Historical Dictionary of Canada Second Edition Barry M. Gough
The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2011
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Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Barry M. Gough All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gough, Barry M. Historical dictionary of Canada / Barry M. Gough. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8108-5496-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7504-3 (ebook) 1. Canada—History—Dictionaries. I. Title. F1026.G69 2011 971.003--dc22 2010022542
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America
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To the memory of Robin W. Winks, American scholar extraordinaire of Canada.
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Contents
Editor’s Foreword
Jon Woronoff
vii
Preface
ix
Acronyms and Abbreviations
xv
Maps 1 Canada
xix
2
xx
Eastern North America, 1763
3 Native Tribes of Eastern North America
xxi
4
xxii
San Juan Boundary Dispute
5 The Alaska Boundary
xxiii
6
Nunavut
xxiv
Chronology
xxv
Introduction
1
The Dictionary
49
Appendix: Governors General, Prime Ministers, and Colonial Governors of Canada
445
Bibliography
449
About the Author
497
v
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Editor’s Foreword
It is easy to get the wrong impression about Canada. A new country. Perhaps compared to some in Asia and Europe. But it was first “discovered” more than 1,000 years ago, and then again about 500 years ago, and was gradually colonized and settled by outsiders for four centuries. However, before that, there were the native peoples, some of whom remain. Empty. True, the present population is small for such a big place, but many are concentrated in large, modern cities and most are urbanized. A rather simple, homogeneous entity. Hardly, for the population, despite any melting-pot effect, is rather heterogeneous and the provinces maintain considerable autonomy, some actually demanding more and one still hankering for independence. A geographical appendage of its powerful southern neighbor, the United States. Despite very close economic and other links, Canadians usually go their own way and have created a strikingly different society. Canada is a very complex, and intriguing, nation that certainly deserves to be better known by foreigners and probably Canadians as well. That is the purpose of this second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Canada. It presents the country, traces its history, takes a good look at the current situation, and offers some insight into the future. It does so through concise and informative entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and ethnic groupings. Other entries deal with important political, economic, social, and cultural aspects. The broader context is provided by an insightful introduction, and the centuries-long history is traced in the chronology. Admittedly, this book can only go so far. But it is a particularly good starting point because of a comprehensive and intelligently structured bibliography that can easily direct readers toward whatever subject might interest them. To write such a book, it is obviously necessary to know Canada well. That first requirement is amply met by the author, Barry M. Gough, vii
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viii •
EDITOR’S FOREWORD
who has spent many decades studying Canadian history and politics and visiting different parts of the country. It is even more important to develop a knack for explaining Canada to others, which Dr. Gough has done during a long stint as professor of history and Canadian studies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and as a guest professor at various other universities. In addition to lecturing, he has written half a dozen books on Canada’s history as well as numerous shorter works. Before retirement, he also held important posts in the academic world, including president of the Organization for the History of Canada. This has given him more than enough opportunities to explain Canada to foreigners, and also to Canadians, which might actually be harder. In this edition, Dr. Gough takes on an even broader and more varied range of subjects of interest to both publics and acquits himself very well. Jon Woronoff Series Editor
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Preface
The history of Canada is much more than that of the nation state: it is a complicated set of intersecting or sometimes parallel stories. For that reason, any attempt to grasp the essentials of the country’s national history as well as its component parts, peoples, races, and ethnicities needs be approached with caution and even trepidation. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Canada reinforces the above in spades, for contrary to the hopes and expectations of many Canadians and “Canada watchers” that the country would become more unified, the plurality or varieties of national human experience continue. As a subject of study, Canada presents undiminished opportunities for the historian of whatever inclination or desire—except, perhaps, tropical affairs. The same prospect faces the student of history: a country as vast, diverse, and ever changing as this offers near limitless possibilities for examination and reflection. Far from being dull or irrelevant, Canada’s history remains most promising for the study of racial accord, native affairs, federalism, regional diversity, economic challenges, patronage, religions, cultures (indigenous and transplanted), multiculturalism, immigration policies, social welfare experimentation, and nation building. In large measure, it must be said that Canada’s is not a recent history and that each generation seems to prepare its own guides to national history and historical literature. Almost without fail I have attempted to keep this a modern study, with emphasis on the era since 1867 and particularly since 1914. That Canada’s history is so little known beyond Canada’s boundaries cannot be blamed on the rest of the world alone. Although it is true that Canadians have failed to broadcast the nuances of their remarkable (if complex) history, it is also true that not until the mid-1970s and the T.H.B. Symons report To Know Ourselves: The Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies (1975) did Canadian history become ix
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PREFACE
acknowledged as a fundamental requirement for a Canadian university undergraduate history degree. Most practicing historians of my age took few Canadian history courses, for they were nonexistent. We now look with envy at the rich, varied backgrounds that our younger colleagues bring with such passion to classrooms and seminars. These new-age time bandits are opening to public view hitherto closed documents and are broadening our vistas as they reveal the complexities of the past. They are aided by the wizardry of Web searches. The fact of the matter is that our current age has had to frame a national history on the foundations of a very few scholars’ pioneering endeavors. I acknowledge the work of some of the past masters of the Canadian history profession: Donald Grant Creighton, Harold Adams Innis, Gustav Lanctot, John Bartlett Brebner, W. L. Morton, C. P. Stacey, Michel Brunet, W. S. McNutt, Morris Zaslow, A.R.M. Lower, and Margaret Ormsby. They established a national history based on a wide-ranging consensus that attempted to explain the national experience. It would take another generation after them, and those who immediately followed them, to pull down accepted remnants of the national historical edifice and in place build a new history characterized by region and class, and when that had virtually run its course, by gender, race, and ethnicity. Contemporary historians of Canada continue to face the same problem: how to balance specific subjects with the vital necessity of recounting and explaining the national experience. The remarkable shift of the historiography away from the national theme has brought many new studies into the enlarging appreciation of readers of Canadian history. Now, greater understanding is available about ethnicity, family history, women, children, multiculturalism, class, labor, and culture. Not a few authors who have constructed “national” histories of Canada have found that their overabiding attention to the subthemes has obliged them, in subsequent editions of their work (and in answer to their critics), to address the national themes, the national story. In following these trends, preoccupations, and fashions, I can only say how grateful I am to the Canadian Historical Review for its ongoing bibliography of historical works and its extensive book review section. These alone allow students of Canadian history a comprehensive place to begin the effective study of a subject that many feel has been hijacked by special interest groups.
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PREFACE
• xi
In large measure, the study of Canada abroad is still in its infancy. On the world’s stage, Canadian history seems to be a best kept secret. Having lectured on Canada and its history in remote fields, such as Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, I have inadvertently acquired sympathy for those inquisitive enough to want to know more about my country’s history and its peculiarities (which to some seem absurdities). For this reason, I have sought to provide helpful descriptions for the outsider when these are called for. This book, which rests heavily on the previous work of others whose books are listed in the bibliography, is intended as a compendium of fundamentals and as a guide to a rich historical literature of a modern nation with a recent history of five centuries. Many helped in bringing this project through various stages. I have relied on the advice of many in the shaping of this work, its parameters, and items and topics for inclusion. It is not possible to give thanks to each and every scholar, librarian, archivist, and institutional aide. Bruce Hodgins assisted with historiography, the late Peter Russell with sport, Terry Copp with Normandy, and Paul Summerville with banking and the Bank of Canada. Additional thanks go to Mike Baker, Katie Pickles, Maria Tippett, and Walter Sendzik. I also thank John McCallum of Wilfrid Laurier University’s library for assistance in making the bibliographical search less arduous and at the same time more complete. Electronic means have been employed to good effect in the preparation of the bibliography. Cameron Croxall assisted with articles on Inuit subjects. Elsie Grogan provided word processing help. I have relied heavily on Gerry Hallowell’s Oxford Companion to Canadian History, James Marsh’s Encyclopaedia of Canada, W. S. Wallace’s Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and Mel Hurtig’s The Canadian Encyclopaedia, as well as other guides listed in the bibliography. Above all, the multivolume The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, available online, is a perennial source of accurate information, authoritative bibliographic entries, and prudent scholarly guidance, bringing as it does into print the remarkable lives of prominent Canadians. Once again, the wise counsel and patience of the series editor, Jon Woronoff, is greatly appreciated. I have again the pleasure of thanking the late Robin W. Winks for suggesting that I undertake this book. If those who consult this work find their long-sought-after answers, and if their appreciation of the essentials of Canadian history is enhanced,
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PREFACE
I shall be grateful. Not least, if Canadians confused by their own perplexing national crisis shall have found some solace in the fact that their present state of affairs has been preceded by numerous variants of similar conundrums, I shall be eternally delighted. Notice of errors would be appreciated. I alone am responsible for errors of omission and commission. In regards to nomenclature, the reader should note that, on editorial advice, I have chosen to use Great Britain rather than United Kingdom. When used collectively, western provinces specifically refers to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, though British Columbia is sometimes but not always part of the collective. Atlantic Canada includes Newfoundland and Labrador, but the Maritimes includes only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Northwest Territories has gone though numerous changes over time; in this book, I have employed the then current spelling. Of all the terms in Canada, none is more confusing than Indian, which is not a correct term but still exists in Canadian administrative, legal, and constitutional language (Indian Act, for instance). I have used the term aboriginal peoples whenever possible. It includes three designations in keeping with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)— Indian, Métis, and Inuit. (Once again, it will be noted, the term Indian is used—and in the Canadian constitution.) First Nations has also been employed, principally as an umbrella term for those who are members of the Assembly of First Nations, the powerful aboriginal lobby group. Readers will also find the use of Native, or native, an earlier replacement for Indian until such time as aboriginal peoples replaced it. For some university presses and scholarly journals in Canada, aboriginal is now accepted usage, but this adoption is not widespread, and aborigine is essentially an Australian term for indigenous populations there but will not do in Canada. One also sees in the historical literature of Canada the term indigenes. These points are brought up here to stress how unsteady are the terms in use. The name Canada has gone through many uses, from the Iroquoian Kanata—meaning “a few houses up the river”—to the vast nation that now inhabits northern North America. At one time or another New France or Quebec was synonymous with Canada. And British North America after 1763 was the prototype of what was to follow in the Dominion of Canada, or more commonly, Canada.
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PREFACE
• xiii
This second edition provides the opportunity to include new entries while at the same time strengthening, updating, or modifying others. The political landscape has changed remarkably in Canada since publication of the first edition a decade ago; in consequence, the introduction has been expanded, and many new entries are included to embrace as subjects the new and prominent political participants on the national scene. Areas of increasing attention here are the economy, including energy, manufacturing, banking, currency, trade, and welfare. There are more entries on social topics, including health care, unions, and American Vietnam War resisters. There are also more entries on historians of Canada, and enhanced entries on Canadian historical literature. Canada’s military activities as a member of NATO’s forces in Afghanistan merit a number of additions, notably one on the Afghanistan mission. There are new entries on radio and television, transportation, and space. Architecture, art, film, music, and theater are new entries, too. Numerous new biographical entries are included. The bibliography has been expanded, strengthened, and updated. A section on Arctic sovereignty and security has been added, as well as a guide to recommended reading. The bibliography now includes selected websites to guide users to documents, facts and opinions, and historical works, and to provide gateway access to official repositories as well as historical organizations and institutes. Barry M. Gough
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Acronyms and Abbreviations
ALTA APEC BC BCATP BNA CBC CCF CEF CFB CGS CIIA CNRail CPC CPR CPRail CRTC CSA CSIS DEW DIAND EU FIRA FLQ G8 GATT GDP HBC HMCS
Alberta Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation British Columbia British Commonwealth Air Training Plan British North America Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Canadian Expeditionary Force Canadian Forces Base Canadian Government Ship Canadian Institute of International Affairs Canadian National Railway Conservative Party of Canada Canadian Pacific Railway Canadian Pacific Railway Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission Canadian Space Agency Canadian Security Intelligence Service Distant Early Warning Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development European Union Foreign Investment Review Agency Front de Libération du Québec Group of Eight General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Gross Domestic Product Hudson’s Bay Company Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship xv
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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
IJC IODE ISAF JCPC MB MP NAFTA NASA NATO NB NDP NFB NL NFLD NORAD NRC NS NT NWC NWT OAS OECD ONT PC PEI PJBD PQ QUE RCAF RCMP RCN RE RMC RN SASK UFA UK
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International Joint Commission Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire International Security Assistance Force Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Manitoba Member of Parliament North American Free Trade Agreement National Aeronautical and Space Administration North Atlantic Treaty Organization New Brunswick New Democratic Party National Film Board Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland North American Air Defense Command National Research Council Nova Scotia Nunavut North West Company Northwest Territories Organization of American States Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Prince Edward Island Permanent Joint Board on Defense Parti Québécois Québec Royal Canadian Air Force Royal Canadian Mounted Police Royal Canadian Navy Royal Engineers Royal Military College of Canada Royal Navy Saskatchewan United Farmers of Alberta United Kingdom
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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
UN UNCLOS UNESCO U.S. YK
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• xvii
United Nations United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization United States of America Yukon
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Canada 10_506_Gough.indb xix
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Eastern North America, 1763
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Native Tribes of Eastern North America
San Juan Boundary Dispute
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The Alaska Boundary
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Nunavut
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Chronology
c. 875 Celt-Irish monks from Iceland possibly settle Cape Breton and are absorbed into the Mi’kmaq population. 1004–1005 NFLD).
Leif Ericson winters in Vinland (L’Anse aux Meadows,
1005–1008 The brother of Leif (Thorwald Ericson) spends two winters in Vinland. c. 1420
Basque whalers begin to hunt in the Labrador Sea.
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas awards Spain imperial control of Western Hemisphere other than Brazil (Portugal). 1497 24 June: John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) lands on Cape Breton and claims land for King Henry VII of England. 1504 First establishment at St. John’s, Newfoundland. Norman fishing village established on Avalon Peninsula. 1534 7 July: First recorded exchange between Europeans and native peoples. Jacques Cartier trades for furs with the Mi’kmaq. 24 July: Cartier lands at Penouille Point, St. Lawrence River, erects a cross, and claims land for the King François I of France. 1558 land.
First settlers arrive aboard brig Hawke in Trinity, Newfound-
1583 5 August: Sir Humphrey Gilbert takes possession of Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I of England. 1598
French colony called La Roche founded on Sable Island.
1603
Samuel de Champlain’s first voyage to Canada.
xxv
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CHRONOLOGY
1605 1 August: French colony of Port Royal established along Bay of Fundy. 1608
3 July: Champlain founds settlement at Québec.
1609 First contact between the French in New France and the (Wendat) Huron peoples. 30 July: Champlain assists Huron and allies in defeating Iroquois on the shores of Lake Champlain. 1610 14–19 June: Champlain and Huron and Algonquin allies defeat an Iroquois party at Richelieu River. 1610–11 Henry Hudson in the ship Discovery winters in James Bay. Champlain sends trading explorer Étienne Brûlé to winter among Huron. 1613 July: Port Royal, Bay of Fundy, attacked and burned by Samuel Argall, on orders from Governor Dale of Virginia; first English expedition against Acadia. 1619 August: Ill-fated expedition of Jens Munck, sailing for King of Denmark, reaches Churchill River, Hudson Bay, and winters; finds no Northwest Passage. 1621
James I of England grants Acadia to Sir William Alexander.
1622
July: First Scots colonists arrive in Nova Scotia.
1625 June: First Jesuit missionaries arrive in New France to bring Christianity to native peoples. 1627 Compagnie des Cent-Associés founded under French crown protection to colonize New France under corporate monopoly. 1629
19 July: English captain, David Kirke, captures Québec;
1632 29 March: Québec with Port Royal returned to France by Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. 1639 Smallpox epidemic sweeps through St. Lawrence Valley; Algonquin and Huron nations suffer substantial losses. 1642
Fort Richelieu built to protect southern approach to Montréal.
1644
March: Settlers near Montréal defeated by Iroquois.
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• xxvii
1653 Iroquois make peace with French, ending destruction of Huronia and devastation of Huron peoples by war. 1660 May: Battle of the Long Sault, Ottawa River (near Hawkesbury), between 16 French led by Adam Dollard des Ormeaux and 44 native allies and some 800 Iroquois; all French fighters in this battle are killed. 1663 Sovereign Council of New France created, and with it the first constituted civil and military government of the colony under specifically royal auspices and regulation. 1665 30 June: France’s Carignan-Salières Regiment, 1,100 strong, arrives to defend New France; posts constructed. 1670 2 May: Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) chartered by King Charles II of England, subsequent to successful voyage of the Nonsuch and establishment of Charles Fort. 1673 Construction begins of French fort at Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario). 1686 Expedition of de Troyes and Sieur d’Iberville marches from St. Lawrence River to Hudson Bay and seizes three HBC posts. 19 November: England and France agree on neutrality pact to settle dispute over Hudson Bay. 1690 William Phips of Massachusetts leads force to Port Royal, which surrenders 21 May, and proceeds to Québec, but Governor Louis de Buade Frontenac puts up stout defense. D’Iberville, with three warships, enters Hudson Bay, raids Fort New Severn. 1692 22 October: Madeline de Verchères leads defense of family fort against Iroquois. 1696 4 July: Frontenac quits Montréal with 2,150 men to punish Iroquois for attacks on settlements. 1700 8 September: Iroquois, Abenakis, and Ottawas agree to peace terms with governor of New France, Louis de Callières. 1701 Detroit established by Cadillac; Iroquois enter into great treaty of friendship with French.
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1702–13 Queen Anne’s War (part of War of the Spanish Succession) sparks many raids and massacres. In 1710, English conquer Port Royal, rename it Annapolis Royal. In 1711, Adm. Hovenden Walker’s Royal Navy expedition fails to reach Québec. 1713 11 April: Treaty of Utrecht signed by England, France, and Spain. The treaty recognizes British sovereignty over Hudson Bay, Acadia, and Newfoundland. France retains New France, Île St. Jean (PEI), and the right to fish and use parts of the Newfoundland shore. Spain relinquishes claims to Newfoundland. 1735 French fortress Louisbourg (begun 1719) completed on ÎleRoyale, Cape Breton, and is considered strongest fort in America. 1749 9 July: Col. Edward Cornwallis establishes Halifax, a British settlement and imperial arsenal at Chebucto, Nova Scotia. 1756 Britain declares war on France, beginning Seven Years War (French and Indian War). 5 August: French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm forces surrender of British garrison at Oswego; British lose command of Lake Ontario. 1757 21 January: French defeat Maj. Robert Rogers and his Rangers near Ticonderoga in Battle on Snowshoes. July/August: French take Lake George and later Fort William Henry. 1758 26 July: British forces seize Fortress Louisbourg from French. 13 September: British capture city of Québec after battle on the Plains of Abraham. 1760 8 September: Articles of Capitulation of Montréal establish interim terms later sanctioned by Québec Act of 1774. 9 September: French surrender city of Montréal, ending French conquest of New France. 1763 10 February: British, French, and Spanish sign Treaty of Paris. The treaty places Canada under British sovereignty, outlines boundary of Canada that includes Great Lakes basin and stretches west to northeastern bank of Mississippi River; new British colony is called Québec. 7 October: Royal Proclamation creates Province of Québec and recognizes certain rights of native peoples.
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1774
• xxix
Québec Act passed by British Parliament.
1775 5 September: American forces led by Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery and Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler from Crown Point invade Saint Jean. 31 December: American forces led by Col. Benedict Arnold attempt to capture town of Québec but are unsuccessful. 1776 Loyalists from American revolutionary war settle in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Québec. 1778 Fur trader Peter Pond crosses Methye Portage and opens Athabasca to Montréal-based trade. 1783 Treaty of Versailles, Article I, recognizes sovereign United States of America and defines first Canadian-American border. 1784 First Loyalists settle in Ontario; New Brunswick created as a province. 1785 Beaver Club founded in Montréal, with membership limited fur traders who have spent at least one year in the interior. 1788 John Meares, British trader, arrives at Nootka Sound, among the first of many sea otter traders. 1789 Nootka Sound Incident, when Spanish commandant seizes British shipping, forcing diplomatic protests and threat of war; Spain backs down. 1791 10 June: Constitutional (or Canada) Act given royal assent in London for the division of Québec and creation of provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. 1793 22 July: Alexander Mackenzie, first to cross continent north of Mexico, reaches Mackenzie Rock, Dean Channel, BC. 1811 3 May: HBC grants shareholder Lord Selkirk 116,000 square miles for Red River settlement. 1812 9 June: U.S. President James Madison declares war on Britain, beginning War of 1812.
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1813 September: Battle of Lake Erie (Put-in Bay) and subsequent retreat of British Army to Moraviantown. 5 October: death of Indian patriot and British ally Tecumseh. 1814 25 July: Battle of Lundy’s Lane, Niagara Peninsula, perhaps hardest fought campaign of land war. 14 August: Schooner Nancy lost to U.S. Navy at Nottawasaga, Upper Canada. 11 September: U.S. Navy defeats British forces led by General Prevost on Lake Champlain. 24 December: Britain and United States sign Treaty of Ghent to end War of 1812. 1816 19 June: Massacre of Seven Oaks, Red River; Cuthbert Grant and associates kill HBC Governor Semple and 19 of his men. 1817 Rush-Bagot Convention limits British and U.S. naval armaments on Great Lakes. 1818 Convention of 1818 between United Kingdom and United States extends Canadian-American boundary west to Stoney Mountains. 1821 After years of acute rivalry and bloodshed, Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company merge under name of the former. 1829 6 June: Shawnadithit, last known Beothuk, dies in Newfoundland. 29 November: Welland Canal completed, bypassing Niagara River and providing a waterway between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. 1834 17 February: Lower Canada assembly adopts Ninety-Two Resolutions demanding constitutional reforms. 1837 16 November: Rebels in Lower Canada attack British troops after British government’s attempt to run province without consent of the Assembly. 5 December: William Lyon Mackenzie leads rebel force in Upper Canada into Toronto with hopes of capturing the city. 7 December: Rebels, led by Mackenzie, defeated in a half-hour battle by British forces at Montgomery’s Tavern, west of Toronto. Rebellions continue into 1838. 1838 8 December: Nils von Scholtz, who led group of American and other foreign invaders, hanged at Fort Henry, Kingston. 1839 11 February: Lord Durham presents British Parliament with his Report on the Affairs of British North America.
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1840 23 July: Upper and Lower Canada merged into one province called Canada, governed through elected Assembly and appointed Legislative Council, under an appointed governor general. 10 August: First manned flight, by balloon Star of the East, at Saint John, New Brunswick. 1841
Kingston selected as capital of Province of Canada.
1842 9 August: Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed between Britain and United States; sets boundary between New Brunswick and Maine, at Saint John River. 1843 March: Fort Camosun (Fort Victoria), Vancouver Island, founded as HBC trading base. 1844 John A. Macdonald elected to parliament. 5 March: First issue of the Globe newspaper. 1845 19 May: Capt. Sir John Franklin begins third expedition to search for Northwest Passage, does not return. 1846 15 June: Oregon Boundary Treaty signed by Britain and United States, sets boundary along 49th parallel west of Rocky Mountains, leaving Vancouver Island in British hands and status of San Juan Archipelago uncertain. 1849 19 January: HBC awarded charter to develop new colony of Vancouver Island. 11 October: Montréal citizens, including French Canadian liberals and English merchants, issue manifesto urging annexation to United States; parliament buildings in Montréal destroyed by Tory mob. 1854 6 June: United Province of Canada and United States sign Reciprocity Treaty. 27 November: HBC ships bring 75 English coal miners, wives, and children to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island. 1854–72 San Juan Boundary dispute results in British loss of San Juan Island to Washington Territory. 1857 26 November: Macdonald becomes premier of Province of Canada. 1859 Victoria Railway Bridge completed across St. Lawrence River at Montréal.
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1861 8 November: Trent affair prompts British naval and military reinforcement of British North America. 1862 Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, named British naval headquarters for Pacific Station. 1864 22 June: Tories and Reformers in Canadian Assembly form coalition led by John A. Macdonald and George Brown to unite British North America into one nation. 1 September: Delegates from maritime provinces and United Province of Canada meet in Charlottetown, PEI, to discuss possible union. 28 October: Delegates from Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island adopt Québec Resolutions, theoretical foundation for creation of Dominion of Canada. 1866 7 March: 10,000 Canadian militia called out for protection against feared Fenian raids. 17 March: Canada-U.S. Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 repealed by United States. 31 May–2 June: Battle of Ridgeway, Ontario, forces Fenians to retire. December: Westminster Conference of delegates from British North American provinces discuss terms of future confederation. 1867 Emily Howard Stowe becomes Canada’s first female medical doctor. 29 March: British Parliament passes British North America Act (BNA Act), providing for union of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada into self-governing dominion called Dominion of Canada. 1 July: BNS Act goes into effect with Sir John A. Macdonald as Canada’s first prime minister. 1868 22 May: Railway Act describes organization of railway companies, outlines regulations for operations, and provides possible subsidies for railways meeting certain government regulations. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “the pen of Canadian confederation,” shot and killed in Ottawa by Fenians. 1869 22 June: Gradual Enfranchisement of Indians Act strips native women of their status if they marry non-Indians. 22 June: Rupert’s Land Act establishes provisional government of Rupert’s Land and Northwestern Territory when united with Canada, and calls for lieutenant governor to regulate affairs under law for the peace, order, and good government thereof. 11 October: Led by Louis Riel, the Métis of Red
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River prevent Canadian surveyors from entering Métis territory, beginning Red River Rebellion of 1869–70. 2 November: A Métis group led by Riel take control of Fort Garry. 1870 2 March: Thomas Scott of Ontario, an Orangeman, executed by Riel provisional government to show Canadian government that Métis of Red River are to be taken seriously. 15 July: Manitoba enters confederation. 24 August: Métis of Red River flee as military units under Col. Garnet Wolseley arrive and establish order; Riel flees to United States. 1871 8 May: Treaty of Washington signed between Britain and United States recognizes Canada’s boundaries, gives Americans free access to Canada’s inshore fisheries, and provides no compensation for Fenian raids on Canada. 20 July: British Columbia enters confederation. 3 August: First Indian treaty negotiated by Dominion of Canada signed, under which Ojibwa and Cree of southern Manitoba surrender 43,250 square kilometers of their territory and receive reserves of land. 1872 Riel returns from exile to continue Métis crusade for rights. 14 April: Dominion Lands Act allows federal government to retain control of all public lands and resources in western Canada. 14 June: Macdonald’s Conservative government passes Trade Unions Bill, workers allowed to be members of unions. 1873 2 April: Preliminary charges of bribery made against Macdonald’s government, known as Pacific scandal, leading to royal commission. 23 May: North West Mounted Police (later Royal Canadian Mounted Police) established. 1 July: Prince Edward Island enters confederation. 4 July: Revelations of Pacific scandal imply Macdonald and Conservative government took bribes from Canadian Pacific Railway Company. October: Riel first elected to Parliament. 5 November: Macdonald and cabinet resign due to Pacific scandal; governor general places Alexander Mackenzie and Liberals in power. 1874 22 January: Liberals defeat Conservatives in election and Mackenzie forms first Liberal government in Canada. 1875 19 September: Supreme Court of Canada established but Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London remains ultimate legal authority until 1949.
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1876 12 April: Parliament passes Indian Act placing natives in separate legal category as wards of the government. 1 June: Royal Military College of Canada opens in Kingston, Ontario. 10 August: Canadian Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone. 1878
17 October: Macdonald again becomes prime minister.
1879
14 March: Conservatives pass National Policy legislation.
1880 26 March: Attempted assassination of George Brown. 7 May: Indian Act of 1880 passed by federal government, formally establishes Department of Indian Affairs. 31 July: Britain transfers sovereignty of Arctic Islands to Canada. Alexander Tilloch Galt appointed first Canadian high commissioner to United Kingdom, Canada’s first diplomatic representative abroad. 1881
Parliament approves charter of new Canadian Pacific Railway.
1883 18 November: Standard Time, originated by Sandford Fleming, instituted in Canada. 1885 19 March: Métis establish provisional government in North West Territory; Louis Riel president of provisional government and Gabriel Dumont its adjutant-general. 26 March: Northwest Rebellion begins between Métis and Cree and the North West Mounted Police at Duck Lake, Northwest Territories (NWT). 12 May: Canadian militia defeats Métis at Battle of Batoche, NWT, ending Northwest Rebellion; Riel surrenders 15 May; Dumont escapes to United States). 7 November: Last spike driven by Donald Smith at Craigellachie, BC, completing Canada’s first transcontinental railway. 16 November: Riel hanged in Regina for high treason. 25 November: Rocky Mountains Park (Banff National Park) established. 27 November: Wandering Spirit and seven other rebel Indians hanged for murders at Frog Lake in April. 1886 4 July: Canadian Pacific Railway’s first transcontinental passenger train arrives in Port Moody, BC. 20 November: Royal Conservatory of Music incorporated in Toronto. 1887 28 April: North-West Territories Act specifies French be given equal status with English in government and courts of the NWT.
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1891 5 March: Last time Macdonald leads Conservatives to election victory. 6 June: Death of Macdonald, in Ottawa. 1893 27 October: National Council of Women formed. 27 November: Montréal Amateur Athletic Association wins first Stanley Cup in hockey. 1896 6 July: Province of Québec’s boundaries enlarged to shores of Hudson Bay. 11 July: Wilfrid Laurier leads Liberals to election victory, becomes Canada’s first French-speaking prime minister. 27 November: Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior, unveils extensive immigration drive to populate prairies and elsewhere, favoring immigrants with farming experience. 1897
Klondike gold rush in Yukon commences.
1898 13 June: Federal government proclaims Yukon District a territory, giving it separate status. 1899 30 October: Canadian contingent sails from Québec for South Africa to fight in Boer War. 1902
9 June: Boers defeated; end of South Africa war.
1903 Alaska Boundary Commission decides boundary between Canada and Alaska. 20 October: Grand Trunk Pacific operates Canada’s second transcontinental railway, first truly transcontinental railway, running coast to coast. 1905 1 September: Acts of parliament create Alberta and Saskatchewan as provinces. 1909 Halifax and Esquimalt naval bases transferred from Britain to Canada. 23 February: First flight in British Empire of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, by J.A.D. McCurdy. 1910 4 March: Avalanche in Rogers Pass, BC, sweeps 62 railway clearing workers to their death. 4 May: Royal assent given to Laurier government’s Naval Service of Canada bill, beginning of Canada’s navy.
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1911 2 May: Hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls officially inaugurated. 22 September: Robert Borden becomes prime minister as Conservatives defeat Liberals in federal election. 1912
2 September: First Calgary Stampede.
1914 29 May: Liner Empress of Ireland collides with Norwegian merchant ship, death toll of 1,012. 19 July: Dust explosion at Hillcrest, Alberta, coal mine kills 189 miners. 4 August: Britain declares war on Germany, and Canada automatically enters World War I . 1916
6 February: Fire in Houses of Parliament, Ottawa.
1917 2 April: Commencement of Royal Flying Corps training at Camp Borden, Ontario. 19 May: Conscription for Canada. 14 April: Canadian troops capture Vimy Ridge. 12 August: Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop awarded Victoria Cross. 28 August: Parliament passes Military Service Act. Conscription riots in Québec. 6 December: Belgian munitions vessel explodes in Halifax Harbor, destroying large part of the city and killing more than 1,000. 15 December: Borden reelected, forms Union government that is pro-conscription, with cabinet of Conservatives and Liberals. 1918 1 April: Riots in Québec against conscription. 24 May: Canadian women win right to vote in federal elections. 5 June: CanadianU.S. agreement establishes air stations at Dartmouth and Sydney, Nova Scotia, to carry out antisubmarine patrols. 8 August: Canadian Corps, with Australian forces, crushes German divisions near Amiens. 9. October: Canadian Corps captures Cambrai. 11 November: Canadian Corps recaptures Mons. World War I ends with Armistice. 1919 17 February: First French Canadian prime minister, Laurier, dies. 15 May: General strike begins in Winnipeg, lasting more than one month. 6 June: Parliament passes Air Board Act creating board to control aeronautical matters in Canada. 14–15 June: First nonstop transAtlantic flight, by Alcock and Brown, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Ireland. 28 June: Canada as part of the British Empire signs Treaty of Versailles with Germany to end World War I. 1920 First exhibition of Group of Seven artists, at Art Gallery of Ontario. The Beaver magazine launched. 1 February: Royal North
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West Mounted Police and Dominion Police merge to become Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 3 April: Parliament orders organization of Royal Canadian Air Force. 10 July: Borden resigns as prime minister, replaced by Arthur Meighen. 1921 6 December: Mackenzie King becomes prime minister as Liberals defeat Conservatives. 1922 11 February: Canadian doctors Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin for control of diabetes. 28 June: National Defence Act passed, incorporating Department of Naval Service, Department of Militia and Defence, and Air Board. Also this year, Robert Flaherty’s film Nanook of the North issued. 1923 2 March: Canada and United States sign Halibut Treaty, first commercial treaty negotiated by Canada without participation of Britain. 1 July: Chinese Immigration (Exclusion) Act closes doors to Chinese immigrants, known as “Humiliation Day” in Chinese communities; it is repealed in 1947. 1924 1 April: King’s Regulations and orders for Royal Canadian Air Force come into effect. 1925 30 January: Canadian Institute of International Affairs founded. 29 October: In federal election, Liberals lose majority status but King remains prime minister as Progressives support Liberals, giving Liberals a functional majority. 1926 29 June: Liberal government collapses; Governor General Viscount Byng asks Arthur Meighen of Conservatives to form government. 2 July: Meighen defeat on no-confidence vote after three days in office. 14 September: King leads Liberals to victory and again becomes prime minister. 19 November: Balfour Report adopted by Imperial Conference, recognizes certain autonomous communities within British Empire, including Canada. 1927 2 March: Judicial Committee of the Privy Council awards Labrador to Dominion of Newfoundland, settling dispute between Canada and Newfoundland. 17 September: Canada elected to a nonpermanent seat on Council of the League of Nations.
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1929 29 October: Montréal and Toronto stock markets suffer worst crash in history; Canada enters Great Depression. 18 November: Tidal wave hits Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula, leaving its mark on 50 communities and killing 27 people. 1930 5 February: Cairine Wilson becomes first Canadian woman to hold seat in Canadian Senate. 28 July: Richard B. Bennett becomes prime minister after Conservative victory over King and Liberals. 20 September: Parliament passes Unemployment Relief Bill focused on public jobs to reduce effects of unemployment. 1931 11 December: Statute of Westminster enacted by British Parliament clarifies powers of dominion parliaments and allows dominions full legal freedom. Canada requests that British Parliament retain power to amend BNA Act. 1932 1 August: Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) formed (forerunner of New Democratic Party), a socialist, political organization led by J. S. Woodsworth, Agnes MacPhail, and others. 1933 28 November: Newfoundland’s Assembly accepts Amulree Report in which status of dominion is reduced and Newfoundland is governed by British commission. 1934
3 July: Parliament creates Bank of Canada.
1935 28 June: Bennett’s Employment and Social Insurance Act receives royal assent and is dubbed the “New Deal” after Roosevelt’s New Deal in the United States. 1 July: Riot in Regina ends trek of “On to Ottawa” protesters. 5 July: Canadian Wheat Act creates Canadian Wheat Board. 14 October: Mackenzie King leads Liberals to victory over Bennett’s Conservatives. 15 November: Canada and United States sign trade treaty to lower tariffs. 1936 Canadian units fight in Spanish Civil War. 23 June: Canadian Broadcasting Act creates Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a national, publicly owned television system. 1937 10 April: Trans-Canada Air Line Act creates national airline in Canada; renamed Air Canada in 1965.
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1938 17 November: Canada, United States, and Britain sign trade treaty to allow easier access into each country’s markets. 1939 2 May: National Film Board established to promote Canadian filmmaking. 16 May: Beginning of royal visit to Canada. 10 September: Canada declares war on Germany, entering World War II. 17 December: Canada signs agreement with Britain to develop air training in Canada for the Royal Canadian Air Force and other British Commonwealth air forces. 1940 26 March: King and Liberals reelected with a majority. 25 April: Québec becomes last province to give women the vote in provincial elections. 3 May: Rowell Sirois Commission completes study of federal-provincial relations, a landmark study of Canadian federalism. 18 August: Canada and United States sign Ogdensburg Agreement defense pact creating Permanent Joint Defence Board to deal with protection of North America. December: First Canadian-built corvettes depart for Britain, used as escorts in Battle of the Atlantic. 1941 7 December: Following Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declares war on Japan. 1942 26 February: Relocation and internment of Japanese ordered. 2 April: In nationwide plebiscite, Canadian people vote in favor of conscription. 11 May: German U-boat attacks two freighters in St. Lawrence River, first enemy action in inshore Canadian waters. 1943 30 April: Rear Admiral Leonard Murray, Royal Canadian Navy, becomes commander in chief of Canadian Northwest Atlantic with headquarters in Halifax. 10 July: Canadian troops land in Pachino, Sicily. 3 September: 1st Canadian and 5th British Divisions land in Reggio di Calabria, Italy; 8 September: Italy signs armistice with Allies. 1944 6 June: Units of Canadian Army, along with British and Americans, land at Juno Beach, Normandy. 16 September: Allied leaders meeting in Québec City to discuss prosecution of war include British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King. 23 November: Parliament passes National Resources Mobilization Act to dispatch 16,000 conscripts to Britain.
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1945 21 February: Canadian troops capture German defense complex, the Siegfried Line. 7 May: German forces surrender to Allies. 11 June: King and Liberals reelected. 26 June: Canada joins 50 nations signing World Security Charter, creating United Nations (UN). 2 September: Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II. 1946 16 February: Liner Mauritania berths at Halifax, where 943 brides and children disembark. March: Gouzenko spy case exposed. 14 May: After Parliament passes Canadian Citizenship Act, a person born in Canada is to be recognized as a Canadian citizen in all countries, not as a British subject. 1947 13 February: Imperial Oil Company discovers Alberta’s Leduc oil field. 1948 8 August: King, longest-serving prime minister, announces retirement and Louis St. Laurent chosen as successor. 1949 31 March: Newfoundland and Labrador enter confederation. 4 April: External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson signs agreement creating North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), making Canada part of military alliance with United States, Britain, France, and others. 3 June: St. Laurent and Liberals successful at federal election. 16 December: British Parliament passes statute that provides Canada with power to amend the BNA Act. 1950 30 June: Canadian government supports UN policy in Korea; Canada provides units of Royal Canadian Navy to participate in military activities during Korean War. 22 July: Former Prime Minister Mackenzie King dies. 1951 June: Indian Act revised by Parliament; Indian women married to non-Indian men excluded from provisions of the act. June: Massey Report completed on Canadian culture. 13 November: National Ballet of Canada opens. 1952 27 July: Korean War ends. 14 October: External Affairs Minister Pearson elected president of UN Assembly. Also this year, Canada’s first television station, CBFT, begins transmission in Montréal.
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1953 2 June: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 13 July: Stratford Shakespeare Festival opens. 10 August: Liberals under St. Laurent defeat Progressive Conservatives under George Drew. 1954 30 March: Canada’s first subway opens in Toronto. 8 April: Construction of Pinetree radar line announced. August: British Empire Games held in Vancouver, highlighted by “Miracle Mile,” when Roger Bannister and John Landy first run the mile under four minutes. 9 September: Marilyn Bell, age 16, becomes first person to swim across Lake Ontario. 15 October: Hurricane Hazel sweeps through southern Ontario. 1955 17 March.: Montreal riot after Canadiens’ hockey star Maurice Richard is suspended. 5 May: Canada and United States sign agreement for U.S. to build Distant Early Warning network of radar in Canada’s north and Alaska. 5 May: Canadian Labour Congress formed. 1956 10 January: Parliament passes Female Employees Equal Pay Act guaranteeing financial equality to men and women involved in identical or substantially identical work. October: Collapse of Hungarian uprising against Soviet authority; about 37,000 refugees subsequently arrive in Canada. 4 November UN officially implements plan tabled by Secretary of State for External Affairs Pearson for emergency forces to be sent to Suez Canal to help find peaceful solution to crisis there. 1957 10 June: John Diefenbaker leads Progressive Conservatives to victory, ending 22-year federal reign of Liberals. 21 June: Diefenbaker appoints Canada’s first female cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough. 12 September: Canada and United States sign air defense agreement for North America, creating the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). 14 October: Pearson receives Nobel Peace Prize for his peace plan in Suez Canal crisis. 1958 31 March: Diefenbaker and Progressive Conservatives reelected. 24 October: Nova Scotia mining disaster. 1959 20 February: Avro Arrow (A.V. Roe’s strike fighter) project terminated by Diefenbaker’s government, with loss of 20,000 jobs. 26 June: St. Lawrence Seaway opens.
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1960 10 March: Parliament grants native peoples right to vote in federal elections. 22 June: Jean Lesage and Liberals elected in Québec, initiating Quiet Revolution. 10 August: Canadian Bill of Rights enacted. 1961 17 January: Diefenbaker and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sign Columbia River Treaty. 16 May: U.S. President John F. Kennedy visits Ottawa to beef up Cold War solidarity against Soviets but ruffles feathers. 3 August: New Democratic Party formed (replacing CCF), Canada’s third major federal political party; T. C. Douglas chosen as leader. 18 November: Saskatchewan becomes first province to legislate universal medical or health insurance. 31 December: National Indian Council formed. 1962 18 June: Diefenbaker and Progressive Conservatives reelected to a minority government. 1 July: Medicare introduced in Saskatchewan and opposed by striking doctors. 30 July: Trans-Canada Highway completed. 29 September: Canadian-built satellite Alouette launched into space by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 22–28 October: Cuban missile crisis. 11 December: Last capital punishment and hangings in Canada, at Don Jail, Toronto. 1963 4 February: House of Commons votes no confidence in Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government; Diefenbaker forced to call an election. 8 April: Pearson leads Liberals to power with minority government. April–May: Québec separatists of Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) set off bombs in Montréal. April–May: Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism begins work. 1964 15 December: Parliament adopts new flag for Canada, a red maple leaf on a white background between two red bars. 1965 16 January: Pearson and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson sign automobile pact, American cars and car parts allowed to enter Canada duty free. 5 March: Lucien Cardin charges that Progressive Conservatives covered up spy and sex scandal (Munsinger Affair). 8 November: Pearson and Liberals reelected. 1966 21 December: Royal assent given to Medical Care Act, providing Canadians universally with basic medical coverage.
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1967 27 April: Montréal hosts world’s fair, Expo 67, invigorating Canadian identity. 24 July: French President Charles de Gaulle visits Montréal, announces, “Vive le Québec libre!” and his early exit to France is requested by Government of Canada. 1968 20 April: Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes prime minister after Pearson steps down. 25 June: Trudeau leads Liberals to majority government. 15 October: René Lévesque forms Parti Québécois to push for a sovereign Québec. 1969 9 September: Official Languages Act makes English and French official languages of Canada. 1970 5 October: Terrorist group Front de libération de Québec (FLQ) kidnaps British Trade Commissioner James Cross. 10 October: FLQ kidnaps Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. 16 October: Trudeau invokes War Measures Act to counter FLQ terrorists. 18 October: Laporte found dead in trunk of car and FLQ takes responsibility. 3 December: Cross released by FLQ. Canada’s last aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure scrapped. 1971 3 April: University of Toronto engineers help Apollo 13 astronauts return safely. 1972 28 September: Canada defeats Soviet Union in eight-game hockey series. 30 October: Trudeau and Liberals hold onto power, but Liberals and Conservatives receive same number of seats in parliament. 1973 12 December: Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA) established, to screen foreign business activities and intended take-overs. 1974 8 May: Trudeau and Liberal minority government defeated in no-confidence vote; Trudeau forced to call an election. 8 July: Trudeau and Liberals reelected with majority. 30 July: Québec’s provincial parliament passes legislation making French the only official language of Québec. 1975 24 March: Beaver adopted as national symbol by Canadian Sovereignty Act. 30 July: Liberal government creates Petro-Canada Corporation when global energy crisis increases oil prices alarmingly.
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1976 4 June: Canada declares 200-nautical-mile coastal fishing zone. 14 July: Parliament abolishes capital punishment. 17 July: 21st Summer Olympics opens in Montréal. 15 November: Lévesque and Parti Québécois win provincial election. 1977 26 August: Québec’s provincial parliament passes Bill 101, creating Charter of the French Language, all children to attend French school unless one of their parents attended an English primary school. 6 September: Highway signs changed to metric system. 1978 15 September: Sudbury labor strike at nickel producer INCO begins, with catastrophic effects to community (ends 7 June 1979). 18 October: Allan Blakeney’s New Democratic Party (NDP) government in Saskatchewan wins third straight election. 1979 29 January: During Iranian revolution, anti-American actions in Tehran lead to cloak-and-dagger rescue through Canadian embassy. 22 May: Joe Clark becomes prime minister as Progressive Conservatives form minority government. 13 December: Clark defeated in noconfidence vote and forced to call election. 1980 18 February: Trudeau elected prime minister as Liberals gain majority; Jeanne Sauvé becomes first woman speaker of the House of Commons. 22 April: Canada votes to boycott Moscow Summer Olympics in response to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 22 May: In a referendum, people of Québec vote to stay with Canada by a margin of 59 to 41 percent. 27 June: “O Canada” adopted as national anthem. 1981 23 September: Québec bans public signs in English language. 14 November: Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System, the Canadarm, used in space by NASA space shuttle Columbia. 1982 15 February: Ocean Ranger oil-drilling crew lost in storm on Grand Banks, worst marine disaster in Canada since World War II. 17 April: New Canadian constitution becomes law as Queen Elizabeth II signs royal proclamation, final step in patriation process. The new constitution includes an amending formula to the British North America Act and provides Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 1983 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment recommends employment equity law. 23 December: Sauvé becomes first woman appointed governor general of Canada.
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1984 29 February: Trudeau announces retirement after 16 years in office. 16 June: John Turner selected as prime minister by Liberals following retirement of Trudeau. September: Pope John Paul II makes first papal visit to Canada. 4 September: Brian Mulroney becomes prime minister as Progressive Conservatives win electoral majority. 5 October: Marc Garneau becomes first Canadian astronaut in space, as part of a NASA mission on space shuttle Challenger. 1985 20 February: First test flight of American cruise missile over Canadian air space. 24 June: Air India jet explodes, killing 329, including 280 Canadians. 28 June: Bill C-31, amended Indian Act, reinstates pensions and confers status on descendants. 11 August: American icebreaker Polar Sea passes through Northwest Passage without permission of Canadian government. 1986 17 March: Prime Minister Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan sign agreement to deal with acid rain. 2 May: World’s fair Expo 86 officially opens in Vancouver, BC. 4 August: Canada imposes economic sanctions on South Africa as measure against apartheid. 1987 4 October: Canada and United States agree on terms of a freetrade agreement. 1988 February: Calgary hosts 15th Winter Olympics. 22 September: Prime Minister Mulroney delivers apology to Japanese in Canada for internment and other wrongs. 24 September: Ben Johnson sets world record in 100 meters and wins gold at Seoul Olympics; two days later he loses medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. 21 November: Mulroney and Progressive Conservatives reelected with majority. 15 December: Supreme Court strikes down Québec’s French-only sign law. 18 December: Québec Premier Robert Bourassa uses section 33 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “notwithstanding” clause) to enforce French-only sign law in Québec. 1989 2 December: Audrey McLaughlin becomes leader of New Democratic Party, first woman to lead national political party. 6 December: In Montréal Massacre, 14 women killed by a gunman. 1990 25 January: Andrew Thompson, deputy chief economist for Royal Bank of Canada, indicates Canada in a mild recession. 21 May: Lucien Bouchard resigns as environment minister due to failure of
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Meech Lake Accord. 24 May: In Regina v. Sparrow, Supreme Court rules native rights cannot arbitrarily be restricted or abolished by governments. 31 May: Supreme Court rules that governments cannot unilaterally ignore treaties with natives. 23 June: Jean Chrétien elected leader of federal Liberals. 11 July: Mohawks in Oka, Québec, erect barricades to protest expansion of municipal golf course on disputed land. 25 July: Lucien Bouchard forms Bloc Québécois with MPs from Québec. 7 August: HMCS Halifax, first of 12 patrol class frigates, launched at Saint John, New Brunswick. 9 August: British Columbia reverses 117-year-old policy by acknowledging rights to aboriginal land title. 6 September: New Democratic Party of Ontario, led by Bob Rae, elected to a majority. 1991 1 January: Federal Goods and Services Tax becomes law. 22 January: Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, House of Commons passes motion to go to war with Iraq as part of UN coalition. 27 February: Cease-fire announced in Persian Gulf War. 15 April: Canada agrees to send peacekeepers to Iraq-Kuwait border for a one-year UN mission. 17 April: Canada sends monetary aid to Iran to help with massive influx of Kurdish refugees. 12 June: Ovidi Mercredi, a Cree, elected by Assembly of First Nations as national chief. 5 December: Senate assents to gun control bill that stiffens regulations on buying and storing guns. 16 December: Federal government and Inuit of NWT tentatively settle massive land claim deal to create a new territory called Nunavut. 1992 30 January: NASA’s space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth with Canadian crew member Roberta Bondar, the second space pioneer from Canada. 21 February: Canada joins UN peacekeeping coalition force to enforce a cease-fire in former Yugoslavia. 2 March: Canada sends 100 troops to Cambodia as part of UN peacekeeping force. 6 March: Commercial salmon fishing in Newfoundland banned for five years to stop depletion. 22 April: Gwich’in of Mackenzie Delta sign land claim settlement with federal government. 4 May: Plebiscite on proposed boundary to create Nunavut approved by NWT voters. 30 May: Canada backs UN trade sanctions against Yugoslavia to attempt to halt bloodiest fighting since World War II. 1 July: Canada celebrates 125th birthday. 13 October: Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist, wins Man Booker prize, for The English Patient. 24 October: Toronto Blue Jays first Canadian team to win World Series. 26 October: Charlotte-
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town Accord rejected in nationwide referendum. 30 October: Inuit, federal, and territorial leaders sign political accord for division of NWT and creation of Nunavut effective 1 April 1997. 15 December: Canada sends troops under UN flag to Somalia to assist in humanitarian relief. 17 December: Prime Minister Mulroney signs North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with U.S. President George H. W. Bush and President Salinas of Mexico. 1993 13 January: Major General Lewis MacKenzie retires from Canadian Armed Forces after completing mission that included leading UN peacekeeping force of 1,200 in war-torn Yugoslavia. 16 February: 1,200 troops of Royal Canadian Regiment deployed into devastated area of Sarajevo to escort UN convoys. 29 March: Catherine Callbeck becomes first elected woman premier of province as Liberals win landslide victory in Prince Edward Island. 15 June: Kim Campbell replaces Prime Minister Mulroney as leader of Conservatives. 15 June: Canada ends 29 years of peacekeeping duty in Cyprus. 31 August: A 500-year-old way of life in Atlantic Canada ends as federal government virtually closes East Coast cod fishing due to rapidly depleting stock. 14 September: Québec Premier Robert Bourassa retires from politics. 24 September: Canadian government lifts sanctions against South Africa. 25 October: Chrétien leads federal Liberals to landslide victory; Progressive Conservatives reduced to two seats, and newly formed Bloc Québécois becomes Official Opposition; Campbell resigns. 4 November: Chrétien sworn in as Canada’s 20th prime minister. 1994 1 January: NAFTA comes into effect, bringing Mexico into partnership with Canada and United States to create world’s largest free-trade zone. 10 May: South Africa opens embassy in Ottawa. 20 June: Canada resumes economic aid to Cuba. 14 July: Canadian government announces it will not take part in an invasion of Haiti. September: In Québec provincial election, Parti Québécois (PQ) succeeds with platform calling for proceeding with separation from Canada. 1995 January: Canadian Airborne Regiment disbanded. March: Spanish fishing vessel Estai seized on Grand Banks, and North Atlantic Fishing Organization acquires enhanced regulatory powers. Jacques Parizeau resigns as premier of Province of Québec, and Lucien Bouchard announces intention to leave House of Commons and
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seek leadership of PQ. 2 September: Serial rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo found guilty as charged. 14 October: Alexa McDonough chosen leader of Federal NDP. 26 October: Cree and Inuit of Québec, by referendum, reject separation from Canada. 27 October: Montréal unity rally held. 30 October: “No” forces win Québec referendum by slim margin; Jacques Parizeau promises to “exact revenge” for loss. 31 October: Newfoundland passes constitutional amendment reforming school system. 1996 22 March: Nisga’a agree to land claim and self-government settlement. 28 May: BC’s NDP reelected under Glen Clark. September: Guy Bertrand wins right to seek injunction preventing any further referenda on Québec sovereignty; Québec government then declares courts have no jurisdiction over such issues. 1997 31 May: Crowds walk newly opened Confederation Bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. 2 June: Liberals under Chrétien reelected in national election, with reduced majority. 19 July: Canadian fishing boats blockade Alaskan ferry at Prince Rupert, BC; diplomatic solution reached by Canadian and U.S. representatives. 17 November: Hibernia crude pumped from Newfoundland’s first offshore oil field. 25 November: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group meets in Vancouver, with protests and demonstrations. 26 November: Justice Horace Krever’s report on “tainted blood” supply filed in Parliament, cites neglect and mismanagement by authorities. 1998 January: Ice storm, “storm of the millennium,” batters eastern Ontario, southern Québec, Atlantic Canada, and New England, causing 24 deaths and at least $1 billion in damage. 1999 24 March: Four Canadian CF-18s join NATO raid on Serbian position in Prista, Kosovo, and areas north of Belgrade. 2000 1 April: Nunavut becomes Canada’s third territory. 27 November: Liberals under Chrétien win majority in national election. September: Pierre Trudeau’s death sparks outpouring of grief and national reflection. Stockwell Day elected leader of Canadian Alliance Party. 2001 U.S.-Canada Auto Pact ends. 20–21 April: Summit of the Americas, chaired by Prime Minister Chrétien, held in Québec City; representatives of 34 countries propose free-trade pact for Americas.
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11 September: Terrorists hijack four commercial airplanes, destroy World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, and attack Pentagon, bringing forth “war against terrorism” and later NATO military action in Afghanistan with Canadian participation. 2002 18 April: Four Canadian soldiers die in Afghanistan in “friendly fire” incident, sparking discussions of Canadian-U.S. military relations and command and control. June: G-8 initiative launched at Kananaskis, Alberta, for clean-up of world nuclear sites. 10 December: Parliament ratifies Kyoto Protocol, which calls for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5.2 percent by 2012; later abandoned as government policy. 2003 April: Jean Charest forms Liberal government after electoral defeat of Bernard Landry’s Parti Québécois. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) arrived in Canada from China, provoking health care emergency in Ontario. 10 June: Same-sex couples get legal right to marry in Ontario by Ontario court ruling; first gay marriage takes place same day. 15 October: Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance establish Conservative Party of Canada. Canadian parliament decides not to join U.S.-led coalition against Iraq. 2004 11 February: Auditor General of Canada, Sylvia Fraser, produces scathing details against Martin government and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), prompting firing of Minister Alfonso Galiano and launching of inquiries. 28 June: 38th federal election returns Liberals in minority government. Fire on board HMCS Chicoutimi, resulting in death of Lt. Chris Saunders, forces government inquiry into submarine acquisition program. 23 November: Federal cabinet approves extension of 2002 agreement with U.S. on mutual military assistance. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew authorized to sign official exchange of notes with United States to improve bilateral security through enhanced military cooperation with respect to maritime, land, and civil support functions. 2005 27 January: Government of Canada agrees with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador on sharing off-shore oil revenues, an eight-year term to be renegotiated on expiry. Also this year: Senate approves bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Commission set up to inquire into “Sponsorship scandal” later ends with inconclusive action.
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2006 Toronto Seventeen arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. 23 January: In federal election, Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government defeated, ending years of Liberal government. Stephen Harper, Conservative Party of Canada, forms minority government, becomes Canada’s 22nd prime minister. February: Canada’s combat infantry force begins operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan, against Taliban in effort to secure that province. Parliament extends Afghan mission to February 2009. 13 September: Lone gunman kills one student and injures 19 at Dawson College before being shot dead by Montréal police. 2007 13 March: Canada 2006 census data released, giving population as 31,612,897. 9 April: Queen rededicates Vimy Memorial. 2008 Global recession reaches Canada. 4 March: Progressive Conservatives win eleventh straight election victory in Alberta. 11 June: Prime Minister Harper apologizes to aboriginal people for past wrongs. 14 October: In federal election, Conservatives improve standing in House of Commons though short of overall majority. December: Liberal-led three-party coalition seeking to defeat government in House of Commons is blocked when governor general grants prorogation of Parliament at prime minister’s request. Michael Ignatieff becomes leader of Liberal Party. 2009 Government of Canada announces spending package of $40 billion for economic recovery, designed to counter job losses. Many Canadians’ retirement savings hurt hard in recession. Interest rates low, and unemployment higher than normal and of long duration. Stock markets recover by year end. 30 December: Prime Minister Harper announces prorogation of Parliament until 3 March, resulting in widespread protests against suspension of parliament’s activities. 2010 13 January: Canada deploys Disaster Assistance Response Team, Canadian Forces, to Haiti devastated by earthquake. 12–28 February: Vancouver hosts 21st Winter Olympics. 25–27 June: G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto; demonstrations and riots.
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Introduction
Once on the margins of European empires, notably those of France, England, and Spain, then a focus of international rivalries and wars during the 18th century, Canada is now a nation that is front and center in world affairs. Geographical position between Europe and Asia would be enough to make Canada a party to all that goes on around it. But the forces of history have shaped its destiny in particular ways, forced it to a sudden maturity, and proclaimed it an actor (and sometimes reluctant leader) among the modern nations of the world. Canada’s emergence as a modern industrial nation, and as a key player in the resource, commodities, and financial institutions that make up today’s world, shows many aspects of what ex-colonial powers have gone through—except that compromise and reform rather than revolution and revolt have been the cardinal historical features. With a diverse people spread over vast areas, Canada today is a country struggling to maintain its national identity because of the looming shadow of the world’s preeminent power, the United States. At the same time, ethnic divisions continue to beset the country, obliging politicians to be brokers and seekers of compromise to maintain fragile unions and harmonious relationships. Of unique status, perhaps in the western and certainly North American world, is the duality of the founding European peoples of Canada, the French and the English, now often redefined, colloquially, as the Québécois and “the Rest of Canada.” Some Québécois are Canadians; others are separatists. If that were not enough, indigenous or aboriginal peoples often referred to as First Nations claim, and struggle to maintain, legitimate authority and constitutional recognition. And this is not all. Above all are economic globalization and the continued progression of a multicultural society. This, it may be realized, has been and continues to be an arduous destiny. It may be also classified as an incomplete odyssey. Some would proclaim Canada a work in progress. But it is not that, surely. 1
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INTRODUCTION
Canada’s historical experience is also unique in the effect of climate and geography on regional national growth and problems. The complexities of the changing relationship between French and English Canadians is well known even to outsiders, though the French fact is often ignored by onlookers and even despised by them. This is a great pity, for Canada’s diverse founding peoples and systems of government, administration, and commerce are at once her strength and her resilience, if not a bulwark against Americanization. The hard realities and sustained myths about Canada’s relationship with the United States since the days of the American Revolution have only been reinforced with the passage of time, notably the aftermath of 11 September 2001. Even so, the growth of a Canadian political and cultural entity has never wavered for the majority of Canadians of whatever background, past or present. Canadians know that the Americans and the British have no monopoly on patriotism, and Canadians for all their modesty and forbearance are in fact proud of their country and fiercely independent. In a way, they have had good masters, or examples, to follow. Odd as it may seem, Canada is ex-empire, and this in two fundamental senses: first, it was formerly part of the French Empire and then of the British Empire, and second, it benefited from the disarray of the first British Empire when the United States became an independent power—the Loyalist tradition finding strong root in British American and Canadian soil. Yet, surely, there’s an oddity here. For the British Empire, or the second British Empire as it is sometimes called, had Canada (or British North America until 1867) as its keystone. Canada is, in a sense, an inherited empire. The observant student of Canadian affairs of a legal, historical, and constitutional nature will observe that Canada is an empire by another name: it has a centralized as well as a decentralized government system, has established a federation for the better government of the whole, and has territories (rather than provinces) which it administers in effect as colonies. Its judiciary supports this empire. It has fiduciary responsibilities for First Nations. Ottawa, the capital, is the new London. To maintain such a fragile creation or polity requires more than model constitutions nicely applied: and for this reason, Canada is a remarkable achievement, the result of the accidents and causes of history and strife, and strangely enough, it offers a model for other federations, binational states, and multicultural societies and nations. If one were to will such into existence, it could not be
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INTRODUCTION
• 3
done. Hence the value of studying its unique and compelling history, a history not of great departures, florid rhetoric, and instant causes that shake the world, but rather, to repeat, one of accord and compromise, lack of haste, and sure action. Historical influences, then, have played a prominent role in the emergence of Canada, first under French and British colonization, then as a dominion of the evolving British Empire and Commonwealth, and today as an actor on the world stage. The influences from the past that have molded and continue to direct the present-day political, social, and economic behavior of modern Canada have a complexity all their own, but it ought to be stressed that 1982 was a particularly important year for the nation, for in that year all constitutional ties with the United Kingdom, save that of the monarchy, came to an end. By this, Canada was at last master in its own house—“our lady of the snows,” Voltaire called her. Canada is a North American country, state, and nation of primarily European background, population, economy, culture, and political organization. It is a European polity in the North American continent. In most respects, frontier circumstances have had little to do with the nature of the nation and how it is ordered and governed. It is one of the world’s oldest democracies and one of the world’s most successful federations—a remarkable combination. The last of the major selfgoverning states in the Americas to be decolonized, Canada has links to Europe, particularly to Great Britain, that remain deep and continuing. This is recognized in symbols of sovereignty, for the head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The Crown is represented in Ottawa by the governor general of Canada and also in judicial and legislative practices and procedures. However, despite this constitutional link with an important past, Canada is governed at home by Canadians. Fiercely independent, Canadians have shaped institutions for their own needs. This is the story of Canada in the 20th and into the 21st century.
LAND AND PEOPLE Surrounded on three sides by great oceans—the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic—and bordering the United States on the south and west, Canada is a North American nation in northerly latitudes. Canada’s climate
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INTRODUCTION
varies from temperate in the south to subarctic and arctic in the north. Canada stretches from Middle Island, in Lake Erie, north to Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island; and from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, west to the Yukon-Alaska border. Canada has an area of 3,851,809 square miles, second only in extent to the vast territories of Russia. Canada shares an unfortified frontier of almost 4,000 miles with the United States. France’s islands St. Pierre and Miquelon, that lie immediately south of Newfoundland, are the focus of the largely latent CanadaFrance maritime boundary dispute. Another latent problem is a quarrel with Denmark over islands in the eastern Arctic adjacent to Greenland, and Canada’s resurgent interest in Arctic sovereignty makes this matter more than a smoldering diplomatic file in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Canada’s vast area is diverse in its regional geographical characteristics, varying from the high Arctic to the boreal or northern forest— all in northern latitudes, above 60 degrees north. From east to west, Canada also varies from the waters, islands, and peninsulas of Atlantic Canada—some of which are an extension of Appalachia—to the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes lowlands, the Canadian (or Laurentian) Shield, the Red River Valley, the Canadian plains and prairies leading to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the mountains of the Continental Divide, and the rivers, valleys, and sounds, or fjords, of the Pacific Coast or cordillera. Only 9 percent of Canada’s land is arable. At one time, Canada’s forests were richer than they are now, and in greater demand on the world markets. Today, one-third of the world’s pulp and paper is produced in Canada. Rich in minerals (uranium, gold, copper, and nickel, to name but a few), Canada also has considerable deposits of potash and sulfur. Canada is also blessed with abundant fresh water; indeed, one-seventh of Canada’s landmass is water. The generation of hydroelectricity derives from Canada’s great rivers and watersheds. In addition, Canada claims North America’s greatest reserves of natural gas, principally in Alberta but also in Saskatchewan, BC, and Nova Scotia. It boasts extensive coal deposits and petroleum holdings (fluid and shale); petroleum also exists in offshore Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (Hibernia Field). Canada’s wheat lands of eastern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have a reputation as the granary of North America. Its beef and pork industries
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INTRODUCTION
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are the world’s leading, notably in beef cattle insemination and bacon production. Canada also can boast of excellent harbors, of commercial and strategic value. Halifax on the Atlantic, Churchill on Hudson Bay, Vancouver on the Pacific are three such, to which might be added St. John’s in Newfoundland, Saint John in New Brunswick, Montréal, Toronto, Thunder Bay in Ontario, the lakehead of the Great Lakes, and Prince Rupert, in northern BC. Canada’s rivers of prominence are the St. Lawrence, which drains the Great Lakes (all of which, excepting Michigan, are shared by Canada with the United States), the Mackenzie, the Nelson, the Churchill, the Saskatchewan, the Red and Assiniboine, and the Fraser and the Skeena. The Columbia River, important for hydro power generation, rises in Canadian lands, courses through BC, crosses the 49th parallel, and debouches into the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. The Stikine River, which rises in the Yukon, flows to the Pacific through the Alaska panhandle. The Yukon River begins in Canada and flows through Alaska to the Bering Sea. Canada’s population is approximately 34 million, making Canada only the 29th most populous country in the world. Its population is about the size of New York State or California. Its density of population is remarkably low by comparison to the United States or most European or Asian countries. Canada maintains a population growth rate of 1.06 percent (1996 estimate). In terms of origin it is, in percentages: British 40, French 27, other European 20, indigenous First Nations (Indian, Métis, and Inuit) 1.5, and other (mainly Asian) 11.5. In terms of religion, by percentage, it was by 1991 estimate Roman Catholic 45, United Church 20, Anglican 8, and other 27. But there have been steady if not rapid declines from these positions. The literacy rate, said to be 97 percent, is among the highest in the world. The rise of female university graduates and female entry into the professions has been a noteworthy development of the last decades. If immigration was important in the making of the modern nationstate, it is equally important in the present state and growth of the country. A decline in birthrates and in the demand for labor necessitated aggressive immigration policies by the federal government so that the relatively rapid growth of population comes not from natural increase of its existing population but rather from immigration. Since 1960,
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INTRODUCTION
Canada’s population has almost tripled. Immigration has been primarily from western Europe, notably Great Britain, and an upsurge of Orientals, notably Chinese and Koreans, began in the 1980s. Haitians went to Montréal and Jamaicans to Toronto. Chinese went to south Vancouver and East Indians, mainly Sikhs, went to Surrey, BC, and to Calgary. Middle-Easterners and North Africans arrived in increasing numbers in the 1990s. Civil distress, wars, and revolutions overseas brought Laotians, Vietnamese, Somalis, and various groups from the former Yugoslavia to Canada. U.S. immigrants to Canada have always been a small portion of the total number of newcomers, and the trickle north continues as an important force in the population increase but by no means a dramatic one. Immigrant families to Canada are known to be young in age, and immigration policy has favored family reunification. Despite Canada’s abundant size and its comparatively small population, Canada has a population that is, according to economic indicators, immensely productive. On a per capita basis, there may be no more productive land or economy and, equally so, no people more blessed in resources, space, and productivity. Canada ranks seventh largest among the world’s economies, making Canada a member of the prized eightnation economic giants known as the G-8. Today’s Canadian population is highly urbanized. The principal cities are Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. Cities of secondary importance in terms of size are Ottawa, Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, London, Halifax, and Winnipeg.
HISTORY Canada’s history puzzles many outsiders, as it does naturally not a few who call themselves Canadian and live there. It features many unusual persons, various races and religions, businesses and empires, political parties and utopian experiments, and wars and social struggles. Canada’s history might best be seen as that of steps taken in the making of an unusual homeland. That history is, in its own way, a microcosm of world history and of international affairs in modern times, beginning with the Renaissance and Reformation. It dates to aboriginal times as well as to the eras of the Viking, Breton, and Portuguese mariners. Canada is arguably one of the most multicultural nations in the world,
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INTRODUCTION
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and in that sense one of the youngest nation-states, potentially perhaps the most promising. If outsiders consider Canadian politics and history dull or confusing, it is mainly because of a failure to appreciate the Canadian tendency toward accommodation and co-association. Conflict resolution is pervasive in Canadian society, and good manners and decency an invariable hallmark of personal relations. Four continuities—imperial connections, two founding European peoples, federal-provincial relations, and a border with the United States—are to be found throughout the national experience, although the relative degree of importance of these varies from time to time. Similarly, the degree of importance of these continuities can vary widely from province to province and from region to region. These four strands of continuity underscore the predominant themes of Canadian history and the complexity of the nation’s past and its current historical legacies. Historical Continuity 1: Imperial Connections The first continuity is the connection to and devolution from the British Empire. Inasmuch as the creation of Canada as a nation rests on imperial projection of European power, first by France (and marginally Spain) and second by Britain (triumphant in 1763 in consequence of the Seven Years War), the relationships of French-speaking and Englishspeaking colonists to sovereign power and imperial structures of government headquartered in Paris and London have been profound and pervasive. Such influences, now diminished to mere vestiges, declined rapidly after 1931. They may be said to have concluded on 17 April 1982, when the consolidated British North American Act of 1867 was “patriated,” that is, brought home or made native, by the Government of Canada. Concurrently, an amending formula for that same act was effected for the first time, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was brought into being. These were momentous days in the history of the Canadian constitution. Until the Quiet Revolution of the mid-20th century, the Roman Catholic Church had a profound impact on the history of New France and Québec, especially in measures of community building, in societal integration and ethnic homogeneity, and in education, social welfare, and health care. Until 1763, French imperial institutions dominated
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INTRODUCTION
Canadian life in New France. Thereafter, these continued as important legacies in civil law, the legalities of landholding, and the religious and educational institutions. Meanwhile, French Canadian society nurtured itself and expanded under a different, co-associational imperial power, that of Britain. Other parts of Canada, of Britannic stock, had a different sense of self and a different concept of identity. The co-association of French and English in Canada was the first task that national politicians had to concern themselves with, besides looking after their local constituents. The balance was often difficult and ambiguous. Modern Canada grew up in an imperial age. Canada, the mother dominion, shared the sense of the British Empire’s power and global influence. Adherence to the tradition of a British imperial past may now be more sentimental than real. However, previous adherence to such values, particularly during the South African or Boer War, World War I, and World War II, showed Canada and Great Britain as the closest of allies. The current ties that bind are represented in Canada’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which indicates a rejection of isolationism and an affirmation of international obligations for European stability. Historical Continuity 2: Two Founding European Peoples The second continuity of Canadian history is the interrelationship—more specifically, the friction—between the English and French in Canada. Separate entities developed side by side, although in business, government, and sport, both alliances and mergers were a way of life. Hostilities emerged long after the 1759 conquest and became pronounced in the 1820s, leading to the Rebellion of 1837 in Lower Canada and its aftermath. Education and language legislation restrictions induced feelings of confinement and discrimination. The conscription (the Canadian and British term for the draft) in the two world wars accentuated certain French fears that Canada was fighting British imperial wars. Later, rapid French Canadian population growth, gradual secularization of Québec, and growth of institutions in Québec (especially higher education) induced demands for greater powers for linguistic, educational, and provincial autonomy. The federal government responded with a policy promoting bilingualism and biculturalism.
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INTRODUCTION
• 9
In recent times, especially since 1976, discussion of separation has become an accepted part of Canadian political culture. However, more English-speaking people speak French than ever before, more school boards have “immersion” classes, and devolution of federal powers to provinces, including Québec, have negated many arguments for an independent Québec. However, the duality of the Canadian population is an ongoing feature of Canada. Not likely to disappear, the issue will reappear in different guises. Historical Continuity 3: Federal-Provincial Relations The third continuity of Canadian history is to be found in federalprovincial relations, or intergovernmental affairs as it is now called. The “Québec question” is one such major demonstration of the problem. Canada is a federation. That means that centralist views of what a federation is—or might be—will vary from peripheral views of the same arrangement. “Double-image” federalism often reflects strong federal and strong provincial (or territorial) intergovernmental arrangements. Just about every province has called for greater provincial powers. Québec’s call is one variant of this; Ontario and especially Alberta and British Columbia have called for greater autonomy, especially over fiscal matters. Historical Continuity 4: The United States as Neighbor The fourth continuity of Canadian history is the nation’s relationships to the United States. Living beside the world’s most powerful nation has had a profound effect on Canadian history. In colonial wars, especially in 1775 and 1777 during the American Revolution, and then again in the War of 1812, Canada was invaded by American armed forces. After the Peace of 1814, the continuing threat of American attack formed an important reason for British and Canadian defense preparations. The American Civil War and the Fenian (radical Irish nationalist) problems of the 1860s presented numerous cross-border and diplomatic problems. Anglo-American difficulties invariably had a side effect on Canada. By 1914, such threats had disappeared. Allies in two great wars and in Korea, Canada and the United States established joint defense
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INTRODUCTION
arrangements after 1940. The economies and transportation infrastructures of the two nations are virtually merged, and this is evidenced in telecommunications, visual and print media, and automobile production. National security measures, including enhanced border security procedures, have been harmonized with those of the United States. Still, Canada’s foreign policy has attempted to steer an independent course as circumstances will allow. In the Vietnam War, for example, Canada maintained neutrality. In 2003, Canada did not join the “coalition of the willing” to wage war against Iraq. In peacekeeping, a separate and unique mode of foreign policy in keeping with United Nation objectives has been pursued by Canada. NATO obligations are being met through the Afghanistan Mission.
