Laurier–Greenway compromise (1896)

In 1896 the Manitoba school question was among the priorities of the newly elected prime minister Wilfrid Laurier. His government negotiated an agreement with his provincial counterpart, Thomas Greenway: the separate schools were not reinstated and religious teaching was authorized only under strict conditions. In making this arrangement, Laurier hoped to satisfy the Roman Catholic minority while bowing to the will of Manitoba’s Protestant majority. This agreement stood as a dangerous precedent since it marked the emergence of an increasingly unicultural and English-speaking Canada, a truncated vision of the country foreseen by the Fathers of Confederation. The accord revealed as well the willingness of the federal government to abdicate its role as protector of minorities, to recognize the primacy of provincial rights over minority rights, and to bow to the weight of numbers.