local provincial governor general and the provincial George Brown, for example, has turned ernments would get along. But, when it governors will be appointed too. I his newspaper in Toronto, the Globe, came to matters of political principles, wanted to cheer when I heard M. Dorion into a roaring capitalist operation, with all they talked about was the Queen and proclaim that “we shall have the most huge steam printing presses run by less- the “monarchical element” in govern- illiberal Constitution ever heard of in skilled men, rather than well-trained ment. The queen may be a fine, virtuous any country where constitutional gov- printers. I hear he’s also been hiring lots woman, but she’s the symbol of all the ernment prevails.” of boys and women to do the printers’ power and wealth sitting up there at the And not a word about who will be work. No respect for the craft. top of the pyramid. The folks at the top able to vote for guys who want to sit in It’s no wonder that workingmen here make all the decisions for us at the bot- the new House of Commons. Here in in Quebec, and other places, are start- tom. These Confederation men said the Province of Canada, under the elec- ing to think that they need to get together they want to avoid the democracy and tion act passed in 1859, you need to to protect their own interests from the republicanism that exists in the United own, lease, or occupy property worth at likes of these bigwigs. Here in Quebec States. They’re afraid of “universal suf- least $300. I can tell you that that City, the Ship Labourers’ Benevolent frage,” letting everybody vote. So, to excludes most of us workingmen down Society has more than a thousand mem- keep the rabble in check, they want to in Lower Town. I’ve never been able to bers, and is standing up to the bosses create a new upper house in Parlia- vote, and didn’t hear any of those elo- with more guts. Those boys are mostly ment. It will be more like the House of quent gentlemen promise to open up Irishmen, but now there’s a society for Lords in England than the Senate down the voting to the likes of me and my the French dock workers as well. The in the States. Everyone in it will be neighbours. I’ve heard John A. Macdon- ship carpenters and sailmakers are well appointed for life, despite the fact that ald argue that only those with property organized, and so are railway workers. there have been elections for the upper should have a say in government, The ships’ carpenters are planning to house here in the Province of Canada’s because otherwise property would be start a co-operative society to build Parliament since 1856. In the British col- threatened. He believes that those with ships on their own without any contract- onies, we don’t have enough wealthy lots of property should rule the rest of ors. The cigar makers here are even lords living on their country estates who us. He calls that “protecting the minor- hooking up with their brothers in the can inherit their seats in Parliament. So ity.” “Classes and property should be United States in a new kind of “inter- I guess that means they’ll fill up the new represented as well as numbers,” he national unionism.” The printers have upper house with rich businessmen and argued here in these debates. He always been around since 1827, and have their worn-out politicians, who will sit there seems worried that we poor folk are own library. I’ve been to a couple of the vetoing what is passed in the lower going to rise up and take over. lectures they hold. They’re really the house of elected representatives. They They aren’t even going to ask us to intellectuals among us workingmen. are just another kind of “aristocrat,” liv- vote on whether we like this new Con- They could have brought something

28 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 see any of these guys promising to set Confederation will be a way to promote the workingman free. business interests and take us for granted. So this Confederation will be a way to promote business interests and take us We’ll be the available “hands” to work in for granted. We’ll be the available “hands” to work in their companies, their companies, presumably doing well in presumably doing well in the new markets, but we won’t get to have a say in the new markets, but we won’t get to have how the new country works. a say in how the new country works. Ah, Confederation. J’men câlice! Who cares? It has nothing to do with us. Let’s head down to the tavern and forget special to the debates about Confedera- unions are illegal under the common about it. tion. But nobody asked them. law. Only 16 years ago, some shoemak- My brother Henri worked for a while ers in Montreal got dragged into court NOTE up in Hamilton and tells me there’s a on charges of criminal conspiracy for Quotations in order of citation from the Trades Assembly that brings together forming a society for helping each Waite edition: Macdonald, 19; Brown, all these groups in that town to work other out with mutual aid and trying to 44-45; Dorion, 64; Ferrier, 14; Dorion, out what they have in common. The regulate their wages. We need a new 66; and Macdonald, 39 (from the longer problem is that we have to be careful— law to take away that threat, but I don’t 1865 edition).

A WIDE ARRAY OF FASCINATING PERSPECTIVES

YORK UNIVERSITY, in conjunction with its partners and co-sponsors the Archives of Ontario, Osgoode Hall Law School, and Seneca College, presents seven distinct but interconnected projects to be held in connection with the upcoming sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation of 1867 in 2017. These programs will illuminate a wide array of fascinating perspectives about the events of the 1860s in what is now called Canada, and the implications of the events that have since arisen.

http://150canada.info.yorku.ca

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 29 Gender and the Confederation debates

he participants in the 1865 Confed- nomic, political, and cultural issues fac- BY KATHRYN MCPHERSON Teration debates were divided by eth- ing women of the day. nicity, region, political opinion, and Kathryn McPherson teaches in the For instance, the 1865 debates make religion, but they shared class privilege, Department of History at York University. no mention of feminist activism of the Her research focuses on the histories of a racial identity we would now call women, health, and work. She is currently mid-century, stories of which some of “white,” and gender. They were all men. serving as associate dean in York’s Faculty the learned men might have read in the This latter shared identity would not of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies. transnational press. In 1848, Elizabeth come as a surprise to feminist histor- Cady Stanton and her peers at Seneca ians. The political revolutions of the late Falls, New York had demanded rights 18th and early 19th centuries may have None of this North for women. Stanton herself rewrote the eradicated (or eroded) the patriarchal Declaration of Independence to include authority of monarchs, but in turn American political female citizens. Closer to home, journal- invested political power in male heads agitation over ist Mary Ann Shadd Cary used her of households—populist patriarchs who newspaper The Provincial Freeman as fathers and sons united to exclude women’s sexual, (1853-1857) to demand the expansion of female participation from the body pol- the franchise, the abolition of slavery, itic.1 In the Canadas, Bettina Bradbury educational, property, and temperance, making her the first has shown, property-owning women female editor of a Canadian news struggled for and lost their voting rights and political rights paper.6 Meanwhile, for several decades in 1830s and 1840s Montreal.2 Such pro- made its way onto the the Upper Canadian Protestant Church cesses helped consolidate the stark div- courts had been debating a single sex- ision between public and private that tongues of the men ual standard, thereby challenging male characterized 19th-century industrial sexual privilege.7 In 1865, Emily Howard societies. Elite women may have who so loquaciously Stowe applied for admission to the Uni- wielded considerable influence on the versity of Toronto School of Medicine, perspectives of husbands and sons— debated the merits of and was denied on the basis of her sex; Gail Cuthbert Brandt argued such was political union in she went instead to the New York Med- the case in the 1864 Charlottetown ical College and Hospital for Women.8 negotiations leading up to Confedera- British North America. In 1869 the Provisional Government of tion—but influence in the social and per- Assiniboia debated whether property- sonal realms did not translate into owning women (especially the Grey political power.3 As the 1865 Legislative ented, was referenced fewer than two Nuns) would have voting rights.9 None Council and Legislative Assembly dozen times throughout the full text. of this North American political agita- debates reveal, deciding the political Plebeian women appear even less fre- tion over women’s sexual, educational, future of British North America was an quently, emerging occasionally as char- property, and political rights made its all-male affair. Is, then, gender a useful acters in anecdotes used to bolster way onto the tongues of the men who so category of analysis for understanding particular points of debate. Langevin, loquaciously debated the merits of polit- the political dialogue of 1865? for example, recounted the story of 150 ical union in British North America. emigrants who travelled from Fort CONSPICUOUS BY Garry to British Columbia in 1862. In MARRIAGE AS CIVIL CONTRACT THEIR ABSENCE the party were “a woman and three lit- Marriage was the one exception. A rela- Whether reading P.B. Waite’s 1963 tle children” who were well cared for tively lengthy ten pages of discussion in edited selections of The Confederation on the journey. Langevin argued that the full version of the text—excised from Debates in the Province of Canada or just as these vulnerable travellers could Waite’s 1963 version of the Confedera- the full text of the debates, now avail- traverse the northern half of the conti- tion debates—focused on which level of able digitally,4 the masculine character nent, so too could the political union government would sanction marriage of the political discourse is unmistak- between east and west be possible.5 and, more importantly, whether marriag- able. Real women were conspicuous Beyond such didactic tales involving es formed in one jurisdiction would be by their absence. The female monarch, members of the female sex, partici- recognized across borders, and there- Queen Victoria, to whom the plan for pants in the Confederation debates fore be “indissoluble.” After all, argued colonial union would have to be pres- remained oblivious to the social, eco- Joseph-Édouard Cauchon, member for