PERIODS OF CANADIAN HISTORY For convenience, the history of Canada may be divided into periods: the colonial era to 1867; the national era, 1867 to 1914; national consolidation, 1914 to 1945; and the modern era, in three parts: 1945 to 1982, 1982 to 1999, and the new millennium: Canada since 2000. What follows are brief profiles of these periods and a retrospective on Canadian history which comments on present directions and future prospects. The Colonial Era to 1867 Prior to European exploration, Canada was inhabited by many different First Nations from the east coast to the west coast and in the Arctic. The native societies were far from primitive. At the time that Europeans began to explore Canada, in about 1000 CE, First Nations already knew much about the landmass and had adapted to the climate and weather of Canada. The natives of eastern lands incorporated agriculture, fishing, and hunting into their ways of life; those of western plains followed the migration patterns of the buffalo and other game. On the coasts, the natives relied on the seas as a means of subsistence. In their respective localities, they knew the rivers, lakes, and seas, and they had developed technological aids to assist in their travel. The birchbark canoe and the kayak are two important and well-known legacies, but to these could be added techniques for survival in the wilderness, such as tent making,
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INTRODUCTION
• 11
berry collecting, and food dehydrating. Upon contact, European explorers were met by cultures that had adapted and incorporated the land into their daily lives. The explorers adopted many of these important aids to survival, and from natives they gained a greater degree of knowledge about the land they were exploring than they were prepared to admit in their writings. The colonial era of Canadian history begins with the English claim to Newfoundland in 1583. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who made the claim, found Spanish and Portuguese fishing boats in St. John’s Harbor. British policy encouraged the fishery as a nursery of seamen, and until 1824 Newfoundland developed as an extension of metropolitan England. Settlement, though at first discouraged, brought desires for self-government, which was awarded by Britain in 1855. French claims to shoreline and inshore fisheries remained until 1906, but by 1713 English sovereignty was established over the island proper. The local indigenes, the Beothuk, died off by 1829, partly owing to diseases and to incursions by Mi’kmaq from Acadia. At the same time that Newfoundland and Labrador were emerging as fishing stations of imperial importance, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island grew as places of colonization. Both of the latter began under the French flag. The French name for Nova Scotia, especially its western section, was Acadia. An important early colonization attempt by Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain at Port Royal marked the first European agricultural settlement on what is now Canadian territory. Under James I, the Scot Sir William Alexander received a charter to colonize Nova Scotia. In 1713, after suffering from colonial wars and pirate raids, Acadia passed into British hands—leaving Cape Breton and Île Saint-Jean (as Prince Edward Island was then called) under the French flag. Louisbourg was built as a French naval and mercantile base, and Halifax was founded as a British counterpart or counterweight to Louisbourg. In 1758, Louisbourg fell to British arms for the last time, and in 1763 British control was complete. After the American Revolution, Loyalists came in numbers to the mainland or western segment of Nova Scotia, and the province of New Brunswick was created to serve local needs. The American Tory influence in this part of British America was profound and significant. Prince Edward Island, meanwhile, was established as a separate colony. Although much talk existed about a maritime union of these colonies,
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INTRODUCTION
in association with Newfoundland, no such association came into being. Common needs for transportation and defense encouraged a closer association with the “Upper Provinces” of Québec and Ontario. However, strong particularities, oligarchies, and colonial capitals encouraged diversity, which remains as an important legacy of this period. Colonial culture remained closely tied to Mother England, though in some senses north-south links to New England contributed in another way to the separateness and diversity of these people in comparison to those of Newfoundland, Québec, or Ontario. Québec claims the oldest permanent European colonization in what is now Canada, although this claim has been disputed. In 1608, Champlain established a habitation at the narrows of the St. Lawrence River, Québec. He is regarded as the founder of New France. “On arrival I looked for a place suitable to our settlement,” he recorded, “but I could not find any more suitable or better situated than the point of Québec, so called by the natives.” His men set to work clearing land, digging foundations and drainage ditches, and erecting a storehouse. The habitation, so called, had a stockade and moat for defense. Twenty-eight Frenchmen, including Champlain, began the winter, but owing to the severity of that season and the scarcity of fresh food, a number died of dysentery and scurvy. When a mutiny plot was discovered, the ringleader was tried and hanged. But a beginning at trade and permanent occupation had been made. France had arrived in the New World in these northern latitudes, and the community grew, though frequently by fits and starts, into the anchor of French empire in America. Champlain’s place in early Canadian history is of prodigious importance, for from the narrows of the St. Lawrence River an empire grew to the west, north, and south—one with seemingly limitless possibilities though dependent for a time on sustenance from France, peace with rival colonial powers, and always, consent of the indigenous peoples. From these early times, the fur trade was the engine of the colonial economy, the lifeblood of banking, commerce, and relations with native peoples. English pirates held Québec from 1629 to 1632, and raids by English colonists and British forces attempted to wrest the colony of New France away from Versailles. The Recollet, Jesuit, and Ursuline orders made vitally important contributions to religious development; they did so in missionary work as well as in settled jurisdictions. In other words, the wilderness as well as the town and parish saw the
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cross. In those days, the Church walked hand in hand with the State. All education came under their administration—and all social welfare, too. Settlement was developed under rigorous administration, both corporate and civil. The seigneurial system was a form of regulated frontier development, designed to open new lands to colonization and to encourage family growth. The system was not feudal as has been imagined. Rather, it encouraged strong family land ownership and it permitted transfer of the land title or occupancy. Moreover, and most importantly, it built a homogeneous society in the St. Lawrence Valley and immediate hinterland—a fundamentally important characteristic of the early history of Canada. Not until 1763 did the king of France relinquish claims to sovereignty over Canada. That famous year, Québec passed officially to British sovereignty, though military occupation had began in 1759. It is important to understand that Québec’s subsequent prosperity and uniqueness depended on the duality of French Canadian resourcefulness and British security, for in the years after 1763, a benign British policy allowed for the continuance of French civil law and Roman Catholic practices (including tithing), while at the same time British military capabilities prevented armed American revolutionaries from capturing the colony in 1775 and 1777. By virtue of the (Royal) Proclamation of October 1763, the Province of Québec was declared as an administrative unit of British North America. The province did not include Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Rupert’s Land. From 1763 to 1791, when the British government divided the territory of Québec into Upper and Lower Canada, the governors in Québec answered to the ultimate will of Great Britain, its parliament and ministers, but largely and extensively directed the course of Québec’s destiny on the spot. This was especially true during the governorships of James Murray, Guy Carleton, and Frederick Haldimand. Carleton principally directed the growing autonomy of Québec by the terms of the Québec Act of 1774 (of which he was the architect). This act enlarged the province’s boundaries and trade and guaranteed its unique civil rights in law and religion. Administration of justice was little changed during this period. Concilial government was extended, and the ancient political and social patterns, developed during the era of New France, were extended and engendered. The year 1774 marked the establishment of a recognized
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INTRODUCTION
distinct colony: with a French-speaking majority under Roman Catholicism and using French civil law. What they could not change—and, significantly, did not seek to change—the British government and governors embraced to their own benefit and that of the new Canadian subjects of George III. The Québec Act was unrevolutionary. For 30 years, Québec grew and strengthened as a single unit. The American invasions during the American Revolution were resisted and thrown back, principally by British forces. French Canadian councilors, clergy, administrators, merchants, and seigneurs dominated the day-today workings of the province. Commerce, including banking and shipping, was almost exclusively the domain of the British. Further, British imperial legislation encouraged the fur trade in British hands, making the St. Lawrence River the entryway, or vestibule, to the continental interior. This measure was undertaken at the expense of the New York– based fur trade into the Great Lakes and Ohio country. Canadian canals and harbor installations were built to facilitate trade and overcome the geographical obstacles of the St. Lawrence above Montréal. Many interpretations exist on the nature and historical meaning of the Québec Act. Bostonians claimed it was a means of raising Roman Catholics for a Canadian militia to attack Boston. To call it a “legal monument of British justice and generosity,” as Britannic-minded historian William Kingsford did more than a century ago, is equally incorrect and wrongheaded. The Québec Act granted liberties but only in the sense of that age. Governor Carleton (later Lord Dorchester) was seeking to engender Québec’s population in its civic and political loyalties, and he thought in terms of imperial defense and good administration. In the circumstances, London released its tight control and ended the military regime, at the same time devolving administration to a province whose political, judicial, and economic structures were largely put in place in the two decades before the 1763 transfer of sovereignty. The quality of British administration contrasted sharply with the graft and corruption during the governorship of the Marquis de Vaudreuil and under chief administrator Francois Bigot. The Roman Catholic Church’s extensive (some thought it priest-ridden) power was enhanced with the rapid growth of the Québécois population, often called “the revenge of the cradle.” The conquest, the Québec Act, and the division of the Province of Québec in 1791 into Upper and Lower Canada have often been cited by historians of Québec, especially nationalist inspired ones
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and above all separatists, as measures of British imperial suppression. Those perspectives are false. The year 1791 was further proof of London’s desire to give integrity to its colonial jurisdiction administered in Québec City, and the representative form of legislative government introduced that year accorded exactly with the growth of such government in the emerging and diverse second British Empire. Using the conquest as a symbol of oppression is in contravention and denial of historical facts. Such repressive measures as were enacted by London and British governors date from a later period, the 1820s and 1830s and the age in which British ministers of state sought to reinforce crown and parliamentary authority in an imperial context at a time of revolutionary instability in post-Napoleonic Europe. Throughout the first two centuries of Canadian history under European influence, native peoples played a significant role in the balance of power in North America. Montagnais, Huron, Iroquois, and Ottawa (among others less prominent) shaped the course of history in the St. Lawrence lowlands and Great Lakes. But native numbers suffered because of disease, displacement, and warfare; they also declined because of internecine rivalry and native diseases, many introduced even before European contact. Natives traded for guns and ammunition, liquor, tobacco, cloth, beads, and other commodities. In consequence, they became dependent on European traders. In their treaty making, agents of imperial powers did not always favor tribes, or kept them at odds with one another. Indians were the key to the control of the empire of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes area, and the northwest trade beyond Detroit, Michilimackinac, and Grand Portage. In fact, Indians held the balance of power in the interior; they were a decisive factor in France’s war against Britain in North America. When, about 1757, native allegiance generally transferred to Britain, France lost its valued native help in North America. Indians acted out of self-interest; their roles and political stances were often paradoxical or ambiguous. The Iroquois fought first against the British, then against the French, their double intent to defeat both. Britain maintained that native alliance through the American Revolution and the War of 1812. After 1815, as native military support was no longer needed, Indians ceased to have such value to the Crown. This began an era of neglect or indifference. In the American Revolution, Canada became the bulwark of the British Empire in North America. Halifax, and Nova Scotia generally, was
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INTRODUCTION
a key “anchor of empire.” So were Québec and Montréal, which were heavily fortified. In Nova Scotia, which had many New England family connections, there was much residual affection for the revolutionaries of Boston and New York, but no general overt action against the Crown occurred. Nor in the Province of Québec were there any armed risings against the Crown. American armed invasions in 1775 by Benedict Arnold and in 1777 by John Burgoyne were checked or stalled. Smallpox wasted Arnold’s army as well. The war had important consequences: Loyalists (refugees from republicanism) came in heavy numbers to British North America. This, in turn, necessitated constitutional change: the establishment of New Brunswick and Upper Canada (now Ontario) as colonies or provinces. The War of 1812 saw a continuance of British dominance in Québec and the failure of assault from the United States. Upper Canada was a battleground between U.S. and Canadian armed forces. Struggles for command of the Great Lakes continued, and favored the Americans. But the peace of 1814 showed no changes to the boundaries. Québec remained untouched. In the internal affairs of Québec, two features are noteworthy: the evolution of the seigneurial system of landholding, a quasi-feudal arrangement that allowed for patterned communities; and the prevalence of the Roman Catholic Church and other French institutions, including language and schools. Britain had no desire to live by the sword. As the French-speaking population grew, which it did rapidly in the early 19th century, so did indigenous desires for colonial self-government. Constitutional measures and means of government as instituted by the British government were manipulated by the English minority, sowing seeds of discontent and rebellion. Despite warnings of disaffection, the British ministry in London did not heed the rising storm signals, and in 1837–38 came the Lower Canada rebellion, the largest insurrection in Canadian history. Some of the rebels sought security by crossing the border to the United States. Many were caught, tried, and convicted. Some found guilty were shipped to Bermuda or to Tasmania. Others were tried and hanged. One of them, Chevalier de Lorimier, on the eve of his hanging in 1839, issued these words: “For [my countrymen] I die on the gallows like a vile murderer, for them I leave behind my young children and my wife with no other support, and for them I die shouting ‘Long live freedom. Long live independence.’” Those words echo down
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INTRODUCTION
• 17
the years. As former Québec premier Bernard Landry said in 2009: “Independence and freedom of nations must be pursued until it is achieved. Nations that can be free have a duty to be. Québec can be, and it must do it. What Chevalier de Lorimier said in 1838, we can say today, and we will say it as long as [independence] is not done.” In response to the rebellion, London intended remedial measures, including commissioning a new governor, Lord Durham, to inquire into the causes of disaffection and report accordingly. His report is regarded as a magna carta of the British Empire, for it encouraged colonial selfgovernment without Britain in any way abandoning responsibilities for foreign affairs. Durham’s report had many other recommendations, including the introduction of municipal government and the encouragement of a distant federal structure of British colonies in North America. Eventually, in 1849, self-government was achieved by Lower Canada, or Canada East as it was then called. Meanwhile, Montréal and the Province of Québec had grown into a powerful focal point of Canadian politics and financial affairs. Ontario grew out of, or more correctly was separated from, Québec in the year 1791. Loyalist settlers from the United States had settled lands on the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence and of Lakes Ontario and Erie. The freehold land tenure of Upper Canada set it apart from the distinct seigneurial system of landholding (leasehold) in Lower Canada. In addition, Upper Canada had a primarily English-speaking populace which, equally, set it aside from that of Québec. Events of the War of 1812 reinforced anti-American sympathies among the Upper Canada population. Upper Canada was renamed Canada West in 1840, and for a time Canada West and Canada East formed a sort of double government of co-association. Meanwhile British settlers, mainly from Ireland and Scotland, arrived in Canada West in large numbers, on assisted passages from Great Britain. “Late Loyalists” arrived from the United States, taking up inexpensive lands. Religious diversity replaced an older Anglican oligarchy, and the struggle for public lands and education took on nonsectarian dimensions out of necessity. Public schools and the university in Toronto (the colonial seat) responded to these nonsectarian requirements. British assisted immigration from Ireland and Scotland, sometimes called “shoveling out paupers,” brought thousands of impoverished, land-seeking immigrants to Canada, particularly to Ontario, and by dint of numbers mightily increased the non-Anglican
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INTRODUCTION
nature of the original European population. Tensions between Roman Catholic and Protestant Irish were a by-product of this immigration. The first schools, public and private, were established in this period, and the first colleges and universities, too. The mid-19th century was thus profoundly important in Canada’s history. The rapid growth of public schooling dates from approximately 1840 to 1870. Primary and elementary education became mandatory in most British North American colonies by 1846, with Ontario a national leader in English education curriculum development, teacher training, and learning materials production (especially primers, textbooks, maps, and atlases). By 1870, most colonies and provinces had high school, or secondary, education as a mandatory requirement for students up to age 16. Manual and technical training was in its infancy (apprenticeship the route to tradesman qualification), and domestic science not yet thought of as a subject to study in schools. The centralized Ontario curriculum, the growth of hospitals and health clinics, the founding of institutions for the insane and criminally insane, and the establishment of orphanages and systems of child welfare followed a general trend of foundation and then expansion. But demand outdistanced supply, and in the late 19th century, despite the emergence of many volunteer organizations that had responded to societal needs, the population’s needs remained great. A public awareness of social and health needs emerged from this time, aided by a largely publicly funded, publicly conscious system of education from primary through elementary and then through high school years. Throughout much of this era, the commerce of British North America depended largely on resource extraction and staple trades. Key among these were furs, fish, sawn timber, spars, gypsum, potash, and wheat. Later, shipbuilding became a major sector of the economy, most hulls being built for export sale. Railroad and canal development encouraged Canadian exports. The infrastructure of ports was strengthened. Halifax, Montréal, Québec, and Toronto all emerged as important entrepôts. Meanwhile, the Montréal-based North West Company (based on earlier practices of French traders) was succeeded by the Hudson’s Bay Company (founded 1670), and during the 19th century the fur trade persisted, though trade became more diversified by the company. The 19th century saw many changes in transportation, for this was the age of industrial steam. River and lake navigation was speeded up by
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INTRODUCTION
• 19
steam. Railways opened up areas for colonization and trade. Montréal and Toronto enhanced their positions because of steam navigation and railways. Governments, federal and provincial, provided incentives for growth in transportation infrastructure, backing commercial ventures with guaranteed bonds or gifts of land. A railway bridge crossing the St. Lawrence River (opened in 1859) was an important step in realizing a transcontinental link of empire of steam, iron, and steel. Telegraph lines and submarine cables speeded commerce and communications. Surveyors, geologists, and engineers all advanced in this time a scientific and technological understanding of the promise of Canada. Industrial development, and with it unions and other means of worker cooperation (and cooperatives), occurred side by side with the rapid growth of the export trades in staples and primary products. Commercial infrastructure, including banking, insurance, and shipping, expanded in these same years, taking on continent-wide dimensions with links to Britain and especially to the United States. Reciprocity with the United States in 1854–1866 aided the north-south commercial interchange. Meanwhile, the construction of the Erie Canal tended to subvert the commercial empire of the St. Lawrence. The construction of railways could not overcome, and did not attempt to overcome, the increasing dominance of the United States in North American commerce. In fact, Canadian businesspeople had their eye on Chicago and the Mississippi Valley as places for commercial expansion and British American commercial growth. By 1867, British North America consisted of the following colonies or provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Canada East (old Lower Canada) and Canada West (old Upper Canada), and British Columbia. It also included Assiniboia and Rupert’s Land. As will be seen, only four of these jurisdictions were to form the Dominion of Canada. By this time, forces mainly external to these provinces or territories were bringing about the reasons for a confederation of these parts: threat of American aggression after the American Civil War and the expression of continental integration known as Manifest Destiny; the continuing reluctance of Great Britain to defend forever the territory of British North America and the desire to devolve such responsibilities upon the colonies; the need to encourage continental free trade (and prevent disputes on cross-border trade and fishing). In addition, internal reasons for effecting a confederation
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INTRODUCTION
existed: the need to overcome the difficulties of a double government in the United Province of Canada; requirements to guarantee funding of a projected intercolonial railway linking Halifax with Montréal; general Canadian or British American control over local needs in transportation, finance, and economic regulation. This third point was the significant source of much Canadian nationalist feeling. The National Era, 1867 to 1914 Four colonies made up the newly constituted Dominion of Canada in 1867—Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec, and Ontario (the last two created from the United Province of Canada). The British North America Act (BNA) of 1867, a British statute, allowed for a strong central government to deal with national matters, but at the same time the constitution was to give expression to local matters. The Confederation of 1867 was not an end but a beginning, a blueprint for national expansion and consolidation. Section 91 of the BNA Act specified that the federal structure was for “peace, order, and good government.” The dominion’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, never tired of stressing that the parliament and the central government were to have a commanding role in the new system. He and other proponents of confederation sought to avoid the weaknesses and mistakes of the U.S. federal system by giving residual powers to the federal government. The Canadian Senate was established by the BNA Act as a means of protecting the cultural identity and linguistic interests of a primarily French-speaking Québec and as a means to represent sectional and regional interests. Also to promote and secure the national interest, powers of appointing lieutenantgovernors and Supreme Court judges (and also powers of disallowing provincial legislation) were vested in the federal government. Uses of the English and French languages were guaranteed in Canada’s parliament and in federal courts. In addition, provincial powers and controls over education were established, though remedial arrangements could be undertaken by the governor general in Council (the Privy Council) if necessary. In other words, minority interests were to be protected, as were denominational affiliations and sectarian interests. For a number of reasons, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia (all of them existing colonies) did not join the union at the outset. Reluctant to embrace the new scheme,
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INTRODUCTION
• 21
it was only later, when circumstances (mainly fiscal and economic) required, that they joined the federation. Reluctance to surrender local colonial power was a factor. So was the fear that direct links to London would be severed. Some thought confederation a likely failure. Canada was regarded by opponents as an experiment, as yet unproven. But the whole project was backed by the might of British bonds for the construction of a railway and canals, and the public credit of Ottawa was raised on the London stock exchange, backed by Westminster. The first principal territorial gain for the new Dominion of Canada was Assiniboia and the old Hudson’s Bay Company territory of Rupert’s Land. This territory was bought by Britain from the company and then transferred to the Dominion of Canada, the new Ottawa government paying the nominal transfer fee. By this arrangement, which ranks among the largest real estate deals in history, Canada acquired the Northwest Territories. Meanwhile, the Métis of Red River rightly objected to Canadian assumption of control and rebelled against a lieutenant governor sent to put up the Union Jack for Canada. The Métis leader Louis Riel, a rebel who was later dubbed ingeniously “the Father of Manitoba,” eventually agreed to a new arrangement by which Manitoba became a province with representation in Ottawa. The balance of the Northwest Territories was administered directly by Ottawa through a nominated, later elected, council eventually established at Regina. The North West Mounted Police (later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) was established to patrol the Canadian prairie and foothills west, to keep American whisky traders in check, and to support the civil authorities in the regular settlement of western Canada. “The law marches west” became the stuff of legend. The military needs of the Dominion of Canada, especially the training and education of a Canadian officer corps, led to the founding in 1876 of the Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian Pacific Railway, the Dominion Lands Act, and the National Policy for Tariffs all encouraged the opening of “the last, best west,” which by 1905 consisted of three provinces—Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The Northwest Territories and the Yukon existed in more northerly latitudes under Ottawa’s immediate control. In 1885, the Mounted Police and the Canadian Army (in its first military operation) put down the Northwest Rebellion in the Upper Saskatchewan River valley, bringing native (including Métis and Indian) resistance to an end. This pacification resulted in the trial and execution of
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INTRODUCTION
Riel and shortly thereafter a general amnesty for Indian chiefs engaged in the rising. Further railway construction and the building of canals to encourage waterborne transport had major benefits to the Canadian infrastructure and to international commerce. British Columbia emerged from an old North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) background, and the earliest settlements date from the profitable fur trade and missionary era. Heavily populated by natives, this area was a unique frontier, for its links were less transcontinental than they were by way of stormy Cape Horn. Until the railway era, commencing in 1885, British Columbia (as the province became) had a unique start. In 1849, Vancouver Island was established as a colony under HBC proprietorship. In 1858 a separate colony called British Columbia came into existence for entirely different reasons than the settlement-based Vancouver Island. British Columbia was a gold colony. Its capital was New Westminster, until a forced union of the colonies made Victoria the capital of the United Colony of British Columbia. After colonial union, some minor discussions were held on the subject of union with the United States but came to nothing. In 1871, British Columbia entered into terms of union with Canada, on promises of debt assumption and a regular railway communication with Canada. A sea-to-sea dominion was thus effected under this bold stroke, which was a triumph for Macdonald’s government and, in the background, British imperial policy for the devolution of authority to the self-governing colonies. National consolidation followed British Columbia’s union with Canada. In 1873, Prince Edward Island entered confederation under certain benefits, including the promise of communication across the Strait of Northumberland and the assumption by Ottawa of the colonial debt. Meanwhile, the national commercial dream was becoming a reality. Commerce coursed through Canadian veins. The National Policy encouraged east-west transportation links, the industrialization of Ontario and Québec, the opening of Canadian western lands, the policing of the prairie west, and the building of the national infrastructure in the face of steady American encroachments. It encouraged the concept of Canada among the varied peoples of British North America. The Canadian Pacific Railway, completed in 1885 to Pacific tidewater, completed Canada, or made the transcontinental dream a reality.
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INTRODUCTION
• 23
Looked at from another perspective, the two decades before 1914 were the period of acute national growing pains. Problems that had to be faced were the liberalization of Québec politics (and the end of Roman Catholic dominance in secular affairs), the crisis of French language rights in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, the struggle for control of the Yukon-Alaska border, and the fights between provinces (mainly Ontario, Manitoba, and Québec) and federal government over linguistic rights. As mentioned, one major crisis, in 1885, was the Saskatchewan rebellion or rising, when Métis and certain natives fought Canadian police and army and were suppressed at terrible cost. In the latter part of this era, Christian aid groups emerged that we now classify under the heading of the Social Gospel. Dedicated to social regeneration and improvement, agents of the Social Gospel promoted a Christian cooperative movement that had strong utopian zeal and saw in Canada the possibilities for an ideal society. The role of Methodists and Presbyterians was powerful and convincing, especially that of the larger and more formidable Methodists. Baptists and Congregationalists were also active in social regeneration and reform. Taken together with the temperance movement, antinarcotics legislation, home and town improvements, scouts and guides, mothers unions, home economics, professional nursing, medically sound psychiatric assessment and care, and public health funded by voluntary associations, we see from this period important precursors of the welfare state of the late 20th century. This era also saw the Canadianization of national institutions, including the militia (not a reserve but a standing army), the garrisons at the Esquimalt and Halifax naval bases, and the statutory establishment of the Canadian Naval Service (in 1910). Canada sent a contingent to the Sudan and another, larger one to the South African War (Boer War). In 1914–18, Canada took gigantic steps and fielded a Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I, regarded as a remarkable national effort. By 1914, Canada was a powerful, self-governing dominion in the British Empire, regarded by many as the mother dominion. Three national transcontinental railways had been laid down, assorted canals had breached certain navigational difficulties, and banks and financial houses had enlarged the mechanisms for such consolidation. Equally important, Canada had received countless immigrants, principally from
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INTRODUCTION
Great Britain but also from Germany, Ukraine, and the United States. A nascent national society was being established, based on earlier colonial identities but now transcontinental in scope and in perspective. Registered native peoples came under a national Indian Act. Chinese and Sikhs were in Canada in increasing numbers, many illegally. Blacks in Nova Scotia, there since the era of the American Revolution, and in Ontario, there since the days of the Underground Railway, formed conspicuous minorities. These were days of national innocence, assured by the imperial link. Above all else, Canada was Britannic, non-American, and rather proudly independent. But these were days before “the Guns of August” brought on an altogether different, more horrific world. Between 1897 and 1912, some 2,250,000 persons immigrated to Canada, and a like number would enter the country in subsequent years down to 1930. Forty percent of these arrivals were of British stock. Other “new Canadians” came from the United States, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Holland, and elsewhere. Ukrainians and Germans came in noteworthy numbers, and in doing so foreshadowed a multicultural society. Most agricultural immigrants went to the prairies, where the population increased from 230,000 in 1891 to 1,327,000 in 1911. Alberta and Saskatchewan were created provinces in 1905, an index and in recognition of their growing populations. It should be noted that many of the new immigrants were from industrial backgrounds. In fact, two-thirds of all immigrant males came from industrial experience. Thus, general laborers or mechanics, clerks, traders, miners, and navvies working on railway construction also changed the character of the Canadian population. This was an era of rapid urbanization. Urban social ills inspired James Shaver Woodsworth, a Methodist minister and union advocate among longshoremen, and many others to develop the Social Gospel for social improvement of the masses mainly through voluntary services and agencies. Chinese and Japanese males invariably came as contract labor. Asian immigration was tightly regulated by Ottawa and even by Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. National Consolidation, 1914 to 1945 The themes of this period of Canadian history are intensely national rather than provincial, for it was during this era that national achieve-
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INTRODUCTION
• 25
ments and struggles assumed prominence in the overall history. War helped forge a nation. The two world wars brought in national mechanisms of control and mobilization, which now may be seen as coercive and forceful tendencies backed by legislation and regulation to put national needs first. Even in the interwar period, which is marked by the Great Depression, federal authority was employed to bring about the means of minimizing the effect of unemployment and dislocation. It is true that Canada went to war upon the British declaration of war in 1914, but it remained Canada’s choice as to the degree of participation in the war against Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and their allies. One million Canadians donned uniforms in what was then called the Great War. The Royal Canadian Navy came into its own, and Canadians served in numbers in the Royal Flying Corps. Canada’s 1917 triumph at Vimy Ridge remains legendary. Newfoundland’s sad human losses in other encounters are not forgotten, especially Beaumont Hamel in 1916, when the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was virtually annihilated. The Canadian economy, and the means of organizing it, became strong because of war. Pro-Empire sentiment superimposed itself on pro-Canadian perspectives, and vice versa. What sort of postwar world could be created from the European ashes? Canada was a signatory, under the British Empire delegation, of the peace treaties. Meanwhile, during the war, Canada had become a member of the British imperial war cabinet and had taken steps toward a redefinition of dominion status after the war. In 1931, by the Statute of Westminster, the autonomy of Canada was assured, as it was for the other self-governing dominions. But there were other events in which Canada could have little influence, including the Russian Revolution and the rise of international communism. Canada sent a military expedition to Vladivostok to prop up the sagging White Russian, tsarist regime, but to no lasting effect. The 1920s were years of stunning economic growth. Trade with the United States increased dramatically. Canadians became more North American in outlook. Many shared the pervasive isolation of Americans. However, they were not bound by the legal constraints that their American cousins had imposed on themselves by acts of Congress. At the same time, the wary Canadians, zealous of their independence and distrustful of British imperialism, became less anxious than before to come to the aid of a Europe they thought should be able to look after
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INTRODUCTION
its own affairs and police its own difficulties. Canada became a member of the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization conventions and promoted dominion autonomy in the British Empire. But Canada feared obligations to the League that might bind it to action in advance of decision making that must be made in Ottawa. Canada avoided any organizational links with the Latin American republics, leaving that to the United States, the Pan American Union, and later the Organization of American States (which Canada eventually joined). In a great number of ways, the 1930s marked a significant departure from the previous decade. High spirits and the carefree nature of a country swept up in isolationism as it became more North American (or continental) soon were replaced by poverty, despair, civil strife, and a menacing threat of war. Unemployment, dust bowls, food kitchens, work camps, sit-ins, riots, and a protest known as the “On to Ottawa march (or trek)” highlighted Canadian social and economic affairs. Old ways of doing politics had to be replaced by new “isms.” New political parties emerged: the Social Credit and Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) being most noteworthy. Even the Conservative federal government flirted with a 1930s collective response called the “New Deal,” a watered-down adaptation of what U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Democrats had introduced in the United States. Meanwhile, the automobile age had come to Canada, establishing nascent car and car parts manufacturing industries, notably in Windsor, St. Catharines, Chatham, and Oshawa, all in Ontario, the latter home of the McLaughlin Buick. The American Automotive Workers, later the Canadian Automobile Workers, became a powerful industrial union. Many large American corporations—Westinghouse, RCA Victor, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, National Cash Register, Raytheon, and others set up branch plants in Canada. Duke Power Company, a forerunner of Québec Hydro, dominated hydroelectricity in that province. Canadian national institutions emerged during the interwar period, including Trans-Canada Airlines (the forerunner of Air Canada), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), National Film Board (NFB), and St. Lawrence Seaway. Railway consolidation had already been effected under the title of Canadian National Railways (now Railway). Unemployment insurance was brought into being, and the Bank of Canada was established.
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• 27
In 1939, Canada declared war on Germany and Italy, and it did likewise in 1941 against Japan. For six years during World War II, Canada fought a major war effort at home and abroad. Japanese Canadians were interned for two reasons: to protect Canada and to protect the Japanese from assault by other Canadians. Canada hosted the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, assumed major responsibility for convoy and anti-submarine patrols in the northwestern Atlantic, and became a major shipbuilding power. In addition, Canadian troops raided Dieppe, landed at Sicily and Normandy, and liberated Holland. The Royal Canadian Air Force’s Bomber Command Group 6 engaged in strategic bombing against German targets. Two Canadian regiments garrisoning Hong Kong were overrun by Japanese armed forces. Countless Canadians died in prisoner-of-war camps. At home, the economic infrastructure of the nation grew by leaps and bounds, aided by American investment. Newfoundland and Labrador bases came under U.S. control in exchange for financial relief for Great Britain. Joint boards of defense encouraged Canadian-American cooperation in armaments and war production. The Alaska Highway was built by the United States, with Canadian cooperation, for the purpose of supplying their ally the Soviet Union in the war effort against Germany. The U.S.-funded (though never completed) CANOL pipeline was built to transport oil north to U.S. forces in Alaska. By the time peace came in 1945, Canada was very much more continentalized, or Americanized, than ever before. British financial influence, already on the decline before 1939, diminished shortly thereafter, a victim of war debts and postwar rebuilding. Canada, contrary to what the United States did, wrote off the British war debt of 1939–1945. The Modern Era In many respects, the era after 1945 is one of maturation and independence. Although some historians see this as an era of crisis, principally that of Americanization, it is now clear that Canadian institutions matured and developed to a degree that a Canadian cultural independence was assured. In the professions, the arts, and in cultural and educational institutions, sturdy foundations were laid and notable national edifices erected. Canadian culture came into its own, shook off its colonial past,
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INTRODUCTION
and advanced in new creative ways. These indeed were formative, exciting years in the emergence of Canadian culture, political identity, and constitutional self-empowerment. But they were not without internal clashes, victims, and much sorrow, as discussed in the sections that follow. Canada, 1945 to 1982 In the years after 1945, rapid steps were made in the fields of public administration and government responsibility for welfare, employment, housing, and education. There was a general broadening of educational opportunity, with higher percentages of high school completions, more higher-education applicants, and broadening adult education. Technical training also expanded. Most influential in all of this was the evolution of public school systems and curricula, increasingly based on Canadianproduced learning materials. Canadian colleges and universities educated all to meet professional requirements for the nation, with links to Britain, France, and the United States. In the 1960s, the awarding of Ph.D. degrees became more general in Canada, especially in the arts and sciences, though only in the more senior, and larger, universities. As of 1971, Canada had 66 degree-granting institutions of higher learning. The “baby boom,” the Sputnik era, and growing demand for public university education all were factors in this sensational growth of universities and colleges. Canadian publishing, long considered under siege from Americanization or British colonial literature and neglect, entered its classic era, and even though threats to such independence were seen from time to time, an indigenous publishing industry existed, especially in Québec, Ontario, and British Columbia. A national sentiment was encouraged by the CBC on radio and television. The Canada Council and the National Film Board, the Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Social Science Federation made important contributions to identifying Canadian needs and concerns. All gave opportunities to Canadian talents. Many institutional changes came in these self-conscious years in consequence of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences (1951), better known as the Massey Commission. It announced a cultural principle of “Canada First.” Its recommendations for founding a national institution (the Canada Council,
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• 29
1957) and for the national funding of Canadian universities (effected 1957) were followed up by the federal government. This development was played out against an international backdrop. Americanization of Canadian universities, both feared and actual, resulted in the founding, by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, of a Commission on Canadian Studies. Chaired by Trent University’s founding president, T.H.B. Symons, the report To Know Ourselves (1975) urged increased attention to all aspects of Canadian Studies in universities and colleges, at home and abroad. The commission found general ignorance and, above all, neglect about “Canadian content” in curricula. To Know Ourselves coincided, quite generally, with a growing Canadian concern about the Americanization of Canadian periodical literature, films and television, and publishing. It also coincided with serious evaluations of the Americanization of the Canadian economy, which in turn resulted in the 1973 Foreign Investment Review Act (FIRA). Other reviews of Canadian fiscal dependency were undertaken, at various times, by Kari Levitt, Walter Gordon, and Herb Gray. Institutions or measures to encourage the family, including Family Allowance, home economics, and public health administration, enhanced the well-being of Canadian society. Public health, professional nurses training, and medical practices encouraged a far healthier population than that of a century before. Indeed, Canada made mighty advances in medicine, dentistry, public health, and better foods. Medicare, or public medicine, was introduced first in Saskatchewan in 1944. By measures of other provinces and of the federal government, this became, by 1966 and the empowering Medical Care Act, a national responsibility, universally guaranteed and portable. Similarly, Old Age Assistance and then Canada Pension universal protection were put in place (Québec established a separate scheme). By 1970, Canada had an advanced and universal social security network which, for all its faults, was a model of its kind. The population of Canada grew dramatically in this same period and, toward the latter part of the century, particularly beginning in the 1980s, became more ethnically diverse. In 1945, the population of Canada was about 11 million; by 1998, the population approximated 29 million. Whereas the growth immediately after 1945 arose from immigration by British, Dutch, German, Ukrainian, and other European peoples,
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INTRODUCTION
by the end of the period under consideration the largest immigration segment was Chinese from Hong Kong. In addition, Jamaicans and West Indians, East Indians, Africans, Vietnamese, and others have immigrated to Canada in large numbers. From southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italians, Greeks, and Portuguese are the most conspicuous in terms of numbers. Balkan wars, Palestinian difficulties, Iranian and Somalia conflicts—and many other disturbances besides—have had a direct result in Canadian immigration history and strengthened its multicultural dimensions. Québec insisted, and obtained, unique powers to manage immigration. The concept of multiculturalism was born in this period and with it the gradual acceptance of ethnic diversity. There was a growing appreciation of the fact that all Canadians shared in the experience of migration. The immigration past had begun before the dawn of recorded history and had endured to this present. The concept was attractive, but naturally resented in some quarters. In 1945, upon the return of peace, Canadians expected a return to normalcy. The Cold War, however, and the Gouzenko revelations of Soviet spying in Canada, jolted public consciousness. No radical views dominated the political stage, and two-party politics were prominent on the federal scene, though the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and Social Credit did send vocal members of parliament to Ottawa. No new federal parties were created during this period. In the federal election of June 1945, the Liberals under Mackenzie King were returned with a diminished but working majority. The sectional nature of Canadian national politics continued: all 65 seats in the Province of Québec were Liberal; the Progressive Conservatives in the House of Commons were largely from Ontario. The situation was much like 1921, when sectionalism was quite apparent. From 1949, through three elections fought under Louis St. Laurent, the Liberals held power. In 1957, the Progressive Conservatives under John George Diefenbaker were elected, first by a minority, then in 1958 by a stunning majority, and then again in 1962 by a reduced majority. Diefenbaker saw a new road to the north as a road to resources, a new destiny. Lester Pearson formed minority governments under the Liberal banner in 1963 and 1965. One of his more memorable initiatives was to establish a Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, largely to appease Québec. New divorce legislation was introduced at this time.
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Among the most important events of this era was the addition of Newfoundland and Labrador as a province. A colony since 1583, Newfoundland had rejected confederation twice, in 1867 and 1894, and was granted dominion status during World War I. Financial difficulties (amounting to near bankruptcy) during the Depression meant that the United Kingdom was forced to rescue Newfoundland from these, at the price of suspending self-government and placing Newfoundland in a form of control known as Commission. National independence for Newfoundland was an illusion, quite out of the question. World War II gave Newfoundland enhanced strategic and economic value, and as part of the postwar decolonization movement, Great Britain worked for a way to liquidate obligations overseas. In 1945, future options were considered. After an election and two referenda, Newfoundland and Labrador voted for confederation with Canada. On 31 March 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador became the 10th province of the Dominion of Canada. Canada assumed Newfoundland’s public debt, paid annual subsidies and transitional grants, gave better welfare services (e.g., Old Age Pensions), and introduced Canadian tariffs, which were higher than before. In 1962, the new province was given enhanced assistance, on the basis of a 1957 royal commission that found Newfoundland’s needs even greater than envisaged. Constitutional changes for the nation were noteworthy in this period. In 1947, all appeals direct to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, hitherto the highest court of review, were terminated. The Supreme Court of Canada became in all judicial matters the final court. In 1946, the Canadian Citizenship Act said that a Canadian was a British subject as well as a Canadian citizen, with the latter put first. In 1952, the first Canadian to become governor general of Canada, Vincent Massey, was installed, thus setting a precedent for Australia, New Zealand, and other dominions. To that point, all governors general had been British born and invariably soldiers, aristocrats, or other place holders. Provincial politics in this era was marked by an emerging local and regional consciousness—strongly felt in Québec, where Jean Lesage and the Liberals ushered in the Quiet Revolution. Like many other premiers of that province, Lesage argued for an enhanced role for his province in decision making and financial management. When René Levesque and the Parti Québécois were elected in 1976, a prosovereigntist government was firmly, and for the first time, in place.
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The excitement was tense. The 1980 referendum followed, and with it, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s promise that there would be constitutional renewal for Canada. In other words, Québec’s initiatives (which did not owe their uniqueness to one party or another) pushed Ottawa into a renewed attempt at resolving what was becoming a constitutional impasse. Other provinces were obliged to sit up and take note, for a shake-up in the federal structure could soon be in order. British Columbia and Alberta were likewise demonstrative of their political aspirations. In British Columbia, W.A.C. Bennett’s Social Credit Party held power for virtually a generation (until defeated by the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1972). This right-of-center coalition of Conservatives and Liberals was dedicated to commercial prosperity and keeping the socialists out of power. In Alberta, Social Credit and then the Progressive Conservatives, the latter under Peter Lougheed, had unrestricted parliamentary power based on several election victories. In both these provinces, great industrial development occurred: mining and forestry plus hydroelectric power in British Columbia; oil and natural gas extraction in Alberta. Thus, during the oil crisis of 1973, when the federal government introduced the National Energy Policy, with stringent controls over the pricing and export regulations of oil and natural gas, Alberta—and the western provinces generally— were outraged at Ottawa’s “interference.” Whereas the provinces had enjoyed explicit control over natural resources since the 1920s, the federal government used constituted powers under trade and commerce provisions of marketing beyond provincial borders to implement the National Energy Policy. Meanwhile, in 1967, Canada celebrated the centenary of Canadian confederation. A world’s fair known as Expo 67 was held in Montréal. It highlighted many architectural wonders, including Habitat. That celebratory year lit a flame in the hearts of Canadians, particularly those sympathetic to the causes of federalism, bridging the gaps between languages, ethnicities, races, and regions. It was hugely important to Canadian self-identification and pride of place and purpose, and it actually foreshadowed what was to come in the next federal election. Lester Pearson, who had succeeded Louis St. Laurent as leader of the Liberal Party but had never won a majority parliament, supported Pierre Trudeau, then minister of justice, to be the next head of the party and thus the next prime minister. In 1968, under concepts of “Trudeauma-
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nia” and the party’s slogan “A Just Society,” the Liberals were returned at the polls with a commanding majority. Thus began Trudeau’s 16 years as premier. But Trudeaumania was short lived. In the October 1972 election, Trudeau and the Liberals suffered a stunning setback that had the pundits and journalists shaking their heads and pondering the causes. What had happened was an expression of the particularly complex nature of Canadian federal politics. A number of commentators supported the French backlash thesis by pointing to the fact that the Liberals under Trudeau won fully half their total of 108 seats in the French-speaking Province of Québec while losing heavily in most other areas. These commentators also pointed out that in many areas outside of Québec where Trudeau was successful, there existed a large French-speaking population (New Brunswick’s Acadian districts were cited as examples). The Trudeau epoch was interrupted briefly by the victory of Joe Clark and the Progressive Conservatives in 1979. When Clark was defeated by a vote of no confidence on a budgetary matter, an election was called, as it had to be by parliamentary convention. This resulted in Clark’s defeat and Trudeau’s stunning return to the premiership. “Welcome to the 1980s” was his memorable announcement. Throughout these years of growing national self-consciousness and of recurring difficulties, Canadian-American relations proceeded on an unsteady course in the postwar era, and the state of affairs depended on a number of characteristics or facts: the personalities of respective prime ministers and presidents; the state of international relations beyond North American soil, and the respective responses of Canada and the United States to them; the received or perceived appreciations of communism as an ideology or political system; and a number of domestic issues in Canadian politics, including soft CCF-NDP positions on communism, United Church missionary connections in communist China, diminishing but still vocal, journalistic positions taken against U.S. foreign policy as a matter of fact or right or principle or all of these. Canada and the United States were allies in World War II, had close business connections including interrelated military infrastructures including SACLANT and NORAD, were founding partners in NATO, had largely integrated communications, highway, railway, and airline services (direct or connecting), but Canadian national policies (and discussion about the same) hinged on the ancient position on
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Canadian autonomy. Canadian governments fought to preserve a Canadian choice, or right, of independent action. This is a given, or constant, in Canadian foreign policy making. It bears directly on national, domestic politics, and press and party position. Visits by certain U.S. presidents to Ottawa show the variety of responses possible. When, in 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower flattered and cajoled Diefenbaker and brought Canada on side for the Columbia River Treaty, all was well. In May of the same year, President John F. Kennedy arrived in Ottawa to press for tougher Canadian opinion and solidarity in the Cold War struggle against communism, because, as he put it, “in the long twilight era that is neither peace nor war we must stand together even more firmly than before.” The next day, Kennedy was a guest of Diefenbaker, spoke in the House of Commons, and urged a tough, courageous position: “Our opponents are watching to see if we in the west are divided; they take courage when we are, and we must not let them be deceived or in doubt about our willingness to maintain our own freedom.” Kennedy wanted Canadian armed forces to be equipped with nuclear weapons, and he wanted Canada to join the war against communist encroachments in Latin America. Diefenbaker dug in his heels, and a potential partnership between these two was frosty if not dead. A foreign policy memo written by Kennedy’s aide had called for a push to get Canada on side with U.S. strategic aims. Diefenbaker kept a document on this that the president had inadvertently left behind, a diplomatic breach of faith. The 1960s on, a rebellious era, witnessed the emergence of the “new left” in the form of the New Democratic Party, a revived if small Marxist cluster, an upsurge of national radicalism in Québec, the beginning of a new wave of feminism, and the emerging visibility of native peoples commensurate with movements of resistance and demands for recognition of aboriginal title to land. These were unsettling times to many as old institutions were shaken by disbelievers and new ones were created by insurgent interests. Churches of all denominations faced hitherto unforeseen challenges. The essentially conservative social fabric of the nation was shaken, though not irreparably and not for long. Canada, 1982 to 1999 Throughout these years, Canada witnessed two recessions—in 1981 and 1990—and, in consequence, high unemployment rates. Major
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corporate restructuring took place, and in some cases large corporations shifted headquarters from Montréal to Toronto, some moving to Calgary. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s government, elected in 1984 and in power nine years, brought in the Goods and Services Tax, and brought Canada into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. Throughout all this time, the Canadian economy restructured itself, and it became more technologically oriented and more computer based. Educational institutions and school boards took into account these new needs. Enrollments in Canadian colleges and universities increased overall, and women came to higher education in increasing numbers and proportions. Higher education adopted cooperative worker placement as a means of transition from colleges and universities to the workplace. Women entered the workforce in larger numbers; families with both partners working became commonplace. The urbanization of Canada continued, and consolidation of agricultural production through larger farms was characteristics of this age. Manufacturing decreased on a per capita basis but increased in overall value; even so, it was recognized that the Peoples Republic of China was a manufacturing, banking, and investment component of the Canadian economy. This was an indication of what was to come in an increased way early in 21st century. In national affairs, this era was one of acute stress in constitutional matters. Successive attempts to patriate the constitution (with an appropriate, and for the very first time, amending formula) had been tried until finally achieved by Prime Minister Trudeau on 17 April 1982. This was a landmark date in Canadian historical evolution. Its importance is as yet insufficiently realized and appreciated. Opponents blame Trudeau for it all; others see in him a powerful force for Canadian autonomy and individual as well as collective rights. A Charter of Rights and Freedoms was brought into effect at that time. The BNA Act was patriated, and an amending formula for the constitution adopted. The last vestiges of British legislative authority then disappeared, judicial links already having been broken in 1949. The monarch of the United Kingdom remains as the titular head of authority, represented by the governor general of Canada. Major, dramatic shifts have occurred in federal politics in this modern age, beginning in 1982: the end of the Trudeau era and the short premiership of John N. Turner (1984); the long PC dominance of Brian
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Mulroney (1984–93) and its brief succession by Kim Campbell, Canada’s first woman premier (1993); the victory of Jean Chrétien (1993) and his reelection (1997). Chrétien was to win many majorities but was discredited by patronage scandals in later years. Also of note in this period was the birth of the western-based Reform Party (Official Opposition status established by the election of 1997), the rise and influence of the Bloc Québécois (in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s), and the near destruction of the federal PC party in consequence of its poor showing in the 1993 election. Regional representation remained a marked characteristic of Canadian politics. From its many component parts, today’s Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was formed. The great events of 1982 cast a long shadow in Canadian politics. Québec governments since 1982 claim not to have been privy to the arrangements, often by choice. This matter was for a time tested in courts, without success. In 1976, the election of the Parti Québécois under Lévesque resulted in a 1980 referendum for sovereignty (or some such variant), which was defeated. Constitutional renewal under Trudeau was brought about in 1982. But by the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Agreement, these stillborn efforts to embrace Québec served instead to alienate Québec from the rest of Canada, and vice versa. Unresolved issues of inclusion within Canada continue; so do certain claims and demands for independence by Québec. The future remains uncertain, though past experience demonstrates Québec’s strong association with Canada and the flexibility of the BNA or Canada Act. Such problems as these may never go away; they are aspects of the Canadian internal dynamic. History shows that they were in existence in 1791 if not before. They will likely continue but with the co-association intact, if a little raw at the edges from time to time. Canada’s provinces, including Québec, have placed powerful demands on the federal government, or the center, for devolution of authority. While federal powers have increased in such areas as health care, family allowance, old age security, pensions, and unemployment insurance, provincial demands for greater autonomy have also grown. These pulls and pushes are constant aspects of national fiscal and taxation life, and they account for the difference that can be seen in the way Canada governs itself.
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In foreign affairs, Canada’s policies continued to back the United Nations (UN), especially its agencies of world health and peacekeeping; the Commonwealth of Nations (of which Canada is a senior partner); La Francophonie (of which Canada is likewise a senior partner); NORAD; NATO; and the Law of the Sea conferences. As a North American nation with frontiers on the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific, and as neighbor to the United States, Canada remains unavoidably caught up in all the major episodes of world history and affairs. Having joined the Organization of American States and concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Mexico, Canada will emerge more as a Western Hemisphere member of the family of nation-states. The Pacific Rim remained, throughout these years, a place of constant and increasing opportunity, though by the late 1990s some Asian economies had proven to be not immune from crisis and bankruptcy. When Hong Kong reverted to the control of the Peoples Republic of China in 1997, Chinese immigration into Canada was diminished, though only slightly, and Vancouver real estate prices somewhat lowered. The New Millennium: Canada since 2000 If the previous decade had been painful to Canada in the economic sector, put many persons out of work, and forced educational institutions to implement more technologically based curricula, the new economy of the modern age, and of the 21st century, found the nation and its peoples well positioned to benefit from the economic challenges and opportunities of global trade. Canada lives by foreign trade. The new flourishing trading relationship with the Peoples Republic of China is but only an extension of Canada’s previous outward look on world trade. Because Canada is an exporting country (of metals, potash, sulfur, forest products, foodstuffs, grains, coal and other energy resources, technical and legal services, manufactured goods, and others), its wellbeing remains at the whim and reality of world economic influences and conditions. As in past years and centuries, the Canadian economy remains based in export trade. Canadian resource extraction, manufacturing, commodities, and energy sectors (oil, natural gas, coal, and hydroelectricity) continue to lead the national statistical tables. Though a
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general tendency shows manufacturing and industry as significant on a global scale, consumer spending indexes reveal a continual increase of reliance on Asian manufacturers. The key component here is attentiongetting China, though India, Taiwan, Malaysia, South Korea, and especially Japan are prominent. Canadian banking and insurance continue their penetration of U.S. and Asian markets, while holding their own in Latin America and Britain. Computer software and digital means of communication (notably the Blackberry) are a significant, select, and high-value sector of growth. In 2005, Canada imported $215 billion worth of goods and services from the United States; it exported $365.7 billion in goods to the United States, dwarfing all other trading partners. Canadian import partners next in order are China ($29.5 billion), Japan ($14.7 billion), Mexico ($14.5 billion), Great Britain ($10.4 billion), and Germany ($10.2 billion). Canadian export partners, after the United States, are Japan ($9.1 billion), Great Britain ($8.2 billion), China ($7.1 billion), Mexico ($3.3 billion), and Germany ($3.2 billion). Other top trading partners are Norway, South Korea, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, and Algeria. The new millennium also shows a remarkably different political scene than that which began the 1980s—of Trudeau, Turner, and Mulroney followed by Campbell and Chrétien. By the late 1990s, the old party rivalries were being revolutionized by the noted fragmentation of the Progressive Conservative Party. In its stead came a new and at first uncertain rival to the federal Liberals. This was the Reform Party, a populist party based in the western provinces that had precursors on the historical scene that date to the early 20th century. The Reform Party espoused a mixture of populism and fiscal and social conservatism. It acquired 50 members in the House of Commons in the 1993 federal election—the same number as the Bloc Québécois, whose object was Québec sovereignty and the dissolution of Canada. In the 1997 federal election, the Reform Party enlarged its base and increased its national profile. It elected enough members to overtake the Bloc and obtain status as the Official Opposition. The leadership of the Reform Party was its founder Preston Manning, who passed the leadership to Stockwell Day, who was unable to defeat Chrétien in the 2000 election. Out of this came Stephen Harper’s rise that same year. In the 2004 election, Paul Martin’s Liberal Party came in with only a minority government, and
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on 23 January 2006, Harper, heading the newly formed Conservative Party of Canada, formed a minority government. Thus, from Chrétien’s time to the present, minority governments have ruled in Canada. Of all the political shifts in the recent history of Canada, the rise to prominence of the Conservative Party of Canada has been both protracted and remarkable. From a party of regional position, fiscal conservatism, and neo-liberal ideology, it has morphed into a centralist party of social responsibility. Its policies have obliged the Liberals and NDP to rethink their own policy positions. Its nonideological positions have alienated many in the foundation Reform Party and its successor the Alliance who had hoped for more fiscal responsibility. The complicated nature of Canada in its regions and its peoples has obliged the CPC, and Prime Minister Harper, to address the needs of the larger body politic. It remains to be seen if this shift will have permanence or give way to another reformation in Canadian political behavior.
PRESENT DIRECTIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS History provides an important retrospective and a prospective on the future. Thus, this postscript. Canada’s collective sense of itself no longer reflects the old worlds of the French Empire and the British Empire. Canada is master of its own house, though naturally maintains a system of interdependence with the rest of the world, notably the United States. Technology and patents are naturally subverting the idealists who would like to think of Canada as unique and uniquely independent. Globalization exists and is persuasive. Technology owns no national boundaries. Oddly enough, while Canada has championed North American free trade and global commerce, trade structures at home hinder the greater exchange of goods and labor. Certain commercial barriers between and among Canadian provinces stand in the way of trade and commercial opportunity. But management of the economy, foreign affairs and defense, immigration, the environment, and so on are matters of national as well as provincial and territorial concern. Canada has the means of retaining control of social and cultural affairs. These are the challenges of the immediate past and for the immediate future. Community initiatives to fight global warming and enhancing recycling are as widespread as they are innovative.
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Despite cultural complexities and geographical peculiarities, there remains, above all, a unifying idea of the Canadian experience. National historians have been good at creating such a national ethos. Mark Starowicz, CBC’s documentary head and the brains behind its awardwinning TV series Canada: a People’s History, put it this way in the Globe and Mail of 20 September 2000: “We are the debris of history. We are the children of the expelled, the persecuted, the abandoned and the marginalized. We are the remnants of empires and the refugees of lost causes. It’s not blood that unites us; it’s the experience of refuge. That’s how we recognize each other in foreign places. We will tolerate no supremacy of class or privilege, no jumping of the queue, no aristocracy. Our children can pride themselves on the poverty of their parent’s roots, not on their accumulated wealth. You cannot be rude to a waiter in this country, because your son or daughter may be one someday. Our streets are sparse in statues not because we have no history, but because we honour no dictators, we had no great conquering armies, we did not annihilate for religion or ideology. But the absence of such things is not evidence of the absence of history. We had every ingredient in Canada for the toxic stew that created Sarajevo: clashing religions, languages, races and contested land. By some alchemy, we took these same ingredients and became the kind of country that can’t even imagine Kosovo; we mixed them into a complex, multipart quest for equilibrium. That is Canadian history.” But that is only half the story. Faced with a northern, often inhospitable land, Canadians over five centuries and by accumulated experience have shaped a unique North American existence, one different from the republican zeal of the United States, though no less patriotic. The resources of the northern waters, forests, and terrain have presented abundance unique in the historical experience of modern nations. Canada is well able to feed itself. It has abundant energy resources for its own needs. It exports foodstuffs and energy. The institutions of government and of the state, which owe their origins to European history and influence, have put in place (and nurtured) a civic society of the sort that has allowed the Canadians as described above to find in Canada a home or a safe place free from civil war, poverty, and revolution. This is no small achievement on the world stage, and well worth both the study of outsiders and the attention of those at home to preserve and, indeed, to strengthen.
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If history is any indication, though admittedly some would argue that indeed it is not, then we can make some postulations about future directions of Canada, its governments, and its peoples. History offers a good guide to future developments, but it is aided in its didactic sense by geographical facts. Geography and geographical position make Canada undeniably central to the world’s progression and circumstances. What follows are a few postulations and observations about future directions of Canada and its peoples. Canada is not an isolated country free from the world’s challenges and crises. Historical forces swirl around Canada—like any nation, the world external to it is a chaotic one, that is, beyond its immediate ability to dictate. As such, alliances are vital to Canada’s security and future. No matter how greatly NATO, NORAD, and NAFTA may be challenged, even threatened, Canada’s political leaders and diplomats, acting on behalf of their government, will seek to uphold and strengthen these relationships. Isolation is not an option. Tariff and trade barriers do not work favorably for a trading power such as Canada. Wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan have brought Canada back to a harsh global reality and, with it, a sense of obligation to intervene militarily. Canadians do not easily “go to war.” In fact, they strongly resist the tendency. Canada will continue to cling to the ideals of the UN, promote the causes of freedom and civil rights, individual liberties, and freedom from internecine strife and tribal warfare in distant lands. At the same time, we can be certain that Canada will never undertake military missions unilaterally and, in the circumstances that lead it to war, will always do so under UN or alliance arrangement. As for fiscal aid, Canada’s international aid obligations (as given by Ottawa and leaving out nongovernmental organizations) will continue to be less than 1 percent of the GNP. Although the Province of Québec will continue under various ruling political parties to seek for independence, sovereign status, or some sort of sovereignty association, it will remain, out of necessity, part of a greater Canada. Independence may be the last refuge of a nationalist. Even so, in the circumstances, financial stability, economic opportunity, free-trade zones, and sympathetic and accommodating neighbors are part of any search for redefined status. The population of the province is likely to decline proportionally to the rest of Canada, thus giving less power to elected federal members of parliament vis à
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vis those from other provinces. The political makeup of voters tends to send traditional Liberal or Conservative members to Ottawa from Montréal—a total of 25 seats—and Bloc Québécois members from the Rest of Québec (RoQ)—50 seats. The more things change, the more they seem the same. In fact, scant change is anticipated on this score for the foreseeable future. The protection of French language is assured by law—in common usage, in government and judicial practices, and in cultural effusions. This will in no way be threatened from the outside, and the province will continue to be the heartland of French Canadians, and Montréal its heartbeat. The French language will become more and more the specialized language of business and education, but at the same time, English will continue to be a necessary language of learning and usage for all in that jurisdiction who seek national, continental, and international opportunity. By the same token, bilingualism will continue to be federal policy and will continue as a strong force, though for an elite majority, in the rest of Canada. In these circumstances, no Canadian can expect to do well in any Canadian agency without bilingual capability. Although the number of English-speaking persons in the province will continue to increase, the bilingual fact will remain inviolate. For the foreseeable future, too, Canada’s multicultural society will continue strong and aided by state policies. Furthermore, immigration policies will continue to support family reunification and safe refuge for persons fleeing persecution and revolution. All the same, new citizenship guidelines introduced in late 2009 call for greater knowledge of Canadian institutions, traditions, and history—a welcome sign to observers who have long thought these items were not attended to when it comes to immigration policy and Canadian citizenship by adoption. As far as immigration quotas are concerned, the federal government has a long-standing policy to recruit 250,000 newcomers a year, a number that will likely increase as the inflow proves insufficient to hold down the median age. A vigorous immigration policy will be continued, responding to international needs as they arise but mindful of the costs and burdens that immigrants place on the nation’s taxpayers and on its provinces and cities. Québec will continue to assert marginal autonomy on immigrants resettled in the province. Ontario will continue, for the foreseeable future, to receive the bulk of “new Canadians.” In the aftermath of To-
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ronto’s rapid population growth, and ethnic neighborhoods, Canadian policy now targets Kitchener-Waterloo and Barrie, Ontario, as places for immigrant placement. Vancouver, particularly south Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, will continue to see the influx of Asians, principally from China, Korea, and India. If past experience has anything to tell, such immigrants will choose their own places of habitat and community, and these will not be directed by laws or regulations but by choice. In Vancouver, for instance, Chinese will live north of the Fraser River and South Asians south of it. A greater number of Arabs, Iranians, and Afghanis will populate the Canada of the future, following the pattern of the dispossessed of Vietnam and Laos. Some Mexicans and some refugees from Central and South America will come, but not in great numbers and only when cause dictates. By the same token, the largest number of immigrants will come to Canada from Europe, with southern Europe and the Balkans being significant donors. Within Canada, the economic center of gravity of the confederation will continue to shift to the west, particularly to Alberta and British Columbia, with a recently reviving Saskatchewan as the new place of choice for economic development, investment, and jobs. Oil-rich Alberta is the driving force of all of Canada. Of that, there can be no mistake. Corporate Canada, which first shifted from Montréal to Toronto in consequence of political instability in the Province of Québec, has also shifted to Calgary and to a lesser extent Edmonton. The Alberta Oil (or Tar) Sands hold known petroleum reserves in the world second only to Saudi Arabia, and the exploitation of these resources, though expensive, will continue, for the cardinal reason that the independence and autonomy of North American economies demands such. U.S. President Barack Obama’s national energy policy favors continental integration in the oil and gas sectors; this impacts on Canada. Saskatchewan, with the world’s greatest potash reserves, holds a special place in China’s imports. British Columbia, the gateway-to-Asia province, the Northwest Passage in reality, will continue to be the transportation vector of the Canadian economy, with Vancouver the most prominent western port in all of the Americas. The new container port in Prince Rupert, northern British Columbia, will only enhance British Columbia’s capabilities and wealth from trade. But, as of the present time, the forest industry will continue to falter, because of slackening external demand and, to a lesser degree, environmental difficulties, including pine beetle
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and other infestations. These have led to the closure of mills and the impoverishment of communities. The forest products industry will continue to change toward artificial commodities. Vancouver and Vancouver Island, particularly southern Vancouver Island and Victoria, will continue, as they have for a century, to attract retirees and also immigrants from Great Britain, Australia, elsewhere in Canada, and South Africa. In Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador’s prospects are not bright as far as the fishing industry is concerned, and sealing will continue to be a seasonal activity, despite international protests and media coverage. Offshore oil will strengthen the economy, as it will in similarly blessed Nova Scotia, but the populations there will not grow significantly, the local economies not being buoyant or industrial enough to sustain large-scale growth. In addition, the preference nowadays is for small families. Atlantic Provinces will continue to be the most Caucasian of all the parts of Canada. The aboriginal populations will continue to be strongest in British Columbia and the other western provinces, with native cultural revival strong and assured, even if languages are, sadly, more threatened than ever. Canadian constitutional measures and native assertion will allow the continuance and enhancement of native cultural resilience and pride. Of all the provinces of Canada, Ontario’s future is the most in doubt. Without oil, with a fragile forest industry, with mining and mineral resource extraction dependent on a fluctuating external market, with a large population demanding full medical care and educational opportunities through the tertiary level, and with an industrial sector largely tied to the North American automobile industry, it is for the first time in need of assistance from other provinces on a cost-sharing basis. Its status as a “have province,” so long proclaimed, is now at the turnaround point, and it will be interesting to see how other provinces such as Saskatchewan, so long a “have-not province” but no longer one, will respond to Ontario’s demands. The communications infrastructure of Canada will continue to be of vital significance to the well-being of its cities, towns, provinces, and peoples. Its two airlines that offer what can be called national or nationwide services will continue to provide links among communities and families. Its railways, now important players in U.S. transportation, will continue to be links of empire and commerce. Its national radio and television stations of the CBC will respond to demands to maintain
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the communications of a diverse society that needs the ties that bind together in some sort of a cultural whole. In this regard, the use of satellites, significant to Canada’s current communication system and banking and other financial practices, will be enhanced with future developments. The highway structures of the nation, so long neglected, will need to be addressed for commercial reasons as well as those of security, and as an alternative to the bulk transport of railways. Major strides will be made in interprovincial highway construction in the decades ahead, and provincial politicians are already making such advances legislative realities. A national highways policy, so long delayed, so long neglected, may well come into being. A truly fast, modern railway linking Montréal with Windsor, also long overdue, may well come into existence. In fact, human transportation by rail shows the greatest possibilities for revival, made more urgent by environmental issues. Global warming will continue to frighten Canadians, will continue to reduce the ice of the Northwest Passage, will continue to reduce polar bear habitat, and will continue to make commercial surface navigation of Canada’s arctic waters a likelihood, even a reality. Canada will continue to declare its authority in the Arctic but will unlikely bring about measures to police such a waterway on grounds of cost and means of policing the same. In addition, the Canadian north will continue to be a sparsely occupied location for the human population—and largely the homeland for the Inuit (eastern Arctic) and the Inuvialuit and Dene (western Arctic). The exploitation of oil and natural reserves will increase, despite political pressures to the contrary. A self-sufficient North American economy will demand this. So will the demands for fresh water in the United States. Canada’s history began with that of the First Nations. Canada’s future will continue to see First Nations as part of the Canadian population. The demise of the Canadian Indian, though forecast in the year 1900, did not occur. Modern medicine reversed the decline of numbers. Even though the populations are small, they are resilient. Even though the lure of the city continues, so does that of the reserve. Indigenous self-government will offer hope for the future, and leadership and community zeal and purpose will show some significant achievements in the history of aboriginal survival. Of all Canadians, these are the most marginalized and victimized, and nowhere else is there such a calling for confirmed and dedicated leadership and collective wisdom. The
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solution to “the Indian problem” may well be found in indigenous measures of self-help, autonomy, and growth. Above all, Canadians will continue to be self-conscious about their achievements and possibilities. They will continue to believe that the wider world knows little about them. They will even complain that they are slighted or neglected. Perhaps the last of the great nation-states created during the 19th century, they may be the last to realize their own prospects and to assert their own values. Self-effacement and modesty will continue as national traits, no small consideration when you think of it. But they will continue to champion hockey as their game, and cheer for Canadian contestants in the Olympics (such as the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver) and other global competitions. Not least in importance, it is surely an oddity that one of the most stable and long-standing democracies and federations on the world stage should be faced with an ongoing instability at the top. The volatility of Canadian national government was exhibited sharply in late 2008 when, facing votes of no confidence, the government of Stephen Harper sought the prorogation of the parliament for a limited period until a state of equanimity could be attained and his government had time to formulate policies deemed to be acceptable to the opposition (which had formed a three-party coalition threatening to unseat the government). It speaks to compromise and good sense that the governor general, Michaëlle Jean, granted this interval; the coalition subsequently and quickly folded. The legislative agenda was continued. Even so, the continuing existence of minority governments holding power in Ottawa (first Paul Martin and, twice since, Stephen Harper) seem to be a hallmark of Canadian national politics of the first decade of the 21st century. Among the explanations of this state of affairs are the gradual rise of the Conservative Party of Canada to prominence from various right-wing parties no longer in existence, the Reform Party, and the Canadian Alliance; the general collapse of the Liberal Party of Canada as the assumed or rightful governing party of Canada (in keeping with leadership difficulties and changes); and the continuance of strong, entrenched third and fourth parties (the NDP and the Bloc Québécois). These explanations speak also to the inherent complexities of the federation, the pulls and pushes of the regions of Canada and their customary political affiliations, and the ethnic and racial peculiarities of the nation-state.
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Against the political stability at the top are the steady and reliable modes of government at the provincial and territorial levels. As the constitutional reformer Lord Durham had wished, municipal government could be the most important in a country such as Canada. If one were to look at national voting patterns and listen with serious attention to the political pundits and the informed voting public, one would think that Canada was in crisis, its future doomed. But the facts of the case belie all this, and a salutary reminder needs to be given about the strength and purposes of Canadians and the political systems that they have put in place.
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The Dictionary
– A – ABORIGINAL RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS. As of the date of confederation (1867), two residential schools for aboriginal children existed in Canada. In due course, schools were built in every province and territory. Indian, Inuit, and Métis children attended such institutions, sometimes under coercion of Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) authorities and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). By 1931, there were 80 such schools, three-quarters of which were in the four western provinces. The Roman Catholics ran 44, the Anglican Church 21, United Church of Canada 13, and Presbyterians 2. An estimated 100,000–125,000 native children passed through the system, which was closed down in the mid-1980s. Based on an education philosophy of “resocialization” and preparation for enfranchisement, the scheme was essentially assimilationist. It involved the teaching of English or French where appropriate and indirectly involved the destruction or neglect of aboriginal languages and cultures; similarly, it assumed the supplanting of children’s aboriginal spirituality with Christianity. Reports documented residential-school problems: in 1907 in 15 schools, 24 percent of children were found to have died while in the school’s care. At Old Sun’s on the Blackfoot reserve, Alberta, the figure was as high as 47 percent. Stark, physical abuse bordering on terror was reputedly the system in effect, according to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1997). Incidents documented included whippings and other beatings, chaining and shackling, and incarceration. The success of the schools was questioned as early as 1913. Concluding that the residential-school system was “an act of profound cruelty” rooted in racism and intolerance, the commission 49
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blamed Canadian society of the era, Christian evangelism, and the policies of Canada’s churches and federal government. For a time, successive governments in Ottawa refused to acknowledge responsibilities, and maintained a policy of treating each instance of abuse as an individual criminal act. In courts, allegations have been made against more than 100 persons. By 1998, there had been three convictions but the number of charges of abuse rose to over 6,000 by 2000. Other cases are pending. In January 1998, the federal government announced funding of $350 million as part of its “offer of reconciliation.” Events moved quickly after that. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was born from the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. It is mandated with documenting the legacies of one of Canada’s darker moments. Commissioners have resigned since over matters of procedure and of intent, and have since been replaced by individuals on five-year terms. The commission’s term is capped at 2013. The issue here is the “telling of stories,” that is to say, the writing into the record of accounts and testimonials documenting cases of abuse. Survivors, however, are now aging quickly and dying off. In addition, the commission is seeking consensus on a highly charged political subject in which hard evidence piles up collectively while the clock keeps ticking. See also INDIANS. ACADIA. See ACADIANS; NEW BRUNSWICK; NEW FRANCE. ACADIANS. Initially residents of Acadia, a maritime portion of New France, Acadians were deported in 1755 after they refused to take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown. Britain had acquired the area from France under the Treaty of Utrecht. Most deportees were embarked at Annapolis Royal, Minas (Grand Pré), and Chignecto. About 13,500 were shipped to American southern colonies, notably Louisiana. Some returned after the peace between France and Britain; however, they found their lands occupied by New Englanders. The tales of coercion are the stuff of legend and speculation. More recently, Acadian refers to French-speaking persons of New Brunswick; although a minority in that province, they have linguistic rights guaranteed in what is the only officially bilingual province of Canada. The expulsion of the Acadians was memorialized by Ameri-
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can poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the epic Evangeline. A play of the same title now teaches Acadians (and others) about this event. The region’s history has been chronicled in stories, legends, and songs more than in books. Singer Édith Butler, resource person for folklore researchers, has become identified as ambassador of the identity and soul of Acadia. Recent historical scholarship shows how the Acadians were caught up in a web of international crises: in fact, the events were overwhelming, the speed of change accelerating, and the dangers unimaginable. AFGHANISTAN MISSION. In consequence of terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, Canada found itself in a war zone of a type previously unknown to its forces. The background for its Afghanistan Mission is as important as it is complex. Afghanistan has long been a cockpit of empires. The British Empire had a long history in India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Since the beginning of rule through the East India Company, western states have had to contend with local aspirations and wills and indigenous tribal and ethnic groups. By 1919, Afghanistan had broken free of the British yoke. However, this victory paved the way for a succession of amirs, kings, imams, and mullahs who controlled towns and districts and touted their own version of Islamic teachings and thoughts. Warlords who profited from the traffic in opium added to the corruption and influence peddling. This culminated with the rule of Nadir and Zahir Shah, who ruled for four decades. In 1973, Mohammad Daoud, the prime minister from 1953 to 1963 under Zahir Shah, took control of the government from the shah. Daoud was well regarded within the military, especially due to his favorable views toward the Pashtun populace. His ability to obtain arms from the Soviet Union kept him in good stead until he purged the country of leftist officers and government officials in 1975. The Soviets invaded and loosely united several major factions within the country. Jihad, a striving to utmost in the cause of Allah, was declared against the Soviet-backed government. Mujahedeen warriors, who fought in the name of Jihad, launched a campaign against the Soviets and their puppets with arms and financing from the United States. During this time, Osama bin Laden and his wealth came to Afghanistan. His Wahhabi education made him sympathetic
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to the Mujahedeen. Most importantly, he ensured that supplies and personnel were furnished to military commanders who required them the most. Al-Qaeda found a comfortable home in Afghanistan among the Taliban sect. The Soviet-supported government, led by Mohammed Najibullah, fought Mujahadeen supported by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, the Soviet Union collapsed, which led to the victorious Mujahadeen entering Kabul, where diverse factions fought each other. The Islamic Jihad Council was then created. The Taliban, largely composed of former Mujahadeen fighters and fundamentalist imams, slowly took control of the country. By 2000, they controlled approximately 95 percent of Afghanistan. Then, 11 September 2001 occurred. On 12 September, one day after the attacks, the United Nations (UN) passed Security Council Resolution 1368, condemning the attacks and expressing “its readiness to take all necessary steps to respond . . . and to combat all forms of terrorism, in accordance with its responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations.” Thus, the UN gave a U.S.-led coalition the international authority to invade Afghanistan. Resolution 1368 was followed by Resolution 1386 on 20 December outlining “the establishment for 6 months of an International Security Assistance Force to assist the Afghan Interim Authority in the maintenance of security in Kabul and its surrounding areas, so that the Afghan Interim Authority as well as the personnel of the United Nations can operate in a secure environment.” The stage was set for Canadian involvement under NATO command. Canada would serve in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), created in accordance with the Bonn Conference in December 2001. The concept of a UN-mandated international force to assist the newly established Afghan Transitional Authority was also launched at this occasion to create a secure environment in and around Kabul and support the reconstruction of the Afghan government. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien pledged 2,000 troops to the coalition forces in Afghanistan. The original contingent, composed of primarily the 3rd Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, was deployed from February to July 2002. This regiment participated in several engagements, most notably OP ANACONDA in March 2002. In 2003, because the UN did not pass a Security Council Resolution on Iraq similar to Resolution 1386, Chrétien refused to commit troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
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Paul Martin, during his short tenure as prime minister, made two announcements important for Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan. The first was the announcement of $7 billion in purchases in new equipment for Canadian Forces (CF). The second was the appointment of General Rick Hillier as the chief of defense staff on 14 January 2005. He wholeheartedly supported Canada’s continuing presence in Afghanistan. In 2009, he was succeeded by General Walter Natynczyk. Public opinion favoring involvement in Afghanistan declined significantly after 2002 and more so since 2009. The drop in support coincided with numerous fatalities of Canadian Forces members in Afghanistan (by month end September 2010, 152 had died and hundreds wounded). But the CF continued to participate in the nation building of Afghanistan. This encompasses the enforcement and restoration of security as well as aiding the development of the nation. Part and parcel of this mission is the aiding in the assertion of authority of the Afghan government as well as the support of Afghan security forces. The main effort is centered on the various Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) whose role is to create and enforce an environment of security that will then allow for the development of the region. The mission in Afghanistan, not a peacekeeping one, constituted the first foreign war for Canada since the police action, or emergency, known as the Korean conflict. Nation building and reconstruction in Afghanistan have been dogged by corruption at all levels, enhanced Taliban fighting, extensive use of IEDs, and reluctant contributions from many NATO nations. Great Britain and especially the United States have carried the brunt of NATO’s military obligations, with a sizeable U.S. deployment there. Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that the Canadian military obligation in Afghanistan would conclude in 2009. By parliamentary motion, however, the end date was set at year end 2011. See also FOREIGN POLICY. AGRICULTURE. The history of agriculture in Canada is defined by regional characteristics and historical circumstances (many external to Canada, such as war and economic depression). Unifying Canadian agriculture is the role of government and agricultural scientific experimentation. Native peoples of the lower Great Lakes were horticulturalists. Iroquois raised maize (corn), squash, and beans and
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traded food for furs. In the Maritimes, settlers dyked marshlands and raised grain, vegetables, and livestock. Provisions were needed to feed navies and armies, and this spurred developments at Louisbourg and Halifax and elsewhere—in Québec, Montréal, Kingston, Penetanguishene, Port Maitland, and Victoria and Esquimalt. Agricultural grants were made, after 1763, to Prince Edward Island. Agriculture dominated much of the early development of the Maritimes. In Québec under the French regime, the seigneurial system was a government-regulated scheme of agricultural/rural development. In Upper Canada, the crown was the central agency in surveying, selling, opening, and settling the land. In 1848, Vancouver Island, previously developed by the Hudson’s Bay Company-related Puget’s Sound Agricultural Company, was opened to settler agricultural development. The Red River Settlement (from 1812) was an agricultural project of the philanthropist Earl of Selkirk. In addition to climate, weather, and pestilential problems, early Canadian agricultural development was hindered by other difficulties: ravages of war, including crop burnings or destruction of shipments; competition from American farmers; inadequate infrastructure, especially canals; and lack of secure markets. In 1846, repeal of the British Corn Laws removed the preferential status of British North American wheat, and prices declined. In 1854, by the Reciprocity Treaty, Canadian farm products (as well as fish and forestry products) got reciprocal access to U.S. markets. Agricultural risings occurred in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837, though reasons other than agricultural issues (religion, class, privilege) underscored the reasons for revolt. British North America became a major producer and exporter of potash, potatoes, wheat, barley and other grains, and apples. Cheese, milk, bacon, and other products became important for domestic and external consumption. Poultry production and selective beef breeding became important in the late 19th century. Lower Canada ceased to be self-sufficient in wheat and flour in the 1830s, growing increasingly dependent on Upper Canada, whose agriculture became diversified. In the 1920s, Québec’s soil became exhausted due to lack of fertilizer. The Union Catholique des Cultivateurs (founded 1924) argued for better credit and protection. Crop rotation, field management, better equipment, separators, and refrigeration were catalysts.
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Urbanization created concentrated markets. Farmers’ institutes and women’s institutes promoted agriculture’s importance and dignity. The Ontario Marketing Board was founded (1931) to promote longrange benefits. Wheat cultivation in the prairie provinces increased greatly—in 1916, 34 million acres were in use; in 1931, 60 million acres. Canada became in these years a prominent supplier of wheat and captured 40 percent of the world market. The Depression was partnered by the drought and pestilence (locusts). New means were sought for soil reclamation, irrigation, and water conservation. Combine harvesting and electricity, mechanization, and cooperative farming also helped revive prairie agriculture. Wheat was crucial to the Allied effort in World War II. Grain growers’ associations in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories promoted ownership of inland elevators and cooperative marketing of grain. The United Grain Growers organization derived from this. A radical wing of the prairie farm movement led by Henry Wise Wood was known as the United Farmers of Alberta. Wheat pools were formed in the 1920s but collapsed in the 1929 Great Depression. The Canadian Wheat Board (1935) was, in 1943, made the compulsory means of marketing wheat, and in 1949 of barley and oats. The agrarian movements of western Canada had a profound effect on such matters as western political identification (including resistance or objection to “eastern interests”), new political parties (the Progressive Party, Social Credit Party, New Democratic Party), temperance crusaders, 4H Clubs, women’s suffrage, child welfare, rural education, and the union of Protestant churches into the United Church of Canada (1925). In British Columbia, the Fruit-Growers’ Association (1889) was the first agricultural organization of producers; in 1913, the Okanagan Valley fruit growers set up a marketing agency. BC’s Free Fruit Board extended these arrangements, in association with the co-op movement. The Canadian Bureau of Agriculture was founded in 1852 to control livestock diseases and prevent their entry into Canada. Today, the Research Branch runs 35 experimental stations and establishments in various locations, including Saanich, British Columbia; Indianhead, Saskatchewan; and Ottawa. Agricultural colleges in Canada include veterinarian departments in the University of Saskatchewan, Guelph University’s Ontario Agricultural College, and the University of Prince Edward Island.
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AID TO THE CIVIL POWER
AID TO THE CIVIL POWER. This is the customary legal process by which municipal or provincial governments call on the federal government for armed forces to preserve or restore order. In pre-Confederation Canada, British troops and gunboats provided aid to the colonial governments. In 1868, the Militia Act first authorized the calling out of Canadian militia in aid of the civil power. In 1904, the act was amended to include aid to municipalities, a provision exercised most often in labor disputes. In 1924, the Mackenzie King government took the right to call out the militia from the local magistrates and handed it instead to provincial attorneys general. The province paid the costs involved. Since the end of the Great Depression, there have been other instances of aid to civil power. The right to call on armed forces, now incorporated in the National Defense Act, was exercised by the Québec government when substantial units of the army were mobilized in August 1990 during a land dispute with Mohawk near Oka. See also OCTOBER CRISIS. AIR COMMAND. See CANADIAN AIR FORCE. ALASKA BOUNDARY. The Alaska boundary dispute between the United States and Great Britain—and later between the United States and Canada—centered on the boundary that begins at 56 degrees north latitude and extends northwest approximately 30 nautical miles inland until it intersects with 141 degrees west longitude and thence due north to the Arctic Ocean. The dispute arose because contradictions and inaccuracies of the boundary definition in the 1825 convention between Britain and Russia were also incorporated into the boundary definition of the U.S.-Russian convention of 1867, which ceded Alaska to the United States. Article III of the 1825 convention defined the boundary line, and Article IV qualified the definition. The two articles comprised part of Article I of the U.S.-Russian convention of 1867. Article III of the 1825 convention stated that the line was to begin at 54 degrees, 40 minutes north latitude between 131 and 133 degrees of west longitude at the southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island and “ascend to the north along the channel called Portland channel, as far as the point of the continent where it strikes 56th degree of north latitude.” From this point, the line was to run north along the summit of the
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mountains that lie “parallel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of the 141st degree of west longitude.” From here, the line was to run due north to “the Frozen Ocean.” Article IV qualified the definition by stating that Prince of Wales Island belonged to Russia (after 1867 to the United States). It further stated that when the line running along the summit of the mountains is “at a distance of more than ten marine leagues [30 nautical miles] from the ocean, the limit between British possessions and the line of coast which is to belong to Russia . . . shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues there from.” The 1825 convention allowed British free navigation of rivers and channels that lie between the British possessions in North America and the Russian possessions from the 56th parallel of north latitude to the 141st meridian of west longitude. The area described in the convention had not been surveyed. The convention, because of its double definition of the western limits of the Russian colony, could be applied to fix the line along the summit of the mountains or at 10 marine leagues from the coast—or a combination of both. There was also the question of whether the coastline followed the shores of an inlet or crossed the inlet’s opening. The head of Portland Canal (originally known as Portland Channel) did not extend to the 56th parallel; therefore, the location of the Portland Canal was open to question. These problems could not be decided until a survey was made. As early as 1872, Britain and the United States made efforts to establish a joint commission for the survey of the disputed area. On 22 July 1892, a convention was concluded between these countries that provided for a “coincident or joint survey.” The need for settling the question became urgent when discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896 brought thousands of U.S. and British subjects to the area. Conflict over customs jurisdictions, land claims, and enforcement of law made a solution imperative. In 1898, Britain proposed that the boundary question be submitted to “three Commissioners who should be jurists of high standing . . . to fix the frontiers at the heads of the inlets, through which the traffic for the Yukon Valley enters; continuing subsequently with the remaining strip or line of coast.” Protocols of all the meetings were approved and accepted by both countries.
