read 3 articles and answer the question

1. Industrialization

• Shift in production from household to factories

• Application of new technologies to production

• New system of labour  Decline of skilled workers

 Rise of the industrial workforce (unskilled)

• Concentration of wealth  Rise of extremely wealthy industrialists

 Emergence of the urban poor

• Strong division between work/home

 Cultural conceptions of domestic space

• Management of time

 Pre-industrial: rhythm of seasons and day/night

 Industrial: life dictated by the clock

• Discipline of work

 Factory owners had free hand with punishment

1. Rise of Organized Labour

• Pre-1850a: “labour riots” and secret society-style protests

• Earliest signs of organized labour emerge in 1850s  Extremely vulnerable (unions remained illegal)

 State ALWAYS sided with industry over labour

• Earliest organizations = ‘craft’ unions  Skilled workers building upon ‘guild’ tradition

 Organize to protect selves vs. industrialization

 Declining importance of skilled labour

 Extremely limited in scope

 No sense of common class interest with other workers

 Model = small, exclusive organization

• Fraternal/Social benefits  Health/funeral benefits

 Identity

 Erosion of work status with industrialization

 “Alienation” of the workforce

1. Railroads

• Pre-1850s:  Canals the key transportation system

 Very limited railway construction

 60 miles of track opened by 1850

• 1850s and beyond:  Massive railway construction

 Approx. 2,200 miles built in 1850s

 Key = ability to attract investment in 1850s

• Problems Canada had attracting investment:

 Population [much smaller than United States]

 Political instability [governments elected and fall with regularity]

• Canada has to offer incentives to attract $$$

 Low-interest loans

 Guarantee profitability

 Canadian government assumes all risk, little reward

1. ‘All of my politics are railroads’

• Extreme corruption/conflict of interest

 Most federal politicians also served on railway boards of directors

 Would help railway company get contracts and incentives

 Politicians then profited through promotion of railways

 Railway construction virtually bankrupts Canada [massive corruption]

 2,200 miles of track cost $146 million ($66,000 per mile)

 Poor planning and development (no cohesion to tracks)

• Railways contribute massively to industrialization:

 Growth of associated industries [construction, repair, maintenance]

 Links hinterland to urban centres

 Opens rural areas as markets to big cities

 Increases transportation to port cities and the United States

 Creates increased demand for natural resources [esp. coal and iron]

• Contributes to urbanization:

 Montreal and Toronto: over 100,000 people each

1. Canada’s ‘Reorientation’ • Canada and the Empire (pre-1840s)

 Culture, society and immigration (overwhelmingly British)

 Economics (Mercantalism) – closed system of trade within the Empire

 Foreign Policy – United States perceived as the most significant threat

 Canada still depended on Britain for miitary defence

• Canada and North America (1840s-60s)

 Economics

 Mercantilism comes under sustained attack (free trade)

 Imperial protection dismantled (1840s)

 Canadian natural resources now traded on open world market

 Little drop in trade with Britain (extraordinary demand)

 Canada’s economy turns increasingly to USA

 End of mercantilism = end of reliance on primary resources

 Shift to manufacturing and search for US markets

 Reciprocity (Free Trade) Treaty of 1854 (with USA)

 Upper Canada’s economy dramatically shifts towards United States

1. Economic Context of Confederation

• Budget crisis of early 1860s:

 Canada lacked revenue to pay interest on existing debt

 No money available for further development

 British banks reluctant to loan money to the Canadian government

• Reciprocity Treaty:

 Due to expire in 1864

 US government makes clear that it will not renew

 Colonies need to break down trade barriers between each other

 Upper Canada capitalists anxious for a new hinterland

• Expansionist Movement:

 Acquisition of the Prairie West viewed as key to Canada’s economic future

 Agricultural Land

 Hinterland for eastern Canadian industry

 Railway construction (opening of Pacific markets)

 Confederation would create unified state to acquire Rupert’s Land

2. Recap: Act of Union

• Act of Union: creates single colony with one government

• Structure of government remains the same • Appointed Governor, Executive Council and Executive Assembly

• Elected Legislative Assembly

• Upper Canada = Canada West (future Ontario)

• Lower Canada = Canada East (future Quebec) • 42 seats each in assembly (gave effective power to Anglophones)

• Responsible Government: Proposal

 Legislature approves appointments

 Governor- General still appointed by the British government BUT had to maintain confidence of the Legislative Assembly

