Why Confederation? Causes and Pressures

Let's start with a question

Have you ever been on a group project where nobody could agree, so nothing got done? Now imagine that group was running a whole colony.

By the early 1860s, that is what was happening in the Province of Canada. And outside, there were worries about money, railways, and a powerful, angry neighbour to the south. Together, these pressures led to Confederation.

Cause 1: Political deadlock

From 1841, Canada West and Canada East each had equal seats in the legislature. But by the 1850s, Canada West had more people.

• Many in Canada West, led by George Brown and his Reform ("Clear Grit") supporters, demanded representation by population.
• Many in Canada East, led by George-Étienne Cartier, feared that rep by pop would let the English-speaking majority outvote them on their language, religion and laws.
• Governments kept falling. Between 1861 and 1864, there were several elections and changes of government. Nothing important could pass. This was political deadlock.

The breakthrough, 1864: George Brown, a bitter political rival of John A. Macdonald, offered to join Macdonald and Cartier in a Great Coalition if they worked toward a federal union of the colonies. In a federation, each province would control local matters such as education, which protected Canada East's French language and Catholic schools, while a central government could use rep by pop.

Cause 2: Railways and money

• Railways were the key technology of the age. The colonies wanted a railway linking the Province of Canada with the Atlantic ports of Halifax and Saint John, especially in winter when the St. Lawrence River froze. This was called the Intercolonial Railway. It was too expensive for any one colony.
• The Province of Canada already owed huge debts from building canals and railways like the Grand Trunk.
• In 1854, the colonies had signed the Reciprocity Treaty, a free trade deal with the United States. In 1866, the US ended it. The colonies needed new markets, and trade among themselves looked like an answer.
• Britain was moving to free trade and no longer gave its colonies special trade advantages.

Cause 3: Fear of the United States

• The American Civil War (1861–1865) produced one of the largest armies in the world. Relations between Britain and the northern US were tense, because Britain had traded with the South.
• Many Americans believed in Manifest Destiny, and some talked of taking British North America.
• In 1866, the Fenians, Irish-American fighters who wanted Ireland's independence from Britain, raided the colonies. At Ridgeway, in Canada West, they defeated Canadian militia on June 2, 1866, before returning to the US. The raids frightened many colonists and pushed New Brunswick toward Confederation.
• A united country could organize its defence better.

Cause 4: Britain's attitude and the West

• Britain wanted its colonies to pay more of their own costs, including defence. Many British leaders supported union.
• Canadian leaders wanted to expand west into Rupert's Land, partly so the US would not take it first, and partly for farmland for settlers. A united country would be strong enough to buy the HBC's claim and build a railway to the Pacific.

Perspective check: These "western plans" were made without consulting the First Nations and Métis peoples whose homelands they were. You will see the consequences in the Red River and treaty lessons.