Opposition to confederation

A central goal of John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier, and the other Fathers of Confederation was to bring the different ethnic, religious, and regional groups of British North America together in a new polity that would establish a common Canadian identity while respecting minority rights. “If we unite,” said Cartier in February 1865, “we will form a political nationality independent of the national origin and religion of individuals.”

In Canada East (Lower Canada; present-day Quebec), young Rouges such as Médéric Lanctot organized resistance against Cartier and confederation. The young nationalists set in motion a vigorous press campaign against the plan and against the old parties. They favoured setting up an independent state of Quebec.

In Canada West (Upper Canada; present-day Ontario), some observers concluded that the scheme was premature and expensive, and claimed that it offered few advantages to Canada West. Others warned that confederation would loosen ties with Great Britain.

Many Maritimers feared the potential dominance of the Province of Canada (the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada had been brought together in 1840 in a single Province of Canada). There were also specific regional issues that remained to be settled. George Coles believed that Prince Edward Island would accept confederation if the Island’s vexing land question was resolved. And there was strong apprehension that the Atlantic provinces would be saddled with the Canadian debt.

In the first decades of confederation, francophones and Roman Catholics fought to preserve their rights as Canada expanded to the Pacific. On the journey westward, explorers and pioneers encountered, absorbed, and clashed with those who were already there. As anglophones arrived in large numbers in what would become the prairie provinces, tensions grew between the newcomers and the French and Métis traders. Simultaneously, Indigenous people found their own traditions fractured and their numbers greatly reduced as settlers’ guns and diseases, and the policies of the provincial and Canadian governments, took a heavy toll. The Métis leader Louis Riel represented the fears and protests of not only his people but also the francophone minority. Echoes of the struggles of the 1880s have persisted throughout Canadian history.