30 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Montmorency, marriage “constitutes the [T]he nation was ial unit often called “she.” By contrast, family and breaking that tie would de- Canada the political unit was imagined stroy the family and strike a mortal blow likened to a as male. For example, Taché claimed: at society, because family ties are its “Canada was, in fact, just like a farmer only base, its only foundation, its only household, over which who might stand upon an elevated spot element of composition.” In a speech on his property, from which he could frequently punctuated by applause and male statesmen would look around upon fertile fields, meand shouts of “Hear, hear,” Cauchon shifted ering streams, wood and all else that his discussion from that of the religious govern, while the land was necessary to his domestic wants, sanctity of marriage to its status in civil itself was female, but who had no outlet to the highway” law: “marriage considered as civil con- (2). In this gendered figure, the nation tract, becomes necessarily a part of fertile, and under was likened to a household, over which these laws … all the possible conse- male statesmen would govern, while the quences that can result from marriage to masculine control. land itself was female, fertile, and under the contracting parties, their children masculine control. and their estates. (Hear, hear).” For Through their polite and cultured lan- Cauchon and his audience, marriage striking about the Confederation debates guage, these “honourable gentlemen” was “the natural mode of transmitting was their civility. With only a few excep- sought to assert themselves as mascu- property, which is the fundamental basis tions, the discourse was polite, articu- line statesmen, building what political of society and, to go farther, society it- late, learned. Shakespeare and Dickens theorist Jürgen Habermas would call a self in its constitution.”10 In subsequent were quoted. References to characters “public discourse of rationality.” Joan decades, as historian Sarah Carter has like Hercules and Mephistopheles were Landes explains that, for Habermas, shown, Euro-Canadian marital systems sprinkled throughout. Speakers consistently addressed each other as “honour- the modern bourgeois public would emerge as powerful tools of sexu- sphere came into existence when able gentlemen” and applauded the al and racial governance in the new na- private persons joined together to tion.11 In 1865, though, it was the eco- “frank, bold, manly and statesmanlike exercise their reason in a public 13 nomic elements of marriage, and not its manner” of their counterparts. Differ- fashion. Public opinion is the end social practices or its cultural diversity ences of opinion were respectful and product of all the dialogues or its profound effect on women, that interruptions were infrequent and short. between discoursing individuals, animated political debate. On occasion, ribald comments were each one of whom is capable of Of course, the exclusion of women made. When Premier Étienne-Paschal reflexive rational discourse. … or women’s issues did not mean that Taché began to tell a story about meet- Habermas’s individuals participate in the public sphere as speakers gender was not at play. Cecilia Morgan’s ing a “most interesting American and readers (of novels and the analysis of how diverse claims to mas- woman,” his audience shouted “Hear, press).15 culine legitimacy shaped political hear and Laughter.” Taché responded, reforms in Upper Canada in the 1830s is “Honi soit qui mal y pense” (“Shame on From this perspective, the lengthy particularly helpful here. Morgan argued whomsoever would think badly of it”), debates of 1865, with their repetitive ref- that Upper Canadian reform advocates which incited—in the words of the print erences to and excessive pronounce- like William Lyon Mackenzie claimed version—“Continued laughter.”14 ments on (what Waite would later call for themselves the status of “true men” More likely, though, gendered refer- “twaddle” (xlvii)) railroads, taxation, who earned their place in public debate ences tilted toward chivalry. The debat- territorial boundaries, westward col- through their own merit. They stood in ers sought to be “dutiful subjects of the onial expansion, representative govern- contrast to conservative opponents who Queen,” praised “fealty to Queen and ment, and the threat of foreign invasion, had gained appointment to public office country,” and criticized any “insult to should be understood not in terms of through family—including female—net- her majesty.” Joseph-Godric Blanchet, the substance of the debate, but rather works; they thus rode into public life on member for Lévis, endorsed a strong in its form. The Confederation debates the “petticoats” of kin connections. central government able to assist the were a performance that helped pro- Claims to public space were, Morgan “Mother Country” in the face of invasion duce the public sphere of rationale dis- shows, predicated on claims to distinc- by the Americans. For some debaters, course. tive masculine traits.12 political union was an act of patriotism. This chivalry was extended not just A GENDERED PUBLIC SPHERE “HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN” to respect for the Crown, but also to the The performance occurred once on the Did the 1865 debates hinge on particular united territory being debated. The land floor of the Legislative Assembly or kinds of masculine identities? What is was imagined as feminine, as a territor- Gender and the Confederation debates, page 32

