A NEW COUNTRY 1867 1884 In 1867 Canada became a new country a confederation of just four provinces Canadians were full of hope and excitement as they saw their nation growing Most Canadians were farmers in the mid 1800s In rural areas forestry was an important industry and mining was increasing In many cities people went to work in factories and workshops as manufacturing developed Canadian streets looked very different in the 1860s There were no cars Street lights and office buildings were lit by gas lamps 1867 Confederation By the 1860s the colonies in what is now Canada knew it was time for change There was fear that the United States would take them over and Britain no longer wanted to pay to defend them As well the colonies weren’t growing as quickly as they might because it was difficult for them to sell goods to one another transportation between them was extremely poor They began to think of banding together to become stronger and more successful not by electricity like today In homes people still burned candles or oil lamps for light and cooked on wood-burning stoves By the 1860s technology was changing daily life Railways connected more and more towns Journeys that once took days by horse and carriage now could be done in hours Mail also was transported faster by rail An underwater telegraph cable had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from Newfoundland to Ireland Now Canada could quickly get news from Europe It took three conferences lots of debate and almost three years but finally on July 1 1867 the new country of Canada was created It consisted of the provinces of New Brunswick Nova Scotia Ontario formerly Canada West and Quebec formerly Canada East Confederation or the union of provinces into a new country depended on the vision and determination of the Fathers of Confederation many of whom dreamed of a powerful new nation that would eventually stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
Most Famous Fathers of Confederation George Brown acted for Canada West in the Confederation talks An excellent speaker he was one of the first people to suggest uniting the colonies Before becoming a politician he founded Toronto’s Globe newspaper which later became the Globe and Mail page 50 Thomas D’Arcy McGee was known as the best public speaker of his time He felt that Canada was a better place to live than the United States so he supported Confederation to prevent the United States from taking over the colonies He was one of the few politicians ever assassinated in Canada Georges-Étienne Cartier was a French-Canadian leader who was very supportive of Confederation He played an important role in persuading the French of Canada East to join the nation With Sir John A Macdonald he was co-premier of Canada East and Canada West from 1857 to 1862 Alexander Galt represented English speakers in Canada East He was a brilliant businessperson and was strongly in favour of Confederation He wanted a railway across the country and knew Confederation would make it easier to build one Samuel L Tilley was a businessperson before he became a politician He believed that Confederation could help the colonies prosper As premier of New Brunswick he also wanted a railway to connect the Maritimes to the other colonies Charles Tupper attended the Confederation meetings as premier of Nova Scotia and was greatly in favour of the union In 1896 he became Canada’s shortest-serving prime minister When he died he was the last survivor of the 36 Fathers of Confederation PROFILE Sir John A Macdonald Sir John A Macdonald from Canada West was a leading Father of Confederation He played such a large part in Confederation that he was made Canada’s first prime minister on July 1 1867 He added three more provinces and a territory to Canada and began building a transcontinental railway page 16 to span the nation and connect the provinces Whatever you do adhere to the union We are a great country and shall become one of the greatest in the universe if we preserve it Sir John A Macdonald When Did They Join Canada 1867 New Brunswick Nova Scotia Ontario Quebec 1870 Manitoba Northwest Territories 1871 British Columbia 1873 Prince Edward Island 1898 1905 1949 1999 Yukon Territory Alberta Saskatchewan Newfoundland later Newfoundland and Labrador Nunavut
1868 The military expands In its early days Canada didn’t have a trained army Instead it had a militia ordinary citizens who volunteered to fight They fought alongside professional soldiers called regulars from France or Britain When British troops stationed in Canada left during the 1850s to fight in the Crimean War a permanent Canadian militia was set up In 1868 the Militia Act was passed to give the new country control over its military It also grew the active militia to 40 000 volunteers and created a reserve militia of men between the ages of 18 and 60 who could be called into action if needed 1869 Photos in print Until a photograph of Prince Arthur was published in the Canadian Illustrated News on October 30 1869 books magazines and newspapers used drawings to accompany their stories An engraver named William Leggo and the Montreal publisher he worked for Georges-Édouard Desbarats figured out how to break down a photo into tiny dots that when printed would fool the eye into seeing a picture The Canadian Illustrated News would become the first newspaper to consistently publish photographs of this quality not just in Canada but worldwide By the late 1800s Canada established regiments of professional soldiers Their main job was training militia units but they also fought during the Red River Rebellion pages 20 21 and the South African War pages 28 29 alongside militia volunteers Both part-time and regular forces in Canada were known as militia until World War II In the 1950s the militia became the Reserve Force Today this part time group still supports units from the Canadian Armed Forces which was formed on February 1 1968 when the Canadian Army Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force merged 1870 Fenian raids In the 1860s and 1870s Canadians were being threatened by Fenian raids Fenians were Irish Americans who wanted to end British rule in Ireland They hoped that by capturing Canada as a hostage they could convince Britain to grant Ireland independence Fenians attacked New Brunswick in April 1866 Ontario two months later and Quebec in 1870 They had planned to raid Manitoba in 1871 but were stopped at the American border Although the Fenians were never a major threat they frightened people The early raids had been one of the events that convinced Canadians they should unite as one country in 1867
PROFILE Angus McKay In 1871 Angus McKay became the first Aboriginal person elected to Canada’s government Angus was the Member of Parliament a politician elected by the people to the House of Commons for Marquette Manitoba just northwest of Winnipeg He was Métis which meant his background was both European and First Nations However he opposed the views of Métis leader Louis Riel pages 20 21 Before becoming a Member of Parliament Angus had been elected to Manitoba’s first Legislative Assembly in 1870 and he was elected again to this provincial government in 1874 1871 Irish immigration Beginning in the late 1840s a large number of people came to Canada from Ireland Many of them were escaping Ireland’s potato famine When the first Dominion of Canada census was taken in 1871 almost one-quarter of the country’s population were Irish That made them the single largest ethnic group in English Canada Irish immigrants were also the biggest ethnic group in most of Canada’s cities except Montreal and Quebec City They were especially important in the construction of Ontario’s Rideau Canal and Quebec’s Lachine Canal