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The joint commission, established as a result of 1898 meetings, met at Québec. By early 1899, much progress had been made. The Alaska boundary dispute caused the collapse of the commission. U.S. commissioners proposed that this problem be set aside until the others were adjusted, but the British commissioners declined. The commission then adjourned until the boundary dispute was settled by the two governments. Although discussions centering on the boundary line failed to provide a solution, it was necessary that the two countries come to a temporary settlement. In 1899, a provisional boundary was fixed above the head of Lynn Canal and across Chilkoot Pass and White Pass, but the acceptance of the provisional boundary line would not “prejudice the claim of either party in the permanent adjustment.” In 1903, the powers concluded a convention for the submission of the boundary question to a tribunal. Members of the tribunal representing the United States were Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and George Turner. Those appointed as the British-Canadian members were Lord Alverstone, Sir Louis Jetté, and A. B. Aylesworth. On 20 October 1903, the tribunal issued its decision. Jetté and Aylesworth refused to sign the award because they could “not consider the finding of the tribunal as to the islands, entrance to Portland Channel, or as to the mountain line, a judicial one.” Neither country received all the territory it claimed. With Lord Alverstone’s decision to support the American position, Canada lost most of what it had claimed, though it received two islands at the mouth of the Portland Canal. The incident furthered Canadians notions that they had to look after their own foreign relations and could not rely on the British in dealing with the Americans. By a convention signed 21 April 1906, commission duties were expanded to survey and mark the Alaska boundary line from Mount St. Elias at 141 degrees west longitude to the Arctic Ocean. The original commission grew into the International Boundary Commission made responsible for surveying and marking the entire land boundary between the two countries. A comprehensive published report of the International Boundary Commission concerning the Alaska boundary line was published in 1952. ALASKA HIGHWAY. Built in 1942–43 from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska, the Alaska (or Alcan) Highway was
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considered necessary by the United States because of the Japanese threat to Alaska. The idea of a land route to connect British Columbia and Alaska had been discussed by British Columbia, U.S. generals, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Canada maintained that a land link would increase American influence in British Columbia and make impossible Canadian neutrality in the event of a war between Japan and the United States. The attack on Pearl Harbor ended these concerns. The road, stretching 2,451 km, was built by U.S. Army construction engineers in eight months at a cost of $148 million. The Canadian Army took over maintenance of the Canadian portion of the highway in 1946, and in 1964 this responsibility was assumed by the Department of Public Works. ALBERTA. Named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria, and referred to as a prairie province, Alberta has a diverse landscape. Much of the province is covered in arable soil. The Peace River valley is the northernmost permanent agricultural settlement in Canada. In contrast to the rolling plains of the other prairie provinces, Alberta has a natural border with British Columbia: the rugged and immense Rocky Mountains. A large portion of Alberta was formally included in the holdings of the Hudson’s Bay Company known as Rupert’s Land. The native peoples that inhabited this area included Blackfoot and Sarcee in the south, and Cree, Assiniboine, Slavey, and Beaver in the north. The Dominion of Canada acquired Rupert’s Land from Britain in 1870. At this time, it became the North West Territory. In 1874, the North West Mounted Police (now Royal Canadian Mounted Police) built Fort Macleod and began the process of establishing law and order in these frontier lands. In the late 1800s, American and British ranchers created great cattle kingdoms, giving birth to the largest livestock industry in Canada. In the early 1900s, the development of new fastmaturing wheat provided the incentive for a homesteading program. With the promise of free land and a better life, immigrants arrived from Europe, the United States, and other parts of Canada. In 1905, the Canadian government granted Alberta provincial status. In 1914, the first oil was pumped at Dingman; in 1947, oil was discovered at Leduc. In 1778, explorer Peter Pond noticed tar sands deposits but not until the 1990s did the Athabasca oil extraction process produce oil in considerable volume.
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The economy of Alberta is resource based and dependent on external markets. This type of economy exposes Alberta to extreme fluctuations. In the past, the arable soil of Alberta allowed for agriculture to be the dominant force. This has been supplanted by petroleum, mining, and manufacturing industries. Alberta has been able to undergo this change because it has the largest deposits of oil and natural gas in Canada and more than 70 percent of Canada’s coal supplies. Its Athabasca oil (tar) sands, under development and producing oil, are based on the largest petroleum source in the world other than Saudi Arabia. Most of the province’s manufacturing industries are tied to the natural resources and construction industries. The natural beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the annual Calgary Stampede also provide a boost to the Alberta economy in the form of tourism. The climate of Alberta is dry, due to the prevailing winds from the Pacific losing their moisture on the windward side of the Rockies. The summers are warm and winters very cold. However, in winter the temperature can rise very suddenly from a phenomenon known as the chinook. In 1971, Progressive Conservatives under Peter Lougheed won the election. Lougheed was succeeded by Ralph Klein, former mayor of Calgary. On 4 March 2008, the same party won its 11th straight victory, this time under Edward Stelmach. The capital of Alberta is Edmonton. The provincial legislative assembly has 83 members. In the federal parliament, it has 21 MPs and six senators. The area of the province is 661,190 sq km (6.6 percent of Canada). The flower of the province is the wild rose. The motto is Fortis et Liber (Strong and Free). The population exceeds 3.6 million. See also ALBERTA FIELD FORCE; BLACKFOOT CONFEDERACY. ALBERTA FIELD FORCE. For three months in 1885, a unit of the Canadian forces known as the Alberta Field Force contributed to the quelling of the Métis and native rising in the Northwest Territories. Under the command of Thomas Strange, retired British military engineer turned rancher known as “Gunner Jingo,” the locally raised force had as its principal mission the policing of native reserves. The force, which consisted of a motley assortment of cowboys, bank clerks, townspeople, scouts, and Mounties, traveled north from Calgary, then into Saskatchewan. They hunted for rebels and were exploited by settlers along the way. Among their important, though
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prosaic duties was effecting the release of 40 hostages held by Big Bear’s Cree. See also NORTHWEST REBELLION (1885). ALEXANDER, WILLIAM (EARL OF STIRLING) (1567–1640). Persuading James I of England to approve a colonization scheme to create a New Scotland in the New World, Sir William Alexander received a grant of land with rights to create new baronets for this purpose. Colonization of Nova Scotia was unsuccessful both because of the difficulty in inducing settlers to go to the new land and because of the presence of the Acadians in Acadia. In 1632, as a result of the peace negotiated between France and England, Port Royal was returned to the French and the Scottish colony disappeared. ALLAN, HUGH (1810–1882). Founder of the shipping firm Allan Line, Sir Hugh Allan was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and arrived in Canada in 1826. In 1831, he entered a shipbuilding company, becoming a partner. The Allan Line was established in 1839. In 1852, the company won a healthy government contract for steamers on the St. Lawrence River. Its vessels were also contracted for by government in the Crimean War and first South African War. Allan was also one of the founders of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1872, he won the contract to build the railway, but his contributions to coffers of the Conservative Party of John A. Macdonald were exposed to public scrutiny in what is known as the Pacific Scandal. This caused the collapse of Macdonald’s government, and the contract too collapsed. Allan was knighted in 1874 for services to Canadian commerce. He died in Edinburgh. ALLIANCES. Since 1867, Canada has had two main alliances: in the early years with Great Britain and more recently with the United States. The alliance with the British began with the conquest of New France in 1759. As a part of the British Empire, Canada was involved automatically in Britain’s wars. Conflict occurred on Canadian soil during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Britain stationed troops in Canada until 1870–71. Naval bases at Halifax and Esquimalt were maintained under British direction until the early 1900s. The alliance with Britain involved Canada in the South African War (Boer War) and both world wars.
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After World War II, Canada’s alliance with Britain became overshadowed by the growing alliance between Canada and the United States. Unlike the familial alliance that Canada had with Britain, the American alliance was based more on security, trade, and economics. During World War II, Canada negotiated the Permanent Joint Board on Defense (PJBD) with the United States to ensure the security of North America. The PJBD was renewed in 1947. In 1949, Canada joined the North American Treaty Organization (NATO). Canada signed the North American Air Defense Agreement with the United States on 12 May 1958. These were security measures that aimed at protecting North America from the Soviet Union. Economically, the United States is Canada’s largest trading partner, and this led to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1988. See also FOREIGN POLICY; NORTH AMERICAN AIR DEFENSE COMMAND (NORAD). ALLINE, HENRY (1748–1784). American evangelist Henry Alline founded the “New Lights” sect, whose members are often called Allinites. He was the leader of the Nova Scotia “Great Awakening,” a religious revival during the American Revolutionary period. AMERICAN REVOLUTION. One of the most significant developments in the long history of Canada, and of the Canadian-American border, is the American Revolution (1775–83). The roots of the issue date from the Proclamation of 1763, which defined British land policy for control of settlement west of the Appalachians (and was thus related to land exploitation and Indian rights) and British policies of taxation (which American colonists regarded as unjust and unconstitutional). Other causes of the revolution were the costs of garrisoning (the Quartering Act of 1765; extended 1774) and the Stamp Act (1765; repealed 1766). New political theories in the American colonies rejected the British Crown’s rights of control of legislation, including taxation measures. The British government passed the Québec Act of 1774, which reestablished that province’s western and southwestern commercial and territorial ambitions into the Ohio country and the Mississippi watershed. This extension of jurisdiction conflicted with the western expansion and territorial claims of Virginia, Connecticut, and Mas-
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sachusetts. Some American colonists thus classified the act as one of the “Intolerable Acts.” In September 1774, the First Continental Congress resolved to declare such British coercive acts as unconstitutional, to urge Massachusetts to take total control of taxation policy, to push colonial governments to form and arm their own militias, and to recommend economic sanctions against Great Britain. A plan for colonial union was subsequently considered; at the Second Continental Congress (May 1775), Québec was invited to join, the request speaking of Canadians as “fellow sufferers,” but no representatives were sent. In 1775, American armies clashed with British forces. The most notable instances involving Québec were the capture of Fort Ticonderoga on 10 May and Crown Point on 12 May, Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery’s expedition against Fort St. Jean (south of Montréal), which fort capitulated 2 November, and Col. Benedict Arnold’s expedition from Maine to the St. Lawrence River. The officer commanding the British troops, Gen. Sir Guy Carleton, withdrew from Montréal to Québec, leaving it uncovered; American troops then occupied Montréal 13 November. Arnold’s troops joined with Montgomery’s forces from Montréal, and launched a combined assault on Québec 31 December; it ended in disaster for American arms: Montgomery was killed, Arnold wounded, 100 killed or wounded, and 300 taken prisoner. Carleton lost 11 small river vessels and was himself nearly captured. The British defense was a stout one; American forces under Arnold maintained a weak cordon around it for the winter. American military plans had called for cross-border attacks against British garrisons and forts. However, British advantages included well-equipped and disciplined forces, naval power for supply and resupply, cooperation of Loyalists, and centralized fiscal power and influence. In 1776, France decided to come to the aid of the American colonists, but the alliance was not effected until 1778. In the campaign of 1776 in Canada, American Gen. David Wooster took over command from Arnold then cordoning off Québec. When British naval resupply arrived in the St. Lawrence and brought reinforcements to Carleton on 6 May, the American military leadership decided to abandon the siege of Québec. Carleton turned the American withdrawal into a rout. American forces suffered terribly from debilitating diseases, a factor in their poor military
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performance. The Americans were defeated at Trois-Rivières 7 June and fell back on Fort St. Jean and thence to Ticonderoga in early July. Arnold retreated to Ticonderoga, where preparations were taken to retain control of Lake Champlain by building a fleet for that purpose. In the Battle of Valcour Island (11 October 1776), Carleton’s fleet crippled Arnold’s; two days later, at Split Rock, the American fleet was destroyed. Carleton then occupied Crown Point, later abandoning it and falling back to the security of Canada. In 1777, the British force of Loyalists and Indians, 1,800 strong, advanced from Lake Ontario (Oswego) under Col. Barry St. Leger and besieged Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River. Stiff fighting followed in the area of northern New York, and late that year Gen. John Burgoyne’s army collapsed under pressures of British forces led by Gen. Sir Henry Clinton. Meanwhile, the thirteen colonies declared independence on 4 July 1776, but already, as noted above, American invasions of Canada had been mounted. Certain colonies, most notably Massachusetts, saw the Québec Act as enshrining popery on the banks of the St. Lawrence. But Massachusetts took no direct action in the invasion of Canada. Halifax, the guardian of Nova Scotia, was not attacked in this war. There was no further fighting on Canadian soil, as the campaigns intensified in Virginia and North Carolina. Carleton succeeded Clinton as British commander in chief in North America and massed all British forces at New York. Preliminary articles of peace were signed 30 November 1782; on 4 February 1783, Britain proclaimed a cessation of hostilities. As a result of the war, Britain recognized the United States of America by the first article of the definitive peace treaty, signed 3 September 1783. Because neither Nova Scotia nor Québec had joined the revolution, they did not join the United States; boundaries were set up by this treaty from the St. Croix River (dividing Maine and Nova Scotia), along the 45th degree of latitude west of the St. Lawrence-Atlantic watershed divide, through the St. Lawrence to and including the Great Lakes (exclusive of Lake Michigan), and from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River. The United States held the right to fish in grounds of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and was at liberty to dry and cure fish on unsettled shores of Labrador,
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the Magdalen Islands, and Nova Scotia. The treaty also included recognition of debts due creditors of either country, restoration of rights and property of the Loyalists, and cessation of hostilities and evacuation of British land and sea forces. Why did the citizens of the Province of Québec not rise against the British government, given the promise of the Americans as liberators? For one thing, British military might in the great garrison of Québec could not be overthrown. For another, the American invasions of 1775 were not well organized and were fought largely against professional armies. Equally important, the seigneurs, clergy, and inhabitants did not seek to overthrow their British “masters.” They preferred the status quo, did much business with the British defenders and the American invaders, and had no legitimate reason to throw off the mantle of the British Empire. The Québec Act, designed to encourage the loyalty and fidelity of the Québecois, had consequent benefit to the British Empire. Paradoxically, Canada remained British because its inhabitants were French. Nova Scotia also rejected revolution. Halifax was a garrison town and a naval base, and this encouraged wartime business with Britain and the empire and, further, made American attack unlikely. Many Nova Scotians (tied to Massachusetts and New York by blood ties) were sympathetic to the rebels but remained neutral. These “neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia” were caught in the middle—between sympathy for the American revolutionary cause and neutrality to the British imperial system at war. Another result of the American Revolution was the arrival on British soil of various Loyalists. They settled in the St. John River valley, which in 1784 was proclaimed a separate colony, New Brunswick. In Québec, they settled along the north coast of the upper St. Lawrence River and Lakes Ontario and Erie, as far west as Essex County. In 1791, in consequence, the Province of Upper Canada was established, the predominant feature of which was Loyalist political identity, where freehold land (as opposed to a seigneurial landholding system) became predominant. More generally, the remnant of the British Empire in North America—British North America—was forged by the American Revolution. The event strengthened royal, British imperial, and British executive governmental systems and identities. British North America
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retained the military structure that was so predominant during and even before 1776, rejected the concept of revolution, adhered to the idea of evolution, and provided a counterweight to U.S. tendencies to secure continental dominion in North America. In short, two countries were established by the war: the United States and Canada. This explains the long association of Canadians with imperial sympathies and colonial identities and latent enthusiasms for Canadian selfgovernment and independent status in the British Empire and Commonwealth. It thus shaped Canadian support for such episodes as the War of 1812, the South African War, and World Wars I and II. AMERICAN VIETNAM WAR RESISTERS. Sometimes called “draft dodgers,” some 50,000 American war resisters and their companions in the late 1960s and early 1970s arrived in Canada, mainly Toronto, during the Vietnam War. They brought with them a rich spirit of resistance, and in Canada they were apt to be more politicized and likely to embrace activism than has been previously assumed. Some, in British Columbia, went back to the land, and some established communes. In Toronto, others created robust communities, including housing cooperatives, communal newspapers and other voluntary organizations, and small businesses. While facing the trauma of leaving home, they also had to adjust to a society different from that of the United States (politically, militarily, diplomatically) but outwardly similar to it (commercially). Initially welcomed by civic officials, they found their welcome cooled because of the state of disorder introduced with their radical anti-war policies. When in 1972 the war ended and the pressures lessened, the welcome warmed. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned draft resisters and nonregistrants, and an unknown number returned to the United States to rebuild their lives. Others became Canadian nationals and citizens, living in-between lives (between indigenous Canadian antiAmericans and unassimilated itinerants or visitors who never put down roots). Many never adopted Canada as their own, preferring their own unique suspended lives in time and protected space. AMHERST, JEFFREY (1717–1797). British commander at the successful siege of Louisbourg in 1758, Lord Jeffrey Amherst was commander in chief in America during the Seven Years War (1756–63).
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He commanded a large army that descended from Lake Ontario to Montréal in August and early September 1760, and he signed, for the British, the Articles of Surrender of Montréal (the Marquis de Vaudreuil signed for the French). As military commander of Canada after the French cession of New France, he put in place reforms in Indian administration that, though driven by imperial policies of fiscal economy, represented his understanding that conquerors held full powers over natives who had backed the failed French war cause. British Indian agents called a great council at Detroit in 1761, the intention to promote peace and build a new alliance in the western interior. But Amherst determined to eliminate all gifts that served as tokens of friendship. Guaranteeing Indians their lands free from encroachments by settlers was part of Amherst’s policy, but this would not suffice to keep peace and promote the alliance with the Indians. Pontiac’s War of rebellion (1763) was widespread and difficult to contain; it is seen as a demonstration of British failure and of Amherst’s misguided policy. Afterward the alliance had to be rebuilt anew, old French posts reoccupied, British garrisons established at key fur posts such as Detroit and Michilimackinac, trade gifts made more generous, and trade goods (guns, ammunition, knives, rum, tobacco) made more available. Pontiac survived in history and legend but Amherst’s image has tarnished with the years. Amherst was succeeded in Canada by Gen. Thomas Gage. ANNEXATION MANIFESTO. Signed in 1848, this document called for Canada’s annexation to the United States as being preferable to the proposed union of the British North American colonies. The signatories included Alexander Tilloch Galt, Louis-Joseph Papineau, and a number of Montréal and Québec businessmen. The economic and financial causes of this unsuccessful quest were many. Principal among them was the end of colonial preference in the British markets for Canadian wheat, timber, and flour products. Canadian trading was disadvantaged by free trade with Great Britain. The annexationists argued that union with the United States would raise farm prices, lower import costs, and attract U.S. capital for Canadian industry. But French Canadians were thoroughly opposed, and the American government showed no interest. The movement, largely republican in sympathy, encountered strong political opposition by the British
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American League and followers of Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine. It died out in 1854, when the Reciprocity Treaty allowed free trade with the United States in products of farm, forest, and waters. See also RECIPROCITY. ANTIGONISH MOVEMENT. Founded in the 1920s by Father Jimmy Tompkins and his cousin Dr. Moses Coady of St. Frances Xavier University, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, this movement encouraged cooperatives and formed the United Maritime Fishermen, based in Moncton. The Antigonish Movement aimed at solving credit problems and ending economic distress in maritime communities. Notions of cooperatives pioneered in Nova Scotia have become familiar around the world. ANTI-TERRORISM ACT. Introduced by the Liberal government in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) received royal assent 8 December 2001. According to the Canadian Department of Justice, the act “takes aim at terrorist organizations and assists the Government of Canada to meet the extraordinary challenges presented by terrorism. The legislation is intended to protect the safety, security and fundamental rights of Canadians. It contains numerous safeguards, which include an important requirement that Parliament comprehensively review the provisions and operation of the ATA after three years.” Despite its apparent uses, the ATA has been seen to violate the nature of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In October 2006, an Ontario judge struck down sections of the act because of its associations between ideologies and motives. ARCHITECTURE. The earliest architecture of Canada can be said to be aboriginal dwellings, and noteworthy in this regard are the long houses of the Iroquois, Huron, and other eastern tribes; the tents of the plains tribes; and the cedar structures of the Northwest Coast peoples. Entirely made of local, natural materials, they were dwellings largely of impermanence and subject to the migratory patterns of the tribes and bands. The first European dwelling in the area now known as Canada was the house-storehouse-fortification that Champlain erected at Québec: called the Habitation, it was more than a place
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of dwelling. The construction of military installations contributed to the architectural features of Canada, most notably in stone forts, redoubts, Martello towers, and barracks. Many of these are to be seen in Halifax, Kingston, and Esquimalt. The British government, especially the War Department, Royal Engineers, and Admiralty, made many notable additions to Canadian architecture, providing funding and architectural/engineering standards. During the French era, the military architect Vauban designed fortifications of New France. Of equal importance to the architectural record is the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the construction of basilica and parish churches, many of which survive in the Province of Québec. Many of these will be seen in Québec City, on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, in Montréal, and elsewhere. They speak to deep-seated religious traditions, French imperial purposes in the new world through Christianity, and domestic adoption (and expansion) of Roman Catholicism. Domestic architecture survives from the 18th century, and many fine examples are to be found in Rue St. Paul, lower Montréal, for instance. The Georgian and Victorian ages gave many distinguished architectural examples to Canada. In Upper Canada are examples of Classical Revival, or Federalist style, common in the United States. Loyalists and late Loyalists coming to Upper Canada brought their architectural tastes with them. The Gothic styles so popular in Great Britain saw expression in Canadian building: for example, the East Block of the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, and certain buildings of the University of Toronto. Neoclassical motifs remained predominant in city and town architecture; this is notable in Kingston’s civic buildings, and in the parliament buildings, for instance, of Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Gothic influences are to be found in Protestant church architecture, notably of the Anglican Church of Canada. Examples of this include St. John the Evangelist, Elora, Ontario, and in the form of “carpenter gothic” St. Luke’s Church, Victoria, British Columbia. Churches naturally reflected metropolitan preferences in Great Britain. It may be noted that banks recognized the value of an architectural image that would attract customers. In consequence, bank buildings are some of the heritage pieces of Canadian architecture. The owners and managers of banks wished to display symbols of wealth, integrity, endurance, and confidence; thus, they turned to Greek and
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Roman architectural forms, many with porticos consisting of classical pediments supported by Doric columns. Others looked like respectable London banking houses or residences. Italian Renaissance revival styles flourished, as did neoclassical ones, particularly in Winnipeg. Branch banks were conspicuous in their appearance during the growth of the Canadian economy during the 20th century, but with the evolution of suburbs and shopping malls the recently built branch banks are frequently understated buildings. By contrast, the great steel and glass towers in Toronto of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, TD Bank, Scotiabank, RBC Royal Bank, and others represent some of the “crown jewels” of Canadian business architecture, closely clustered together in intimate neighborly security with the Toronto Stock Exchange, brokerage houses, insurance companies, and law firms. The coming of glass, ferro concrete, steel I-beams, and elevators allowed for the evolution of high-rise buildings. Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver are examples of cities that in the 1960s began to grow upward as well as outward. The harsh winters resulted in architects and engineers designing subterranean passages between buildings. University buildings in, say, Winnipeg and Calgary followed the same requirement of keeping warm between or on the way to classes. The suburbanization of all Canadian cities led to planned communities on the margins of “downtown.” This led to suburban malls, new school designs, and outlying police stations and fire halls. Older downtown structures fell into disrepair or were closed. Heritage conservancy exists in most Canadian jurisdictions, and hallmark or architectural heritage associations exist to identify and, in some cases, designate properties of historical significance. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada designated locations of national significance. ARGENTIA CONFERENCE. Also termed the Atlantic Conference, this meeting of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill took place aboard warships anchored off Argentia, Newfoundland, 9–12 August 1941. The meeting produced the Atlantic Charter of war aims and sped the process of coordinating the still-neutral United States with the Allies’ war effort. Canada was not separately represented at this meeting.
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ARMED FORCES. See CANADIAN AIR FORCE; CANADIAN ARMY; CANADIAN COAST GUARD; CANADIAN NAVY; MILITIA. ARMS OF CANADA. The Coat of Arms of Canada contains the Arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland and the Arms of Royalist France in the first and second divisions of the shield. These emblems show that the arms are derived from ancient kingdoms and also exemplify the fact that men, women, and children of these countries contributed to the settlement and early development of Canada. The emblem of Canada in the third division—three joined maple leaves—symbolizes Canada’s national sovereignty as a monarchy. To the left of the shield, the lion rampant embraces the Union flag; on the right, the unicorn does likewise with a flag of France containing three fleur de lis. Below is the statement A Mari Usque ad Mare—From Sea to Sea. AROOSTOOK WAR. Disputes in the Aroostook River region of the ill-defined Maine-New Brunswick border area led to the Aroostook War in 1839, also known as the Bloodless War because not a single shot was fired. In March 1839, a compromise was reached before serious conflict could occur. The main issues involved timber rights and the communication lines between the British provinces. Aroostook County in northern Maine was incorporated 16 March 1839. The northern and eastern border is the St. John River, which separates Maine from Canada. The western boundary is a lengthy stretch of timberland that shares a border with Québec. The area was mapped by Samuel de Champlain in 1612, using information supplied by Maliseets and Mi’kmaq, two Native American tribes occupying the land. The first European settlers were French Acadian refugees who settled in the area around present-day Madawaska in 1785. The first American settlers came in 1805 from Massachusetts to what is now the town of Houlton, which along with Fort Fairfield and Fort Kent would play integral roles in the war. The northern and eastern border along the St. John River was the source of spirited dispute between the United States and Great Britain. Ardent debate over lumbering rights and river access led the United States to establish military posts and blockhouses in Houlton, Soldier Pond, Fort Fairfield, and Fort Kent. These troops built military roads. The Aroostook War officially ended with the
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Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842, which left the Aroostook and Fish River regions to Maine. Fort Fairfield’s original 1839 blockhouse was dismantled in 1862, but a wooden replica constructed in 1972 contains artifacts and memorabilia from the period. The town’s boom and cannon also can be visited. Houlton’s Hancock Barracks, originally built in 1828, have since been reconstructed, and Fort Kent’s 1840 blockhouse still stands in its original condition. ART. The colonial eras exhibited mainly European modes and styles of art. Among prominent early artists was Paul Kane, a 19th-century painter whose work is now in much demand. Cornelius Kreighoff is another. Art development since 1945 has mirrored the development of the nation. A slow break with the traditions that had been set up in previous decades occurred; Canadian art started to look inward and reflected a far more impulsive and introspective style. As selfconscious Canadians began to search for their own uniqueness in a much larger world, so did Canadian artists begin to express their own understanding of the visual world in bolder and more individual representations. Canadian art emerged from distinctive French and English styles. That Canadian art remained conservative and well “behind” the trends and activities of Europe is not surprising. A predominantly conservative public sensibility was mirrored and enforced by the art schools of Canada’s major metropolitan areas. The Ontario College of Art, the Vancouver School of Design and Applied Arts, and L’École des Beaux-Arts in Montréal all prescribed a methodology that reinforced the traditional mode of representation in painting, sculpture, and drawing. Traditional methods of copying the Old Masters and drawing directly from models were still strictly supported as the best way of acquiring artistic schooling. Arthur Lismer (1885–1969) resigned from the Ontario College of Art over a dispute regarding the nature of creative expression and a broadening of technique. Fred Varley (1885–1969) and Jock MacDonald (1897–1960) met similar resistance to change in Vancouver. In Montréal, Alfred Pellan (1906–?) came into direct conflict with the director of the school as he tried to counsel a program of experimentation, modernism, and the rejection of old, tired methodologies of instruction. One skirmish in the revolution for a new understanding of Canadian
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artistic expression was won by Pellan when his students shouted out the director, forcing his eventual resignation. The real birthplace of Canadian contemporary art must be from Montréal in general and from Paul-Emile Bourduas (1905–60) more specifically. As an instructor at L’École du Meuble in Montréal, Bourduas spread his ideas of the nature of painting and the importance of self-expression in art. Supremely interested in the works of children, he included his students in an ongoing dialogue surrounding the development of a new artistic revolution in Québec. The uninhibited nature of his work with his students enabled Bourduas to grow significantly as an artist, allowing him to develop a style that focused on abstraction, imagination, and the subconscious. His influence on the development of Canadian painting cannot be underplayed; his was the leading voice that gave rise to the artistic freedom that emerged in Montréal under Les Automatistes. Les Automatistes began as a group of six painters who exhibited at the 1946 exhibition of the Contemporary Arts Society in Montréal and went on to include several artists in varying capacities. Of the original six, the most important to the development of Canadian painting was Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923–?). As one of Canada’s most internationally recognized painters, Riopelle exemplified the Surrealist tendencies of the group and their fascination with the impulsive, subconscious nature of expression. Riopelle traveled widely and was influenced no doubt by works by Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock. Riopelle painted very large canvases with broad expressive swaths of color applied with a palette knife. His 1954 work Pavene is an example of this abstract expressionism, engaging the viewer through a nonrepresentational expression of feelings. Riopelle continued to develop his own style of representation, and his work is so personal in nature that few if any have sought to emulate it. While Pellan, Bourduas, and Riopelle were busy furthering their artistic revolution in Montréal, Toronto—and English Canada more generally—lagged behind for several different reasons. Whereas the bulk of Les Automatistes had been too young to fight in the war, Toronto’s art scene was not spared the same blessings. Many of its artists had served overseas as war artists for the government and did not share the French-Canadian fascination with the European modernist tradition. A. Y Jackson (1882–1974) wrote a weekly column in the
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Toronto News from 1942 through 1946, and coupled with the return of his Group of Seven contemporary Fred Varley (1881–1969), the two remained the driving impulse of the artistic direction of much of English-speaking Canada. The influence of the Group of Seven on Emily Carr was considerable, but other forces shaped her work, notably study in Europe and the United States. The Toronto-based Painters Eleven held no methodological or stylistic adherence to each other. Rather their formation as a collective group was one of convenience and perhaps in protest to the strong hold on tradition that many young artists felt in the city in the decade after the war. In 1954, the group, having been influenced by the activities in Montréal, New York, and to a certain extent Europe, held their first exhibition at the Roberts Gallery. Hortense Gordon, Jack Bush, Jock MacDonald (then teaching at the Ontario College of Art), Harold Town, Walter Yarwood, Tom Hodgson, William Ronald, Kazuo Nakamura, Ray Mead, and Oscar Cahen had all exhibited elsewhere across the nation but now worked together organizing abstract, nonobjective shows throughout Ontario and, in 1956, New York. The two groups eventually showed together, presenting a united front against the tradition and conservatism of Canadian art, thus establishing a burgeoning appreciation for what Canadian artists were capable of. The Canada Council for the Arts, formed in 1957, immediately began patronizing the arts, providing travel and study grants. Artistic centers grew wherever Canadian universities had developed strong art departments. The coming of the centennial celebrations and the Montréal Expo 67 further enhanced government spending on culture, and unprecedented amounts were allocated to the visual arts. What had begun with the formation of abstract groups in Montréal and Toronto had spread through the encouragement of the public and the government to include artists of all types and abilities. Jack Chambers, from London, Ontario, exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada; his work 401 Towards London No. 1 remains an excellent example of realism and emotion. Norval Morrisseau, Ojibwa, retold the legends of his people in words and pictures, preserving an elegant culture for posterity. In Atlantic Canada, Alex Colville emerged as Canada’s most internationally acclaimed artist. A figurative painter working at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, he believed in the importance of subject matter in the visual arts. His high realism
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style was new to Canadian art and no doubt owes much to his time spent as a war artist. Paintings of familiar subjects, animals, people on the beach, a girl in a field, resonated with viewers, while his composition placed his subjects at an intoxicating distance, creating a fascination for his work that has established him on an international scale unequalled by any of his forbears. The popularity of gallery shows and national exhibitions reveals an appreciation of art in Canada that goes well beyond a small percentage of its population. Though many still connect “Canadian Art” singularly with the Group of Seven, it is apparent that Canadian artists, if not a specific style of Canadian art, are gaining appreciation and value throughout the world. In addition to the art colleges listed above, the following are prominent: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax; Banff School of Fine Arts, Banff, Alberta; Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary; and Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver. Many of these institutes have programs in design, a student gateway to architecture. See also CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS; TIPPETT, MARIA; WAR ARTISTS. ASBESTOS STRIKE. In the early 20th century, foreign companies were mining the rich asbestos deposits of Québec’s Eastern Townships. Québec was world leader in production of asbestos. In the town of Asbestos in 1949, certain workers refused to await the report of grievances being prepared by a government-appointed board of arbitration. The intent of the wildcat strike was to prevent the company stockpiling reserves before the inevitable walkout. The company hired replacement workers, and a large force of provincial police arrived to protect them. The strike lasted for five months and was bitter in its rhetoric and brutal in its action: many strikers were arrested and beaten by police. Behind the state-dominated suppression of the workers lay the power of the Union Nationale and the heavy-handed tactics of the premier of Québec, Maurice Duplessis. One of the few public champions of the strikers was Archbishop Charbonneau of Montréal, who was soon transferred out of the province by his superiors. The Roman Catholic Church’s role as mediator in labor matters in the province ended with the asbestos strike, its legitimacy in that function having become bankrupt.
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The strike had an important side effect: liberal-minded nationalists, including young labor lawyer Pierre Elliott Trudeau, became convinced of the need to defeat Duplessis and protect workers’ interests. When he visited the asbestos workers on strike, he found a Québec he did not really know: workers exploited by management, denounced by government, brutalized by police, yet burning with militancy. This event, then, was an important watershed in employeremployee relations, and a turning point in the religious, political, social, and economic affairs of the province. One end result, painfully achieved, was to strengthen union interests in Québec. ASSINIBOINE. The Assiniboine (“the people that cook with hot stones”), a Plains tribe, inhabited the area that is now southern Alberta. The Assiniboine were enemies of the Blackfoot Confederacy. They fought many battles for control of the prairies. After the introduction of European firearms, battles and hunting expeditions occurred more frequently. As well, a steady decline in buffalo resulted due to gun-carrying Assiniboine. In 1836, the Assiniboine were inflicted with smallpox. The population of the Assiniboine continued to decline after 1836, and many were later confined to reserves. See also INDIANS. ATWOOD, MARGARET ELEANOR (1939– ). Novelist, short story writer, poet, and critic, Margaret Atwood is best known for her novels, which have global reach. Born in Ottawa, Atwood graduated from the University of Toronto and was a student at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first published work in 1966, The Circle, won the Governor General’s Award. The Edible Woman (1969), dealing with emotional cannibalism, provoked considerable controversy. Though many of her works have a futuristic theme, she bolts at the suggestion that it is in the genre of science fiction. A commentator on the rise of English Canadian literature, she is an avid champion of Canadian arts and letters and an active participant in lobbying governments and agencies. In 1985, The Handmaid’s Tale was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, as was The Cat’s Eye in 1989. The Blind Assassin (2000) won the Booker Prize. Among her other works are Alias Grace (1997), Murder in the Dark (1998), Oryx and Crake (2003), and The Year of the Flood (2009).
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AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY. Canada has a long history of auto manufacturing, but the star early attraction is the 1916 production by R. L. McLaughlin of Oshawa, Ontario, whose McLaughlin-Buick was one of the great automobiles of the 1930s. General Motors made Oshawa its Canadian base. Ford Motors and Chrysler all established auto assembly plants and parts manufacturing plants in Ontario and Québec. Windsor, St. Thomas, St. Catharines, Oakville, and other urban places of Ontario benefited from the growth of the auto sector in the Canadian economy, but they were also prone to the downward cycles and shifts that came with depression and recession. Auto parts manufacturing developed in Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto, London, and Hamilton. This formed the heartland of the Canadian automobile industry, though various places in the Province of Québec fared well by the growth of this sector. Beginning in the 1960s, Ontario became the site of branch plants of all Japanese automakers. Magna International (a nonunion shop) and Linamar Corporation became large-scale producers of parts and engines. Toyota and Honda established plants in Cambridge and Alliston, respectively. Mazda, affiliated with Ford Motor Company, had a share of the Japanese auto business in Canada. Mitsubishi began selling cars in Canada in the late 1990s. KIA, the Korean company, began its business in Canada in the 1980s. The effect of this production and importation meant that North American built and designed vehicles faced stiff competition. The English car market in Canada almost disappeared after 1970, though it was never a commanding presence; it became focused on the Jaguar and, for a time, the Austin Mini. The MG, Austin Healey, Triumph, and Morgan sports cars had a small market share, but this was along sentimental lines rather than due to performance standards and capabilities. These structural shifts were basic to the evolution of the 1965 Autopact, the Canada/USA Automotive Products Trading Agreement. This allowed free trade in North American built automobiles and auto parts. (It was later extended to include Mexico.) The conditions allowed for a rapid expansion of Canada’s auto industry. The conditions specified that a company had to produce 50 percent or more of its vehicles in North America. Companies had to assemble one car here for each one sold here. A huge expansion of Canadian auto parts manufacturing and vehicle assembly capacity followed. The rubber
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manufacturing sector was one beneficiary, with increased demand for tires, tubes, and rubber automobile components by the auto assemblers. The initial surge, in the mid-1960s, gave way to Canadian plants feeling the pinch, for facilities were often too small by world standards, labor costs increased, and there were too many short production runs. Higher prices for petrochemical products following the OPEC crisis led to high prices for tires. New fuel efficient vehicle standards required better rolling resistance from tires, and the radial tire was introduced. The Government of Canada introduced a regressive tax on air conditioners for vehicles at time of first sale, strangely limiting production in that sector and hurting the consumer. The early 1980s witnessed a major recession, leading to industry mergers and free trade talks. In 1989, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented. Another recession in the 1990s damaged the auto sector, but by the mid-1990s the industry had bounced back resoundingly with record output but lower employment. Increasing use of robots and tool machinery cut into the labor market. The Canadian Autoworkers Union led by Buzz Hargrove was engaged in many fights with auto producers; this is the largest private sector union in Canada. The Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario have been mighty investors in the rebuilding of the auto sector, especially in capital expenditures for new plants, refurbishment of old, and redesign of engine and frame production facilities. From its inception, the auto sector of Canada depended on rail and truck communication on a “just in time” delivery basis. Shipping in and out of Montréal, Halifax, Saint John, and especially Vancouver increased with the rise of the automobile industry and consumer demands in North America. The increased efficiencies of the 1990s and 2000s led to a new capital investment by the companies themselves, and further strengthening of a smaller, though now world-class, domestic industry. Despite encroachments from offshore Asian and European car importers, the domestic manufacturing and parts business is North American and Canadian centered, even if the Big Three (Ford, GM, and Chrysler) appear besieged; they still command a large market share, though that may be diminishing. Many “Japanese” automobiles are made in North America, many of them in Canada. Ontario
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produces more vehicles today than does neighboring Michigan, the heart of the U.S. auto industry.
-BBAFFIN, WILLIAM (1584–1622). An English navigator and explorer, Baffin sailed to Greenland with an expedition in 1612. In 1615, he led another expedition seeking the Northwest Passage to Asia. His name was given to Baffin Bay, which he explored in 1616, and to Baffin Island. In 1616, he became the first European to reach Ellesmere Island. Clements R. Markham edited accounts of Baffin’s expeditions and published them as The Voyages of William Baffin (1881). BAFFIN ISLAND, NUNAVUT. Named for William Baffin, English explorer, Baffin Island earlier appears in the historical record as Meta Incognita (“unknown limits”). Britain’s title to this eastern Arctic island and adjacent lands was inscribed by Michael Lok in the “title Royal” after Martin Frobisher’s return to England from his second voyage to Baffin Island (fall 1577). A colony was to have been established there in 1578 on Frobisher’s third voyage, but Frobisher opposed colonization on grounds of difficulty of survival in northern latitudes. Frobisher’s explorations extended Britain’s knowledge of Baffin Island and the nearby approaches to the fabled Northwest Passage. The notorious nonsuccess of mineral extraction set back British enthusiasm for polar discoveries in these waters for some time. Subsequent discoveries by private and Royal Navy personnel completed the general European appraisal of the land form of Baffin Island. Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit, was built as a U.S. Air Force base for the airlift of personnel and equipment to Europe during World War II. BAGOT, CHARLES (1781–1843). Governor general of British North America from 1841 to 1843, Sir Charles Bagot followed Lord Sydenham in that post. Because of poor health, Bagot allowed the leadership of the cabinet created by Sydenham to pass out of control. In 1842, he invited Robert Baldwin and Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine
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to form a ministry, thereby furthering the development of parliamentary democracy in Canada. These actions were repudiated by his successor, Charles Metcalfe. However, the precedents were established and responsible government became a reality under Lord Elgin. BALDWIN, ROBERT (1804–1858). Lawyer, politician, and celebrated reformer from Canada West, Baldwin combined forces with Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine, from Canada East, to establish what became the Liberal Party. With his father, Baldwin devised the theory of responsible government, wherein the legislative assembly would control the list of persons working for the government (known as “the civil list”) and have the general oversight of financial measures. This met with resistance from Governors Francis Bond Head and Charles Metcalfe. However, Charles Bagot accepted Executive Council participation in the legislative government. Baldwin with Lafontaine resigned in opposition to Metcalfe’s autocratic rule. They had made their point clear: they wanted local Canadian management of the government. In 1848, Baldwin and Lafontaine forged a partnership. They established what is now generally called “the Great Ministry,” a successful measure. Baldwin and Lafontaine thus were party to the transition from imperial rule to colonial self-government, mainly on fiscal matters. They are also seen as first partners across the English-French divide of Canadian politics. BANKING. Institutionalized banking came to British North America in 1820, when the Bank of New Brunswick at Saint John was granted a charter by the provincial government. In 1822, the Bank of Montréal (now BMO Bank of Montréal) was chartered by the Province of Lower Canada. On the eve of confederation, there were 28 banks in the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The Bank of Montréal, with origins from 1817, is Canada’s oldest chartered bank. It participated in many developments in Canadian economic and financial growth, including the first canals, the telegraph, the Canadian Pacific Railway, major hydroelectric projects, and the development of energy and mining industries. In fact, it was Canada’s banker from 1863 until the founding of the Bank of Canada in 1935. The Bank of Montréal had agencies in New York and London, and in 1893 became Canada’s fiscal agent in London,
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a function it still performs. In the early 20th century, bank mergers and takeovers led to larger chartered banks. In the 1980s, these banks acquired investment firms—in the case of the Bank of Montréal, the firm Nesbitt, Thomson (now BMO Nesbitt Burns), and in the case of the Bank of Nova Scotia (now Scotiabank), ScotiaMcLeod. Three banks deriving from other geographic and financial centers of Canadian activity are the Bank of British Columbia, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Bank of Upper Canada. The Bank of British Columbia, chartered in 1966 and headquartered in Vancouver, is now fully owned by the Hongkong Bank of Canada, which is wholly owned by Hongkong & Shanghai Banking of Hong Kong. Operating as HSBC Bank Canada, it is Canada’s ninth largest bank. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 in Halifax and is Canada’s second oldest bank. Its influence expanded west with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and it opened a branch in London in 1920. It amalgamated with smaller banks such as the Union Bank of Prince Edward Island and the Bank of Ottawa. The first Canadian bank to operate in the Caribbean, it opened a branch in Jamaica in 1889 and was the first to offer complete banking services in Japan (1981). It further diversified and expanded and is now global in operations. The Bank of Upper Canada, chartered 21 April 1821, began operations in York (Toronto) in 1822. It had powerful links with the Family Compact. It speculated in lands and railways, and it never recovered from an economic collapse in 1857, losing the lucrative government account. It played a strong role in the development of Ontario in early years but became a casualty and was placed in trusteeship in November 1866. Whereas the Bank of Canada acts as an arm of the federal government, carrying out its monetary responsibilities and acting as a lender of last resort to commercial entities, as well as holding assets of government and chartered banks and issuing notes of money, chartered banks accept deposits from the public and extend loans for commercial, personal, and other purposes. Canadian banks have their origins in European and especially British traditions and practices. Early banking history in British North America exhibits ups and downs and general instability, a situation that continued until the 1920s. Gradually, legal provisions and government oversight tightened lending practices. A variance in this came in the 1980s when, encouraged
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by the federal government, Canadian banks extended large loans to Canadian companies wishing to take over subsidiaries of foreign companies, especially in the oil and gas industry. A weakening of the Canadian dollar and inflationary expansion of the money supply followed. Meanwhile the domestic loan portfolio of banks deteriorated, with loans to oil and gas companies, forest product companies, and manufacturers Massey-Ferguson and International Harvester further weakening bank financial strength. Many loans to Latin America were written off, and chartered banks became more cautious in lending practices. Meanwhile, bank profits and dividends continued steady and even stronger. The oversight of the Bank of Canada continued to act as a cautionary force in lending, credit, and currency, promoting and facilitating national economic and financial strength and stability while at the same time encouraging business expansion and portraying Canada as a safe place for investment. The regulation of Canadian banks is vested in the Government of Canada and, in particular, the minister of finance. From time to time, practices are reviewed and matters of disclosure reassessed. A proposal of 1977 that would have required banks to provide better disclosure of interest charges was defeated (and there was therefore no legislation). Changes in 1980 to the Bank Act established the Canadian Payments Association, an agency responsible for the check (cheque) clearing system. Other changes of that date include reducing reserve requirements, allowing foreign banks to establish themselves under various rules and restrictions, and allowing banks to become involved in the business of leasing big equipment. Banks, but not their subsidiaries, were limited to a 10 percent holding of residential mortgages. The recent past shows the institution of the electronic funds transfer system, the computerization of banking through automatic teller machines, automatic clearinghouses, preauthorized payments and automatic deposits of government, payroll, and bond interest payments. Multibranch banking, across-Canada banking integration, and better accounting practices (and disclosure) also are recent developments. Federal government policy, derived from experience in the past 30 years, is to prevent the merger of the great chartered banks as well as to prevent U.S. dominance in the banking sector. Looked at from another perspective, Canadian banks operate under overall
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guidelines and direction as set or interpreted by the Government of Canada under the Bank Act. BANK OF CANADA. An instrument of regulation and control, the Bank of Canada was established on 11 March 1935 under the terms of the Bank of Canada Act, 3 July 1934. It arose directly in response to federal government concerns in consequence of the Great Depression and due to mounting criticism of the way the country’s financial institutions were structured; in turn, it came in response to the 1933 Royal Commission on Banking and Currency. Originally privately owned, in 1938 the Bank of Canada was nationalized. Prior to the Bank of Canada Act, Canadian banks were regulated by the Canadian Bankers Association. The new legislation was the major portion of the changes undertaken. Associated revisions to the equally important but parallel Bank Act, the law that regulates Canada’s chartered banks, and which operate nationwide (BMO Bank of Montréal, CIBC, RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Bank, and so forth), made in consequence of the 1934 legislation, also changed the legal framework for Canada’s chartered banks, which are obliged to maintain a specified ratio (usually 10 percent) between liabilities to the public (current and savings accounts) and their claims on the national monetary authorities (Bank of Canada paper currency, plus deposits with the Bank of Canada). The banks could not borrow directly from the Government of Canada, as had been permitted under the 1914 Finance Act. Instead, and after 1935, they had to borrow from the Bank of Canada. In addition, the Bank of Canada would manage the national monetary system, the issuing of paper money (bank note operations were previously run by the Department of Finance), the holding reserves in precious metals, the buying and selling of bonds in the securities markets so as to affect the supply of credit and demand for it, and the buying and selling of gold and foreign monies so as to affect the demand-supply balance in the foreign exchange market. Bank of Canada operations thus affect the cost and availability of credit, but it never fixes interest rates for the public at large or rations the supply of credit directly. The Bank of Canada is Canada’s central bank because of its special functions in relation to the chartered banks, the international
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environment, and the federal government. It is also the parent of the Industrial Development Bank, established 1945, and the Business Development Bank of Canada. It does not engage in commercial banking activity, but it has guiding power in setting the bank rate, formulating monetary policy, and stabilizing the Canadian dollar exchange rate. According to the Bank of Canada Act, the essential purpose of money management is to help achieve price, employment, and economic conditions that are “in the best interests of the economic life of the nation.” In short, it has an obligation to the nation and falls under government legislation though has independent powers. It is managed by a senior governor, a senior deputy governor, and 12 directors. The deputy minister of finance of the Government of Canada is a nonvoting member of the board. Directors are appointed by the federal minister of finance. By no means independent, the Bank of Canada is ultimately responsible to the government, as was proved by a dispute between the government and James E. Coyne, the governor in 1961, on the question as to the date of the governor’s end of tenure. It is in the managerial aspects of credit and collateral that the Bank of Canada has demonstrated its value in financial stability at home and in the international markets. In its oversight, it aims to maintain inflation between 1 and 3 percent a year. Its old-style policies and generally conservative banking practices attracted a good deal of international, especially American, attention in late 2008 and well into 2009 during the recession. Canada’s banks did not escape the downturn entirely, and debate occurred as to whether the banks might be forced to cut dividends—something not done since the 1930s. Government support consisted mainly of providing liquidity through regular auctions of high-quality mortgages held by the banks and other mortgage lenders. The chartered banks received no aid in the recent crisis, and in fact resisted any possibility of the same. In 2009, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney cited the strength of the Canadian banking system as key to the country’s economic recovery, saying there is “almost a quantum difference in the financial position of the Canadian banking system [as opposed to that of the United States].” BANTING, FREDERICK GRANT (1891–1941). A physiologist, Sir Frederick Grant Banting discovered insulin. Born in Alliston, On-
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tario, he studied medicine at the University of Toronto and became a professor there in 1923. While working under John James Rickard Macleod on pancreatic secretions in 1921, he discovered (with the aid of his assistant Charles H. Best) the hormone insulin, a treatment for diabetes. With Macleod, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, which he shared with Best. In 1930, Banting established the Banting Institute in Toronto. In 1941, he was killed in a wartime air crash. In 2008, the Banting homestead was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, the intent being its restoration and preservation. BARKER, WILLIAM GEORGE (1894–1930). Canada’s most decorated war hero, “Billy” Barker was born in Dauphin, Manitoba. As an officer in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), he was credited with 40 “kills” of German and Austro-Hungarian aircraft in World War I. He is best remembered for single-handed combat against at least 30 enemy aircraft, which won him the Victoria Cross on 27 October 1918. Barker became the first director of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). He was fatally injured when his Fairchild crashed at Rockcliffe Air Station, near Ottawa. BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC. At the beginning of World War II, the British received two-thirds of their food supplies, 30 percent of their iron ore, 90 percent of copper ore, 90 percent of bauxite, 95 percent of petroleum, 100 percent of rubber, and 80 percent of their soft timber from abroad by sea. If the supplies could not get through, the British would be unable to fight, and cutting those supply lines was a major aim of Germany. The Battle of the Atlantic was to determine the outcome. German U-boats ranged the Atlantic Ocean in search of British and Allied merchant shipping. In the early stages, this tactic was effective in reducing the supplies to Britain. Although Britain developed a detection device, they had few ships that could fight the U-boats. Between July and December 1940, U-boats sank 1.5 million tons of shipping. The Battle of the Atlantic began as a race between the German’s ability to build U-boats and the Allies’ ability to construct merchant ships, and also between the development of German undersea tactics and the Allies’ ability to build escorts and to learn to defeat the U-boats.
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The climax of the battle was 1943. The number of U-boats at sea averaged more than 100. For a time, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was pulled out of the struggle due to ill-equipped escorts and below-standard training. As well, there was an air coverage gap off the coast of Greenland, although the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Eastern Air Command provided exhaustive coverage out of Newfoundland. In February and March 1943, 171 ships were sunk by U-boats. At the Atlantic Convoy Conference in Washington in March 1943, RCN’s Adm. Leonard Murray took over the Canadian Northwest Atlantic Command. The Allies gained control over the Germans by gaining access to German codes in March 1943. As well, better-designed detection equipment, new weapons such as the hedgehog, better training, and the extension of escort and, eventually, air coverage across the North Atlantic turned the tide in favor of the Allies. In May 1943, the Allies sank 41 U-boats and continued to deplete the German submarines in the following months. By 1944, the RCN and RCAF had almost entire responsibility for the surface escort of convoys. The Battle of the Atlantic was a hard-won Allied victory in which Canadian forces played a fundamental part. See also CANADIAN AIR FORCE; CANADIAN NAVY. BC FERRIES. A crown corporation of the Province of British Columbia, BC Ferries was launched in 1960 by the Social Credit government of Premier W.A.C. Bennett. Numerous difficulties with Canadian Pacific Coastal Steamships, including strikes and corporate indifference to the Strait of Georgia crossings (Vancouver-Nanaimo and Vancouver-Victoria), led to this government intervention. BC Ferries began with two ships (designed for 106 1960 Buicks or equivalent), two terminals (Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay), and 200 employees. Another route instituted in early days was Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, later supplemented by Tsawwassen to Duke Point (Nanaimo). By 1998, it had one of the largest ferry fleets in the world, with 4,000 employees and 40 ships serving 25 different routes, carrying over 22 million passengers and 8 million vehicles a year. BC Ferries concentrated on in-province marine travel (as opposed to trade with the United States). It pushed Black Ball Ferries, an American corporation, out of the Nanaimo-Vancouver run; in addition, it ended the Canadian Pacific Railway’s coastal traffic. BC Ferries inherited
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Gulf Islands and other ferry routes of the Provincial Department of Highways. It developed the Port Hardy, northern Vancouver Island, to Prince Rupert “inside passage” run and the “mid-coast” route linking the Port Hardy-Prince Rupert run to McLoughlin Bay, Ocean Falls, Bella Coola and Klemtu, and in the Queen Charlotte Islands, Skidegate and Alliford Bay. In 2006, its vessel Queen of the North (8,806 tons), sailing south from Prince Rupert, sailed off course, hit a rock, and went down with loss of two passengers. BEATTY, EDWARD (1877–1943). Noted business executive Sir Edward Beatty was born at Thorold, Ontario, and educated at Upper Canada College and the University of Toronto. Called to the bar, he entered the legal department of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), rising to become one of the vice presidents (1914). President of CPR in 1918, he guided the firm’s affairs in turbulent times, which included a severe depression and rivalry from the newly created Canadian National Railway system. The latter had the resources of the state behind it, which Beatty and his associates naturally resented as unfair. He sought the merger of the two, but a royal commission found against him in 1932. The revival of Canadian prosperity aided his attempts to extricate the CPR from desperate days. A person of charm and wide friendship, he was popular with his staff and employees. His health declined and he retired in 1942. Publicly spirited, he gave time and money to worthy causes, including Queen’s and McGill universities, Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal, and the Boy Scout Association of Canada. Knighted 1915, he died unmarried in Montréal. BEAVAN, EMILY SHAW (1818–1897). Author and teacher Emily Shaw Beavan lived in New Brunswick for most of her life. In 1838, she married Dr. Frederick Beavan. While in New Brunswick, she carefully recorded her observations of a settler’s life, which were later published in England as Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick. The book provides a good illustration of frontier life and more specifically the role of women. Although her personal life story has large gaps, her work has provided great insight into the early development of Canadian life. She died at Surrey Hills, Sydney, New South Wales. See also WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY.
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BEAVERBROOK, LORD (1879–1964). William Maxwell Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, was born in Maple, Ontario, a son of the Presbyterian manse. He lived early years in Newcastle, New Brunswick, and then became active in various financial lines, including bond sales, securities, and corporate mergers (esp. Canada Cement). At one time, he owned the Rolls auto company. Through personal connections with fellow New Brunswicker Andrew Bonar Law (later a British prime minister), he stood for election as a Unionist and was elected a member of Parliament at Westminster in 1910. His selfbenefiting influence as a Canadian was widely felt in Westminster, Whitehall, and the City of London. He wrote summaries of Canada’s military achievements of 1914–18 and collected documents of Canada’s military affairs. With Lord Rothermere, he initiated the Canadian war artists project. He became a prominent newspaper owner. He was also a cabinet member of prominence, serving as Britain’s minister of information. His art collection is housed in the Beaverbrook Gallery, Fredericton, and is the subject of persistent ownership wars between his kin and that institution. BEGBIE, MATTHEW BAILLIE (1819–1894). Known as “the Hanging Judge,” Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie was born in England and educated at St. Peter’s College, Cambridge. He was called to the English Bar in 1844. In 1858, he was appointed a judge to the Crown Colony of British Columbia. Begbie was very important in preserving law and order in the new colony during the days of the gold rush. He had a decidedly tough-minded attitude to criminals, but he was generally fair and not really responsible for many hangings. In 1866, when the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia were united, he became chief justice of British Columbia. He was knighted in 1875 and was still chief justice at the time of his death in Victoria. BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM (1847–1922). Inventor of the telephone, Bell also formed, in Halifax in 1907, the Aerial Experiment Association, whose Silver Dart made the first manned flight in Canada in 1909. Hydrofoil HD-4 is preserved in the Bell Museum at Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
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BENNETT, RICHARD BEDFORD (1870–1947). Prime minister and later member of the House of Lords, R. B. Bennett became a symbol of all that ailed Canada in the 1930s, possibly an unjust assessment. Born in Albert County, New Brunswick, and educated in Nova Scotia, Bennett became a lawyer and then politician. He was proud of his alleged Loyalist roots, his Methodist values, and his rise to prominence from humble origins. He is seen as a Tory’s Tory. He prospered as a lawyer in Calgary and became, in 1911, MP for Calgary for the Conservative Party. In 1927, he became the leader of the party. The stock market crash of October 1929 ended the Roaring Twenties and the economic boom of the times. It ushered in a decade remembered as the Dirty Thirties. His political opponent, the then prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, leader of the Liberals, underestimated the depth of serious problems confronting the country, its regions, and its peoples. Bennett and the Conservatives won the election of July 1930. Bennett became prime minister and held the position until 1935. While prime minister, he poured all his energy and talents into dealing with the economic woes of Canada and tangentially of the British Empire. However, the challenges he faced by the Great Depression were numerous and impossible to meet in totality. These were years of hunger, homelessness, and unemployment—and thus social protest—on a scale never before seen in Canada. Bennett was often vilified as a symbol of all the economic ills and government indifference. His opponents had a field day, and he was the target of their wrath and their simplistic political solutions. Autocratic in manner, he appeared insensitive to the suffering of the country. History shows otherwise. He convened the 1932 Ottawa Imperial Economic Conference, which facilitated means of bilateral Empire trade preference. As well, his government launched the Price Spreads Commission in 1934, which revealed retailers’ exploitation of employees in department and chain stores. He proposed the Wages and Hours Bill and Unemployment Insurance. His government’s Unemployment Relief Act provided $20 million to help people get back to work. He embarked on a program of tariff increases designed to protect languishing Canadian industries from foreign competition. He also established relief camps for single men. He brought forward
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a royal commission on banking, the result of which was creation of the Bank of Canada, a central bank through which the government could have oversight of banks and could channel and manage credit—and hopefully spur the economy. He also created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Prior to the 1935 election, Bennett introduced the radical measure known as the Canadian New Deal. The political tide flowed against him and his party. The measures contained therein were largely set aside by the victorious 1935 Liberals or by higher courts that ruled on the legality of these political measures. He continued in Parliament as leader of the opposition until he retired in 1938, leaving a divided and weakened party. He moved to Guildford, England, and was made a peer in 1941. BENNETT, WILLIAM ANDREW CECIL (1900–1979). Merchant, politician, and premier of British Columbia, W.A.C. Bennett was born in Hastings, New Brunswick. He moved to Alberta and later (1930) to British Columbia, where he bought a hardware business in Kelowna. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1941 as a Conservative. In 1949, he was a member of the anti-socialist Coalition Government, which had formed during the war. In 1951, he joined the Social Credit Party and became premier the following year, when the Socreds won a surprise victory. He became British Columbia’s longest serving premier. His 20-year term was marked by rapid economic growth. This was based on resource development (mainly financed by out-of-province investment) and government construction of highways, power dams, and railways. He claimed to have liquidated the BC debt. He expanded post-secondary education; the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University were established, plus various colleges and institutes. He also created the giant energy producer BC Hydro. He held social spending. He fought against unions that he considered irresponsible or dominated by communists or doctrinaire socialists. Of necessity, he nationalized the ferry system and established BC Ferries. A volatile campaigner, he vehemently attacked the socialism of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation/New Democratic Party. Aided by the Vancouver press, he won reelection six times. But Bennett alienated members of the teaching profession, who banded
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against him. He finally lost to his arch-rival Dave Barrett in August 1972. Bennett resigned the next year, bringing to a close arguably the most fascinating period of political dominance by a single person in British Columbia’s modern history. BENNETT, WILLIAM RICHARDS (1932– ). William Richards (“Bill”) Bennett, son of W.A.C. Bennett, became leader of the Social Credit Party and served as premier (1976–1986). He created the BC Resources Investment Corporation, a massive privatization of public assets. He faced an economic depression and launched mega projects, including EXPO 86 in Vancouver, the rapid transit system Skytrain, and the Coquihalla Highway. He resigned in 1986 and remained out of the public eye until named in a BC Securities Commission investigation as a party to inside trading. BEOTHUK. The term Beothuk has been interpreted to mean “man” or “human beings.” The Beothuk, located in Newfoundland, were commonly called “Red Indians” by European explorers because they smeared their bodies and clothes with red ochre. The language spoken by the Beothuk appeared to be two or three dialects of a common tongue. Beothuk numbered about 500 when John Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497. The Beothuk were shy of Europeans and were murdered at every opportunity by European traders. The Beothuk were also enemies of the Mi’kmaq, who hunted them in alliance with European traders. Many died from tuberculosis. The last Beothuk was apparently Nancy Shawnadithit, who died in 1829. Ralph Pastore (1962–2002) of Memorial University in St. John’s researched the extinction of the Beothuk (at Boyd’s Cove) and concluded that the idea Europeans had slaughtered them by the thousands was untrue. His research showed the story to be a complex one. He emphasized the role played by the ecology of Newfoundland. The Beothuk lived in the interior, hunting caribou; they went to the coast in search of food and survival. There they perished. They had a role in choosing their own fate, Pastore concluded, with sympathy. See also INDIANS. BERING SEA DISPUTE. In 1886, U.S. revenue cutters seized Victoria-based Canadian pelagic seekers in the Bering Sea. The United
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States claimed jurisdiction in the Bering Sea and over the seal rookeries of the Pribilof Islands. In 1889, U.S. domain over the waters of Bering Seas was proclaimed. The British government refused to accept the U.S. viewpoint and stated it would hold the United States “responsible” for acts contrary to “established principles of international law.” The matter was referred to a mixed international tribunal whose decision, 15 August 1893, denied the U.S. claim to a closed sea, provided for an assessment of damages against the United States, and prohibited pelagic sealing in a 60-mile zone around the Pribilofs for a specified period each year. This protective regulation remained in force until 1908. It was a British diplomatic victory but the cost to the Victoria sealing fleet was immense, not least to Indian labor and sailors. The controversy ended in 1898 with the payment of $473,151 by the United States to Great Britain. At one time, 150 schooners based on Victoria were in the North Pacific sealing trade. For more than 30 years, they slaughtered the world’s last great fur seal herd. Vigorous protests led to an international treaty in 1911 that forced the sealers to end their trade. BERNIER, JOSEPH ELZEAR (1852–1934). A master mariner and Arctic explorer, Bernier was born in L’Islet, Québec, on 1 January 1852. At age 14, he left school for the sea. Three years later, he was captain of a timber carrier from Québec to England. For 25 years, he was a sailing master in global trades, commanding 200 ships and crossing the Atlantic 269 times. He knew more about Arctic navigation than any other of his time, and his three Reports on the Dominion Government Expeditions to the Arctic Islands and Hudson Straits, 1906–10, published in the Sessional Papers of Canada, are classics of Arctic literature. In 1895, after enduring a stint as governor of a Québec jail, he devised a plan for reaching the North Pole by sea. As international rivalry increased for attaining this geographical object by sea or over ice, Bernier, answering the will of the Canadian government’s Department of Marine and Fisheries to reinforce sovereignty, to aid the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and to provide assistance to missionaries in Indian and Inuit missions, sailed the CGS Arctic to the eastern Arctic. He collected dues from whalers and traders. In 1909, he unveiled a plaque on Melville Island that officially claimed
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the Arctic Islands for Canada. In 1911, he turned to private trading on Baffin Island. Later he commanded a convoy ship in World War I. After the war, he returned to Arctic patrols and retired in 1925. He died in Levis, Québec, on 26 December 1934, his life unheralded and his voyages of discovery scarcely known. His specific contributions to exploration were made in three voyages. In the first voyage, 1906–07, he took possession of Somerset, Cornwallis, Bathurst, and Byam Martin islands, then Melville and Ellington islands. At Beechey Island, he discovered and named Moffet and Levasseur inlets. Overland parties explored Milne Inlet. He wintered at Albert Harbor and the next summer sailed east to Baffin Island. In the second voyage, 1908–09, continuing previous work, he sailed as far west as McClure Strait, where he found ice conditions so good he believed he could have accomplished a Northwest Passage by that route had he wished. Searchers found relics of William Parry (1819) and Henry Kellett (1852–54) expeditions. In 1909, he proceeded to Pond Inlet and Port Burwell, Hudson Strait. In his third voyage, 1910–11 he found McClure Strait impenetrable, closing his authorized attempt at navigating the passage. Surveying land parties also added considerably to geographical knowledge of the Canadian Arctic Islands, reinforcing claims to sovereignty. BERTON, PIERRE (1920–2004). A journalist, television personality, and popular historian, Berton called the Yukon and Kleinburg, Ontario, home. Born at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, he was educated at Victoria College (Victoria, British Columbia) and University of British Columbia. His history of the Canadian Pacific Railway, The National Dream: The Last Spike, is best known and became the basis for a TV series. His War of 1812 histories— Flames across the Borders and The Invasion of Canada—played on Canadian self-preoccupation and ill-preparedness in defense. But he was never able to admit it was British diplomacy and naval/ military power that came to Canada’s rescue in 1812–14. His assault on the British Empire is best understood in his savage attack on Sir John Franklin in Quest for the Arctic Grail. Berton liked putting in the knife and turning it. The Dionne Years carried him nearer social history. His Drifting Home was autobiographical, an account of a northern rafting trip.
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Berton’s best historical book was Vimy, based on oral testimony gathered by the Department of History and Heritage, National Defense Department. Although Berton enjoyed popular acclaim, professional historians shunned him, for he exhibited Victorian prose, uncritical appreciations of the past, and monopolistic views that cared little for earlier or contemporary views and scholarship. He was a keen supporter of the Writers Union of Canada and was a New Democratic Party adherent. In later years, his books declined in authenticity but not in regularity. At life’s end, he had seen 45 titles through the press, including an attack on the Anglican Church of Canada in The Comfortable Pew and a book on cats he had known. He became a Canadian icon and idol but has been accused of the colonialism of Canadian history. BETHUNE, HENRY NORMAN (1890–1939). A physician, born at Gravenhurst, Ontario, Bethune pursued a career in thoracic surgery. In 1935, he joined the Communist Party and devoted the rest of his life to the antifascist cause, first in the Spanish Civil War, where he organized a blood transfusion unit, and then as a surgeon in China, where the communists were battling imperial Japanese forces. Mao Zedong’s book In Memory of Norman Bethune was required reading during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. BIDWELL, MARSHALL SPRING (1799–1872). A politician and lawyer, Bidwell came to Canada from the United States with his father. In 1821, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada in his father’s place but was declared ineligible because he was not a British citizen. After the law was changed, he was reelected in 1825. He went on to become leader of the moderate Reformers. He fled to the United States, never to return, after he was wrongly accused of complicity during the Rebellions of 1837 in Upper Canada. BIENCOURT DE POUTRINCOURT ET DE SAINT JUST, JEAN DE (1557–1615). Lieutenant governor of Acadia, Biencourt was the commander of Port Royal, the first settlement in Acadia. His desire to establish an agricultural settlement at Port Royal was thwarted by the conflicting aims of French evangelization of the Indians and his financial backers for profits from fish and fur.
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BIG BEAR (1825?–1888). The most famous and influential of the Plains chiefs in Canadian history, Big Bear (or Mistahimaskwa) was half Ojibwa, half Cree, and led the largest band of Plains Cree at that time, numbering about 2,000. He was noted for his ability to shoot accurately under the neck of his horse while riding at full speed. He worked for pan-Indianism, attempting to unite tribes and nations in the face of white settlement. In 1876, he was a negotiator of Treaty Six and refused the terms because he saw the treaty as a forfeit of his people’s autonomy. He was forced to sign the treaty in 1882 in order to receive rations for his starving people. In 1885, Big Bear’s people were thrust into the Northwest Rebellion by a few hot-headed members. This small number attacked and killed white settlers at Frog Lake on 2 April 1885 and attacked Fort Pitt. Although Big Bear desperately attempted to prevent the killings, he was forced to surrender to the North West Mounted Police (later Royal Canadian Mounted Police) on 2 July 1885. He was tried for treason and sentenced to three years imprisonment. See also INDIANS. BIGOT, FRANÇOIS (1703–1777?). Intendant (chief administrator) of New France in 1748–59, Bigot was born in Bordeaux. A lawyer and civil servant, he was appointed commissary at Louisbourg (1739). His misappropriation of funds may have caused the downfall of that place in 1744. His career in fraud was not over. Bigot became intendant of New France owing to patronage. He was in Québec in 1748– 59 and carried out the most astonishing frauds in the merchandising of retail goods, furs, and provisions. Supplies for military uses and for the Indians were diverted to his profit. His corrupt administration paved the way for the collapse of New France. He was arrested in Paris in 1759 and imprisoned. Ordered to make restitution, he was banished from the kingdom of France. He probably died in 1777 but the place of death is unknown. BILINGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM, ROYAL COMMISSION ON. Sitting 1963–71 as a Canadian government inquiry, the commission was instituted by the Lester Pearson government in response to pressure in Québec for fuller use of the French language in Canada. It researched the origins of the problem and proposed more equitable measures between Francophones and Anglophones. The
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commission was chaired jointly by André Laurendeau, editor of Le Devoir, and Davidson Dunton, a Canadian Broadcasting Company executive, later president of Carleton University. The final report documented certain alleged disadvantages of French Canadians at that time, both culturally and economically. The commission’s key recommendation was the adoption of French and English as the official languages in the federal civil service and bureaucracy. A strongly federalist document, the commission’s report advanced the cause of a two-nation federation. However, partly in response or reaction to it, in 1972 a Ministry for Multiculturalism was established, primarily because of the pressure of Ukrainian and German Canadians. The legacies of the controversial Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission have been extensive. All English-speaking provinces instituted or upgraded regulations concerning French minority education, and they introduced means for enhanced French instruction, including “French Immersion” or “French Core” curricula. Federal financial assistance encouraged these measures to be implemented. New Brunswick declared itself officially bilingual and remains the only official province or territory so legally designated. Ontario greatly extended French services, especially in northern Ontario. Supreme Court of Canada decisions subsequently restored French language rights previously legislated away in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Institutional bilingualism was effected by Ottawa’s Official Languages Act of 1969. An Official Language Commissioner was appointed. The commissioner did not address constitutional issues or problems and in that sense did not address separatist issues then advancing in Québec. Some observers now believe the report to have been ineffective in controlling Québec’s search for autonomy. Québec’s move to unilingualism is seen by countless non-French speakers in Canada as a violation of the spirit of bilingualism. In the meantime, many Canadian children and adults from coast to coast have embraced the concept of bilingualism in theory if not in practice, and Québec has many more friends in the rest of Canada than it will ever know. Certainly cultural diversity as a concept was strengthened by the commission. BISHOP, WILLIAM AVERY (1894–1956). Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, “Billy” Bishop attended the Royal Military College of
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Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He joined the Mississauga Horse, went overseas with the cavalry, and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. He became an excellent gunner and pilot. On 2 June 1917, Bishop made a single-handed, early morning attack on a German airfield, where he claimed to have shot down three aircraft. This attack won him the Victoria Cross to go with his Distinguished Service Order and bar, his Military Cross, and his Distinguished Flying Cross. He is credited with 72 confirmed aerial victories. He wrote Winged Warfare (1918) and Winged Peace (1944). See also BARKER, WILLIAM GEORGE. BLACKFOOT CONFEDERACY. Blackfoot is a translation of the native term Siksikauwa, which refers to the moccasins that were blackened or burned by prairie fires. The Blackfoot nation consists of the Blackfoot proper, the Blood, and the Piegan tribes and was, at one time, the strongest, most aggressive native nation in the Canadian prairies. Their territory stretched from the Rocky Mountains well into Saskatchewan and from the North Saskatchewan River to the upper Missouri River in the United States. The language of the Blackfoot Confederacy was Algonkian. The Blackfoot were nomadic, and their major hunting staple was the buffalo of the prairies. In terms of religion, they worshipped the Sun and Thunder, which were the manifestations of the Great Spirit. One of the most notable of the Blackfoot peoples was Chief Crowfoot. The Blackfoot Confederacy signed Treaty Seven with the Canadian government in 1877. Epidemics of smallpox in the mid-18th century and of smallpox and measles in the mid-19th century drastically reduced their number in Canada. Crowfoot remained loyal to the crown and did not join rising Indian and Métis forces in the 1885 Northwest Rebellion. BLACKS. Black experience runs through Canadian history. Mathieu D’Acosta served as interpreter for Sieur de Monts, governor at Port Royal in 1608. In 1628, a slave from Madagascar was sold in New France, and slavery was declared legal there in 1709. In 1782–83, about 3,500 blacks, most former slaves, arrived in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1792, there was an exodus of an estimated 1,190 blacks who left Halifax for Sierre Leone. In 1796, 600 Maroons exiled from Jamaica arrived in the Maritimes; in 1800, they opted for
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Sierre Leone. In 1814–15, 3,000 black refugees of the War of 1812 settled in the Maritimes. In 1858, some 600 blacks from the United States arrived at Vancouver Island, and in Victoria, British Columbia, the all-black Pioneer Rifle Corps received recognition. Significant numbers of West Indian blacks began to arrive in Canada in 1960. After 1970, the black population of Canada exceeded 100,000. See also CARY, MARY SHADD; HALL, WILLIAM. BLAKE, EDWARD (1833–1912). A lawyer and politician, Blake was the second premier of Ontario (1871) and a federal MP in Alexander Mackenzie’s administration (1873). Blake resigned in 1874 to promote the nationalist concept of Canada First. He was a persistent reformer and Canadian nationalist. As Canada’s minister of justice, he obliged the British government to accept Canada’s Supreme Court Act and to reduce the governor general’s powers. Blake was the Liberal Party leader from 1880 to 1887 but resigned from the party in 1891 due its reciprocity proposals, which he opposed. He left Canada in 1892 for Ireland, where he became an Irish nationalist MP. He returned to Canada in 1906. Blake was ambitious, long winded, persuasive, and dominant. He convinced others to join his party, most notably Oliver Mowat (his successor as premier of Ontario) and Wilfrid Laurier, a future prime minister of Canada. BLUENOSE. One of the great classic sailing ships of all time, the Bluenose is Canada’s (and Nova Scotia’s) treasure of sailing history, appearing on every 10-cent coin. A marvel of design and performance, the Bluenose was a 285-ton schooner (112 feet on the waterline in length; 27 feet beam; 15 feet, 10 inch draft), with two masts, the main topmast rising nearly 126 feet above the deck. The ship carried a total of 10,901 square feet of sail. The architect was William J. Roue, and the builders were Smith & Rhuland of Lunenberg. Fitted out for speed, the Bluenose had to be a working vessel—a genuine fishing vessel such as those that worked the salt banks of Newfoundland—to qualify for the prized International Fisherman’s Trophy (a series of races held in alternative years off Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, and Gloucester, Massachusetts). The trophy was of-
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fered by Senator William H. Dennis, Halifax newspaper proprietor. The Bluenose won the trophy in 1921, its first year of entry, and won successively for about two decades, causing rival American interests (who spent fortunes on new or improved designs) much frustration. A deep-sea sealer of fine qualities, the ship was driven aground and wrecked on Sable Island in 1926 but survived, as it did similarly at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, in 1930. In 1935, the Bluenose was the official Canadian representative to the Silver Jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary and was reviewed at Spithead (Portsmouth, England) with the Home Fleet. Angus Walters was the ship’s great captain; his abilities saved the Bluenose on at least one occasion. In January 1946, however, the Bluenose was wrecked off Haiti. The loss of this famous “salt banker” was a matter of regret: brothers Brian and Philip Backman, authors of a book about the vessel, campaigned to build another Bluenose and were supported by Roue and Walters. In 1961, a replica was commissioned. Bluenose II was launched 24 July 1963 at a cost of nearly 10 times the original. It remains in service and is the property of the Government of Nova Scotia. BOER WAR. See SOUTH AFRICAN WAR. BORDEN, ROBERT LAIRD (1854–1937). Eighth prime minister of Canada (1911–20), Sir Robert Borden was born in Nova Scotia and became a lawyer and politician. Earnest and dutiful, he rose to the head of the Conservative Party in 1901. He became prime minister subsequent to the election of 1911, defeating Wilfrid Laurier’s proreciprocity Liberals. A skillful political manager and a pragmatist, Borden forged alliances with anti-Liberal forces inside and out of Québec. He utilized the French nationalists’ opposition to Laurier’s Naval Act in 1910 to gain support in Québec. Pro-imperial and yet strongly national, Borden introduced a measure to provide funds for the construction of three dreadnought battleships for the Royal Navy. The measure would have given equal funding for British shipping contracts in Canadian yards—a win-win scenario. However, this was defeated by the Liberal-dominated Senate. Borden led Canada through all the difficulties of World War I, including the raising of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to wage
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war against Germany and the Central Powers, the Conscription crisis (which left the country bitterly divided), and the introduction of the “temporary” income tax. His government passed the War Measures Act (1914) and the compulsory Military Service Act (1917) and nationalized the Canadian Northern Railway, forerunner of Canadian National Railways, in 1919. His government also introduced universal suffrage granting women the right to vote, and it established the Civil Service Commission, the Wheat Board, and the Canadian Tariff Commission. In 1917, Borden also brought in the income tax as a “temporary” measure in wartime. A competent manager of Canadian affairs, he was, too, a gigantic statesman and war leader. If Sir John A. Macdonald was the greatest by way of his formative shaping of Canadian federal structures and administration, Borden shaped the destiny of his nation by resolute wartime leadership and by persistent assertion of Canadian sovereignty. He was a key architect of the modern Commonwealth. As well, he led the Canadian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. As a nationalist, he was determined that Canada would express its national interest in its own voice, at the Versailles peace conference and after. Borden stepped down as prime minister in 1920 and was succeeded by Arthur Meighen. Borden wrote and lectured extensively on Canadian and Commonwealth theory and practice. He was a leading force in establishing the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. He also advocated the League of Nations. See also CANADIAN NAVY; RECIPROCITY. BOUCHARD, LUCIEN (1938– ). Canada’s ambassador to France (1985–88), Bouchard left diplomacy and at the request of his close friend Prime Minister Brian Mulroney entered federal politics as minister of the environment (1988–90). He later broke with Mulroney, founded the sovereigntist Bloc Québecois, and became leader of the Official Opposition. Resigning from federal politics, he became leader of the Parti Québecois and 27th premier of Québec (1996–2001). His sovereignty referendum was narrowly defeated by a majority of 50.58 percent. Differences about ways and means to obtain sovereignty resulted in his dramatic exit from politics on 11 January 2001. He was replaced as Québec premier by Bernard Landry. His wife, Audrey Best, said she fell in love with a diplomat
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and married a cabinet minister; they later separated. Bouchard believed that his efforts to relaunch the sovereignty debate were in vain. In retirement from politics, he returned to commercial and corporate law, to education, and to good works. BOURASSA, HENRI (1868–1952). Founder and editor of the Montréal newspaper Le Devoir and grandson of Louis-Joseph Papineau, Bourassa was a French Canadian nationalist who opposed Canada’s involvement in British colonial wars. Associated with Bourassa in the founding of the newspaper was Olivar Asselin, who had a distinguished journalistic career. When Wilfrid Laurier’s government committed troops to the British struggle against breakaway Boer republics in southern Africa, Bourassa resigned his independent Liberal seat in Parliament and was returned by acclamation. He stood at the center of French Canadian opposition to the Naval Service Act of 1910. He helped bring about Laurier’s defeat in 1911. A vigorous opponent of Canada’s involvement in World War I, he nonetheless voiced no opposition to the official declaration of war. He became a social reformer in the 1920s and 1930s. He is regarded as a prominent, early voice for French Canadian identity in Canadian national affairs. See also CANADIAN NAVY; SOUTH AFRICAN WAR. BOURASSA, ROBERT (1933–1996). A member of the Liberal Party, Bourassa became premier of Québec in the election of 1970; at 36, he was the province’s youngest premier on record. In the October Crisis of 1970, he requested the federal government to send troops in aid to the civil power. He argued for Québec’s separate status within the confederation. He agreed to the Victoria Charter (1971) proposed for constitutional change but could not win his cabinet’s backing; this killed the proposal. In 1976, he resigned when the Parti Québecois won the provincial election. He was reelected Liberal Party leader in 1983, won the Québec election of 1986, and remained premier until ill health obliged him to step aside in 1993. His record demonstrated his strong commitment to Québec within the Canadian confederation. In 1990, after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, he said, “Since 1985 the question is, what does Canada want, and we are still waiting for Canada’s response in this regard. Mr. Speaker, English Canada has to understand very clearly that whatever is said, whatever is done,
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Québec is, today and always, a distinct and free society, able to take charge of its destiny and its development.” In 1996, Robert Bourassa lost a long, courageous battle with cancer. BOURGEOYS, STE. MARGUERITE (1619–1700). Canada’s first woman saint, Mother Bourgeoys was founder of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. She was one of the first French women to set foot in Ville Marie, the fort on the St. Lawrence River that was to become Montréal. She arrived in November 1653, following a three-month voyage that took the lives of eight of the 15 women and 108 other passengers, most of them soldiers for the new colony. One of her tasks was to care for the Filles du Roi, “King’s Daughters,” and prepare them for marriage to colonial soldiers and settlers. The Filles du Roi were daughters of officers killed in war, even nobles. Bourgeoys organized a boarding school for girls, a school for native girls on the Suplician reserve of La Montagne, and a domestic arts school. When she died, the sisters had a portrait made of the dead woman, who had refused to be painted while alive. It is one of the most often-printed portraits of early Canada. The painting hangs in the mother house of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, which also houses her bones in a tomb. She was canonized 30 October 1982. BOURINOT, JOHN G. (1836–1902). An expert on parliamentary procedures and constitutional issues and history, Sir John Bourinot was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia. After a career in journalism, he became an Ottawa civil servant. As clerk of the House of Commons, he advised the speaker on parliamentary general procedure. Governors, prime ministers, and students of constitutional affairs sought his advice. He wrote the standard work on parliamentary procedure. A founding member and guiding force of the Royal Society of Canada for its first 20 years, he was also an early supporter of higher education for women. He was a Canadian nationalist as well as a British imperialist, which was not a strange contradiction for the times in which he lived. BRÉBEUF, JEAN DE (1593–1649). A Jesuit priest, Brébeuf was founder of the mission to the Huron. He was a great organizer and administrator, mastered the Huron language, and wrote the lyrics to
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The Huron Carol. Brébeuf was exceedingly devout and accepted the vow never to refuse the grace of martyrdom. He was one of eight Jesuits brutally tortured and martyred by the Iroquois. He was canonized in 1930, and in 1940 was named Patron Saint of Canada by Pope Pius XII. He was called “the giant of the Huron missions” and “the apostle whose heart was devoured.” See also STE.-MARIE AMONG THE HURONS. BRITISH COLUMBIA. Canada’s westernmost province, British Columbia is located on the North Pacific coast and cordillera. It is the third largest province of Canada in both population and area. A large portion of the province is dominated by the Rocky Mountains. For this reason, there is only a small amount of land suitable for agriculture, invariably located in river valleys and deltas and in mountain trenches. The many islands that lie off the coast are also part of the province. Climate varies throughout the region. The southern coastal areas experience the mildest winters in Canada. The Rocky Mountains have a large influence on the climate. The region west of the mountains receives a large amount of precipitation. The regions east of the Coast Range receive less rainfall The majority of the population lives in the southwest corner of the province, including the cities of the Victoria, New Westminster, Nanaimo, and Vancouver. Vancouver, the transportation and regional banking hub, ranks as the third largest city in Canada. Historically, this region of Canada was inhabited by the Athabascan and Salish tribes of the interior and the Kwagiulth, Haida, Nuu’chah’nulth (or Nootka), and Tsimshian on the coast, as well as others. The coastal tribes utilized the sea and its resources and developed dugout canoes. Tribes of the interior were nomadic; they tended to travel the valleys and mountains in pursuit of game. Juan Pérez of Spain explored the coast for Spain in 1774 but James Cook was the first explorer to land on the shores of British Columbia, at Nootka Sound on 28 March 1778. George Vancouver, Royal Navy, explored the complicated coastline in 1792 (in company with the Spaniards Alcala Galiano and Caetano Valdes) and in 1793. He mapped the Pacific coast and the island that is named after him. In the 1800s, there were many disputes between Great Britain and the United States surrounding the boundaries between the two countries.