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 31 Gender and the Confederation debates continued from page 31 Legislative Council and then again when printed as an official record in 1865 The absence of women and, equally (and then again in the late 20th century importantly, the privileging of male spheres when published as a historical source). In his introduction to the 1963 version, of interest defined the state as a well-run Waite claimed: “The fact that debates were being reported fully, and officially, household, even while female labour, opinion, encouraged quantities of plain drivel … . [M]embers could correct their speeches or rights in that household were ignored. before they were printed; this meant speeches were dressed up for public consumption.”16 Dressed up for public Historical Association 3-11. Brandt Provisional Government of Assiniboia, argued that “the success of the political https://hallnjean2.wordpress.com/the- consumption, the speeches functioned discussions at Charlottetown was red-river-resistence/women-and-the- as a performance of rational discourse, directly related to the dazzling and resistance/consideration-of-the-political- which in turn legitimized the shape and exhausting round of social events filling position-of-women-during-the-resistance membership in the public sphere. the interstices of the formal sessions,” (accessed April 14, 2016). An 1870 Through this theatre both the rightful social events at which wives of article of Winnipeg’s newspaper the actors and the subject of federal govern- prominent politicians used their social New Nation addressed “Women’s ance were defined. The absence of skills to build personal and political Privileges” and referenced “Mrs. women and, equally importantly, the bridges while possibly also providing Stanton.” In 1871, Stanton’s friend and privileging of male spheres of interest strategic advice to their husbands.” ally Susan B. Anthony toured North defined the state as a well-run house- 4. All page numbers for the debates are America, including a long journey to hold, even while female labour, opinion, from the full-text, digital version. See Victoria, BC, where she gave a public or rights in that household were ignored. Canada, Parliamentary Debates on the lecture. See Adele Perry, On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, and the Making The mutual constitution of “public Subject of Confederation of the British of British Columbia, 1849-1871 men” and “a male public” set the polit- North American Province, 3rd Session, 8th Provincial Parliament of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ical terrain on which Canadian women (Quebec: Hunter, Rose, 1865) (herein 2001). would fight an uphill battle for the next referred to as Debates), available at 10. Debates, 577-78. 150 years. State-funded child care, repro- Early Canadiana Online: http://eco 11. Sarah Carter, The Importance of Being ductive rights, protection from gender- .canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_01461/ Monogamous: Marriage and Nation based (and racialized) violence, 96?r=0&s=1 (accessed April 14, 2016). Building in Western Canada to 1915 equitable access to education, and the 5. Debates, 382. (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, political valuation of care, pay equity, 6. Jane Rhodes, Mary Ann Shadd Cary: 2008). and equal opportunities for women at The Black Press and Protest in the 12. Cecilia Morgan, Public Men and work and in political leadership are Nineteenth Century (Bloomington: Virtuous Women: The Gendered goals that Canadian feminists have Indiana University Press, 1998). Language of Religion and Politics in demanded in different measure over the 7. Lynne Marks, “No Double Standard? Upper Canada, 1791-1850 (Toronto: past century and a half. By and large, Leisure, Sex and Sin in Upper Canadian University of Toronto Press, 1996). those goals continue to elude us. Church Discipline Records, 1800-1860,” 13. Debates, 903. in K. McPherson, C. Morgan, and N. 14. Debates, 241. NOTES Forestell, eds., Gendered Pasts: Essays 15. Landes, 145. 1. Joan B. Landes, “The Public and the in Femininity and Masculinity in Canada 16. P.B. Waite, “Introduction to the First Private Sphere: A Feminist Reconsidera- (Toronto: Oxford University Press, Edition,” in The Confederation Debates tion,” in Joan B. Landes, ed., Feminism: 2003), 65-79. in the Province of Canada, 1865 The Public & the Private (New York: 8. Veronica Strong-Boag, “Canada’s (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1963), Oxford University Press, 1988), 135-63. Women Doctors: Feminism xlvi. 2. Bettina Bradbury, Wife to Widow: Lives, Constrained?” in Linda Kealey, ed., A Laws, and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Not Unreasonable Claim: Women and Montreal (Vancouver: University of Reform in Canada, 1880s-1920s Learn more about Canada British Columbia Press, 2011). (Toronto: The Women’s Press, 1979). Watch and the Robarts Centre 3. Gail Cuthbert Brandt, “National Unity 9. Jean Hall, “Consideration of the Political for Canadian Studies at and the Politics of Political History” Position of Women During the http://robarts.info.yorku.ca (1992) 3:1 Journal of the Canadian Resistance” (February 24, 2013),

32 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Confederation comes at a cost: Indigenous peoples and the ongoing reality of colonialism in Canada

n 2015 Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of cerned about matters of race, by which BY GABRIELLE SLOWEY Ithe Truth and Reconciliation Commis- they meant Irish, Scottish, French, and sion, declared: “Reconciliation is about Gabrielle Slowey is an associate English. They considered issues of juris- professor in the Department of Political forging and maintaining respectful rela- diction and the division of powers Science and director of the Robarts Centre 1 tionships.” Why did he point this out? for Canadian Studies at York University. between the new provinces and a cen- The reality remains that Canada and tral government. They debated whether Canadians are not respectful of our rela- to form a unitary or federal nation. tions with Indigenous peoples. As such, [S]ettlers believed so Ultimately, they were blind to their own the relationship between Canada and firmly in their own prejudice and ignorance. While Indigen- Indigenous peoples (termed “Indians” in ous peoples were cast as subhuman 1865—but a relationship that would also superiority and and “savages,” the settlers saw them- extend to and include Inuit and Métis) at selves as the great White saviours who present remains “unreconciled.” civilization that they would save the Indigenous peoples from themselves. Indeed, settlers believed so A LAND OF MANY were unable to see firmly in their own superiority and civil SOVEREIGN NATIONS the importance of the ization that they were unable to see the Today Canadians are on a journey to importance of the contributions of their reconciliation because in the 1860s the contributions of their Indigenous hosts. Instead, “Indians” Fathers of Confederation had no regard were a problem that had to be solved. for the rights or interests of Indigenous Indigenous hosts. peoples of Turtle Island (what most of A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED us call Canada). What is most striking, Instead, “Indians” Since before Confederation, the long- though not surprising, is the absence of were a problem that term and stated goal of Euro-Canadian Indigenous peoples (and perspectives) settlers had been to bring the Indigenous from the debates in the Canadian Parlia- had to be solved. peoples from their “savage and unpro- ment in 1865. At that time, Indigenous ductive state” and force (European-style) people comprised many sovereign civilization upon them, thus confirming nations, all of which had very different mals, nature, and respect for the earth. Canada’s place among European Chris- political, economic, and social struc- Indigenous scholar Kiera Ladner con- tian nations. Despite the civilization pro- tures. They were self-governing, with tends that, despite Canadian claims of ject goal of the newly arrived settlers, the sophisticated land and resource man- sovereignty, Indigenous constitutional only explicit reference in the Waite ver- agement regimes. There were multiple visions did not simply disappear. sion of the Confederation debates to “In- Indigenous nations spread across the Rather, the new state acquired lands, dians” addressed the “Indian territories” country, some having already negoti- rights, and resources through what she that fell between Canada West and Brit- ated “peace and friendship treaties.” In terms “magical ways.” Even though ish Columbia. The politicians saw these the 1860s, the Indigenous peoples in the Indigenous peoples were absent from territories as obstacles to be overcome Prairies, much of British Columbia, and the minds of those that would ultimately rather than the rightful territories of In- the North still dominated the local econ- lay the foundations for the Canadian digenous peoples to be negotiated and omies, and maintained their access to nation, Indigenous lands (and the acknowledged—this, despite the fact that buffalo, fish, and fur-bearing animals. resources contained therein) were not. in 1763 King George III had proclaimed This access would diminish after Con- Indeed, the opposite: Indigenous lands that all Indigenous territories remained federation. were and remain central to the Canad- the land of Indigenous peoples unless In 1865 Indigenous constitutions and ian Confederation project. otherwise ceded, surrendered, or pur- Indigenous laws were rooted in a deep Mired in colonial mindsets and Euro- chased. The Royal Proclamation was and reciprocal relationship with the pean Christian values, the men in issued to prevent the unlawful theft of land that prioritized people, place, ani- attendance at the debates were con- Confederation comes at a cost, page 34