• Goals of Responsible Government:

 Give Canada greater autonomy over its own affairs

• Proposal rejected by the British government

2. Emergence of Political Moderates • Robert Baldwin – Louis Lafontaine Alliance (1840s)

 Both men had Reform backgrounds

 Strong advocates of changing the existing system

 Both men had broken with radicals before rebellion (1834)

 Baldwin: breaks with Mackenzie

 Lafontaine: breaks with Papineau

 Both strong advocates of Responsible Government

• Lafontaine highly unpopular in Canada East (Quebec)  Outrage in French Canada over the Union

 Anyone who worked within the system was condemned

• Lafontaine loses election in Montreal (1841)  Wins election in Toronto (1842) with support of Baldwin

• Baldwin/Lafontaine push for Responsible Government  Demand that the Legislative Assembly approve all appointments

 1842-47: strongly resisted by the British government

2. Responsible Government / Party Politics

• Turning point = events in Britain (1847-48)

 New government in Britain decides to hand greater autonomy over to the settlement colonies

 New Gov.-General sent with instructions to accept Responsible Government

 Effective power now held by two chief ministers (one English, one French)

• Baldwin-Lafontaine become the first administration under Responsible Gov.

 Rebellion Losses Bill (1849) ◦ Compensated people in Canada East who lost property in 1837 Rebellion ◦ Explicitly excluded those convicted of treason ◦ Viewed in French Canada as justice for those caught in Rebellion through

no fault of own ◦ Met with outrage, rioting in English Canada

 Assembly burned to the ground (Montreal)

 Dramatically increased tension between French and English  Rise of hard-liners in both English and French Canada  Four political parties in Canada in the 1850s

Emergence of Political Parties in the 1850s

• Moderates: • Liberal-Conservatives (old followers of Baldwin)

• Urban Canada West and Anglophones in Canada East • Parti Bleu (old followers of Lafontaine)

• Committed to work within the system to advantage of French Canada

• ‘Radicals’: • Clear Grits (Reform Party)

• Supported the Expansionist Movement (George Brown) • Drew strength from rural Canada West • Extremely anti-French • Advocates of “Representation by Population” (1851 Census)

• Parti Rouge (French Canadian Nationalists) • Inspired by memory of Papineau and the Patriote Movement • Wanted repeal of the Act of Union

 Emergence of political parties made stable government extremely difficult  Liberal-Conservatives and Parti Bleu the only factions that could cooperate

 Governments elected and collapsed in short order

3. External Pressures • Position of British government:

 Cut costs of governing and protecting empire

 Encourage self-government in settler colonies

 Pass along cost of defence to the colonies

• American Civil War:  Union (North) vs. Confederacy (South)

 Britain and colonies “officially” neutral

 Tacitly favoured the Confederacy

 Textile interests in Britain (Southern cotton)

 Desire to see traditional rival weakened

• Fear of war between USA/Britain very real in mid-1860s

• Britain wants to see Canadian Confederation:

 Reduce costs of administration

 Pass off defence costs to Canada (single country would better be able to raise money for militia

• Crown-appointed governors in each colony instructed to push for Confederation

Road to Confederation • Grand Coalition (Brown, Macdonald, Cartier)

• Terms of coalition:

 Representation by Population

 Steps to purchase Rupert’s Land be taken as soon as possible

 Confederation of British North American colonies

• Only party not to support Confederation = Parti Rouge

• Position of the Maritimes [looming economic problems]

 Timber/shipbuilding in decline (iron shipping)

 End of reciprocity threatened trade

 Search for new markets

 Railway Debt

 Lacked railway connecting region to Toronto/Montreal

• Moving towards Maritime Union

 Meeting planned in Charlottetown (1864)

 Expanded to include representatives of Canada

Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences [1864]

• Charlottetown: Agree on general principles of Confederation:  Canada would remain in the British Empire  Balance between federal and provincial governments  Balance between rep. by population and rep. by region

 Concerns of the Maritimes that they would be overwhelmed in Confederation

• Quebec: working out the details [also joined by Newfoundland]  Key Issues:

 Structure of government

 Balance of provincial/federal power

• Federal Govt.:  Currency, banking, criminal law, Indian affairs, trade

• Provincial Govts.:  Education, social services, culture

• Structure of legislature:  House of Commons: Rep by Pop (elected)  Senate: Rep by Region (appointed)

