Naturalizing Canada As a “Modern” Nation: Concepts of Political Association in Late-Nineteenth Century English Canada

NATURALIZING CANADA AS A “MODERN” NATION: CONCEPTS OF POLITICAL ASSOCIATION IN LATE-NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH CANADA By Peter Price A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in History in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September, 2014 Copyright © Peter Price, 2014 Abstract The meaning and future of the new political jurisdiction created in 1867 called Canada were far from obvious or certain for those who witnessed Confederation and its first decades of development. This study looks at some of the ways in which the creation of a new Canadian state in 1867 influenced ways of thinking about the nature of political association and civic identity. Based on a thorough analysis of English-Canadian magazines published between 1867 and 1900, as well as major books and pamphlets written about the constitution in Canada, many by the same authors, it focuses on the English-Canadian intellectuals and public writers who tended to write most systemically about such issues. This study assesses changing ideas of political association in these sources through an analysis of the key political concepts of constitution, nationality, citizenship, and loyalty, each of which form the basis of separate chapters. It argues that ideas of “modern” political association developed by these concepts often led to concerted efforts to describe the Canadian state as a legitimate and natural container of civic affiliation. While many described these concepts as increasingly defined by the relationship between the individual and the territorial, constitutional state, they continued to be guided by assumptions about racial identity and lines of exclusion. This complexity is detailed in the final chapter, a case study of changes to naturalization law between 1867 and 1914 that saw many of the ideas examined in this dissertation take more concrete legal form. i Acknowledgements It is a strange feeling to write this page. I sometimes wondered if I would ever reach the point where everything would be done, and only this page would be left to complete. My challenge in this space is to in some small measure communicate the debts I owe to many people who along the way have contributed to the completion of this study. But of course, there is much more to say than what the words of these pages can convey. It is difficult to find a way to adequately acknowledge the mentorship and guidance of my supervisor, Jeffrey McNairn. Over the years, he has watched this project transform and take different shapes, and he challenged and motivated me at every step. I have been tremendously privileged to work with him and benefit from his intellect, thoughtfulness, and patience. The members of my committee provided me with useful feedback, critical insights, and encouragement. I owe a great debt of gratitude to Damien-Claude Bélanger, Rosanne Currarino, Sandra den Otter, Andrew Lister, and Ian McKay. I am very fortunate to have been able to work with them and learn from their comments. This project was made possible by the funding I received from the Queen’s University Graduate Award, the Roger Graham Fellowship in Modern Canadian History, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship in Canadian Legal History. Faculty and staff in the History Department at Queen’s have provided a nurturing scholarly community over the years. In particular, my colleagues and friends in the graduate program helped with their confidence and occasional commiseration. I owe particular mention to Mary Chaktsiris, Angela Duffett, Kendall Garton, Nicole Longpré, ii Zozan Pehlivan, Deanne van Tol, Allison Ward, and Sarah Waurechen for their feedback and advice over the years. For my perseverance throughout the difficulties and frustrations of this project, I owe much to Nicholas Brown, John Pyke, Connor Kelly, and others for reminding me of life beyond the university, as well as the salutary effects of enjoying the occasional weekend away. Finally, my family, who were my first teachers, helped inspire my interest in history and supported me in many different ways over the years. With a great amount of appreciation I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, for their constant encouragement and support, and for the many lessons I have learned from them along the way. iii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... v Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Two: Cultivating a Canadian Constitution ........................................................... 39 Chapter Three: Nation and the Boundaries of Political Community ................................. 94 Chapter Four: Describing Citizenship and Collective Belonging ................................... 150 Chapter Five: Debating and Declaring Loyalty ............................................................... 193 Chapter Six: “Who are Canadians?”: Nationality and Naturalization in Canada ............ 235 Chapter Seven: Conclusion .............................................................................................. 285 Appendix A: Table of Magazines .................................................................................... 295 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 297 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Fleming’s Meteor Flag Proposal ……………………………………………228 Figure 2: Canadian Club of Hamilton’s Flag Proposal ………………………………..231 v Chapter One: Introduction What happened on July 1st, 1867? Marking the eighth anniversary of that date, the editors of the Canadian Monthly and National Review remarked, “We should be sure what sort of thing was born on that occasion, before we celebrate the anniversary.”1 The ambiguity of the meaning of Confederation and the uncertainty about how to define the entity that it created captured the attention, anxiety, and aspirations of many in the decades following Confederation. Confederation was, to borrow American historian Bernard Bailyn’s phrase about the American Revolution, a “soft, ambiguous moment,” a moment whose meaning and future were subject to great uncertainty and multiple possibilities.2 Canada was not created in a single moment; it was shaped by a gradual process through which many sought to explain the meaning of the new political jurisdiction and how those living within its expanding boundaries could or should identify with it. This process, developed in large part through public discourse and education, was an attempt to naturalize Canada – to transform the legal regime instituted by the United Kingdom’s British North America Act, 1867 into an ostensibly natural and enduring association of individuals. This study examines some of the ways in which the category of Canada acquired various meanings and for many became naturalized as a national community that marshalled attitudes and behaviours of belonging and thereby set lines of exclusion. It considers Canada not so much as a given political entity, but as a concept whose meaning 1 “Current Events,” Canadian National and Monthly Review 8, no. 1 (July 1875), 69. 2 Bernard Bailyn, Education in the Forming of American Society: Needs and Opportunities for Study (New York: Vintage, 1960), 14. 1 was subject to on-going debate and evolution. It has become convenient and almost intuitive to retrospectively apply meaning, to neatly sew up the disentangled threads that constituted the multiplicity of past futures. The problem, then, is how to untie the inevitability of Canada, to more carefully assess the process by which it became possible to think of Canada at all. This study looks at one facet of the wider project of normalizing Canada as a natural and logical container of civic identity. It shifts the focus from the political and legal strategies of “nation building” and considers how a particular group of writers in civil society assumed responsibility for describing, promoting, and inculcating the idea of Canada as a natural and logical unit of belonging. Rather than understand these actors and their writing as merely reflecting back on a Canada established in 1867, this study considers their work as a constitutive effort in solidifying “Canada” at a time when its trajectory as a sovereign state or as a “nation” was far from secure or obvious. To do this, this study turns to an intellectual history of concepts to examine how the creation of a new Canadian state prompted different ways of understanding and making sense of political association in English Canada specifically. It focuses on the period between 1867 and 1900, nearly a third of a century that can be thought of as the Confederation generation, when the subjects of this study witnessed Confederation and the malleable and uncertain development of the new political jurisdiction it created. In their efforts to describe and influence the political changes they witnessed, this generation

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