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 33 Confederation comes at a cost continued from page 33 Indigenous lands throughout the new Indigenous concerns. Since Confedera- empire. In practice, in large parts of Can- The Indian Act tion, various national governments have ada, particularly the Maritimes and Brit- remains critical endeavoured to solve the “Indian prob- ish Columbia, government officials and lem” through legislation. Most notable is legal authorities assumed that European evidence that Pierre Trudeau’s first “just society” settlement superseded Indigenous rights measure. On the anniversary of his to territory. colonialism is alive landslide election, in 1969, Trudeau, Upon Confederation, the Constitu- along with his minister of Indian affairs tion of 1867 assigned exclusive respon- and well today. It is a Jean Chrétien, proposed the now infa- sibility for Indians to the federal constant reminder mous “White Paper,” which contained government. Section 91(24) of the Con- three main proposals: (1) abolish the stitution Act, 1867 makes the federal that the state of Indian Act; (2) transfer responsibility for government responsible for “Indians, Indians to the provinces; and (3) close and Lands reserved for the Indians.” Canada is premised the doors of the federal Department of Shortly after Confederation, the new Indian Affairs. Indigenous peoples from Dominion government passed the on the theft of across the country were appalled at the Indian Act (1876), consolidating an Indigenous lands. proposal, which had been drafted with- array of colonial statutes passed by the out their input or consent and which former Province of Canada. This all- threatened to eliminate the fiduciary encompassing legislation set out to ilate and control a specific group of duty owed them by the federal govern- “remake the Indian” into a European. people. No settler group, no newcomer ment. Indigenous peoples mobilized Known as the gradual civilization act, to Canada, is subject to such scrutiny nationally to challenge the legislation, the legislation was broad. Most signifi- and control by the state as Indigenous and the government withdrew it. cant among the provisions, it defined peoples are. This is one of the ways we who was and was not considered to be perpetuate an inherently disrespectful ATTEMPTS AT RECONCILIATION an “Indian” by the federal government, relationship. This is one reason why In 1982, Trudeau’s patriation of the Con- set out the band council system of gov- Indigenous peoples are not and should stitution entrenched the term “aborigi- ernment, and also established the con- not be considered simply another cul- nal” to mean “Indian, Inuit and Métis” ditions by which Indians could be tural group that makes up the multicul- peoples in Canada. This “catch-all” term enfranchised (namely, if they voluntarily tural fabric of Canada. They are not was hailed by settler society as a step gave up being Indian). Duncan Camp- immigrants to this land; this has been toward recognizing Indigenous peoples bell Scott, who joined the civil service their land since time immemorial. The in Canada, yet at the same time the real- in 1879, famously stated why he thought Indian Act remains critical evidence that ity is that it lumped multiple nations and the residential school legislation was a colonialism is alive and well today. It is a peoples together under a single rubric good idea, as follows: “I want to get rid constant reminder that the state of Can- that could not and does not reflect the of the Indian problem. I do not think as ada is premised on the theft of Indigen- reality of diversity. The new Constitution a matter of fact, that the country ought ous lands. Given this enduring colonial also ensured that historic and existing to continuously protect a class of people reality, it is easy to see why we are in an Indian treaties were both recognized who are able to stand alone. … Our era focused on reconciliation with and protected. It would be easy to point objective is to continue until there is not Indigenous peoples. to this constitutional change as a seis- a single Indian in Canada that has not At the same time, reconciliation mic shift in federal policy, especially in been absorbed into the body politic and remains a contested concept. Indigen- comparison to the language of Scott and there is no Indian question, and no ous scholars like Taiaiake Alfred and the 1969 White Paper. However, accom- Indian Department, that is the whole Jeff Corntassel3 and more recently Glen modation and inclusion must not be object of this Bill.”2 Coulthard4 caution that reconciliation is mistaken for change or for decoloniza- not a gift that can be offered by the state. tion. As Frantz Fanon5 famously wrote, THE INDIAN ACT Rather, it must begin with Indigenous beware of the gifts of the oppressor, for The Indian Act has been amended peoples themselves and be rooted in they continue to oppress. Indeed, many times over the past 150 years, but Indigenous concepts, knowledge, and Coulthard and Alfred caution against it remains in existence today. It is the traditions. Frustration with reconcilia- such efforts. In their view, state-offered only piece of colonial legislation endur- tion emerges, in part, out of multiple reconciliation perpetuates state domi- ing today that specifically aims to assim- failed efforts by the state to address nance via state institutions. They sug-

34 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 gest that the term “reconciliation” While the state has health care, and the issues of over- remains a ruse to perpetuate the original crowded and inadequate housing in assimilationist agenda. In this and in arguably made Indigenous communities reflect an many other important ways, Canada ongoing failure to commit to real and and Canadians and Confederation con- space for Indigenous meaningful change and to treat Indigen- tinue to fail Indigenous peoples in an ous peoples with the same level of apparent desire to “solve” the problem peoples to participate respect and in the same manner as set- without meaningfully altering our sys- in contemporary tlers are treated (though the recent elec- tems, values, and institutions to reflect tion of the Liberal government offers and engage with Indigenous know- society, in many more potential hope for the future). ledge, norms, and ways. Another example of a failed attempt important ways the ACKNOWLEDGING at reconciliation was the Royal Commis- state remains a COLONIALISM sion on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). In the end, Canada’s Confederation Launched in 1990 in response to the documents were written in a colonial 6 barrier to the real Oka crisis, the RCAP was a major and era in which the “Fathers” of Confeder- costly undertaking that produced a five- inclusion of ation worked to unite a nation and build volume, 4,000-page report with 440 rec- a country predicated on the displace- ommendations on how to renew the Indigenous ment and dispossession of Indigenous state – Indigenous relationship. Ladner knowledge and an peoples. It is impossible to celebrate suggests that the form of reconciliation Confederation without acknowledging recommended in the RCAP report is the fact that it came at a cost. Inherently, not about promoting Indigenous govern- obstacle to real Confederation was a colonial project, ance but rather is tantamount to a rela- reconciliation. claiming territory in the name of the tionship based on “negotiated inferior- Crown and assuming ownership of it. At ity.” She writes: “We need to create a no point were Indigenous nations or renewed relationship based upon a true possession of Indigenous peoples and their rights acknowledged. Implicitly, partnership in Confederation, which is their institutions. Clearly, Confederation though not in law or in practice, Confed- based upon a realization of a post- came at a cost. In addition, it was not eration is based on the principle of terra colonial vision and not a perpetuation simply a constitutional compromise be- nullius—literally, land without people. of colonialism.”7 Indigenous legal tween provinces and races. Indigenous Indigenous peoples were not consid- scholar John Borrows adds, “A faithful peoples whose lands and rights were ered the rightful owners of the land. Yet, application of the rule of law to the whittled away as a result of the colonial Indigenous people were and are con- Crown’s assertion of title [and thus, sov- enterprise were in fact, and remain to- nected to the land in ways in which the ereignty] throughout Canada would sug- day, the “biggest losers.” Today, as has Fathers of Confederation did not, and gest Aboriginal peoples possess the been the case since Confederation, many Canadians still do not, recognize very right claimed by the Crown.”8 much of the Canadian economy (and or appreciate. Today, Canada remains a Therefore, as Ladner concludes, we those employed in it) is based on the nation entrenched in colonialism, all must begin the process of thinking exploration and extraction of resources rooted in a colonial document. If we are against colonialism to create a post- on Indigenous lands for which Indigen- to venture down the path toward real colonial future. ous peoples receive little or no com- reconciliation, we need to rethink how So, where to begin? Many Canad- pensation. Canadian citizens continue we govern and how we conceptualize ians simply do not know enough about to enjoy a standard of living that stands ourselves, perhaps even alter Canadian Indigenous culture and values to appre- in stark contrast to the standard of liv- ciate the important contribution they ing experienced by many Indigenous institutions and norms to embrace could make to settler institutions and peoples. Indigenous ideas and institutions that ways of knowing. Many more continue While the state has arguably made can better shape the journey, going for- to believe that Indigenous knowledge space for Indigenous peoples to partici- ward. So as the country celebrates Con- and institutions are merely relics of the pate in contemporary society, in many federation, it is important that we pause past or that they are not as sophisticat- more important ways the state remains to confront the reality of the past and ed as those of settler society. They are a barrier to the real inclusion of Indigen- the colonial relationship with Indigen- wrong. Instead, settler understandings ous knowledge and an obstacle to real ous peoples to put into stark focus Can- of Canada constructed at Confedera- reconciliation. The lack of equal educa- ada’s journey toward reconciliation. tion were entirely premised on the dis- tion, the failure to adequately finance Confederation comes at a cost, page 36

