CHAPTER XX

THE DOMINION OF CANADA

THE federation of 1867, great though it was in actual accomplishment, was greater in its possibilities. The original dominion comprised only four provinces, but the faith which hoped for a Canada extending from ocean to ocean did not die. In the constitution itself it found expression in a clause which contemplated the inclusion of Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Rupert's Land, and the North-western Territory. Canadian statesmen for many years were inspired by this magnificent prospect, which runs through the federation debates, and they believed that the consolidation of British North America was a first charge on their political abilities. Such a future, if realized, meant that there would inevitably grow up the national consciousness of a distinct group which would either gradually seek independence as a sovereign state in international law, or would create within the empire changes in colonial status and in the imperial relationship. There remain to be considered, firstly, the territorial expansion of Canada; secondly, with that accomplished and with the imperial tie still binding, the extension of Canadian autonomy to which the former gave force and the latter provided delicate problems; and thirdly, the constitutional place which Canada at present holds under the British crown.

Beyond the stories told by a few adventurers and traders, New France for generations knew little of the great western lands. For years a few posts were all that bore witness to the dreams of Cartier, Champlain, and La Salle, who looked for a north-west passage to the Indies and saw in imagination a western highway to the riches of the east. It was only during

the last decades of the French régime that Pierre de la Vérendrye and his sons discovered and explored much of the central prairies. Their chain of posts aimed not only at trade, but at confining the English to the districts round Hudson's Bay so that the north-west might be added to the dominions of Louis XV. With the necessity of guarding the original and settled territory from Indian attacks which might come at any moment, and from the more subtle and less concrete aggression of British diplomacy, the vision gradually faded, until New France became a small oasis of civilized life in a vast undeveloped northern continent. Half a century later Alexander Mackenzie crossed the mountains to the Pacific, and on the cliffs of the western ocean he inscribed the date July 22, 1793, and took possession in the name of Canada. For years the importance of these voyages remained unappreciated, and the rival traders of the Hudson's Bay Company, the North-west Company, and the X. Y. Company were the only white men inhabiting the regions. In 1801 Mackenzie published an account of his voyages which gave Lord Selkirk the idea of settling on the fertile prairies a group of distressed Scottish crofters. He obtained a large grant from the Hudson's Bay Company which included the valleys of the Assiniboine and Red River. The district was named Assiniboia, and a settlement was begun in 1811. The jealousies of the North-west Company practically wrecked the colony, which dragged out a stagnant existence, supplemented by French-Canadians, half-breeds, and a few Americans.

The jealousies of the various companies were finally laid to rest in 1821, but not before the rivalry had driven their traders farther and farther west until they reached the ocean. Until the Washington Treaty of 1846, which settled the frontier, they alone were in possession, and their presence there probably served to preserve for the empire the future colony of British Columbia. Canada had thus a sufficient historical connexion

with the west to make it seem a rightful heritage round which, as we have seen, emotion and policy had begun to gather. When a select committee of the imperial parliament was appointed in 1857 to consider the monopoly claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company, the legislative assembly of Canada boldly claimed the Pacific ocean as its just and rightful boundary. Two years later a group of Canadians founded a newspaper at Fort Garry for the purpose of attacking the company's claims and of carrying on a propaganda in favour of the annexation of the North-west to Canada. The British government were willing to further the idea, at least in connexion with the districts on the Red River and the Saskatchewan, but they laid down as conditions of occupation that Canada should open up communications and provide for local administration. If practical Canadian interest was not forthcoming the committee suggested the creation of some kind of authority, possibly that of a crown colony. Nothing came of either plan, but enthusiasts such as George Brown and Alexander Morris never ceased to point out the path to a clear-purposed goal. On the eve of federation, John A. Macdonald began to grasp the situation. 'If Canada', he wrote, 'is to remain a country separate from the United States, it is of great importance to her that they (the United States) should not get behind us by right or by force, and intercept the route to the Pacific.' He looked, however, on the acquisition of the west merely as a necessity in establishing a future highway to the Pacific, and he feared the possession of too much unoccupied lands lest the youth and strength of the country' should be drained.1

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No sooner had the federation got under way than Macdonald's conception expanded. He began to see wider possibilities than those implied in a barren passage for steel rails. Early in the first parliament of the dominion he arranged for a debate on

1 Macdonald to E. W. Watkin, March 27, 1865, Pope, Memoirs of Sir John A. Macdonald, vol. ii, p. 43.

* the Hudson's Bay question'. In December 1867 William McDougall introduced a series of resolutions, on which an address was founded praying the crown to unite with Canada Rupert's Land and the North-western Territory. Macdonald sought a broad country for the expansion of our adventurous youth'. The demand for annexation, he declared, was not only sentimental but practical. The country could only remain British by being included in the federation scheme, and Canada needed it to round off its territory and as an 'outlet for its adolescent population'. Before anything could be done it was necessary to arrive at some plan by which the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company over Rupert's Land might be acquired. The imperial law officers were convinced that these rights were beyond dispute, and until they were transferred to Canada the latter had no desire to possess the North-western Territory, separated as it would be from the dominion by lands in the possession of the Company. The colonial office also pointed out that an imperial Act was necessary to legalize any arrangement between the company and Canada for the transfer of Rupert's Land. An imperial Act was passed in July 1868 by which the crown was empowered to accept the surrender of all rights of government and proprietary rights and all other privileges, franchises, powers, and authorities', and to declare Rupert's Land by order in council a part of the dominion of Canada; and the parliament of Canada was given authority to make, ordain, and establish within the land and territory so admitted, all such laws, institutions, and ordinances, and to constitute such courts and offices as might be necessary for the peace, order, and good government of her majesty's subjects and others therein ".2

In the following October Cartier and McDougall were sent

1 Macdonald to Charles Bischoff, October 17, 1867, ibid, p. 3 n.

2 31 & 32 Victoria, c. 105 (Rupert's Land Act, 1868). The commercial and trading rights in Rupert's Land and elsewhere were preserved to the company.

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to England to hasten negotiations. Cartier urged Lord Granville, the colonial secretary-' pussy Granville' of ‘bland, soft manners' to help in completing the whole work of confederation'. Granville acted with great tact. He kept the Canadians in one room and the H. B. people in another' until he arranged a settlement.1 For the sum of £300,000 the company surrendered their interests to the crown, with the reservation of one-twentieth of the fertile belt bounded on the south by the United States boundary, on the west by the Rocky Mountains, on the north by the northern branch of the Saskatchewan River, on the east by Lake Winnipeg, the Lake of the Woods and the waters connecting them'. In addition to this reservation the company also received forty-five thousand acres adjacent to each trading post. The Canadian parliament by address accepted on June 1, 1869, the arrangements arrived at by Cartier and McDougall, and the crown was asked to unite Rupert's Land to Canada on the terms therein set forth and also to unite the North-western Territory on the terms of the previous address. An understanding was reached for the formal transfer on December 1, 1869. In anticipation, the dominion parliament passed on June 22, 1869, an Act for the temporary government of Rupert's Land and the Northwestern Territory when united with Canada'. This Act was a preliminary step in taking over the districts from the local authorities. The name North-west Territories' was given to the entire country, and provision was made for the appointment of a lieutenant-governor who should administer justice and establish laws, institutions, and ordinances subject to their ratification by parliament. He was to be guided by instructions issued from time to time under order in council, and was to be assisted in administration by a council. Until further provisions

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1 Cartier to Macdonald, February and March 6, 1869, Pope, Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald, p. 91.

2 House of Commons Journals (1869), pp. 169 ff.