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This was partly settled with the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846. This treaty gave the British control of the mainland north of the 49th parallel and all of Vancouver Island. Vancouver Island obtained colonial status in 1849 under management of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In November 1858, British Columbia became a crown colony. It was united with Vancouver Island as one colony called British Columbia in 1866. British Columbia entered confederation in 1871 with the promise from Ottawa of a transcontinental railway to the Pacific. The promise was fulfilled in 1885 as the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed to Port Moody, Burrard Inlet. Regular passenger service began in 1886. A railway links North Vancouver with Prince George and points north; this is now part of the Canadian National Railways system. Asians arrived with John Meares and other sea otter traders in the 1780s, but with the discovery of gold in 1858, many more arrived, chiefly from China. The Asian presence in British Columbia in the late 19th century became the central feature of the province’s politics, and anti-Asiatic sentiments led to struggle and crisis and sometimes violence. Chinese arrived in Nanaimo goldfields in 1867 and before long outnumbered whites. Most came from Toi-san, 150 miles west of Macao. The Chinese worked underground, Indians above. Miners’ committees lobbied for Chinese exclusion beginning in 1888. Legal measures were introduced to check Chinese illegal immigration, and it was not until the 1940s that these were swept away in the form of legal reforms. British Columbia is known for its abundance of natural resources. A large portion of the province is forested. Abundant rainfall and the warmer temperatures on the Pacific side of the mountains have produced the largest coniferous trees in Canada and a wine producing area. Okanagan Valley is one of the biggest producers of fresh fruit in Canada. British Columbia also has large coal reserves and natural gas and oil fields. The mountainous region gives the province hydroelectric capacity that is second only to that of Québec. Many industries are centered on the lumber and fishing industries. Shipping is a major contributor to the economy. Vancouver ranks as one of the world’s premier container ports. In 2007, Prince Rupert, a significant rail head on the Pacific of CNRail, opened phase one of its gigantic container terminus.
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The legislative assembly has 69 members. Federally, the province has 28 members in the House of Commons and six in the Senate. The provincial capital is Victoria. The population of the province is 3,376,700. See also BC FERRIES; STEVESTON. BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AIR TRAINING PLAN (BCATP). Arranged by agreement signed 17 December 1939 in Ottawa by Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, the BCATP trained aircrew from those and other Commonwealth and Empire countries, as well as some from the United States and occupied Europe, at air bases in Canada. The plan was introduced to the Canadian government by the British before the outbreak of war in September 1939. Prime Minister Mackenzie King accepted the idea after war was declared. Wanting to avoid a large army and the casualties sure to result when it went into action, King saw air combat as less costly in human lives. The Royal Canadian Air Force ran and controlled the BCATP and carried out the training, initially with the assistance of private flying clubs. By 1941, the plan was in full operation with 107 schools across Canada. By the time the plan was shut down at the end of March 1945, it had produced 131,553 pilots, navigators, bombardiers, wireless operators, air gunners, and flight engineers, of whom 72,835 were Canadians. The plan was a major Canadian contribution to the Allied war effort. Canada well earned the name “aerodrome for democracy.” See also CANADIAN AIR FORCE. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT. See CONSTITUTION ACT OF 1967. BROCK, ISAAC (1769–1812). Born in Guernsey, Brock came to North America in 1802. In 1811, he was promoted to major general and made provisional administrator of Upper Canada. In the War of 1812, forces following his early instructions attacked Michilimackinac and Detroit. He was present at the latter’s surrender. The success of British troops here and elsewhere forced American forces to reconsider areas of attack. In the Battle of Queenston Heights, Brock was killed by an American sniper; a monument to Sir Isaac Brock now dominates the battlefield at Queenston Heights.
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BROWN, GEORGE (1818–1880). Known principally as a reformer and one of the Clear Grits, Brown was a prominent proponent of confederation, editor of the Toronto newspaper Globe, and advocate of Canadian expansion in the Northwest. He argued strongly for “representation by population.” He formed, with A. A. Dorion, a short-lived government in the Province of Canada in 1858. He is best remembered for working with A. T. Galt, John A. Macdonald, and George E. Cartier in a political coalition that prepared the confederation arrangement of 1865–67. He was less accommodating to French minority aspirations than many others of the coalition. He played a vital role in Ontario politics, then helped shape the discussions that concluded in the Canadian confederation arrangements developed among various potential provinces of the Dominion of Canada. He also had a role in discussions with the British government on the same. In 1880, Brown was shot dead by a fired employee. BRÛLÉ, ÉTIENNE (1592?–1633). An interpreter and explorer, Brûlé lived with the natives and learned their language as a token of the alliance between the French and the Huron. He was much attracted to native ways. Brûlé explored the Huron country with Samuel de Champlain in 1615 and explored much of the Great Lakes area. In 1618, he traveled through Pennsylvania to Chesapeake Bay and in 1622 to Lake Superior. He was tortured to death by Huron near Penetanguishene, Ontario, in 1633. BYNG, JULIAN (1862–1935). A British cavalry officer, Byng commanded the Canadian Corps during World War I in the attack on Vimy Ridge April 1917. He was promoted to command the British 3rd Army. He served as governor general of Canada in 1921–26 and was involved with Arthur Meighen and particularly William Lyon Mackenzie King in the constitutional crisis of 1925–26, commonly known as the “King-Byng affair.” He departed from Canada under a shadow, even though constitutionally correct. He subsequently became chief officer of the London Metropolitan Police. See also GOVERNORS GENERAL.
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– C – CABOT, JOHN (1450?–1499?). A Venetian-born explorer and mariner, John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) made the first North American landfall by a European after the Norse, for England, in 1497. Encouraged by Bristol merchants and Henry VII, he landed somewhere on Labrador, Newfoundland, or Nova Scotia. It is said that he made a landfall at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. In his ship Matthew was probably his son Sebastian Cabot, likewise an explorer in search of the Northwest Passage and Cipangu (Japan), and 16 other mariners. Cabot made a second voyage in 1498 but vanished. In 1497, he noted the abundance of cod and was convinced he had reached “the land of the Great Khan.” CALDER, FRANK ARTHUR (1815–2006). A Nisga’a chief and politician, born at Nass Harbor, British Columbia, Calder was a graduate of Anglican Theological College, University of British Columbia (1946). He was elected to the provincial legislature for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1949, the first aboriginal elected to a Canadian legislature. He held his Atlin seat for the CCF/New Democratic Party (NDP) until 1956 and again from 1960 to 1975. In 1972, upon the NDP victory, he was made minister without portfolio. He later joined the Social Credit Party, was reelected in 1975, lost his seat in 1979, and retired from politics. Regarded as “the Chief of Chiefs,” this quiet but dogged champion of aboriginal causes flourished at the same time as others such as Grand Chief George Manuel, head of the Shuswap band, who was instrumental in bringing in the Universal Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Calder led the struggle for aboriginal land rights. He was founding president of the Nishga Tribal Council (NTC), serving in 1955–74. Under his leadership, the NTC initiated the landmark Calder Case in the courts. By the interpretation of the court ruling, it was determined that aboriginal title had not been extinguished in British Columbia, except where, specifically, it had been so effected by treaty. In 1999, the historic Nisga’a Treaty was signed. This was Calder’s triumph. He died in Victoria. See also INDIANS.
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CALGARY, ALBERTA. On the Bow River in the high plains of southern Alberta, this city lies at the entrance of a major route across the Rocky Mountains. The Energy Capital of Canada, Calgary is home to many oil companies, also Canadian Pacific Railway and Westjet airlines. In the immediate region are wheat fields, beef ranching, and natural gas fields. Manufacturing and transportation (road, air, and rail) are key factors in the local and regional economy. The Calgary Stampede has been conducted annually since at least 1923. Calgary is home of many centers of higher learning: Mount Royal College, Alberta College of Art, South Alberta Institute of Technology, and the University of Alberta. It also boasts a prominent cultural scene. Calgary was in the chief domain of the indigenous Blackfoot Confederacy. In the late 19th century, the Blackfoot traded buffalo robes and American whisky, and gun traders made their appearance. The North West Mounted Police (NWMP) (later Royal Canadian Mounted Police) were formed to bring law and order to the west and deal with those trading in illicit items. The law marched west. Fort Calgary was built in 1875 as a NWMP post. In 1883, the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived, and with it the industrial revolution. In 1905, Alberta became a province, and Calgary continued as its second city, behind Edmonton. Many enlistments came from royalist Calgary during World War I. Economic depression followed and had deep impacts. Born of this social chaos were new ideologies. In 1935, a radical political philosophy gave birth to the Social Credit Party here, and its leader, William Aberhart, became premier of the province with a landslide. Much of its legislation was ruled ultra vires, “beyond the law,” by higher courts, further reinforcing western alienation. Socialism never had deep roots here. Both the Reform Party and the current Conservative Party of Canada have residual strength here. Calgary influence derives from oil and natural gas. Calgary-based companies developed the Leduc oil field after its discovery in 1947. Oklahoma and Texas immigrants to the “oil patch” came in the wake of the discovery. In 1988, Calgary hosted the 15th Winter Olympics. Population in 2001 was 878,866. CALLWOOD, JUNE (1924–2007). A writer and activist, Callwood was one of the enterprising Anglo-Canadians who “moved mountains” to enhance women’s rights and launch various nonprofit orga-
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nizations for social betterment. She was born in Chatham, Ontario, and educated in public schools, including Brantford. She had no earned university degrees. Callwood became involved in newspaper work, first as a proofreader. At age 18, she began working for the daily Toronto Star and became a general assignment reporter. She married journalist Trent Frayne and raised a family, all the while writing articles for weeklies, including Liberty, Maclean’s, and Chatelaine. She wrote a profile about Marilyn Bell, the 16-year-old who swam across Lake Ontario in 1954. She wrote about the birth control pill, and about the death of the Avro Arrow airplane. She ghosted the bestseller A Woman Doctor Looks at Life and Love (1957), and this launched her career as ghostwriter of such celebrities as Barbara Walters, Otto Preminger, and Bob White, the Canadian labor leader. She fought hard for women’s rights and fought hard against racism. Among the Toronto projects she founded were Nellie’s (1974), a shelter for abused women, and Jessie’s (1982), a home for teenagers and their babies. She wrote Twelve Days in Spring after the 1982 death of her son, Casey, who was killed in a traffic accident. She is remembered as a “secular saint.” CAMERON, JOHN A. (1820–1888). Born at Summerstown, Glengarry County, Ontario, “Cariboo” Cameron made a fortune in the Cariboo gold rush in 1862. His wife died there, and he returned to Glengarry County with her body to bury her in the Cornwall Township cemetery, as he had promised to do while she was alive. He lost most of his money in poor investments. In 1888, he returned to the Cariboo to try to recoup his losses by making another fortune. He failed, and he died there in the same year. Cameron was buried in a cemetery in Camerontown, British Columbia, where he made his first fabulous strike. CAMPBELL, KIM (1947– ). Avril Phaedra Douglas Campbell, born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, assumed the nickname Kim when she was 12. A student of political science at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the London School of Economics, she specialized in Soviet studies, becoming an opponent of Marxism. Sometime lecturer in political science before attending the UBC law school in 1980, she was elected to the Vancouver School Board, then
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the provincial legislature in 1986. Campbell, wooed by the federal Progressive Conservatives, was elected to the House of Commons for Vancouver Center in 1988. She made a spirited defense of the U.S.-Canadian free trade agreement. She became, in turn, minister for northern development, justice, and national defense. Elected leader of the Progressive Conservatives in June 1993, Campbell became Canada’s first woman prime minister when Brian Mulroney stepped down. Owing to inexperience in national politics, and burdened with problems of persistent recession, her party was defeated in the election of October 1993. She resigned as party leader 13 December 1993. In 1996, she was appointed Canadian consul-general in Los Angeles; she retained this post until 2000. In 2004, she became secretary general of the Club of Madrid, an independent organization whose main purpose is to strengthen democracy in the world. CAMP BORDEN. Located northwest of Toronto, in Simcoe County, Camp Borden was established in 1916 as a training base and named in honor of Sir Frederick Borden, minister of the militia and national defense. The base was used to train an assortment of personnel in the army and air force. In World War II, some 185,000 men and women, soldiers and airmen, were trained at the camp. The camp is now known as CFB Borden. The establishment is the country’s largest military trades training station. CAMP, DALTON KINGSLEY (1920–2002). Born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, on 11 September 1920, Camp was profoundly influenced by his book-loving father, a Baptist parson. He chose to make his mark in secular politics, especially as a writer and backroom fixer and political strategist. He had a remarkable influence on the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (since merged into the Conservative Party of Canada) in the 1960s and 1970s, when he led the process to remove then Prime Minister John George Diefenbaker. He forced the review of Diefenbaker’s leadership but, according to Senator Hugh Segal, “belled the cat at great cost.” It is said that Camp helped usher in a new era of party democracy in Canada, by introducing a party reform mechanism by review. This, however, is likely just another form of progressive, even revolutionary reform. When the convention was held, “Dief the Chief” was defeated by the
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former premier of Nova Scotia, Robert Stanfield. The move to unseat Dief caused long-standing division in an already divided party. Camp became a key player on the Stanfield team but failed thrice to get him elected. He went into self-imposed exile and became a prominent national columnist, writing for the Toronto Star and appearing on CBC’s Morningside, hosted by Peter Gzowski. Camp had great integrity and courage, was a stout defender of democracy and the common citizen, and he abhorred special interest groups and arrogant government and politicians. CAMP X. Located near Whitby, Ontario, Camp X trained spies and saboteurs during World War II for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), formed in 1940. The secret service intended to promote subversive warfare in enemy-occupied territory. There were other bases at Mount Carmel, Palestine, and Singapore. Officially titled Special Training School No. 103, the camp prepared agents from a variety of nationalities for espionage and resistance work in Nazi-occupied Europe. The camp was also the location of Hydra, a super-secret communication network linking Britain, Canada, and the United States. Camp X was popular, after the Office of Strategic Services was formed, with American visitors. Those attending it enjoyed the training in unarmed combat by an expert who had learned it in the Shanghai police. CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS. This body was created as an independent organization by act of Parliament in 1957, in consequence of the Massey Report, published in 1951. The full title is Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences. Under terms of the Canada Council Act, the object of the council is “to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” To fulfill this mandate, the Canada Council offers grants and services to artists and other arts professionals and to arts organizations. The council administers the Killam Program of scholarly awards and prizes and offers a number of other prestigious awards. The Canadian Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Public Lending Right Commission also operate under its aegis.
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The council has a chair, vice chair, and nine other members, all appointed by the Government of Canada. The council board meets three times a year in Ottawa and makes decisions on policies and programs developed by the council staff. The Canada Council relies on advice from artists and arts professionals; it also works cooperatively with federal and provincial cultural agencies and departments. The Canada Council answers to Parliament through the minister of Canadian Heritage and is called upon periodically to appear before parliamentary committees. It makes an annual report to Parliament. In 1995, the new strategic plan, The Canada Council: A Design for the Future, was published. This was further modified in 2001. The Canada Council, like the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States or the Arts Council in Great Britain, has played a vital role in the cultural development of the modern nation-state. This cannot be quantified, but among the important beneficiaries of the largesse of the Canada Council are the Stratford Festival, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Canadian Opera Company, and countless less wellknown professional and amateur organizations. Also significant is the assistance given for publication of works in the humanities and allied fields. The Canada Council also is parent of the Public Lending Right program, which compensates authors for the availability of their books (nonreference) in Canadian public libraries. The Canada Council has an Aboriginal Arts Secretariat. It also operates the Killam awards and fellowships. CANADA EAST. See LOWER CANADA; QUÉBEC. CANADA FIRST. The first theoretically nonpartisan group dedicated to advancing the cause of national unity based on patriotism, Canada First was born of distrust of the Conservatives and John A. Macdonald. Its origins date from 1868, when five young men met in Ottawa to discuss questions of national unity: William A. Foster, a Toronto barrister; Henry J. Morgan; Charles Mair of Lanark, Ontario; Robert Haliburton of Halifax, son of the author Thomas Haliburton; and Col. George T. Denison, later president of the British Empire League in Canada. All in their late twenties or early thirties, these men formed the Canada First party. Denison wrote: “Nothing could show more clearly the hold that confederation had taken of
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the imagination of young Canadians than the fact that, night after night, five young men should give up their time and their thoughts to discussing the higher interests of their country, and it ended in our making a solemn pledge to each other that we would do all we could to advance the interests of our native land; that we would put our country first, before all personal, or political, or party considerations; that we would change our party affiliations as often as the true interest of Canada required it.” Until Canada had a patriotic spirit, they believed, no real progress could be made toward building up a strong and powerful community. History showed them, they said, that great countries were based on a patriotic spirit. They therefore were among the first Canadian nationalists to understand that, at that time, confederation was a creation without a soul, without a spirit that animated the nation, without a national identity. They published the Canadian Monthly and National Review and a weekly Nation. They attracted an important Liberal, Edward Blake, to their group. They had an interest in enlarging the Canadian dominions to the west and north. They were attracted to the idea of West Indian union with Canada. They wanted electoral, ballot, and legislative reforms along Chartist and later Fabian lines. Minority representation, immigration, militia reform, and more economic management of public affairs were also preached. They were most successful in seeking the imposition of a tariff, a duty applied to certain imports that would make them so expensive as to encourage Canadian industry. The group eventually lost its momentum; Blake did not supply the hoped-for enthusiasm, and the national policy of the protective tariff was introduced by Macdonald’s party in 1879, taking the wind out of the sails of the Canada First group, and their influence gradually died away. See also NATIONAL ANTHEM. CANADA HEALTH ACT. Deriving from the Medical Care Act (1966), the Canada Health Act (passed 1 April 1984) owed its origin to a program in Saskatchewan, where the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation implemented Medicare in 1962. Advice to the Canadian government was also provided by Justice Emmett Hall, who headed the Royal Commission on Health Services. The Canada Health Act incorporated principles of comprehensiveness, universality, portability, and provincial administrative responsibility. National
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medical services insurance began in July 1968, with British Columbia and Saskatchewan qualifying immediately. By 1972, all provinces and territories had implemented some form of Medicare. Since 1 April 1996, the Canada Health Act has been linked to the Canada Health and Social Transfer and includes cash and tax point transfers. The plan, according to the Canada Health Act, “is administered and operated on a non-profit basis by a public authority appointed or designated by the government of the province . . . that is responsible in respect of the administration and operation of the plan to the government of the province for that purpose.” Under such a scheme, boards such as the Ontario Health Insurance Plan are partners with the federal Ministry of Health and Welfare, which seeks to maintain the universality of the program in Canada as a constitutional right and obligation. The Canada Health Act sets out requirements that provincial governments must meet through their public health-care insurance plan in order to qualify for full federal contribution. These requirements include universality, portability, and accessibility. See also DOUGLAS, T. C.; HEALTH CARE. CANADA WEST. See ONTARIO; UPPER CANADA. CANADIAN AIR FORCE (CAF). The Canadian air services had their foundation in the highly publicized World War I exploits of Canadian air aces and the threat of U-boats on the Atlantic Coast. Nearly 20,000 Canadians served with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The government of Sir Robert Borden authorized the formation of the Royal Canadian Naval Air Service and the Canadian Air Force to cooperate with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Both of these services, however, were disbanded after the war, and an Air Board was set up to organize Canadian air administration. In 1922, the Air Board was absorbed by the Ministry of National Defense under the command of a director of the CAF who reported directly to the army chief of staff. However, a more extensive organization was required, and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was founded in April 1924. The RCAF remained small between the world wars and carried out mostly civilian tasks. Only in 1928 were limited numbers of combat aircraft purchased, and no first-line aircraft were operational in 1939 save a few Hawker
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Hurricanes. Before World War II, the RCAF’s roles were fire fighting, aerial photography, and coastal and customs surveillance. In August 1939, the RCAF had 4,061 all ranks, 20 squadrons. One of the chief contributions of the RCAF in World War II was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train air crew for the war effort. Canadian schools graduated 131,553 aircrew, of which 72,835 were Canadian. The RCAF expanded quickly, eventually to more than 250,000 personnel, of which 94,000 served overseas. RCAF squadrons participated in the Battle of Britain, the Desert Campaign, the Far East, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the strategic bombing campaign over Germany. More than 17,000 RCAF crew members were killed during the war, 10,000 in Bomber Command alone. The RCAF demobilized quickly after the war and by the end of 1946 numbered only 13,000 of all ranks. It received its first jet fighters in 1948, the De Havilland Vampires. Although no RCAF fighter squadrons served in Korea, some officers flew with the U.S. Air Force. In the early 1950s, the Canadian government committed itself to the formation of an air division in Europe. Several fighter squadrons, consisting of Canadian-built Sabre fighters, were deployed in Europe and helped train allied air forces. Also, the Canadiandesigned and -built CF-100 Canuck all-weather interceptor was operational and stayed in service until 1981. The fighter was built under the terms of NORAD for the joint Canadian-American defense of the aerospace of North America against the possible appearance of Soviet bombers. However, brief prosperous days ended when the CF-105 Avro Arrow jet fighter was cancelled by the Diefenbaker government in 1959. The Arrow had a unique design that was years ahead of its time. From then on, the RCAF would fly foreigndesigned and -built aircraft. In the 1960s, the RCAF purchased CF-104 Starfighters and retained a declining role in Europe. In 1968, with unification of the Services, the RCAF was amalgamated into the Canadian Armed Forces, lost its formal title, and became Air Command. In 1970, the Canadian government spent $10 million on 16 new DF-5 fighter jets as replacements for ones that had been sold to Venezuela—planes they had mothballed directly from the factory as unneeded. In 1984, the Progressive Conservative government purchased 140 CF-18
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fighters to replace the force’s aging air fleet. By the late 1980s, only two fighter squadrons were based in Germany; by the end of 1993, both were brought home. In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Canadian fighter squadrons participated in patrolling the Persian Gulf to support UN ground forces. CF-18s undertook military operations in Yugoslavia in 1999. Air Command is a small but a highly professional force ranked among the best in the world. The RCAF Memorial Museum (opened in 1984) is at CFB Trenton, Ontario. Other main bases include Comox, British Columbia; Cold Lake, Alberta; and Bagotville, Québec. See also BARKER, WILLIAM GEORGE; BISHOP, WILLIAM AVERY. CANADIAN ARMED FORCES. The Canadian armed services— correctly called Canadian Forces—have generally been since 1945 small, highly professional forces that are expanded in times of international crisis. The forces have participated in both world wars, in Korea during the Korean conflict, and in all peacekeeping efforts under the auspices of the United Nations since 1945. Canada is one of the founding members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is a partner with the United States in the North American Air Defense Command. Until the end of the Cold War, the primary task of the Canadian Forces was to help provide credible conventional forces in Europe and to participate in joint naval task forces in the North Atlantic. Currently, the Canadian Forces employs over 83,000 officers and enlisted personnel on active duty while maintaining over 65,000 reservists on inactive status. But defense spending has been steadily decreasing, as has the number of personnel. See also CANADIAN AIR FORCE; CANADIAN ARMY; CANADIAN NAVY. CANADIAN ARMY. The first militia formed on Canadian soil was implemented by Governor Frontenac in New France in 1669. After the conquest of the French colony by Britain in 1759–60, the British government maintained the militia system and called it to service in 1763 and again in 1775. Early militia were also raised in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Upper Canada. Militia units fought in the War of 1812 and aided in suppression of the Rebellions of 1837. The Militia Act of 1855 formalized the militia system in Canada West and East (present-day Ontario and Québec). When the U.S.
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Civil War forced Canadian governments to take defense more seriously, the size of the militia was increased to 35,000. In 1866, 20,000 militia warded off Fenian raids. After confederation in 1867, the militia system was retained and increased to 40,000 in all arms. Two battalions of militia aided in putting down the 1870 Red River rebellion. In 1874, the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) was founded at Kingston, and a permanent, professional army was established. The suppressing of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion triggered important changes and professionalization of the Canadian militia. One thousand forces were sent to aid Great Britain’s efforts in the South African War (Boer War) in 1900. Minister of Militia Sir Frederick Borden further reformed the militia, replacing a British general with the Militia Council and placing a Canadian, Col. W. D. Otter, as the first chief of the General Staff. In 1909, the Canadian militia was fixed to British standards in all aspects of modern developments, including staff structure. In 1914, the permanent force numbered 3,000, with a further 60,000 militia. Upon the outbreak of World War I, the army was expanded greatly and five full divisions were sent overseas in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. After the war, the army was reduced to 4,000 and received few modern arms. Expansion began again in 1936 when militia units were rearmed. In World War II, Canada mobilized over 750,000 forces, and five divisions were sent overseas while three remained for home defense. Canadians fought in Hong Kong, in the Italian campaign, in the Dieppe Raid, and in northwest Europe. In 1945, the army’s strength was fixed at 25,000. However, in 1951, it was forced to expand due to Canada’s involvement in the Korean Conflict. The standard of strength was raised to 52,000. During the Cold War, Canadian Armed Forces maintained a reinforced brigade in Europe. Since 1956, Canadian Forces have also maintained a very active and taxing role in peacekeeping. In 1993, more than 2,200 Canadian Forces personnel were deployed on peacekeeping missions worldwide, the most prominent being in the former Yugoslav republics. In 2002, Canadian military priorities changed dramatically with the deployment of troops to Afghanistan, the largest operation taken on land since the Korean Conflict. The Canadian Army contains many historic regiments and units, including
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the Royal 22nd, Royal Canadian Regiment, Princess Patricia’s, Lord Strathcona’s, Highland Fusiliers of Canada, and Seaforth Highlanders. CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (CBC). Established in 1936 by act of Parliament to provide public broadcasting in Canada, succeeding the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (1933–36), the CBC was intended as a bulwark against intrusion of foreign elements and as a sponsor of made-in-Canada programs, fostering a sense of national consciousness and bringing English- and French-speaking groups closer together. In 1968, the Broadcasting Act was passed, updating the role of the CBC. The act stipulated that the Canadian broadcasting system should be effectively owned and controlled by Canada so as to safeguard, enrich, and strengthen the cultural, political, social, and economic fabric of Canada. The CBC, subject to managerial shifts and changes in public tastes, is publicly owned and an advocate of Canadian programs. Radio stations are operated on AM and FM bands. The CBC also operates northern native-language programs and CBC International, runs English and French television networks, and has been an industry leader in the production of documentaries. See also GZOWSKI, PETER; RADIO; TELEVISION. CANADIAN COAST GUARD. The Coast Guard was founded as the Marine Branch of the Department of the Marine and Fisheries in 1867; its purpose was to relegate maritime traffic and navigation in Canadian waters. The early Coast Guard operated several ships and aided in mapping navigational hazards and enforcing inshore maritime jurisdiction. In 1936, the Coast Guard came under the control of the newly formed Ministry of Transport and was officially renamed the Canadian Coast Guard in 1962. Today the managing federal department is Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Responsibilities include icebreaking on Canadian waterways and the St. Lawrence Seaway system, search and rescue, ship inspections, and navigational aids. The Environmental Response program of the Canadian Coast Guard seeks to minimize the environmental, economic, and public safety impacts of marine pollution incidents and to provide humanitarian aid to natural or manmade disasters. Currently, the Coast Guard is staffed by 6,200 employees in five regional offices, operates 56
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oceangoing vessels, 35 helicopters, 74 small rescue craft, and four hovercraft. It manages tens of thousands of navigation aids and monitors maritime traffic around Canada’s ports. The Canadian Coast Guard coordinates its work with the U.S. Coast Guard to discuss on an ongoing basis their common mission, core values, and challenges. CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (CEF). The CEF was established when the government decided to send an expeditionary force of one infantry division to the aid of Great Britain after the outbreak of World War I. A force of 31,000 sailed from Québec in October 1914 and, after extensive training in Salisbury Plain, England, was sent to France in 1915. By late 1916, the Canadian Corps of four divisions had earned a reputation as ferocious fighters. In all, 619,636 served in the CEF. Exploits of the CEF furthered Canada’s sense of identity. See also CANADIAN ARMY; VIMY RIDGE. CANADIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (CIIA). The CIIA was founded on 30 January 1928 in the home of Sir Robert Borden. Escott Reid, a Canadian Oxford graduate, was its first permanent secretary. Throughout the 1930s, the CIIA prepared position papers for the government. It wrote briefings for international conferences and attended them on behalf of all Canadians. CIIA branches soon spanned the country, with academic leadership (H. F. Argus, F. W. Soward, and others) promoting the unique needs of Canadian diplomacy and internationalism. Though nonpartisan, the CIIA has held a middle ground close to prevailing government positions. Its aims are educational and even social, using study, discussion, and public addresses to promote an understanding of international issues. Canada’s positions have often been shaped in response to those of the great powers. In the formative years of the CIIA, Canadian autonomy vis-à-vis Great Britain and the British Empire was an abiding concern of the membership and its leaders. In the 1940s and 1950s—the golden age of multilateralism—the emphasis shifted to American continentalism, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United Nations, and even the Caribbean and Latin America. During the late Cold War, the attention was directed to the Soviet Union and its satellites. After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the emphasis shifted to Afghanistan, Iraq,
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Iran, Palestine, Darfur, and other “problem spots” of concern to the West. The current preoccupation is living with the “hyper power,” the United States. The CIIA is based in Toronto. Its library, the John Holmes Library, is housed in the University of Toronto. CANADIAN MUTUAL AID. Equivalent to American Lend-Lease, Canadian Mutual Aid was the main economic measure during World War II whereby Canada assisted Great Britain and other Allies with foodstuffs, raw materials, and armaments. It followed the $1 billion gift to Britain in 1942 to bring supplies from Canada. Started in 1943 and run by a board in Canada, it helped the British at a time when gold and dollar reserves were depleted; it equally helped Canada’s production and thus prosperity. Great Britain received altogether $4 billion from Canada; the Soviet Union, China, India, and the British West Indies also were recipients. The debt of $425 million for the cost of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan was written off. CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS. Now a publicly owned corporation trading under the name CNRail, and one of the giants of the stock markets, Canadian National Railways was first a crown corporation created out of necessity by the Unionist government of Robert Borden in 1919. Its history is a rags to riches one. Between 1919 and 1923, the government consolidated a number of railways, including the old Grand Trunk lines, the Prince Edward Island Railway, National Transcontinental Railway, and the Intercolonial Railway under the name Canadian National Railways. The organization of the company was complete by 1923. In early years, it waged a competitive struggle with the privately owned Canadian Pacific Railway. This ended with the Canadian National-Canadian Pacific Act (1933), which directed the two systems to cooperate in seeking economies. Canadian National, as it was commonly called, played a role in the earliest development of government-owned radio broadcasting in Canada and the establishment of Trans-Canada Airlines (now Air Canada). Its passenger services and marine departments were closed down over a long period of time. It became more and more a mover of freight: its freight revenues derived chiefly from petroleum and chemical shipment also metals and minerals, forest products, coal, grain, fertilizers, and intermodal and automotive transit. In 1978,
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Canadian National’s passenger services were taken over by VIA Rail Canada, a crown corporation established to operate all Canadian passenger services. Canadian National came to control the Central Vermont Railway; the Duluth, Winnipeg, and Pacific Railway; and the Grand Trunk Western Railway Company. After privatization, CNRail acquired the Illinois Central Railroad (chartered 1851) in 1998, enhancing it as a continental powerhouse in transportation, with portals on the Pacific (Vancouver, Prince Rupert), the Atlantic (Montréal, Halifax, Saint John), and the Gulf of Mexico (New Orleans). It operates 20,300 route miles, 14,000 of which are in Canada. See also CANADIAN NORTHERN RAILWAY. CANADIAN NAVY. An outgrowth of its parent, the Royal Navy, Canada’s navy was created by the Naval Service Act of 1910 (effective 10 May). The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) was to be managed by the Ministry of the Naval Service, a department of the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries, and be under the command of a naval staff officer not less in rank than rear admiral. The RCN was to fall under the command of the Admiralty in London upon declaration of war but would be administered from Ottawa. During war, the Royal Navy was to use the main bases at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Esquimalt, British Columbia. Two cruisers were acquired from the Royal Navy—HMCS Niobe for the Atlantic coast and HMCS Rainbow on the Pacific—principally for training purposes. The naval question of the era contributed to the fall of the government of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier in 1911. The RCN formed coastal patrols against U-boats during World War I, but most naval personnel—an estimated 10,000—served with its parent service, the Royal Navy. After 1918, the navy faced severe fiscal restraints and was forced to fight for its existence. Despite cutbacks, Comm. Walter Hose established the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, which was to prove vital during the subsequent wartime expansion. Also in the 1930s, modern destroyers were purchased. In 1939, when World War II broke out, the RCN possessed 11 warships and 3,000 personnel; by 1945, the navy had 365 ships in commission and 100,000 personnel. Canadian corvettes, such as HMCS Sackville, now a Canadian national naval memorial in Halifax, played a heroic, legendary role in convoy protection in the Battle
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of the Atlantic. The RCN contributed half of the anti-submarine escorts in the North Atlantic and was responsible for the sinking of 52 German U-boats and one Italian submarine. The RCN also deployed forces to patrol the English Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and in support of the Normandy landings in 1944. RCN ships also served in the Mediterranean, in Arctic convoys to north Russia, and in the Pacific. At war’s end, the RCN was the fifth largest navy in the world. After 1945, the government of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King decided to construct a balanced fleet, including naval aviation and a submarine service, to contribute to Canada’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, the antisubmarine role remained its principal mission. Budgetary constraints in the 1960s and 1970s saw the elimination of the Navy’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure, in 1970. This occurred after a $17 million refit in a Québec shipyard; Bonaventure was then promptly sold for scrap for $750,000. The naval air arm was now limited to helicopters embarked aboard newly built destroyers. As time wore on, defense budgets cut even deeper and no new ships entered Canadian service after 1974 until 1991, when the new patrol frigate HMCS Halifax and 11 similar vessels were commissioned. The Defense White Paper undertaken by the Progressive Conservative government in the mid-1980s sought to change the face of the navy by the possible purchase of 10 to 12 nuclear-propelled submarines from either Britain or France. However, the cost was too high for Canada to bear. Since the end of the Cold War, like other NATO navies, the Canadian naval service has been undertaking new roles. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, several Canadian warships, including a destroyer tender, participated in the naval task force in the Persian Gulf supporting the ground troops in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the 1990s and after, the navy kept a distant station in the Persian Gulf. In 1968, the navy was merged administratively (at the top) with the other services under the name Canadian Armed Forces. The navy became Maritime Command with its headquarters in Halifax and, since 1995, in Ottawa. Maritime Command is a highly skilled force highly capable in anti-submarine warfare (ASW). Deployment to distant seas, especially the Persian Gulf, on control and command missions is changing the role of the navy away from ASW. Recent
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pressing issues have included the replacement of the navy’s elderly Oberon class with Victoria-class diesel submarines and the replacement of the aging helicopter fleet. See also HAIDA. CANADIAN NORTHERN RAILWAY. The Canadian Northern was founded by the energetic, hard-driving “lords of the line” William Mackenzie and Donald Mann in 1899. They went from building one line in Manitoba to building a transcontinental railway. The line was popular with prairie farmers, who were granted low freight rates, and with western provincial governments. Its line had links to Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and Edmonton. Mackenzie and Mann eventually decided to expand to the west coast, to Vancouver, and eastward to Montréal. Its southern British Columbia line competed strongly with the Canadian Pacific Railway, through the Fraser River canyon and through to Vancouver. The company incurred massive debts before World War I. The government of Canada bought out Mackenzie and Mann, and the railway became part of Canadian National Railways (now CNRail). CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY (CPR). Under terms of union, a rail link was promised to British Columbia when it entered confederation in 1871. Canada’s first transcontinental railway, it was begun soon after the Confederation of 1867. Start of the project was delayed by the Pacific Scandal in 1873, involving John A. Macdonald’s government. The Liberals under Alexander Mackenzie were financially strapped as they took office from the Conservatives in 1873. When Macdonald’s Conservatives regained power in 1878, they turned to a new group of financiers to develop a company to build the rail line. The company became the Canadian Pacific Railway Company in 1881. In 1881, Canada gave the CPR $25 million and 25 million acres to facilitate completion of the transcontinental line. The company built its railway through the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia after Major Albert Rogers discovered the pass that now bears his name. Under the guidance of American-born engineer and general manager William Van Horne, construction proceeded rapidly. By November 1885, the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, BC. The first train left Montréal for Port Moody, BC, 28 June 1886. Vancouver became the eastern terminus. At the time of its
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completion, it was one of the longest railway lines in the world, and its completion was a triumph over financial as well as geographical obstacles. Tunnels were constructed through Rogers Pass to reduce the track’s grade and guard against avalanches and other slides. (On 4 March 1910, 64 men clearing snow from tracks in Rogers Pass had been swept to their “white death” in Canada’s worst snowslide disaster.) The construction of the Kicking Horse Pass was also a monumental engineering task. The whole project depended on government subventions, guaranteed bonds, investors, and grants of land or tax-free status. From Canadian Pacific Railway derived Canadian Pacific Limited. Mergers and splits have forged and changed the CP empire. In 1942, for example, CPR united 10 local airlines to create CP Air. In 1978, government-owned VIA RAIL took over CP’s passenger service, and CP Air was sold to Pacific Western Airlines in 1987. In 1992, CP’s telecom division was renamed United Communications and became a long-distance telephone service provider. CP sold its money-losing CP Forest in 1993 and talked with CNR about merging rail networks east of Winnipeg. In 1994, CP sold its trucking division and in 1995 bought the Cast Group container-shipping business. In 1996, CP sold Marathon Realty, its commercial real estate subsidiary. In 1998, its hotel subsidiary bought Princess Hotels and the Delta Hotel chain; 1999 brought a hotel chain merger with U.S.-based Fairmont Hotels. In 2001, the CPR corporation split as follows: CPRail (railway) continues; CP Ships (later sold); Fording Coal; CP Hotels became Fairmont Hotels (later sold); Pan Canadian Petroleum (united with Alberta Energy to form giant EnCana). The latter, in 2009, divided into EnCana and Cenovus. CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (CSIS). See SECRET SERVICE. CANOL PIPELINE. Canol is short for Canadian oil. The pipeline was built in 1942–1944, extending from Norman Wells, Northwest Territories, to Whitehorse, Yukon, to supply oil products in defense of Alaska. CAPE BRETON ISLAND. Discovered by fishermen from Brittany during the French regime, Cape Breton Island was initially called
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Îsle Royale. In 1773, Highland Scots settlers arrived in the ship Hector at Cape Breton. Cape Breton was an independent British colony from 1784 to 1820, when it was united with Nova Scotia. See also LOUISBOURG. CARDINAL, HAROLD (1945–2005). Native activist and author Harold Cardinal, an Alberta-born Cree, was at the forefront of modern aboriginal politics. In 1970, while president of the Indian Association of Alberta, he played hard-nosed politics against Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the cabinet. He accused the federal politicians of trying to “exterminate” Canada’s aboriginal peoples. This was a defining moment for Cardinal and for Canada’s First Nations. In his landmark book The Unjust Society (1972), which inverted Trudeau’s 1968 aim and claim of “a Just Society,” Cardinal wrote, “Generations of Indians have grown up behind a buckskin curtain of indifference, ignorance and, all too often, plain bigotry. The history of Canada’s Indians is a shameful chronicle of the white man’s disinterest, his trampling of Indian rights.” The work appeared about the same time as American native rights activist Vine Deloria’s Custer Died for Your Sins and similar works. Cardinal’s book and agitation brought him instant recognition within the aboriginal community as a political force, and his activism influenced others such as Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Elijah Harper, noted member of the Manitoba legislature who helped kill the Meech Lake Accord. The Trudeau government, then with Jean Chrétien as Indian Affairs minister, had issued a “white paper” on Indian affairs. This advocated ending native rights, treaties, and Indian status itself. Trudeau’s argument was that natives had constitutional rights that they should proclaim and defend in courts or commissions of claim, but not inherent racial rights and entitlements. Cardinal responded to this by another book The Red Papers, a less influential work than his first book. In the mid-1970s, the federal government abandoned its white paper and put in place an ill-starred Indian claims commission that ran up huge bills on the government charge and resulted in a good deal of inter-Indian acrimony. Cardinal’s influence on the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that dealt with inherent and existing aboriginal rights as of 1982 can only be imagined; certainly, his earlier actions paved the way for this historic
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reversal of policy. That change occurred during Trudeau’s finest hour. The “buckskin curtain”—of racism and discrimination against aboriginal peoples—was torn down a bit over the years but remained a fact of aboriginal life, commented Cardinal’s daughter-in-law, another activist, Beverley Jones, president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Cardinal, who also wrote The Rebirth of Canadian Indians, ran unsuccessfully for the Liberals in Athabasca riding in 1990; Chrétien was then leader of both the party and the country. Cardinal was chief of the Sucker Creek band, 1982–83, and vice chief of the Prairie region of the Assembly of First Nations. He had a law degree from the University of Saskatchewan, a master’s from Harvard School of Law, and a Ph.D. in law from University of British Columbia. He was called to the bar in 2004. Cardinal and his wife, Maisie, likewise a Ph.D., placed a high value on higher education; all six of their children obtained a university education. “He inspired us all,” son Sheldon said of Cardinal’s tireless statements about the importance of education in the lives of aboriginal people. “It warmed his heart. He had so much pride.” Cardinal died of lung cancer. See also INDIANS. CARHAGOUHA. A fortified village of the Bear people of the Huron, Carhagouha was the site of the first Christian mass celebrated in what is now the Province of Ontario, 12 August 1615. The site is estimated to be a mile or more northwest of the present village of Lafontaine. The celebrant was Father Le Caron, S.J., and present at the time was the noted explorer Samuel de Champlain. Another observer, Father Le Clerq, related that “the raising of the Cross, the sign of our redemption, was hailed with volleys of musketry and accompanied by acts of thanksgiving, the Te Deum being chanted for the first time in that barbarous country.” See also HURONIA; JESUITS. CARLETON, GUY (1724–1808). A British soldier, and the first Baron Dorchester, Sir Guy Carleton served under Major General James Wolfe during the Seven Years War and fought on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. As governor of Québec in 1775, he successfully defended the city against the Americans under Benedict Arnold, whom he subsequently defeated again on Lake Champlain in 1776. Carleton was governor of Québec in 1775–77, 1786–89, and 1793–
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96. Architect of the Québec Act, he was also governor of Lower Canada 1791–96. His efforts in Canada contributed to Britain’s success in keeping Québec under British rule. See also AMERICAN REVOLUTION. CARMACK, GEORGE WASHINGTON (1860–1922). Also known as “Lying George,” Carmack is famous for discovering the first Klondike gold at Rabbit Creek, renamed Bonanza Creek, on 16 or 17 August 1896. The Yukon Territory celebrates 17 August as the anniversary of Carmack’s discovery. He staked four claims on the Bonanza and recorded them at the North West Mounted Police Office at Fortymile. With him when he made his discovery were Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie, his Indian friends. Carmacks, on the west bank of the Yukon River 176 kilometers north of Whitehorse, is named after him. He was born in Port Costa, California, and died in Vancouver, British Columbia, a wealthy man. CARR, EMILY (1871–1945). Artist and author Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and educated at local public schools. She studied art in San Francisco and for five years at the Westminster School of Art in London, England. She returned to Canada, opening a studio in Vancouver, and began to paint British Columbian landscape and native culture. In 1927, she exhibited some of her artwork in an exhibition of Canadian west coast art in Ottawa. Later in life, Carr wrote short stories about her adventures in native villages on the west coast. Some of her books are Klee Wyck, The Book of Small, and Growing Pains. One of Canada’s most famous artists and authors, she was the subject of numerous biographies and literary as well as artistic studies. CARTIER, GEORGE ÉTIENNE (1814–1873). A lawyer, politician, and critically important architect of Canadian confederation, Cartier led the Bleu bloc of Canada East (Québec) and forged an alliance with John A. Macdonald in 1854, forming a government in the Province of Canada. Cartier recognized that French Canada’s destiny lay in an alliance with English Canadians but, at the same time, believed that French Canadians needed legislation to protect their culture and economic improvement through transportation and
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commercial schemes. He was attorney general for the Province of Canada and solicitor for the Grand Trunk Railway, and he advanced the cause of his people. In 1858, in what was called the “double shuffle,” the Macdonald-Cartier ministry was reconstituted and remained in office until 1862. In this new arrangement, Cartier entered the Great Coalition of 1864, which advanced the confederation design. Cartier insisted on a bicameral legislative structure and saw an upper chamber, a Canadian Senate, as being necessary to protect French Canada’s regional, linguistic, and ethnic needs. Macdonald reluctantly agreed. Cartier impressed upon French Canadians the need for their vote in confederation. However, many saw him as having sold out. He was defeated in 1872 during the patronage crisis over the Canadian Pacific Railway. He died in 1873, the first great Québec federalist. CARTIER, JACQUES (1491–1557). A French mariner and explorer, Cartier examined the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence River in three great voyages. In 1534, he circumnavigated the gulf. In 1536, he explored the river as far as west Hochelaga or Montréal, where he put up a cross. In his third voyage, 1541, this one in search of a mythical El Dorado, the kingdom of Saguenay, he added geographical knowledge of the area. Guided by natives such as Donnaconna, and aided by their knowledge of how to combat scurvy and endure Canadian winters, Cartier charted the shores of eastern Canada for France and extended French and Christian claims there. CARY, MARY SHADD (1823–1893). Editor and activist Mary Shadd Cary was the first black woman in North America to establish and edit a weekly newspaper. She was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and moved to Windsor, Ontario, in 1851. In 1853, she established the Provincial Freeman. The newspaper covered all aspects of black life in Canada. CASGRAIN, THERESE (1896–1981). Feminist and reformer Marie Therese Forget Casgrain was born in Montréal. In 1921, she started campaigning in Québec for women’s suffrage. She functioned, virtually alone, in a difficult political climate to promote human rights,
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especially for women. In 1946, she joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, serving as its provincial leader in 1951–57. She was named to the Senate in 1970. See also WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE (1567?–1635). Explorer Samuel de Champlain was a navigator, geographer, cartographer, ethnologist, and colonizer instrumental in founding New France. For 30 years, Champlain painstakingly established France’s presence in the New World. With Sieur de Monts, he visited the St. Croix valley in 1604– 1605. On a small island, Douchet, near Red Beach in Calais, Maine, they tried to establish a permanent settlement named St. Croix. They were aided by local Passamaquoddy natives. Unprepared for the harsh winter, the settlers had severe casualties: 35 of the 100 soldiers and traders died. The survivors explored south to Cape Cod; this was 16 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Champlain explored the Bay of Fundy, the coast of Maine and elsewhere on the Atlantic coast, and the interior of the continent as far west as Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. He allied with certain native peoples, the Algonquin, against the Iroquois. In 1608, he established a settlement where the St. Lawrence River narrows: Québec, so-called by the aboriginal peoples. This was a decisive event in Canadian history. He made his great western journey in 1615, to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron via the Ottawa and French rivers. Champlain secured an alliance with the Huron, and he pursued his grand design of a French empire in North America with skill, perseverance, and stamina. He crossed the Atlantic 27 times between 1599 and 1635 without losing a single major ship. It took deft and constant lobbying within the French court to maintained support for his daring enterprise in the New World. In New France, he faced cold, isolation, hunger, corruption, war, and other hardships, including mutiny. His charts, travel accounts, and histories are important contributions to learning. He had an insatiable curiosity about the complex aboriginal cultures he encountered and was genuinely interested in what he could learn from them. Although Champlain was the greatest of French explorers in the early history of New France, his gravesite remains unknown in the city of Québec. His astrolabe is in Ottawa’s Museum of Civilization.
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CHARLOTTETOWN AGREEMENT. See MEECH LAKE ACCORD. CHÉNIER, JEAN OLIVER (1806–1837). A doctor and patriot, Chénier was born in Lachine, Québec, and practiced medicine in the village of St-Eustache. He played an active role in Lower Canada assemblies of 1836 and 1837 that sought to boycott British goods and to replace government appointees with elected officials. He was the main organizer of armed resistance by Patriotes du Nord, who holed up in a church, convent, and homes in St-Eustache. He was among 100 patriotes killed when British forces and militia under Governor John Colborne attacked with cannon and grapeshot. Soldiers set the church alight and shot 70 occupants when they escaped through windows. The entire village was razed. CHINESE CANADIANS. Profoundly important in building modern Canada, in terms of labor, capital, and professional and social institutions, Chinese first came to Vancouver Island as artisans in 1778. Others came during the 1858 gold rush. In 1860, about 7,000 lived in British Columbia. They came in increasing numbers during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Most came as contract workers. They came mainly from Guangdong province, near Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong. By 1991, their numbers in Canada were well over 500,000. After 1885, they were charged a “head tax.” British Columbia and Canadian governments sought to restrict illegal immigration, particularly of Asiatics. On 1 July 1923, “Humiliation Day” in Chinese Canadian history, Chinese immigration was suspended altogether; this legislation was repealed in 1947. Chinese and East Indian Canadians gained the vote federally and provincially in 1947. In the 1980s, Chinese came from Hong Kong in increasing numbers. In 1996, China became one of the top countries of origin of Canadian immigrants. Discrimination in education and the professions resulted in late entry on the political scene. In 1957, Douglas Jung was the first Chinese Canadian to be elected an MP. In 2001, there were more than 1 million Chinese Canadians, comprising 3.5 percent of the population. Chinese schools and benevolent societies exist in large numbers. On 22 June 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a message of redress in the House of Commons, offering an apology in Cantonese and compensation for the head tax.
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CHRÉTIEN, JOSEPH-JACQUES JEAN (1934– ). A lawyer and politician, Chrétien was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1963 as a Liberal. He served as a minister in charge of various departments, including Indian and Northern Affairs, Justice, and Finance. His budgets of 1978 were designed to encourage industrial growth and to fight inflation. In 1980, he successfully led Québec federal forces against René Levesque’s Québec separatist cause. After Pierre Trudeau’s resignation in 1984, Chrétien distanced himself from national politics and left public office. He was elected leader of the Liberal Party in June 1990. On 28 October 1993, Chrétien became prime minister as the Liberals won a decisive victory. He was reelected on 2 June 1997 with a reduced majority. He was again reelected 27 November 2000 with an unprecedented third majority. His leadership style was avuncular but challenging. He is a selfstyled “little guy” from Shawinigan.” He resigned office on 12 December 2003 and was succeeded as prime minister and party leader by his rival Paul Martin. He joined the law firm Heenan Blaikie as counsel. His legacy may be summarized as supporting official bilingualism and multiculturalism, but his government witnessed the erosion of the welfare state. His government advocated neo-conservative policies and cut transfer payments to the provinces. He neglected Canada’s armed forces, the period of his government being the dark decade of Canadian Forces history. CHURCHILL. Situated on Hudson Bay at the mouth of the Churchill River, the seaport of Churchill, Manitoba, has a long history. Seeking that elusive waterway the Northwest Passage, a Danish expedition discovered the mouth of the river in August 1619. There the two vessels wintered, but scurvy attacked the crew so fatally that when the navigation opened in June 1620, only Jens Munk, the commander, and two crew members remained alive of the original 65. In the smaller vessel, the survivors made their return voyage, reaching Norway in September 1620. Both Luke Fox and Thomas James, other seekers of the passage, passed the mouth of the Churchill River in 1631. In 1686, John Abraham on behalf of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) entered and explored that river, the first since the days of Munk. He named it after John Churchill, later the famous Duke of Marlborough, who in 1685 had been elected governor of
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the HBC. In 1689, the company determined to locate a trading post there, but a fire destroyed the establishment. It was not until 1717 that James Knight, who succeeded in arranging peace between the Cree and the Northern Indians, and thus placing their relations with the HBC on a profitable basis, built Fort Churchill. At that time, the sovereignty of Hudson Bay was in dispute between England and France, and it was deemed necessary to erect a formidable fort to ensure English interests. The great stone fort known as Prince of Wales was built on Eskimo Point, at the river entrance. Its construction occupied nearly 40 years, from 1733 to 1771. It was to be the strong defense of the bay. In 1778, astronomer William Wales was sent there to observe the transit of Venus over the sun. In 1782, La Pérouse, in command of three French warships, appeared before Port Churchill and demanded the surrender of Fort Prince of Wales. Samuel Hearne, the governor, having only a handful of men in this stone fort, surrendered at discretion without firing a shot. La Pérouse stripped the fort of everything of value, confiscated and destroyed the property, burned the buildings, spiked the guns, and blew up parts of the walls. The present ruins are much as they were when La Pérouse left them; they are one of the most interesting military remains on the continent. In 1784, the HBC rebuilt Fort Churchill practically on the site of the first post of 1689, about five miles upriver from the Fort Prince of Wales ruins. Fort Churchill was a base for various exploratory expeditions, and explorers such as Christopher Middleton in 1741 and again in 1761 called there. From Fort Prince of Wales, Hearne departed on his three exploratory journeys which in 1771 led to the discovery of the Coppermine River. David Thompson was there in the winter of 1784–85. The completion of the Hudson Bay Railroad in April 1929 made possible the shipping of Canadian grains from Hudson Bay. Grain elevators and port facilities were constructed. Churchill became a site of Canadian American rocket firing for atmospheric testing purposes. Its population (2009) is about 1,200, 45 percent of which are First Nations, 55 percent Caucasian. Ecotourism is a major sector of the local economy, and Churchill is called the “Polar Bear Capital of Canada.” CINEMA. See FILM.
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CLARK, JOE (1939– ). A journalist, university lecturer, and politician, Charles Joseph Clark was born in High River, Alberta, and elected a member of the Canadian Parliament in 1972. He became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976 and was leader of the opposition in 1980–83. In 1979, he formed a short-lived government and became Canada’s youngest prime minister. His party could not maintain the government on a fiscal bill, however, and he resigned office 3 March 1980. His party lost the 1980 election to the Liberals under Pierre Trudeau. Clark was defeated by Brian Mulroney in the desperate party leadership struggle of 1983. In 1984, he became secretary of state for external affairs and later served in the special role as constitutional advisor during the Charlottetown Accord arrangements. He made a political comeback in 1988. He was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He reentered Parliament and was elected MP in Calgary Center in 2000. He left Parliament in 2004 and has since had stints as a professor and consultant. CLEAR GRITS. A reform-minded political party mainly centered in southern Ontario in the 1850s, the Clear Grits were determined on political reform and promoted the concept of representation by population, “rep by pop.” They also sought direct election to executive posts and secularization of the clergy reserves. This party promoted Canadian federalism and western expansion. After confederation in 1867, it formed a core of the Liberal Party. Important Clear Grits included George Brown and the prime minister Alexander Mackenzie. See also ROUGES. CLERGY RESERVES. See CONSTITUTIONAL (OR CANADA) ACT OF 1791. COLD WAR. Extending from 1945 until the disbanding of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War was characterized by remarkable tensions between the United States and its allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other. Suspicions of Soviet intentions began with the close of World War II and the race to get at scientific and technical achievements of the defeated Germany in 1945. This was an era of marked espionage and countermeasures. Real alarm at Soviet intentions was made clear with the revelations
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of Soviet spying operations in Canada in what is known as the 1945 Igor Gouzenko case. At the same time, the United States and Great Britain refused to accept the extension and dominance of Soviet control, political and military, over occupied states in Central Europe, notably East Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, and others. When British political leader Winston Churchill made his Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 5 March 1946, he announced that just such a curtain had fallen from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic. It now became clear that member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would be facing those of the Sovietdominated Warsaw Pact; both of these military alliances were forged at this time. Canada’s diplomatic posture at this time was a response to the Gouzenko case, but it was also a reflection of its economic, cultural, and strategic links to the United States and Great Britain. The U.S. Congress’s House Committee on Un-American activities, first begun in 1938, was active in the postwar era when hearings in the 1950s led by Senator Joseph McCarthy probed communist subversion and espionage in the United States. There was no comparable organized political witch-hunting in Canada, but it made governments and police authorities mindful of seditious activities in Canada. The positions of the Western allies and the Warsaw Pact countries became irreconcilable and were made even more intractable by the Soviet armed takeover of Hungary beginning 23 October 1956. The influx of Hungarian refugees to Canada in consequence of this development enhanced Canadian understanding of European problems and strengthened anti-Soviet thinking and reportage in the Canadian press. When the Soviets put the satellite Sputnik 1 into space on 4 October 1957, the Cold War entered another phase, the space race. Moreover, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the invasion by Warsaw Pact forces of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the buildup of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, and the expansion of Soviet air and sea power gave confirmation of Soviet intentions. See also KOREAN CONFLICT. COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY. On 17 January 1961, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed the
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Columbia River Treaty for the cooperative development of the Columbia River, which runs through British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest. The treaty, a result of more than 15 years of investigation and negotiation, required Canada to build and operate three dams to help the United States produce power at facilities downstream. The United States would pay Canada US$64.4 million and give Canada title to half the energy produced. The treaty did not come into effect until 1964, after British Columbia decided to sell the power benefits back to the United States. COMMISSION ON BILINGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM, ROYAL. See BILINGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM, ROYAL COMMISSION ON. COMMISSION ON NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES, ROYAL. See MASSEY REPORT. COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS. The Commonwealth of Nations, formerly British Commonwealth of Nations, derives from the British Empire. The Commonwealth emerged as a result of colonial nationalism and the move toward responsible government. By 1931, membership was by free association. In the interim, however, colonial autonomy had to be won, for Britain invariably wanted to maintain uniform control over shipping, tariffs, armed forces, constitutional arrangements, and foreign treaty-making. World War I produced a crisis: empire solidarity vs. colonial/dominion nationalism. At the Imperial War Conference in 1917, at Sir Robert Borden’s initiative, it was agreed that a redefinition of the British Empire was necessary. Anniversary celebrations in 1887 and 1897 of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne offered opportunities to Great Britain and the colonial premiers to gather to discuss matters of mutual interest, especially trade, communications, and defense. These events were important in Canadian foreign policy making and in Canada’s growth as an autonomous nation. In 1907, a regular arrangement of intraimperial consultation was agreed upon, with a secretariat and meetings every four years. Sir
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Wilfrid Laurier required that Canada have prior consultation before imperial commitment. In 1911, the state of European relations was the focus of Sir Edward Grey’s address. In 1926, the Imperial Conference accepted the Balfour Report definition of the Empire Commonwealth of that era. The report provided the dominions with equal status, in no way subordinate to one another, and united by a common allegiance to the crown. In the British Statute of Westminster (1931), these principles were extended to British law and adopted, though not always immediately, by the dominions. In 1930, the Imperial Conference rejected Prime Minister R. B. Bennett’s call for imperial preferential tariffs. In 1932, at the Ottawa Conference, bilateral arrangements only were agreed upon. New principles of the Commonwealth were adopted after World War II, including anti-racist government policies. In the history of the Commonwealth, Canada’s role was prominent in several areas: responsible government, federalism, judicial interpretation, early creation of a dominion navy, plurality of official languages, and international appointment to first national. Noteworthy, too, is the fact that the first secretary general of the Commonwealth was a Canadian, Arnold Smith. The Commonwealth of Learning, an institute of distance education and organized by the Commonwealth of Nations, is headquartered in Vancouver. COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA (CPC). Founded in Guelph, Ontario, in 1921, the CPC exists in various guises and factions. It was known as the Workers’ Party in the early days. Locked up in Québec in 1937 and banned federally in 1940 under the War Measures Act, the CPC nonetheless gave Canadian labor many leaders and was influential in the Canadian Congress of Labor. Among its most devout followers were Fred Rose, MP (convicted in the Igor Gouzenko spy case), longtime leader Tim Buck, and Norman Bethune, active in the Spanish Civil War and Chinese wars. Beginning in the 1950s, revelations about Stalin and Russian aims, of Soviet interventions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and of Sino-Soviet splits led to continual disaffections, divisions, and defections among communists in Canada. The Cold War was fought at home in the press. The mainstream press was decidedly anti-communist. Revelations subsequent to the collapse of socialist and communist govern-
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ments in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans 1989–91 further discredited communism in theory and in practice. The CPC remains active in disseminating certain information about feminist, aboriginal, pacifist, and tenants’ rights and interests. See also MACKENZIE-PAPINEAU BATTALION. COMPAGNIE DES CENT-ASSOCIÉS. Organized by the zealous imperialist Cardinal Richelieu in 1627, the Compagnie des CentAssociés (Hundred Associates Company) was a French colonizing company that aimed to settle 4,000 colonists in New France within a 15-year period. The company received a French monopoly of the fur trade and French claims to North America, from Arctic waters to the Florida gulf. The government promised protection for three years. Pirates captured the first two fleets of emigrants. Québec fell to English forces in 1629, though returned by treaty in 1632. The colony faltered. The charter was revoked in 1663 when Canada became a royal province. Only 2,500 settlers came out under the auspices of the company. CONSCRIPTION. An issue of great moment in 20th-century Canadian history, specifically during World Wars I and II, conscription raises emotions to this day. In terms of historical debate, the comparative futility or benefit of the imposed raising of manpower for Canadian Forces also reveals strong divisions. At the outset of World War I (August 1914), Canada’s military strength in numbers consisted mainly of standing forces and militia units. Regiments were soon raised by private subscription (Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry, for instance), and voluntary enlistments sufficed to fill the ranks of new battalions completed in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Toronto, for instance. The First Canadian Division, nominally 20,000 forces, sailed for Europe October 1914; three others were to follow. By 1917, 233,000 volunteers had enlisted in components of the Canadian Army, including artillery, engineer, medical, and army service corps. Prime Minister Robert Borden set a target of 500,000. Only 13,000 service members were French Canadians. The first and last entirely French unit, the Royal 22nd Battalion (now Regiment), was formed October 1914. English Canadians claimed that French Canadians were shirking their duty.
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Borden conducted National Registration of all able-bodied men (the old Militia Act called for males 16 to 60 years to be liable for call-up, but this was not instituted). Then, in May 1917, he announced that compulsory military service would be instituted. The Military Service Act, 1917, allowed the draft of persons age 20 to 35. Borden then formed the Union government, though Wilfrid Laurier and other followers (including Mackenzie King) would not join it. The Military Voters’ Act and the Wartime Elections Act, which extended the vote, or franchise, to mothers, wives, and sisters of soldiers, dead or alive, enlarged the government’s popular support. Persons of enemy origins naturalized after 1902 were disqualified from the vote and, naturally, exempt from conscription. The Union government won 153 seats on 17 December 1917, but 62 of Québec’s 65 seats went to Laurier. In Québec, the provincial legislature considered secession, and in the provincial capital there were anti-Ottawa riots. In terms of numbers raised, 400,000 were registered and 100,000 drafted, of whom 24,000 went to France. An intended Fifth Division was never sent overseas. The effects of this issue were deep seated and raised themselves in the next conflict. In fact, anti-war sentiment and Canadian isolation were fueled by the same legacy. The war had a profound impact on Canadian identity and a postwar search for status in the British Empire or Commonwealth of Nations. In September 1939, Canada was at war against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Mackenzie King won the election of 26 March 1940 in a landslide. He and the Liberals had promised no conscription. The National Resources Mobilization Act of 1940 authorized the governor-in-council to make orders for persons to place themselves at the disposal of Canada as being necessary to defend the national interests. But this was not to include persons to be deployed overseas. Under this act, government could control industrial and agricultural production, prices, and transportation; persons could be drafted for home service only. This remarkable legislation was designed to uphold national unity by defusing the conscription issue. No one wanted a repeat of 1917. As the war progressed, the personnel needs of Canadian Forces overseas increased. In April 1942, Mackenzie King adroitly sought release from his promise through a national referendum: “not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary.” Sixty-four percent
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of the population voted for; Québec, decidedly against. In 1944, Minister of Defense Colonel J. L. Ralston insisted that conscription was necessary. Mackenzie King could not ignore the pressures, and the government called up 16,000 home-service draftees to be sent overseas as replacements for casualties. Riots occurred in army camps such as Terrace, British Columbia, and in English-speaking Canada there were many complaints against “zombies,” that is, persons who refused to serve overseas. Again, the war revealed national divisions, and this in turn represented the division between the international and the isolationist desires of Canada’s people. CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA (CPC). The CPC was formed in December 2003 after a framework agreement of merger undertaken by the Canadian Alliance led by Stephen Harper and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada led by Peter Mackay. This is a reformulation of a centrist, right of center political grouping, known as the Conservative Party, that dates from the days of Sir John A. Macdonald if not before. The CPC formed a government on 6 February 2006 with Harper as prime minister. In the election of 23 January 2006, the Conservatives won 124 seats, the Liberals 103, and the New Democratic Party 30. The CPC was reelected in 2008 with a slightly larger minority government. CONSTITUTION ACT OF 1867 (BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT). This act divided the Province of Canada into Ontario and Québec and added Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form “one Dominion under the name of Canada.” The act set out the nature and form of government, including a division of powers that gave the federal power distinct control, under Section 91, of “peace, order and good government.” It allocated powers to federal and provincial governments. It also established minority language and minority education rights. As well, it provided for the admission to Canada of new provinces. It was amended many times. In 1982, the act was incorporated into the Constitution Act of 1982. By establishing an amending formula, patriating the constitution, and adding a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the constitution became, at last, a fully made-in-Canada instrument of constituted government. See also CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY; DOMINION OF CANADA.
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CONSTITUTION ACT OF 1982. The most important modern measure of Canadian constitutional process of the 20th century, the Constitution Act, effective 17 April 1982, had three important results: it “patriated” the British North America Act, instituted the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and introduced an amending formula. The Constitution Act was passed by the Canadian Parliament and signed by the sovereign. Enabling legislation preceded it in the British Parliament, closing off completely any residual rights of imperial legislation over Canadian affairs. Reaching the terms of a made-in-Canada constitutional reform was a hectic and divisive process. Not only did it pit the federal authority against the provinces but it also involved a struggle not only within Québec but between Québec at large and the rest of Canada. Court cases launched by provincial governments generally favored the federal authority to reform the constitution unilaterally but also recognized provincial rights within the federation. Native voices and women’s rights activism also helped shape the process, and terms of the charter recognized Indians, Inuit, and Métis as “aboriginal peoples” of Canada. Québec’s nonagreement to the measure meant that constitutional discussions would continue, and to date there have been two abortive attempts: the Meech Lake Accord 1987 and the Charlottetown Accord in 1992. See also CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. CONSTITUTIONAL (OR CANADA) ACT OF 1791. The Constitutional Act did not divide Québec but assumed such would follow. It was intended to apply the British constitution to colonial conditions without impinging on the guaranteed rights of French Canadians. The act repealed the Québec Act insofar as it related to the appointment and powers of the council, and legislative authority was vested in the governor or lieutenant governor acting on advice or consent of the legislative council and assembly in each of the two new provinces, Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The act protected the guarantees of the Québec Act to the Church of Rome, and for Upper Canada authorized the governor to make an allotment and appropriation of lands for the support and maintenance of a “Protestant clergy.” This was to be one-seventh of all lands. Rents from the “clergy reserves” were devoted to supporting a Protestant clergy. This measure was unsustainable because of the plural-
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ism of the Protestant churches but is noteworthy of British intentions of an established church. The act stated that all lands in the new province were henceforth to be granted as freehold (not leasehold). The seigneurial system continued in Lower Canada, though freehold was introduced. The division occurred by order in council 24 August 1791, which divided the Province of Québec with Upper and Lower Canada. CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. Building on existing arrangements in 1867, the British North America Act, or Constitution Act of 1867, brought Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a federation—the Dominion of Canada—effective 1 July 1867. Rupert’s Land and the Northwestern Territory were added in 1870, extending Canadian dominion to the continental divide north of 49 degrees north latitude, excluding the High Arctic (added 1880). Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), and Prince Edward Island (1873) were other additions to the dominion. By the Constitution Act of 1870, Rupert’s Land and the Northwestern Territory, subsequently combined as the Northwest Territories, were declared federal territories subject to Ottawa; also by this measure, Parliament was empowered to create new provinces out of territories. By the Adjacent Territories Order (1880), all British possessions and territories in North America, specifically the High Arctic, were added to the dominion. By the Constitution Act of 1886, the territories were given representation in Parliament. In 1898, Yukon Territory was created out of the Northwest Territories. In 1905, Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces, and Manitoba’s borders were expanded. Meanwhile, by the Parliament of Canada Act (1875), Parliament was empowered to determine its own rules, privileges, and powers regardless of whether they exceeded the powers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Supreme Court of Canada was created by the Dominion Act of 1875. By the Constitution Act of 1915, Great Britain’s Parliament, for the first time, amended Canada’s constitution in response to a draft bill prepared at Ottawa. Previous amendments had been prepared in London. The 1915 act defined western Canadian representation in the Senate and minimum provincial representation in the Commons. By the Constitution Act
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of 1930, Ottawa transferred to the four western provinces lands and natural resources withheld at the time of their admission into confederation. By the Statute of Westminster of 1931, equality of status among the dominions, including Britain, was acknowledged. By the Constitution Act of 1940, authority to legislate on unemployment insurance was transferred from provincial to federal authority. This was the first change since confederation in the allocation of powers to federal and provincial governments. In 1949, the Newfoundland Act brought Newfoundland and Labrador into the federation to become Canada’s 10th province. In 1960, a statute of the Parliament of Canada effected the Canadian Bill of Rights. Opposed by provincial governments, many of its provisions have since been embraced by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). In 1964, by the Constitution Act of 1964, Parliament was empowered with unanimous approval of the provinces to pass laws on supplementary pension benefits so long as they did not affect provincial legislation. This permitted creation of the Canada Pension Plan and the Québec Pension Plan. The Constitution Act of 1965 required senators to retire at the age of 75, that of 1974 established new rules for House of Commons representation, and those of 1975 (No. 1 and No. 2) increased the number of senators by giving one each to the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The Constitution Act of 1982 established an amending formula (severing Canada’s last constitutional tie to Westminster) and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Recent attempts at amendments (the Meech Lake Accord in 1987 and Charlottetown Agreement in 1992) have proved unsuccessful. In 1998, the Clarity Act set forth more specific rules to how a province might secede. These provisions were reaffirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2000. See also PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. CONVENTION OF 1818. A sequel to the Treaty of Ghent, the Convention of 1818 was signed in London by British and American plenipotentiaries. Under its terms, the northwest boundary between the United States and British North America was fixed along the
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49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the crest of the “Stoney Mountains,” that is to say, Rocky Mountains, thus limiting the northern extent of the Louisiana territory. No boundary was established for the region west of the continental divide, but the two powers agreed that claims by either power would not be prejudiced to the claims of the other until sovereignty could be determined. The convention was renewed in 1827 but sovereignty issues were determined in 1846. COOK, JAMES (1728–1779). English naval officer, surveyor, and explorer Capt. James Cook was born in Yorkshire, England. In June 1757, Cook passed his master’s examinations. A varied service of patrols, conquests, and surveys took him to Halifax, Louisbourg, Québec, and Newfoundland during and immediately after the Seven Years War. He charted the St. Lawrence River, a service that allowed the expedition under Maj.-Gen. James Wolfe and Vice Adm. Charles Saunders to dislodge the French from Canada. Cook made charts of Newfoundland which facilitated the cod fishery of the Grand Banks and the security of traffic coming in and out of the St. Lawrence, whether through the Strait of Belle Isle in the north or Cabot Strait on the south. His New Chart of the River St. Lawrence was published in 1760, and his sailing notes were published in the famous North American Pilot (1775). After two great voyages to the Pacific, in 1776 Captain Cook accepted the challenge to find the Northwest Passage. He searched for the western entrance on the northwest coast of North America and attempted to penetrate to the north and east via the Bering Strait. From 7 March to 18 August 1778, Cook’s ships charted the coast from Oregon to the Bering Strait. He spent most of April at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, where he and his men observed and compiled accounts of native life. Cook sailed to Unalaska and through the Bering Strait, and then returned to Hawaii to winter. On 14 February 1779, an encounter with natives there cost Cook and four marines their lives. The vessels, Discovery and Resolution, returned to England, completing one of the longest voyages of discovery in history. Cook is better known in England, Australia, and New Zealand than in Canada—but his contributions to Canadian exploration and hydrography were immense. See also NUU’CHAH’NULTH.
