University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2018-10 Reconsidering Confederation: Canada's Founding Debates, 1864-1999 University of Calgary Press Heidt, D. (Ed.). (2018). "Reconsidering Confederation: Canada's Founding Debates, 1864-1999". Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/108896 book https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca RECONSIDERING CONFEDERATION: Canada’s Founding Debates, 1864–1999 Edited by Daniel Heidt ISBN 978-1-77385-016-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. 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Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the wording around open access used by Australian publisher, re.press, and thank them for giving us permission to adapt their wording to our policy http://www.re-press.org 7 “The interests of Confederation demanded it”: British Columbia and Confederation Patricia E. Roy [Canada] promised what she did to British Columbia less because British Columbia demanded it than because the interests of Con- federation demanded it. Colonist, 20 July 1871 On 14 May 1870 in Victoria, three men—J.W. Trutch, Dr. R.W.W. Carrall, and Dr. J.S. Helmcken—specially selected by Governor Anthony Musgrave—himself nominated by John A. Macdonald—boarded the Active for the five-day journey to San Francisco. From there, the recently completed Union Pacific Railroad took them to Chicago and a transfer to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. In Ottawa, they expected to meet Prime Minister Macdonald and the federal cabinet to discuss the “fair and equitable” terms by which British Columbia might enter Confederation. Accompanying them was Henry Seelye, the correspondent of the Victoria British Colonist. On the instructions of John Robson, his editor, he was to use his influence with the Canadian government, particularly fellow New Brunswicker S.L. Tilley, to ensure that the terms of union included 171 responsible government. Macdonald was critically ill,1 so the acting prime minister, George-Étienne Cartier greeted the British Columbians. Macdonald, however, had laid the groundwork for a Canadian nation “From Sea unto Sea.” Talk of a continent-wide British North America was not new, but for British Columbia the story begins at the Quebec Conference of 1864, when George Brown proposed that the 72 Resolutions provide “for the admission into the Union on equitable terms of the North West Territory, British Columbia and Vancouver.” Adopted unanimously,2 the motion be- came Section 146 of the British North America Act of 1867. Section 146 did not refer to Vancouver Island. A year earlier, the British government had forced it into an unhappy union with the mainland colony of British Columbia in the hope of saving on administrative costs since revenues and population were falling and debt, rising.3 In 1867 the united colony, with a non-Indigenous population generously estimated at fifteen thou- sand and steadily declining, had a debt of $1,300,000 incurred mostly by road building on the Mainland.4 The Mainland was jealous of Victoria being the commercial centre; the Island was affronted by losing its name, Victoria’s status as a free port, and a Legislative Assembly that provided a form of representative, but not responsible, government. Instead, it got a variation on the Mainland constitution, a Legislative Council in which the governor chose fourteen of twenty-three members. Nevertheless, some wanted to maintain the status quo. Others wanted change, either annex- ation to the United States or joining Canada. The idea of annexation was not far-fetched given that most communi- cation with the outside world was via San Francisco, and the American pur- chase of Alaska in 1867 had sandwiched the colony between two American territories. At least two petitions for annexation circulated in Victoria, but not on the Mainland, and secured signatures mainly of Americans and Europeans. They attracted little attention in Washington, D.C.,5 but may have encouraged the Colonial Office to promote Confederation more vig- orously and strengthened the Canadian argument for admitting British Columbia to Confederation. Supporters of the status quo had more influence than their numbers warranted because, led by Governor Frederick Seymour, they dominat- ed the government. Engineering the union of the colonies had taxed his health; he seemed unwilling to face the problems of creating another 172 PATRICIA E. ROY union.6 He did not oppose Confederation, but these reservations may explain his reluctance to act. The civil servants who formed the major- ity of the Legislative Council also favoured the status quo. They includ- ed Trutch, an English-born engineer, surveyor and Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works; Royal Naval officers; and former Hudson’s Bay Company employees, such as Dr. Helmcken who came to Victoria in 1850 as the HBC surgeon. Helmcken thought Confederation “another leap in the dark” given the distance from Canada and its high tariffs.7 Officials such as Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie feared for their jobs and worried about their pensions. Being generally better educated and from higher social classes, the British officials considered themselves superior to the Canadians whom they regarded as “a poor mean slow people” or “North American Chinamen” because of their thriftiness.8 Pushing for Confederation Canadians were likely in a numerical minority, but included two ma- jor newspaper editors: Amor de Cosmos and John Robson. De Cosmos, whose hero was Joseph Howe for championing British liberalism, was born William Smith in Windsor, Nova Scotia. He came to Victoria in 1858, having already changed his name a few years before, and founded the Colonist.9 His early editorials called for responsible government and a federation of the British North American colonies. In 1863, when an elect- ed member of the Island’s legislative assembly, he sold the Colonist and for a time concentrated on political activities. In June 1867 at the Reform Convention in Toronto, he issued a well-received call for British Columbia’s entry into Confederation.10 The other key editor was John Robson. As ear- ly as 1862, in the New Westminster British Columbian, Robson, a native of Perth, Upper Canada, declared that the British American provinces must be linked “into one United Federation which shall extend from ocean to ocean.”11 He too wanted responsible government. On 18 March 1867, British Columbia’s Legislative Council unanimous- ly passed de Cosmos’ motion that given events in British North America and the views of British Columbians, Seymour should take immediate steps to insure British Columbia’s admission into the Confederation “on fair and equitable terms.”12 According to Dr. Helmcken, they expected Canada to cover British Columbia’s expenses, including debts, and “give 7 | “The interests of Confederation demanded it” 173 Amor de Cosmos Member of the Legislative Council, BC 10 MARCH 1870 “I am in favour of Confederation, provided the financial terms are right in amount, and if the other terms will contribute to the advancement and protection of our industry. If we cannot get favourable terms, which I Confederation Quote 7.1 Quotation from British Columbia, believe we can, it will then be Legislative Council, 10 March 1870 for the people of this country to Photograph courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives, Image A-01224 say whether we shall remain in isolation or seek some other more favourable union.