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 35 Confederation comes at a cost continued from page 35 NOTES 4. Glen Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: 7. Kiera Ladner, “Negotiated Inferiority: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of The Royal Commission on Aboriginal 1. Truth and Reconciliation Commission Recognition (Minneapolis: University of People’s Vision of a Renewed of Canada, http://www.trc.ca/websites/ Minnesota Press, 2014). Relationship” (2001) 31:1-2 American trcinstitution/index.php?p=3 [archived Review of Canadian Studies 241-64. site] (accessed April 14, 2016). 5. Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 1963). 8. John Borrows, “Questioning Canada’s 2. Scott, quoted in E. Brian Titley, A Title to Land: The Rule of Law, Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott 6. As the Oka crisis reminds us, Aboriginal Peoples, and Colonialism,” and the Administration of Indian Affairs colonialism is a violent process and in Recovering Canada: The Resurgence in Canada (Vancouver: University of throughout Canadian history of Indigenous Law (Toronto: University British Columbia Press, 1986), 50. Indigenous peoples have been the victims of violence inflicted on them by of Toronto Press, 2002), 113. 3. Taiaiake Alfred and Jeff Corntassel, the state. For more on the events that “Being Indigenous: Resurgences Against took place at Oka, refer to Geoffrey York Learn more about Canada Watch Contemporary Colonialism” (2005) 40:4 and Loreen Pindera, People of the and the Robarts Centre for Government and Opposition: An Pines: The Warriors and the Legacy of Canadian Studies at International Journal of Comparative Oka (Toronto: McArthur, 1999). http://robarts.info.yorku.ca Politics 597-614.

AVIE BENNETT GLOBALIZING CONFERENCE CONFEDERATION SEPTEMBER 29-30, 2016 How Governments, Nations and Communities Around the World Viewed the Emergence of Canada in 1867

A 2016 workshop/conference, and 2017 scholarly book publication, that explores Canadian Confederation from global perspectives. The conference will host scholars from around the world (as well as Canadians with expertise in non- Canadian settings) to present research findings on the ways in which peoples, colonies and foreign governments understood and considered the changes that were taking place in British North America in the 1860s. Was the emergence of the Canadian nation an issue of interest during this period? How was the new colonial government perceived by others—with enthusiasm, disregard or trepidation? To what extent was the creation of Canada considered a possible threat or model for future nation-building?

http://150canada.info.yorku.ca/globalizing-confederation

36 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 Using history to justify Confederation

istory was frequently invoked in the ferent in language, religion, civil law, BY MARLENE SHORE HConfederation debates by both and social habit as they were a century pro-confederates and anti-confederates Marlene Shore is a professor in the ago, were now trying, amicably, to find a Department of History, York University. to justify their positions. All parties real- remedy for constitutional evils and She is the author of books dealing with ized that they were at a pivotal juncture, the writing of Canadian history, and the injustice complained of not by the van- when a new set of constitutional ar- cultural history of the social and quished but by the victors. Together with rangements would alter the destinies of behavioural sciences. the people of four other colonies, he the new country’s inhabitants, even opined, they all avowed attachment to though it was politically expedient for History would provide the British Crown, and were trying to some to downplay the prospect of determine how to extend the blessings change. Speakers recognized that the lessons for devising of British institutions so that a great American Civil War and the processes people with close and hearty connec- of state formation in Italy and Germany a union without the tion to Great Britain could be estab- constituted part of the context, but in lished in North America. He doubted placing the Confederation process with- defects that had whether there was a parallel to be found in a larger historical narrative, most pol- afflicted Canada East in history. When the United States iticians did not delve very far into the seceded from England, and for many past. There might have been allusions to and Canada West, years after, their population, trade, and Shakespeare and the Bible, but mem- commerce did not equal that of the Can- bers generally focused on how recent led the United States adas (36-37). concerns—the clergy reserves or political deadlock—provided a justification for to civil war, and A SCHEME WITH A HIGH PURPOSE Confederation. Apart from George other countries to Brown elevated Confederation as a Brown, who articulated the Confedera- scheme filled with high purpose, unlike tion pact as a key historic moment, the internecine conflict. the “petty politics of the past.” Not to be legislative debates reflect an attitude that realized in a lifetime, it set in motion Confederation would come about in a governmental machinery that would sequential process responsive to cir- lock, anarchy, and lack of prosperity one day gradually and efficiently extend cumstances. could be ended through the dissolution from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The of the union between Upper and Lower emergence of “a great and powerful HISTORY AS PROGRESS Canada, leaving them as they were people” in a land whose boundless for- Members of the Legislative Council and before 1841, that was a “retrograde step” ests would give way to smiling fields and Legislative Assembly held a typically with no supporters (19). George-Étienne thriving towns, forming one united gov- 19th-century view of history as the Cartier remarked on how easily the col- ernment, under the British flag, extend- unfolding of progress. History would onies could secure national greatness ing from shore to shore, was for him, reveal whether the Confederation through Confederation, contrasting the “an over-ruling Providence placed upon scheme was progressive or retrogres- process with ancient times, when war- them” (38, 54). This providential mis- sive, or whether it guaranteed connec- riors struggled for years to add a single sion involved carrying out the great duty tion with the British empire, its province to their territory. In modern of developing the colonies’ “teeming institutions, laws, and remembrances of times, he noted, nations were formed by resources,” including the fur trade and the past. History would provide lessons the agglomeration of communities with the opening of the northwest terri for devising a union without the defects similar interests and sympathies (28-29). tories—the latter a task he had been that had afflicted Canada East and Can- George Brown’s appeal to history negotiating with the government in Eng- ada West, led the United States to civil likely alienated a good proportion of land. His familiarity with old northwest- war, and other countries to internecine Lower Canadian representation. Glanc- ern lore (narratives of history and conflict. For some, Confederation ing back on the time that had passed struggles for commercial dominance in meant a natural step in the progressive since the provinces became by con- the fur-bearing regions) told him that it development of the colonies, and its quest part of the British empire, he should also have been a cherished pro- rejection pragmatically unwise and claimed to be recalling the “olden ject of Lower Canada, and a source of backward-looking. John A. Macdonald times” to highlight how the descendants pride for French Canadians (46-47). observed that although political dead- of the victors and the vanquished, as dif- Using history to justify Confederation, page 38

