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
1872 British home children Between 1869 and the 1930s about 100 000 children were brought to Canada from Great Britain Some came from orphanages also called homes so these newcomers were called home children Others came from parents who could no longer provide for their families Dr Thomas John Barnardo a missionary dedicated to helping homeless children sent about 30 000 orphaned children from Britain to Canada as early as 1872 The children had to work in homes or on farms in Canada mostly in small towns and rural areas They were supposed to be given allowances clothes meals and the chance to go to school Instead many had difficult lives Some sisters and brothers were separated while other home children were treated like slaves and even beaten Today more than 1 in 10 Canadians are related to home children British Home Child Day is celebrated every year on September 28 in Ontario Canada designated 2010 the Year of the British Home Child to honour their contributions to their adopted country 1873 North West Mounted Police In the 1870s the Prairies were becoming lawless and dangerous So in 1873 the Canadian government created a central police force the North-West Mounted Police In 1920 the force became known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP By 1974 women were allowed to join the RCMP which today remains Canada’s national police force
it are very different things Aleck found Almost two years later in Boston on March 10 1876 Aleck was in one room tinkering with a transmitter while his assistant Thomas Watson had a receiver connected by wire in another 1874 Bell’s telephone breakthrough Sound and speech were always on Alexander Graham Bell’s mind His mother was deaf and his father was an elocutionist who taught people how to speak clearly By 1870 both of his brothers had died of lung disease so his parents decided to move from Scotland to where the air was clean Canada In 1871 Aleck as he was known to friends and family began teaching at a school for deaf people in Boston Massachusetts He was a patient and inventive teacher Thomas came running into the room he’d heard Aleck’s voice over the receiver The telephone was born In a few months Aleck also figured out how to send telephone messages long distance between Brantford and Paris Ontario Aleck went on to invent many room When Aleck accidentally spilled some acid he shouted into his transmitter Mr Watson come here I want to see you things from iceberg detectors to airplanes that set flight records page 33 Some of the planes used in World War I were based on his designs But he often At night Aleck experimented with sound He wanted to improve the telegraph an instrument that sent and received electric pulses over wires In 1874 he had a breakthrough while visiting his parents in Brantford Ontario Aleck realized that with a few changes to the telegraph he could pick up all the sounds of the human voice The sounds moved thin metal discs and these discs could change electric currents allowing voices to be sent and received over wires However knowing how to do something and actually doing An inventor can no more help inventing than he can help thinking or breathing Alexander Graham Bell said he preferred to be known as someone who had helped deaf people communicate PROFILE Henry Woodward In the mid-1800s inventors around the world were working to create a light bulb that would burn long enough to be useful Those inventors included Toronto medical student Henry Woodward and hotel owner Matthew Evans Henry and Matthew succeeded and in 1874 received a patent the right to use or sell an invention for their creation Unfortunately they couldn’t afford to develop their invention They sold their patent to an American Thomas Edison who would become famous for his own light-bulb invention