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COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH FEDERATION (CCF). See NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY. CREE. See PLAINS CREE. CREIGHTON, DONALD GRANT (1902–1979). A historian and novelist born in Toronto, Creighton was educated at Victoria College in the University of Toronto and at Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed lecturer in history at the University of Toronto in 1927, becoming a professor and departmental chair. The prominent English Canadian historian of his generation, he was conservative in his appreciations and critiques though harshly critical of Canadians for allowing the Americanization of Canada and the diminishing of bonds to Great Britain. He made the study of the finance and shipping of the St. Lawrence River his first field of study. From this derived The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence (1937), published as part of the 25-volume set on Canadian-American relations published under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This work was reprinted in 1956 as The Empire of the St. Lawrence. Creighton argued that Canada was not a geographic absurdity; rather, its history was tied to that of the St. Lawrence River, the Great Lakes, and the watersheds of the Laurentian highlands: thus was born the “Laurentian thesis.” The east-west axis developed by Creighton found resonance with the work of Harold Adams Innis, notably in The Fur Trade in Canada (1930). The Erie Canal and north-south railway links helped subvert the old Canadian economy, with the rapid growth of Chicago providing one of the key reasons for the decline of Montréal. Creighton held closely to monarchical and pro-British perspectives though he did not overtly show these in his works. His antiAmericanism was pronounced and found expression in his historical writing. It also appeared in his only novel, Takeover (1978). He was an unabashed Canadian centralist. His study of the history of Canadian confederation formed the important background volume to the report of the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations. He opposed strenuously the pandering to Québec, which he found entirely political. He was of the view that bilingualism was mythical and without historical constitutional status; he was out of phase with
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the times and the currents of Canadian political thought of the 1960s and 1970s. His farewell political blast, delivered to the Canadian Historical Association in 1969, was “The Decline and Fall of the Empire of the St. Lawrence.” In it, he bewailed the postwar weakening of the British-Canadian alliance, the recolonization of Canada by Americans, the subversive influences of the continental economy, and the evisceration of Canada’s national government to Québec aspirations. Creighton died a sad, embittered commentator on Canadian affairs. He is best remembered for his two-volume biography of Sir John A. Macdonald. For many years, Creighton’s Dominion of the North (1957) was the classic textbook of Canadian university history courses. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and was awarded its Tyrell Medal. He became a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967. CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS. The crisis began 22 October 1962, when intelligence reports confirmed that the Soviet Union was installing ballistic missiles in Cuba capable of hitting the United States and Canada. The dangers to Great Britain were also very real. President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade and threatened further action unless preparations ceased on Cuba. The Canadian government received 90 minutes’ advance warning and had to decide if it would comply with the U.S. request to move Canadian Armed Forces to an alert status known as Defcon 3. Minister of National Defense Douglas Harkness approved the quiet moving of Canadian Forces to this increased state of readiness; meanwhile, the cabinet debated the matter. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Secretary of State for External Affairs Howard Green, angered by lack of adequate notice and concerned about Canada’s anti-nuclear weapons policy, were reluctant to acquiesce to Kennedy. As Soviet ships approached Cuba, support for the Harkness position hardened and on 24 October the Diefenbaker government authorized Defcon 3. Canada’s reluctance reflected Diefenbaker’s desire to preserve Canada’s independence and maintain a balanced posture in international affairs. More bluntly, it reflected his personal antipathy to Kennedy. The delay was widely criticized, and the Diefenbaker government was further charted with indecisiveness. It also fueled
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further controversy over nuclear weapons. The crisis ended on 27–28 October when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle and remove USSR missiles in Cuba. See also COLD WAR. CULTURE. In keeping with the perennial discussion about whether culture is unique in its origin or derivative in its evolution, it can be seen in Canadian history that certain cultural creations are indigenous to its land and peoples (this is particularly true of Indians and Inuit) but are also a wide reflection of European and global trends and developments. In architecture, art, film, literature, music, and theater, the European inheritance is justifiably strong. Because Canada derives from two empires—French and British—and has been influenced by yet a third—the United States—influences from these successive global powers and cultural forces are necessarily manifest in Canadian cultural history. It is against this powerful backdrop of successive persuasive cultural forces that Canadian cultural achievements can be viewed. In addition to private initiatives, the driving force of most achievements, The Canada Council for the Arts has been the predominant force in projecting Canadian culture and talents overseas, and the process of selection and advancement of same is therefore tied to institutional and thus political agency. Moreover, cultural requirements have necessitated the government of Canada to respond in various ways, including the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board. CUNARD, SAMUEL (1787–1865). A Halifax-born merchant, Sir Samuel Cunard founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in 1839, which won lucrative Admiralty and postal contracts. He was the pioneer of regular trans-Atlantic steam navigation. The Cunard Steamship Company, which dominated the Atlantic passenger trade, was founded in 1878. Cunard died in England. CURRIE, ARTHUR WILLIAM (1875–1933). Born in Napperton, Ontario, Sir Arthur William Currie was the first Canadian-born commander of the Canadian Corps in World War I. He joined the militia in 1893, became a schoolteacher in Victoria, British Colum-
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bia, and by the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was a lieutenant colonel. By 1915, he was commanding the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, building a reputation for himself and his forces. In 1917, he became a lieutenant general and corps commander. Currie’s most notable legacy was his leadership in the war’s last hundred days in 1918. He led the Canadian Corps against units of the German Army, sustaining heavy casualties. The Canadian Corps made spectacular gains and inflicted heavy losses. Currie triumphantly entered Mons, Belgium, at the head of his troops as the armistice came into effect. He later became president of McGill University. See also CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.
– D – D’AQUINO, THOMAS (1940–). One of the most influential private citizen in Canada, d’Aquino was born in Trail, British Columbia, and educated at the University of British Columbia, Queen’s University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He studied politics, international affairs, history, and law. One of Canada’s foremost policy strategists, and an effective informal ambassador abroad, he first served as special assistant to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau before working in London and Paris on strategic business problems. From 1975 to 1985, he ran a consulting firm on international banking, giving legal advice to various investors in Canada and abroad. In 1981, d’Aquino became president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (formerly the Business Council on National Issues, founded 1976), which was the senior voice of Canadian business on public policy issues in Canada and internationally. He was succeeded in 2009 by John Manley. For the council, d’Aquino headed numerous studies on Canadian competitiveness. He took a major role in the free trade debate, backing both Canadian-U.S. free trade and the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also took a stance in national debates on strengthening the Canadian constitution and on national and provincial debt reductions. An avowed federalist, d’Aquino argues for Canadian competitiveness in a global economy.
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DAVIES, ROBERTSON (1913–1995). Born William Robertson Davies in Thamesville, Ontario, Davies became a novelist, newspaper editor, playwright, essayist, and critic. One of Canada’s most famous writers of international fame, he is best known for The Deptford Trilogy: Fifth Business (1970), The Maticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975). His What’s Bred in the Bone (1985) was short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker prize. For a time, he was at Massey College, University of Toronto, where he observed academic life firsthand—a useful source for characters and plots in some of his richly textured novels. DAVIS, JOHN (c. 1550–1605). English mariner and explorer John Davis was the first European to discover Davis Strait between Greenland and the mainland of Canada. Davis led the way for such explorers as Henry Hudson and William Baffin. One of the most skilled navigators of the late 1500s, he invented a type of quadrant, a device used in navigation, and developed what became the standard ship’s log. He also compiled a treatise on navigation. From 1585 to 1587, Davis headed three expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage, a hoped-for route through Canada to Asia. He came upon the Davis Strait on his first trip. During his voyages, Davis explored the east coast of Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland but did not find a route west. From 1591 to 1593, he tried to find a passage to Asia via the Strait of Magellan in South America. In 1605, he was killed by Japanese pirates. See also EXPLORATION. DAWSON, YUKON. After discovery of gold at Bonanza Creek in 1896, and the subsequent Klondike gold rush, a town site was laid out at the junction of the Klondike River and Yukon River. The town, originally called Dawson City, was named for the director of the Geological Survey of Canada, George Mercer Dawson (1849–1901). At first an administrative center, Dawson was declared the capital of the Yukon Territory in 1898. In 1951, the capital was shifted to Whitehorse. DE LA TOUR, MARIE JACQUELINE (1602–1645). Born in France, Marie married Charles de Saint-Aden de la Tour and lived in Acadia (now New Brunswick). She was the first European woman
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to settle in New Brunswick. With a small French garrison, she courageously defended Fort la Tour against British soldiers for four days but was captured and placed in prison, where she died. DIEFENBAKER, JOHN GEORGE (1895–1979). Born 18 September 1895 in Neustadt, Ontario, Diefenbaker moved to a Saskatchewan homestead with his family when he was eight. In 1916, Diefenbaker received his M.A. in political science from the University of Saskatchewan. After serving in World War I, he returned to university for a law degree in 1919. He then resided in Prince Albert and became a criminal lawyer. In 1929, he married Edna Blower; she died in 1951, and in 1953 he married Olive Palmer. In 1940, Diefenbaker was elected to the House of Commons. In 1956, he became leader of the opposition. In June 1957, Diefenbaker led the Progressive Conservative Party to victory by a close margin, forming a minority government. As Canada’s 13th prime minister, he called for another election and won the greatest landslide in Canadian history. In that election of 1958, Diefenbaker campaigned against Liberal leader Lester Pearson. Diefenbaker inspired a “vision of a new and greater Canada,” one less economically dependent on the United States. Also under his influence, the Republic of South Africa, because of its apartheid policy, was expelled from the Commonwealth of Nations. Reelected in 1962 by only a slim margin, Diefenbaker’s government fell on 22 April 1963 on his refusal to accept nuclear weapons from the United States. Pearson then became prime minister. Diefenbaker remained opposition leader until 1967, when he was succeeded by Robert Stanfield. Diefenbaker was elected for a 13th term to the House of Commons in May 1979. He died 16 August 1979 in Ottawa. He was a keen fisherman, a heroic and gifted speaker (one of the last great orators of Parliament or on the campaign trail), and a prophetic and ultimately tragic party leader. “One Canada” was his crushing election call. He was a strong advocate of the supremacy of Parliament. His government proclaimed a Canadian Bill of Rights; this acknowledged the rights of individuals under Canadian law but was not a charter of rights and freedoms (such as was enacted by legislation in 1982). He was at root a populist. He strongly supported the interests of the common people,
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farmers and laborers. To a degree, he represented an earlier, smalltown Canada; he was not in concert with the aspirations of large corporations or unions. He was passionate in his devotion to monarch and to country. His downfall, when he was in diminishing physical health, was the result of party colleagues deserting him. How this happened is a matter of speculation. Peter C. Newman’s devastating Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years betrayed the inner workings of the man, the Progressive Conservative Party, and the distemper of the times. Diefenbaker became a renegade to his own party; he also fell short of the nation’s greater aspirations. See also CAMP, DALTON KINGSLEY. DIEPPE RAID. On 19 August 1942, 4,963 Canadians of the 2nd Canadian Division, along with British commandos and American Rangers, landed at the German-occupied port of Dieppe, France. The result was a disaster, with some 70 percent of the Canadians killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. It was the first major Canadian land involvement in World War II. As well, it was the first amphibious landing in Europe on a large scale in that war. The Germans may have had foreknowledge of the raid and were, in any event, geographically advantaged. The lack of communications on the part of the Allied command and insufficient naval bombardment furthered the demise of the raid. As the infantry landed on the beach at about 5:40 a.m., German forces atop the cliff of the beach devastated the landing craft with machine gun and other fire and laid waste to those who got ashore. See also CANADIAN ARMY. DOLLARD DES ORMEAUX, ADAM (1635–1660). Dollard des Ormeaux was a commandant of the Montréal garrison. With 16 other soldiers, 40 Huron, and four Algonquin, he fought a strong force of Iroquois at Long Sault (near present-day Hawkesbury, Ontario), Ottawa River, where he died in a heroic struggle. Of legendary proportions in Canadian history, he is regarded as a savior of New France for staving off the Iroquois campaign to take Montréal. The stirring episode of “The Seventeen” has often been told in history and story. The event is of heroic if enigmatic proportions. The Iroquois sought expansion of their role in the fur trade. Some of the Seventeen made last wills and testaments (customary in those days)
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before leaving Montréal and going to the Long Sault and setting up their fort where they would strike at the Iroquois, bound there from the Richelieu. Historians give the number of Iroquois at 500. The outcome was never in doubt. Five survivors fell into Iroquois hands. The battle lasted seven or eight days. Despite the outcome, the Iroquois reasoned that if 17 could do so much, then further efforts would be too costly. Montréal was saved. Archibald Lampman’s 1943 poem “At the Long Sault: May, 1660” ends thusly: “And the lilies asleep in the forest / Are closed like the lilies in France.” DOMINION OF CANADA. Established 1 July 1867 by the British statute known as the British North America Act (BNA Act), the original dominion consisted of four provinces: Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. By this legislation, Québec and Ontario were created provinces. The 1867 arrangement marked the first phase of confederation. Subsequent additions of provinces were Manitoba (1870), British Columbia (1871), Prince Edward Island (1873), Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905), and Newfoundland and Labrador (1949). The 1867 legislation did not refer to Canada as the Dominion of Canada, though 1871 legislation did. By the 1960s, use of the term Dominion of Canada gave way to just Canada, while the federal government uses either Canada or the Government of Canada. However, Dominion of Canada remains in effect. Dominion Day (1st of July) became Canada Day in 1962. See also CONSTITUTION ACT OF 1867. DOMINION INSTITUTE. Founded in 1997 by young professionals concerned about the erosion of a common memory and civic identity in Canada, Dominion Institute is headed by a governor and executive director, currently Rudyard Griffiths. Based in Toronto, its mission is to “build active and informed citizens through greater knowledge and appreciation of the Canadian story.” The institute uses public opinion research and innovative television, news media, and inschool programs. Its programs fall under three themes: memory, democracy, and identity. The institute assists the publication of essays and short-story collections that bring together Canada’s leading authors, public thinkers, and historians. Historical areas and subjects covered are catholic and nonpartisan; they are selected so as to bring
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fine minds to the discussion of Canada past and present. Of unique interest is the Memory Project, a speakers’ bureau of 1,500 veterans who visit Canadians to share stories of war and peace; an online digital archive, at www.thememoryproject.com, contains more than 1,000 stories of Canada’s war veterans. The LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium explores questions of democracy. The Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge encourages aboriginal Canadians to write about defining moments in history. Canada in 2020 is a forum about future transformation. DONNACONNA (d. 1539?). Chief of Stadacona until May 1536, Donnaconna felt wronged when Jacques Cartier erected a cross in Gaspé Bay. Cartier took him and two sons into exile. Donnaconna died in France. DORION, ANTOINE-AIMÉ (1818–1891). Politician Sir AntoineAimé Dorion was a member of the Institut Canadien and the Parti Rouge. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1854, Dorion remained a member of the House of Commons until 1874. In 1858, he and George Brown formed the “Short Administration.” In 1863, he was the Lower Canada leader in the Sandfield-Macdonald-Dorion government. Although originally opposed to confederation, he came to accept the idea. See also ROUGES. DOUGLAS, JAMES (1803–1877). A fur trader and second governor of Vancouver Island (succeeding Richard Blanshard), Sir James Douglas was the first governor of British Columbia. A “Scotch West Indian,” Douglas was born in Demerara, British Guiana, the son of a “free colored woman” and a Glasgow merchant with interests in sugar plantations. Educated in England, he was apprenticed at the age of 16 to the North West Company. He joined the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in the merger of 1821 and served in various places, including Fort Vancouver. In the service of the HBC, from which he retired in 1858, he headed operations on the Pacific coast for much of the 1840s and 1850s. He founded Fort Victoria, Vancouver Island, in 1843. Firm, vigorous, and despotic, and with excellent commercial and managerial instincts, Douglas shaped the close relations between business and government that characterizes the
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province’s history to this day. He became governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1851, lieutenant governor of the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1852, and governor of British Columbia in 1858. His new responsibilities for the Queen Charlottes and British Columbia were directly related to the discovery of gold in each locale. The Colonial Office in London saw him increasingly as autocratic and out of touch with the times (true on both counts). He retired in 1863 and was created Knight Commander of the Bath. He toured Europe for a time and then spent the rest of his life quietly in Victoria with his Métis wife, Lady Amelia Douglas. He died in Victoria and was buried there in Ross Bay Cemetery. DOUGLAS, THOMAS CLEMENT (1904–1986). Baptist minister and politician T. C. (“Tommy”) Clement was a premier of Saskatchewan and sometime federal member of Parliament. This powerful speaker and inspired, crusading leftist was born at Falkirk, Scotland, and led the first socialist government elected in Canada, Saskatchewan’s Cooperative Commonwealth Federation / New Democratic Party (NDP) government, which stood for 17 years beginning in 1944. The prairie provinces were fertile ground for new collectivist causes calling for action in the face of economic depression and the social needs of a nation that had fought a six-year war. Douglas championed social services and health care, of which he is regarded as the chief architect. His introduction of Medicare in Saskatchewan in 1947 brought forth a long, acrimonious fight against striking doctors. He returned to federal politics and served as leader of the NDP until 1971. Many of his concepts and plans for social security were adopted by other provinces, then made universal by federal legislation. See also HEALTH CARE; WELFARE. DOUKHOBORS. A Greek Orthodox sect believing in a communal, democratic, nonmilitaristic, and nonconforming life style, the Doukhobors called themselves Christians of the Universal Brotherhood. Prominent in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, they rejected the authority of both church and state and were consequently persecuted under Empress Catherine II. They settled near the Sea of Azov, established thriving agricultural communities, refused military conscription, and again were persecuted. Their leader, Peter Veregin, was
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exiled to Siberia. Befriended by Leo Tolstoy, the group emigrated to Saskatchewan (7,000 in 1898–99) and were joined by Veregin. Beginning in 1908, they spread to southeastern British Columbia. Divisions beset them, and nudist strikes and destruction of public bridges resulted in police action against them. Veregin was linked with an explosion in 1924 and imprisoned. He was succeeded by his son, also named Peter Veregin, who died in 1939. The second Peter recommended abandoning communal ways and adjusting to Canadian life. The Union of the Doukhobors of Canada was established in 1945; the radical wing, the Sons of Freedom, became separate shortly thereafter. Pressures from the BC government and police reduced their radical political power and allowed the children to attend schools run under the regulations and curriculum of the provincial Department of Education. DUMONT, GABRIEL (1837–1906). Born in Red River (Manitoba), Dumont, an acclaimed hunter and rider, became a leader of the Métis. He did not participate in the Red River Rebellion in 1870. Dumont became adjutant general of the 300-strong Métis Army in the Northwest Rebellion in 1885. He was steadfastly loyal to leader Louis Riel, his near contemporary and ally, and he believed in Riel’s capacity to shape events. He used guerrilla tactics and surprise ambushes to secure victories at Duck Lake and Fish Creek, but at Batoche the Métis were overwhelmed by a large Canadian militia force. Dumont fled to the United States but returned after the Canadian government amnesty of 1888. He died at Batoche. He married but had no children. DUNCAN, WILLIAM (1832–1918). A Yorkshire-born lay member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) (affiliated with the Church of England), Duncan was educated at the CMS’s Highbury College then sent in 1856 to British Columbia to open its coastal mission there. Taking on messianic ways, Duncan established the Metlakatla mission near Fort Simpson, British Columbia, in 1862. A social revolutionary and Victorian evangelical, he transformed Tsimshian culture there. A dispute with the parent society and the Church of England—and a struggle with the Government of Canada over reservation size—led him to take some of his adherents to Annette Island, Alaska, in 1887.
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There he founded New Metlakatla, which like Metlakatla aimed to become a progressive, commercial, and industrial community with self-sufficiency and native pride as its basis. Duncan suffered from megalomania, and in later years he faced court challenges from the U.S. government. He was defended by the pharmaceutical giant Sir Henry Welcome. He died at New Metlakatla, Alaska. DUNLOP, WILLIAM (1792–1848). Born in Scotland, William “Tiger” Dunlop arrived in Québec in 1813 and became an army surgeon during the War of 1812, which spanned 1812–15. He described his experiences at Prescott, Gananoque, Cornwall, Niagara, and the Penetanguishene Road in his Recollections of the American War, published serially in 1847 and in book form in 1905. He returned to England and then served in the British Army in India, where he is supposed to have tamed tigers with snuff—hence his nickname. Dunlop returned to Canada in 1826 with John Galt, a Scottish settlement promoter and poet, who played a conspicuous part in opening the Canada Company Tract in western Ontario. Dunlop was “Warden of the Forests.” He settled near Goderich on Lake Huron and became known locally as well as afar for his high good humor. He wrote for English and Scottish magazines. His Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada (1832) is his best-known work. He was a member of the Canadian Parliament in 1841–46. In his last years, he was superintendent of the Lachine Canal. He died at Lachine and was buried at Goderich. DURHAM, EARL OF (JOHN GEORGE LAMBTON) (1792– 1840). John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, was governor general of Canada in 1838. “Radical Jack,” as his political enemies called him, was sent to Canada in the wake of the Rebellions of 1837 but remained only a few months before resigning and returning to England. He wrote the Report on the Affairs of British North America, also commonly called Durham’s Report (officially communicated to Parliament 11 February 1839), in which he proposed union of the two existing provinces and the granting of responsible government. He was a champion of municipal government and may be regarded as a champion of progressive constitutional change in his times, though he was a confirmed adherent to the imperial cause.
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– E – EATON’S. Originally the Timothy Eaton Company, Eaton’s department store may be said to date from 1869 when Irish shopkeeper Timothy Eaton bought out a small dry goods store on Yonge Street, Toronto. He promised fair, affordable prices backed up by his guarantee: “Goods satisfactory or money refunded.” In 1884, he introduced the mail-order catalogue (the mail-order business continued until 1976). By the time Eaton died in 1907, his company had opened a second store, in Winnipeg, and employed 9,000 people. The company was privately owned and the company’s control passed down the family. The company’s activities were shrouded in mystery. In the 1960s, Eaton’s reached its zenith, with 30,000 employees. It eventually lost much of its market share to Simpson’s-Sears (later Sears), the Hudson’s Bay Company, Wal-Mart, Zellers, and others. In 1997, it sought bankruptcy protection, devised a major restructuring plan, and closed 22 of 86 stores in its first wave of closures. Several potential takeovers were considered, but the company folded. In its time, Eaton’s was a Canadian institution, sure and confident. Timothy Eaton would not sell tobacco products in his stores, and curtains would be drawn on storefront windows on Sundays. ECONOMY. The eighth largest economy in the world according to International Monetary Fund measures, using U.S. dollars at market exchange rates, Canada ranks as one of the world’s wealthiest nations. It is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Group of Eight (G8). The primary sector, especially logging and oil, are significant components in the economy. There is a sizeable manufacturing sector, centered in Ontario and Québec, with the automobile industry especially important. The largest sector of the Canadian economy is the service sector (69.1 percent). Agriculture, while significant on the world stage in terms of production, accounts for only 2.1 percent of GDP and involves only 2 percent of the population. The labor force of Canada is 17.9 million (2007 estimate). While unemployment was 5.98 percent in 2007, it spiked higher in the global economic turmoil of 2008–09. Main industries of Canada are transportation equipment, chemicals, processed and unprocessed minerals, food products, wood and paper
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products, fish products, petroleum, and natural gas. The Canadian economy may be classified as a mixed market or social market economy, which the Heritage Foundation ranks as 7th in the world on the “index of economic freedom.” Canada thus ranks higher than most European countries and slightly lower than the United States, which is in fifth place. Canada ranks high in the most developed countries of the world by the Human Development Index, with a GDP per capita lower than that of the United States but a median household income equal to that of the United States. Canada lives by foreign trade and retains a strong trade balance. Canada imports $394.4 billion (2007), predominantly from the United States (about 54 percent) but also countries including Great Britain and Japan, mainly machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, electronics, crude oil, chemicals, electricity, and durable consumer goods. Canada exports $440.1 billion (2007), predominantly to the United States (about 81 percent) but also countries such as China and Mexico, mainly motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment, electronics, chemicals, plastics, fertilizers, wood pulp, timber, crude petroleum, natural gas, aluminum, and precious metals. By and large, Canada’s economy is based on its regions, though the natural resources of the country are spread across these regions. In British Columbia, forestry and forest products, mining, and hydroelectricity generation are engines of the economy, with natural gas production a rising force. Fishing and fish processing, at one time significant, counts for much less importance now, with the demise of fish stocks. Alberta’s power lies in oil and natural gas, with beef industry and agricultural production (grains) also of significance. Saskatchewan and Manitoba have minerals of importance besides oil and natural gas and agricultural significance on a world scale. Saskatchewan has potash in abundance, and it is one of the exports to China. Ontario is rich in timber, pulp and paper production, hydroelectric and nuclear power, minerals, agriculture, and especially industrial production, of which automobile, motor parts, and machinery are significant. Québec enjoys a very similar economy, and the two provinces are closely linked in the manufacturing and electronics sector. Both provinces have aviation industries, Québec’s being particularly
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significant on the Canadian stage. Québec is the telecommunications center of the nation. Most Canadian corporations have headquarters in Ontario, Québec, or Calgary, in that order. The shift of corporate headquarters from Montréal to Toronto and then to Calgary since the 1960s is noteworthy. Corporations of unique influence are EnCana (gas and oil), Goldcorp, and Barrick Gold. In industrials, leaders are Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. The Atlantic Provinces, and Newfoundland and Labrador in particular, have some energy sources and thus government royalties from oil. Pulp and paper are significant to these provinces, and mining. The decline of cod stocks has placed pressure on other fish species, and fish processing has in consequence sadly collapsed or diminished greatly. Canada’s north is regarded as a place for future economic development, but this, to date, has often been overstated. There may be oil and natural gas in the Arctic waters that Canada now claims as its own under terms of the 200-mile offshore limit. In these waters, the federal government has unquestioned authority, though Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon governments will claim their respective shares in tax revenues from such future development, as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador have done in offshore oil. In the past hundred years, there has been much debate in Canada concerning “have” and “have-not” provinces, and how imbalances in wealth can be adjusted. The federal authority has acted as broker, and schemes for diversion and development have been introduced with uncertain effect and advantage. The overall reliance on natural resource extraction has meant that Canadian governments, federal and provincial, have endeavored to regulate these commercial activities and to gain tax revenues from them. The inherent instability of such industries, related as they are to world supply and demand, means that greater government intervention is employed to reduce the social impact of market changes. The control of resources is a provincial matter by constitutional right, but federal governments take steps from time to time to regulate the export of such commodities. Therein lies a problem in federalprovincial relations. Another current factor in Canadian politics is the matter of environmental degradation, and Canadians are becoming less willing to accept this, accepting the financial cost of doing such
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business and cleanup. In consequence, regulations and permits are a minefield and a complication for corporations undertaking exploration and development, in cases sometimes deterring business and chasing capital overseas. Canadian companies have played powerful roles in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa in mining, oil exploration, hydroelectric development, water diversion, transportation, and communications. Oil is now a driving force in the Canadian economy, having replaced the older resource industries. The vast oil (tar) sands make Canada the second largest reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia. But this oil extraction is labor and capital intensive, and it has destructive impacts on the environment of unprecedented proportion. The manufacturing sector predominantly involves one item: the automobile. Canada is home to branch plants of all major American and Japanese automobile makers and many parts factories—Budd Automotive, Magna International, and Linamar Corporation. A host of subsidiaries serve this sector and engage in trade with the United States, including tool and dye, metal heat treating and strengthening, and leather cutting. Canada’s economy did not suffer significant deindustrialization in the 1970s and 1980s, a contrast to other developed countries. The move from primary industry to service industry did not dramatically influence the industrial sector, concentrated as it is on the auto sector. One uniquely Canadian company in manufacturing that is not a branch plant is Bombardier, a constructor of light rail, underground commuter trains, skidoos, and aircraft. The service sector is vast and multifaceted. Twelve percent of Canadians are employed in retail. Chain stores in shopping malls are significant, and in recent years big-box stores. Financial services, real estate, and communications industries have seen large growth. Insurance corporations as well as banks are significant employers, and many of them have expanded beyond Canada’s boundaries, notably to the United States. Education and health sectors are two of Canada’s largest, both under the purview of government. With something like 70 universities, Canada’s post-secondary education sector is a formidable feature of social spending and benefit. Technical colleges add to this wealth in human and economic value and production. The health care system has seen rapid growth and is the largest expenditure of the federal government. The high-tech sector
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is significant, as is the entertainment industry. Tourism is of ever increasing importance but fluctuates in value according to the value of the Canadian dollar and international concerns about terrorism or other worries of instability. Because the Canadian economy is so closely linked to that of the United States, the special ties that have developed between the two countries help ensure the common trading relationship. The United States is Canada’s largest agricultural export market. Most forest products, including pulp and paper and newsprint, find their ways to the United States. Disputes exist, and bilateral consultative forums or referral to the World Trade Organization or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) dispute resolution solve problems. Some fisheries matters are resolved by action of the International Court of Justice (the Georges Bank case, 1984, demarked the territorial sea boundary). The 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty and the Pacific Salmon Agreement of 1999 allow for settling differences on catch limits and seasons for fishing. The U.S.-Canada Fisheries Enforcement Agreement deters illegal fishing activity and serves to reduce the risk of injury during fisheries enforcement incidents. The United States has claimed for years that Canada unfairly subsidizes its forest industry, but this is not sustained in the court rulings. Canadian and U.S. Customs work hand in hand on cross-border trade, including mail-order business. The United States is Canada’s largest foreign investor, about 72 percent of all foreign direct investment. By contrast, Canada is the third largest investor in the United States; this is concentrated in manufacturing, wholesale trade, real estate, petroleum, finance, and insurance and other services. Canada has signed free trade agreements with the United States (1987), superseded by NAFTA (1994), which includes Mexico; Israel (1997); Chile (1997); Costa Rica (2002); and European Free Trade Association (2008). Canada has also been negotiating free trade agreements with Jordan, South Korea, Dominican Republic, and Singapore. In terms of public finances, Canada has earned solid, if not top, ratings. Canada’s public debt is less than its revenues by a 5–4 margin. Its expenses are showing a steady surplus. Economic aid is less than 1 percent GDP. Regulated oversight by the Bank of Canada has provided remarkable stability against economic pressures and interna-
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tional fiscal difficulties such as the recession that commenced in the United States in September 2008. See also TRANSPORTATION. EDMONTON, ALBERTA. The capital of Alberta, Edmonton is the province’s largest metropolitan center. Edmonton lies at historic crossroads of the continent. It began as a fur trading post in the 1700s, a key supply point for Rocky Mountain House, key to the cordilleran trade. It was a vital trade center for various Plains tribes. In 1830, Fort Edmonton was erected on a high bluff above the North Saskatchewan River, where the Legislative Assembly now stands. John Rowand, chief factor of Edmonton House, was a prominent trader there. Edmonton grew with the business attracted and developed by prospectors going to the Klondike gold fields during the late 1800s. The main business of Edmonton is government administration. It became capital of the newly proclaimed Province of Alberta in 1905. The University of Alberta is a major center of higher learning, as is Grant McEwan College. Many local industries flourish here, notably because of the city’s northern location: it is a gateway to the Peace River country, the Mackenzie River watershed, and the western Arctic. It is on the Yellowhead Highway and is served by two railways, the Canadian National Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. World War II had a noted impact on Edmonton, for its airport was very busy, especially with U.S. military aircraft flying to and from Alaska and the Pacific theater. Manufacturing and industrial development reflect transportation needs and petrochemical extraction. Recent growth is connected to the exploitation of the Athabasca oil (tar) sands near Fort McMurray. Edmonton is prominent in sports, particularly Canadian football and hockey. In 1978, it hosted the Commonwealth Games. In the same year, its light rail system went into service. The population in 2009 was 782,439. EDUCATION. The history of education in Canada is a main theme in Canada’s political, social, and economic development. During the French occupation in Canada, the process of educating was integrated into everyday life. The family was the basic unit in the social organization. Educational learning was conducted within this family unit. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a family depended on each
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individual to make an economic contribution to the family. Therefore, skills such as farming and gardening were taught to children. In New France, a large portion of the rural population could not read or write. However, many towns and villages in New France developed formal education. The Jesuits, Recollets, Ursulines, Congregation of Notre Dame, and other religious orders provided elementary instruction in catechism, reading, writing, and mathematics. In the 1660s, Bishop François-Xavier de Montmorency Laval founded seminaries in Québec, which later became Laval University, Canada’s first. After 1759–60, the British began to develop a school system that was outside the influence of religion, especially in Québec. All British schools were then private. The British viewed education as a tool of gradual but not enforced cultural change. As immigration increased in British North America, British political leaders in Canada increased efforts to assimilate immigrants and natives through education. The introduction of public education followed British and American examples. By the 1840s, the foundations for present-day Canada’s school system were being laid. Upper Canada College was founded in 1829. It remains a prominent independent school for boys. The industrialization of Canadian society impacted the education system. Commercial and manufacturing developments spurred large increases in urban growth. Social promoters saw idle working-class children as a breeding ground for crime. They viewed education as a tool to teach social skills and argued that free schools would greatly benefit children by placing them in a setting that was conducive to social harmony. Schooling was intended to teach the shared values and mores of society. The creation of the public school system encouraged the development of the standardization of textbooks, teacher training, classroom organization, and curriculum. Technical and secretarial schools came in the late 19th century and remain a feature to the present day. With introduction of public schooling in the mid-19th century, paid for through taxation, the number of students acquiring an education increased. Many children received educational training to the age of 16. The public school system devised by school reformers such as Egerton Ryerson became the foundation of present-day English Canada’s school system. Curricula are determined by provin-
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cial departments of education, not by local school boards. See also UNIVERSITIES. ELGIN AND KINCARDINE, EARL OF (JAMES BRUCE) (1811– 1863). The governor general of Canada from 1847 to 1854, Lord Elgin had British instructions to implement responsible government in Canada. He achieved this and sought to ensure a workable and equitable government by the inclusion of French Canadians in both government and civil appointments. But he faced two major crises while governor general. The first was the riot that followed the passage of the Rebellions Losses Bill for Lower Canada in 1848. This riot resulted in the burning of the parliament buildings in Montréal. The second crisis occurred in 1848 when a group of discontented Montréal business leaders drafted the Annexation Manifesto, which proposed annexation to the United States as the cure for the political and economic ills of the colony. A number of Tory members signed the document. Lord Elgin required those who held commissions from the crown to abjure the manifesto or resign their offices. He also saw the legislated abolition of both clergy reserves and seigneurial tenure, as well as the successful negotiation of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. See also RECIPROCITY. ENVIRONMENT. Evaluations of the environment of Canada have been subject to incremental knowledge accretion, so vast and so diverse are the land, seas, and waterways. Significant empirical data were accumulated by the Hudson’s Bay Company and by individual fur traders such as Alexander Mackenzie. More often than not, it was the British Admiralty that sponsored most exploring expeditions of the Arctic Islands and passages, such as that of Sir John Franklin. Not until the Geological Survey of Canada was a systematic attempt made to “read the rocks” and to get a more comprehensive and scientific appreciation of the land and its resources. But it should be noted that evaluations of and knowledge about the environment were invariably the result of the quest for resources. Coupled with this was naturally the enhancement of the means of access or the building of railways, roads, and bridges to enable the processes of development to advance to financially viable levels. The story of, for example, the Canadian Pacific Railway is one such story. It also involved the
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expansion of agriculture and the necessary growth of immigration by the selling of land or the occupation of land by homesteaders. Not until the 20th century did individual travelers explore the northern environments and write stories about cabin fever and great rivers. The arrival of the float plane brought the possibilities of visual surveillance and aerial surveying, leading to knowledge of many of Canada’s great watersheds. The industrialization of the world in the past 200 years has placed great stress on the biosphere and on the surface of the earth, consisting of the atmosphere, water, minerals, and organisms. Oneseventh of Canada’s land area consists of waters and waterways. Early environmental warnings came with water pollution, notably in urban areas. Air pollution brought health problems to the human population. Clean air legislation was a feature of the late 20th century. Knowledge of air standards became necessarily widespread. In particular, the burning of fossil fuels has increased the carbon dioxide content of air over the South Pole. The general movement of air in the Northern Hemisphere is from west to east. Fronting on the Pacific Ocean, Canada has a great distance between itself and the burgeoning industrial giants of India and China, and thus air quality is high on the outer islands. But cities such as Vancouver create their own toxic gasses. In Windsor or Sarnia, Ontario, local production of air pollutants is added to by cross-border arrival of pollution from American cities such as Detroit or Flint, Michigan. Similarly, the poor quality of water in Ontario lakes and the eradication of a large commercial fishery have been attributable to pollutants from the United States and Ontario. In this regard, the existence of acid rain was noteworthy in the 1970s and 1980s, and ameliorative steps have been taken in Canada and the United States to control future despoliation. In other lakes, mercury poisoning ruined fish habitats and poisoned the fish. Indian communities in northern Ontario are still suffering the physical (and mental) effects of mercury pollution of fish habitats. Political jurisdictions that share the Great Lakes (Canada has seven U.S. states as water neighbors) are in constant communication about water quality issues, mindful of the general reduction of the fish habitats in those waters and the worrying introduction of invasive species such as zebra mussels.
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These alarming scenarios developed against the tendency known as global warming or climate change. In 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm. This conference, chaired by Maurice Strong, a Canadian, provided an international forum for discussion of global environmental problems. United Nations agencies began to target environmental questions as matters for public policy concern. In 1980, the World Conservation Strategy was issued, with support from the World Wildlife Fund. Sustainable development often found itself at loggerheads with conservationists. The Kyoto accords and Copenhagen resolutions helped maintain the initiatives for multinational cooperation, but compliance and universal agreement continue elusive. In Canada, the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office (FEARO) was established to report to the minister of the environment. Its work is evaluative and, in some cases, brings forth legal challenges and court cases, with penalties. This development matches the rise of public interest in and concerns about environmental issues. University departments and faculties now address these concerns. Fisheries and Oceans Canada monitors water habitats and studies fish migrations and numbers. The control of natural resources comes within provincial jurisdiction, with overlays by national legislation and, sometimes, international treaties. The cutting, or harvesting, of British Columbia forests has sparked environmental concerns and led to the founding of such interest groups as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and other political action to draw attention to public environmental concerns. Strands of primeval forest are hard to find; second, third, or fourth growth forests are now the objects for timber companies. To protect old growth forests, successive governments have responded by designating wilderness areas as parks, provincial or national, and have also established forest reserves, bird refuges, and watershed reserves. There exists a large docket of legislation and regulation for the protection of the natural world. This is driven by the incessant human challenges to the landscape and the rapacious desire to extract resources and get them to market. One great area of concern is environmental degradation in the lower Athabasca River area. Here the oil (tar) sands have become
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the focal point of an environmental horror story. The side effects of extracting useable grades of oil are the immense volumes of water employed in the process and the equally important use of hydrocarbons as energy sources in the processes of mining and extraction. The settling ponds, for the cleaning and intended reusing of water, also require vast space. In the Mackenzie District of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, the extraction of known natural gas reserves continues, and there are large-scale plans to transport natural gas from expanded fields in the Arctic southward by way of pipelines, reflecting the insatiable consumer demands of North America, notably in the United States. Global warming has already changed the Arctic shoreline of Canada (and of other circumpolar nations). The effect on polar bear habitat is increasingly clear. Moreover, as the Arctic shoreline faces a rising mean annual temperature, methane gas is released from the tundra, another problem of global warming. The fight to protect the northern habitat against the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines is an ongoing battle in which science is invariably at odds with public policy, and aboriginal interests are almost certain to be involved at the very outset. In southern latitudes, the treatment of the nation’s daily garbage and other wastes continues as a pressing matter of public policy and public will. The move toward wind power has been demonstrated to have beneficial effects, but even proponents accept the fact that only 15 percent of electrical supply can be thus provided. In Ontario and Alberta, the use of coal to produce electricity has been a hot-button issue. For this reason, plus the increasing needs for electricity, nuclear power seems a resurgent possibility for meeting future needs. Natural gas remains the preferred source of energy for the making of electricity when hydroelectricity by the damming of rivers and lakes can bring no further yields. It is generally understood that the further damming of lakes and rivers for hydroelectrical production is politically unacceptable. In the 2006 election, the Green Party made a favorable showing and received much public attention, though it did not elect a single MP. All political parties in Canada at the same time adopted policy platforms dealing with environmental issues. ESPIONAGE. See SECRET SERVICE.
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ESQUIMALT. Now a municipality part of the Capital Regional District of Victoria, it is the primary Canadian Pacific naval base, located in British Columbia. Esquimalt was discovered in the 1840s and was first used by ships of the Royal Navy. It served as headquarters of British warships in the eastern Pacific (c. 1862–1905) and had a graving dock (built 1887) and supply and repair facilities. It had immense military value in the two world wars, the Korean conflict, and the Cold War. Its infrastructure was rejuvenated in the 1990s. See also CANADIAN NAVY. EVANGELINE. A character of fiction, Evangeline is the heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. She epitomizes Acadians in exile, expelled from Canada by the British as security risks in 1755. EXPLORATION. Native peoples aided Europeans in the exploration of Canada. Much of the exploration was initially undertaken by mariners in sailing ships. This was true for the exploration of the Atlantic, Arctic, and Pacific coasts of Canada, and it was also true for the discovery of the Great Lakes. The interior was mainly explored by way of the canoe, and when necessary, overland in winter by snowshoe. Aboriginal technology and knowledge of techniques of winter survival aided Europeans in their explorations. European exploration may be said to have begun with the Norse, who visited the eastern seaboard about 1000 CE and left behind, upon their withdrawal, the remnant of a settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. St. Brendan might have reached America, and Prince Modoc may have done likewise, but these Irish and Welsh claims to priority of discovery have not been substantiated in the written or archaeological record or in any ethnological records. The Norse may be said to have left, in their sagas, the first record of exploration, but their literary legacy is wildly unscientific. Christopher Columbus is not known to have sailed in Canadian waters. The first mariner to discover Canada in the early modern era and to have left a record of achievement was John Cabot. In 1497, sailing for merchant adventurers of Bristol, backed by Henry VII of England, he made a landfall most likely at Cape Bonavista. He discovered what he called “New Founde Lande,” hence the name
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Newfoundland. From this discovery dates the first English claim to sovereignty in North America. Follow-on discoveries by his son Sebastian were made. The discovery of cod on the Grand Banks was the greatest find of the Cabots. In 1534, Jacques Cartier, an experienced mariner who had sailed to Brazil and the Caribbean, made the first of three voyages to North America. He discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Anticosti Island, Québec (or Stadacona), and Montréal (or Hochelaga). His three expeditions (1534, 1535–36, 1541) rank as splendid achievements of the Age of Discovery; they placed Acadia and Canada on the maps of the world, and they showed the great river leading to the continental interior and perhaps to Asia. Cabot, Cartier, John Davis, Martin Frobisher, and many others hoped to find a route to Cathay and Cipangu. In 1610, Henry Hudson, searching for the elusive waterway, discovered Hudson Bay. In 1619, Jens Munck, sailing for Denmark, found the mouth of the Churchill River, Hudson Bay, and wintered with 66 men. Only Munck and three others returned to Europe the next summer. They and many others like them had to be disappointed in the profits of exploration. They found an empire totally different from that of China and Japan, though one of potentially equal if not greater wealth and power for the future. The dream of finding a Northwest Passage continued well into the 19th century. French exploration of the continental interior is highlighted by Étienne Brûlé, who explored Lake Huron, Georgian Bay, and Lake Huron; and by Samuel de Champlain, who followed Brûlé into Georgian Bay (“the Sweetwater sea,” he called it) via the Ottawa and French rivers. René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who explored the Mississippi River and claimed Louisiana for France, sailed the Great Lakes in his Griffon, which was lost at sea in 1679, perhaps on Manitoulin Island. Jean Nicolet and Daniel Duluth are two French explorers who went to the western shores of the Great Lakes. Father Albanel, a Jesuit, traveled overland from the St. Lawrence River to Hudson Bay. Fur Trader Pierre La Vérèndrye explored the heartland of the continent, the Red and Assiniboine waterways, and built fur posts in southern Manitoba. Fur traders Pierre Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, in the 1650s and 1660s, had discovered the fur-bearing resources of
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the lands between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay, sparking off the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1670. The HBC, by its charter, was obliged to prosecute further discoveries but tended to ignore this obligation. In the 1690s, however, it sent explorer Henry Kelsey into the continental interior to draw off Indians for the northern trade on Hudson Bay. Kelsey was the first European to see the Great Plains. But until La Vérèndrye pushed French trade and discoveries into the Red/Assiniboine area, the continental interior west of Lake Superior was unknown to the outside world. The giants of Northwest discovery are Peter Pond, who crossed Methye Portage into the upper reaches of the Athabasca River watershed (and who drew speculative maps); Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who explored the Great River, later known as the Mackenzie River, and four years later went overland from Peace River to Dean Channel; and David Thompson, the remarkable mapmaker and surveyor who discovered the headwaters of the Saskatchewan and Columbia Rivers. In 1806, Simon Fraser explored the river that bears his name. Samuel Black made discoveries on the Finlay and Yukon River areas. Many other “Nor’Westers” and HBC traders delineated the water systems of the West and North. These included, for the Arctic coast east of the Mackenzie River, Thomas Simpson and Warren Dease. The search for the Northwest Passage continued. In 1778, Capt. James Cook explored Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, and Alaska but left yawning gaps on the chart. In 1792–94, Capt. George Vancouver surveyed the Northwest Coast, filling in the details on scientific charts. Spanish explorers Juan Pérez, Bruno de Hezeta, Jacinto Caamaño, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, Alcala Galiano, Alejandro Malaspina, and others did likewise for Spain but (unlike the British) did not choose to make public their charts and other findings. Maritime fur traders such as John Meares, Nathaniel Portlock, George Dixon, and Charles Barkley explored parts of the coast; Meares left unreliable data based on his own dubious claims to primacy of discovery. Boston traders explored the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). Hydrographical surveying (first discovered by Pérez) by the Royal Navy in the 19th century completed most of the details of the Pacific coast of British Columbia.
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From Hudson Bay, overland explorations were made by Samuel Hearne to the Coppermine River (1770). John Franklin made three expeditions to northern Canada (1819–21, 1825–27, 1845–47). The Northwest Passage may be said to have been discovered in all its completeness by Capt. Robert McClure when searching for the whereabouts of Franklin’s third expeditionary party. The transit of the Northwest Passage was completed by Roald Amundsen in his vessel Gjoa in 1903–06. Vilhjalmur Stefansson made discoveries for Canada in the central and high Arctic (1913– 17), extending Canadian claims there. Similarly, Joseph Bernier made maritime explorations of the northeastern Arctic. The Geological Survey of Canada completed much of the discovery of Canada in the later 19th and early 20th century. The Royal Engineers made discoveries of road routes in British Columbia. Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors explored passes in the Rocky Mountains for the transcontinental railway. Aerial photography was used to fill in many details to the map. Surveyors working for boundary commissions made many contributions to discovery in such places as the Alaska/ Yukon border, the Great Lakes international boundary, and the Maine/New Brunswick border. See also FRONTIER; FUR TRADE; HENDAY, ANTHONY.
– F – FAIRCLOUGH, ELLEN LOUKS (1905–2004). A prominent Progressive Conservative in the era of John Diefenbaker, Fairclough was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and became a certified public accountant. She was elected to Hamilton City Council in 1946. Elected to Parliament in a 1950 by-election, she was the only woman MP when she arrived in Ottawa. Then, there were no separate washrooms for female MPs. Fairclough, a member of the opposition, fought for pay equity for women. When the Progressive Conservatives formed the government in 1957, Diefenbaker reluctantly appointed her secretary of state. (Diefenbaker snubbed her and spoke admiringly of only four women: his mother, his second wife, the Queen, and Charlotte Whitton, the redoubtable Ottawa mayor.) Fairclough initiated Dominion Day (now Canada Day) celebrations on Parliament Hill. She also
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served as minister of citizenship and immigration, Indian affairs, and postmaster general. At the same time, she was responsible for the National Film Board, the National Gallery, and the Royal Canadian Mint. Her most damaging political gaffe came when as minister for immigration she narrowed the range of close relatives who could be sponsored as immigrants to Canada, infuriating her Italian constituency. Diefenbaker then demoted her to postmaster general. She was defeated in the 1963 general election and resumed an active administrative life in Hamilton, at Hamilton Trust and Savings Corp., Hamilton Hydro, and Zonta International Women’s Group. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1980 and the Order of Ontario in 1996. See also WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. FAMILY COMPACT. The sociopolitical elite of Upper Canada were known as the Family Compact. The term was coined by moderate reformer Marshall Spring Bidwell, speaker of the House of Assembly in 1828. The Family Compact group controlled land grants, seats on councils, and seats in the legislature. They monopolized business and economic sectors of society and identified with the Anglican Church. The Family Compact was a target for reformers who wished to secularize the clergy reserves and sought financial support for public education. The Family Compact had the invariable support of the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. Reformers sought control of the “civil list,” appointments on the public payroll. Protests sent to London were ignored or set aside. Agitation and the armed Rebellions of 1837 in Toronto and southwestern Ontario resulted in a triumph for the civil power. In 1838, Lord Durham was sent to the province and elsewhere in British North America to investigate the cause of grievances. The major reforms that were to come of the investigation were not instituted until the late 1840s. FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL CONFERENCES. In 1887, the first of these conferences was held, convened by the premier of Québec, Honoré Mercier. Resolutions passed called for an end to federal powers of disallowance and for increases in provincial subsidies. Numerous conferences were held subsequently, including, since 1960, annual meetings of provincial premiers. First ministers conferences
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now mainly address constitutional and economic considerations, including interprovincial tariffs. FENIAN RAIDS. Also known as Sons of Ireland or Sinn Fein (“Ourselves Alone”), the Fenians represented the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in New York in 1857. The movement espoused violence in order to achieve Ireland’s independence from the British Empire. Once established in Canada, the Fenians intended to negotiate the independence of Ireland. Well financed, in 1865 the Fenians had $500,000 in donations, and 10,000 U.S. Civil War veterans were enrolled. A wing of the Fenian Brotherhood led by William Roberts proposed attacking Canada. Michael Murphy of Toronto favored an uprising in Ireland. In any event, a cipher telegraph sent to Murphy summoning him to join forces with a raid on New Brunswick was intercepted by authorities and he was arrested in Cornwall, Ontario. Between the years 1866 and 1870, the Fenians attacked a number of places in British North America but had limited success. They captured Fort Erie but were forced to withdraw by the Canadian militia resistance. Attacks in Québec and New Brunswick were unsuccessful. Due to these mounted attacks, the British and Canadian governments increased local defenses and forces, and the Royal Navy watched for gunrunners. Coming at the end of the U.S. Civil War, the Fenian Raids raised the issue of security with the Canadian and British governments. A secondary effect was the growth of the pro-confederation movement, especially in the Maritimes. It is believed that a Fenian murdered Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “the Pen of Canadian Confederation,” in 1868. FILM. The earliest known film in Canada was made by Andrew Holland in his Kinetoscope Parlour in Ottawa in 1894. In 1896, in Montréal, the first commercial screening of a motion picture in Canada occurred. The screening device was the Lumière Cinématographe. Commercial film held the main position thereafter. Ethnographer Edward Curtis made In the Land of the Head-Hunters (1914), a representation of Northwest Coast peoples. Robert Flaherty’s 1922 Nanook of the North followed the life of an Inuit family, documenting trails and tribulations. Commercial cinema was dominated by British and American productions, and the 1920s and 1930s witnessed an ex-
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plosion in the number of movie houses. Then as now, the commercial sector predominated. In 1921, the federal government created the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, responsible for films produced for government departments. These agencies struggled with the balance of requirements presented by production, technical operation, distribution, and administration. Of all the Canadian achievements in film and cinematography, the National Film Board (NFB), founded in 1939, is Canada’s unique contribution to the development of public communication. Its achievements became notable cultural faces of Canada in the world at large. It was early recognized as a leader in the realm of the documentary film. The origins of the NFB date from advice provided by the distinguished British documentary maker John Grierson. Grierson became first government film commissioner. During World War II, many Canadians became acquainted with movies produced by the NFB. Hollywood has always been the center of movie production in North America, but Toronto and Vancouver have become major venues for the filming of movies and TV serials. Tax laws have aided this process. Canadian producers have won various Oscars for distinguished films. Among the great producers are Norman Jewison (Jesus Christ Superstar), James Cameron (Titanic), and Claude Jutra (Mon Oncle Antoine). FLAG OF CANADA. The Union Flag, and later the Red Ensign with the Coat of Arms of Canada on the fly, were the national flags of the growing Dominion of Canada at the time of confederation in 1867. But in 1965, Canada created a new, distinct flag recognized internationally today. Much controversy exists about the origins of this flag, but it now seems certain that in 1964, George Stanley (1907–2002), the historian, a member of the faculty of the Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario, wrote to John Matheson, a member of the parliamentary flag committee in Ottawa, suggesting an easily identifiable flag. Stanley pointed out to Matheson that the Royal Military College of Canada’s red-white-red design suggested such distinctiveness. Stanley wanted something that would avoid the use of national or racial/ethnic symbols that are of a divisive nature. Thus the Union flag and the Fleur-de-lis would be excluded. The
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beaver was considered, but the State of New York had adopted it, and the beaver did not garner enough support. There was considerable opposition to the adoption of the maple leaf, primarily because it would replace the venerable “red duster.” Many had fought under that flag, “for king, country, and empire.” Veterans groups, in particular, opposed the introduction of a new flag. In any event, the current design, showing a red maple leaf on a white background and flanked by red vertical stripes was selected and modified by heralds and designers. The flag was officially adopted by the House of Commons and Senate in December 1964. It was proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth II, with effect on 15 February 1965. In 1995, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien officially recognized Stanley as the “father of Canada’s flag.” See also ARMS OF CANADA. FLEMING, SANDFORD (1827–1915). In 1897, Fleming, the “time lord,” was knighted for his proposal outlining a worldwide uniform system for reckoning time. His concept of “standard time” brought him international recognition. A brilliant, energetic innovator, Fleming was a professional engineer, surveyor, mapmaker, engraver, and writer of note. Born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, he immigrated to Canada in 1845, settling in Peterborough, Ontario, and within five years he was a recognized surveyor and lithographer, making maps of cities and harbors. He moved to Toronto, where in 1849 he assisted in founding the Canadian Institute (for the promotion of science, history, and national achievements). Two years later, he designed the first Canadian postage stamp, with the beaver as central motif. He was also the builder of the Intercontinental Railway. As chief engineer (1871–80) of the Canadian Pacific Railway, he conducted surveys for a transcontinental route. For 35 years, he was titular chancellor of Queen’s University. He devised and facilitated world standard time (Prime Meridian Conference of 1884). He was also instrumental in the imperial project for the Pacific Cable. FOREIGN POLICY. As of 1867, the year of the Canadian confederation, Canadian foreign policy was directed from the seat of empire, London, England. All matters relating to boundaries with the United States, Russia, and France were the purview of the Colonial (and later the Dominions) Office and particularly the Foreign Of-
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fice. Canada was a cardinal component of the British Empire and in no way master of its own house as far as external affairs was concerned. Yet London did consult with Ottawa on vital matters such as water boundaries, fisheries, and marine matters such as navigation and patrols. The Royal Navy was the shield of Canada and of the empire and administered by a peculiarly unique administration, the Admiralty, that was almost an entity unto itself. But Canada then only consisted of four provinces, and the rest of the jurisdictions that grew into the Canada of today were still answerable to the Colonial Office. For these reasons, autonomy of foreign policy was as impossible as it was retardant of growth. But the resolution of the Alaska boundary dispute and the Bering Sea Pelagic Sealing question, both with the United States, cleared the way for politicians in Ottawa to seek greater control of Canadian matters. The South African War (Boer War), for instance, was an imperial small war, but Canada made its own decision as to how it should, militarily, come to the aid of the British Empire. Canada ended up sending a military force to secure South Africa from the runaway Boer republics and their allies. World War I was a defining moment, for made-in-Canada decisions defined the type and degree of military forces Canada sent to Europe. In 1919, Canadian forces were sent to Siberia in an attempt to save White Russians from total defeat, an unsuccessful measure. Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles as a member of the British Empire, however, not as a sovereign power. The toils and sacrifices of World War I led to a period of isolation in Canadian foreign policy and an adherence to the work of the League of Nations, of which Canada was a member, and the International Labor Organization headquartered at Geneva. The rise of Japan after 1918 was of concern. Canada joined the United States in pushing the British to abrogate the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1921, an important initiative of foreign policy. So was the Halibut Treaty, signed with the United States in 1922. Great Britain permitted Canada to negotiate this treaty without let or hindrance. The Department of External Affairs, the genesis of which occurred in 1906, became a powerful and prestigious office of state, led by such powerful persons as Oscar Douglas Skelton and Gordon Robertson. In 1928, the Canadian Institute of International Affairs was founded to provide nonpartisan
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discussion of an educational nature of international matters, especially those that concern Canada. Of all the moves toward diplomatic autonomy in this era, the 1931 Statute of Westminster did the most to define Canada, and other British dominions that chose to opt in to its terms, as an equal and autonomous country within the British Commonwealth of Nations, in no way subservient to the United Kingdom in any aspect of its internal or external affairs. This was a giant step forward and can be taken to be the charter of Canadian foreign policy development. Thus, in 1939, Canada declared war on Germany and in 1941 did so similarly against Japan. It also independently declared war on Italy and on other countries. Canadian foreign policy during World War II was completely in accord with Anglo-American relations. After the war, seeking to continue its multilateral partnerships for security and progress, Canada became a member of the United Nations (UN). It joined North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), with its integrated defense systems for North American security. When a UN resolution was passed condemning North Korea for invading South Korea, Canada responded to this emergency with army, air force, and navy units all under the flag of the UN. This set a pattern for other such police roles and peacekeeping arrangements. Under Prime Minister Lester Pearson, a giant in foreign policy initiatives, peacekeeping arrangements were developed for Gaza. Canada refused to back Great Britain and France in the Suez Crisis in 1956, taking an independent view that more often than not seemed similar to that of the United States but with less strident and censorious tones. Canada did not go to war in Vietnam but acted as diplomatic messenger. When the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 occurred, Canada supported the U.S measures for border security and new defense commands. Similarly, it joined in the “war on terror” and became prominent at Kabul then Kandahar in measures to stabilize Afghanistan, provide means of reconstruction, and rout the Taliban. Canadian commitments of a military nature in Afghanistan, scheduled through 2011, are under North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) arrangements. In all these ways, Canada can be seen as strongly attached to supranational causes, notably the UN and the NATO, and these are means of giving expression to Canada’s commitment to world peace
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and security. But Canada decides what positions it will take and is not easily led by even the closest of allies. Canada’s decision not to join the U.S.-led coalition to invade Iraq in 2003 is the most powerful example of this. Canada’s foreign policy continues to focus on the protection of the Canadian homeland, including coasts, waters, and the Northwest Passage, claimed by Canada as its own (a position not accepted by the United States). Canada maintains embassies and consulates in all the most important countries of the world and has an active presence in New York at the UN and in Brussels for the European Union. See also ALLIANCES; CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS; KOREAN CONFLICT; PERSIAN GULF WAR; SPANISH CIVIL WAR. FORT CHAMBLY. At the foot of the Richelieu rapids, Québec, stands Fort Chambly, constructed at the turn of the 18th century. The present-day fort is the fourth on this site. The first, a wooden structure, was built during the wars between the French and Iroquois that marked the second half of the 17th century. Subsequent battles between French and English led to the construction of a stone fort in 1709–11. The structure was to become the largest fortification along the Hudson-Champlain-Richelieu corridor. French troops erected a European-style fort capable of resisting numerically superior forces and a field artillery. Nonetheless, it fell into British hands in 1760 during the Seven Years War. In 1775, the Americans invaded Canada and occupied Fort Chambly for several months. The War of 1812 brought further hostilities between Canada and the United States. The British occupied the fort sporadically until abandoning it in 1860. In 1876, all of the military buildings of Chambly were auctioned off except for the fort and the guardhouse. Due to the efforts of Joseph-Octave Dion, the remains of the fortress, which had greatly deteriorated, were saved. Parks Canada restored the structure in 1983. A few hundred meters from Fort Chambly is the Chambly Canal. Construction on it began in 1831 but work was interrupted by financial problems, a cholera epidemic, and the Patriotes’ rebellion, thus delaying inauguration of the canal until 1843. The Chambly Canal played a vital role in the export of Canadian forest products to the United States. For close to a century, many heavily laden barges made their way down its waters.
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FORT FRANKLIN. A Dene community in the Inuvik region of the Northwest Territories, Fort Franklin is at the southernmost limit of the Hare tribe’s ancient territory. Once a North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) trading post, it was a supply depot and winter headquarters for naval explorer John Franklin in 1825– 27. Discovery of pitchblende at Port Radium and oil at Norman Wells in the 1920s made Great Bear Lake and Great Bear River into vital trading routes. A Roman Catholic mission, Federal Day School, and reopened HBC post were developments beginning in 1949. FORT GEORGE. A major fort on the Niagara frontier during the War of 1812, Fort George was of critical importance to the defense of Upper Canada. Overlooking the American Fort Niagara across the Niagara River, and commanding a view of the river, the bastion of the fort is its largest structure. Below the bastion were storehouses and wharves of Navy Hall, local headquarters for the Royal Navy (later the interim headquarters of the governor of Upper Canada). In May 1813, American artillery bombardment and naval gunfire reduced the fort to a smoking ruin. The outnumbered British garrison was obliged to withdraw. American army engineers refortified the spot and occupied it during the summer and autumn of 1813. In December, the Americans abandoned the fort, burned the town of Newark, and retreated to Fort Niagara. The British then reoccupied Fort George and reestablished control on the Niagara frontier in that area. Fort George fell into ruin and was abandoned in 1820. The powder magazine (built in 1796) was the only fort building to survive the War of 1812 and the ensuing years of neglect. Meantime, British engineers constructed Fort Mississauga at the river mouth and Butler’s Barracks on the plains to replace Fort George. A Parks Canada site, Fort George was reconstructed to its pre-1813 appearance and in 1950 was officially opened to the public. FORT MALDEN. Fort Malden, a British post in Ontario, was pivotal in defense of this area during the conflicts that shaped late 18th- and early 19th-century Canada. Fort Malden National Historical Site preserves the remnants of the second British fort built at this location. The first, known as Fort Amherstburg, was established near the mouth of the Detroit River in 1796. A center of British operations
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during the War of 1812, it was destroyed by the British when they were forced to retreat from the Detroit River frontier in September 1813. The U.S. Army occupied the ruins of Fort Amherstburg from October 1813 until July 1815. The Americans began rebuilding the fort almost immediately but were hampered by shortages of labor and supplies. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war and stopped additional American work on the fort. When the British reoccupied the site in the summer of 1815, they inherited a smaller semicompleted, earthen fortification that contained a few roughly built structures. The British were slow to rebuild as postwar economies forced local commanders to carry out only essential repairs or construction. The fort’s Royal Engineers supervised construction of a new brick barracks to replace a log structure left by the Americans. Also built were a cookhouse, guardhouse, artillery shed, and storage buildings. Despite these improvements, little was done to upgrade the earthworks, and the post remained a fort more in name than in reality. Reluctance to expend large amounts of money on Fort Malden was partly due to British uncertainty about the future of the site. Through the 1820s, various designs were suggested to improve or replace the fortifications, but these plans did not take shape. With the lessening of border tensions between the United States and British North America, the fort was allowed to decay, and the British regular troops were withdrawn in 1836. FORT PROVIDENCE. Established in 1786 at Wool Bay, Great Slave Lake, by Peter Pond of the North West Company as an outpost camp, Fort Providence was reopened by Alexander Mackenzie in 1789 and was a trading center for the Copper (or Yellowknife) and Dogrib natives. It was abandoned in 1823. It was important as a resupply depot and was intended as such for John Franklin’s first expedition to the Arctic coast (1819–22). FOX, LUKE (1586–1635). Navigator and Arctic explorer Luke Fox (or Foxe), commonly called N. W. Fox, was born in Hull, Yorkshire, the son of a noted seaman. Sea-bred from boyhood, he sailed on Baltic, European coastal, and Mediterranean voyages. He then turned to exploring Canadian northern waters. For his London backers, he was to go to the South Sea, the Pacific Ocean, via a route west of
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Hudson Bay. He failed. There was no passage that far south. Even so, his 1631 voyage in the 70-ton pinnace Charles was remarkable. He entered the mouth of the Nelson River, coasted the west shore of Hudson Bay, and added to the geographical knowledge of these lands. He was back in England after six months, having lost not one member of his crew. Fox was a student of voyage literature, and the book he compiled, North-west Fox, or Fox from the North-west Passage (London 1635), contained abstract accounts of the voyages of John Cabot, Martin Frobisher, John Davis, James Knight, Henry Hudson, William Baffin, and others. The engraved map of the polar regions that accompanies his book is regarded as one of the most interesting and important documents in the history of Arctic exploration. Of note regarding his 1631 voyage is the rivalry of the Bristol expedition of Thomas James, equally unsuccessful in finding the South Sea. FOX, TERRY (1959–1981). An amputee hero and icon, Fox in 1980 intended a cross-Canada Marathon of Hope for cancer research. He began in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on 12 April and ended on 1 September outside Thunder Bay, Ontario. He ran a marathon every day, 42.2 km (26 miles), across six provinces, for 143 consecutive days (total 3,339 miles). Cancer recurred in his lungs, and he died nine months later in New Westminster. His motives were pure and his influence has been pervasive. His legacy lives on in the raising of millions for cancer research in Canada and many other countries. FRANKLIN, JOHN (1786–1847). Royal Navy explorer Sir John Franklin was present at the battles of Copenhagen (1801) and Trafalgar (1805). He was an able nautical surveyor and led three expeditions to the Arctic region. In 1819, Franklin explored the mouth of the Coppermine River while leading his first Arctic expedition. He led his second expedition to the Arctic in 1825–26. In 1845, Franklin led the best-equipped sailing expedition to enter the Arctic up to that time. He discovered a Northwest Passage, but he and all officers and men died during the expedition. Thirty-nine expeditions were sent out to find Franklin and his men, leading to a more full exploration of the Arctic. A search party led by Robert McClure crossed the Northwest Passage during an expedition from 1850 to 1854. Searchers eventually found evidence of Franklin’s party and reconstructed
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some of the details of his voyage. The remains of Franklin have never been found; the cause of his death is unknown. The others in his party died of such causes as scurvy, botulism, lead poisoning, fatigue, exposure, starvation, and possibly Inuit attack and murder. FRASER, SIMON (1776–1862). Born in Bennington, New York (later Vermont), 1776, to a loyalist, military family, Fraser entered North West Company service at age 16. By 1802, he was a partner. After 1804, and union with rivals headed by Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer pushed into north-central British Columbia. He called this area New Caledonia, for it reminded him of his mother’s description of Scotland. Fraser played roles in countering American and Russian threats from the Pacific coast. He was also a giant in business and community history. Fort McLeod (McLeod Lake) in 1805, Fort St. James (Stuart Lake) in 1806, Fort Fraser (Fraser Lake) in 1806, and Fort George (where Fraser and Nechako Rivers converge) in 1807 were built under his direction. Meanwhile, John Stuart, James McDougall, and Jules Quesnel made discoveries often attributed to their boss. Fraser, egotistical, diminished Mackenzie’s discoveries by claiming Mackenzie was often asleep in his canoe while others gathered data. Mackenzie’s reputation survived Fraser’s belittling. Fraser is best known for his river journey downstream to Musqueam, on the lower Fraser River, in 1808. It was a passage made possible only by native advice, Fraser’s grit, and his employers’ insistence that the stream south of the Nechako River be traced. Fraser proved that the river named after him was not the Columbia. He named a tributary of the Fraser after the explorer David Thompson. Fraser served in the Stormont militia in the rebellion in Lower Canada in November 1838. Near Beauharnois, he damaged a knee severely in a fall. He was incapacitated and reduced to penury. He died penniless on 19 April 1862 and is buried in St. Andrews, Ontario. FREE TRADE. Free trade is not a recent phenomenon in CanadianU.S. relations. The first reciprocal arrangements (in areas of seas, forest, and farm products) include the Reciprocity Treaty (1854, abrogated by the United States 1866) and the negotiated but unratified free trade accord of 1911 (Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberals were defeated on this issue). In 1935, Canadian-U.S. negotiations received approval as the Canada-U.S. Trade Agreement Act (1936).
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In the 1980s, the Progressive Conservatives promoted a new free trade agreement with the United States. The Canada-U.S. pact was signed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan on 2 January 1988. Mulroney argued that new markets would open to Canadian business in a global (especially U.S.dominated) economy. Opponents including organized labor, rightly fearing loss of Canadian jobs, bitterly but unsuccessfully fought the measure. The Council on Chief Executives and its president, Thomas d’Aquino, lobbied successfully in support of free trade. The Canada-United States Free Trade Implementation Act received assent 30 December 1988 and became effective 1 January 1989. FRENCH CANADIAN IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES. It has been estimated that in 1840–1930, 900,000 French Canadians left Canada for the United States. In 1900, hardly a French Canadian or Acadian family did not have a relative living in the United States, and this emigration has been claimed as a demographic, social, and cultural drain. The emigration had a profound effect on French Canada. English Canadians, who also went to the United States in great numbers during the same period, were less noticeable and assimilated more rapidly into American society than did French-speaking Roman Catholics. Poor economic conditions in Québec were one reason for the migration; the lure of wealth and employment in the United States, especially New England, was of a similar moment. Some young men attempted to avoid military conscription by going to the United States during World War I. But it was the pull of industrial opportunities that attracted most emigrants. It is estimated that between 1784 and 1844, Québec’s population increased 400 percent. An excess of population tied to the agricultural growth of French Canada in the 19th century caused an economic crisis: thousands of landless farmers sought work on agricultural acreage that did not increase proportionally to their needs and numbers. Although Québec settlement stretched out from the St. Lawrence valley to peripheral regions (the Laurentians, the Saguenay, the lower St. Lawrence and Matapedia, the Ottawa Valley and the Eastern Townships), some French Canadians would emigrate to eastern Ontario, to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. But these places also suffered from lack
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of fertility, difficulty of access to markets, short growing seasons, and interrelated factors. In Québec itself, agricultural profitability declined; indebtedness increased. Credit became hard to obtain. A combination of poverty, overpopulation, debt, and infertile soils led to French Canadian emigration. The jobs of industrial United States solved many problems for this stressed population. Most of the emigrants were rural and poor. The growth of railways to the United States spurred the process of emigration but took French Canadians not much farther than northern New York State and New England. Massachusetts was the general beneficiary. Many went to work in the cotton mills and shoe factories of New England. Family and parochial ties stimulated and channeled emigration. Thus French Canadians of Southbridge, Massachusetts, came mainly from Sorel and Saint-Ours. This pattern minimized emotional and cultural costs attendant to emigration. The drain of population was seen by Québec elites as a danger to French Canadian society. Some, however, saw the extension of French Canadian society to the United States as extending the boundaries of Roman Catholicism. Many Roman Catholic clergy and nuns left to serve in Franco-American communities. Some American cities and towns had communities called “Little Canada.” They had their own parishes, professionals, newspapers, bilingual parochial schools, and organizations. Most Franco-Americans lived in difficult economic circumstances, and most had low-paid jobs. FrancoAmericans were largely ghettoized. They do not seem to have mixed easily with Irish Roman Catholics. The emigration left enduring marks on French Canada and New England. Many persons returned to Canada and projected a positive image of the United States. FROBISHER, MARTIN (1535?–1594). One of the first English navigators to search for a Northwest Passage to India and Asia, Frobisher became known as one of the greatest Elizabethan mariners, renowned for courage, resourcefulness, and seamanship. He fought against the Spanish Armada and was knighted for his services. His three attempts to reach Asia by sailing west extended geographic knowledge. On the first voyage in 1576, he rounded southern Greenland, visited Labrador, and became the first European to sail into a deep bay on
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Baffin Island, which he thought to be a strait. This bay now bears his name. Frobisher took back to England rocks that some thought was gold ore. This touched off a scramble to join in his second voyage in 1577. Frobisher annexed the country to England on this trip and returned with 180 metric tons of rock. The continuing lure of gold led to the third voyage. In 1578, he sailed with 15 ships and 41 miners. He entered what later became Hudson Strait but made no further attempts at discovery. This time, he brought back more ore that turned out to be of little value. He distinguished himself in naval combat against the Spanish Armada in 1588. FRONT DE LIBÉRATION DE QUÉBEC (FLQ). A terrorist organization of revolutionaries, ultra-leftists, and anti-capitalists, the FLQ was founded in March 1963. The FLQ consisted of cells. Some members had training with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Two of the movement’s theorists, Pierre Vallières and Charles Gagnon, were arrested, sparking off the October Crisis of 1970. The tactics of the FLQ were bombing (mainly mailboxes), kidnapping, and murder. The escalation of violence in October 1970 led to the Québec government requesting Canada to call in the Canadian Army in aid to the civil power. The War Measures Act was implemented by the federal government. The FLQ were forced into submission; 20 people were convicted and safe passage to Cuba was secured for several of the leaders. Vallières, author of Nègres Blancs d’Amerique, is considered the philosopher of the organization. FRONTENAC ET PALLUAU, COMTE DE (LOUIS DE BUADE) (1622–1698). A French army officer, Frontenac was appointed governor general of French possessions in North America in 1672. He had two lengthy terms as governor general, though in 1682 he was recalled briefly on the charge of misgovernment. He promoted stabilization and expansion of New France’s frontiers and the growth of the Canadian fur trade based in Montréal. Trade and defense marched hand in hand. He built Fort Frontenac (Kingston) on Lake Ontario and a number of other fur trading and military posts. He enlarged New France’s frontiers to the Mississippi Valley, launched raids on New England, resisted the English at Québec in 1690, and broke the power of the Iroquois in 1696. One of the most turbulent
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figures in the history of New France, he was the architect of French expansion in North America. FRONTIER. In its earliest phase, the Canadian frontier was a commercial and later political extension of British and French interests, and on the west coast of Spanish, Russian, British, and U.S. influences. The term frontier has many meanings and interpretations. The various frontiers of Canada might be regarded as zones of influence. Largely oceanic or maritime in nature, Canada’s early frontiers became beachheads, with extensive links to the interior via rivers and lakes. New France’s frontier was a trading and military projection of power. After 1763, the frontier was largely a British corporate arrangement with the chartered Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) dominating northern waters and lands, its monopoly area being Rupert’s Land. From Montréal, by contrast, the rival North West Company opened up an individualistic trading frontier, which ended in 1821 with the merger with the HBC. In British Columbia, after an open zone frontier rivalry (involving Great Britain, Spain, the United States, and Russia), British corporate monopoly and colonization came in the form of the colony of Vancouver Island, established in 1849 under HBC auspices. In 1859, the HBC license of monopoly ended and British Columbia became an open frontier under British colonial control. American influences in the 1858 gold rush were thwarted by executive power and a show of armed force. Much the same occurred in the Yukon in 1898 with the Klondike gold rush. In 1869 in Manitoba and 1885 in Saskatchewan, local resistance to Canadian authority ended with the armed closing of the frontier. While the American frontier has been thought to represent individualistic pursuit leading to democratic and populist consequences, as Frederick Jackson Turner argued, the Canadian frontier tends to reflect corporate and government dominance and armed support for the civil power to keep foreign rivals out, to ensure “peace, order, and good government.” The northern extension of Canada’s dominion throughout the 20th century was a continuance of traditions developed under first French and then British auspices. Turner argued that the American frontier was closed in 1890, and this possibly implies that the Canadian western and northern frontiers took on new value in the years that followed.
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FUR TRADE. The staple of the early Canadian economy until the 1830s, the fur trade was central to Canadian prosperity. French companies held monopolies, which passed from hand to hand. By 1608, the trade was based in Québec, and the French had extensive links with the Huron and Algonquin. The Iroquois, great fur trappers, were able to interrupt the northwestern trade in the 1640s. Frontenac stabilized the southern frontier, allowing the French to penetrate toward Hudson Bay, the Illinois country, and the Mississippi River. By 1759, the French dominated most fur-bearing areas of eastern North America except the northern American colonies of Britain. In 1670, the English Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) received its charter from Charles II, creating its monopoly rights over Rupert’s Land, virtually the Canadian northwest. The Montréal-based North West Company, and its rival, Alexander Mackenzie’s XY Company, fought against the HBC for many years. In 1804, the North West Company and Mackenzie’s company merged. The North West Company merged with the HBC in 1821. Although the fur trade diminished in areas of settlement, for it was antagonistic to settlement and vice versa, it remained central to the commercial and political evolution of the forested areas of North America, including mountain trenches, and from parkland areas well into deep and watery forests, particularly the boreal or northern forest of North America. In Canada, the fur trade was central to the political economy developed by European colonizers and the native peoples in a symbiotic relationship that also resulted in mixed blood (in Canada, Métis) offspring, families, and communities. The industrial revolution crossed the Atlantic under sail, and the products of this revolution were used to engender and continue the trade: the iron trap, the iron-tipped spear, and the iron knife, in native hands, increased aboriginal capacities to extend the trade into new areas of hunting and extraction. Arms, ammunition, liquor, fabrics, and foodstuffs entered North America at the same time. Because natives were keen and sharp traders, equity of exchange was demanded and expected. Indian technology and means of survival aided the European intrusion into native lands; native advice and guidance were often central to exploration and to growth of trade. In fact, the exploration of North America is more often than not commensurate with the fur trade and pursuit of its consolidation and extension.
