CANADA AS A FEDERAL STATE Canada was the first federal union in the British Empire and it came into being on July 1, 1867, a date ever since observed as a public holiday. The union sprang from necessity : Upper and Lower Canada, united in one legislature but divided on racial lines, English and French, had reached deadlock in government. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, far away by the sea, had no connection by rail with the rest of British North America. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland were stagnant in isolation. Stretching across the prairie and across the mountains to the Pacific were other vast areas under the British crown. Side by side with them and reaching from ocean to ocean was the United States, the North flushed with recent victory in the civil war, and irritated with Great Britain because of incidents in the war. A new era was opening with the building of railways and the flow of population into the American West. With such a nation at their doors, union among the British provinces offered the sole hope of successful growth. Yet only four provinces entered the union at first ; Upper Canada, as Ontario, Lower Canada, as Quebec, and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Newfoundland still remains outside; and Prince Edward Island did not join until 1873.
The West had no part in the original negotiations, but such was the pressure of conditions that, by 1869, terms had been made with the Hudson's Bay Company (q.v.) to bring in its great territory of Rupert's Land, stretching westward to the Rocky mountains, and in 1871 British Columbia, the vast province on the Pacific, joined Canada. To complete Canada's ownership of the whole north of the continent, the British Government in 1878 conveyed to Canada all of British North America, except New foundland. The Yukon and other regions of the far north still, as territories, lie outside of the organized provinces.
The leader in these great movements was Mr. (Sir) John Alexander Macdonald (q.v.), who had remarkable political genius and was an astute manager of men. Born in Scotland, he had gone when still a boy to Canada with his family and, almost entirely self-educated, had practised law in the city of Kingston, Ontario. He had taken an active part in the politics of United Canada on the Conservative side and become leader. Canada East and Canada West were, however, still so divided that there was a separate leader for each division, and Macdonald had had as his French colleague a man of great energy, Mr. (Sir) Georges Etienne Cartier (q.v.). With the formation of the Do minion, this dualism ended and Macdonald was the single leader of his party. The union had been supported by the Liberals under George Brown and the first federal cabinet was a coalition, with Macdonald as Prime Minister. But party divisions were acute in Canada, Brown and other Liberals soon withdrew, and an election in 1868 confirmed the Conservatives in office. The election showed that while the two provinces of the older Canada had not been asked to pronounce upon the union, they approved of it. • Strong dissent came, however, from Nova Scotia. Assent to the union had been carried in its legislature by the strong leadership of the Prime Minister, Dr. (Sir) Charles Tupper (q.v.). He had been opposed by his rival Joseph Howe (q.v.), and when, in i868, the electors of Nova Scotia had their first opportunity to pronounce upon the project, Tupper alone was elected as a supporter and the other 18 members were pledged to its repeal. The legislature passed an almost unanimous ap peal to the Queen to aid withdrawal, and sent Howe to England to press it. There he could not secure official support and, in the end, after securing for the Province some financial concessions, he accepted the inevitable and took office under Macdonald. The sequel was that, in the election of 1872, only one member from Nova Scotia was elected to support repeal.
The Government at Ottawa had not yet learned how to rule a new empire and took few precautions to soothe inevitable sus picion. The Metis wanted guarantees as to their French lan guage and their religion ; and above all secure titles to their farms. Few of the Metis had deeds, and when in the summer of 1869 agents from the East were entering the country and making sur veys, suspicion entered the minds of these remote and ignorant people that their rights would not be respected. A wise leader might have secured needed guarantees, but unfortunately there now came to the front one Louis Riel (q.v.), a little better educated than his fellows, but a man of violent passions and unbal anced judgment. While the English-speaking settlers held aloof, Riel seized Fort Garry and set up a provisional government with himself as president. Canada was to take over the region on Dec. 1, 1869, but when the new governor, Mr. William MacDougall, arrived at the frontier by way of the United States, he was not allowed to enter the country. The government at Ottawa then sent to Fort Garry Donald Alexander Smith (Lord Strathcona q.v.) . He was not familiar with the West, but he was prominent in the affairs of the Hudson's Bay company, and much was hoped from his Scottish prudence and tact. Riel, however, imprisoned him and other English-speaking leaders and seized the property of the company. His worst act was the summary trial and brutal execution of Thomas Scott, a young man from Ontario, who had used defiant words. Riel was undoubtedly partly insane, but he was in possession, and the only way to dislodge him was to send from the East a military expedition. It was placed under Col. Garnet (afterwards Lord) Wolseley. There was no railway from Canada to the West, a military force could not pass through the United States, and Wolseley had to take his men across hundreds of miles of wilderness from Lake Superior to Fort Garry. He reached the fort in Aug. 1870, to find that Riel had fled. In such stormy conditions it was that Manitoba came into being as a self governing province.