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 37 Using history to justify Confederation continued from page 37 Brown’s utterances paralleled the Puritans’ “errand into the wilderness,” Because the union between the two Canadas which later took shape as the American had failed to resolve differences, “the fairest idea of manifest destiny. His view also reflected Canada’s perceived role as the portion of the country” had been ruined by source of resources for the metropole, while pointing toward the nationalist- three years of conflict and “barbarous acts” imperialist vision, articulated more strongly after Confederation, that Can- akin to those in the darkest ages. ada would ultimately take its destined role at the centre of the British empire and beyond. People holding government fully and satisfactorily what Holland and (47-49). offices were attacked by the Opposition Belgium, after years of strife, were History provided the politicians with or their papers, and visitors to the legisla- unable to accomplish; settle questions more practical tools as well. The Confed- ture heard tales of political crime, brib- that Austria and Hungary, Denmark and eration scheme was advanced as one ery, and corruption. This demoralizing Germany, Russia and Poland, could that would resolve internal political diffi- influence was felt by every parliamentary only crush by armed force; avoid the culties, restore harmony between the member, especially at the polls (11). foreign intervention that deluged the Canadas, and maintain British institu- Statements such as these reveal that sunny plains of Italy in blood; and settle tions. Without it, Premier Étienne- many members did not reach very far issues hardly less momentous than Paschal Taché warned, the colonies into the past to bolster their arguments. those that led to civil war in the neigh- would be forced into an American union After hearing concerns about the bouring republic (36). either by violence or by “an inclined Confederation scheme, John Rose, The American Civil War loomed plane” carrying them there insensibly. member of the Legislative Assembly for large in the debates. The history of the Because the union between the two Can- Montreal Centre, suggested it would be United States suggested an unworkable adas had failed to resolve differences, better to examine its merits, forget the governmental structure. Though many “the fairest portion of the country” had past, former differences and recrimina- pointed to the American constitution’s been ruined by three years of conflict tions, and not revive old animosities. In defects, Macdonald called it a skilful and “barbarous acts” akin to those in the the impending new era of national exist- work of human intelligence. Modelled darkest ages. Legislation had been sty- ence, it would be unsafe for anyone on Great Britain’s constitution, it was mied as Lower Canada continually who did not change their opinions to adapted to the circumstances of a new refused Upper Canada’s demand for rep- guide a nation’s affairs. “Such a man is country in the only practical way then resentation according to population like an old sign-post on a road that possible. Time and events had exposed because, since the union was a legisla- existed twenty years ago, but which no the problem of making each state sover- tive one, a preponderance to one sec- one could not pass over” (71). In this eign with all the powers incident to sov- tion would have placed the other at its spirit, he recounted that when Lower ereignty, except those conferred upon mercy (1-3). David Reesor, the elected Canada’s English Protestants were a the general government and Congress. member of the Legislative Council for minority in the hands of the French Can- As a corrective, Macdonald explained, King’s in Canada West, noted that with adian population, they were accorded the Confederation scheme made the neither party able to rule, political adver- the right of separate education long general government stronger, giving it sity caused political desperation, with before the union of the provinces. The all the subjects of general interest, some calling the great constitutional liberality shown in the past, he believed, thereby making one people and one change necessitated by the numerous was a guarantee for the future. government, instead of five peoples and political crises “a political millennium” five governments tenuously connected (8-9). James Ferrier, life member of the LEARNING GLOBAL LESSONS (23-24). In the Legislative Council, Louis- Legislative Council from Montreal, George Brown added a global dimen- Auguste Olivier, elected member for de observed that once the Seigneurial sion to the discussion, extolling the har- Lanaudière, argued that the scheme Question in Lower Canada and the monious way in which “a people of two was politically retrogressive because it Clergy Reserves in Canada West had distinct races, with different languages gave too much power to the central gov- been settled, with no great issues of pub- and institutions, and sectional hostili- ernment, especially since it had the lic interest occupying attention, political ties” were dealing with greater difficul- power of the purse and control of warfare was destroying all political and ties than had plunged other countries armies. The adoption of Confederation moral principles within the legislature into civil war in order to achieve peace- would see the local governments

38 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 crushed by the general government, he warned (9-10). “Things done cannot be undone,” [Dunkin] Cartier believed that ongoing struggle said. “In a certain sense, whatever is past is in the United States augured trouble for the colonies because it was not clear if irrevocable, and it is well it should be.” the war would end in the establishment of two confederacies or one. If Canada’s five colonies did not come together another way to be found out of the polit- union, which had worked for almost 25 under one general government as a Brit- ical impasse (80). In discussions lead- years. Could they not stay as they were, ish American confederation, they would ing up to the union of the Canadas, he nor yet go back nor forward in any way be absorbed into an American one noted, no one spoke about a union of but through the Confederation scheme? (28). D’Arcy McGee warned about the the provinces by Confederation or Things were not so bad that they had to territorial acquisitiveness of the United otherwise. “The child was still-born.” fear going back to a “bugbear past.” States: “They coveted Florida, and Old issues and crises persisted until the They could not do that even if they seized it; they coveted Louisiana, and last session of Parliament when George wanted. “Things done cannot be un- purchased it; they coveted Texas, and Brown moved for and obtained a com- done,” he said. “In a certain sense, stole it; and they picked a quarrel with mittee on the subject of constitutional whatever is past is irrevocable, and it is Mexico, which ended by their getting changes. “We have yet to see, in the first well it should be” (92-93). California.” Sometimes they pretended place, whether the thing is done, and to despise these colonies, “as prizes then, if it is done, whether it succeeds,” A SERIES OF ACCIDENTS beneath their ambition,” but Canada Dunkin remarked (83). In response, Both sides used historical references in would not have a separate existence, he D’Arcy McGee (echoing Macbeth’s solil- their arguments. From the perspective continued, had it not been for England’s oquy while contemplating the plan to as- of 2016, the proponents’ invocations of protection. The first—and ongoing— sassinate King Duncan) interjected, “If history seem better justified than the ambition of the American confederacy ’twere done, ’twere well ’twere done opponents’. Dunkin’s warning about the had been to acquire Canada, even when quickly.” “The Minister of Agriculture is irrevocability of the past, however, has she had a handful of troops and her too good a Shakespearian [sic],” certainly been tested in the 150 years navy was just a squadron. With guns Dunkin responded, “to need to be re- since Confederation. More significant afloat by the thousands and troops in minded that the thing to be done in that perhaps is that the speakers, Brown the hundreds of thousands, was she case was something very bad” (83). Lat- aside, did not cast Confederation as a now to be stopped? he asked (56, 57). er, Dunkin asked whether the past was foundational moment for Canada but, Often regarded as the most articulate so bad that, on pain of political annihila- rather, a matter of exigency, an attitude opponent of Confederation, Christopher tion and ruin, it was necessary to adopt perhaps best reflected in Cartier’s com- Dunkin wanted to avoid raising the the precise scheme being put forward. ment: “It is said that the world was made ghost of past animosities by arguing for He favoured continuing with a legislative by a series of accidents” (84).

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 39 The Robert Harris group portrait