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The canoe, principally the birch bark canoe, an aboriginal invention, became the vehicle for importation of goods and export of furs. Cottonwood canoes were used in the western cordillera; cedar canoes were used in the Pacific coast region. In the Aleutian Islands and along the Gulf of Alaska and southeast Alaska shore, the badarka, of skin on wood frame, was also used. The packhorse used after 1740s and the dog travois aided and abetted the trade. Steam navigation, beginning in the 1830s, increased the trade; so did railways, especially for the marketing of skins such as buffalo and wolf. But technological innovation hurried the end of the fur trade in North America. By 1890, and the general closure of the settlement frontiers of North America, the fur trade was on the decline, and native peoples had been reduced to reserves (reservations) or not given status. The English traded in furs in Newfoundland from the time of Cabot, but this branch of the economy was ancillary to the cod fishery. The French traded in furs at the mouth of the Saguenay, on the St. Lawrence River, in the 1530s. This became the first focal point of the trade stretching west and south to Georgian Bay. It embraced the Huron, Iroquois, Neutrals, and others. The St. Lawrence River and its hinterlands became a fur trade empire. The French established a series of companies to monopolize the fur trade. Champlain, exploring from Québec, determined that Montréal Island would be a fine place for a summer fur post; a settlement was established there in 1642. Montréal, the head of oceanic traffic, became the center of Canadian fur trade expansion, shipping, and banking in consequence of the search for beaver and other furs. Into the interior (pays d’en haut), the traders ( courier de bois), voyagers, and Indian guides and laborers extended the trade. The fur trade was the lifeblood of New France and of Canada. The French administration in Canada set up the system of licensing, so that designated traders would have designated places of trade and extraction. Related to military posts and alliances with Indians, the system was designed to prevent cutthroat competition and, equally important, to promote the growth of the trade into new areas. In certain places, French fur trade expansion aided French Roman Catholic designs, principally those of the Jesuits. The search for souls and furs was personified when Father Jacques Marquette voyaged to the Mississippi River in the company of Canadian trader Louis Jolliet.
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Many French and Canadian explorers were fur traders, the most notable being Radisson and Groseilliers (who went into the service of the HBC), Nicolet, Joliet, and LaVerendrye, so that by the 1750s, the French posts were west as far as the Assiniboine, Souris, and Saskatchewan rivers and south toward St. Louis and New Orleans. After the conquest of Canada by the British, the French remained in the trade and worked in new association with English, Irish, and Scottish traders. Harold Innis has argued that the Seven Years War was a struggle between the fur trade and settlement in North America, and that the British conquest extended the fur trade in northern latitudes and retarded settlement. Fur traders as explorers in the decades after the conquest were numerous and important: Peter Pond, Alexander Mackenzie, David Thompson, and others made discoveries and extended travels on exploration to open up new watersheds, acquire new trading partners, and keep rival traders out. The thrust to Athabasca is a fine example of this type of discovery and exploration; that through Rocky Mountain passes, by Mackenzie and Thompson and others, is another. These traders worked through the areas drained by the rivers and lakes of the boreal forest and the Rocky Mountain foothills. Canadian business infrastructure, including transportation, banking, finance, and currency, was laid down in the 18th century due to the fur trade. Many urban centers of modern Canada, such as Montréal, Edmonton, and Victoria, had their origins as fur trading posts. Fur-trading explorers such as Samuel Hearne, Alexander Mackenzie, and Simon Fraser recorded information about the North American landmass. Mackenzie, Alexander Henry, Alexander Henry the Younger, and Daniel Harmon were among the fur traders who kept detailed notes that became, eventually, books. These are also important records of exploration, geography, and ethnology. Historical scholarship now shows that the fur trade depended on native energies and commitments. Natives traded furs, principally beaver, for industrial materials, especially ironware, and for liquor and tobacco. Traders were obliged to meet native demands, and a partnership in trade existed. Other studies show a tendency toward a fur-holding monopoly, and this was true in the French and British periods. Liaisons between European traders and native peoples re-
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sulted in the evolution of the Métis, or mixed bloods, now recognized within the terms of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A unique fur trade of Canada was the Northwest Coast trade in the sea otter, the pelts being sold by ship owners in Macao and Canton. In the 20th century, fur farming was extensive in Canada. Fur trading continues in Canada, but its size has been greatly diminished because of international pressure by animal rights groups.
– G – GALT, ALEXANDER TILLOCH (1817–1893). High-spirited and feisty, Sir Alexander Galt was a businessman and politician. Before his election to the Legislative Assembly in 1849, he was involved in the promotion of the Grand Trunk Railway. Disgruntled, he signed the Annexation Manifesto in 1849. Galt pressed for the federation of British North America as early as 1857, and in 1858 he joined the Cartier-Macdonald government on the condition that the government support federation. As minister of finance, he introduced the Galt tariff in 1859, the first Canadian tariff barrier that affected British goods. It has been called a Canadian declaration of independence. Galt successfully defended Canada’s right to set tariffs against the protests of British interests. He was also a delegate to both the Charlottetown and Québec conferences and played an important role in drafting the British North American Act. Galt retired as finance minister in 1868 and from parliament in 1872. He was appointed the first Canadian high commissioner to London in 1880, a position he held until 1883. This was Canada’s first diplomatic representation abroad. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. Canada’s unremembered explorers are the members of the Geological Survey of Canada, who set out to draw the complete map of Canada in the 19th century. The key figures were William Logan, Alfred Selwyn, George Mercer Dawson, and Robert Bell. Not only were they mapmakers, and true successors to Samuel de Champlain, Samuel Hearne, and Alexander Mackenzie; they were draughtsmen, photographers, natural history enthusiasts, ethnologists, and biologists.
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In 1841, the Province of Canada (then comprising Ontario and Québec), interested in the flora and fauna of the land, granted funds to defray expenses of a geological survey of the province. Coal was then a major consideration, and Logan, educated in Edinburgh, had a background in coal and copper. He took up his duties in Canada in 1843, headquartered in Montréal. Geology and metallurgy went hand in hand, and the means of recording measurement was surveying and thus mapmaking. The preliminary findings were shown in 1851 at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, an imperial and worldwide celebration of scientific findings. In 1856, Logan was knighted for his scientific contributions. He retired in 1869, leaving behind a great legacy, for he had fulfilled his own instructions: that the findings were to have economic advantages. Mt. Logan, Canada’s highest peak, is named for him. Logan was succeeded by Selwyn, who led parties into western Canada, seeking out the mineral resources along the route of the proposed Canadian Pacific Railway. In the north, on the Barrens, geologist Joseph B. Tyrrell made important discoveries of the area he said was “less well known than the remotest districts of Darkest Africa.” Tyrrell, also a historian and editor, wrote about Samuel Hearne, David Thompson, and other explorers. Albert Low, later a director, explored Labrador and the Ungava Peninsula of northern Québec. George Mercer Dawson, later a director after Selwyn, was a geologist, botanist, anthropologist, photographer, diplomat, and poet. He visited the Queen Charlotte Islands and also made important investigations of the Yukon. Like other members of the Geological Survey of Canada, he was well connected to the British scientific establishment. The city of Dawson was named in his honor. He made an important report on the Haida and published reports on Yukon native peoples as well as on the Kwakiutl and Shushwap of British Columbia. Robert Bell was the great administrator, but he gave way to Low as director early in the 20th century. Aerial photography aided the Geological Survey, as did the Great Depression, when more than 1,000 persons were detailed to work on the survey. The search for minerals during and after World War II also spurred on the project. Throughout its history, the survey combined practicality with scientific excellence. It is the custodian
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of the geological heritage of Canada. It has international links with other northern, circumpolar, and Commonwealth countries. It is also engaged in environmental considerations. See also EXPLORATION. GHENT, TREATY OF. A peace agreement reached on Christmas Eve 1814 between U.S. and British commissioners to end the War of 1812, the treaty restored the peace but was silent on issues over which Great Britain and the United States had clashed. No reference was made to impressment of sailors, blockades, indemnities, the right of search and visit, and other maritime differences. Nor did its clauses refer to military control of the Great Lakes or a neutral Indian barrier state (the latter being an intention of the British before and during negotiations). Clauses did apply to British demands for treatment of Indians subsequent to the establishment of peace. The treaty provided for the release of prisoners, a restoration of all conquered territory, and the appointment of an arbitral commission to settle the disputed northeastern boundary between Canada and the United States. By mutual understanding, the question of the Great Lakes and the fisheries were left open for future negotiation. GILBERT, HUMPHREY (1539?–1583). English scholar and soldier Sir Humphrey Gilbert believed there was a northwest route by water across the North American continent that would lead to the East Indies. He wrote an essay about his theory in 1576. In 1578, Queen Elizabeth I gave him permission to sail in search of the Northwest Passage. Gilbert returned to England after losing one of his best ships and one of his bravest captains. He set sail again in 1583 in command of another expedition. His half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, started with him. Raleigh and his crew turned back two days after they left Plymouth, but Gilbert kept on. He landed in Newfoundland on 5 August 1583 and took possession of the land in the queen’s name. Thus Newfoundland became the first English possession in the New World. On the way back to England, Gilbert and his crew were lost in a storm. GITXSAN-WET’SUWET’EN LAND CASE. A claim by two native nations to the 58,000 square kilometers in the Skeena, Bulkley and Babine watersheds, some 700 kilometers north of Vancouver was
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at issue in the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en land case. The land covers 133 separate native areas. The case, brought by 51 chiefs, began in 1984. It was rebuffed by Chief Justice Allan McEachern of the British Columbia Supreme Court in 1991. The BC Court of Appeal rendered a split decision. In 1997, a Supreme Court of Canada unanimous decision overturned McEachern’s ruling and ruled that aboriginal title to land had never been extinguished there. The ruling has wide implications for other areas in British Columbia. The Court also ruled that oral history gives bands constitutional claim in the absence of treaties. The area concerned in the land case had long seen resistance to encroachments. In 1866, the natives resisted placement of telegraph lines. In 1872, they blockaded a river against miners, and in 1908 sent a deputation to Sir Wilfrid Laurier in Ottawa. In 1927, they tore up surveyors’ stakes, and in 1986 began the Marshmallow Wars, chasing fisheries officers away with a hail of marshmallows. See also NISGA’A. GOULD, GLENN (1932–1982). Pianist and composer Glenn Gould was born in Toronto and studied there at the Royal Conservatory of Music. He made his professional debut at age 14 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He was largely self-taught after the age of 19, when he began concert tours. He was awarded the Bach Medal for Pianists by the Committee of the Harriet Cohen Music Awards, London, 1959. Gould specialized in Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but his interests, he claimed, lay more in the literature of music, in composition, and in conducting. He was noted for unconventionality—mittens, hand-soakings before performances, contortions and hisses while playing—but his performance defied any definition or description of audio eccentricity. Gould saw no sense in playing music for its own sake, without conviction. Gould was arguably one of the great pianists of all time, and his interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a classic. GOUZENKO, IGOR (1919–1982). A Russian cipher clerk at the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa beginning in 1943, Gouzenko defected to Canadian authorities in 1945 and provided information on Soviet spying, the principal aim of which was stealing atomic bomb secrets. His defection created a sensation; his information and documents
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revealed a major Soviet espionage ring in Canada. Ten people, including Col. Nikolai Zabotin and atomic scientist Alan Nunn May, were sent to jail. Gouzenko also implicated Alger Hiss, a U.S. State Department official, as a Soviet spy, although his evidence proved inconclusive. Canada provided Gouzenko and his family with a home and new identity. A media commentator in disguise, he also wrote a book about his defection, This Was My Choice (1948). This episode marked the beginning of the Cold War in Canada. See also SECRET SERVICE. GOVERNORS GENERAL. The office of governor general is Canada’s oldest continuous institution, dating back to 1608, when Samuel de Champlain acted as governor of New France. (A list of Canada’s governors general is included in the appendix.) Today, the governor general represents the Queen as Canada’s head of state—opening Parliament, swearing-in cabinet ministers, performing duties as commander in chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, welcoming dignitaries from around the world, and bestowing Canada’s highest honors. The position is thus vice regal. The “head of state” status is reserved solely for the monarch, who appoints the governor general, although this is done on the recommendation of the prime minister of Canada. Canada has never had a resident monarch, though the government is a “constitutional monarchy,” that is, a parliament-controlled system with a monarch, or sovereign, as head of state. Since earliest French days, Canada has been under sovereign power, first French, then (beginning in 1760 with the Articles of Capitalization) British. By various constitutional and statutory measures, Canada’s separate status in the British Empire was established or achieved. In 1931, by the Statute of Westminster, Canada’s equal status with Britain and other self-governing dominions and colonies was acknowledged by Britain. This statute came in consequence of a long, difficult road to autonomy. Beginning with the French era, Canada had governors or sometimes commanders in chief. When Lord Durham was appointed to the office, he was named governor general as well as commander in chief. The former title recognized the plurality of British North American colonies or provinces (Lower Canada, Upper Canada,
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Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick); the latter title reflected the military nature of the position. Notably most French and British governors were military personnel—invariably army. Beginning with confederation (1867), the position of governor general was recognized in the constitution. Beginning in the late 19th century, the British government appointed nonmilitary, or civil, persons to the post. Governor general was one of the highest-ranking appointments in British imperial administration. The viceroyalty of India was more prestigious, and several Canadian governors general later went to New Delhi (and Simla). The long list of governors and governors general reads like an impressive who’s who of the French and British aristocracy. With the Canadianization of the office (under Charles Vincent Massey, 1952–59), diplomats and politicians have held the position. The last British office holder was Field Marshal Rt. Hon. Viscount Alexander of Tunis. The appointment of the Rt. Hon. Michaëlle Jean, 27 September 2005, brought the first non-British or non-Canadian-born to the office: she was born in Haiti and later immigrated to Canada. The governor general has certain powers. And there are circumstances in which the office holder has to exercise independent judgment. In 1873, John A. Macdonald’s government was granted prorogation by Lord Dufferin, but only for 10 weeks. The government subsequently fell. In 1926, prime minister Mackenzie King sought dissolution of Parliament when he was facing imminent defeat on a vote of confidence. Lord Byng refused. Mackenzie King promptly resigned. Arthur Meighen, leader of the opposition, was asked by Byng to form a government. He did so. In the subsequent election, Mackenzie King succeeded in making Lord Byng’s behavior, not his own, the issue in the subsequent election, which Mackenzie King won. In December 2008, Stephen Harper gained relief when the governor general granted prorogation, a reprieve granted again in 2010. The governor general of Canada resides in Rideau Hall in Ottawa. The office maintains a residence, or apartments, in the Québec Citadel. Rideau Hall is the governor general’s working residence; it was built in 1838 by a Scottish stonemason. The governor general has a foot guard and band. See also CARLETON, GUY; FRONTENAC; LA GALISSONIÈRE; METCALFE, CHARLES; MURRAY, JAMES; PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM.
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GRENFELL, WILFRED (1865–1940). An English-born medical missionary and author, Grenfell accepted the position of superintendent of the Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen. He began the Labrador mission in 1892. From early beginnings, he organized five hospitals, seven nursing stations, and three orphanages. His work attracted widespread attention in Great Britain. He was knighted in 1927. He was author of numerous widely read books. GROSS ILE, QUEBEC. A heritage site, this rocky island in the St. Lawrence River lies 50 kilometers east of Québec City. In 1847, the peak of Ireland’s Great Famine, brought on by the failure of the potato crop, 85,000 Irish shipped for Canada. Typhus traveled with them. Gross Ile was the quarantine station serving Québec City, the main point of entry. Of 100,000 people sailing to Québec City that year—six out of seven of them Irish—5,000 died at sea. Another 5,424 were buried on Gross Ile. Between 1832 and 1937, more than 4 million immigrants entered Canada at Québec City. Inspectors boarded incoming vessels, designating the sick to the island’s hospital and sending the healthy to preventative quarantine. The location is cold, windswept, and forbidding. Graphic accounts remain of horrific conditions from the 1847 tragedy. The station was originally founded in 1832 as a safeguard against a cholera epidemic then spreading from India to Europe to North America. The busiest year after 1847 was 1913, when 1,720 sick immigrants were treated. Reduced immigration and medical advances led to the station’s closing in 1937. History is full of quirks. During World War II, the Defense Research Board developed biological weapons here; more recently, the island was used by the Department of Agriculture. In 1984, Gross Ile became a Parks Canada historic site and is twinned with the National Famine Museum of Strokestown Park, Ireland. They serve as bookends for a tragic chapter of Irish history. GROULX, ABBÉ LIONEL-ADOLPHE (1878–1967). Historian and novelist Groulx, building on the traditions of others, portrayed French Canada and Québec’s progress as a heroic struggle against English domination. In doing so, he celebrated the clerical and agrarian pasts of Québec. As a French Canadian nationalist, he portrayed
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the Québecois as victims of British and Canadian imperialism. His most famous work was Notre Maître, le passé (1944). GULF OF MAINE CASE AND AWARD. In October 1984, the International Court of Justice (IJC), or World Court, drew a boundary that divides one of the richest fishing grounds of the world. The boundary was drawn “for all uses,” a noteworthy first. This was also the first time such a ruling obtained with respect to a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. In dispute since 1783, the Gulf of Maine fishery and the Georges Bank have valuable scallop yields, herring having been fished out or otherwise depleted and cod and haddock much reduced. In 1979, Canada and the United States entered into a 10-year management deal, at the same time referring the boundary issue to the World Court for binding decision. Four judges, in their ruling, drew a 253-nautical-mile boundary in three segments: northeastern, joint coastal, and open water. Canadians tended to be more satisfied with the ruling. Canada gained the prominent scallop-rich area of Georges Bank though was not awarded all of Georges Bank. The United States requested a one-year moratorium on the introduction of the boundary but Canada declined. GZOWSKI, PETER (1934–2002). Author, journalist, and broadcaster Peter Gzowski was a friend of millions by virtue of his long-running Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio shows Morningside and This Country in the Morning. Radio was his medium. He was a coastto-coast host who introduced listeners to Canadian literature and the arts, politics, everyday life issues of significance, and key matters of the day. He was a true Canadian institution, a true patriotic (nonparty) voice for the nation, a teacher, and an intellectual. Gzowski, it is wisely said, made Canada a family. He had an incalculable and unique effect on the shaping of the Canadian identity in the late 20th century. His charitable passion was encouraging literacy. He instituted Peter Gzowski’s golf tournament to raise money for literacy.
– H – HACKING, NORMAN (1912–1997). A premier marine journalist and pioneering maritime historian, Hacking was born in Vancouver and
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graduated in history (honors) from the University of British Columbia. For 30 years, he was marine editor of the Vancouver daily newspaper Province. He served in Canadian minesweepers and corvettes during World War II with the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve; he made 13 passages on North Atlantic convoy duty, attaining the rank of 1st lieutenant. “The Admiral,” as dubbed by his chums, was a great supporter of Canadian naval historians, was devoted to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, and was a founding member of the Canadian Nautical Research Society. He is best known for his various histories of steam navigation on the British Columbia coast. His book The Prince Ships of Northern British Columbia (1995) recounts the history of Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian National Railways seaborne operations. He wrote an unpublished autobiography, Hacking Aweigh. HAIDA AND HAIDA GWAII. The Haida people are located on the British Columbia coast, on Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, and on adjacent Alaskan islands. Isolation on the islands and dependence on the sea made the Haida great voyagers. The large, deep canoes of the Haida were used extensively for raiding other tribes. Smallpox at the end of the 18th century and smallpox (again), alcohol, and venereal diseases in the 19th century depleted the population. Many villages were abandoned. The population concentrated at Queen Charlotte City and Skidegate. Many Haida became Christians toward the close of the 19th century. Anglican and Methodist missionaries established churches and schools. The Haida strongly defended their aboriginal rights in hunting, fishing, and occupation of land. The famous Canadian destroyer HMCS Haida carries the name of this great people. See also INDIANS. HAIDA. Canada’s most famous warship, the HMCS Haida was built by Vickers-Armstrong Ltd. at Newcastle, England, launched on 25 August 1942, and commissioned under the White Ensign 30 August 1943. This Tribal-class destroyer had a long and active service in the North Atlantic, Arctic, and English Channel during World War II and the Korean Conflict, and elsewhere. Her “hottest” work was with the 10th Destroyer Flotilla in the English Channel before, during, and after D-Day. The ship was an escort for the Murmansk convoys. Its battle honors are: Arctic 1943–45, English Channel 1944,
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Normandy 1944, Biscay 1944, Korea 1952–53. The Haida’s first commanding officer was Comdr. H. G. DeWolf (later Vice Adm. DeWolf, chief of naval staff). The Haida is berthed at Hamilton, Ontario, as a floating museum and memorial to the Canadian Navy and merchant marine of World War II. The Haida is the last survivor of the famous Canadian, British, and Australian Tribal-class escort or fleet destroyers. HALIBURTON, THOMAS CHANDLER (1796–1865). Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Haliburton, sometimes known as “Sam Slick,” was an author, judge, and politician. He wrote many books, including The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville (1836–40). He coined many sayings, including “barking up the wrong tree.” HALIFAX. Established as a deliberate act of British statecraft, this fortified naval base and garrison was designed to strengthen British power in Nova Scotia (acquired as Acadia from France by the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713). Specifically, it was designed as a counterweight to the French bastion and maritime base of Louisbourg, Cape Breton. In short, it was an anchor of empire. Louisbourg had been returned to France after the War of the Austrian Succession, and plans for Halifax were implemented by Governor Edward Cornwallis in 1749 under directions of the British Board of Trade. From the outset, Halifax was the headquarters of ships of the Royal Navy on the North American Station (later North American and West Indies Station), which often included ships stationed in Newfoundland and Labrador waters. Admiralty House, now a base museum, was the admiral on station’s house. Dockyards, repair shops, stores, and construction yards grew with the base, and many ancillary industries developed in consequence. Boasting a large harbor, Bedford Basin, it was a fit anchorage for all warships of the world. It was defended by guns emplaced at the entrance and at McNab Island. Equally important, it was a garrison town, with infantry and artillery companies. Citadel Hill is a commanding presence above the town. Joseph Howe, tribune of Nova Scotia, was born here and became a prominent newspaper proprietor; he was also a champion of responsible government (first implemented here, a model for British Empire colonial and dominion development). Here in 1839, local
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merchant Samuel Cunard developed his famous shipping company, with trans-Atlantic service and a precious mail delivery contract from the imperial government. Halifax was additionally the colonial capital and is today the capital of the Province of Nova Scotia. The city was incorporated in 1841, and during the 19th century, prosperity continued if by fits and starts. The War of 1812 strengthened local trade and commerce. In the 1870s, the railway age began in Nova Scotia, with links to New Brunswick, Québec, and Boston. The naval base was transferred to Canadian authority in 1906. Halifax is host to many universities, notably Dalhousie, Mount St. Vincent, and St. Mary’s, and the Nova Scotia Institute of Art and Design. The population in 2001 was 119,297. Halifax played a vital role in imperial and naval affairs. As a shipping assembly point, it was noteworthy in both world wars. The City of Halifax was deregistered in 1996 when the Halifax Regional Municipality was created. See also HALIFAX EXPLOSION. HALIFAX EXPLOSION. A collision between the French munitions vessel Mont Blanc and the Belgian ship IMO on 6 December 1917 caused the munitions ship to explode. The explosion leveled the heavily populated northern part of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The explosion was heard as far away as Prince Edward Island. It was the largest human-made explosion until Hiroshima. The blast killed 1,600 people and wounded another 9,000. Prior to the blast, Halifax had been a major convoy port and naval base of World War I. HALL, WILLIAM (1829–1904). The son of former black slaves brought to Nova Scotia from Virginia during the War of 1812, Hall was born at Horton, Nova Scotia. He joined the Royal Navy in 1852 and won the Victoria Cross for bravery while serving with a British naval brigade at Lucknow, India, in 1857. He later lived at Avonport, Nova Scotia, where he died. HARPER, STEPHEN (1959– ). The 22nd prime minister of Canada, Harper was born in Toronto and moved to Alberta in 1978 to work in the petroleum industry. He completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies in economics at the University of Calgary and was part of a cluster of western Canada neo-conservative voices calling
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for the rethinking of Canadian government and methods of power. First elected to the House of Commons in 1993, as Reform Party candidate for the riding of Calgary West, he left Parliament for a while, becoming president of the National Citizens Coalition, a prominent advocacy organization. In 2002, he became leader of the opposition by winning the leadership of the Canadian Alliance and subsequently a by-election in Calgary Southwest. He was now back in Ottawa in the House of Commons. In 2003, his star still in the ascendant, he co-founded the Conservative Party of Canada and then won the new party’s leadership. In the 2004 election, he increased that party’s standing in the House of Commons by 25 seats. On 23 January 2006, Harper led the party to power by winning 124 seats in the federal election, ending 12 years of Liberal rule. He continued the policy of maintaining Canadian Armed Forces in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-backed stabilization of Afghanistan. His government undertook measures to strengthen the materiel of the Canadian Forces. He instituted tax reforms. In the October 2008 general election, seeking a majority, he won only a strengthened minority government (143 of 308 seats). Then followed difficult times as the economic crisis of late 2008 brought a crisis of confidence in his leadership and administration, the events of the U.S.-led recession being largely downplayed by him and his administration as not applicable to Canada. Meanwhile, Harper had led other parties as well as his own into the accepted view that Québec should be recognized within the Canadian confederation as a “nation.” On behalf of the government and the people of Canada, he also issued an apology to the First Nations for historic wrongs, a heart-rending act of contrition performed in Parliament. Late in 2008, his government faced defeat with the formation of a fragile coalition of the Liberals and the New Democratic Party, nominally backed by the Parti Québécois, but by getting a prorogation of Parliament, a crisis was averted. A second prorogation occurred in early 2010, sparking small but nationwide protests. HEAD, FRANCIS BOND (1793–1875). Head was lieutenant governor of Upper Canada in 1835–38. In the years immediately preceding the Rebellions of 1837, Head’s policies and hostility to reform assisted in creating tension between the factions. His action in sending
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almost all regular troops to Lower Canada in November 1837 was, by his own admission, designed to provoke a reaction. He was unable to handle the rebellion and was returned to England upon resignation. HEALTH CARE. Public health insurance has become a keystone of Canadian identity and belonging, and has become central to how Canadians see themselves in comparison to the United States. This system, which involves the federal government and all the provincial governments, owes its existence to the political circumstances and political parties of the 1950s and 1960s. The agenda was driven by left-of-center political interests. These were the years of general acceptance and adoption; they followed earlier initiatives. This national plan now faces the challenges of universality versus private health care, or a joint system of care (public/private). Health care now is the largest component of any federal or provincial government’s expenditures in Canada. Public health care was not a major government agenda item prior to World War II. The matter had been discussed in Ottawa and in provincial capitals. In 1943, public health was considered part of social reconstruction for the postwar world. Such a measure was introduced in 1945 in Ottawa by the Liberal government, but provinces, jealous of their fiscal rights, blocked implementation. When in 1944 the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation won its first election in Saskatchewan, with T. C. Douglas as premier, the promise to make health insurance one of the primary goals led, in 1947, to the first public hospital insurance plan in North America. Alberta and British Columbia soon followed Saskatchewan’s lead. Health care professionals did fight against implementation in certain circumstances, but the power of governments carried the day, and the message was easy to proclaim to the voting publics. In 1966, the federal government introduced a federal-provincial cost-sharing program for medical insurance. Universal, comprehensive principles of the plan were based on the Saskatchewan model. By 1971, universal health care existed in every province. But strife occurred. Doctors were in revolt in Saskatchewan in 1947. They did so likewise in Québec in 1970. Confrontation with physicians in Ontario marked the passage of the Canada Health Act (1984). This banned extra billing and user fees considered inimical to principles of access and affordability.
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The Canada Health Act, as important to Canadians as any piece of legislation, represents five principles: public administration, comprehensive care including hospitalization, universal entitlement, equal access, and portability within Canada. By no means does this Act provide every needed medical procedure or type of care, but it provides the essentials. And it is Canada-wide. The legislation provided for financial sanctions for provincial noncompliance on the five principles of the act. Various framework agreements between the federal government and the provinces (except Québec, which makes its own bilateral deal with Ottawa) have been signed since the passing of the Canada Health Act. The financial crisis of the 1990s meant a certain impoverishment of the system, but in 1999 the federal budget injected $11.5 billion for health care over five years. In 2001, the Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care, chaired by Roy Romonow, reinforced the Canadian appreciation of the vital significance of universal health care. No system is free from criticism or demand for private health care at user expense, and in the United States the Canadian system has been praised or pilloried depending on the message to be delivered. The brain drain south of Canadian doctors, nurses, and other health care providers has been cited in the United States as showing the faults and failures of the Canadian system and what is called, incorrectly, “socialized medicine.” In fact, the system is one of pre-paid insurance, with individuals, corporations, and governments providing funds. In some provinces, such as Québec, pharmacare exists. Oversight of pharmaceuticals and costs of prescription drugs exists in Canada. Assistance is given for optical work. Then there are ambulance and mobility services. The network of support is considerable, and it therefore forms one of the intercircling rings with unemployment insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, and the Old Age Security benefits that form a greater system of state-partnered support. Some would call this, not incorrectly, a welfare state. See also KREVER TAINTED BLOOD INQUIRY; ST. JOHN AMBULANCE. HEARNE, SAMUEL (1745–1792). An explorer of the Canadian north, Hearne was born in London, England. At the age of 20, he joined the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and was sent to a post (now Churchill, Manitoba) at the mouth of the Churchill River. In 1769,
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on instructions, he examined the western coast of Hudson Bay, and then traveled inland from the fort to the south of Chesterfield Inlet and to Dubawnt Lake. In 1770, he set out for the Coppermine River on the Arctic Ocean, returning home via Great Slave Lake. Hearne thus became the first white man to reach the Arctic overland from Hudson Bay and the first explorer to give a clear account of the barren lands and of Inuit life in these latitudes. In 1774, Hearne built Cumberland House, the HBC’s first post in the interior, as a counter to North West Company trade expansion. In 1775, he became governor of Fort Prince of Wales and was captured by the French naval officer Comte de La Pérouse in 1782. He was taken to France, where he was released on condition that his account of his Arctic travels be published. It appeared in 1795 as A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean, one of the giants of Canadian northern exploration literature. In 1783, the HBC sent him to reestablish a post at Churchill. He remained there until 1787, when ill health forced him to return to England, where he died. See also EXPLORATION. HENDAY, ANTHONY (?–1762). An English fur trader and explorer in Canada, working for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Henday was the first white to visit the Blackfoot Confederacy and to report on their customs and habits. He left Hudson Bay in 1754 to travel to the Saskatchewan River and made important explorations in what is now the province of Alberta. See also EXPLORATION; FUR TRADE. HENRY, PIERRE (1904–1979). A missionary of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) order, Father Henry lived among the Inuit and built a stone church at Pelly Bay, or Arvilikjuak (“the big place with bowhead whites”). He was joined in 1952 by Father Franz Van de Velde, and the priests traveled, lived, and worked among the Inuit of the eastern Central Arctic until 1965. The Inuit called Father Henry “Kayualuk” because of his full red beard. HERSCHEL ISLAND. The Yukon Territory’s only coastal island, Herschel was known to the Inuvialuit as Qilciqtatuk (“island”) but was renamed in 1826 by explorer John Franklin for his friend, the astronomer John Herschel (1792–1871). American whalers in search
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of bowhead arrived in the 1880s, and in 1894–95, when whaling was at its peak, 15 whale ships and 1,500 men and women wintered there at Pauline Cove. By 1907, the whale population exhausted, whalers ceased their appearance. Meanwhile, Anglican missionaries established a mission (1897), and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police exerted sovereignty over the island (1903). European diseases, introduced by the whalers, diminished the Inuit population in the Beaufort area from 2,000 to about 200 at the time whaling ended. Herschel Island became a territorial park in 1987. HIBERNIA. A petroleum field 315 kilometers east of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Hibernia was discovered in 1979 and developed in the 1990s at great expense to governments and partner investors. The turbulent history of this megaproject is marked by the 1992 crisis, when Gulf Canada withdrew from the project. The Canadian government contributed $1 billion in grants and $1.8 billion in loan guarantees. Against pressure to halt the project, the government also became an 8.5 percent shareholder. Hibernia Management and Development Co. is the owner; its partners are Mobil Oil Canada (33.1 percent), Chevron Canada (27), Petro-Canada (20), federally owned Canada Hibernia Holding Corp. (8.5), and Norsk Hydro of Norway (5). The first crude was drawn on 17 November 1997, thereby adding Newfoundland and Labrador to the Canadian oil-producing provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Ontario being the others). The first well produced 45,000 barrels per day, twice the estimate. Once 80 wells are drilled, over an 18-year lifespan, the daily average will be 135,000–170,000 barrels. HILL, DANIEL GRAFTON, III (1923–2003). A human rights trailblazer in Ontario and Canada, Hill was born in Independence, Missouri, the son of an African Methodist preacher and a great-grandson of American slaves. He graduated from Howard University, where his father was a dean of theology, and he served in the U.S. Army during World War II, but his military experience with segregation left him disgusted. He married a white woman and in 1953 they relocated to Toronto as a preferred place for an interracial couple to live. He completed a doctorate at the University of Toronto with his research entitled “Negroes in Toronto” (1960). He later penned
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The Freedom Seekers: Blacks in Early Canada, a groundbreaking popular work stressing achievement rather than oppression. A forceful, dignified person and a champion of the oppressed, he was founding director of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was an Ontario ombudsperson and a champion for aboriginal rights who regarded First Nations peoples as the most victimized constituency in the country. Hill founded the Ontario Black History Society in 1978. His son Daniel Hill is author of the noted novel The Book of Negroes (2007). HINCKS, FRANCIS (1807–1885). Reform-minded newspaper editor and railway tycoon Sir Francis Hincks founded the Canada West newspaper in 1837. He joined forces with Louis H. Lafontaine in promoting responsible government, opposed by Lord Sydenham. As premier of the Province of Canada in 1851, Hincks proposed reciprocity with the United States and initiated negotiations. A key player in the Grand Trunk Railway, he left public office in 1854 because of dubious financial dealings. Hincks was minister of finance in John A. Macdonald’s first cabinet in 1869 and attended to banking and currency regulations. He left politics in 1874, retired to business, and published his Reminiscences in 1884. HIND EXPEDITION. See PALLISER EXPEDITION. HISTORICAL WRITING. The first Canadian histories were compiled in the French language by priests, lay brothers, and colony builders, including Marc Lescarbot, Gabriel Sagard, and Samuel de Champlain. Lescarbot is regarded as the first historian of Canada; his work was titled Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1609). PierreFrançois Charlevoix, a Jesuit, is credited with writing the first perspective on French development in Canada. His Histoire de description générale de la Nouvelle France (1744) was based on the Jesuit Relations—the collective name given to a series of reports sent by Jesuit missionaries in Québec to the Society of Jesus in Paris, some of which were published in 1858 (73 volumes, covering the period 1610–1791, were published in English translation between 1896 and 1901). Jesuits continued as the premier Canadian historians, a trend identified later in the work of the secular Québec national historian
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François-Xavier Garneau in the mid-19th century. New France had no printing houses or publishers; in consequence, these early histories were published in France. The first English-language histories of Canada date from the period following the conquest of 1759. The War of 1812 accentuated the desires of Upper Canadians and Maritimers to write new histories of British North America. As the 19th century progressed, historians of what later became Canada wrote what could be called Britannic Canadian history. W. H. Kingsford’s 10-volume History of Canada (1887–98) is a comprehensive account of the political and constitutional development of diverse provinces prior to and following confederation. J. C. Dent’s The Last Forty Years (1881) eulogized moderate reform. Changing international relations and Canadian military activities overseas, first in the South African War (Boer War), then in World War I, accentuated Canadian nationalism. In addition, the economic development of Canada—in forestry, mining, agriculture, railways, and shipping—invited Canadians to rewrite their history in more structural terms. Joseph Pope edited the memoirs of John A. Macdonald. Oscar Douglas Skelton, a civil servant, compiled biographies of A. T. Galt and Wilfrid Laurier. Legal and constitutional expert W.P.M. Kennedy wrote histories of constitutional development to the 1940s. Works on labor by H. A. Logan, on CanadianAmerican relations by H. L. Keenleyside, and on Commonwealth relations by R. G. Trotter and Chester Martin were part of the diversification of research that marked the 1920s. In the years before and after World War II, historiography blossomed in the writings of several well-known and nationally committed university teachers. These include Harold Adams Innis, Donald Grant Creighton, Arthur R. M. Lower, Frank Underhill, W. L. Morton, C. P. Stacey, and toward the end of this era, J.M.S (Maurice) Careless, Margaret Ormsby, William J. Eccles, Kenneth McNaught, and Peter B. Waite. Arthur R. M. Lower became an expert on Canada’s hinterland, on the history of Canadian forests and timber trades. His Colony to Nation (1946) stressed moderate reform, North American nationalism, and reconciliation of the French and English linguistic communities. His Canadians in the Making (1958) pioneered Canadian social history. Frank Underhill was an
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advocate of left-wing and center-left positions on Canadian political progress. George Stanley predates W. K. Morton in the special study of indigenous peoples, especially the Métis, the treaties of western Canada, and the intervention (civil and military) of the Canadian state in western Canada. His Birth of Western Canada (1937) opened historical studies of this region and was not supplanted in terms of Métis history until Marcel Giraud’s The Métis in the Canadian West (1945; 1st English edition 1986). Manitoba-born W. L. Morton stressed the importance of the Canadian north and west, each with its own legitimate perspectives, in The Progressive Party in Canada (1950) and Manitoba (1957). With Kingdom of Canada (1963), Morton became the great “Red Tory” of Canadian scholarship, stressing Canada’s unique experience as a Nordic people, different from the Americans, with a state interventionist economy and strong government support for weaker groups and regions. Métis and the Frenchspeaking Canadians outside of Québec were his heroes; separatists and neo-conservative continentalists, his villains. He was editor of the significant series published by McClelland and Stewart commissioned to celebrate the Canadian centenary, 1967. Morton wrote The Critical Years: The Union of British North America, 1857–1873 (1964). He also wrote various important works about confederation in an historical context. The period prior to the centennial of Canadian confederation sparked a number of works. P. B. Waite compiled The Life and Times of Confederation, 1864–1867 (1962), an imaginative work based on the study of newspaper opinions on and about the idea of Canada, including much dissenting opinion. Other writers followed to reinterpret Canada’s past. Maurice Careless, in his biography of George Brown of the Globe newspaper, Brown of the Globe (vol. 1, 1959; vol. 2, 1963), and in other books, stressed the role of Toronto-led Upper Canadian reform in building the country and nurturing its economy. He also developed a thesis on multitiered metropolitanism, analyzing the efficacy of regionalism and multiculturalism and showing the futility of searching for a single Canadian identity or culture. His metropolitan-hinterland thesis helped spawn urban history as an academic study. Also of note is Craig Brown’s Robert Laird Borden: A Biography (vol. 1, 1975; vol. 2, 1980), on one of Canada’s prime ministers. William Eccles, writer on the French regime in books such as Frontenac, the Courtier
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Governor (1959), stressed France’s geopolitical and military interest in North America, criticized Innis’s staples approach, and later emphasized the ongoing role of native people. Margaret Ormsby turned her attention to British Columbia and the Pacific in the centennial appreciation British Columbia: A History (1958). Kenneth McNaught stressed the strength of an English-based social democratic tradition in A Prophet in Politics: A Biography of J. S. Woodsworth (1959). Beginning in the 1950s, Québec secular historians, after the corporatist-clerical historiography of Abbé Lionel Groulx, took an increasing interest in their own history. Particularly important are works by Michel Brunet, Gustave Lanctot, and Fernand Ouellet. Gerry Friesen’s Canadian Prairies: A History (1984) and Ken Coates’s and William Morrison’s writings on the Yukon and on other northern themes, inspired by the work of Morris Zaslow, have reflected a growing consciousness of regional affairs. Similarly, the Atlantic Shipping Project, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and based on British Board of Trade papers, examined the role of shipping and seaborne trades in the history of Atlantic shipping and ports. The history of the maritime provinces has also been served by writers such as Ernest Forbes, Ken Pryke, George Rawlyk, Judith Fingard, and earlier W. S. MacNutt. Barry Gough wrote histories of Pacific maritime activities and the War of 1812 on the Great Lakes. H. Viv Nelles, Christopher Armstrong, Michael Bliss, Peter Oliver, and others have written on Ontario regionalism and resources. Gilbert Tucker, Gerald Graham, Desmond Morton, S. F. Wise, J. L. Granatstein, Terry Copp, and Roger Sarty have made contributions to histories of the Canadian Army, Navy, and Air Force. Blair Neatby, Jack Granatstein, Robert Bothwell, and John English have written on mid-20th century political and administrative problems and personalities, all bearing on foreign policy and Commonwealth relations. A talented biographer, as well as being connected to the Liberal Party, John English wrote biographies of Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. The 1960s, a period not only of drugs, sex, and rock and roll, has been featured as a decade of rebelliousness by Bryan D. Palmer in Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era (2009). Ramsay Cook and Susan Mann Trofimenkoff have written widely of French Canadian nationalism and cultural movements. Repre-
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sentative works are Cook’s The Politics of John W. Dafoe and the Free Press (1963) and Trofimenkoff’s Action Française: FrenchCanadian Nationalism in the 1920s (1975). Historians have stressed the long story of aboriginal groups and their relationship with “settler” societies; these scholars include Bruce Trigger, Cornelius Jaenen, Barry Gough, Sylvia Van Kirk, Jennifer Brown, Robin Fisher, James R. Miller, Olive Dickason, A. J. Ray, Brian Slattery, John Milloy, David McNab, and Bruce Hodgins. Noted cultural historians are Maria Tippett and Jonathan Vance. Douglas Cole and Bruce Trigger have made distinctive contributions to cross-cultural history. Historians such as Douglas McCalla have confronted the staples approach to Canadian economic history, substituting a concept of complex internal activity that generated growth from expanding commercial and agrarian roots. Carl Berger and others explored Canada’s intellectual past, Greg Kealey and Bryan Palmer its working relations, Suzanne Zeller its scientific basis, and Cynthia Commachio aspects of family, gender, and politics. Popular historians include Pierre Berton, Peter Newman, Christopher Moore, and Charlotte Gray. Some historians not of the academy have crossed into creative nonfiction but are omitted from this analysis. Canada’s History Magazine (formerly The Beaver, founded 1920) is a popular historical journal of great longevity and ongoing strength, reviewing most prominent public books in Canadian history. Of greater significance to new scholarship are the Canadian Historical Review (1919), founded by historian George Wrong, and Journal of Canadian Studies (1966); both are important national scholarly publications. Acadiensis (1970), BC Studies (1969), and Ontario History (1908) are some of the many prominent regional historical periodicals. The American Journal of Canadian Studies is arguably the best foreign academic periodical covering Canada’s past. HOODLESS, ADELAIDE HUNTER (1857–1910). Home economist and teacher Adelaide Hoodless was born near St. George, Ontario. After the death of her son from contaminated milk in 1889, she dedicated her life to teaching girls and women about the sciences of child care and home management. She has been recognized as sole or joint founder of the Women’s Institute (1897), National Young Women’s Christian Association, Macdonald Institute, National
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Council of Women in Canada, and Victorian Order of Nurses. She died while giving a speech to the Federation of Women’s Club. See also WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. HOPKINS, FRANCES ANNE (1838–1919). Hopkins was born in England into an artistic family. Her childhood was filled with refining her painting and sketching skills. She moved to Lachine, Canada (now Québec), with her husband, Edward. Not content with remaining at home, she travelled with fur traders and voyageurs on a number of occasions. These expeditions led to her most recognized work, which centers on the lifestyle of the voyageurs. Her paintings are a combination of landscape and portrait art that captured the true nature of a way of life that was extinguished with the building of the railroads. Although her work is recognized by many, the artist behind the work has remained relatively obscure. In 1990, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery organized the first major exhibition of her works. HOSE, WALTER (1875–1965). Canada’s most famous sailor of the modern era, Hose was born in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy after long service in the Royal Navy, and he commanded HMCS Rainbow on the Pacific coast, then trade defense patrols on the Atlantic coast in 1917–18. As director of the Naval Service (1921–28) and later chief of naval staff (1928–34), Rear Admiral Hose established the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, with companies in all prominent Canadian cities. Its value became obvious in the late 1930s and during World War II. He was important in the survival of naval force structures and administration during the dark days of Canadian armaments and defense history. See also CANADIAN NAVY. HOUSE OF COMMONS. See PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS; PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. HOWE, JOSEPH (1804–1873). A politician and journalist, Howe was born in Halifax and became editor of the Nova Scotian in 1828. He served in the Nova Scotia Colonial Assembly for many years until 1863 and was a firm champion of responsible government. He engaged in a spirited letter-writing campaign with the British politi-
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cal leader Lord John Russell, who had outlined British objections to responsible government in a speech of 1839. In four brilliant, witty open letters to Russell, Howe reiterated repeatedly his central theme that the colonists were asking no more than the rights of English citizens. He served as provincial premier, fighting confederation, but later joined the federal cabinet as secretary of state. Howe has been called “the tribune of the people.” His importance to the history of the evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth is vast and secure. HUDSON BAY, ANGLO-FRENCH STRUGGLE FOR. Hudson Bay, discovered by Henry Hudson in 1610, became later in the 17th century an English commercial and strategic waterway, a northern access to the continental interior. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was founded in 1670 to exploit the landing of trade goods to the Indians and the taking out of furs, principally beaver. The French came to contest this dominance. War occurred in 1686, and intermittent armed conflict continued to 1713, when by the Treaty of Utrecht the French reluctantly and after a great struggle acknowledged English title to Hudson Bay. Highlights of the struggle include the HBC’s ketch Nonsuch, with trader Sieur de Groseilliers aboard, which arrived in Hudson Bay in 1668. The crew built Charles Fort at Rupert River, the first English post on Hudson Bay. Governor Charles Bayley, at the site of the future York Fort (later York Factory), formally claimed Rupert’s Land for the HBC in 1670. Jean Talon, intendant (chief administrator) of New France, sent an agent, the Jesuit Charles Albanel, overland to establish a mission on Hudson Bay and coax Pierre Radisson and Groseilliers to leave the HBC and join the French (1672, 1674). Bayley arrested Albanel in 1675 and sent him as a prisoner to England. Radisson and Groseilliers entered French employ in 1675. The HBC built additional posts (Moose Factory, 1673; Fort Albany, 1675; Old Severn, 1685). French authorities established the Compagnie du Nord and sent two ships into Hudson Bay with Radisson and Groseilliers aboard. A New England post was also established but the HBC took it, and Radisson and Groseilliers left the fur trade. Québec and Montréal merchants pressured the government of New France to send an overland expedition to capture HBC posts,
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and this was effected by Capt. Pierre de Troyes in 1686 in a brilliant overland and frontier campaign which caught the English defenders unawares. Sieur d’Iberville, who went overland with de Troyes, wintered on Hudson Bay 1686–87 but returned to Québec by sea in the captured vessel Craven. An English-French diplomatic wrangle followed. Iberville sailed for Hudson Bay and continued his successful war against the HBC. In 1690, the French launched the Battle for York Fort, the HBC stronghold, eventually capturing the post in 1694 (another Iberville triumph). York Fort was renamed Fort Bourbon. It went back to English hands only to have Iberville take it again in 1697. By the Treaty of Ryswick, York Fort was returned once more to the English; the French regained some posts captured by James Knight. In the next war, the French attacked overland in 1709 in a major expedition (70 Europeans, 30 Indians), but the English garrison at Fort Albany, aided by a native informant, made a successful defense. The conflict ended in 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht. HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY (HBC). Given an English royal charter 2 May 1670, “The Gentlemen Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay,” the HBC, devolved from French Canadian fur trade knowledge, native hunting capabilities, and English commerce and shipping. Headquartered in London, and after 1970 in Winnipeg, the HBC is the oldest business corporation in North America. The first governor of the company was Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Rupert’s Land, the chartered area of monopoly, was named for him. This area does not conform exactly to the boundaries of northern and western Canada but was defined as the lands drained by lakes and rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. The charter required the firm to search for a Northwest Passage, and the company’s apparent inaction led to a government inquiry in 1749 and to subsequent expeditions. In 1811, the Earl of Selkirk was granted a large tract of land by the HBC to create the Red River colony. In 1821, the HBC merged with the larger North West Company, based in Montréal, but the name was kept because of the precious charter, which gave the firm political stability. After 1821, the HBC held an unrestricted monopoly and controlled fur trade harvests. On the frontiers of competition in the Yukon,
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American mountain west, and Pacific Northwest, the HBC fought to retain the lion’s share of the trade. By license dated 1821, the HBC gained a monopoly of British fur trading in areas west of Rupert’s Land. In 1849, the HBC received from the British government a charter of grant to the colony of Vancouver Island, and the colony was for a time a company colony. In 1857, a British parliamentary inquiry recommended that Canada eventually be given control of HBC lands, and that meant an end, in 1859, of the 1821 license. The company was refinanced in the 1860s, revolutionized and diversified, and soon became a real estate agency. Gradually its northern stores and its southern department stores became its merchandising focus. The fur trade continued as its staple until the 1930s, but oil and gas, railways, mining, and other pursuits advanced readily. By 1989, the company had ended its involvement in the fur trade and had shifted its business focus to retail expansion. The HBC rebranded its stores in 1964 as “the Bay.” In 1978, it purchased Zellers, a discount chain. In 1979, it acquired Simpson department stores. The Thomson family took control of the HBC, outbidding George Weston Ltd., then made an exit from control in 1997. In 2006, American entrepreneur Jerry Zucker purchased HBC for $1.1 billion, though shock and consternation spread throughout Canada at this American takeover. On 16 July 2009, the New York company NRDC Equity Partners, owner of American department store giant Lord & Taylor, bought Hudson’s Bay Company with plans for expansion, rationalization, and consolidation, and to provide a fresh approach to the Bay and Zellers. Canadian historical studies about the HBC are to be found in the celebrated journal Canada’s History Magazine, formerly The Beaver (first issue 1920), published by Canada’s National History Society. Other historical information is provided in publications of the Hudson’s Bay Record Society and Rupert’s Land Historical Society. In 1994, the company donated its archive and artifact collections to the province of Manitoba. See also HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY AND ARCTIC EXPLORATION. HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY AND ARCTIC EXPLORATION. The Hudson’s Bay Company charter obliged it to undertake a search for a passage to the South Sea (Pacific), and this led to its role
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in exploration of the Canadian Arctic. A more pervasive reason for exploration in high latitudes was search for minerals, whalebone, and new trading partners, Inuit and Indian, so as to enlarge the scope and profit of HBC business. This second reason is demonstrated in the first northern voyage from Hudson Bay and James Bay forts by Henry Kelsey, from Churchill Fort, July–August 1719, in two ships, to search for copper. This expedition coasted at least as far north as 62 degrees, 40 minutes, beyond Marble Island. James Knight, in 1719–21, sailed from London to search the west coast of Hudson Bay north of 64 degrees for copper, gold, and the fabled Strait of Anian. Knight and his group all died on Marble Island of sickness and famine. The HBC exploring expedition in 1721–22 of John Scroggs and Richard Norton, from London, made further discoveries higher up on Hudson Bay, with Norton reporting a clear passage way to the west (dead-end Chesterfield Inlet). On the Québec shore of Hudson Bay, the company, beginning in 1684, had trade at Eastmain River, but not until 1723–24 was a permanent post built, by Joseph Myatt. Ice conditions on that side of the bay hindered discoveries. Rivalry from New France overland and from French naval units by sea interrupted HBC trading operations and shipping, so that until the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, which granted England full sovereignty in these latitudes, the company’s Arctic discoveries were fitful and unplanned, except for expedience of trade. The change to this set of circumstances came with the campaign of the Irish landowner and MP Arthur Dobbs, an energetic campaigner for the search for the Northwest Passage. At his instigation, in 1736, the HBC sent two vessels under James Napper and Robert Crow on a trading, mining, and Northwest Passage expedition to search near Roes Welcome Sound, to survey, and to open trade with Inuit. The expedition was a failure, except that Napper promised the Inuit that the HBC traders would return with trade goods. The company sent annual expeditions north from Churchill, diversifying and extending trade to higher latitudes. The British government, responding to Dobbs’s entreaties, sent two Royal Navy vessels, Furnace and Discovery, under Christopher Middleton and William Moor, in 1741–42. They sailed north from Churchill in company with the HBC vessel Churchill. They discovered Wager Bay, Repulse Bay, and then the
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entrance to Frozen Strait. A poor trade was made along the coast with Inuit, and no Northwest Passage was found, though a few incidental details were added to scientific knowledge of the Arctic in these latitudes. In 1744, the HBC sent, from Moose Factory, its first exploring expedition to the Eastmain shore, discovering Fort George, the Great Whale and Little Whale rivers, and reconnoitering Richmond Gulf. They did not locate a waterway to the Labrador interior; such a passage would have helped open trade there. In 1746, Dobbs, heading up the North West Committee, sent the ships Dobbs and California to Wager Bay, where surveys were made but no passage found. A parliamentary inquiry into the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1749, in response to Dobbs’s criticism, looked into the state and conditions of HBC trade; the result was no case for annulling the charter nor throwing the trade open to rivals. The company began, with Henry Kelsey and Anthony Henday, to search for trading Indians in the continental interior, the intention being to attract them to the forts on the bay. Traders on exploration encountered the Barrens, and the most significant discoveries of these were undertaken by Samuel Hearne, who set out from Fort Prince of Wales, Churchill River, in 1769 in company of Indians but achieved little. In 1770, he tried again and reached Kazan River, 300 miles north of Churchill. His goal was the Coppermine River, which drains to the Arctic Sea. Hearne broke his quadrant on this expedition and decided to return to base, further discoveries being futile. He was robbed by Chipewyan, but on the way back to Fort Prince of Wales encountered Matonabbee, a friendly, courteous Chipewyan chief, who offered to help Hearne on a subsequent expedition. This, the third attempt, was undertaken in the winter of 1770–71. They crossed the Kazan, found the barren lands around Artillery Lake, then encountered “Copper Indians” and reached the Coppermine River 13 July 1771. Hearne surveyed the river and made a famous chart of it. He reached the Arctic Ocean on 17 July, thus disproving the existence of a Northwest Passage between Hudson Bay and the mouth of the Coppermine. He erected a mark claiming the coast for the HBC. He had reached his goal, but the sight of the great icepack offshore negated any thought of opening a company trading port on that coast. He returned by Great Slave Lake, saw the northern lights, crossed the lake on ice, continued southward to and up the Slave
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River to near present-day Fort Smith, then returned to Fort Prince of Wales on 30 June. This was the first overland expedition to the Arctic Ocean; it closed Hearne’s remarkable voyages of discovery. Placed in charge of the fort, he surrendered it to Laperouse of the French naval squadron in 1782 and was conveyed to France. His journal, which ranks among the greatest in travel literature, was published in London in 1795. The HBC continued to explore northern Québec and Labrador with hopes of finding a route for overland communication. In 1836–40, John McLean, on instructions, made three overland journeys to find a route from Fort Chimo to Fort Smith. These discoveries forced a closure of Chimo and opening of a post at North West River, as the HBC reorganized its trade under strong economies. Similar explorations to expand trade but also to counter Russian trade from Alaska were made in Athabasca and the Yukon, mainly under Samuel Black, in 1824 of the Finlay River, and Robert Campbell, in 1842–44 of the Pelly River. The HBC’s northern explorations predated those of the magnetic survey of John Henry Lefroy (undertaken at the instigation of the Royal Society), and other explorations by the Geological Survey of Canada, various missionaries, and some American expeditions, such as that to Herschel Island. But they overlapped and complemented those of the Royal Navy, the leading force in Arctic discoveries from Greenland to Alaska in the 19th century. In 1837–39, Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson led an HBC exploring expedition of amazing endurance from Fort Chipewyan to explore those parts of the north coast of America not already explored by John Franklin in 1819–22 and 1825–27. From the Mackenzie River, they followed the shoreline west, completing the discovery between Return Reef and Point Barrow, Alaska, and eastward from the Mackenzie, between Turnagain Pont and Fury and Hecla Strait. In 1846, John Rae went north from York Factory to complete the survey between William Edward Parry’s Fury and Hecla Strait and Dease and Simpson’s farthest east of Castor and Polux Bay; he made another expedition the next year, leaving only Boothia Peninsula as the remaining unexplored part of the north coast of America. In 1854, he heard Inuit reports of the fate of the Franklin expedition and purchased relics from Inuit who had obtained them from corpses of the naval explorers. He returned to York Factory and reported the first
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definite news of the fate of the Franklin expedition, last heard of nine years before. The last of the great HBC explorers, Rae championed light traveling techniques, employing advice, materials, and supplies of the Inuit. His extensive travels closed geographical inquiries by the HBC in the Arctic; these were succeeded by those of various Canadian governments, mainly Marine and Fisheries Department expeditions, North West Mounted Police (later RCMP) patrols, whaling and fishing searches, scientific and missionary inquiries, and foreign examinations, mainly U.S. and Norwegian. HUGHES, SAMUEL (1853–1921). Born at Darlington, Canada West, and educated in Toronto, Sir Samuel Hughes was the editor and publisher of the Lindsay Warder and a master of local politics. Hughes was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1892. A nationalist and imperialist, he advocated strong Canadian forces for the South African War (Boer War). He fought in the war but came home under a cloud, though in some eyes a hero. He promoted the Ross rifle, which became the national arm. In 1911, Wilfrid Laurier’s government fell. Hughes became minister of militia and defense in Robert Borden’s government. His energy and drive led to vast changes in the militia. He was important in the mobilization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force in August 1914 for World War I. He established Valcantier, Québec, as a training base. His work was often disorganized. Madness or lack of judgment or impulsiveness showed themselves, but he was brought down from influence by the defective Ross rifle. Hughes disregarded Borden’s advice and was removed from the cabinet: “a nightmare removed,” said Sir George Foster, deputy prime minister. HURON. The Huron (or Wendat) confederacy consisted of four separate tribes: the Bear, the Cord, the Rock, and the Deer. The confederacy acted as a protective union against the Iroquois. The strongest tribe was the Bear, which accounted for about half the population of the Huron at the time of European contact. The Huron were located in southern and southwest Ontario. They were farmers of the land: agriculture was the main element of their livelihood. The principal enemies of the Huron were the Iroquois south of the St. Lawrence River. After the arrival of Europeans, the Huron suffered a large
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decrease in population due to smallpox and other diseases. The Iroquois took advantage of this and attacked the Huron with firearms bought from the Europeans. By 1648, the Iroquois had reduced the number of Huron further and many fled Ontario or became part of the Iroquois nation. Remnant groups survived. Many others went to Montréal or to Ohio and Michigan, where they were known as Wyandot. Many live in Oklahoma today. Prior to their downfall, the Huron were amicable traders with the Europeans and developed relations with the Jesuit missionaries from France. See also HURONIA; INDIANS. HURONIA. The area known as Huronia was the peninsular portion of today’s Ontario, adjacent to Georgian Bay, Lake Huron. It was the focus of the Jesuit missions to the Huron native peoples. The Huron traded with the French at Montréal. The Jesuits (and Recollets before 1632) worked to establish a systematic network of missions. Agriculture and fur trading developed. Iroquois expansion into Huron areas or destruction of Huron trading parties led to a crisis in the 1640s and the collapse of Huronia as a Jesuit mission in 1649. Many Huron died; others left the area. Ste.-Marie among the Hurons, an Ontario-administered heritage museum near Midland, Ontario, has preserved the main features of Huronia’s history. See also BRÉBEUF, JEAN DE; CARHAGOUHA; STE.-MARIE AMONG THE HURONS. HURRICANE HAZEL. Hurricane Hazel, 15 October 1954, battered southern Ontario, leaving in its wake a terrible toll: thousands homeless, $25 million in property damage, and 88 persons dead. Hailed as Canada’s storm of the century, it was later rivaled by the ice storm of January 1998. HUTCHINSON, BRUCE (1901–1992). Dubbed the dean of Canadian journalism, Bruce Hutchinson worked first at the Victoria Daily Times, then became a regular columnist for the Vancouver Sun. He was editor of both these papers and, for a time, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. Born in Prescott, Ontario, he spent most of his early years in Victoria’s James Bay. He wrote of these early years in The Far Side of the Street (1976). After his early experience as a reporter
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and writer in Victoria, he went to Ottawa to work in the parliamentary press gallery, becoming well acquainted with national political affairs and international relations. Hutchinson bought property in Saanich (Christmas Hill), which he used as a base of operations, and later acquired a summer property at Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island. He continued to write for most of his life. Chief among his books are The Unknown Country, The Fraser, The Incredible Canadian (about William Lyon Mackenzie King), The Struggle for the Border, and Mr. Prime Minister. “I’ll work for anybody but I’ll only work out of Victoria,” he asserted. He received many awards, including an honorary doctorate from Yale University. In 1967, he was named to the Order of Canada. A Liberal by persuasion, he was a passionate defender of his country and believed the battle for unity was well worth the toil and struggle. HYDE PARK DECLARATION. In April 1941, during World War II, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King met with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the president’s home in Hyde Park, New York. The subsequent declaration signed there by the two leaders increased the amount of raw materials the United States would buy from Canada, and Roosevelt agreed that Great Britain’s account would be charged under the Lend-Lease Agreement for industrial components sent to Canada for incorporation into munitions destined for Great Britain. This agreement eased Canada of financial worries for the remainder of the war; it also linked the economies of the two countries more closely together.
– I – IBERVILLE, SIEUR D’ (PIERRE LE MOYNE) (1661–1706). Soldier and fur trader Iberville’s heroic Canadian expeditions were primarily against the English forts in Hudson Bay. He captured York Fort in 1694 and recaptured it in 1697. He also took St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1696. In 1697, in order to restrict the English settlement to the Atlantic coast, Iberville was sent south to find the mouth of the Mississippi River and establish a fort there. He named the area Louisiana.
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IMMIGRATION. After aboriginal arrivals (the first immigrants), French from Normandy, Breton, and Picardy planted the first main colonies in Acadia and the St. Lawrence Valley. English and Scots settlements, as well as Irish and Welsh, also were established in the 17th century. By 1763, the immigrant population of New France, including in-colony human propagation, brought the total to between 65,000 and 75,000. Loyalist immigration to Nova Scotia and Québec consequent to the American Revolution brought new communities to the St. John River valley and to lands along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie. As a result, new colonies were founded: New Brunswick (1784) and Upper Canada (1791). The Hudson’s Bay Company assisted immigration to Red River in the second decade of the 19th century but did not otherwise encourage colonization, especially at Vancouver Island. The British assisted immigration of Scots and Irish from the 1820s through the 1850s, boosting the English-speaking populations of Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway had an immigration scheme, and so did the Salvation Army (founded by William Booth in 1865) and other church denominations and groups. Barnardo children from Great Britain were immigrants, too. Named after Irish social worker Thomas John Bernardo, 30,000 of these homeless or orphaned children from British slums were placed with Canadian families between 1870 and 1930. Under Clifford Sifton, western Canadian immigration was promoted to fill up vacant, agricultural lands. Between 1905 and 1912, nearly a quarter of a million homesteaders arrived in the prairie provinces, attracted by good land and promises of more. This brought many new communities from northern and eastern Europe, including Iceland, Ukraine, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Chinese immigration to British Columbia began essentially with the BC gold rush. It continued with the introduction of Chinese labor for the building of the Canadian Pacific and other railways. Japanese immigration to British Columbia began in 1877. Sikh immigration from the Punjab occurred beginning at the turn of the 20th century. In May 1914, HMCS Rainbow was used in aid to the civil power at Vancouver to turn away 360 illegal Sikh immigrants aboard the Japanese ship Komagata Maru. About 4,000 Sikhs lived in British Columbia before their immigration was banned in 1908. Asian immigration was curtailed by agreement with Japan or by legislation such as the
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“head tax” on Chinese. In 1967, the last remnants of exclusion on the grounds of race were expunged from Canadian legislation. After 1945, more southern Europeans immigrated to Canada, principally Italians and Greeks. France, after 1763, supplied hardly any immigrants to Canada or to Québec. In the 20th century, the United Kingdom headed the list of countries supplying immigrants to Canada, followed by the United States. However, Statistics Canada reported that as of 1996, the number of European immigrants to Canada had fallen to less than 50 percent of the annual total. In 1996, 10.5 percent of all immigrants came from Hong Kong, 8.5 percent from the People’s Republic of China, and 6.9 percent from India. Others came from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Poland, Taiwan, Vietnam, the United States (2.8 percent), and the United Kingdom (2.4 percent). The 1996 census revealed Britain and other European countries accounted for 47 percent of the 5 million immigrants then living in the country. This is the result of the growing influx of arrivals from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and other sources. Half of all immigrants as of 1996 lived in one of three cities: Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver, in that order. In the 1990s and after, half of all immigrants went to Ontario, Canada’s largest province. Thus 42 percent of Toronto’s population was made up of immigrants, compared with one-third for Vancouver. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2002 strengthened the constitutional rights of immigrants. The categories of immigrants are “family,” “independent,” and “refugee.” Figures for 2008 show a total of 247,243 registered immigrants. Of these, 65,567 have been classified as “family,” 149,072 as “independent,” and 21,860 as “refugee.” The 2001 census shows 34 ethnic groups with at least 100,000 persons in each (of a total population that year of more than 30 million). Visible minorities shown in the 2001 statistics are South Asian (4 percent), Chinese (3.9), Black (2.5), and Filipino (1.1). Other minorities shown are German (10.18 percent), Italian (4.6), Ukrainian (4.6), and smaller figures for Dutch, Polish, Swedish, and others. Canada’s immigration rate is one of the highest in the world. See also CHINESE CANADIANS; JAPANESE CANADIANS; UKRAINIANS. IMPERIAL ORDER DAUGHTERS OF THE EMPIRE (IODE). In a climate of patriotism fueled by the South African War (Boer
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War), the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire was founded in Montréal in 1900 by Margaret Clark Murray. Murray had empirewide intentions for the Canadian women’s patriotic organization, which was originally named the Federation of Daughters of the British Empire and Children of the Empire. Her imperial ambitions, however, were stopped by a rival British women’s patriotic organization formed in 1901, the Victoria League. In 1901, Toronto became the IODE’s national center and Edith Nordheimer the president. With the exception of a few satellite chapters in pre-confederation Newfoundland, United States, Bahamas, Bermuda, and India, the IODE remained confined to Canada, while the Victoria League expanded from Britain to South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Throughout the 20th century, the IODE was associated with a variety of patriotic and charitable organizations, including the Young Women’s Christian Association, Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Girl Guides. Unlike most other women’s organizations, patriotism was the IODE’s initial and enduring objective, with all of its maternal work directed toward the promotion of citizenship. Membership was open to “all women and children in the British Empire or foreign land who hold true allegiance to the British Crown.” Most members were of Anglo-Celtic ethnicity and Protestant in religion. The order was organized into national, provincial, municipal, and local chapters that were segregated along occupational, ethnic, religious, and age lines. Elite Canadian families such as the Eaton’s and Gooderhams were represented—Mrs. A. E. Gooderham was the president from 1911– 19. Although politically conservative, the IODE supported women’s higher education and suffrage. IODE’s greatest significance was during wartime—reflected in membership peaking at 50,000 during the World War I. Membership declined to 20,000 during the interwar years and then rose to 35,000 during World War II. Ontario always enjoyed the largest membership. After World War II, membership steadily declined, with Québec experiencing the most rapid drop in numbers. Yet the IODE outlived the empire it was formed to serve. At the beginning of the 21st century, there were approximately 7,000 members nationwide. The IODE’s longevity can be explained by its stable organizational hierarchy that enabled it to swing into action especially in times of crisis, its strong family networks, and the input of talented
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individuals. Excellent communication was ensured by the quarterly magazine Echoes that in particular benefited from long-serving editors Mary Kertland and Agnes Mary Pease. Among the members were “firsts” for women in political positions, such as Mayor Charlotte Whitton, Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon, and federal government minister Ellen Fairclough. Many respected educators were among the members, including Wilhelmina Gordon, first woman lecturer at Queen’s University, and Mary Bollert, first dean of women at the University of British Columbia, both of whom used their expertise to execute the IODE War Memorial Scholarships— a major Canadian education initiative. The IODE also survived so long because it adapted to the times. By the end of the 20th century, it had made the transition from patriotism to charity. Its history of arguably doing more than any other patriotic organization to promote a British Canada, and of being the largest women’s patriotic organization in the British Empire, was officially jettisoned. Overall, the IODE’s major contribution was to bolster the Canadian state from the sphere of women’s unpaid maternal work. It had a major impact in the areas of education, health, welfare, citizenship, immigration, and war work. It was well organized, well respected, and pragmatic. INDIAN KINGS. The Indian Kings of Canada were four Mohawk sachems who went to London in 1710 to plead for the assistance of Queen Anne. They were feted there, and they created a sensation. One of the chiefs was Brant, grandfather of the famous Joseph Brant. As a result of the Indians’ petition to the crown, funds were provided for a chapel (the Mohawk Chapel, near Brantford, Ontario), a Bible, and a silver communion service (later divided between the Grand River Reserve and the Deseronto settlement, Bay of Quinte). Missionaries were subsequently sent to the Mohawk by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, a London-based missionary society. The Indian Kings’ visit called attention to giving military and religious protection against the French in Canada. See also INDIANS; IROQUOIS. INDIANS. Indians, along with Inuit and Métis, are referred to collectively as the “aboriginal peoples of Canada” in the Constitution Act
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of 1982. Prior to the passage of this act, each of the three aboriginal groups received some form of legal recognition. Indian has many definitions and uses, and the differentiation of meanings is both striking and noteworthy of attention. Applied by Columbus to the people he encountered, the term has been used by Europeans for nearly 500 years to identify the aboriginal people of the Americas. This misnomer acquired legal meaning in the Proclamation of 1763, which made references to “the said Indians.” That document further makes reference to these “Nations or Tribes of Indians.” By this usage in constitutional law and practice, Indians has acquired legal existence in Canadian law, both as the signatories of treaties and land claims settlements and as “bands” under the Indian Act. Other statutes, such as the National Parks Act of 1974, refer to “people of native origin.” The Ontario Child and Family Services Act of 1984 refers to “native person,” and British Columbia’s First Citizens Fund authorized grants to persons of “North American Indian race.” But many further names have been given to “Indians.” These include First Nations, aboriginals, aboriginal peoples, and First Peoples. But the term Canadian Indian is not used. Even though wisdom provides abundant advice that Indian is a misnomer, the term still, and oddly, has legitimacy in Canadian law. There are many different legal meanings of Indian. Generally speaking, it means persons coming within the collective description of those specified under the Proclamation of 1763. Another classification is Status Indian, that is, registered, or entitled to be registered, as an Indian under the Indian Act. Those not registered are classified as Non-Status Indians. Individuals who are entitled to be registered under the Indian Act are eligible for tax exemption, can occupy reserve lands, can receive funding for prescriptions and medical services, have hunting, fishing and trapping rights, and generally speaking are granted funding for post-secondary education. Those not entitled to be registered under the act are not able to access these benefits. Treaty Indians, in other words, have different entitlements to the benefits of treaties than nontreaty Indians. Further, there are different legal positions for on-reserve and off-reserve Indians. But all band members are Indians, including nonstatus band members. The Indian Act recognizes and regulates bands. The Indian Act of 1876
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defined band to mean any “tribe, band or body of Indians” who have a reserve or an annuity. Tribe was not defined. To be a band, a particular group must first constitute a body. A body of Indians is a band if it has reserve lands, government trust funds, or is the subject of a cabinet declaration. Over time, many groupings have been discovered that fall outside the normal definition, the Alberta Lubicon being one such. An Indian band is a body of persons with unique corporate status. The Indian Register, maintained by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, is the list of persons registered as Indian. This is where the individual has distinction in law from the collective designation. Registration is a means by which an individual can provide evidence of his or her status as an Indian. It is from the entitlement to register that the rights of status Indians flow. Band lists are kept by the band or by the department, or sometimes both. There exists a bewildering list of federal laws and regulations in regards to Indians: the Indian Oil and Gas Act, Indian Estates Regulations, Indian Band Election and Council Procedure Regulations, Indian Band Council Borrowing Regulations, Indian Health Regulations, Indian Reserve Traffic Regulations, and others. The aim of Canadian governments in the 19th century was to enfranchise Indians and thus take them off reserve and into mainstream society. By the Province of Canada’s Gradual Civilization Act of 1857, males could be enfranchised and lose Indian status. By the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869, women marrying non-Indians, that is Euro-Canadian, Métis, or nonstatus Indians, lost their status. In 1876, the Indian Act also said that a university graduate lost his status; the same applied to any who entered one of the professions. Indian communities resisted enfranchisement. Gender discrimination was blatant, for if a man married out, he did not lose status, but a woman who did lost hers. The Ojibwa woman Jeanette Lavell fought this in court and lost, but a Maliseet, Sandra Lovelace, succeeded in having this policy branded as discriminatory by the UN Human Rights Committee in 1981. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms theoretically ended all such discriminations and brought to an end the process of enfranchisement. But it did not totally exclude discriminations. Changes to the Indian Act are ongoing, reflecting appeal in the British Columbia Court of Appeal in
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2009. Prior to 1985, women and their children lost their eligibility for status under the Indian Act if the woman married a nonnative man, but the opposite held true for Indian men. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs subsequently prepared ameliorative legislation to be introduced to Parliament. Over time, Indians have recovered rights of hunting, fishing, trapping, and food gathering. Native religion is afforded protection under law. The practice of native religion is guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition, the Constitution Act of 1982, section 35 (1), affords protection for the entrenchment of aboriginal and treaty rights. For historical details of various Indian nations or bands, see ASSINIBOINE; BEOTHUK; BLACKFOOT CONFEDERACY; HAIDA; HURON; IROQUOIS; KWAKIUTL; MI’KMAQ; NISGA’A; NUU’CHAH’NULTH; PLAINS CREE; TSIMSHIAN. See also ABORIGINAL RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS; BIG BEAR; GITXSAN-WET’SUWET’SU LAND CASE; INDIAN KINGS; NUNAVUT; OKA; PEMMICAN; PONTIAC’S WAR; SHAWNADITHIT; TECUMSEH; THANADELTHUR. INNIS, HAROLD ADAMS (1894–1952). An economist, historian, soldier, and social scientist, Innis was born in Otterville, Ontario. He wrote histories of staple trades and communications and spent most of his professional life at the University of Toronto. He wrote widely on fur, wheat, railways, pulp and paper, and communications and was the most important scholar to write histories on the economic development of what became Canada. His works on staples and on communications are fundamental to an understanding of Canada’s economic history and the nation’s continuing difficulties as a world trader. Innis also wrote histories of the Canadian Pacific Railway, wheat, and the cod fisheries. His most important book was The Fur Trade in Canada (1930). Innis claimed that the fur trade and its voyager canoeing and trekking routes marked out the future political boundaries of Canada. He also argued that because Canada’s staples economy was dominant on a world stage, it would remain both northern and marginal. The fur trade linked European trade items, shipping, and capital with Montréal-centered warehousing and exchange; moreover, it linked European traders, French Canadian voyageurs and labor, and First Nations energy,
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talents, and demands. Innis highlighted the pervasive influence of the United States in Canada’s more recent development. By his many works, exemplary as pioneering social science in Canada and reflective of American scholarly influences, Innis became recognized as a truly international scholar. His significance in critical media and communications was strong. He also had an appreciation of the north in Canadian identity and development. He traveled northern Canadian rivers by canoe and barge, increasing his knowledge of resources and difficulties of transportation. See also HISTORICAL WRITING. INTELLIGENCE SERVICES. See SECRET SERVICE. INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA. The boundary commission had its beginning with the appointment of the commissioners to survey and mark that section of the Alaska boundary line as fixed by the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903. Legal authority for the International Boundary Commission was provided by a convention concluded in 1906 between the United States and Great Britain. This convention established a joint commission to survey and mark the boundary that begins at Mount St. Elias on the 141st degree of west longitude and runs due north to the Arctic Ocean. The commissioners who were conducting the survey under the terms of the award of the 1903 tribunal were also appointed to conduct the new survey. The duties of these commissioners were expanded by the treaty signed 11 April 1908 between the United States and Great Britain. This treaty provided for the resurveying and remarking of the entire boundary between the United States and Canada except the boundary of Alaska. Each article of the treaty defined a specific section of the boundary: Article I, through Passamaquoddy Bay; Article II, from the mouth to the source of the St. Croix River; Article III, from the source of the St. Croix River to the St. Lawrence River; Article IV, from the St. Lawrence River to the mouth of the Pigeon River; Article V, from Pigeon River to the Lake of the Woods, Article VI, from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky Mountains; Article VII, boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Georgia; and Article VIII, from the 49th parallel of north latitude to the Pacific Ocean.
