1. Rep By Pop
1.1. Representation by population. The more population a province, the larger the number of seats will be allocated to them.
1.2. George Etienne Cartier, the leader of Parti bleu in Canada East, didn’t want Rep by Pop. The conservatives in Canada West under Macdonald formed a coalition government with Cartier. Through the years of political changes, it became clear to Macdonald, Cartier, Brown and other leaders that some sort of compromise between the two would be necessary if they want Confederation to be a reality.
1.3. In political conferences Rep by Pop was a hotly debated issue. The provinces were deeply aware that they are going to have to solve the issue sooner than later as they would become larger in the future. They don’t want their influence in the government to be minimal for the future. The federal Parliament reached an agreement that would be made up of two houses. The lower house would be made of elected members that represents their region according to population. Under the BNA Act, the number of seats allocated to each province would be recalculated after each 10 year.
2. American Threat
2.1. Manifest Destiny
2.1.1. The Manifest Destiny holds the belief that the United States is destined to rule all land, expand it’s dominion and spread their democracy and capitalism across the entire North America. It’s a phrase coined in 1845 that drove 19th century US territorial expansion. Manifest Destiny made the BNA colonies fear the Americans because they were close to them and an enemy of Britain. BNA colonies were afraid the Americans would invade Canada due to this belief.The relationship between the British and Americans have never been peaceful. Especially, because Britain supported the South which is an enemy of Americans in the Civil War. Since, the Americans won the war, it made them even more angry to Britain. Britain didn’t want to be involved in a war to Americans, since it would cost them too much defending their land. The British North American colonies have decided to join together to make Americans hesitate attacking them. Their fear of the Americans helped call for the Confederation.
2.2. The American Expansion
2.2.1. The American expansion, when the majority of Americans believes in the view of Manifest Destiny. The Americans wanted to see the territory of Oregon to extend north.
2.3. The Trent Affair
2.3.1. The Trent Affair, which made Britain supported the South during the American Civil War. Since, the British supported the South, we also had to support them, even though we had a closer relationship with the North.
2.4. The St. Alban's Raid
2.4.1. The St. Alban's Raid supported the fear of the Americans in 1864. On October 10 1864, three young men checked into a hotel in northern Vermont. They swore that they were Canadians on a vacation and on October 19th, they robbed all three banks in St. Alban's. It turned out that they were confederate soldiers stealing money for the Confederacy. This puts us in direct danger from the North, because we had to do what Britain told us to do.
3. Fathers of Confederation
3.1. John A Macdonald George Brown George Cartier Charles Tupper Joseph Howe
4. Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada
4.1. Reformers
4.1.1. The Reformers believed that the society needed a government that represented the interests of the general population, not just the wealthy elites.
4.1.1.1. Family Compact
4.1.1.1.1. Controlled both councils and advise the governor on colonial matters.
4.1.2. The reform movement in Nova Scotia was led by Joseph Howe in the late 1830s. Howe demanded that the colonies of BNA should have responsible government, since Britain had it. In the election of 1847, the Reformers won and made Nova Scotia the first BNA colony to have a responsible government. Howe didn’t want to join the Confederation since he thought that Nova Scotia would lose their identity and they would lose their reputation in the larger union. He had a lot of support for his views but, Premier Charles Tupper was able to push the confederation before the election in 1867.
4.1.3. The Reformer’s role into the confederation was that they made the government and recommended the responsible government into
4.1.4. Joseph Papineau
4.1.4.1. The leader of the reformers was Louis Joseph Papineau, who served as Speaker of the Assembly. The Reformers challenged the practices and beliefs of the Tories and Family Compact. They’re unhappy about the amount of authority Family Compact had in the government. They wanted to change the governments so the voters would have more impact on politics. The Reformers are also mad about Family Compact’s attitude toward the Americans. Many settlers came from the US after the American Revolution hoping for better life in BNA.
4.2. Tories
4.2.1. They were strong supporters of the British colonial structure. They wanted the status quo to stay as it is. Within the party, was an elite group of men called the Family Compact. Tories believed that the society needed a government controlled by an educated political and economic elite.