Editors’ introduction: One of the most mingled with a tribute to the work of BY GED MARTIN enduring images of Confederation is the Quebec sculptor Louis Hébert. His com- Robert Harris group portrait of the Quebec Ged Martin is adjunct professor of ments suggest that he envisaged a work history at National University of constitutional conference of October 1864. of art that would contribute to the por- Having agreed on a draft document, dele- Ireland Galway and at the University traiture in the hoped-for National Gal- gates then returned to their home colonies of the Fraser Valley. He is the author lery. Perhaps above all, the implicit to debate the propositions. This collection of John A. Macdonald: Canada’s First Prime Minister (Dundurn Press, 2013). of essays uses the debates in the legisla- message of Laurier’s intervention was ture of the United Canadas as a starting that his sunny ways could get things point for reconsidering specific historical [T]he Academy’s done: the project, he estimated, would themes. This excerpt from a longer essay cost only $3,000 to $4,000. about the Fathers of Confederation president, Lucius R. Laurier was seconded by a promin- explores the creation and reception of this ent Conservative, the Ottawa Valley iconic group portrait. The longer essay O’Brien, submitted a entrepreneur Alonzo Wright, who saw may be found at http://gedmartin.net/ himself as a gentlemanly figure in pol- martinalia-mainmenu-3/236-time-to-retire wordy memorandum itics. Wright specifically had the 1864 -canada-s-fathers-of-confederation. to the government Quebec Conference in mind, praising its he founding, in 1880, of the Royal participants in grandiose terms as “ani- TCanadian Academy of the Arts no calling for artistic mated by a lofty patriotism and a far- doubt represented a landmark in recog- seeing statesmanship” in their design of nition and encouragement of the visual commemoration of the new nation. His wide-ranging trib- arts in the Dominion. Unfortunately, it utes were slightly undermined by his was not easy to advance its cultural “the meeting of the accidental omission of Liberal hero agenda, especially the central aim of Conference . . .” George Brown, and both oratorical ef- creating a National Gallery. A cramped forts were hampered by the notoriously room on Ottawa’s Bank Street was poor acoustics of the House of Com- designated as the Gallery’s first home in turned from Europe and was “fully mons. New Brunswick’s Peter Mitchell, May 1882, and it may be that the idea of competent to paint such a picture.”1 who would appear in the memorial can- acquiring a large picture of national im- Sir John A. Macdonald’s Cabinet was vas, complained that he could not hear port was attractive as a means of forcing apparently uncertain about how to whatever was under discussion, and the issue of a permanent location. In respond to O’Brien’s plea. To refuse to that members generally should “speak a April 1883, the Academy’s president, Lu- support a Canadian artist in the com- little louder”; Laurier apologized that he cius R. O’Brien, submitted a wordy memoration of a Canadian national was “suffering just now from an affec- memorandum to the government call- landmark would seem narrow and phil tion of the throat.” Macdonald wound ing for artistic commemoration of “the istine. But to endorse a proposal that up the discussion, in full statesman meeting of the Conference at which the would necessarily feature current mem- mode, calling the exchanges “really one foundation was laid for the Confedera- bers of the government would equally of those occasions in which the asper tion of the Provinces constituting the appear self-serving. They were rescued ities of politics are forgotten”: he even Dominion of Canada.” O’Brien did not from their dilemma by Liberal front- praised the contribution to the achieve- specify which conference he had in bencher Wilfrid Laurier, who raised the ment of his long-time enemy George mind, and the project began as a tribute matter in the Commons on May 14, Brown, who was conveniently dead, to the meeting in Charlottetown. How- 1883. Laurier no doubt believed in what and “the present premier of Ontario,” ever, wherever it happened, O’Brien he was doing, but it is likely that embrac- who was inconveniently alive and not argued that it was “an event of such im- ing the issue was also convenient to necessary to name. The prime minister portance in the annals of the country” him. First, it gave him the opportunity deflected the potential objection that he that a monumental canvas was required for a frank avowal that he had opposed would himself necessarily feature in the to keep alive the memory of the partici- Confederation at the time, while making proposed picture: a jocular allusion to pants. O’Brien added two further points. a characteristically eloquent avowal of the cartoons of John Wilson Bengough One was a hurry-up reminder that the his subsequent conversion. Second, it enabled him to insist that “I can have no delegates were already dying off. The enabled him to adopt the mantle of a objection to have another artist try his other was that Robert Harris, “a Canad- supporter of Canadian culture, his hand upon myself.” Harris had won his ian artist of ability,” had recently re- words of praise for Harris being deftly commission.

40 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 The debate, although relatively head-on, and the artist evidently brief, had rung the changes of had to work with the available praise for (to quote O’Brien) “the material. Thus Adams G. distinguished statesmen who took Archibald, surely the only Canad- part in the deliberations.” “There ian to have served as lieutenant were giants in those days,” said governor of two provinces, Wright, while Laurier referred to appears to cold-shoulder his “the event which gave birth to Con- immediate neighbour, John A. federation.” But nobody mentioned Macdonald, as he stares directly at the Fathers of Confederation. The the viewer: no doubt, a solemn phrase did not arise in connection full-face photograph was the only with the Harris picture until April source available. Harris set his 1884, when former Liberal finance scene in a lofty chamber in the old minister Richard Cartwright spot- Quebec parliament buildings— ted the item in the estimates, and which burned in 1883. This was apparently troubled by the enabled him to use three high win- thought that the politicians involved dows as the background light could be depicted for as little as source: Harris enlarged the centre $100 a head. Cartwright, who had window, presumably to emphasize been out of the House the previous the background panorama of the year, asked: “Who is to commemo- St. Lawrence River. “The sight was rate the Fathers of Confederation, Confederation! The Much-Fathered Youngster: one to stir the dullest imagination and are they being done cheap?” 1886 cartoon by John Wilson Bengough. and warm the coldest heart,” Sir Leonard Tilley assured him that Har- some of the faces were difficult to track wrote W.M. Whitelaw. The Canadians, ris had the work in hand, and that no down. When Bernini was commis- Whitelaw suggested, would have felt the money had yet paid out.2 sioned to produce a bust of Charles I, essential unity of their two provinces, It is only fair to acknowledge that with the subject unseen, Van Dyck sup- while the Maritimers “must have been Harris’s picture was a remarkable plied three portraits of the king, full face, stirred … watching the tide come in achievement. He had to construct an in profile, and at an angle. Photogra- from the gulf.”3 In reality, Canada’s coali- essentially imaginary scene, dominated phers like William Notman, who tion Cabinet needed no such reminder, by carefully contoured heads. Images of assisted Harris, snapped their sitters The Robert Harris group portrait, page 42

Photograph of 1884 Robert Harris painting.