• Had to be ratified by each colony

Ratification: The Canadas

• Canada West: No opposition

• Canada East:

 Opposition led by Parti Rouge:

 French Canada would be at a disadvantage:

 Parliament would be dominated by Anglophones

 Federal government would have too much legal and fiscal authority

 Would still rely on Britain for military protection

 Support led by Parti Bleu (Cartier):

 Powers retained by province would protect French culture

 Best of bad options (work within the system)

 Catholic Church lends support to pro-Confederates

• Confederation ratified by Canada East

 Small majority of Francophones endorse Confederation

New Brunswick and Confederation • Premier (Samuel Tilley) faced enormous criticism

 Fear that federal government had gotten too much power

• Isolationism

 No fear of attack from the United States [don’t want to get dragged into war]

• Election of 1865

 Anti-Confederates sweep into office; Confederation rejected

• Fenian Invasions (1866)

 Attack Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick

 Ends New Brunswick’s isolationism

• Pro-Confederates seize opportunity:

 New Brunswick would be isolated/vulnerable without Confed.

 Made an issue of loyalty

 New Brunswick’s Irish Catholic population blamed for original ‘no’ vote

 Crisis causes the newly elected government to collapse

• New elections (1866)

 Tilley re-elected: push forward with Confederation

Nova Scotia Tricked into Confederation • Weak support in Nova Scotia (same concerns as in NB)

• Emergence of strong anti-Confederate leadership

 Joseph Howe

• Premier unwilling to put it to a vote in Assembly

 Gains assistance of British Governor

 Wins over some opponents

• Resolution put forward into Assembly

 Authorized ‘further negotiations’ on terms of Confederation (1866)

• Effort to re-negotiate terms fails

 Premier brings Nova Scotia into Confederation on the basis of the 1866 vote

Newfoundland and Confederation

• No strong incentive to join Confederation  Not facing the same economic crisis (debt)

• Active opposition:  Merchants:

 Trade overwhelmingly with Britain anyway

 Feared economic policy being dictated by Canada

 Irish Catholics:

 Experience of Act of Union in Ireland (1800)

 Feared being overwhelmed in a Protestant Canada

• No leader emerged to articulate pro-Confederation arguments

• Confederation rejected in 1869 vote

Prince Edward Island

• Politics continued to be dictated by land question  Absentee Landlords still failing to live up to responsibilities

 Tennant League (1864-67)

 Governor unable to mount serious pro-Confederation campaign

• Fears of being overwhelmed more intense in PEI  Initially rejects Confederation (1867)

• Pressures towards Confederation (early 1870s)

 Railway debt (bankruptcy)

 British pressure (no longer willing to pay to govern)

• Confederation accepted (1873)

 Canada accepts railway debt of PEI

 Canada buys out absentee landlords

The Prairie West • Canada acquires the territory from the HBC

• Problems with the Rupert’s Land Purchase:

 Aboriginal title not addressed

 Metis population not consulted

• Surveyors sent by Canadian government to prepare land for settlement [1869]

 Turned back by Metis force

• Louis Riel emerges as leader of Resistance

 Turns back appointed governor

 Seizes arms and supplies

 Imprisons Canadian Party

 Declares Provisional Government and demands negotiation

The Prairie West

• Position of the Canadian Government  Impossible to suppress with military force

 Too expensive (Canada lacked the money)

 No transportation route to the region

 Need to settle the land as quickly as possible

 Fears that America would seize the territory

• Manitoba Act (1870)  Manitoba enters Confederation

 Made a bilingual province

 Provisions made for Metis to receive land grants (1.4 million acres)

• Military occupation  Wolseley Expedition in response to execution of Thomas Scott

British Columbia at the Crossroads (1860s) • Stay a British Colony?

 Britain no longer wanted to administer it

• Join the United States?  Strong links to the west coast of the United States

 Annexationist movement in the United States [acquisition of Alaska in 1867]

 Supporters of annexation in BC were a minority

• Join Canada?  Few Canadians lived in BC (mostly Britons and Americans)

 No significant trade links or sentiment in favor of joining Canada

• Strong push from Canada and Britain

 Would link Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific

• Appointment of a new governor (1869)

 Given explicit instructions to negotiate BC’s entry into Confederation

• Terms  Canada assumes all of BC’s debt

 Agrees to build a trans-continental railway within a decade