The charge was then made and proved that during the election Macdonald had received from Sir Hugh Allan (q.v.), the head of the Montreal company which wished to build the Pacific railway, some $300,000 for election expenses, and the inference was that a corrupt bargain had been made with Allan to build the railway. The charge created a sensation. Parliament appointed a commis sion to investigate and the Governor-General, Lord Dufferin (q.v.), took up so stern a position that he was prepared to adopt the dangerous course of dismissing the ministry. In Oct. 1873. when the commission's report acquitted Macdonald of personal corruption but established the receipt of the large sum for elec tion expenses, he resigned, and a Liberal ministry came into office with Mr. Alexander Mackenzie at its head. In the election which followed the new government was sustained by a large majority.
It was the problem of tariffs which in the end solved the rail way issue and brought Macdonald back to power. Canada's position is made difficult by her having only one neighbour, the United States, with a population about 12 times as great and with highly developed industries. The Liberal government had to face a period of acute depression and annual deficits. There was an alarming exodus of population to the United States and, to give opportunity at home, Macdonald now became the spokes man of a policy of protection for Canadian industries—a National Policy as he named it. Mr. Mackenzie's government adhered to a tariff for revenue only. He tried, but failed, to make a bargain with the United States to open the American market to Canada's natural products, a revival of the reciprocity treaty which the United States had ended at the close of the civil war. The re sult was that, when an election came in 1878, Canada accepted by a large majority the national policy, Macdonald again became prime minister, and remained in office until his death in 1891.
By this time, Riel's mind had become so unbalanced that he proclaimed himself the prophet of a new religion and, in the spring of 1885, he set up a provisional government on the Sas katchewan which denied the authority of Canada, and announced separation from the Roman Catholic Church. On March 24 half breeds attacked, near Prince Albert, a party of mounted police under Major Crozier and killed 14 of his men and wounded 25. Riel appealed to the Indian tribes to join him and drive out the whites, and there was danger of extensive massacres of scattered loyal settlers in the region.
Thus it happened that Canada had the task of suppressing a second rebellion. It was difficult, for the railway from Lake Superior to Winnipeg was not yet completed, and the troops had to march in bitter winter weather over the uncompleted sections of the line. The rebel force was led with skill by Gabriel Dumont, but when the Canadians, under an Imperial officer, General Mid dleton, reached the Saskatchewan, they carried the rebel en trenchments at Batoche. By May, Riel was a prisoner and, soon after, Dumont was a refugee in the United States. The rising had cost Canada about 200 lives. Riel was put on trial at Regina, the capital of the north-west territories, and there, late in 1885, he was hanged. Eight Indians were also hanged in the presence of many natives, and this ended their fantastic ambition to drive the whites from the West. The execution of Riel had far-reach ing consequences. In Quebec, the plea urged in 1870 was repeated that the rebels had real grievances and that, moreover, since Riel was really insane his execution was unwarranted and due to the animosity of the English towards the French. The Quebec Con servatives were divided by rivalries, and in a few years the Liberal Party became and remained . dominant in Quebec.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier.—After the retirement of Mr. Mac kenzie from the leadership, Mr. Edward Blake (q.v.) had been chief of the Liberal party. His defeat in the two elections of 1882 and 1887 led to his retirement and he was succeeded by Mr. (Sir) Wilfrid Laurier, who remained the Liberal chief for 32 years until his death in 1919. Like Macdonald, Laurier was a man of striking personality. His ancestors had lived for many generations in French Canada; his family was poor; and he had been reared in a French Canadian village with only the advan tages of a small college conducted by priests and a course in law at McGill university. Yet he had the courtly bearing of a grand seigneur, and his stately dignity never failed. He was called to a difficult position, for it seemed doubtful whether a French leader could unite both the English and the French elements in the Liberal party. It was not long, however, before it was clear that he had political tact and skill to rival that of Macdonald.
Laurier's first election came in 1891. The times were bad and the Liberals hoped for improvement in closer trade relations with the United States. Their policy called for unrestricted reciprocity in trade and this gave Macdonald the chance to urge that such a step would lead to political union. He was old, he realized that this was likely to be his last election, and he won it largely by the rallying cry for the link with Britain; "a British subject I was born; a British subject I will die." The effort wore him out and he died early in the summer of 1891. Sir John Abbott, a Montre al lawyer, succeeded him, and in 1892, Sir John Thompson, a Nova. Scotian, showed skill and capacity as prime minister. He died suddenly in 1894 and was followed, wholly on grounds of seniority, by an Ontario Orangeman, Sir Mackenzie Bowell. The party, floundering with divided counsels and no strong head, at last turned, in 1896, to Sir Charles Tupper. He had been absent from Canada as High Commissioner in London and he returned to lead a disorganized party corrupted, as all parties tend to be corrupted, by a long tenure of office.
