Canadian Confederation (1867): Birth of the Dominion of Canada

Canadian Confederation was the union of three British North American colonies, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, into a single federal state called the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867. Negotiated at conferences in Charlottetown, Quebec City and London and enacted by the British North America Act, it created the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Confederation is regarded as the founding moment of modern Canada, which grew from these four provinces to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Background: British North America in the 1860s

By the 1860s Britain’s remaining colonies in North America were a scattered group. The largest, the Province of Canada, had been created in 1841 by uniting Upper and Lower Canada after the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions of 1837-1838. Its two halves, English-speaking Canada West and French-speaking Canada East, had equal seats in the legislature.

This arrangement produced chronic political deadlock. Between 1861 and 1864 several governments fell in quick succession. In the east, the Atlantic colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland each had their own governments, while the vast lands to the north-west belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Causes of Confederation

Several pressures pushed the colonies towards union:

• Political deadlock in the Province of Canada, which led rival politicians to look for a larger federal solution.
• Fear of the United States. The American Civil War had created a huge, battle-hardened Union army, and tensions between Britain and the US ran high.
• The Fenian raids. The Fenian Brotherhood, Irish-American veterans who hoped to pressure Britain over Ireland, launched raids across the border in 1866, including a clash at Ridgeway in Canada West.
• Trade. The United States ended the Reciprocity Treaty, a free-trade agreement with British North America, in 1866, so the colonies needed new markets.
• Railways and the West. Leaders wanted an Intercolonial Railway linking the Maritimes to Canada and hoped to acquire the North-West for settlement.
• British policy. London favoured union as a way to make the colonies more self-reliant and cut its own military costs.

The Great Coalition and the Charlottetown Conference

In June 1864 the long-standing rivals John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier and George Brown agreed to form a “Great Coalition” government in the Province of Canada with the goal of a federal union. Brown, the reform leader from Canada West, had long demanded representation by population; Cartier represented French-Canadian interests; Macdonald was the leading Conservative.

The Maritime colonies were already planning a conference on their own union. The Canadians asked to attend, and in September 1864 delegates met in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The Canadians arrived on the steamer Queen Victoria and presented an ambitious plan for a wider union. Amid formal sessions and lavish social events, the Maritime delegates agreed to explore the larger scheme.

The Quebec Conference and the 72 Resolutions

From 10 to 27 October 1864 the delegates met again at Quebec City. There they drew up the 72 Resolutions, the blueprint for the new country. They proposed a strong central government with a parliament elected on the basis of population in the lower house, an appointed Senate with regional equality, and provincial legislatures responsible for local matters such as education and civil law.

The plan protected French-Canadian institutions in Quebec, including its civil law tradition, and guaranteed the use of both French and English in the federal parliament and Quebec’s legislature. It also included protections for denominational schools.

The leading figures brought very different skills. Macdonald, a Kingston lawyer born in Scotland, was a shrewd and flexible negotiator who had originally preferred a single legislative union. Cartier persuaded many French Canadians that a federation with its own provincial government in Quebec would protect their language, religion and laws better than the existing union. Brown, owner of the Toronto Globe, set aside years of personal hostility to Macdonald to make the coalition possible, while Charles Tupper of Nova Scotia and Samuel Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick led the case for union in the Maritimes.

Opposition and the London Conference

Selling the plan proved difficult. The Province of Canada’s legislature approved it in 1865, but in New Brunswick voters defeated the pro-Confederation government of Samuel Leonard Tilley in 1865, before the Fenian scare and British pressure helped return Tilley to power in 1866. In Nova Scotia, Premier Charles Tupper pushed the scheme through the legislature without an election, while the popular journalist and politician Joseph Howe led fierce opposition. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland decided to stay out.

Delegates from Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick met in London from December 1866 to finalise the details. The British Parliament passed the British North America Act, and Queen Victoria gave royal assent on 29 March 1867.

1 July 1867 and the new Dominion

The act came into force on 1 July 1867, which was celebrated with church bells, parades and fireworks in many towns. The Province of Canada was divided into Ontario and Quebec, and Ottawa became the capital. Viscount Monck became the first governor general, and John A. Macdonald, knighted that day, became the first prime minister.

The new constitution divided powers between the federal parliament, which handled matters such as defence, trade, banking and criminal law, and the provinces. Section 91 of the act gave Ottawa general power to make laws for the “peace, order and good government” of Canada, while section 92 listed provincial powers such as property and civil rights, municipal institutions and local works. Section 93 gave the provinces control of education, with protections for existing Catholic and Protestant schools, and section 133 required both French and English in the federal parliament and courts and in Quebec. Canada remained part of the British Empire under the Crown, with Britain still controlling its foreign relations.

Not everyone celebrated. In the first federal election in September 1867, anti-Confederation candidates won 18 of Nova Scotia’s 19 seats, and Howe campaigned to take the province out of the union before accepting better financial terms in 1869. Indigenous peoples, whose lands the new country intended to expand into, were not part of the negotiations.

Expansion from sea to sea

The Dominion grew quickly. In 1869-1870 Canada acquired Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the resistance of the Métis led by Louis Riel in the Red River Rebellion resulted in the creation of Manitoba in 1870. British Columbia joined in 1871 on the promise of a transcontinental railway, completed with the Canadian Pacific Railway’s last spike in 1885. Prince Edward Island joined in 1873, Alberta and Saskatchewan were created in 1905, and Newfoundland joined in 1949.

Timeline

• 1864, June: Macdonald, Cartier and Brown form the Great Coalition in the Province of Canada.
• 1864, 1-9 September: The Charlottetown Conference meets on Prince Edward Island.
• 1864, 10-27 October: The Quebec Conference adopts the 72 Resolutions.
• 1866, 4 December: The London Conference opens.
• 1867, 29 March: Queen Victoria gives royal assent to the British North America Act.
• 1867, 1 July: The Dominion of Canada comes into being.
• 1870, 15 July: Manitoba and the North-West Territories join Canada.
• 1871, 20 July: British Columbia joins Confederation.

Why it matters

Confederation created the federal structure that still governs Canada, balancing a central government with provinces that protect regional and linguistic differences, especially French-speaking Quebec. Its founding act, renamed the Constitution Act, 1867, remains at the core of Canada’s constitution, and 1 July is celebrated each year as Canada Day.