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 41 The Robert Harris group portrait continued from page 41 while the Prince Edward Islanders and Newfoundlanders, whose provinces The two Newfoundland delegates, F.B.T. Carter most closely felt the Gulf currents, and Ambrose Shea, stand awkwardly at the would become the least enthusiastic participants in the project. These com- back, like two embarrassed tourists who ments by Whitelaw, generally an objective as well as a careful scholar, illustrate have stumbled into an ethnic wedding. how the Harris portrait became back- projected into the story of the Quebec Conference, until it would become diffi- away is Étienne-Paschal Taché, premier land and Peter Mitchell—the New Bruns- cult to disentangle the actual hard bar- of the Great Coalition and hence presi- wicker who had found it difficult to hear gaining from the subsequent dent of the Conference, who had died in Laurier’s original proposal—are etched sentimentality. The more practical 1865: the imperatives of 1864 meant that against windows, thus singling them out aspect of the Harris design was that the he had to be depicted, the demands of from the crowd. One of the oddest por- huge windows provided light sources, 1883 ensured that he need not be trayals, at the extreme right of the can- which made it possible to silhouette emphatically central. In the foreground, vas, is that of New Brunswick’s John those secondary figures who were still the only figure permitted to obscure par- Mercer Johnson, who leans forward active two decades after the event. tially Macdonald is Hector-Louis Lan- attentively, in a manner that almost sug- Although the picture was 3.58 metres gevin, who had taken over Cartier’s role gests he is gate-crashing the picture. His long by 1.55 metres high, the delegates as Quebec lieutenant, and was one of positioning understated his role in the occupied only the lower half of the can- the possible candidates to succeed Mac- 1860s. Attorney general of his province, vas, giving the throng the appearance of donald if the Old Man ever decided to Johnson had attended all three confer- a crowded corridor rather than a consti- step down. George Brown and Oliver ences, forming part of a small subcom- tutional convention. Ostensibly, the par- Mowat are close by, in the vanguard if mittee in London that had worked with ticipants were grouped around a long perhaps not entirely on the team. Alex- the British to draft the British North table, but there was not enough room to ander Galt merits his near-central loca- America Act. But he had died in 1868— seat them all. To ensure the visibility of tion, both as the wizard behind the 1867 Johnson’s lifestyle was not conducive to the major players on the far side of the financial settlement and for his continu- longevity—and did not merit a promin- table, only 7 of the 34 figures, all of them ing prominence in public life. But the ent place 15 years later: perhaps, too, in profile, occupy the side nearest the location of Alexander Campbell close to Harris had encountered difficulty in viewer. Necessarily, the lesser partici- the heart of events reflected the fact that locating a likeness, and hence had been pants had to stand around the fringes of he had led the Conservative party in the forced to relegate him to the sidelines. the scene. Senate since 1867. He played only a There are other levels of symbolism Harris himself called the commis- minor role at Quebec, largely because in the canvas—for instance, in those par- sion “the government picture,” and his skills as a Tory lawyer replicated ticipants shown handling documenta- there can be no doubt that his was a rep- Macdonald’s own qualifications. tion. It is difficult to explain why Edward resentation of 1864 seen through the In flanking positions are Leonard Til- Palmer of Prince Edward Island is political priorities of 1883. Although Har- ley of New Brunswick, comfortable and apparently reading a newspaper. Per- ris did attempt to replicate the general confident in his chair, and the charac- haps his body language suggests detach- seating plan of the meeting, so far as it teristically imposing standing figure of ment, for Palmer did declare against the was reported at the time, his canvas was Charles Tupper. Indeed, it is not wholly Quebec scheme. As he was still alive in in every sense a central Canadian pic- clear whether it is Tupper or Macdonald 1883 and living in Charlottetown—where ture. Around the middle section of the who addresses the meeting. To the left Harris began work on the painting—it table, where the real decisions are being of Tilley, there is a rent-a-mob of miscel- can hardly be the case that the artist made, not one single delegate from the laneous Maritimers, with others strag- was constrained by only having access Atlantic region can be seen.4 The stand- gling away to the right of Tupper. The to a pensive profile. But another ing figure of Macdonald dominates the two Newfoundland delegates, F.B.T. Islander, journalist Edward Whelan, and scene, as he expounds from a charter- Carter and Ambrose Shea, stand awk- John Hamilton Gray of New Brunswick like scroll. Leaning toward him is his wardly at the back, like two embar- are both apparently taking notes: each French Canadian ally, George-Étienne rassed tourists who have stumbled into would later publish a book about the Cartier, in the body language of nation- an ethnic wedding. Two Maritimers still movement for Confederation. D’Arcy building partnership. Slightly farther active in public life, Thomas Heath Havi- McGee holds a pamphlet, perhaps one

42 CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 of his inspirational speeches (although it seems a very small pamphlet for a McGee oration). Otherwise, Macdonald and Tupper grasp resolutions, while Tilley has inserted his fingers in a reference book, marking points for citation. If, overall, the Harris painting must be regarded as an achievement, it is hard to acclaim it—ar- tistically—as a success. It lacks the spontaneity, warmth, and wit of his other well-known group picture, A Meeting of the School Trustees, which followed in 1885.5 His Quebec Conference Rex Woods painting, commissioned by Confederation Life insurance company in 1964 as a tribute to Harris, and to replace the original Harris painting, which had been destroyed by a fire in 1916. painting did not necessarily ensure the success of the concept of the trait had become not simply an imagin inspirational panorama of seemingly Fathers of Confederation, but rather ative tribute but a documentary source endless river that symbolized the real formed part of its gradual percolation of of the concept of the “Fathers of Con- Canada. Equally, the casual observer public discourse. For instance, a Nova federation.” would have no idea that most of these Scotian MP, J.A. Kirk, referred in April In 1964, the insurance company Con- black-coated figures were in fact men in 1884 to “those gentlemen, who are federation Life commissioned the artist their forties, not so much handing down called today the fathers of Confedera- Rex Woods to produce a tribute to Har- a constitution to posterity as designing a tion.” But when the canvas had its pub- ris and replace the picture lost in 1916. stage on which they proposed to act lic exhibition, soon after in Montreal, it Woods added three Fathers of Confeder- themselves. was simply called “Meeting of the Dele- ation at the right-hand side of the can- gates of British North America,” with a vas, even though they had not been NOTES subtext that spelled out the location and present at Quebec. Their addition sub- 1. O’Brien’s memorandum was quoted by purpose. In 1891, J. Pennington Mac verted the balance of the original group, Wilfrid Laurier when he raised the pherson referred to the “noble picture a disruption that Woods sought to dis- matter in the House of Commons in … of the ‘Fathers of Confederation’ … guise by placing a cameo from a Harris May 1883: House of Commons Debates, which now adorns the vestibule of the self-portrait on the wall behind them. May 14, 1883, 1171-74: http://parl Houses of Parliament at Ottawa”6—for (Aged 15 at the time of the Quebec Con- .canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates the politicians had been too smart to ference, Harris was in fact living in _HOC0501_02/433?r=0&s=1 (accessed fall for any manoeuvre that might entrap Prince Edward Island while the Domin- March 2, 2016). The following section them into erecting a purpose-built Na- ion was in gestation.) Despite its resem- draws upon this debate. tional Gallery. Unfortunately, the paint- blance to a gigantic cigarette card, the 2. House of Commons Debates, April 3, ing was destroyed in the 1916 Parlia- Woods revival of the Harris icon no 1884, 1309-10: http://parl.canadiana.ca/ ment fire. Harris sold the preliminary doubt succeeded as a nation-building view/oop.debates_HOC0502_02/515?r cartoon to the government, thus partly symbol. The downside was some of the =0&s=1 (accessed March 2, 2016). compensating him for an official deci- individual figures were now third-hand— 3. W.M. Whitelaw, “Reconstructing the sion to refuse him royalties on repro- copies of interpretations of photo- Quebec Conference” (June 1938) 19:2 ductions. Complaining about Mac- graphs—and several of the individual Canadian Historical Review 123-37. kenzie King’s unilateral redefinition of figures, notably Taché and John Hamil- 4. I have used the key to the portrait in Canada’s relationship with Britain at the ton Gray of Prince Edward Island, Quick Canadian Facts, 23rd ed. Imperial Conference of 1926, acting appear as spiritless caricatures. Woods (Toronto: Thord Press, 1967), 13. As of November 2015, there seems to be no Conservative leader Hugh Guthrie captured a moment of breathless des- key to the portrait on the Internet, but pointed out that at Quebec, “all the tiny at the price of rendering a collection each sitter can be identified by great parties of Canada were represent- of mainly lifeless figures. One unfortu- “hovering” over his image: Parliament ed. Look at that famous picture The Fa- nate inheritance from Harris was that of Canada, The House of Commons thers of Confederation if you want assur- the participants all have their backs to ance on this point.”7 Harris’s group por- the giant windows, as if ignoring the The Robert Harris group portrait, page 44

CANADA WATCH • SPRING 2016 43 The Robert Harris group portrait continued from page 43 Heritage Collection, http://www.parl Canada, https://www.gallery.ca/en/see/ 7. House of Commons Debates, .gc.ca/About/House/collections/fine collections/artwork.php?mkey=13043 December 13, 1926, 25: http://parl _arts/historical/609-e.htm (accessed (accessed March 10, 2016). .canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates March 10, 2016). 6. J.P. Macpherson, Life of the Right Hon. _HOC1601_01/27?r=0&s=1 (accessed 5. Robert Harris, A Meeting of the School Sir John A. Macdonald (Saint John, NB: March 2, 2016). Trustees, 1885, National Gallery of Earle Publishing House, 1891), vol. II, 288.