Again the West brought a storm in Canadian politics. Mani toba had had sectarian schools but the Liberal government of 1890 held that this division weakened education, and it unified the schools in a non-sectarian system. From the first, the Roman Catholic element had feared a policy which should remove the teaching of their beliefs in schools supported by the state, and to protect them a provision had been included in the constitution of Manitoba that the federal government might override pro vincial action which should abolish such a right. Education in Canada was administered by the provinces. Laurier thought that an injustice had been done. No word of his, he said, should em bitter the struggle, but he pointed out that, while the federal government might by legislation direct the correction of the grievance, it had no power to intervene in the administration of education in Manitoba. To give orders which it had no means of enforcing would prove futile. Conciliation would do more than a merely legal demand. This he promised if placed in office, and meanwhile "Hands off Manitoba." Tupper was in a difficult position. Many of his supporters were Orangemen and he was yielding to insistent demands of Roman Catholic bishops to coerce an unwilling province. He in troduced what was called a Remedial Bill but the term of parlia ment expired before he could force it through, and in the election which followed he was defeated.
Thus it was that in 1896, after 18 years of Conservative rule, the Liberals came into power. Governments endure in Canada and Laurier remained prime minister for 15 years until 1911. It was one of the ironies of politics that Manitoba had voted for its own coercion, while Quebec, in which the people were sup posed to be amenable to episcopal direction, supported Laurier by a large majority. Some episcopal extremists sent an appeal to Rome urging the excommunication of the Catholic leader who had defied the bishops, and this policy was reported to be under serious consideration by the entourage of Pope Leo XIII. A personal envoy went unofficially from Laurier to put the case be fore the Pope, with the result that Cardinal Merry Del Val was sent to Canada and made a report which amounted to a rebuke to the bishops for undue interference in politics. The Liberal gov ernment of Manitoba made some concessions to a Liberal gov ernment in Ottawa, but the separate schools were not restored.
Imperial Preference.—The new government faced its tasks with energy. The problem of the tariff was urgent, for the Liberals had preached the doctrines of Free Trade. They had, however, to face the condition that many industries had grown up under Protection and that to open the door to the more high ly developed manufactures of the United States would involve disaster. The year 1897 was the both of the reign of Queen Vic toria, and Laurier met his difficulties with a brilliant stroke. Though he made but slight changes in the tariff, he used the oc casion of the jubilee to give to Great Britain a reduction of later increased to 33+% of the tariff. He visited England for the first time in that year and was a conspicuous figure in the celebrations. His policy of Preference proved enduring and remains in force.
The great need of Canada was to people the empty spaces of the West. In the cabinet was the very capable minister of the interior, Mr. Clifford Sifton, a former prime minister of Mani toba, who understood the problems of the West. Sif ton set on foot a movement which carried settlers to Canada on a scale so great, in relation to the total population of the country, that it had not been equalled even by the United States. He drew them from Great Britain, from continental Europe, and, to general surprise, in large numbers from the United States where free grants of land were no longer available.
The result was that, within ten years after the Liberal govern ment took office, the population of the prairie country had so increased that it was necessary to set up two new provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta, with self-government on the lines of the other seven provinces. This was done in 1905, not without friction, for again the demand was made for the right to separate schools, supported by the state, in which should be taught the Roman Catholic faith. Minor compromise eased the friction and Regina and Edmonton, so recently little more than trading posts, soon had impressive parliament buildings as capitals respectively of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The political framework of Can ada from the Atlantic to the Pacific was thus completed.
In 191I came an election which resulted in Laurier's defeat. In Quebec, his support had cooled, owing to Bourassa's attacks on his imperialism. What broke his power was, however, quite another question. Canada had long sought* reciprocity in trade with the United States and, early in 1911, an agreement was reached at Washington for a wide measure of free trade between the two countries. The farmers of the West welcomed the pro posal joyously ; it would give them wide markets and cheaper agri cultural implements. But the industries were naturally alarmed at any intrusion on a protected field; the railways feared di version of traffic from the long lines running east and west to shorter routes by way of the United States; and banking inter ests were alarmed lest closer relations should lead to the financial dominance of New York. These considerations were reinforced by the strong British sentiment in Canada, which resented the giving to the United States of advantages in trade superior to those of Great Britain. Laurier dissolved parliament with confi dence, but he was defeated and the Conservative leader Mr. (Sir) Robert Borden (q.v.) became in 1911 prime minister of Canada.
A happier phase of relations with the United States came in 1911 in the establishment of an international joint commission with three commissioners named by the United States and three by Canada to continue in permanence and to which should be referred questions relating to the use of boundary waters. These include such difficult questions as the building of dams and the generation of electrical power on boundary rivers; and it was further provided that, by agreement of the two governments, the commission might exercise comprehensive powers in determining rights, obligations and interests in the relations of one country to the other or of their respective inhabitants. In its task of settling difficulties peaceably the treaty ranks with the important Rush-Bagot convention of 1818 which brought about ament on the Great Lakes and, indeed, on the whole boundary line.