John Macdonald - Canadian History.

« dissolution of the existing Union. The Atlantic colonies, which consisted of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, were considering the question of their own union andplanned to meet at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on September 1, 1864.

Macdonald saw his opportunity and secured an invitation for the Canadians to attend.The delegates of the Atlantic colonies put off their own discussion until they had heard the Canadians.

Macdonald spoke of the advantages in strength that federationwould bring, Cartier stressed the preservation of provincial rights, Brown pointed out the safeguards of an upper house on the lines of the U.S.

Senate, ( see Congress of the United States) and Galt explained the financial advantages of federation.

Together they persuaded the Atlantic delegates to attend a formal conference to be heldin Québec City on October 10. Macdonald then showed himself at his greatest.

He said in a speech at Halifax, Nova Scotia: “I have been dragging myself through the dreary waste of colonial politics.

Ithought there was no end, nothing worthy of ambition, but now I see something which is well worthy of all that I have suffered in the cause of my little country.” Underthe stress of internal political difficulties and external dangers, Macdonald was changing from a dabbler in politics to a man with an ideal: the creation of a new nation. At the Québec Conference, Macdonald fought for a strong central government.

He proposed 72 resolutions, all of which were passed.

These later formed the basis ofthe federal constitution.

In Canada the motion to join the federation, which came to be called Confederation, was passed with large majorities in both houses of thelegislature.

However, it failed in the first instance in all four of the Atlantic colonies.

Canada would have settled for its own union, but by then the British governmentwas also pressing for federation.

Macdonald never lost hope, and in 1865, long before federation was a fact, he proposed to Britain that all British territory east of theRocky Mountains be turned over to Canada. Taché died in 1865.

Macdonald would ordinarily have succeeded to the joint premiership, but he still faced the obstacle of Brown’s jealousy.

Rather than risk the causeof federation, he made Narcisse Belleau the new joint premier.

The work of persuading the Atlantic colonies went on, and finally, after a change of cabinet in NewBrunswick, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick consented to join the new union.

On March 28, 1867, the British North America Act was passed, creating the Dominion ofCanada with the provinces of Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Even in triumph, Macdonald was soberly cautious: “We are all mere petty provincialpoliticians at present; perhaps by and by some of us will rise to the level of national statesmen.” IV PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA Lord Monck, the first governor-general of the Dominion of Canada, swore in Macdonald as the first prime minister on July 1, 1867.

He formed a coalition governmentdrawn from the Conservatives and Reformers who had supported Confederation, giving each party approximately equal weight in the new cabinet.

Brown remained inthe opposition that later developed into the Liberal Party. In the August legislative elections the government won overwhelmingly in Ontario and Québec and did well in New Brunswick.

The results in Nova Scotia, however,showed that the dominion’s troubles were not over.

Led by Joseph Howe, all but one of the members elected were opposed to Confederation.

The province threatenedto withdraw.

When Britain refused to allow this, some elements in Nova Scotia even advocated joining the United States.

Macdonald settled the problem by increasingthe federal subsidy to the province by $140,000 and by taking Howe into the cabinet.

Although the opponents of Confederation protested that the province had beensold for 80 cents a man, they won only one seat in the next election. In 1868 the British Parliament authorized the transfer of the whole of the northwest east of the Rocky Mountains to Canada.

Macdonald treated the territory as if it werevirgin land and appointed a lieutenant governor without consulting the settlers, who were mostly indigenous peoples and Métis (a people who were a mixture of theFrench and indigenous peoples).

In 1869 Louis Riel, a Métis, led the Red River Rebellion that, although unsuccessful, gained provincial status for the Red River area; thisarea became the province of Manitoba and joined the dominion in 1870. One of Macdonald’s greatest achievements was persuading British Columbia to join the dominion.

In 1871 the colony was in severe debt.

One faction wanted to join theUnited States, another to remain British, while only a few considered joining the dominion.

Nevertheless, a small party of federationists, favored by the Britishgovernment, was organized in 1867.

As an inducement to British Columbia, Macdonald offered to build a railway connecting Québec to British Columbia.

Moreover, hepromised to complete it within ten years.

Convinced, British Columbia joined the dominion on July 20, 1871, and Canada stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

PrinceEdward Island joined two years later, making Newfoundland the only holdout. Parliament was dissolved in 1872, and in the subsequent election, Macdonald suffered a severe setback.

The Conservatives’ campaign was vigorous and heavilysubsidized, but their dream of a federated Canada was not matched in appeal by their local policies.

They lost Ontario and barely won Québec.

It was only majorities inthe Atlantic provinces that kept them in power, but that power was not to last long. The idea of a railway to the Pacific was a good one, but the government’s plans for carrying it out were not.

Macdonald wanted the railway built by a Canadiancompany, and in 1873 he created one for that purpose.

Sir Hugh Allan, a shipping magnate, was the chief promoter.

However, it soon became clear that the moneybehind Allan was mainly from the United States and that this money was subsidizing the Conservatives.

In July 1873, letters stolen from Allan’s lawyer showed that Allanhad provided $350,000 in campaign funds for the previous election.

Macdonald maintained his innocence, but a personal telegram made it clear that he was deeplyinvolved.

Although a Parliamentary commission later cleared him of blame, Macdonald resigned.

It seemed that his political career had come to an end. V ONCE MORE IN OPPOSITION Macdonald was succeeded by the Liberal Alexander Mackenzie.

The Liberals were now faced with the overwhelming problem of building the railway to British Columbia.The world economic depression after 1873 meant that no private investment could be found, so the Liberals attempted to build the railway as a public venture.

Theirefforts were half-hearted, and British Columbia was on the verge of secession.

During these years, Macdonald played a responsible opposition role.

He even helped theLiberals reform the legal system and establish the Supreme Court of Canada. The election of 1878 showed Macdonald’s greatness, which lay in his faith in Canada’s capacity to achieve a firm union.

He knew what to do to attain this goal, and heknew he could do it.

Everywhere he campaigned, Macdonald played to the local audience.

He discovered what people needed and promised it to them.

There wassomething for everyone in his National Policy, as his program was called. The Conservatives gained an overwhelming victory.

Macdonald himself was defeated at Kingston but ran again in Victoria, British Columbia.

In spite of his casualmanner, his drinking bouts, and his chronic indebtedness, he had become the grand old man of Canada.

Without his leadership the election campaign would have beena failure. VI SECOND MACDONALD GOVERNMENT The greatest achievement of Macdonald’s last years was the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

The decision to go ahead with the railway, after the Allanscandals, was a display of remarkable courage as well as unusual stubbornness.

Macdonald was fortunate that there was a temporary recovery from the depression. »