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Each article, except Article IV, included a provision for the establishment of a joint commission to carry out the terms of the article. Article IV, which concerned the water boundary, provided for the surveying and marking of the boundary by the International Joint Commission, United States and Canada. Although the treaty provided for the creation of seven commissions in addition to the Alaska commissions established by the 1903 tribunal and the 1906 convention, the same persons were appointed to serve on all the commissions; thus, each country was represented by only one commissioner for the whole of the U.S.-Canadian boundary line. See also INTERNATIONAL WATERWAYS COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA. INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA (IJC). The IJC was established under treaty between the United States and Great Britain on 11 January 1909. The commission has a threefold jurisdiction. Its authority is final in all cases involving the use or diversion of boundary waters of the United States and Canada, or rivers crossing the boundary; it investigates and reports on questions relating to conditions along the boundary, which may be referred to it by either of the two governments; and it may settle any question that the two governments agree to refer to it for that purpose. The commission was made a permanent court of arbitration by Article X of the treaty. Cases involving matters of prime interest to states, provinces, and nationals have come before the commission for investigation, report, or decision. Among these cases are those involving the use of boundary waters, water levels of the Lake of the Woods, the practicability of improving the upper St. Lawrence River for both navigation and water power, and damage to orchards by fumes from the smelter at Trail, British Columbia. The commission is composed of three U.S. commissioners and three Canadian commissioners. See also INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA; INTERNATIONAL WATERWAYS COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA. INTERNATIONAL WATERWAYS COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA. In 1902, the U.S. Congress requested
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the president to invite Great Britain “to join in the formation of an international commission, to be composed of three members from the United States and three who shall represent the interests of the Dominion of Canada, whose duty it shall be to investigate and report upon the conditions and uses of the waters adjacent to the boundary lines between United States and Canada, including all waters of the lakes and rivers whose natural outlet is by the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.” The commission was to report on means to regulate water levels and diversion of water and on methods for improving and regulating navigation on boundary waters. The invitation tendered by the U.S. ambassador at London was accepted by the Foreign Office in 1903. When the full commission met on 25 May 1905, it was agreed that the chair of the U.S. Section would serve as chair of the body at its meetings in the United States, and the chair of the Canadian Section would preside over meetings held in Canada. In interpreting the scope of the law, the British government preferred a broad interpretation that included almost the entire U.S.-Canadian water boundary extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The U.S. Section contended that the law restricted the commission to discussing matters pertaining only to that part of the water boundary that flowed into the St. Lawrence River. In June 1905, the Canadian government instructed its representatives to proceed with the work of the commission within the scope prescribed by the U.S. Section. In 1905, the commission defined 11 problems to be discussed. These concerned such matters as the uses of the waters of the Sault Ste. Marie and Niagara rivers, differences in the marine regulations of the two countries, maintenance of effective water levels, illegal fishing, and construction of channels. Until 1908, the International Waterways Commission functioned within the scope of the U.S. act of 1902 as agreed to by the British government. A treaty concluded on 11 April 1908 expanded the commission’s duties. Article IV of this treaty empowered the six commissioners to reestablish the boundary line beginning at the point of its intersection with the St. Lawrence River near the 45th parallel of north latitude, through the Great Lakes and communicating waterways to the mouth of Pigeon River at the western shore of Lake Superior. This section of the northern boundary was originally defined
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in the provisional treaty of peace of 1782, and most of the points of controversy were settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. The whole commission held its first meeting under terms of Article IV on 2 June 1908 at Buffalo, New York. On 15 August 1913, the International Waterways Commission “fixed and adopted” the boundary line as surveyed and marked. The final report was officially transmitted to the U.S. and Canadian governments on 29 April 1915. See also INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA; INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION, UNITED STATES AND CANADA. INTERNMENT, 1914–1918. During World War I, under the 1914 War Measures Act, 7,762 resident enemy aliens were interned out of a registered population of 120,000 (in the United States, 2,300 were interned out of a registered population of 800,000 in 1917). Most of the internees were nationalities of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, notably Germans and in larger numbers Ukrainians. Internment camps, 24 in all, were established at such places as Vernon, Mara Lake, Morrissey, Banff, Castle Mountain, and Jasper. The internment was administered by the Internment Operations Directorate. The Dominion Parks Brand and the BC Department of Public Works contracted with the directorate for labor, and to them was entrusted confinement and maintenance. Internees were used in road and bridge construction, and an intense period of construction occurred in the mountains of British Columbia and Alberta, from the BC border to Jasper. The workers often engaged in work stoppages or slowdowns; some tried to escape and succeeded while others failed in the attempt. The system was benign, not tyrannical, though some historians have attempted to demonstrate its brutal, repressive nature and questioned its legality. Japanese Canadians were interned in World War II. INUIT. An aboriginal people of Canada living in the eastern Northwest Territories (NWT), the Inuit were previously called Eskimos; their homeland is Nunavut. The relocation experiment of several Inuit communities was organized by Canada’s Department of Resources and Development and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The relocations were from Port Harrison, Québec, to Grise Fiord (Craig
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Harbor) and Resolute Bay (1953–55). Others, some earlier, were to Devon Island (1934), Baffin Island (1926), King George Island and Sleeper Island (1951–52), and Churchill (1953). Canadian government authorities—especially former commissioners of the NWT— have denied that the Inuit were “human flags” to reinforce Canadian sovereignty in the high Arctic. Official records reveal the government’s purpose was to overcome the “Eskimo problem”—unstable economy, poor health, and growing welfare dependency. Policy directives of the time aimed at self-sufficiency and maintenance of traditional ways of life. Relocations were physically and emotionally difficult for the Inuit, who did not “volunteer.” Inuit were not part of the general political discussions that led to their removals to high latitudes; mutual consent was absent from the process. Trusteeship, and government obligation, propelled policy. The Inuit are accorded status of aboriginal peoples of Canada under terms of the Constitution Act of 1982 and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. IROQUOIS. The Iroquoian peoples speak a common language. The Iroquois Confederacy was located along the southern shoreline of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, known to scholar William Fenton and others as Iroquoia. This was excellent corn-growing country. Initially, the confederacy consisted of five nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. The largest tribe in the confederacy was the Seneca, but the most aggressive was the Mohawk. The Iroquois nation fought many bitter battles with other surrounding natives. The Iroquois prevented the French from expanding up the St. Lawrence River. After Samuel de Champlain led the Huron and allies to a great defeat of the Mohawks on Lake Champlain in 1609, the Iroquois Confederacy became permanent enemies of the French and allied themselves with the British. This changed in 1700 when the Iroquois, with the Abenakis and Ottawa, agreed to peace terms with the French. In 1701, at Montréal, the Iroquois entered into a great treaty of alliance with the French. Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk, became a Roman Catholic in 1676. She founded a Mohawk community at Kahnawake, near Montréal. Known as a miracle worker, she was entombed at Kahnawake after her death in 1680. Meanwhile, the Iroquois in search of fur-bearing regions were a force that resulted in the destruction of Huronia and the scattering
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of the remnant Huron in 1649. In 1713, the Tuscarora nation from the Carolinas fled to Canada from white settlers. They were accepted into the confederacy, creating the present-day League of Six Nations. During the Seven Years War, the Six Nations shifted alliance from the French to the British, a remarkable development that killed the French empire in northern North America. They assisted the British in conquering New France. Many Iroquois warriors fought for the British in the War of 1812. The population of the Iroquois declined after contact with Europeans, due mainly to smallpox and bitter wars with the Huron and French. The Six Nations fought with the British against the Americans in the American Revolution. They were rewarded with land grants in Canada. One of these was the Grand River, where they settled (near Brantford). Joseph Brant, their leader, sold many of their lands. In 2007, the Six Nations set up the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), the first of its kind in Canada, to demand development fees in the Haldimand Tract. This is a strip of land encompassing 10 kilometers on either bank of the Grand River, stretching from its mouth on Lake Erie to river headwaters in Grey County. The Six Nations claim rightful ownership of the land, which it says was granted to Brant in 1784 and never legally surrendered. They asserted jurisdiction over the entire Haldimand Tract where only municipal regulations (defined by the Province of Ontario) obtain. The HDI claims a share in the benefit of what is being done on the land, a rent by leases and payments or fees. Opponents refused to pay fees for development on land they have legal title to. Construction was halted by native protests. Historically, the British Crown purchased aboriginal title from the Mississauga, then gave the land to the Six Nations. Aboriginal title was then extinguished under terms of the Proclamation of 1763. See also INDIANS.
– J – JAMES BAY AGREEMENT. A treaty signed in 1975 between Québec and Cree and Inuit living in northern Québec adjacent to James Bay, the agreement transferred native rights from the Cree and Inuit to Québec in return for $225 million, hunting and fishing rights, and
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substantial self-government. The treaty was negotiated to permit the Québec government to build the massive James Bay Project. JAMES BAY PROJECT. A massive construction project to harness the hydroelectric potential of several river systems emptying into James Bay was announced in 1971 by Québec Premier Robert Bourassa. The James Bay Project diverted rivers, created one of the world’s largest underground powerhouses, and built dams and dikes. In addition, it created numerous ecological problems that have affected the Cree and Inuit, as well as the natural environment. Most of the power generated is sold to customers in the United States. JAPANESE CANADIANS. The first Japanese immigrant (Manzo Nagano) settled in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1877, and by 1914 there were 10,000 permanent Japanese residents in Canada. They, like other Asians, faced discrimination mainly in the workplace. In 1907, at Canada’s insistence, Japan limited male immigration to Canada at 400. In 1928, Canada restricted Japanese immigration to 150 per year. Legal Japanese immigration did not resume until 1967. In 1986, the census found 40,240 Japanese in Canada. The Japanese define themselves in Canada as Issei, those who arrived 1877–1928; Nisei, their Canadian-born children; and Sansei, the third generation, born in the 1950s and 1960s. Japanese immigrants came from various prefectures, backgrounds and classes. The Issei were predominantly of peasant or fishing cultures; they came from very poor circumstances. The Nisei were conscious of their loss of culture, inculcating in the children the dress and manners of a world regretfully lost by coming to the New World. Those arriving after 1967 were educated members of the industrial urban middle class. Exclusion and discrimination marked Japanese progress in Canada. The Japanese settled in certain enclaves: Cumberland, Vancouver Island, where the males worked as coal miners; Powell Street, Vancouver, where many males were employed in the Hastings Mill; and Steveston (a fishing community), Mission City, Tofino, and Prince Rupert, all in British Columbia. In some locations, they built schools, community halls, Christian churches, and Buddhist and Shinto temples. They formed clubs and cooperatives. Japanese operated a whaling station in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
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On 24 February 1942, during World War II, by federal Orderin-Council 1486, the government ordered the removal of persons of Japanese ethnicity irrespective of nationality residing within 100 miles of the Pacific coast. This was done for two reasons: protection of the white society from Japanese attack, and protection of the Japanese from white reprisals for events at Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, Singapore, and elsewhere. Thus, 20,881 Japanese Canadians (75 percent were Canadian nationals) were moved to detention camps in eastern British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. Property was expropriated and sold by Order-in-Council 469, declared 19 January 1943. Attempted deportations continued until 1946, when the process was stopped owing to mass public protest. The Sansei have built a new kind of Canada for the Japanese. More than 75 percent have married non-Japanese. Of the fourth generation, the integration into mainstream Canadian life is characteristic, as the distance of time and space grows between the first generation and their own. Owing to pressure from the National Association of Japanese Canadians, the Government of Canada, following the example of the United States, issued a formal apology and provided (partial) financial compensation. On 22 September 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney delivered the official apology and announced the Redress Settlement in the House of Commons (enacted by Orderin-Council 31 October 1988). The settlement called for individual monetary compensation, a community fund, and creation of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (1997). This measure by the government acknowledged wartime injustices suffered by the Japanese community. Among prominent internees were novelist Joy Kogawa, who wrote about this in Naomi’s Road (1986); Shizuye Takashima, who did similarly in A Child’s Prison Camp (1971); architect Raymond Moriyama; and scientist, environmentalist, and television broadcaster David Suzuki. Kogawa and Takashima have written tales of innocence lost, spinning memories into literary gold. In Hiroshima Immigrants (2008), historian Michiko Midge Ayukawa traces family history (and the central role of women) from the circumstances that precipitated emigration to the lives of migrants who settled in Canada.
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JESUIT RELATIONS. The published works by the Jesuits familiarly known as the Jesuit Relations were annual reports from the superiors of the Jesuit missions in Canada to the provincials of the order in France. In addition to their distinctly religious portions, they include much firsthand information about the natural resources of the regions that were the centers of missionary work; the manners, customs, and language of the native inhabitants; the incessant intertribal wars of the Iroquois and other Canadian native peoples; and the zeal and tribulations of the missionary priests. They provide a main source for information on the destruction of Huronia. Occasional comments on relations with the English colonies in New England and the Dutch colonies of New York add to the value of the reports as source books for the early history of the areas. See also HISTORICAL WRITING. JESUITS. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, played a profound role in Canadian (and North American) religious and social history. Given by the French government in 1632 the monopoly of conversion of the native population, the Jesuits took over from the Recollets the full control of the Huronia mission; the mission ended in consequence of the Iroquois wars. The Jesuits were also notably involved in the exploration of North America, Père Jacques Marquette being the most notable Jesuit explorer. The Jesuits assumed control of the religion of Canadian settlements, both urban and rural. Their seminary at Québec became Laval University, the first university in Canada. Another prominent institution of higher learning was Loyola College, which in the 1960s became part of Concordia University, Montréal. The apostolic vicar responsible for the educational and religious growth of the colony was François-Xavier de Montmorency Laval. The Jesuits became prominent landholders in New France and in some areas could control, under law, one-seventh of all lands. The order was suppressed in the late 18th century but reestablished in Québec in 1842. In 1888, by statute, compensation to the Jesuits for loss of these lands (sequestered by the crown) was finally agreed upon. How to allot the compensation, which had to be spent on education, was a difficult question. In the end, $400,000 was the value set on these lands. The act granted $70,000 to the province’s Protestant schools; the rest was divided within the Catholic community at the pope’s
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discretion. In Québec, this was a satisfactory solution. In Ontario, however, the Orange Order was enraged, charging the Government of Québec with inviting the pope to intervene in Canadian affairs. The prime minister, John A. Macdonald, refused to disallow the act, coming as it did, he argued, within clear provincial powers (especially land regulation and schools). See also BRÉBEUF, ST. JEAN DE; STE.-MARIE AMONG THE HURONS; UNIVERSITIES. JOHNSON, EMILY PAULINE (1861–1913). A poet and performer, Johnson was a Mohawk, born in Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. She began a career of platform entertainment in 1893. On stage, she recited her poems. Her popularity rose as she crossed Canada and the United States, and she became known as “The Mohawk Princess.” A book of her poems titled Legends of Vancouver was published in 1911. JOLLIET, LOUIS (1645–1700). An explorer, fur trader, and landholder under the seigneurial system, Jolliet was born in Québec and educated at the Jesuit college there. Jolliet abandoned ecclesiastical life for the fur trade. He was the discoverer, with Père Jacques Marquette, of the Mississippi River in 1673; they navigated downriver to within 400 miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Marquette’s narrative tells this story; Jolliet’s, sadly, was lost. As a reward for his discoveries, Jolliet was granted Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He settled there with his family. He also made voyages to Hudson Bay (1679) and Labrador (1694). In 1680, he was appointed royal hydrographer and royal pilot. In 1697, he obtained a seigneurie, Jolliet, in Beauce County, Québec. JUNG, DOUGLAS (1924–2002). Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jung graduated from Victoria High School, joined the Canadian Army, and served in Force 136 of the British-led Special Operations Executive behind enemy lines during World War II. Later an immigration lawyer, he became MP for Vancouver Center in 1957. He was the first MP of Chinese extraction. He later represented Canada on the Legal Committee of the UN.
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– K – KING, WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE (1874–1950). A lawyer and politician, and grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie, King was born in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, and was educated at Kitchener Collegiate Institute. He studied law at the University of Toronto, then undertook post-graduate work at the University of Chicago and Harvard. An expert on labor relations and social theory, he became a Liberal member of Parliament for Waterloo North in 1908 and minister of labor (1909–11). Defeated in the 1911 election, he was for a time a labor advisor to J. D. Rockefeller. In 1919, King reentered Canadian federal politics and became leader of the Liberal Party, succeeding Wilfrid Laurier. He was elected prime minister in 1921 and served 1921–26, 1926–30, and 1935–48. His term in office is the longest in Canadian history. A great conciliator and master of brokerage politics, King fought against Governor General Julian Byng in a celebrated constitutional struggle in 1925–26. He often was at odds with the provinces, but he agreed to transfer resource management to them. He underestimated the depth of the Canadian economic depression that came with the Wall Street crash of October 1929. He called an election for July 1930 and was defeated. Richard Bedford Bennett, former opposition leader, formed a Conservative administration with a healthy majority. King was back in power in 1935 under the slogan “It’s King or Chaos.” He was far less interventionist than Bennett and eschewed demands from the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation for direct action and government takeover of the Canadian economy. King fought against Alberta’s post-1935 legislation for fiscal power and control, and won. But he transferred ownership of resources to the provinces. On the tricky subject of federal relations with provincial capitals and governments, he established, as a point of reference and inquiry, the Royal Commission of Federal-Provincial Relations (the Rowell-Sirois Commission). Often seen as a socially irresponsible prime minister, King was actually a brilliant parliamentary strategist. An avowed nationalist and opposed to military armament, he objected to British imperial jingoism
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and feared American military and economic domination during World War II. He strongly supported the concept of dominion autonomy within the British Empire. He met Adolph Hitler in Germany and told him bluntly that Canada would not stand idly by in the face of German aggression. He led Canada toward and into war, launched a military rearmament plan, and worked with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. on wartime cooperation. In Canada, military production increased during the war, Japanese Canadians were interned as security risks, and labor shortages were rectified by the Military Conscription Act of 1944. All of these were controversial. King’s slogan on the subject of conscription had been “not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.” King had a strong interest in spiritualism, for which he was often ridiculed. He built a delightful retreat in Kingsmere, north of Ottawa, in Québec. He authored Industry and Humanity (1918; rev. 1935 and 1947). In 1948, he resigned from office. His boyhood residence in Kitchener, Woodside, is a Parks Canada site. See also NEW DEAL. KLONDIKE GOLD RUSH. The last great North American gold rush followed reports in August 1896 of discoveries in the Yukon. The location was Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River near what became Dawson City (now Dawson). The discoverers were George Washington Carmack and his Indian friends Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie. In the next few years, miners poured in, mainly by ship up the Lynn Canal to Dyea or Skagway and thence through the Chilkoot and White passes and down 800 kilometers of the Lewes and Yukon rivers to Dawson. Others made their way up the Stikine River or even by way of the Mackenzie and Porcupine. In July 1897, Klondike excitement neared its height. Thousands went over White and Dyea passes, and business in all the coastal cities, including Victoria and Vancouver, were greatly stimulated. Facilities of communication were increased by building the narrow-gauge White Pass Railway and establishment of a line of steamers from Whitehorse to Dawson. Dawson rapidly acquired a population of 25,000. Annual gold production rose to a maximum in 1900 of over 35 million grams. The Canadian government responded to the inrush of people and potential disorder by sending in a contingent of North
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West Mounted Police under Samuel Steele. The Yukon Territory was proclaimed 13 June 1898. Rival claims of Canada and the United States to the ports at the head of Lynn Canal, based on differing interpretations of the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825, became of immediate importance. They were finally settled in favor of the United States by a joint Anglo-American tribunal appointed in 1903 to define the Alaska boundary between the two sovereignties. The Klondike story will always be one of hopes achieved and of hopes dashed, of fabled wealth and undoubted poverty. Its heyday is recalled in the reconstituted city of Dawson, a heritage site, and its memory is still kindled by the poetry of the banking clerk Robert Service. KOREAN CONFLICT. The Korean War is often referred to as Canada’s forgotten war. When North Korea invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950, the United States invoked the Charter of the United Nations (UN) and passed a resolution through the Security Council to aid South Korea in repelling the invader. Canada responded along with 15 other UN members to aid in the effort to stop North Korean aggression. Canada was not officially at war; that is why, in Canada, it is called “the Korean conflict.” Canada sent destroyers to Korea (one of which was HMCS Haida) to aid in the naval support forces stationed there. Three Canadian warships were always on station, serving with Commonwealth and U.S. units. The Royal Canadian Air Force provided an air transport squadron to assist the sending of supplies to UN forces on the Korean peninsula; in addition, a number of Canadian fighter pilots flew with U.S. Air Force squadrons and were responsible for the destruction of North Korean aircraft. However, the largest contingent of forces was sent by the army; more than 21,000 army personnel served in Korea. Of the 490,000 UN casualties, 1,588 were Canadians, including 516 dead. Canadian troops performed very well and won distinction for stopping Chinese attacks at Kap’ Yong in April 1951. KREVER TAINTED BLOOD INQUIRY. The Krever Inquiry was an investigation (1993–97) and subsequent report into contaminated blood supplies used for transfusion. In July 1981, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was identified among homosexuals in Los Angeles; in July 1982, AIDS was identified among hemophiliacs
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and in blood transfusion recipients. In December 1989, the Canadian government announced compensation for hemophiliacs and bloodtransfused people infected with human immune deficiency virus (HIV). On 4 October 1993, Justice Horace Krever was instructed by Minister of Health and Welfare Mary Collins to investigate what went wrong with Canada’s blood supply in the 1980s, when an estimated 1,400 people contracted HIV and another 12,000 became infected with hepatitis C from blood or blood products. Hearings began in November 1993 and ended in December 1995. Krever faced legal challenges: his right to make findings of misconduct, a point he insisted on, was challenged in court by the Canadian Red Cross Society, four pharmaceutical companies, most provincial governments, and many individuals who believed their reputations might be damaged if Krever were allowed to assign blame. The federal court ruled in June 1996 in Krever’s favor; this was upheld by the federal court of appeal in January 1997. The Red Cross and two pharmaceutical companies continued the fight to the Supreme Court. After 247 days of testimony, 1,303 exhibits, 474 witnesses (about half of them victims), and numerous attempts (consuming 18 months) by interested parties to change or alter the inquiry, Krever’s report was completed and presented to Parliament 26 November 1997. Krever’s report indicated serious neglect by governments and the Red Cross; infections continued while governments and agencies diddled or obfuscated the process, and there had been a decline in public policy processes and acceptance of responsibility. Krever recommended, among other things, a Canadian Blood Services be established (the Red Cross had been suspended in this responsibility previously); blood should be available on a nonprofit basis; and rigid, independent (that is, nongovernmental) scrutiny was needed to screen products and processes. In 1989, the federal compensation plan had been announced, and in September 1993, provinces and territories announced compensation of $30,000 annually to victims of tainted blood. In 1999, victims of hepatitis C settled a $1.2 billion federal-provincial compensation deal. In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that negligence on the part of the Canadian Red Cross caused three blood recipients to contract the virus that causes AIDS.
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The number of victims who died during the course of the inquiry is estimated at more than 400. KWAKIUTL. The people known as the Kwakiutl call themselves Kwakwalawak. They are still referred to widely as Kwagiulth; variant spellings of earlier usage are Kwagiulthak and especially Kwakiutl, which is used in Canadian Indian administration because it is spelled that way on band council inventories. The appellation means “Beach on the Other Side of the River.” The Kwakiutl occupy heritage lands of coastal northern Vancouver Island from Johnstone Strait north to Cape Cook, as well as all the coast of the mainland from Douglas Channel to Bute Inlet, except for a small area that was dominated by the Bella Coola. Primarily fishing people, they were reluctant to engage in the fur trade. They suffered severe population declines due to various European diseases in the 1800s. They are famous for the potlatch (gift giving) and winter spirit dancing (hamatsa), both of which were outlawed for almost 50 years. Among the most famous of these people are anthropologist George Hunt (who interviewed and translated for Columbia University anthropologist Franz Boas), fisherman James Sewid, and great carver Mungo Martin (who was principal carver for Thunderbird Park, Victoria, British Columbia). Fort Rupert and Alert Bay, British Columbia, were two of their prominent new villages of the modern era, both founded in the mid19th century. Their cultural vitality continues.
– L – LABRADOR. Canada’s eastern areas Labrador and Newfoundland, separated by the Strait of Belle Isle, make up the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The long coast of Labrador is heavily indented with inlets, many important in history as places for fishing, whaling, exploration, mining, missions, and other settlements. Part of the Canadian or Laurentian Shield, Labrador has a rugged, mountainous, and isolated character which shaped its human history. Long occupied by native peoples (the earliest evidence dates to 7,000 years ago), it was possibly visited by Norse Vikings (L’Anse aux
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Meadows and Amour burial site) and may be the Markland of Viking saga, as Newfoundland is thought to be Vinland. The modern era of Labrador history begins with Basques establishing a whale fishery at Red Bay. This occurred before Jacques Cartier explored the coast in the early 16th century. Portuguese explorers, who visited coastal Labrador and Greenland (500 miles distant), were interested in the fishery—and continued to fish these waters intermittently even centuries thereafter. One Portuguese explorer, João Fernandez, a lavrador or “landholder” in the Azores, may be credited with the origin of the name Labrador. Early European occupation was predicated on the coastal fishery; this was fiercely opposed by the native people, who called themselves Labradormiut, and the Montagnais-Naskapi. The fishing population of Labrador was a floating one; the economy of Labrador was international. Newfoundlanders and English came to fish there, but so did New Englanders, especially after the War of 1812. New places for the coastal fishery were required, and the Royal Navy undertook exploration of fishing grounds and harbors in the northern reaches of the coast. Meanwhile, specific settlements had been established: Cape Charles, 1770 (by businessman George Cartwright); Nairn, 1771 (by Moravian missionaries); and Rigolet, 1843, and North West River, 1834 (by the Hudson’s Bay Company [HBC]). Explorations were undertaken by John McLean (HBC) in 1939, A. P. Low (geologist) in the 1890s, and V. A. Tanner (Finnish geographer) in 1937 and 1939. Other Moravian missions were established in 1784 and 1896. Because of its remoteness, Labrador had little in the way of medical care, schools, or adequate housing. Wilfred Grenfell, an Englishman, is credited with heroic activities to establish hospitals, schools, and orphanages there. During World War II, Goose Bay was built as a base and staging ground for an overseas Allied lift called Ferry Command. A U.S. Air Force base for many years thereafter, it also became a busy commercial airport on the North American–European route, said in the 1950s to be the second busiest in the world. In 1954, the Québec North Shore and Labrador Railway was completed, allowing the outflow of the interior’s iron ore. Churchill Falls was developed as a large hydroelectric facility. The establish-
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ment of the boundary between Labrador and the Province of Québec (1902–27) resolved the dispute involving Québec, Newfoundland, and Canada. In 1949, when Newfoundland joined the confederation, its boundary with Labrador was confirmed. Newfoundland, then as now, claims the watershed of all rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. Many Québecers argue that Labrador is included in “Nouveau Québec.” Generally speaking, the boundary and watersheds issue is not settled and revives from time to time in respect to hydroelectric use. Canada’s relations with Québec and Newfoundland mean that thirdparty interests are invariably part of the equation. L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS. See NORSE. LAFONTAINE, LOUIS HIPPOLYTE (1807–1864). A politician and jurist, Lafontaine promoted responsible government and full French Canadian participation in Canadian politics of the colonial era. He entered politics in 1830. Along with Robert Baldwin, he is credited with the effecting of responsible government, by which the legislature gained control of the civil list, or those persons on the public payroll. He followed Louis-Joseph Papineau in many respects, yet he was opposed to the call to arms of the Patriots in 1837. He journeyed to London to argue for constitutional reform. As leader of Canada East’s reformers, Lafontaine joined forces with Baldwin and Francis Hincks of Canada West and formed an alliance that became the majority party. Governor General Charles Bagot, in 1841, upon the union of the Canadas, accepted the power of this bicultural, reform-minded ministry, which is known as the first Baldwin-Lafontaine administration. Responsible government was gradually effected from 1846 to 1849. In 1848, Earl Grey, the colonial secretary, called on Lafontaine to establish a ministry; this he did with his partner Baldwin. This ministry is referred to as the second Baldwin-Lafontaine administration. This coalition ended in 1851. Lafontaine was prime minister of Canada from 1848 to 1851. He introduced the Rebellion Losses Bill in 1848, the triumph of which proclaimed responsible government. He was chief justice of Lower Canada from 1853 until his death.
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LA GALISSONIÈRE, MARQUIS DE (ROLAND-MICHEL BARRIN) (1693–1756). A naval officer and commandant general of New France, though only in Canada a short time (1747–49), La Galissonière was a strategic reformer. He knew the value of Canada to France, and he pressed on the king of France the necessity of bolstering the defenses of Canada. Among his suggestions was strengthening the regained Louisbourg and its defenses, bolstering Fort St. Jean on the Richelieu/Champlain River corridor, and strengthening other posts. La Galissonière saw Canada much as an imperial extension of France, and he believed that Britain would have to conquer Canada in order to defeat France in a future war. He sought to encourage settlement, particularly at Detroit, which he saw as a key post. He wanted the St. Lawrence River linked to the Mississippi River in a grand design connecting French settlements on the St. Lawrence to those on the Gulf of Mexico, especially New Orleans. At age 17, La Galissonière joined the French navy and, after a successful career, was sent to Canada at the age of 54 as commander in chief of the colony. Canada was then in great peril, for Louisbourg and Acadia had been lost to the English, the Gulf of St. Lawrence was infested with English privateers, Québec was under threat of invasion, and the alliance with the Indians was shaky. The western frontier was in difficulty, owing to the recent war. Like his predecessors, he could not shake the French ministers and monarch from their apathy. When he sounded the alarm, it is said, it rang timidly in the offices of Versailles. He fought an exhausting, successful naval battle against the British under Adm. George Byng at Minorca in 1756 and died shortly thereafter. LAM, DAVID SEE-CHAI (1923– ). An immigrant to Canada from China in 1967, Lam amassed a fortune in real estate. A founder of the Hong Kong Merchants’ Association of Vancouver, he facilitated Pacific Rim investment in British Columbia. His own company is Canadian International Properties Ltd. An energetic visionary, he and his wife, Dorothy, through their philanthropy, have assisted universities, gardens, and research institutions. Lam was appointed lieutenant governor of British Columbia in 1988 and served until 1995.
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LAST SPIKE. Donald Smith, later Lord Strathcona, drove the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass, British Columbia, 7 November 1885. He initially attempted the feat with a spike made of gold, but it bent when Smith hit it with the hammer; it was replaced by one of iron. With this action, Montréal became linked to Port Moody by a rail line 2,891 miles long. LAURIER, WILFRID (1841–1919). Canada’s first French Canadian prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was a superb orator and graduate of McGill University. He served in the Assembly of Québec 1871– 74 and then in the House of Commons until his death. A Liberal, he was appointed (1877) minister of Inland Revenue in Alexander Mackenzie’s administration. He went into opposition in 1878. Chosen leader of the Liberal Party in 1887, he became prime minister when his party won the election of 1896. Laurier was returned in the elections of 1900, 1904, and 1908 and was defeated 1911 by Robert Borden. Laurier was a champion of Parliament and its unique form of democratic process. He stressed how this made Canada different from the United States. In the “age of Laurier,” two million immigrants arrived in Canada, the west was further colonized, farming based on wheat and grains in the prairies developed, Alberta and Saskatchewan were created, and two transcontinental railways were built. Mining, lumbering, and manufacturing increased in other parts of the country. Laurier emphasized the need for cooperation and compromise, as exemplified by the settlement of the Manitoba Schools Question. After the dispatch of Canadian troops to serve in the South African War (Boer War), he sought to balance imperial cooperation with the assertion of Canadianism. For him, Canadian autonomy—“Canada’s business”—came first. He was thus an architect of the future Commonwealth of Nations. He created in 1910 the Canadian Naval Service. In 1911, he concluded a tariff reciprocity agreement with the United States. The election of 1911 brought Laurier’s downfall. The reciprocity agreement was repudiated by Canada. As leader of the opposition, Laurier supported Canada’s entry into World War I but condemned conscription. He refused to join Borden’s Union Government, formed in 1917. Laurier died in Ottawa and was buried there. See also CANADIAN NAVY.
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LAVAL, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER DE MONTMORENCY (1623– 1708). Laval was apostolic vicar in New France from 1659 to 1674 and bishop of Québec from 1674 to 1688. Ecclesiastical controversy surrounded Father Laval’s appointment to Canada, and conflict over jurisdiction remained an issue throughout his term. A Jesuit, he founded two seminaries in Québec (1663 and 1668) to supply priests for New France; one became Laval University (1852), thus placing it among the oldest universities in Canada. In 1663, when Louis XIV established the Sovereign Council, Monseigneur Laval became the second most important figure in New France after the governor. He had constitutional powers to appoint council members and award seigneuries. He condemned the sale of alcohol to natives, which put him in opposition to business interests in Montréal and elsewhere. He did much to establish the Roman Catholic Church in New France and promote education, arts, and crafts. LÉVESQUE, RENÉ (1922–1987). Radio and television journalist René Lévesque was also a premier of Québec. He was born at Campbellton, New Brunswick, to a prosperous family and had the advantage of a bilingual upbringing. After his father’s death in 1937 and his mother’s remarriage, the family moved to Québec City. He was expelled from Laval University law school and rejected by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He then joined the U.S. Armed Forces Network as an announcer and translator. He was overseas at the end of World War II and followed the U.S. Army through France. He became enamored of the Americans. But, truth to tell, Americans never saw his point about breaking up Canada. Lévesque became a public figure in Canada as a radio journalist and as one of Québec’s earliest television stars. He used his show Point de mire (Focal Point) to educate Québecers about the world in language they could understand. He was first elected as a member of the Jean Lesage government in the Quiet Revolution of 1960. As minister of national resources, he was responsible for the nationalization of electricity in the province. He now changed to federal politics to fight Pierre Trudeau’s idea of federalism—that is, Québec’s equality as a party without special status in the whole country. Lévesque resigned from the Liberal Party and founded the Parti Québécois in 1968. He was discredited by the events of the October Crisis of
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1970—the Front de Libération de Québec kidnappings, the murder of a cabinet minister, and the presence of the army on the streets of Montréal. Even so, for the rest of his life, he blamed Trudeau for the outcome. His constituency was becoming narrower with the years, and certainly more nationalist within the declining power base of the Québec population, particularly in rural areas. Rejected twice at the polls, in 1970 and 1973, both bitter defeats and the stuff of legend in his long arc of life, he had a turn of fortune. He won a great victory in the Québec election of 15 November 1976, defeating Robert Bourassa’s Liberals. Lévesque pushed his party and province not only to greater autonomy within Canada but toward a goal of Québec sovereignty. He introduced electoral and labor reforms in Québec and advanced plans for the expansion of Québec Hydro. He brought about measures to get better provincial control over foreign-based corporations. Notoriously, Lévesque’s government introduced Bill 101, a highly controversial measure that in 1977 legislated for a unilingual Québec. That measure was met with near unanimous condemnation in the rest of Canada. His government also introduced but lost in 1980 a referendum concerning the separation of Québec from Canada. The vote was 41 percent yes and 59 percent no. Reelected in 1981, Lévesque recommenced a campaign for greater autonomy within the confederation, and in this he found allies, or strange bedfellows, among other provincial premiers, particularly Alberta’s Peter Lougheed. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s Constitution Act of 1982 failed to win Lévesque’s support. In 1984, Lévesque announced he would campaign in the next Québec election without demanding independence from Canada, settling into a mode which, for a time, became the party’s official platform: sovereignty association. Lévesque’s leadership was reaffirmed at a special convention in January 1985, but he resigned in June 1985. He authored a best-selling Memoirs (1986). His biographer Peter Desbarats called him “a Canadian in search of a country.” Lévesque always refused to believe in the possibility of a renewed Canada, a country that had always irritated him, according to his biographer Daniel Poliquin. He was never a national figure except to say that his name was on every elector’s lips. He worked from the outside and from the margins. Even his adopted province never shared his dream of an independent Québec.
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He was a hero without a nation, but his ghost still haunts Canadian and Québec politics. LIBERAL PARTY. One of the two original political parties in Canada, known commonly as “Grits,” the Liberal Party originated out of a union of Clear Grits and George Brown’s independent reformers in the legislature of the Province of Canada in the mid-1850s. Links were gradually formed with the Rouges, and after confederation, other opposition groups also found themselves coalescing with the Liberals. John A. Macdonald’s first administration was a LiberalConservative coalition, but this soon broke down over the Pacific Scandal. In 1873, Alexander Mackenzie became the first Liberal prime minister and retained that post until 1878. The Liberals were prominent nation-builders and keen on national institutional development. But they were also prominent supporters of free trade. As long as Macdonald was alive (he died in 1891), the Liberals were unable to seize power. But when “Old Tomorrow,” as Macdonald was called, passed from the scene, the Liberals seized the day, playing on French Canadian aspirations and expectations, forming a powerful link between English and French Canada, the key to majority governments. In 1896, Wilfrid Laurier was elected the first francophone Liberal prime minister and began the reign of the Liberals in the 20th century. During his premiership, many railway companies were founded and supported by land grants and other tax benefits. But Laurier was swept from power in 1911, and power passed to Robert Borden and the Conservative Party. A Conservative collapse ensued. From 1921 until 1947, the reins of power were wielded by Liberal Party tactical master William Lyon Mackenzie King, though he was out of office 1930 to 1939. He promoted the concept of dominion autonomy and Canadian independence in foreign affairs. He was an architect of the Commonwealth of Nations, and an important person in the relationships between Great Britain and the United States during World War II, as well as before and after. He was succeeded by another skilled political tactician, Louis St. Laurent. Throughout these years, the Liberals worked the center, so to speak, and they were often seen by their opponents on the right and on the left as being indifferent to progress because they always held
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the middle ground. They acted often out of necessity. The Liberal Party was able to attract a number of members of Parliament originally elected under the banner of the Progressive Party, and in doing this reduced the Progressives to a small group by 1939. From time to time, the Liberals also attracted others from the New Democratic Party (NDP). Under various Liberal prime ministers, notably Lester Pearson, Canada developed into a social welfare state. Socialism did not come easily to the Liberals, and they would not have been able to introduce aspects of welfare, health, unemployment, and pensions legislation had the body politic not demanded these, nor could they have expanded funding to universities the way they did in this remarkable period of national growth and consolidation. Often they brought about legislative change by the slimmest of margins, and the middle decades of the 20th century witnessed a legislative agenda that was unheralded in its complexity and difficulty. The Civil Service eased the processes of this legislation. The Liberals’ long period in power allowed the appointment of many senators to the upper chamber. Without a shadow of doubt, the Liberal Party’s success came about through skillful leadership, pragmatism carried to its highest level, and a solid base in the Province of Québec, a base nurtured by favoritism, contracts, and subventions. But this power could be broken through a combination of other forces, notably party fatigue, the power of the press in opposition, or the emergence of rival personalities. For instance, John George Diefenbaker of the Progressive Conservative Party was a great rival to Pearson in the 1950s and 1960s, but the latter always fought back although he could never achieve a majority at an election. The ascendancy of Pierre Trudeau to the premiership in 1968 began 16 years of his leadership, one interrupted for a brief time by the Progressive Conservative Party under Joe Clark. When Trudeau retired, John N. Turner became leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister. But the Liberals went into opposition. Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives came forth to dominate national affairs. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin were later prime ministers under the Liberal banner. In 2009, Michael Ignatieff became party leader and leader of the opposition in Parliament. The Liberal Party’s change of leadership from Stephan Dion, a minister of constitutional affairs
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in the former Chrétien government, to Michael Ignatieff resulted from the failed historic agreement among Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Québecois. These events marked a low point in party fortunes and foreshadowed a dark future. As regards its policies and its legislative intentions and agenda, the Liberals, having accomplished the amazing creation of the welfare state in a turbulent period, were left casting about for firm policies, and that at a time of free trade and laissez-faire economics. This was less familiar ground to them than to the Conservative Party of Canada that took power in 2004. Most Canadian provinces have Liberal parties, but they are different in organization and sometimes in policy from their federal counterpart. LITERATURE. Canadian literature is a body of works produced in French or English by Canadians. The first literature of Canada in English was by travelers, mainly British, who journeyed through the vast, largely unexplored expanses of the country. These travel narratives, some by explorers such as Samuel Hearne and Alexander Mackenzie, were eventually supplanted by the writings of native Canadians, notably those who lived in the maritime provinces. Thomas McCulloch and Thomas Chandler Haliburton wrote about the customs and dialect of their fellow Nova Scotians. Pioneer life was celebrated in poems, song, and story. English Canadian literature showed promising developments in the colonial period and played on themes of survival, roughing it in the bush, and loyalist and imperial sentiment. Important in this early development in letters was Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail. The confederation achievement brought forth the “confederation group of poets”—Charles G. D. Roberts, Bliss Carmen, Archibald Lampman, and Duncan Campbell Scott. They expressed a new national consciousness, were aware of landscape, and gave romantic praise to the national achievement. Their work was appreciated well into the 1950s and later. Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908), the first in a series of books, was a classic of the early 20th century. Humorist and satirist Stephen Leacock wrote Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912) and many other works. Also of significance were the 16 internationally popular novels by Mazo de la Roche that chronicled the lives and loves of the Whiteoaks family, beginning
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with Jalna (1927). Prominent poets of the time were A.J.M. Smith, A. M. Klein, and later P. K. Page. Artist Emily Carr produced numerous fine works of memoir and travel. Also in the 20th century there were new departures. Poet E. J. Pratt wrote lyric works about Newfoundland and an epic narrative, The Titanic (1935). He was the central figure of Canadian poetry before World War II. Novels exhibiting local color began to replace historical romance. Hugh McLennan’s Two Solitudes (1945) was an icon, portraying the bifurcation of cultures in Montréal. He also wrote, earlier, an important work about the Halifax explosion, Barometer Rising. An explosion of creative writing beginning in the 1950s exhibited growth matched with diversification. Significant in this period was Margaret Lawrence, skilled novelist and short story writer. Hubert Evans wrote telling works about life on the British Columbia coast. Conservationist and fly fisherman Roderick Haig-Brown wrote charming works about life in the forest and on the coast, playing on themes of humans and the land as well as discovery and exploration. Mordecai Richler wrote of Montréal life and Jewish mores. Earle Birney, satirist and commentator, wrote of British Columbia and other locales. Poet-songwriter Leonard Cohen and the experimental poet-playwright Michael Ondaajte achieved prominence and longlasting influence. Roy Daniells wrote poetry and encouraged others to write about Canadian literature, founding the Journal of Canadian Literature at the University of British Columbia, edited by polymath George Woodcock. Canadian universities began to have courses in Canadian literature or otherwise to treat the subject not as some spinoff from British or American genres. This process was aided by the evolution of Canadian Studies and the efforts of Thomas Symons and the Canada Council for the Arts. Also in the modern, nationalist period beginning in the self-conscious mid-20th century, newspaper journalist turned academic administrator Robertson Davies wrote entrancing works of Anglo-Canadian life. Hugely popular Farley Mowat wrote many charming pieces on travel, history, and war experience. The distinctive French literary experience may be said to have begun with the Jesuit Relations and with the writings of early travelers, including Gabriel Sagard. Many early histories of Canada were written by priests and religious scholars, notably François-Xavier
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Garneau’s epic of national survival, Histoire du Canada (1845–48). The first French Canadian collection of verse was accomplished long after the imposition of British rule, for the basically conservative Roman Catholic culture influenced the mores and the styles. In the 1890s came a new departure, the Montréal School (founded 1895), and published verse reflecting Symbolist and Parnassian poetry of Europe. The regionalists, who departed from the aesthetes, came to dominate French literature in Canada for the next 30 years. The regionalists, however, were producing works with rural and agricultural themes at the same time that Québec was becoming increasingly industrial and urban. Gabrielle Roy drew wonderful portraits of characters and their frontier experiences in a number of books. Her book about workingclass Montréal life, Bonheur d’occasion (1945; The Tin Flute), achieved international acclaim. Roger Lemelin’s Les Plouffe (1948; The Plouffe Family) was an examination of family life, and subject of a notable early CBC television series. Poet Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau crafted introspective, unrhymed verse and influenced a generation of poets. Many of them published with the important house L’Hexagone. The modernization and secularization of Québec witnessed authentic searches for identity in the novel. Notable for the 1970s and after are Gaston Miron, who wrote L’Homme rapaille (1970; The Agonized Life), and Jacques Godbout, Hubert Aquin, Marie-Claire Blais, and Gerard Bessette. Many of them borrowed from the unconventional structures of the French nouveau roman (the “new novel”) while dealing with radical themes, social criticism, and the disenchantment of youth in a new and frightening nuclear age. Meanwhile, other giant strides were being made in literature in English. Central to this self-conscious expansion was the publisher Jack McClelland and the editor Malcolm Ross. Of all the authors of that age, novelist and poet Margaret Atwood evinced the greatest talent, winning numerous prizes and the greatest attention. She championed Canadian literature (Can Lit) in partnership with her husband, the novelist Graham Gibson. In the realm of short story, Alice Munro became world famous, a steady contributor to the New Yorker and other American periodicals. Edna Cress Staebler wrote of experiences in Nova Scotia and Ontario. Many Canadian writ-
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ers were aided by Jack McClelland’s inspired hand at McClelland & Stewart, the Canadian publishing house. One such was Pierre Berton, a historian who also wrote children’s literature. Al Purdy became a prominent poet. Taken altogether, the post-colonial age has had a marked effect on Canadian literature, for the old themes rooted in Canadian experience have given way to new horizons in modernity. Post-colonialism rules. Austin Clarke, Thomas King, Yann Martel, Douglas Copeland, Wayson Choy, Elizabeth Hay, Bonnie Burrard, Carol Shields, Miriam Toews, and Anne Michaels are just a few of the many contemporary Canadian writers. Some have acquired global star status, for instance Martel for Life of Pi and Michaels for Fugitive Pieces. Various prizes for literature have aided the Canadian literary scene, notably the Governor General’s Medal for Fiction, the Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction, and the Giller Prize. The Banff School of Fine Arts has been an important academy for developing writing talents, and courses on Canadian literature have well deserved prominence in any curriculum of an institution of higher learning. On the regional scene, the BC Book Prizes have achieved notable success, aided by a strong publishing industry. There are other regional advances of a similar nature, notably Goose Lane publishers in New Brunswick and Anansi Press in Toronto. See also HISTORICAL WRITING. LOGAN, WILLIAM EDMUND (1798–1865). Geologist William Logan was born in Montréal and educated in Edinburgh. He studied Welsh coal beds then joined the new Geological Survey of Canada as its first director in 1843; he directed its activities until 1869. He revolutionized the conceptions of Canadian geology and won international recognition. Logan was knighted in 1858. He died in Wales. LONGBOAT, THOMAS CHARLES (1887–1949). An Ontario-born Onondaga, Tom Longboat was a legendary long-distance runner and record breaker. He won the Boston Marathon of 1907. In subsequent years, he was disqualified because he was classified as a professional. The Tom Longboat Award is named for him. LOUISBOURG. A maritime base and fortress of France on Île Royale, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Louisbourg was constructed after
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1719 and was intended to dominate the Gulf of St. Lawrence, both to guard the French possessions and to provide a base from which to raid sea lanes between New England and Britain. The fortress was called “the Dunkirk of North America” after the fortified seaport on the French channel coast and because it was a preferred haunt of privateers who preyed on British shipping. And, as a gigantic fortress, it was also called “the Gibraltar of Canada.” Despite its massive walls, the fortress was exposed to long-range artillery fire across the harbor and from the low hills to the fortress’s west side. In 1745, it was attacked by a force of New England militia under Gen. William Pepperell from Boston and Royal Navy vessels under Adm. Peter Warren and was forced to surrender 17 June after six weeks. The fortress was returned to France by treaty in 1748. In 1758, at the outbreak of the Seven Years War, it was captured again by the British. It remained under the control of Britain after 1758. In 1759, Gen. James Wolfe’s force destined for Québec assembled here. In 1760, British Army engineers demolished its defenses. By terms of the peace in 1763, Britain retained Louisbourg. It is a prominent historical site of Parks Canada. LOWER CANADA. Québec became Lower Canada by the Constitutional (or Canada) Act of 1791. Included within its borders were all lands held under the seigneurial system. Strife between English and French continued intermittently for a number of reasons, political, social, and economic. In 1837, rebellion broke out but was crushed. With the Act of Union, Lower Canada became Canada East in 1841. In 1867, Canada East became the Province of Québec. See also REBELLIONS OF 1837. LOYALISTS. American Tories who chose to leave the United States after the American Revolution ended in 1783, or who were otherwise evicted or deported, were known as Loyalists. Many Loyalists went to Nova Scotia and Québec. In 1784, New Brunswick was established as a new colony, for here the Loyalists had settled in number and constituted the resident European population. In 1791, Upper Canada was created from the old Québec, for somewhat similar reasons. “Late Loyalists” refers to Americans who came to British North America after the first wave. United Empire Loyalists
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is a latter-day appellation, dating to the late 19th century, and is also an organization dedicated to maintaining the identity and memory of Loyalist forebears.
– M – MACDONALD, JOHN ALEXANDER (1815–1891). Lawyer and businessman Sir John Alexander Macdonald owed nothing to birth or fortune yet rose to become Canada’s first prime minister. Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and moved to Kingston, Ontario, with his parents in 1820. His father operated a series of businesses in Upper Canada, merchant shops in Kingston and in Adolphustown Township, and for 10 years the large stone mills at Glenora in Prince Edward County. In 1830, Macdonald left school and began training for the legal profession in the office of Kingston lawyer George Mackenzie. By 1835, he opened his own law firm in Kingston and soon attracted attention by taking a number of difficult and sensational cases. He secured many criminal convictions. Though he lost as many as he won, he acquired a reputation for ingenuity and quick-wittedness as a defense attorney. Largely self-taught and widely so, he was naturally the most reserved of men, conservative in temperament, though a drinker. Macdonald was also active in business, primarily land development and speculation. Throughout the 1840s–1860s, he bought and developed urban property, first in Kingston and subsequently in Guelph and Toronto. He also acted as an agent for British investors in Canadian real estate. He acquired directorships in at least 10 Canadian companies, in addition to the Commercial Bank and the Trust and Loan Company, and he sat on two British boards. From an early age, Macdonald showed a keen interest in public affairs. In March 1843, he was elected to Kingston Town Council as an alderman. The following year, he was elected to the provincial legislature. He ran in Kingston as a Conservative, stressing his belief in the British connection, his commitment to the development of Canadian resources, and his devotion to the interests of Kingston. In his early years in the Legislative Assembly, Macdonald proved
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to be a genuine conservative, opposing responsible government and the secularization of the clergy reserves because such measures could have weakened the British connection or the authority of the government. From the beginning, Macdonald’s approach to politics was essentially pragmatic. Macdonald was appointed a cabinet member in 1847–48, when he served for seven months as receiver general and for three as commissioner of crown lands. In 1848, he resigned with the government to make way for the reform administration of Robert Baldwin and Louis Lafontaine. In 1854, Macdonald became attorney general for Upper Canada in the newly formed coalition government of Allan Napier MacNab and Augustin-Norbert Morin. In 1856, Macdonald became leader of the Upper Canadian section of the government, replacing MacNab. While in office, Macdonald reformed the government to make it more efficient. The Civil Service Act of 1857 established the rule that each major government agency would have a permanent, nonpolitical head called a deputy minister. He shared the direction of the government and his party with a French Canadian leader, George Etienne Cartier. The Macdonald-Cartier ministry undertook many legislative initiatives, including the Independence of Parliament Act (1857) and an act for registration of voters (1858). In 1862, Macdonald went into opposition when the Militia Bill was defeated in the assembly. A constitutional committee of the legislature was formed with George Brown as chair. Macdonald was a part of this committee, which presented a proposal for a federal system of government for the two sections of Canada or for all of British North America. Macdonald had always preferred a highly centralized form of government. In 1864, Macdonald’s Conservatives were joined by Canadian Reformers and Cartier’s Bleus to form the “Great Coalition” for the purpose of creating a federal union of British North America. Macdonald was the dominant figure throughout the events that led up to confederation in 1867. At the Québec Conference, he was the principal spokesperson for the Canadian scheme. He chaired meetings in London in 1866–67 and was active in the creation of the actual British North America Act (Constitution Act of 1867). Great Britain recognized Macdonald’s efforts. He was the only colonial leader to be awarded an honorary degree (from Oxford in 1865). He
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was given a knighthood (Knight Commander of the Bath, 29 June 1867) and was selected to be the first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada. The Department of Justice was the portfolio Macdonald chose in 1867 and the one he retained until 1873. The early session of the Canadian Parliament showed Macdonald’s centralized views about the assimilation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Hudson’s Bay Company territory. Indian affairs came under his purview. He was made an Imperial Privy Councilor in June 1872. In the Pacific Scandal of 1873, Macdonald’s government was accused of using money from the Canadian Pacific Railway to finance the election. The allegations proved true and Macdonald was forced to resign his government; Alexander Mackenzie and the Liberal Party formed the new government. In the 1874 election, Macdonald’s Conservatives were badly defeated. Macdonald and the Conservatives were returned to office in the 1878 election and held the position until 1891. In the new government, Macdonald took on the Department of the Interior portfolio. During this term in office, Macdonald had to confront Louis Riel for the second time as the Métis of the west confronted the expanding settlers again. Macdonald quelled the situation with force, and Riel was captured and hanged. Macdonald also dealt with the Manitoba school question in 1890. Macdonald decided that the constitutionality of Manitoba’s abolition of public funding for Catholic schools was best left to the courts, not the House of Commons. Macdonald’s last fight was the election of 1891. In this election, he fought the Liberals over reciprocity with the United States. He led the Conservatives to another victory, but died shortly after, on 6 June 1891. He was buried in Kingston. MACDONALD, JOHN SANDFIELD (1812–1872). A lawyer and politician born at St. Raphael, Glengarry County, Upper Canada, of Irish background, Macdonald represented Glengarry and then Cornwall for most of his political career. He became solicitor general in the Baldwin-Lafontaine government of 1849–51 in the Province of Canada. He was a Roman Catholic and a Reformer. Somewhat erratic and changeable in policies, he was also an adroit House leader. Macdonald’s political life reflected the turbulence of the constitutional government of that age. He advocated “double majority,”
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wherein a ministry required the majority of seats from each of Canada East and Canada West. This necessitated both Protestants and Catholics within the majority party. Macdonald was prime minister of Canada from 1862 to 1864. He voted for a Separate School bill against the wishes of his Protestant supporters. His defeat in March 1864, and the failure of the Tache-Macdonald ministry in June of that year, resulted in the deadlock and the constitutional crisis from which issued confederation. An anti-confederate, Macdonald became the first premier of Ontario, 1867–71. He was defeated in the House by Edward Blake’s Liberals in 1871, and he resigned from office. MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER (1762–1820). A fur trader and explorer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie was born near Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. In 1774, he immigrated to New York and then to Montréal. First a clerk, then a trading partner, he rose to dominance in the North West Company. In 1789, he made an exploratory expedition from Fort Chipewyan to the mouth of the Mackenzie River via the Slave River and Great Slave Lake. On 9 May 1793, aided by Indians, he began, from Fort Fork, Peace River, his epic overland voyage to the Pacific from Lake Athabasca. His route was by the Peace, Parsnip, Blackwater (now West Road), and Bella Coola rivers. He reached tidewater at Dean Channel, British Columbia, on 22 July. His expedition to the Pacific showed the intricacies and difficulties of travel in that latitude. Mackenzie’s back-breaking transcontinental journey was the first crossing of North America by a white man north of Mexico, and it preceded the explorations of Lewis and Clark by 12 years. In 1799, Mackenzie went to England, where his journals were edited and published as Voyages from Montréal . . . to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans (1801). He was knighted and returned to Canada, where he became involved for a time with the XY Company, rivals of the North West Company. He lived in Montréal and was a member of the Lower Canada Assembly in 1804–08. He retired (a wealthy man) to Scotland and lived at Avoch, Black Isle, Ross-shire. MACKENZIE, ALEXANDER (1822–1892). The second prime minister of Canada, Alexander Mackenzie, born in Scotland, was a Sarnia stonemason and contractor and a Clear Grit. He became
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leader of the Liberals at the time of confederation. When George Brown quit public life and Oliver Mowat limited his ambitions to Ontario politics, Mackenzie became the prominent national leader of the Liberal Party. He became prime minister in 1873 after the Pacific Scandal forced the resignation of the Conservatives. Mackenzie won a decisive victory in the 1874 election. Mackenzie, who refused a knighthood, was generally opposed to completion of the expensive Canadian Pacific Railway, and his inactivity resulted in alienation in British Columbia, which by terms of union was guaranteed a transcontinental railway connection. A believer in the concept of free trade, he refused to raise tariffs during the economic depression of the late 1870s. In the 1878 election, the Liberals were defeated. In the face of a rebellion within the party ranks, he resigned in 1880. MACKENZIE, LEWIS W. (1940– ). A soldier, born in Truro, Nova Scotia, Mackenzie served for 33 years in the Canadian Army (Land Command), including nine years in Germany with NATO forces and nine peacekeeping assignments in six different mission areas. He was commissioned in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada in 1960. In 1990, he became only the third Canadian in United Nations (UN) history to command a UN mission (the Observer Mission in Central America). In 1992, Maj. Gen. Mackenzie was appointed chief of staff of the UN Protection Force in Yugoslavia. He created and commanded Sector Sarajevo, with a force comprising soldiers from 31 countries, of which the Canadian Battle Group was the largest component, opening the Sarajevo airport for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Mackenzie retired from Canadian Forces in 1993. That year, his best-selling personal account of his peacekeeping experiences, Peacekeeper: Road to Sarajevo, was published. He has been widely honored for his distinguished service to the causes of peace and security. MACKENZIE, WILLIAM LYON (1795–1861). A Scottish-born radical and occasional republican, Mackenzie immigrated to Canada in 1820 and became publisher of the York (now Toronto) newspaper Colonial Advocate. He entered politics in 1828 and fought many elections, some successfully. Mackenzie attacked the Family
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Compact, the governing clique. He neither understood nor supported the responsible government movement; instead, he adhered to the application of elective principle to the Legislative Council. He has been called a firebrand but has also been proclaimed a beacon of democratic thinking; in the 20th century, he became a beacon for left-wing thinking and political agitation. The basis of his reforming principle was direct accountability of officials and executive heads sitting on council. In 1834, he was elected the first mayor of York. In 1837, Mackenzie’s “Declaration of the Toronto Reformers” sparked a rebellion in Upper Canada (7 December) that was small and easily crushed. Following defeats to government forces at Montgomery’s Tavern and Navy Island, Mackenzie scurried to safety in New York State, where he was imprisoned for breach of neutrality laws. He spent 13 years in exile. In 1849, he returned to Toronto under an amnesty; he then staged a remarkable political comeback. He served as mayor of York and was for a time (1851–58) a member of Parliament in the Province of Canada. See also REBELLIONS OF 1837. MACKENZIE-PAPINEAU BATTALION, SPANISH CIVIL WAR. The “Mac-Paps,” is the collective designation for some 1,400 plus Canadians who fought as part of the Fifteenth International Brigade recruited to assist the communist-supported Spanish government against General Francisco Franco’s fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The first Canadians in the conflict had joined the Abraham Lincoln Battalion or the George Washington Battalion. An actual Canadian battalion, formed in May 1937, was named in July of that year for William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, leaders in the Rebellions of 1837. In April 1937, the Canadian government passed the Foreign Enlistment Act, outlawing participation in foreign wars (this followed the League of Nations Non-Intervention Committee ban on foreign national volunteers). Also enacted was the Customs Act, which provided for government control over arms exports. The Mac-Paps were an official embarrassment. Many moderate groups in Canada, including some members of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, Liberals, unions, and churches supported the Republicans. A Committee to Support Spanish Democracy was formed early but halted
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sending troops; rather, it continued to recruit medical personnel. Norman Bethune, the most famous Canadian there, created mobile army medical units and a blood transfusion service. The recruiting of combatants was left to the communists. The government refused passports to those thought to be going to fight in Spain; Royal Canadian Mounted Police were sent to spy on leftists. The Mac-Paps fought in five campaigns, including Fuentes de Ebro, defense of Ieruel, the “retreats” of 1938, and the counterattack across the Ebro River in the last summer of the war; it withdrew from the conflict in September 1938, its strength savagely diminished to 35. The battalion languished in history until the 1970s, when a number of books, films, and plays documented its remarkable, tragic story. The Mac-Paps were led by Edward Cecil-Smith, its military commander, and Saul Wellman, union organizer and the unit’s political commissar. The number of Canadians said to have fought in Spain is stated to be 1,448. Of these, 721 died in Spain. A monument to the MackenziePapineau Battalion can be found in Victoria, British Columbia. A national monument to Mac-Pap veterans was erected in Ottawa in 2001. It lists names of 1,546 Canadian volunteers who served in Spain, including Mac-Paps, medics, and members of communications, transportation, and translation corps; it also includes names of those who fought in other brigades. MACNAB, ALLAN NAPIER (1798–1862). As a lawyer in Upper Canada in 1826, MacNab began to build the connections that were to aid both his political and business careers. He was a member of the Upper Canadian Legislative Assembly from 1830 until the union of the provinces in 1840. He led the loyal forces in Upper Canada during the Rebellions of 1837, defeating William Lyon Mackenzie’s group at Montgomery’s Tavern. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Canada 1841–57 and served as prime minister 1854–56. MACPHAIL, AGNES CAMPBELL (1890–1954). The first female member of Parliament, MacPhail was born in Grey County, Ontario, and was a teacher in small county schools in Ontario and Alberta. After the federal government passed legislation in 1918 that allowed women to vote and hold office, she ran as a Progressive in 1921 in
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the constituency of South-East Grey (later Grey-Bruce); she beat nine men for the position. Her grasp of the issues, her determination, and her appeal to audiences brought her victory and a place in the history books. After her first term, she decided to run as an independent. She won four more elections before her defeat in 1940. Although defeated federally, MacPhail ran for a provincial seat and won in 1943. See also UNITED FARMERS. MANCE, JEANNE (1606–1673). A lay nurse, Mance founded Montréal’s Hôtel Dieu Hospital and was co-founder of that city with Paul Maisonneuve. She dedicated herself to the settlers and the welfare of the colony’s soldiers. She was also financial treasurer of Montréal. She died at the Hôtel Dieu. MANITOBA. The easternmost of the three prairie provinces, Manitoba has an Arctic coastline (Hudson Bay) and an ocean port located at Churchill. Manitoba is commonly referred to as the Land of 100,000 Lakes. The vast number of lakes is a creation of the ice age. The land is relatively level and all rivers drain into Hudson Bay. The capital of Manitoba is Winnipeg. Historically, Manitoba was inhabited by the Woods Cree, Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Ojibwa, and Chipewyan Indians. Early European explorers of this region used Hudson Bay to enter the area. British explorer Thomas Button, the first to enter the region, spent the winter at the mouth of the Nelson River in 1612–13. Jens Munk, the Danish explorer, wintered at the mouth of the Churchill River in 1619–20. In 1670, Charles II granted the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) rights to trade furs in the territory drained by rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. The large territory was specified as Rupert’s Land in the company’s charter, 2 May 1670. England and France rivaled for the trade of Hudson Bay, and in 1782 the French under La Pérouse captured and destroyed Fort Prince of Wales, Churchill River. The British never relinquished sovereignty. In 1812, the first farming settlement was established. The Earl of Selkirk acquired a land grant from the HBC and created the Red River Colony. In 1870, Canada purchased Rupert’s Land, and the Canadian government created the province of Manitoba in the Red River Valley. Opposition to the creation of the province occurred as the Métis, of
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mixed native and French background, fought against the Canadian government. Two major rebellions (1869–70, 1885) by the Métis occurred in this region; both unsuccessful. Provincial boundaries were extended in 1881 and 1912 to create the present limits of Manitoba. By 1878, the railway had reached Winnipeg and many people were attracted to the area for its arable land. Many immigrants began settlements in the province once the Canadian government offered settlement packages in the late 1800s. In 1919, Winnipeg was the focal point of the Winnipeg General Strike. The winters in Manitoba are dry and extremely cold. In the summer, the temperature is warm and the climate relatively damp. The precipitation level is the highest of the three prairie provinces in the growing season. The economy of Manitoba is diversified. A major contributor is agriculture. The main crop is wheat. Hydroelectricity is readily available and copper and zinc are mined in the area. Winnipeg is the focal point for national transportation systems, both land and air. Manitoba has a 57-member provincial legislative assembly. Federally, Manitoba has 14 members of the House of Commons and six senators. The population of Manitoba as of 2009 was 1.2 million. See also EXPLORATION; FUR TRADE; MANITOBA SCHOOLS ACT; RED RIVER REBELLION; RIEL, LOUIS. MANITOBA SCHOOLS ACT. The Manitoba Schools Act was passed under a campaign of D’Alton McCarthy and the Equal Rights Association to advance the interests of nonsectarian public education. This was a reversal of denominational schools as guaranteed by terms of Manitoba’s entry into Canada as a province in 1870. Outraged Roman Catholics in Québec brought a court challenge, but the Privy Council found in favor of the law. The Supreme Court of Canada called for remedial legislation within the boundaries of the Constitution Act of 1867 (British North America Act). The Conservative government introduced such a measure, but it died with the end of that ministry. Wilfrid Laurier’s government brought about agreement by negotiation. This allowed for denominational religious instruction where 10 or more students with a native language other than English could be formed. Separate schools were not reestablished.
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MARITIME COMMAND. See CANADIAN NAVY. MARTIN, MUNGO (1884–1962). A Kwakiutl, or Kwagiulth, chief and master carver and artist, Martin was born at Fort Rupert, northeastern Vancouver Island. At the time of his birth, many forces were at work disrupting aboriginal ways of life and threatening their existence. These included influenza, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis and other diseases, alcoholism, and prostitution. Negative aspects of the new culture were also taking a heavy toll of lives. Other pressures were at work to limit the size of reserves and to extinguish land claims. It was in this atmosphere, at the lowest ebb in aboriginal history, that Mungo Martin was born. His great work, it is said, was to preserve the traditions and identity of the Northwest Coast native culture. He played a major part in the resurgence of pride in their culture. He learned to carve as a young man, taught by his stepfather, Charles James. He looked more and more to the ancient traditions as a way of countering the tightening controls of government over his people. In the 1920s, government Indian agents and magistrates enforced the 1895-instituted ban against potlatching (gift giving and exchange along with ceremonial dancing). Indian agents and police confiscated masks and other ceremonial articles belonging to Mungo Martin and others. Subsequently, Mungo went underground, privately preserving the ceremonies, stories, dances, and traditions. The potlatch and ancestral arts survived. In 1948, he restored poles at the University of British Columbia and carved two new poles for Totem Pole Park there. In 1952, at the request of the British Columbia government, he began Thunderbird Park in Victoria. Here he made many replica and new poles. He was a great mentor, teacher, and symbol to aboriginal peoples, and was greatly admired by the settler population. His son-in-law Henry Hunt, grandson Tony Hunt, and great-grandson Richard Hunt all became great carvers and artists. He died, age 83, in 1962 and was buried at Alert Bay. MARTIN, PAUL, JR. (1938– ). Martin, a son of the long-serving Liberal Senator Paul Martin Sr., was educated at the University of Toronto. He rose in business circles to become president of Canadian Steamship Lines. He entered national politics in 1988 and was the
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member of Parliament for a Montréal riding from 1988 until his retirement in 2008. He was minister of finance in Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government from 1993 to 2002. In this post, he is credited with changes to the financial structure of the Canadian government and with reducing the country’s chronic deficit. Much infighting ensued in the party ranks, and Martin was the unproclaimed leader of the insurgents. He succeeded Chrétien as leader of the Liberals and became prime minister on 12 December 2003. After the 2004 election, he retained power with a reduced minority government. In the election of 2006, Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada were brought into office, also with a minority government. Subsequently, Martin retired from national politics and returned to the corporate sphere. MASSEY, CHARLES VINCENT (1887–1967). A university lecturer, businessman, and diplomat, Massey was the first Canadian-born governor general. A champion of culture, he stood in the forefront of an attempt to frame a cultural model for Canada. He argued persuasively that culture took precedence over forces of geography. Culture, if taken seriously, would enable Canada to overcome its sectionalism and, equally important, to thwart the forces of colonialism, past, present, and future. Massey chaired the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences, whose report was delivered in 1951. From 1952–59, he was governor general. A strong Methodist in upbringing and conviction, he believed in the power of education and of the educated citizen. See also CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS; MASSEY REPORT. MASSEY REPORT. The Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences, or Massey Report, issued in 1951, is one of the great state documents of Canadian history—and stands beside Lord Durham’s Report, the Constitution Act of 1867 (British North America Act), and the Statute of Westminster as a matter of high order. The royal commission was chaired by Charles Vincent Massey. Between 1949 and 1951, the commission exhaustively examined the nature and problems of Canadian life, including foreign cultural (especially American) influences. It recommended the establishment
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of the Canada Council for the Arts (done 1957) and enhanced government spending in the arts and cultural institutions, including libraries and archives. It also recommended inauguration of federal grants for higher education (instituted 1957). Some circles, very much a minority, interpreted these as federal intrusions in provincial responsibilities. The commissioners stressed that a national purpose could be achieved by fostering the arts. They stressed, in the report’s preamble, “that it is desirable that the Canadian people should know as much as possible about their country, its history and traditions; and about their national life and common achievements; that it is in the national interest to give encouragement to institutions which express national feeling, promote common understanding and add to the variety and richness of Canadian life, rural as well as urban.” In brief, the commission recognized two essentials: “the will of our people to enrich and quicken their cultural and economic life” and “if we in Canada are to have a more plentiful and better cultural fare, we must pay for it. Good will alone can do little for a starving plant; if the cultural life of Canada is anaemic, it must be nourished.” McCARTHY, D’ALTON (1830–1898). McCarthy, from an Ulster Protestant background, established the Equal Rights Association, which sought to limit the use of French in Ontario schools and to end acceptance of French as an official language in the Northwest Territories. He was an ally of John A. Macdonald, but his call for the use of force to maintain Anglo-Saxon Protestantism destabilized the Conservatives, in particular those who favored accommodation with French-speaking Canadian conservatives, the Bleus. McCarthy’s campaign brought in the Manitoba Schools Act of 1890. McCLELLAND, JOHN GORDON (1922–2002). A noted Canadian book publisher, McClelland was born in Toronto and educated at St. Andrews’s College and the University of Toronto. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy in World War II, serving first in Canadian waters, and was mentioned in dispatches. He served as captain in the Royal Navy’s Motor Torpedo Boat 747. After the war, he joined his father’s publishing firm, McClelland and Stewart, and became its president in 1961. His intuition, formidable energy, and commitment helped him launch the career of many a young Canadian writer,
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including Pierre Berton. The most significant English-language publisher of Canadian life and letters of his generation, he founded the New Canadian Library paperback series, designed to protect and enhance Canadian literacy and historical work at a time of active American takeovers of Canadian publishing houses. McClelland and Stewart eventually passed into the controlling hands of the University of Toronto. McClelland was recipient of 11 honorary degrees and was in 2001 made a Companion of the Order of Canada. See also LITERATURE. McCLUNG, NELLIE MOONEY (1873–1951). A suffragist, politician, and educator, McClung was born in Manitoba. She belonged to the Canadian Women’s Press Club and the Political Equality League, where she worked for female suffrage. McClung led a delegation representing women’s groups before the Manitoba legislature to ask that women be given the vote in Manitoba’s provincial elections. Actions such as this led to Manitoba granting women the right to vote and thus run for office in 1916. In 1921, McClung was elected a member of the Alberta legislature. In government, McClung always voted for social-activist legislation. She went on to become the first woman on the CBC’s Board of Governors. In 1938, she was one of Canada’s delegates to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She retired to and died in Saanich, British Columbia. See also PERSONS CASE. McCRAE, JOHN (1872–1918). Born in Guelph, Ontario, McCrae became a specialist in clinical medicine and pathology at McGill University, Montréal. A volunteer medical officer (surgeon to 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery) in World War I, he also wrote poetry, his best-known work being “In Flanders Fields,” first published 8 December 1915 in Punch. In 1997, his medals were acquired by patriot Arthur Lee of Toronto and given to McCrae House (now a museum), where he was born. McDONALD, ALEX (18??–19??). Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the larger than life McDonald was also known as “Big Alex” or “the Moose from Antigonish” because of his size. He came to the Yukon after working 14 years in Colorado, where he mined silver, and in
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Juneau, Alaska, where he panned for gold. Although he had no money originally, he eventually owned 50 claims and also became known as “the King of the Klondike.” For a few years after the discovery of gold, he was perhaps the wealthiest man in the Yukon. In 1899, he married Margaret Chisholm while he was in England. He died some years later, in a cabin on Clearwater Creek in the Yukon. At the time of his death, he was again impoverished. McDOUGALL, WILLIAM (1822–1905). A lawyer, newspaper publisher, and politician, McDougall advocated inclusion of Rupert’s Land into the territories of the Dominion of Canada. A Clear Grit and strong advocate of confederation, he became the minister of public works in John A. Macdonald’s cabinet. McDougall’s newspaper campaign for the inclusion of Rupert’s Land marked him as a Canadian imperialist and expansionist. He was one of the negotiators who contracted for the transfer of Rupert’s Land into eventual Canadian possession. He was the natural choice to be governor of the Northwest Territories. In 1869, the Métis of the Red River erected a blockade to prevent his entrance to their assumed jurisdiction. This set off the Red River Rebellion in 1870. Discredited, McDougall gradually retired from office. See also MANITOBA. McGEE, THOMAS D’ARCY (1825–1868). A journalist and politician, McGee was the editor of the Nation, a radical newspaper in Ireland until 1818, when he was forced to flee to the United States in 1848. He came to Montréal, where he published the New Era from 1857 to 1867. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1858 until 1867, then of the House of Commons until his death. He was a member of the “Great Coalition” formed to promote confederation and was a delegate to both the Charlottetown and Québec conferences. Known as a great orator, he promoted the “new nationality” and earned his place as a “Father of Confederation.” He was murdered by a Fenian in 1868. McLENNAN, HUGH (1907–1990). A novelist and professor, born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, McLennan wrote the classic Barometer Rising (1941), about Halifax at the time of the great and fearful Halifax explosion. Perhaps his most famous novel, Two Solitudes (1945),
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concerns separate English and French identities. He also wrote travel books, notably one profiling the seven rivers of Canada. He was a professor of English at McGill University, Montréal, and one of the most important English novelists of Canada in the first half of the 20th century. See also LITERATURE. McLUHAN, MARSHALL (1911–1980). Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan was born in Edmonton and died in Toronto. He studied at Cambridge University (Ph.D.) and became a professor of English at the University of Toronto in 1946. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Roman Catholicism and always worked in Catholic colleges or universities. He was famous for studies of how mass media affect thought and behavior, and for the concept “the medium is the message.” He also coined the term “global village.” He regarded himself as a grammarian looking at media biases and messages. He was greatly influenced by the thinking of social scientist Harold Adams Innis, who developed the staple trade thesis in relation to the fur trade, railways, and communications (including trade networks) of Canada. McLuhan’s revolutionary thinking did not catch hold in his native Canada, but he was discovered by scholars and mediawatchers in the United States. About to decamp for the United States and the University of Pennsylvania, he was kept in Canada by the urging of the University of Toronto’s administration, who established for him the Center for Culture and Technology. McLuhan studied in particular the electric media, which were competing with print. He argued that the integrating forces of electric media shifted the uses of information away from the study of detail and thence into the need to interpret the contexts of media form. He distinguished between “hot” and “cool” media, the former being, for example, print or radio and full of information, and the latter telephone or television and less so. The former, too, involved less involvement by the recipient than the latter. McLuhan’s books include The Mechanical Bride (1951), The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), and Understanding Media (1964). Later works are Through the Vanishing Point (1968), with Harley Parker; The Interior Landscape: The Literary Criticism of Marshall McLuhan (1969); and Take Today: The Executive as Dropout (1972), with Barrington Nevitt. A world-famous communications innovator,
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McLuhan received numerous awards and recognitions; he was Schweitzer Chair (1967) at Fordham University, New York. Controversial and ahead of his time, his understanding of the media and its messages is now recognized as a foundation for communications theory and communications studies. MEECH LAKE ACCORD. A “closed door” constitutional amendment of 1987 that was rejected, the Meech Lake Accord intended to recognize Québec as a “distinct society.” Requiring unanimous support of Canadian provinces, the measure failed in Manitoba on a procedural technicality and was not voted on in Newfoundland. Chiefs of northern Manitoba tribes had studied the laws of procedure and consulted constitutional experts. They learned they could prevent the Meech Lake debate in the Manitoba Legislature, and Elijah Harper, an Ojibwa chief, blocked debate there. The measure died. The measure was introduced by the federal government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as an attempt to deal with some perceived unfinished business of the Constitution Act of 1982. The accord’s failure intensified Québec’s alienation and dissatisfaction, and fueled native, Inuit, territorial, and women’s resentment concerning exclusion in discussions leading to the accord. An attempt to broaden the basis of constitutional reform known as the Charlottetown Agreement, balancing Québécois requirements with native demands and certain representation-by-population measures for western provinces, was defeated by the Canadian electorate in the referendum of 26 October 1992 in a vote (overall national figures) of 44.6 percent yes, 54.4 percent no. MEIGHEN, ARTHUR (1874–1960). Born near St. Mary’s, Ontario, Meighen was a lawyer and politician. He was a member of Parliament in Manitoba and became solicitor general in Robert Borden’s administration. A brilliant parliamentary speaker, Meighen had a firm hand on policy formation. He played key roles in railway nationalization, conscription, and the Wartime Elections Act. He ended the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and used the Immigration Act and Criminal Code to deal with strikers, who would face deportation or jail. In 1920, upon Borden’s resignation, Meighen became prime minister. His unpopularity and his high tariff policy resulted in his
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government’s defeat in 1921. He became prime minister again in 1925. Deserted by the Progressive Party members in the House of Commons during the constitutional crisis of 1926, he could not keep power. He lost a subsequent election to his archenemy Mackenzie King and the Liberals. He was replaced by R. B. Bennett. In 1940 and 1944, he attempted political comebacks but failed. See also GOVERNORS GENERAL. MERCIER, HONORÉ (1840–1894). A popular politician who defended French Canadian rights, Mercier revived the Parti National in response to Louis Riel’s execution in 1885. In 1887, as premier of Québec, he passed the Jesuit Estates Act. He called the first Interprovincial Conference in 1887. Mercier was removed from office in 1891 on charges of corruption, which were never proved. METCALFE, CHARLES THEOPHILUS (1785–1846). An experienced colonial authority, Baron Metcalfe served as governor general of Canada in 1843. Asserting the British Crown’s right to make appointments, he took measures that led Robert Baldwin and Louis Lafontaine to resign in protest, and the assembly voted in their favor. Metcalfe dismissed the government. In the subsequent election, he campaigned for office and won by a slim majority. His feeble administration ended with his resignation in 1845. He was the last of his breed: responsible government followed in 1846. MÉTIS. A people enshrined within the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as aboriginal. The Métis, they say, date from nine months after the white man set foot in Canada. Proud, desperate, and independent, they are the progeny of sexual unions of Europeans, chiefly Scots and French, with native women. They were powerfully important in the 18th and 19th centuries and played an important role in the fur trade. Their culture blended French language and native skills. Many of them lived as farmers, and they occupied river lots on the Assiniboine and Red rivers. They lived near fur posts and also became buffalo hunters and freighters. The Red River cart, a Métis creation, could carry 1,000 lbs of cargo and could double as a raft for river crossings. They had commercial links to North Dakota. In the classic era of their history (c. 1800–85), they formed a self-regulating
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community and are said to have had a utopian society organized around the buffalo hunt. The hunting of buffalo was essential to the making of pemmican, a staple of the fur trade. The industrial world brought pressures: land hunger, railways, steamboats, homesteading, urbanization, government, police, and so on. Métis played conspicuous roles in the emergence of selfgovernment in Assiniboia, Manitoba, and in the Northwest Territories. Under Louis Riel and other leaders, they resisted Canadian authority in the Red River Rebellion (1869–70) and Saskatchewan risings (1885). Excluded from Indian treaties, they lived dispossessed lives, and many retreated to northern locations or Indian reserves. A political renaissance greeted them in the late 1960s and after. They have strong provincial, territorial, and national organizations and are the only mixed-blood people to have distinct constitutional status in the world, recognized in 1982. Most are English speaking, though of French ancestry. According to the 2006 census, there are over a million Métis living in Canada, making them the largest-growing aboriginal population. See also DUMONT, GABRIEL. MI’KMAQ. At the time of European contact, the Mi’kmaq (Micmac) occupied the whole province of Nova Scotia, including Cape Breton Island and portions of northern New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. They were a typical migratory people who lived in the woods in the winter and on the seashore in the warmer months. The dialect of the Mi’kmaq was different from that of the tribes around them, but it resembled the Algonquin dialect in the Great Lakes region. The customs of the Mi’kmaq drastically changed after contact with Europeans. The tribe quickly adopted many of the customs of the Europeans into their daily lives. Throughout the wars in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Mi’kmaq were faithful allies to the French. The Mi’kmaq also participated in the extermination of the Beothuk in Newfoundland. See also INDIANS. MILITIA. In Canada the militia has consisted of a part-time, volunteer, armed citizenry that acts as a defensive unit to defend the country and the keep peace. It has been viewed as a supplement to the regular, professional army; militia units are trained by regulars.