4.3. BNA Act
4.3.1. The Act was produced by first prime minister of Canada, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, which became Canada at the end. This act joined together four British colonies in North America: New Brunswick, Canada East, Canada West, and Nova Scotia. As the first prime minister predicted the expansion of the Dominion and his government dominated politics for half a century and set policy goals for the future. It created a coalition government. Sir Samuel
4.3.2. Leonard Tilley wanted New Brunswick to join the new country, Canada. But the problem was that the people of New Brunswick was against the idea of joining. He lost the election due to that. After some time, the people started to change their minds. Tilley won back the election and was finally able to make New Brunswick a part of Canada.
4.4. Durham Report
4.4.1. It outlawed French is a language in the assembly
4.4.2. Supported the representation by population
4.4.3. Blame the rebellions in the lower Canada which is illuminating the French culture and language.
4.4.4. Said that there being so willing for merga MMA
4.5. Act of Union 1841
4.5.1. Made Upper Canada into Canada West
4.5.2. Made Lower Canada into Canada East
4.6. The Political Parties
4.6.1. In Canada West were the Clear Grits and the Conservatives. The political party Conservatives was led by John A Macdonald. They are very loyal to Queen Victoria and remain a strong relations with Britain. They also strongly support and worked towards the confederation of the BNA colonies. The party of Clear Grits was led by George Brown. The Grits wanted people to have more of an impact in the government. They support the representation by population government system. They also supported the idea of confederation between BNA colonies. In Canada East were the Parti Bleu and Parti Rouge. Parti Bleu was led by George Étienne Cartier. They supported confederation if they keep the religious and family law systems. They wanted friendship between the English and the French. Parti Rouge was led by Antoine Aime Dorion. They oppose the idea of a confederation of BNA colonies. They believe that it would not be in any way going to benefit the French population
5. Political Deadlock
5.1. Political deadlock is a situation where no one can win in the Government which paved the way for the Confederation. Basically, no new laws were getting passed because no side was able to secure a majority votes. In order to pass a bill, it has to pass in the Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Between 1854 and 1864, there were 10 different governments and no government didn’t last long to give enough colony political stability. There are four main political parties during the 1860’s in the Province of Canada: Clear Grits led by George Brown, Conservatives led by John A Macdonald, Parti Bleu led by George-Etienne Cartier and the Parti Rouge led by Antoine-Aime Dorion. George brown believed that in order to break the deadlock, the government have to give more power in Canada west in the elections. He demanded rep by pop. If in effect, this would give Canada West more power than Canada East. In 1863, a coalition government was formed working with John A. Macdonald and George Etienne Cartier, Macdonald’s partner from Canada East. This was known as the Great Coalition.
5.2. Coalition Government
5.2.1. A government in which two governments unite into one
5.3. Double Majority
5.3.1. Bills must be passed in both the Upper and Lower house of Canada.
6. Free Trade/Trade Reciprocity
6.1. The treaty eliminated custom tariffs
6.2. In 1854, BNA colonies had signed a Reciprocity treaty with the USA for ten years. BNA colonies concentrated their efforts to create intercolonial trade to offset the loss of the American market. The treaty eliminated taxes between the two, and creating an increase in trade with the US. The trade led to an economic boom in Canada.
6.3. The Trade Reciprocity with the British was brought to an end. The US canceled the Reciprocity on March 17, 1866. The end of the Treaty helped the argument for the call for Confederation of the BNA colonies.
6.4. American Civil War
6.4.1. The Civil War was fought between 1841 to 1845. The North and the South were trying to solve the issue of controversy over the enslavement of Black people.
7. Conferences
7.1. Charlottetown Conference
7.1.1. The Charlottetown Conference was a conference in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were thinking about creating a Maritime Union. The leaders talked about having to create a larger union. Three main ideas in the conference was George Cartier explaining the reasons for a union between the BNA colonies.
7.2. The Quebec Conference
7.2.1. The Quebec Conference was the discussions in Quebec City about how the new country would be governed. The main things talked about this conference was the 72 Resolutions, the bicameral system with the Upper and Lower house, keeping ties with Britain through the Governor General that would represent British to the new country and the different levels of government, the different responsibilities and other issues.
7.3. The London Conference
7.3.1. The London Conference is a meeting between Canada East, West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia leaving for London, England for finalizing details of confederation.