Post-Confederation Life Cluster 3: Becoming a Sovereign Nation - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Post-Confederation Life

Cluster 3: Becoming a Sovereign Nation

Expanding Confederation

John A. Macdonald had worked hard to build one Dominion of Canada from three separate colonies. Now, as Canada's first prime minister, he continued to pursue his dream.

The motto of his Conservative government was

A Mari

usque

ad Mare

—"from sea to sea"—and Macdonald's goal was to expand the country's territory and create a transcontinental nation.

Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territories were acquired in 1870, Manitoba was established as a separate province, and the rest of the Northwest was re-named North-West Territories.

In quick succession, the new federal government persuaded British Columbia (1871) and then Prince Edward Island (1873) to join Confederation.

In 1880, Great Britain transferred the Arctic islands to Canada and, except for Newfoundland, which would not join Canada until 1949, the nation assumed its present day borders. It was seven times its original size.

In 1875, the

North-West Territories Act

provided for representative government in the territory.

In 1897, the government sent a representative to the Arctic Archipelago to assert Canada's sovereignty in the region.

The Yukon Territory was formed in 1898, and Saskatchewan and Alberta became provinces in 1905.

Canada, 1905

The Conservative government’s motto,

A Mari

usque

ad Mari

, could be viewed from a variety of conflicting historical perspectives.

Which groups in Canada would see the motto positively?

Which groups might have a cautious or negative view?

Colonizing the West

With a growing population and a shortage of good available farmland in central Canada, the government hoped easterners would move West and

homestead,

which means settling on land with the purpose of farming and eventually owning it.

This would stimulate new settlements, prosperity, and growth, plus demonstrate to any Americans thinking of annexing this land that it belonged to Canada.

Building a Railroad and a Nation

Since the first discussions about Confederation, the idea of an inter-colonial railroad had been popular.

In his first term of office, Macdonald developed a more ambitious plan, a transcontinental railroad to link all the members of Confederation. In fact, it was the promise of this transportation link that persuaded British Columbia to join Canada in 1871.

Video:

Canadian Pacific Railway

(9:44)

Effects of Territorial Expansion

Although settlers from central Canada were initially slow to head west, the railroad encouraged more to move.

The railroad gave central Canadians and immigrants from overseas quick and easy transportation to the West. The railroad forged a physical link between Canadians from sea to sea, but it would take many more decades, debates, and government initiatives to create a shared sense of Canadian identity from sea to sea.

In the process, some voices, such as those of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples, were largely absent, while other groups and some regions felt sidelined and ignored.

In what ways would the transcontinental railroad change the lives of the men and women in Canada for better and for worse?

Why do you think some people say that this photo records the most important moment in Canadian history?

Immigration & Settlement

When the Northwest was acquired it was hoped that the prairies would be the key to boosting the national economy.

Settling the West had many benefits:

More goods would be produced for use at home and abroad

An increase in traffic for the CPR

Settling the West was a slow process at first because the United States had grown faster and most immigrants wanted to settle there instead.

When Laurier became Prime Minister, he delegated Clifford

Sifton

(Minister of the Interior) to begin and immigration policy to settle the Canadian West.

Sifton

looked to the experienced farmers from the U.S. and Canada, the landless hungry

from Great

Britain and to the landless peasants from Eastern Europe as potential settlers

East Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Blacks were discouraged from coming to Canada because it was believed that they would not fit into Canadian society.

Sifton

focused on Great Britain and the U.S. first, and placed ads in newspapers offering a free quarter section (160 acres) to all that came

He also sent brochures full of pictures offering the same thing to Eastern Europe.

Lies?

Canada had often lured people here from their homelands on false pretences:

Pamphlets provided false information and misleading pictures of life on the prairies.

Many people expected the land to be ready and houses to be built. Some thought that there would be towns ready, as the ads had pictures of towns, homes, orchards, streams and farms with endless fields of wheat.

The reality was much different:

They found vast expanses of land with few people around them

The winters were cold with no roads connecting them to the rest of the world

Some areas had no trees to build houses

Most that came from Eastern Europe were very poor and had to make everything that they needed by hand

The land was dry, there were many droughts, grassfires, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, wind and hail to contend with

Some of the quarter sections were half swamp or had rocky soil that was too poor to farm.

Video:

Soddies

Immigration allowed the population of Canada to grow rapidly from 5 million in 1901 to 7 million in 1911, this rapid growth was responsible for the creation of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905.

Changing Ethnic Composition of Canada

1871 - 1931

Welcome…or not?

At the same time as immigration to Canada was increasing, Canadian immigration policy became more restrictive.

In 1905, Frank Oliver, the new minister of the Interior, made up a list of regions in the order of preference for selecting immigrants: Britain, the United States, and northwestern Europe.

Other applicants, such as Slavs or

Galicians

from Eastern Europe, were not barred from coming to Canada, but neither were they welcomed. They were not considered intelligent, able to fit into Canadian life, or able to manage the agricultural challenges of Canada's West.

Moreover, there was unofficial exclusion of African American and Sikh immigrants, and, in 1907, quotas were put on Japanese immigrants.

What did Canadian immigrants of the early 20

th

century have in common with immigrants who came to Nouvelle-France and other North American colonies in the 17

th

and 18

th

centuries?

What, if anything, do they share with today’s immigrants?