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The Canadian militia dates back to the days of New France when a militia was organized to protect the colonists from native peoples. After the British conquest, the militia was continued by the British, but on a lower level, since London stationed regulars in British North America. The militia fought along with the regulars in the War of 1812. After 1867, the Dominion of Canada continued the militia system. Militia units were used in both the Red River Rebellion and the Northwest Rebellion. In the 1880s, the Canadian government attempted to develop a professional standing army. Training schools were established and regimented training of militia volunteers was implemented to create a more effective and efficient militia. The militia performed well in the South African War (Boer War), considering the equipment problems. By World War I, the militia was in the process becoming a regular standing army. See also CANADIAN ARMY. MOHAWK. See IROQUOIS; OKA; POWLESS, ROSS. MONTCALM, LOUIS-JOSEPH DE (1712–1759). A professional soldier of skill and distinction, Montcalm (Marquis de Montcalm de Saint-Véran) was assigned to North America in 1756 to take command of all French troops there at the outbreak of the Seven Years War. Although the French forces were outnumbered and outgunned, Montcalm managed to hold the British in check by striking along Lake Champlain and denying access to the St. Lawrence Valley. His victory at Fort Carillon, later named Ticonderoga, was a notable achievement in defensive strategy and tactics, also in wilderness warfare. In 1759, the British, led by Gen. James Wolfe, laid siege to Québec City. Wolfe led his troops to the Plains of Abraham, where they were met by Montcalm, who had decided to deploy from his fortified positions. On the field of battle, Montcalm ordered his forces to attack, and in the face of withering fire by the enemy, the battle was lost. He died on the Plains of Abraham, later lamented by friend and foe alike. MONTGOMERY, LUCY MAUD (1874–1942). A best-selling author and educator, Montgomery was born in Clifton, Prince Edward
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Island. In 1906, she wrote her most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. The heroine, Anne, has eternal, engaging, and endearing qualities. The book was published in 1908 by an American company and was an instant best-seller. She eventually wrote 22 books and in 1923 became the first Canadian woman to become a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England. In 1935, she was invested with the Order of the British Empire. Lucy Maud Montgomery remains one of the most famous Canadian writers. See also LITERATURE. MONTRÉAL. Prominent in the history of Canada owing to its strategic situation where the Ottawa River joins the St. Lawrence River and where the Richelieu River drains from Lake Champlain, Montréal was an important seaport for ocean-going vessels. Co-founders of the settlement were soldier-administrator Paul Maisonneuve and nurse and treasurer Jeanne Mance. The financial and business center of New France and later Lower Canada and the Province of Québec, it grew on the basis of the fur trade, banking, and brewing. Later it became an industrial and communications headquarters and a railway and shipping nexus of world prominence. It was the immigration entry point of millions of British and other Europeans. In its early days it was the subject of Indian and American military raids. It was headquarters of the fur trade of the North West Company until 1821, when the company merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company and the trade flowed more so through Hudson Bay. By 1825, Montréal’s population was 22,540, making it Québec’s largest city. In 1849, riots led to the burning of the parliament buildings of the United Province of Canada; rioters were furious at the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill. The riot lasted two days and involved thousands of people. The destruction of Canadian archival records was huge. The age of steam and railways changed the face of the city, making it the vital center of overland as well as oceanic commerce. In 1859, Robert Stephenson’s tubular Victoria Bridge across the St. Lawrence River was completed, linking the south shore to the Island of Montréal and enabling railway traffic to travel directly from Halifax with links west to Toronto and farther west.
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A predominant feature of the city’s architecture is St. Joseph’s Oratory, a church built into the mountain slope overlooking Montréal. It was built by Brother André, a Holy Cross brother, as a shrine to honor God. He was made a saint in 2010. Corporations made Montréal their headquarters. Railways and communications were key to the city’s development and to that of the nation. Air Canada is headquartered here, and the region is important in the history of aviation. The International World Exposition EXPO 67 brought world attention to Montréal. Before the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway (1959), Montréal was transshipment point for all goods coming into the Great Lakes, but shipping technology bypassed the city, leading to a decline in oceanic and railway commerce. The Roman Catholic Church played a prominent role in the history of Montréal, especially in higher education. A number of schools, colleges, and universities are located in Montréal, including Université de Montréal and Loyola College, now part of Concordia University. McGill University, one of Canada’s greats, was established here. Prominent architectural and cultural wonders include the Musée d’Art Contemporain, McCord Museum of Canadian History, and Molson Center, home ice to the world-famous Montréal Canadiens. The election of the Parti Québécois in 1976 made the city an even greater battleground for French language primacy. It also resulted in the migration of many Montréalers to Toronto and elsewhere in protest to the French primacy language policies of the Province of Québec, even the proscription of English on commercial signs. Prominent banks, including the Bank of Montréal, shifted their corporate headquarters to Toronto. The population of greater Montréal is 2.8 million. See also MONTRÉAL MASSACRE. MONTRÉAL MASSACRE. On 6 December 1989, Marc Lepine, armed with a gun, entered the engineering wing of L’École Polytechnique in Montréal and ordered female students to segregate themselves from the males. He then shot 14 of the women dead, injured eight more as well as four men when they attempted to intervene, and then turned the gun on himself. A letter found on his person contained a hit list of 15 high-profile women. Lepine’s rage was
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against women seeking nontraditional careers and women leaders in society. The anniversary of this event has since become a national day of awareness and remembrance. Tighter gun controls were a consequence of political action taken by citizens concerned that such an event must have no repetition. MOODIE, SUSANNA (1803–1885). Born in England, the writer Susanna Strickland Moodie came from a literary family. She wrote a number of children’s works early in her career and published a book of poetry in 1831. She and her husband, British army officer J. W. Dunbar Moodie, emigrated to Canada in 1832, settling briefly on a farm near Port Hope, Lake Ontario. They then removed to 400 acres of backwoods near Peterborough and cleared land for their farm. Major Moodie was called for active military duty to suppress the Rebellions of 1837. In 1839, he was appointed sheriff of Hastings County, and the family moved to Belleville, the county seat. Susanna Moodie became an active contributor to the journals Literary Garland and Canadian Literary Magazine. She wrote a number of popular novels, poetry, and memoirs. Her personal trials and experiences mark her out as a major early novelist of Canada. Most noteworthy among her writings is Roughing It in the Bush (1852), which has given her a secure place in literary history for the colonial era; it is a vigorous, authentic, and humorous account of frontier conditions in Upper Canada. She also wrote Life in the Clearings (1853). Her sister Catharine Parr Traill, who likewise had immigrated to Canada, was also a popular Canadian writer. MOSAIC, CANADA AS A. This concept or theory of ethnicity received currency in the 1960s as a contradistinction to the melting-pot concept thought to exist in the United States. Dating from the 1920s, this pluralism of Canadian society attracted many writers, especially sociologists. For a time, it was a special point of pride, one marking Canada’s uniqueness in cultural diversity. Sociologist John Porter’s Vertical Mosaic (1965) suggested, however, that the mosaic impeded upward mobility of ethnicities other than French and English and thereby promoted conservative traits. Of late, the concept has less support than before, the intention of immigration regulations and
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plans being an enhanced Canadian citizenship as a focal point of ethnicities, religions, sects, and creeds. MOWAT, FARLEY (1921– ). A much-loved storyteller, impish in manner and gnome-like in appearance, Farley Mowat has used Canadian themes and episodes to weave new threads in literary nonfiction. He has also created a personal literary following of extraordinary proportions, with sales in excess of 14 million in 25 languages. A student of the environment and wildlife, he has covered many literary subjects. People of the Dear (1952) blamed government officials and missionaries for the hunger and deprivation suffered by caribou-hunting Ihalmuit Inuit. And No Birds Sang (1979) recounts his army experiences in World War II. No Man’s River (2004) recounts his northern canoe trips in the 1940s. Mowat has many critics who attack his work on grounds of inauthenticity. Equally significant, some Newfoundlanders have abused him for his exposé of the seal hunt, Sea of Slaughter (1984). See also LITERATURE. MULRONEY, BRIAN (1939– ). The son of Irish immigrants, Martin Brian Mulroney studied law and became a labor lawyer in Montréal. He contested unsuccessfully Joe Clark’s leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976. President of the Iron Ore Company, he closed down plant operations in Shefferville, Québec. In 1983, he replaced Clark and shortly afterward entered Parliament as an MP. In 1984, he won a majority electoral victory and became prime minister. He was reelected in 1988, but he resigned abruptly in 1993. Mulroney brought forth two unsuccessful attempts at constitutional change: the Meech Lake Accord (1987) and Charlottetown Agreement (1992). He brought Canada into the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States. His government introduced the Goods and Services Tax. Largely discredited for patronage appointments and massive deficits, he left his party virtually in tatters. After being named in an Airbus kickback scheme, he received an official apology from the minister of justice, Alan Rock, and damages.
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MURPHY, EMILY FERGUSON (1868–1933). A politician and writer born in Cookstown, Ontario, Murphy wrote a variety of books about her adventures in Europe and Western Canada. The character Janey Canuck, an allusion to the common Canadian nickname Johnny Canuck, was created by Murphy. She moved to Alberta with her husband and began a career of lobbying the government for social reforms. She worked to pass the Dower Act, allowing a wife to retain one-third of her husband’s estate during his life and after his death, and the Children’s Protection Act, to shelter abused children. With her in-depth knowledge of the law, Murphy in 1916 was appointed the first woman magistrate in the British Empire to preside over women’s court. One of Murphy’s most important contributions was the Persons Case, her challenge of the British North America Act (Constitution Act of 1867) pertaining to the meaning of the word person, which was then interpreted as not including women. With Nellie Mooney McClung, Irene Marryat Parlby, Louis Crummy McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards, Murphy took the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. The court decided against the women, who then appealed to the Privy Council in England. The Privy Council announced that women were persons. Murphy dedicated her life to the improvement of the status of women in Canada, with great success. See also SOCIAL GOSPEL; WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. MURRAY, JAMES (1721–1794). Murray succeeded James Wolfe as commander of the British Army during the invasion of New France in 1759. He was made military governor of Québec in 1760 and in 1763 became civil governor of the province, serving until 1768. He modified the policy of Anglicization imposed by the Proclamation of 1763, allowing retention of the French language and law and the tithing rights of the Roman Catholic Church. MUSIC. The music of Canada reflects diverse influences, ones influential in the shaping of the country: aboriginal, French, British, and American. The music is naturally heavily influenced by U.S. culture because of proximity and cross-border migration. The aboriginal tradition in music is deep, and its legacies survive in some places of Canada. Religious orders dominating the educational institutions of Québec included music as part of the curriculum. Organs were intro-
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duced in 1657, and since that time organ construction in Canada has achieved worldwide recognition for quality. Many figures prominent in Canada’s history were practicing musicians—explorer Louis Jolliet (1645–1700), for instance, was a master of several instruments. British military bands made a different kind of contribution, broadening popular understanding of their repertoire. Concert halls and later opera houses were built in colonial cities. The first published music was by New France composer, poet, and playwright Joseph Quesnel (1746–1809). Celtic music came with new immigrants. Folk music flourished: “The Canadian Boat Song,” composed by Thomas Moore, was a notable triumph. Choirs and musical societies enlarged musical activities. In 1844, Samuel Nordheimer opened a store in Toronto, selling pianos and sheet music. In the 1870s, conservatories were opened, providing string, woodwind, and brass instruction. The national anthem “O Canada” was written by Calixa Lavallée, becoming popular. Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882–1943), among the first African Canadian composers, performed at Carnegie Hall. World War I introduced many popular songs, some of imperial and martial sentiment. Arguably the beginning of modern Canadian music and composition can be traced to Toronto-born Murray Adaskin (1906–2002), a violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher at the University of Saskatchewan. For many years, he was an orchestral and chamber musician with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, but he became a composer-in-residence at the University of Saskatchewan, the first appointment of its type. In popular music, many notable individuals and groups made their appearance, among them Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, a noted dance band that sold millions of records; Oscar Peterson (1925–2007), considered among the greatest of jazz pianists (and a champion of racial equality); Hank Snow, a regular Nashville performer; Portia White (1911–1968), of African descent, a contralto; Paul Shaffer, music director of comedian David Letterman’s Late Show; Paul Anka, a rock and teen idol famous for “Diana”; and other notable performers and groups such as Neil Young, k.d. lang, Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams, and Celine Dion. In classical music performance, a similar long list could be compiled, including Jon Vickers (tenor), Edward Johnson (singer and
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producer), Lois Marshall (soprano), Maureen Forrester (contralto), Judith Forst (mezzo), Louis Quilico (tenor), Edith Wiens (soprano), Isabel Bayrakdarian (soprano), and tenors Ben Heppner, Michael Schade, and Richard Margeson. Instrumentalists include the celebrated Glenn Gould (piano), Monica Huggett (early music specialist), Jane Coop (piano), Angela Hewitt (piano), James Enes (violin), Leona Boyd (guitar), and Erica Raum (cello). In the field of music education a prominent breakthrough in professional education occurred in 1886 when the Royal Conservatory of Music was incorporated in Toronto. Its preparation of music teachers, as associates, set nationwide standards in performance, theory, harmony, counterpoint, music history, elocution, and performance. Musical festivals developed in most cities, important for the raising of local talents and the enriching of community life.
– N – NANAIMO. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had a trading post at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In 1849, the Snuneymuxw chief Ki-et-sa-kun (“Coal Tyee”) told the HBC about the presence of coal in the area. In consequence of coal being commercially workable, the HBC erected the Nanaimo Bastion (still in existence) as a means of protection, authority, and defense. The earliest miners were brought from England. The town became known for the export of coal, which by the 1870s had become substantial. Robert Dunsmuir, later lieutenant governor of British Columbia, established coal mines in Nanaimo harbor and later Wellington at Northfield. Dunsmuir also built a steam railway. He sold coal to British warships and exported it to Puget Sound and San Francisco. The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway was built. In 1887, the Nanaimo mine explosion killed 148, the largest human-made explosion until the Halifax Explosion. In the 1940s, coal was supplanted by lumber as the main business. Nanaimo’s large harbor is an excellent booming ground for timber and lumber mills ashore. Linked to Horseshoe Bay and Tsawwassen by ferries, Nanaimo is a hub city for central and northern Vancouver Island.
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Production in coal and timber, and also pulp and paper manufacturing nearby, dominated the 20th-century economy. Recently there has been an increase in high-technology sectors, particularly related to the Web and Internet. Nanaimo boasts the oldest continuous community band in Canada, founded 1872. The town hosts an annual bathtub race during its marine festival and claims the origin of the famous Nanaimo bar dessert. Nanaimo is also home to Vancouver Island University. Perhaps Nanaimo’s most famous citizen is jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall. The population is about 80,000. NATIONAL ANTHEM. Until the 1980s, the national anthem of Canada was “God Save the Queen.” On 1 July 1980, “O Canada” was officially adopted as the national anthem by the Parliament of Canada. It was the work of Calixa Lavallée (1842–1891), who was prominent among the pioneer composers since the times of French and British colonization but died in poverty. “O Canada” was first performed 24 June 1880 at the Skaters’ Pavilion in Québec City. The words were written by Judge Adolphe-Baile Routhier and were designed to exhibit the great history of Canada; the pride, dignity, and importance of patriotism; and the inheritance of Canada’s lands and resources for the present generation and those of the future. The work is a 28-bar march in 4/4 time. The first stanza is: O Canada, our home and native land, True patriot love in all our sons command. With glowing hearts we see her rise, The true north strong and free. From far and wide, O Canada, We stand on guard for thee. God keep our land, glorious and free. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
The illustrious deeds of the founders and builders of Canada are stressed in the second verse. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA (NRC). Established in 1916, the National Research Council of Canada has been the country’s leading research and development organization. It
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functioned in its early days in an advisory capacity to government and was much involved with science in the service of war. In the early 1930s, new laboratories were established in Ottawa. During World War II, it grew rapidly in support of Canada’s war effort and that of its allies. Basic and applied research in science and engineering was undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s, and assistance for industry was undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s. From the mid-1980s, the NRC concentrated on partnerships and strategic contributions to technological advancement and wealth creation. Specialized agencies and services have grown out of the council, including the Defense Research Board, National Science Library, Medical Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., and Canadian Space Agency. An agency of the Government of Canada, the National Research Council reports to Parliament through the minister of industry. It is governed by a council of 22 appointees. Its mission is to support national science and engineering activities, perform and stimulate investment in research and development, and develop vital expertise and knowledge. Its diverse facilities and programs are used by thousands of scientists, engineers, and research organizations. It has an information arm, Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information, which offers one of the largest collections of scientific, technical, and medical information. It also has a publishing arm, NRC Press, one of Canada’s leading publishers of scientific journals. It has, too, an Industrial Research Assistance Program and a Canadian Technology Network. NEW BRUNSWICK. One of the maritime provinces, New Brunswick is bordered by Québec, the state of Maine, and the Atlantic Ocean. A narrow land bridge, the Isthmus of Chignecto, connects Nova Scotia with New Brunswick. Most of the interior plateau is forest covered. The St. John River valley is rich in fertile soil. The original inhabitants of New Brunswick were the Mi’kmaq in the east and the Maliceet along the St. John River valley. Prior to being named New Brunswick, the region was a colonial establishment called Acadia. Samuel de Champlain established the original settlement on St. Croix Island. The French settled the area and developed fur trading relations with the natives. Control of Acadia alternated
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between the French and British for nearly two centuries. In 1755, the British forced the inhabitants of the colony, the Acadians, to swear an oath of allegiance; those who refused were expelled. In 1763, the British gained control of the colony with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. When the United States gained independence from Britain through the American Revolution, many Loyalists crossed the border from Maine to New Brunswick. The area became a province of Britain in 1784, called New Brunswick. The name comes from the family name of King George III. In 1867, New Brunswick was one of the charter provinces of the Canadian confederation. The large proportion of French-speaking inhabitants led to the province becoming officially bilingual. The climate of New Brunswick is diverse. The northern interior experiences severe winters, while the coastal areas are influenced by the moderating sea. The forests are the province’s largest natural resource. A majority of the forest is softwood, making it suitable for paper production. In the 19th century, great sailing ships were built in New Brunswick, including the Marco Polo. The fishing industry is also a major component of the economy. The province has some deposits of silver, lead, zinc, coal, and potash. The main agricultural production is potatoes. The pulp and paper and the food processing industries are the main components of the manufacturing sector. The capital is Fredericton; the major port is Saint John. The legislative assembly has 58 members. Federally, the province is represented by 10 members in the House of Commons and 10 in the Senate. The population in 2009 was 848,329. NEW DEAL. By 1935, Canadians, dissatisfied with the slow economic growth—and the continuing Great Depression—cried out for a new policy. R. B. Bennett and the Conservatives answered with Canada’s New Deal. Bold in concept and scope and inspired by its American counterpart, it was a collectivist onslaught against industry and finance. It sought to improve the social state of the masses; to gain government economic controls over trade, markets, owners, and producers; and to institute social legislation for the protection of the unemployed. It was presented when the sands of time were running out on the Conservatives, who hitherto had generally followed traditional policies of creation and retention. Its co-author was
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W. L. Herridge, Bennett’s brother-in-law, who was Canada’s ambassador in Washington, D.C. Herridge observed U.S. President Franklin. D. Roosevelt’s New Deal firsthand and wrote, “This is the end of an economic era. Capitalism will never again work in the old way. The only system which can work hereafter is the system controlled and guided by the state.” In early January 1935, Bennett announced in five radio broadcasts to the nation that society was to be overhauled from top to bottom. There would be a “new deal” for everyone. His program sought social security laws, labor statutes, and economic controls. He intended to implement the findings of the Price Spreads Commission against price-fixing and to repair the economy along lines of greater social justice and distribution of national income. Legislation passed at the parliamentary session included the Minimum Wages Act, the Limitation of Hours of Work Act, the Unemployment and Social Insurance Act, and the Natural Products Marketing Act. The 1935 election was fought over these issues. Mackenzie King and the Liberal Party promised reduced tariffs, a trade treaty with the United States, marketing reforms, new unemployment insurance, and securities control. This policy was far less daring than Bennett’s, and coming from a reform party, it was more credible. “King or Chaos” was a useful Liberal slogan that year. The Conservatives were roundly defeated. King took the New Deal legislation to the courts. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found most of it to be ultra vires, or beyond the authority of the federal Parliament, on grounds that it affected the property and civil rights of the provinces. This was another example of the Privy Council adopting an interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to strong central government. Accordingly, it can be seen as a victory for “provincial rights.” It remained for King to implement much of the same legislation by the end of the decade, once the necessary constitutional amendment was adopted. The Conservatives subsequently disappeared as a major political force for two decades. NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP). The NDP was established in 1961 out of the old Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). In 1932 in Calgary, labor interests, farmers, church leaders, and others met to plan a socialist party based on wide-ranging and radical as-
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sumptions. In Regina, in 1933, the inaugural convention of the CCF adopted its charter document, the Regina Manifesto, which called for economic planning, centralized fiscal control, price stabilization, and public control over communications and natural resources. The manifesto promised to “eradicate capitalism,” called for a welfare state, and declared that “the first step to a socialized economy” would be creation of a national planning commission—consisting of economists, engineers, and statisticians assisted by appropriate technical staff—to run the Canadian economy. The commission would plan the production, distribution, and exchange “of all goods necessary to the efficient functioning of the economy.” A national investment board would replace Canada’s “financial machinery,” that is, its banks, currency, credit, and insurance. It would “direct the unused surpluses of production for socially desired purposes as determined by the national planning commission.” The Manifesto was written in advance of the convention by socialist elites, including the Oxfordeducated Methodist minister James Shaver Woodsworth. “The untrained masses,” he explained, “are incompetent to pass judgment upon the complicated problems of capitalism.” The party rose to opposition status in British Columbia and Saskatchewan but was late to start in the Maritimes and Québec. The CCF became the official opposition in Ontario in 1943. In 1944, under the leadership of T. C. Douglas, the CCF triumphed in Saskatchewan, where the first state Medicare plan in Canada was introduced. The CCF pushed the Liberal Party further to the left and obliged them to adopt various social welfare measures more fully and more quickly. Similarly, the CCF faced internal divisions, and Liberal policies forced it to abandon the most doctrinaire elements of its Regina Manifesto in 1956, when the CCF officially abandoned this socialist creed, exchanging it for Keynesianism, a merely statist creed. In 1961, the party was renamed the New Democratic Party, with Douglas as the leader. The new party contained representation from the Canadian Labor Congress. In 1969, the NDP was elected in Manitoba. In 1972, a group of radicals called “the Waffle” were expelled from the party ranks, and in the same year, the NDP kept the federal Liberal minority in power. In the 1980s, the party became more centralist under the leadership of Ed Broadbent and Audrey McLaughlin. Provincial governments were won in British Columbia and
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Ontario. This third party of Canadian federal politics plays a critical and sometimes spoiler role. Seldom electing more than 40 persons to the House of Commons, it portrays itself nonetheless as the heart of the Left in Canadian politics, distancing itself as much from the Liberals as from the Conservatives. Under leader Jack Layton, it joined the ill-fated, short-lived Opposition Coalition of December 2008, and its support for the besieged minority government in 2009 gave it a new lease on life. NEWFOUNDLAND. The island of Newfoundland (10th largest island in the world), in the Atlantic Ocean, was joined with the mainland area Labrador in 1949 to make up the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the last province to join the confederation. Newfoundland is Canada’s easternmost land. The province is noted for its rocky surface and heavily forested areas. The province has a long, rich history. The Norse Vikings settled the area briefly in the 10th century. In 1497, the explorer John Cabot was the first European to rediscover the area. In 1558, the first settlers arrived in Newfoundland aboard the brig Hawke. On 5 August 1583, Humphrey Gilbert claimed the land of Newfoundland for England. This land would become the first colony of England in America. As in Acadia, the British and French fought repeatedly over this land. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 gave Britain full control of Newfoundland. The small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland were ceded to France and still remain under French control. St. John’s, the colonial capital, was a nexus of the cod fishery and a naval base. In 1855, Newfoundland became a full British colony with responsible government and thus had dominion status. This lasted until the Great Depression of the 1930s. The colony could not sustain itself economically, which resulted in the British government’s 1934 decision to appoint a commission to govern the colony. Large air bases were built at Gander on Newfoundland and at Goose Bay in Labrador in World War II. The region acquired great strategic significance during that war. In 1948, Newfoundland voters in a referendum favored joining Canada. In 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador gained full provincial status.
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The Beothuk were the original inhabitants of the island of Newfoundland and fought diligently against the invasion of Europeans, but in 1829 they became extinct. Many different native groups inhabited Labrador, such as the Inuit, Mi’kmaq, Naskapi, and Montagnais. The province has an abundance of natural resources. Wild rivers provide for hydroelectricity, minerals are mined from the preCambrian rock, the forests provide much wood, and a fishing industry has been established from the supplies of the Atlantic. In the past, the province relied on the fishing industry to stimulate the economy, but as of 2000, the cod fishery was virtually closed by federal regulation. In the last few decades, the province has experienced growth in mineral and wood industries. In 2004, a major eruption occurred in federal-provincial relations, when the premier, Danny Williams, in anger, had the Canada flag lowered from the provincial government building. The issue was the nonagreement on off-shore oil revenues. This hard-driving and embarrassing act backfired. An agreement was announced in late January 2005 for an eight-year period, subject to review. The agreement also involved Nova Scotia, an otherwise polite and quiet partner to the process. The capital of Newfoundland and Labrador is St. John’s. The provincial assembly has 52 members. Federally, the province is represented by seven members of Parliament and six senators. The population of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador as of 2009 was 510,271, about 94 percent of which resided on the island of Newfoundland. NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR. See LABRADOR; NEWFOUNDLAND. NEW FRANCE. Although technically referring to all French territories in America, New France more specifically applied to Canada, including Acadia, Québec, and the western interior. In 1534, Jacques Cartier, at Gaspé, formally claimed Canada for France. Québec was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain. In 1663, New France became a royal province, succeeding variously held corporate
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monopolies. Regulated by a sovereign council headed by a governor, an intendant (chief administrator), and a bishop, New France had a centralized, oligarchic government. Under metropolitan regulation and local direction, the latter mainly owing to the enterprises of Jean Talon, economic diversification and self-sufficiency were promoted in fishing, farming, foresting, shipbuilding, and the production of tar and potash. New France was succeeded by the British colony known as Québec in 1763 through the Treaty of Paris. Champlain, the Jesuits, and the French Court wanted more than just good relations with the Indians. And they sought to make Canada more than merely an outpost for the fur trade. They wanted to colonize the St. Lawrence River valley and make it a jewel in the French crown. They asked how this could be done when monopolists in the trade failed to keep their obligations of sending out settlers in order to protect the Indian trade. In 1627, Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to Louis XIII and dedicated to rivaling Spanish, Dutch, and English power by building up a strong marine and colonial system, established a company of 100 shareholders known as the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (Company of a Hundred Associates). The company possessed the fur trade monopoly for 15 years. In return, it was required to establish over 4,000 settlers in Acadia and Canada over the same period, was held responsible for the costs of administration, and was compelled to support the clergy. The fact that the majority of associates were wealthy nobles indicates Richelieu’s desire to keep the scheme out of the hands of merchants who hitherto had been interested in the fur trade to the neglect of settlement. The nobles could be expected to take a keen interest in landholding, and the prospects for expansion of the Canadian population looked bright. Richelieu’s design faced great problems, however. In May 1628, four ships with 400 settlers left for Québec. Off Gaspé, they were captured by a British expedition led by David Kirke, commissioned by King Charles I to seize Canada and set up trade and plantations in the St. Lawrence region for a group of London merchants. Kirke then aided a Scottish project under William Alexander to settle Port Royal and cut off supply ships from France. In July 1629, they finally forced Champlain to surrender a Québec that was on the point of starvation. Had the English captured Québec a year earlier,
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it seems possible that they might have kept Canada at peace in April 1629. King Charles found Canada a useful bargaining point to get the remainder of a dowry owed him, and on the strength of Richelieu’s diplomacy, France regained Québec and Port Royal by the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye in 1632, to the disappointment of English and Scottish commercial and colonizing interests. Kirke later became governor of Newfoundland, where George Calvert had founded a fledgling settlement at Avalon. Alexander never lived to see his Nova Scotia (New Scotland) become a reality. As for Champlain, he resumed command at Québec in 1633, rebuilt the fortress, and died there in 1635. To stimulate emigration from France, the Company of New France, beginning in 1627, granted property en seigneurie et fief to landholders (seigneurs) who to their own advantage would settle it with colonists (censitaires or habitants). The aim was regulated land control for the purpose of stimulating colonization. The seigneuries, long and narrow land grants, extended in parallel lines back from the river. This geometric pattern would be repeated within a seigneurie itself, with strips of land running parallel to the boundaries and divided into concession rows (rangs), with unceded lands in the hinterland. This allowed habitants a variety of soil conditions and access to the river for purposes of water supply, fishing, and transportation. The seigneuries varied in size but the state preferred smaller divisions because they prevented subdivisions and discouraged the building of great landed estates. The grants were not confined to laity. After 1663, the Ursulines, Suplicans, Recollets, the Bishop and Seminary of Québec, and especially the Jesuits were awarded lands which, by 1780, totaled 26 percent of all seigneurial lands. This percentage may seem high, but it was probably justifiable in view of the social services in education and hospitalization provided by the church. At the time of the British conquest in 1760, there were some 250 seigneuries containing nearly 8 million acres. The seigneurial system appears to have been hierarchical in nature and to have reflected the theoretical absolutism and paternalism of French colonial policy. It was not feudal: the seigneur was the king’s land agent and not a liege lord. He had duties to perform within the law. He was bound to pay fealty and homage to the governor and to subject himself to the crown’s inquiries. He could not sell his lands
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without paying tax of a fifth of the selling price. To the habitant, he had other duties. He was obliged to maintain a manor house, a step designed to prevent absentee landlordism. He was also required to cede lands to applicants, operate a flour mill, hold court, support the church, and do road work (corvée) with the censitaires. He had, of course, honors owing him and “burdensome rights” payable by the habitant. Burdensome but not oppressive, these were designed to discourage land transfer and keep the habitant on the soil. They were also intended to protect the habitant against seigneurial abuses and, in this connection, the habitant had rights of appeal to the intendant. The seigneurial system, far from being feudal then, was actually a system of checks and balances designed for the mutual benefit of landlord and settler. The wilderness posed as an “escape valve” to those who sought to profit by the fur trade or to escape the pressures of urban or even agricultural society. In France, there was competition for land. In New France, there was competition for labor. Indeed, to prevent too many young men from taking to the woods, the government instituted a system of licensing canoes and traders. By this method it was hoped habitants would be kept on the land, cultivating crops important to colonial self-sufficiency. The frontier offered freedoms. The fur trade that became increasingly profitable as the 17th century progressed drew habitants to the wilderness. In the forests, the flamboyant, gaudy coureurs-de-bois adopted native styles of living and frontier values. They thus concerned the colony’s authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical. The frontier was an ameliorating feature on French institutions transported into Canada; it was also the source of danger. In the mid17th century, the eyes of New France were fixed on the southern frontier, where the Iroquois threat reached decisive proportions. The French, allied with the Algonkian and Huron, were in bitter conflict with the Iroquois who traded with the Dutch at Fort Orange (Albany). Between 1640 and 1660, the Iroquois attacked French settlements along the St. Lawrence, intercepted furs coming downriver from Ottawa, and terrorized the Jesuit missions and Indian villages in Huronia. The horrors of this war in terms of its effect on both Indian and Jesuit defy description. The Iroquois gained control of the western trade, their ultimate aim. As for the Hurons, they ceased to exist
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as a nation capable of waging war. Moreover, the Jesuits withdrew from Huronia and kept priests only at a few scattered and strategic points on the Great Lakes. The future of French empire in the west was therefore in question. French power was equally in doubt in settled areas. Near the new towns of Montréal and Trois-Rivières, founded in 1634 and 1642, respectively, Iroquois warriors took scalps with ease. This pressure reached a high point in 1660 but was relieved at Long Sault by Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, the garrison commander of Montréal, a Canadian legend. The Indian frontier was momentarily stabilized. Meanwhile, Acadia had fallen to Massachusetts expansionists. In 1654, a fleet from Boston captured Port Royal and Fort St. John, and in 1662 an English governor was commissioned for the area. French power in North America, confined to the empire of the St. Lawrence, tottered ominously. Reports from Québec—variously charged with emotion and fear and telling of the untapped prospects of the colony—reached Versailles. Their message was direct: the fate of New France was sealed unless France would send support. In March 1661, following the death of the dominating Cardinal Mazaran, the young Louis XIV had dramatically assumed control of affairs with the ambition of making France the strongest European power. The Sun King’s minister, the great mercantilist Jean-Baptiste Colbert, had similar intentions. He knew that a strong navy and colonies were necessary for the rise of French national power. They recognized colonial administration and in 1665 created the Ministry of Marine, which directed colonial and naval finances and administration. Colbert, as minister of Marine, now dictated affairs of the French empire as he and his monarch wished. In May 1663, the king decreed that New France was to be a royal province. At the same time, the charter of the defunct Company of New France was cancelled and with it the fur trade monopoly. Chartered companies were founded to develop French interests in such places as San Domingo and Louisiana. In Canada, a crown corporation, the Compagnie de l’Occident, founded in 1664, was a means of infusing royal control and monies into the colony. The crown assumed responsibility for the administration and defense of the colony.
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The new regime called for establishing a sovereign or superior council. This would consist of a governor, responsible for relations with the French administration and for defense of the colony; an intendant, responsible for the justice, economy, policy, and finance of the colony; and a bishop, responsible for ecclesiastical affairs (and, at his own discretion, moral guardianship). Other council members included an attorney general, a clerk of the records, and five councilors, usually representing the merchant class. The resulting conciliar government was rife with conflicts. Yet, periodically, it gave the colony the local direction lacking under full company auspices. Certainly, the personality and character of the individuals holding office were reflected in the colonial administration, and graft worked assiduously to the disadvantage of the colony’s military preparedness. But the coming of royal government to Canada marked the end of an era: new government institutions, designed to reshape New France in the image of the Old World, were to change forever the social fabric of the colony. The French government saw that the immediate need of the colony was protection from the Iroquois. Several companies of troops, including the famous Carignan-Salières regiment of some 1,100 men, were dispatched to Québec after 1665. They first erected several forts on the southern frontier. Then, in a series of raids and displays of power led by Governor Courcelle and the Marquis de Tracy, the army checked the Mohawk danger. They put four Mohawk villages to the torch, destroyed food supplies, and erected a large cross and a post bearing the French arms at the site of the principal village. They were establishing a cordon sanitaire. In July 1667, the Iroquois Confederacy was compelled to treat with the French at Québec. This ended their hostilities with both the French and Algonkian until 1682. As for the soldiers, about 400 remained at the end of their tour of duty to settle near Montréal and the Richelieu River and form the core of a militia established in 1673 and responsible for the defense of that vulnerable back door to Canada. Elsewhere in the colony, militia captains, chosen from the habitants, assumed responsibility for local defense. The resident royal bureaucracy undertook numerous steps to make the colony self-supporting and populous. When the great Jean Talon was commissioned intendant of all French possessions in
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North America in 1665, the colony had only some 3,000 residents. He would have to satisfy Colbert’s demand that Canada be selfsufficient and thus develop adequate agriculture, trade, and industry. He encouraged experimentation in crop production, brewing, and shipbuilding. He also took steps to people the country. From 1665 to 1672, about 1,500 state-aided immigrants and indentured employees landed in Canada and were given land, implements, and supplies. Some 900 filles de roi, or King’s Daughters, orphans raised by nuns at the crown’s expense, were imported as wives for the soldiers. It is reported that the “fattest went off best, upon the apprehension that these being less active, would keep truer to their Engagements, and hold out better against the nipping cold of the Winter.” The crown also sent some 1,000 criminals, mainly poachers and salt smugglers, in the 18th century. In 1668, a ship arrived with Portuguese, German, and Dutch settlers. Huguenots, though generally debarred, came to New France intermittently, where they caused the bishop concern. Talon, on Colbert’s advice, issued regulations to encourage early marriages and large families. He also imposed heavy penalties on reluctant bachelors and fathers of would-be brides. The very Canadian system of baby bonus and family allowance was born. The church also encouraged marriage: marriage beds were blessed and exorcised, and the betrothed well understood that the chief purpose of matrimonial state was procreation. In the family-centered society of New France, marriage was a popular state. Widows and widowers frequently remarried; few women went into holy orders; illegitimacy was low. The family was engaged in a collective enterprise for survival, self-sufficiency, and upward advancement, and marriages were invariably contractual arrangements in which large dowries were significant. In this healthy and productive society, low infant mortality rates existed: twice as much of the population reached marriageable age in New as in Old France. All these factors resulted in phenomenal population growth. In the period from 1666 to 1673, the population doubled from 3,200 to 6,700. By 1713, it was 18,000; by 1730, 34,000; and at the conquest, 76,000. This amazing growth was almost wholly indigenous: only 10,000 emigrated from Europe during the whole French colonial period. Of these, the composition was 3,500 soldiers, 1,100 women, 3,900 indentured workers, 500 independent men, and 1,000
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condemned criminals. Colbert did not want to populate New France at the expense of Old France, and French immigration to the New World was a trifling portion of that of the English. As the population grew in the early years of the 18th century, the economy advanced. Bridges and canals were built. New seigneuries were granted and a few ships laid down, ironworks founded, and fishing and sealing occupied a few colonists. French mercantilism aimed at colonial self-sufficiency, which was not to be at the expense of the metropolitan power. For this reason, New France remained essentially a colony in which fur was the most important article of trade. Because New France did not have a flourishing commerce with the outside world, its society reflected its basic dependence on the fur staple. Thus, while New France produced various agricultural products for trade on the fishing banks, at Cape Breton, and in the French West Indies, while it had a seemingly inexhaustible fishing ground, and while it had excellent forests and mineral reserves, it lacked—in its dependent position—a society capable of exploiting that potential. In its spiritual and intellectual growth, the society remained within confines defined by the clergy and crown. Books were of French rather than local manufacture. There is no record of a printing press in New France, and there was no book trade. The grand sum of books in the colony was probably 20,000; of these, religious works were the majority. New France had no public library. In education as well, growth was slow. Various religious orders kept schools. Many but not all parishes had a petite école but illiteracy remained extensive. Québec and Montréal each had a trade school. In 1635, the Jesuits established a college in Québec for the purpose of preparing students to be priests, navigators, and surveyors. Students of medicine or law were trained in France. Local cultural developments were not entirely lacking. New France had its figures of science and letters, its wood sculptors, silversmiths, and painters, its musicians and actors. But the French Enlightenment had few effusions on the west side of the Atlantic. And, as the 18th century progressed, the intellectual gap between Old and New France widened. New France, with its society of essentially needy lower-class origin, had a limited intellectual life. The French colonists possessed a social ethic quite different from that of their New England Protestant counterparts. Born of different linguistic and religious stock, living
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under different institutions of land control and authoritarian government, the French colonists developed a unique posture concerning their earth, terre Québec. The French Canadians adopted no “puritanical” outlook in the American sense. Yet they came under close Jesuit surveillance, for church codes of social behavior were by no means lacking in Canada in the late 17th century. Their attitude toward the North American Indians contrasted with that of the English or Spanish. As émigrés of France, the colonists tended to be of rural, military, or clerical background. Their colonial attitudes underwent little change. By contrast, those of Massachusetts or Virginia were nurtured by changing economic and political conditions and hence developed revolutionary overtones and expansionistic tendencies at a much faster rate. French Canadian society, rooted in land and Catholicism, was not outward looking. Rather, it had the deficiencies of an unnurtured society far from metropolitan France. Yet French Canadian society was of such stability and tradition that its legacies remained well after the British conquest. The fate of New France was not determined by the characteristics of the populace or economy but by the state of international relations and British naval and military paramountcy. Four wars—beginning in 1689 and ending in 1763—were fought by France and England, and the end result in North America, as signified by the Treaty of Paris of 1763, was that the French empire there was at an end. Only the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, off Newfoundland, remained French, as shelters and drying places for French fishers. French imperial efforts of no small merit had failed to hold the colony. The colonization of New Orleans in 1718 and the building of the great fortress port of Louisbourg at Cape Breton in 1720 to secure both ends of a vast and fragile network of forts along the great interconnecting empires of the watersheds of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi rivers had not been enough. The growth of English settlement in New England, New York, and the Middle Colonies was a force that threatened French settlements both in Acadia and, in time, on the banks of the St. Lawrence. In 1760, Canada had 76,000 colonists as compared with the Thirteen Colonies’ nearly 1.6 million. On the shores of Hudson Bay, the vigorous growth of the English fur trade under Hudson’s Bay Company auspices after 1668 (ironically with the know how of the coureurs Radisson and Groseilliers)
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threatened the interior appendages of trade and empire of the St. Lawrence. The British victory at Québec on 13 September 1759 was but a climax to an ongoing process that historians have called the Second Hundred Years War. Geography and British sea hegemony had determined the outcome: New France, confined to the great river and unable to be assisted from overseas, became a British province in a North American empire stretching from the Arctic islands to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic shore to the Mississippi. Its extent to the north and west of the Great Lakes had yet to be defined. The continuance of the French Canadian people and culture would depend very largely on the deep roots of their colonial society and on the new order of British rule. It was somewhat characteristic of the remote, paternalistic, and to some degree primitive society of Québec that Canon Briand, the grand vicar of Québec, ordered prayers to be said for the new king of the province, George III, and this in advance of the formal recognition of British sovereignty in the 1763 treaty. In Briand’s opinion, the British were “our masters; and we owe to them what we owed to the French when they ruled.” Thus, the kingdom of Canada passed from the hands of one European power to another. NEW WESTMINSTER. In 1858, after proclamation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia, a site on the north bank of the Fraser River was selected for the capital, New Westminster. The townsite was laid out by the Royal Engineers. Named by Queen Victoria, it soon was dubbed “the Royal City.” An outfitting point for prospectors destined for the Cariboo gold fields, it grew as a port and steam navigation depot and repair center. From here, the affairs of the colony were administered until 1866, when upon colonial union with Vancouver Island, the capital was shifted to Victoria. New Westminster was home to the federal BC Penitentiary from 1878 to 1980, the scene of trials and executions, including those of the Wild McLean Boys, Slumach, and Simon Gunanoot. New Westminster had a prominent Chinatown until the fire of 1898. Linked to Vancouver by the main arterial Kingsway, also a tramway and interurban rail service, New Westminster remained a prominent retail center. However, completion of the transcontinental railway in 1886 drew trade away to the new port of Vancouver. Other place names associated
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with New Westminster are Queensborough, the original name for the city, chosen by Royal Engineer commander Colonel Richard Clement Moody, and Sappertown, a suburb camp where a Royal Engineers (“Sappers”) detachment was headquartered. The uptown commercial area began in 1954 with the opening of Woodward’s Department Store, after 1993 supplanted by Royal City Center Mall. The rapid transit Skytrain link to Vancouver, the public market revitalization project, and foreshore residential construction have given new life. Heritage restoration has rejuvenated many old buildings. The local economy always had some industry: lumber trades and fishing in the late 19th century, manufacturing and ship repair in the early 20th century, retail in the last half of the 20th century, and high tech and fiber optics in the present time. It is home to Douglas College and the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. The population is about 170,000. NINETY-TWO RESOLUTIONS. This long and repetitive 1834 document contained a list of complaints or grievances against the government of Lower Canada. It was a call for reform born out of a deadlock between the assembly and the governor and his council. The Ninety-Two Resolutions were drawn up by a committee of reformers, though its authorship is uncertain. The list included complaints against the system of patronage, the dispensation of clergy reserves (one-seventh of crown lands set aside to support the Protestant clergy), and various economic polices deemed restrictive to the expansion and liberalization of trade. The document called for an elected legislature. Taken together with the actions of William Lyon Mackenzie (in Upper Canada) and the movement toward responsible government, the document foreshadowed the need of a British inquiry and reform from the top as determined and suggested by Lord Durham. NISGA’A. A First Nation, the Nisga’a inhabit the long, mountainous, and in some places lava-bedded valley of their great river, the Nass, in northwestern British Columbia. The river was in prehistoric and early historic times a great food depot. The Nass River rises in the Skeena Mountains and runs 236 miles to the Pacific at Portland Canal. River navigation is dangerous. Charles Bishop, a maritime fur
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trader, was the first European to visit the river entrance, in the 1790s. Then as now, the Nisga’a were passionate defenders of their concept of property, and they guarded zealously their valley’s resources, which gave them reason for their being, their items of trade and strength, and their precious independence. The oolachen, or “candlefish,” was one of their principal sources of wealth, and each year in late February/early March to May, the catch and the extraction of its oil or grease brought them their means of wealth. Coastal and interior natives traded for this oil. From the 1820s, the Hudson’s Bay Company traded with the Nisga’a. In 1864, the Church Missionary Society sent R.R.A. Doolan and Robert Cunningham as missionaries; they established schools. Whisky traders were there, too. In 1865 and 1866, British gunboats (Clio and Forward) made calls at the Nass to stop the whisky traffic, but without complete success. Other vessels entered the river to provide protection to the Nisga’a or to seek redress for murders (Sparrowhawk in 1868). The Methodists established a mission in 1877 (Alfred Green and Thomas Crosby), aided by William Henry Pierce, interpreter and guide. The main Nisga’a settlements are Kincolith, Lakalzap, Gitwinksihlkw, and New Aiyansh. The Nisga’a never signed a treaty to relinquish territory or define their land, rights, and relationship with the Europeans. But they were restricted to small parcels of land: Indian reserves. A major champion for Nisga’a rights was the firebrand Anglican missionary James McCullagh, an Irishman. He was a social engineer to the Nisga’a. He opposed the potlatch, which he saw as wasteful and inequitable. The Nisga’a search for compensation was long. In 1887, Nisga’a chiefs traveled to Victoria to demand recognition of title, negotiation of treaties, and provision for self-government. In 1913, the Nisga’a petitioned the Privy Council, seeking to resolve the land question. In 1968, the Nisga’a launched their challenge in the British Columbia Supreme Court on land questions. Negotiations began in 1976 with the Government of Canada; the BC government joined the talks in 1991. In 1996, British Columbia, Canada, and the Nisga’a reached an agreement in principle; in 1998, the final agreement was initiated by the three parties, and the Nisga’a voted to accept. This marked the first “made-in-BC” treaty involving the federal government.
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Governor James Douglas had signed various treaties with various natives in the 1850s (Salish, Kwagiulth, Nanaimo, and others), but these did not involve the federal government. Significant in this long process was BC recognition of aboriginal title, so long denied. In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada in Delgamuuk v. the Queen affirmed that oral testimony ought to be considered in native title to ancestral lands. The 1998, Nisga’a arrangement was overseen by the BC Treaty Commission, an independent body of five commissioners appointed by Canada, British Columbia, and the First Nations Summit. The treaty calls for various compensations ($312 million over 15 years), municipal government of a self-governing nature, and the making of the Nisga’a subject to federal and provincial laws relating to the environment, resources, and conservation, and the laws that generally apply to British Columbians today. Ratification of the agreement in principle continued as a major public subject of dispute in 1999. NOOTKA. See NUU’CHAH’NULTH. NORMANDY CAMPAIGN. On 6 June 1944, during World War II, Canadian forces landed on “Juno Beach,” Normandy, occupied France, as part of Operation Overlord, the invasion to liberate western Europe from German occupation. Canadians penetrated nine kilometers inland on the first day, facing heavy SS Panzer forces at Verrières Ridge. The Normandy campaign, which followed the D-Day landings, was not far removed from the Western Front of 1914–18 in terms of the scale of casualties. Though trench warfare did not develop, the fear of such a stalemate was ever present, and the fighting that took place in Normandy was very much attritional warfare. The Allies mounted numerous large-scale operations designed to break through the main line of German resistance and begin the push for Germany itself. Operation Spring was the Canadian assault on Verrières Ridge, 24–25 July 1944. Lt. Gen. Guy Simonds (1903–1974), commander of II Canadian Corps for Europe, devised a three-phase battle plan involving the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions, 2nd Canadian Armored Brigade, and two British armored divisions. The first phase, a night attack, involved moves by 3rd Division to capture
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Tilly-la-Campagne and by 2nd Division to seize May-sur-Orne and Verrières village. The second phase would see these units plus 7th Armored Division capture the remaining high ground of Verrières Ridge. The third phase involved exploitation of the breech by the Guards Armored Division. Like many a battle, the operation did not go according to plan. On the night of 24 July, units of 2nd Division attempted to secure St. André-sur-Orne and May-sur-Orne but met only limited success. The one outstanding success occurred when the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, commanded by Lt. Col. J. M. “Rocky” Rockingham, captured Vierrières village and held it against repeated German counterattacks. The second phase of the operation witnessed one of the blackest days in Canadian military history. On the morning of 25 July, the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada bravely attempted to carry out its assigned mission in the face of overwhelming odds, but it was virtually wiped out on the western slope of Vierrières Ridge. The regiment suffered 322 casualties that day, including 120 killed. Late on the 25th, Simonds called off Operation Spring when it became apparent that no further ground could be gained. It had been a costly battle for the Canadians—it is estimated that over 1,500 casualties were suffered, including 450 dead. This made it the second costliest day of the war for Canada, behind only the Dieppe Raid. There has been considerable debate over Field Marshal Montgomery’s intentions for the attack. Some say Spring was a failure because it failed to break through to Falaise. Others say it was a success because it accomplished its goal of holding the bulk of the German armor in the area south of Caen. In any case, Spring kept the attention of the Germans during the crucial period of 24–26 July when the Americans were breaking through in the west. By the time the German armored divisions were released to head west, it was too late to contain the American breakout. Spring, however costly, was an important contribution to the Allied victory. Falaise was seized 16 August, and Canadians and Poles met American forces to complete a pincer movement. This ended the Normandy campaign. Canadian forces suffered 18,444 casualties in the campaign. See also CANADIAN ARMY. NORMAN WELLS. Oil was discovered at Norman Wells, on the Mackenzie River, Northwest Territories, in 1916. Imperial Oil’s
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1920 well led to the building of a small refinery, the first north of the 60th parallel, to produce gasoline and diesel for the local and riverine market (in those days moved by summer barges). As mining activity grew, a larger refinery was built in 1939. The Norman Wells field supplied the wartime Canol (short for Canadian oil) pipeline. In the 1980s, increased southern Canadian demands led to a further expansion of the plant. Many of the well heads are serviced from production islands lying in the river, which is five kilometers wide. Currently the oil plant at Norman Wells is owned by Imperial Oil Resources Ltd. (ESSO Resources) and now markets its products in Edmonton, beginning in 1985, via Interprovincial Pipe Line Ltd. NORSE. The Norse, or Vikings, are credited with the first known European settlements in North America. Around 985, an Icelandic trading vessel was blown off course en route to Greenland, and sailors aboard reported new lands to the west, which they called Vinland. Fifteen years later, Leif Ericson wintered at a settlement called Straumfiord or “Lief’s Camp,” a grassy terrace near present-day L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. In following years, the Norse ventured farther southwest toward New Brunswick and Acadia. Snorri Thorfinson, famed in Viking lore as the first European born in the New World, is thought to have been born at L’Anse aux Meadows. Conflict with aboriginal peoples is one of the probable reasons for Norse withdrawal from North America and their return to Greenland within a decade. Norse contacts with America continued off and on until at least the mid-14th century. Knowledge provided by the Norse was kept alive by sailors, who facilitated, through discovery and fishing, the reopening of contact in the era of John Cabot. The English, Portuguese, Basques, and others replaced the Norse in America. Canada’s first European connection was a northern, maritime frontier. Who was the first European to discover America, and was that person Norse? The most likely claim to primacy goes to Biarni Heriulfson, a Norwegian ship owner trading with Iceland. The date was 985 or 986, and the event is said to involve a bit of chance, for Heriulfson went looking for his father, who is said to have left Iceland for Greenland. Heriulfson reached America, or Canada, and found an unknown land “level and covered with woods”—obviously
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not Greenland. In other words, half a millennium before Columbus reached North American shores, they had already been discovered. From Newfoundland and northern waters, the Norse exported a number of products, via Greenland, and marketed them in Europe. These included walrus ivory, ropes made of walrus hide, narwhal horns, polar bear furs, white gyrfalcon (the prize sporting bird), and eider-duck (from which comes eiderdown). The end of Norse intermittent occupation in America may also relate to the effect of the Black Death in Norway after 1349, the rise of the Hanseatic League, which gradually controlled Norwegian commerce, and inroads made by Bristol merchants in the trade and economy of the North Atlantic. Besides, there was no peaceful coexistence with the indigenous people, the Skaelings. L’Anse aux Meadows is the only authenticated settlement of Norse Vikings in North America. It is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Here the Vikings built three timber and sod longhouses and five smaller buildings. Here too was the first iron-working in the New World. In 1960, Norwegians Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad, using Viking sagas and local advice from fisherman George Decker, located the ruins of Straumfiord. By dating the settlement to c. 1000 CE, they were first to document that Vikings reached North America before Columbus. Excavations by them, begun in 1960, and subsequently by Parks Canada have unearthed remnants of various buildings and Viking artifacts. NORTH AMERICAN AIR DEFENSE COMMAND (NORAD). NORAD was established between Canada and the United States in 1957 to oversee and coordinate the air defense of North America. NORAD is a complex, integrated system of early detection defenses that make both countries aware of impending attacks. Both Canada and the United States have aircraft and bases situated in strategic positions to intercept attacking missiles or aircraft. The senior Canadian officer at Colorado Springs, the base, is always second in command. NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA). Signed by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Mexican President Carlos Salinas, and U.S. President George H. W. Bush, NAFTA came into effect 1 January 1994. The agreement has generated eco-
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nomic growth and rising standards of living for the people of all three member countries. By strengthening the rules and procedures governing trade and investment throughout the continent, NAFTA has provided a solid foundation for future prosperity. It was initiated by the Canadian administration, urged on by Thomas d’Aquino, a private sector free trader. The Canadian Departments of External Affairs, Finance, and Trade were all involved. U.S. President Ronald Regan was a powerful supporter. NAFTA has created the largest free trade zone in the world. Trade in commodities, manufactured items, and services have all increased. Trade liberalization has aided cross-border trade, but significant difficulties have developed in consequence of security concerns relating to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Disputes about forest products were persistent and nagging, though finally resolved in 2008. Although the biggest trade increase has been between Canada and the United States, Canada’s trade with Mexico has more than quadrupled. Approximately 80 percent of Canada’s total merchandise exports are destined for NAFTA partners. The agreement has various dispute resolution mechanisms and revision clauses. NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO). Canada was an original signatory on 4 April 1949 to the NATO military organization of Western and Atlantic security, which was also agreed to by the United States and 10 European countries. Designed to deter Soviet aggression during the Cold War, the NATO alliance redefined its goals after 1989 in keeping with assorted security and peacekeeping obligations. As of 2009, NATO had 28 member countries. Article 5 of the treaty specifies that an attack on one country is an attack upon all; in other words, NATO is a mutual defense arrangement. Following the terrorist attacks against the United States on 11 September 2001, its obligations have been extended to Afghanistan. NORTH WEST COMPANY (NWC). This company, an association of 16 shareholders, grew out of the consolidation of various partnerships in the 1780s. New contracts were drawn up from time to time, reflecting the organic changes to the concern. The costs of getting European manufactures, spirits, and tobacco to Canadian forts and itinerant traders engaged in trade with Indian tribes drove these
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competitors toward association. Labor costs increased with distance traveled. The arrangement was remarkably transcontinental in scope. The NWC was based in Montréal for its banking, shipping, and warehousing, and there its principal capitalists lived; they had partners and agents in London. The interior partners and clerks profited directly from their own energetic activities, a situation quite different from that of rival Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), where those who kept posts were on fixed incomes. In turn, Michilimackinac, Grand Portage, and beginning in 1807, Fort William (now Thunder Bay) became depots and places for annual rendezvous, where plans for exploration were considered and sometimes authorized. The need for new trading areas prompted company-sponsored exploration as well as specific trading ventures into hitherto unexploited territory. One such area was Athabasca, where Peter Pond and then Alexander Mackenzie pushed the trade as pioneers. A second, in succession to Athabasca, was the Mackenzie River, where William Wentzel opened posts. Yet a third was New Caledonia (in central British Columbia), where Simon Fraser led parties to examine rivers and build various posts. The fourth area was the Columbia River basin, explored by David Thompson, completing his work by 1811. In these four areas, the North West Company engaged in vigorous development, partly pushed forward by the necessity of getting new sources of furs (and trading their own wares) and partly because they had to expand to be competitive. Economy in operation necessitated cheaper transportation, and this spurred the Nor’Westers to send ships from England to the mouth of the Columbia, beginning with the Isaac Todd, which opened NWC direct trade to China. Various traders examined rivers and tributaries, most notably Donald Mackenzie and Alexander Ross in the Snake River country of the Columbia basin in the years before the union of the NWC with the HBC. Such exploration went hand in hand with commercial development, and traders invariably had to look after costs of exploration. The zeal of individual traders for exploration counted mightily in the resulting discoveries. These explorers used native advice and, on numerous occasions, Indian maps, a few of which survive. Scientific instruments for astronomy and the ability to take longitude by chronometers and sightings made possible getting authentic longitudes and latitudes. Thus Thompson, sent in 1798 to the
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Mandan and Hidatsa villages, obtained readings of true locations of villages. He did likewise for a source of the Mississippi River. NWC was keen to use science for commercial benefit or security—in the case of Thompson’s Missouri and Mississippi discoveries to verify watersheds, locate the 49th parallel (a possible boundary), and, so as to avoid feared American regulations and taxes on commerce and establishments, remove its depot and place of rendezvous from Grand Portage to Fort William. The NWC faced rivals on all sides: the HBC, the Spanish Missouri Company, John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, maritime fur traders (principally Americans and British) on the Northwest Coast, and the Russian America Company. Lacking a charter, the NWC found itself thrown back on its own resources and methods. The NWC explored because it had to. The HBC remained the dominant rival to the north, except in Athabasca where NWC, on grounds of Pond and Mackenzie activity, was first. Rivalry with the Missouri Company, and need for new sources of beaver, led to the NWC sending Francois-Antoine Laroque to the headwaters of the Yellowstone. Lewis and Clark’s discoveries spurred NWC to advance control of the upper and middle Columbia basin. These explorations were often too little, too late to make much difference in sovereignty, even though NWC and its aggressive partners and clerks remained triumphant in trade. Explorers selected sites for trade posts, which were nascent locations for later hamlets, towns, and cities. Historian Harold Adams Innis argued that NWC east-west trade foreshadowed Canadian federation. The company’s motto was “Perseverance.” The NWC engaged in bitter, violent rivalry with the HBC, especially near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. The result was a government-forced union under the name and charter of the HBC, effective 1821. NORTHWEST PASSAGE. See EXPLORATION. NORTHWEST REBELLION (1885). This rebellion was significant in what historian George Stanley called “the birth of Western Canada.” He saw it as an extension of the Red River Rebellion of 1869–70. Food shortages and failed treaty promises among natives and Métis in the Upper Saskatchewan River valley led to the
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native rebellion against the North West Mounted Police in 1885. The violence continued for four months but was crushed by the Canadian Militia. Plains Cree leaders, Big Bear and Poundmaker, featured prominently in the rebellion; Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont did likewise for the Métis. The availability of the railroad and steam navigation allowed the Canadian government to send troops to the resistance effectively. Riel was tried and hanged. However, a general amnesty for natives was proclaimed shortly after the rebellion ended. Not all joined the revolt; Crowfoot, a Blackfoot Confederacy chief, was a notable opponent to the uprising. Although it is commonly assumed that the natives of the Plains joined the Métis in the resistance, each revolted for distinct reasons, and the amount of native resistance was lower than previously assumed. The Canadian government used the Northwest Rebellion as a means of breaking the power of the Plains Cree and Blackfoot nation and forcing the tribes into a submissive role on the prairies. NORTHWEST TERRITORIES (NWT). Located in the northern part of Canada, the Northwest Territories make up one-third of Canada. The region is bounded by the Yukon Territory, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the natural boundaries of Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, the Arctic Ocean, and the Beaufort Sea. The NWT includes 18 islands in the Arctic, the largest being Baffin Island. The capital of the NWT is Yellowknife, the only city in the territory. The Canadian government acquired the NWT from the British in 1870. At that time, the territory included present-day Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, and parts of Québec and Ontario. In 1880, the Arctic Archipelago was added to the NWT when the British ceded it to Canada. The Inuit have constituted a majority of the population. In the sub-Arctic areas, the Dene and Métis also populate the region. The discovery of oil at Norman Wells dramatically increased the northern extension of Canadian interest in this region. The NWT is governed by an elected 24-member territorial council. A commissioner is appointed by the federal government and reports to the minister of Indian affairs and northern development. Federally, the NWT has two seats in the House of Commons and one senator.
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The population in 2006 was 41,464. Nunavut became a separate territory in 1999. NOTMAN, WILLIAM (1842–1891). Canada’s first prominent (and transcontinental) photographer, Notman is chiefly remembered and celebrated for having captured aspects of Victorian-era Montréal, especially its inner core, in all its contrasts, winter and summer, indoors and outdoors, old and new, and much else besides. A visual historian, he captured the gloried spirit of Canadian winters, especially carnivals, and was equally a master portrait photographer. He and his camera ranged far and wide—to Halifax and to Esquimalt. The gallery of his portraits shows “the great and the good” of his time and is thus a record of the social and material world of Canada in the post-confederation era. He was preoccupied with his current world, not with posterity. Many of his photographs and plates reside in the Notman Archives, McCord Museum, McGill University. Included among his photographic portraits are children, revelers, John A. Macdonald, John Sanfield Macdonald (prime minister of Ontario), Charles Tupper, George Etienne Cartier, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, and Buffalo Bill, as well as many others unknown to history. NOVA SCOTIA. One of the Canadian Atlantic provinces, Nova Scotia is surrounded by the ocean except for a 22-kilometer land boundary with New Brunswick. Cape Breton Island is a part of the province and is connected to the mainland by the Canso Causeway. In 1605, the French, led by Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts, built Port Royal, which the British first attacked in 1613. The long battle between the British and French saw the colony of Port Royal change hands many times; in 1713, it was renamed Annapolis Royal. William Alexander, a Scot, was sent to the area to establish a colony under a British royal charter in 1621. The colony was named Nova Scotia (New Scotland). Originally, the capital of Nova Scotia, Halifax, was called Chebucto, a Mi’kmaq word meaning “great, long harbor.” The harbor at Halifax is one of the best and most strategically placed natural ports of the world. In 1760, New England planters settled in various townships. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris gave Great Britain control over all the land
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that is now Nova Scotia. By 1770, the settler population numbered 20,000. Nova Scotia received an influx of American Loyalists after the American Revolution and, in consequence, New Brunswick was created from Nova Scotia’s western lands. In 1773, Highlanders established the community of Pictou. Nova Scotia was one of the four original provinces to join the confederation in 1867. Nova Scotia’s good harbors have been important militarily and economically. Halifax, established for strategic purposes in 1749, was a major naval port for the Royal Navy. It was headquarters of the North American station, closed under the Fisher Reforms before 1914. The Annapolis Valley is the agricultural center of the province. The economy is resource based. The fishing industry is a major contributor to the province. The forest and coal mines play a lesser role. Nova Scotia is the largest producer of gypsum in Canada and has the only North American tin mine. The provincial legislative assembly has 52 members. Federally, the province has 11 members in the House of Commons and 10 senators. The population is 940,397 as of 2009. See also HALIFAX EXPLOSION. NUNAVUT. Created in the eastern Canadian Arctic through an agreement between the federal government and the Inuit, Nunavut comprises 3.5 million square kilometers of land that includes the eastern area of the Northwest Territories and the Canadian Arctic archipelago. Nunavut represents the culmination of more than two decades of efforts by the Inuit of the eastern Arctic and the Canadian government. The agreement, ratified 25 May 1993, was implemented 1 April 1999. It is the combination of a land claim agreement and a political agreement. The land claim is an exchange between the Inuit (under the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut) and the Crown in Right of Canada (federal government). By this agreement, the Inuit agreed to give the government their aboriginal title to both the lands and waters of the area in exchange for certain rights and privileges as defined in the agreement. These include: title to 350,000 square kilometers of land with mineral rights to 36,000 square kilometers; the rights to harvest lands and waters within the Nunavut settlement areas; a share of the royalties that the federal government receives from oil, gas, and mineral development on crown lands; and capital
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transfer payments of $1.14 billion over 14 years. The political agreement includes the creation of a new public government and legislature within Nunavut that ensures equal Inuit membership within the new institutions to be established. These include boards to oversee land management, wildlife management, and development impact projects. By election (February 1999), Paul Okiak became Nunavut’s premier. The Nunavut government was to take over full powers of the new territory in 2007. NUU’CHAH’NULTH. A native people—previously known as Nootka—who lived on the coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Cook to Port San Juan. Their history is richly documented in legend and written form. The Nuu’chah’nulth were possibly the only whale hunters in what is now British Columbia. Like the Haida, they were great sea voyagers. A unique aspect of this tribe was that the chief of a clan was the only person allowed to harpoon a whale. The Moachat and Muchalat, two peoples who now form the Nuu’chah’Nulth Tribal Council (NTC), first met Europeans when James Cook of the Royal Navy was at Nootka Sound for a month in March/April 1778. They later encountered the Spanish and the Americans. They met all the great mariners of the Pacific who came to the Northwest Coast to trade and or explore. They experienced the same fate that met other tribes: smallpox and other diseases greatly reduced their numbers. The NTC has offices in Port Alberni and runs various enterprises, notably a tree nursery. The Land of Maquinna Historical Society promotes the historical heritage of Nootka Sound.
– O – OCTOBER CRISIS, 1970. In the Province of Québec, terrorists known as the Front de Libération de Québec (FLQ) promoted general anarchy in 1970. The FLQ consisted of a number of left-wing, autonomous “cells.” Two of its leaders, Pierre Vallières and Charles Gagnon, were arrested by Québec authorities. Subsequently, the FLQ changed its tactics from bombings to kidnapping. Not all of its plans worked, but on 5 October 1970, the FLQ kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montréal. The FLQ demanded
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payment of a $500,000 ransom and the release of “political prisoners.” It also called for freedom from police pursuit and for safe transport out of the country. Also, they insisted that the FLQ manifesto be broadcast on radio and television. Meanwhile, Robert Bourassa’s government was pressured (unsuccessfully) by the Parti Québécois to establish a coalition government. The crisis mounted quickly. On 10 October, the FLQ kidnapped Pierre Laporte, the Québec minister of labor and immigration. Laporte was murdered on the 17th. Student rallies and sit-ins were widespread. The provincial government, itself in crisis and uncertainty, turned to the federal government, requesting that the Canadian Army be brought in to aid the civil power. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his cabinet invoked the War Measures Act by an order-in-council, thus declaring martial law. Subsequently, 450 persons were detained; 62 cases were brought to trial, and 20 were convicted. Protest against the War Measures Act died down after Laporte’s murder. Cross was released after safe passage was arranged for his kidnappers. In late October, Laporte’s kidnappers and murderers were imprisoned. OFFICIAL LANGUAGES ACT OF 1969. Passed by the federal government, the act gives official status to the French language in all federal departments and services in Canada and guarantees service in both official languages, English and French. See also BILINGUALISM AND BICULTURALISM, ROYAL COMMISSION ON. OFFSHORE CLAIMS AND DISPUTES: ATLANTIC, PACIFIC, AND ARCTIC. Historically, the waters considered part of a country’s sovereign territory was 3 nautical miles, a distance based on the range of a cannon shot. By the mid-20th century, most maritime nations had increased this to 12 nautical miles, a limit codified by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). That agreement also provided for coastal countries to claim a contiguous zone of up to 24 nautical miles in which they have authority to enforce their customs, immigration, and pollution regulations, and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of up to 200 nautical miles within which the country controls all economic resources such as fish stocks and oil fields. Naturally, conflict arises between countries over the
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exact location of their territorial boundaries and even over the ownership of previously unimportant rocks and islands. Canada has had numerous territorial and boundary conflicts throughout history, some of which have yet to be settled. A number of these are described here. In the Atlantic, one area of dispute has been the Gulf of Maine, particularly Georges Bank. When Canada and the United States both declared 200 nautical mile EEZs in 1977, the claims overlapped in the middle of the Gulf of Maine. Control of the rich fishing grounds on Georges Bank, which had been worked jointly by both countries for generations, was contested. After a series of confrontations between Canadian and American fishers, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on a boundary in 1984 that placed 84 percent of Georges Bank under U.S. jurisdiction, but it put the most fertile areas of Georges Bank under Canadian control. The result was that many U.S. fishers ignored the ICJ ruling and continued to fish on the Canadian side of the line. This in turn led to further conflict in the form of Canadian patrol vessels pursuing, arresting, and sometimes even firing warning shots at American fishing boats attempting to flee back into U.S. waters—activities that continued into the early 1990s. Machias Seal Island and North Rock were specifically exempted from the ICJ’s 1984 ruling on the international boundary in the Gulf of Maine at the request of both countries. This dispute—really unfinished business—stems from ambiguity in the 1783 treaty that ended the American Revolution and delineated the boundaries between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the British side, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, of which Maine was then part, on the American. Located southwest of Grand Manan Island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, Machias Seal Island is home to a bird sanctuary, a robust lobster fishery, and a lighthouse that was built by the British government in 1832 and that has been staffed continuously by Canada ever since. It remains, in fact, the only staffed lighthouse on the Atlantic coast of Canada specifically because of the ownership dispute with the United States. Canada also had a dispute with France about the Atlantic islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. These islands, the only pieces of the territory of New France retained by the French under the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War, are located 16 nautical miles off the southwest coast of Newfoundland. French claims to a
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200 nautical mile EEZ around the islands were contested by Canada based on the proximity of Newfoundland, and the question was turned over to the International Court of Arbitration. The court’s 1992 judgment resulted in the islands being granted a 12 nautical mile territorial limit, except where this would conflict with the Canadian 12-mile limit, and a 10.5 nautical mile wide panhandle extending 200 nautical miles south of the islands for an EEZ. Since that decision was rendered, France has made new continental shelf claims against Canada around St. Pierre and Miquelon under the terms of the UNCLOS, which remain unresolved. Another dispute has been the Turbot War. Following the establishment of the 200 nautical mile EEZ on the east coast of Canada, foreign fishing fleets that had previously been free to fish anywhere outside of Canada’s 12-mile limit were now pushed beyond 200. This left only two parts of the fertile Grand Banks of Newfoundland, areas known as the “Nose” and the “Tail,” accessible for foreign fishers. Officially these foreign fleets were to be regulated by authorities of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), but in practice there was little regulation, and European fishers, particularly those from Spain and Portugal, frequently fished in Canadian waters and used illegal nets. What made these nets illegal was the small size of the holes in the mesh, which did not allow for immature fish to pass through. The collapse of Canada’s east coast fishery in the early 1990s was a hot political topic as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland out ports faced demographic and financial ruin. Thus, the government of Canada made the decision to take action, and in March 1995 ordered the arrest of the Spanish stern trawler Estai in international waters. Spain responded by sending a warship to protect their remaining fleet, and the European Union (EU) demanded that Canada release the vessel and that the issue be turned over to the International Court of Justice. In the end, the arrest was more effective politically and diplomatically than otherwise. Although the charges filed against the captain and owners of the Estai in Canadian federal court were later dropped, the images of the Spanish trawler’s illegal net displayed outside of the United Nations building in New York shamed European countries into policing their fishing fleets more effectively. One of the Pacific disputes involves the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the body of water that separates the south shore of Vancouver Island
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from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. The international boundary, which is generally drawn equidistant from each country’s shoreline down the center of the strait, is not contested by the governments of Canada or the United States, but rather by the government of the Province of British Columbia. It has been arguing since the 1970s that the center of the submarine Juan de Fuca Canyon, closer to the American shore, is the correct location. Another Pacific dispute concerns the Dixon Entrance and Portland Canal. The Alaska boundary dispute, which was ended through international arbitration in 1903, identified 54 degrees, 40 minutes, north latitude as the coastal boundary between British Columbia and the Alaska panhandle. In Dixon Entrance, this line follows the north side of the channel, along the American shoreline, but has never been accepted by the United States as demarking the maritime boundary. The same applies to Portland Canal, where the treaty specified that the boundary was to follow the shoreline on the American side of the inlet, a specification that the United States does not accept. On U.S. maps and charts of the area, the international boundary is shown following the center of each body of water, while Canadian maps and charts show the boundary in the locations specified by the treaty. The Arctic dispute between Canada, the United States, and the EU over the Northwest Passage is more about the nature of the passage under international law than it is about who controls the waters. Canada considers its entire Arctic archipelago to be internal waters, meaning not only that ships transiting through it are subject to Canadian laws, but also that vessels wishing to pass through it must first acquire the permission of Canada. The position of the United States and the EU, on the other hand, is that the Northwest Passage is an international strait, and that as such the vessels of all nations can exercise the right of innocent passage through it, without asking permission. In practice, this right has seldom been tested, as few vessels are currently able to transit the passage without the assistance of an icebreaker. In 1985, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea made the transit without Canadian permission, and it has long been suspected that American and British nuclear submarines regularly transit through Canadian waters without permission en route to the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole. Successive Canadian governments have spoken of making Arctic sovereignty a top priority, and in 2007
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a naval base would be constructed at Nanisivik on Baffin Island, conveniently located to the eastern terminus of the passage. The Beaufort Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean immediately north of eastern Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory. Both Canada and the United States claim a pie-shaped section of these waters, which are believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits, as part of their 200 nautical mile EEZs. The competing claims are based on Canada’s belief that the maritime boundary should, like the land border between Alaska and the Yukon, follow the line of 141 degrees west longitude. The United States, on the other hand, has argued that the maritime boundary should follow the lie of the coastline, which extends to the north as it moves west of the land border. Another Arctic dispute involves Hans Island, a barren, uninhabited rock measuring less than 0.5 square miles in total, located in Nares Strait, which separates Greenland from Ellesmere Island. It is claimed by both Canada and Denmark, the Danish claim being based on a 1933 Permanent Court of International Justice decision that confirmed Denmark’s possession of Greenland. Canada’s claim is based on the island’s position relative to Ellesmere, which is marginally closer than Greenland. A Canadian-Danish commission delineated most of the boundary down the center of Nares Strait in the 1970s but left ownership of Hans Island in question. Government officials and military personnel from both countries have repeatedly visited the island to assert sovereignty since the mid-1980s, usually leaving behind their national flags and bottles of liquor—rye whisky for the Canadians and cognac for the Danes—but little else was done. In early 2004, the dispute again rose to prominence, and both countries stated a willingness to negotiate over the island’s future. As of 2009, nothing had officially changed with regard to this dispute, except that Canadian and Danish scientists had agreed to collaborate in locating a weather station on the island. Satellite imagery of the area suggests that, based on the agreed-upon maritime boundary of the early 1970s, Hans is located half in Canadian and half in Danish territory. OGDENSBURG AGREEMENT. At a meeting in Ogdensburg, New York, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, on 17–18 August 1940,
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agreed to form a Permanent Joint Board on Defense. This decision was announced in a short press release—which was well received in the United States and Canada. The meeting demonstrated a concrete U.S. move away from isolationism in World War II and toward open support for the Allies. The Ogdensburg agreement constitutes the charter document and anchor of Canadian-American defense yet is strangely unheralded in the history of international diplomacy and North American continental security. OIL (TAR) SANDS. Canada’s oil sands, centered on Fort McMurray, northeastern Alberta, in what is historically called Athabasca (“Where the Reeds Grow”), are one of the few places in the world where oil production is still increasing. Oil sands account for a major component of Canadian oil resources, which are second to Saudi Arabia’s. Petroleum from oil sands is extracted from bitumen. The process is capital intensive and necessarily destructive to the environment. Massive volumes of water are needed in the processing. In 2007, production from oil sands totaled 1.2 million barrels a day. Production estimates show a steady growth. In 2008, it was estimated that 2020 production from the oil sands will be 3.5 million barrels a day. The oil sands acquire prominence because the worldwide oil supply/ demand balance is tight, making every barrel count. The imposition of higher royalties in Alberta, federal and provincial initiatives in climate change responses, and federal elimination of what is known as the accelerated capital cost allowance are all factors that have slowed extraction. This in turn has delayed the number of production applications and, in consequence, approvals. Corporations are wary in this political environment: until federal and provincial governments unveil clearer rules on carbon capture and storage, some corporations have delayed expansion decisions and projects. By comparison, conventional oil production in western Canada exceeded 1 million barrels a day, and this is not declining as rapidly as expected, thanks to discovery of new fields like Bakken in Saskatchewan and Sinclair in Manitoba. Taken together, from all sources of oil in Canada—from oil sands to east coast offshore fields—Canada produced 2.8 million barrels per day in 2007. Estimates from all Canadian sources for 2020 are 4.5 million barrels a day. See also ECONOMY.
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OKA. A 78-day standoff took place between the members of the Mohawk Warrior Society from the Kansesatake Reserve, in Québec near the town of Oka, and the Surété de Québec in the summer of 1990. The Mohawk had erected a barricade to prevent the town from building a golf course on land that the Mohawk claimed as sacred territory. The local police stormed the barricade, and in the ensuing chaos, a police officer was killed. The Mohawk were highly organized and heavily armed. As barricades were erected by other Mohawk, Québec Premier Robert Bourassa asked the federal government for support. The army besieged the barricades and succeeded in dismantling them. The Mohawk moved into an isolated building but emerged peacefully 24 September 1990, ending the standoff. The local, provincial, and federal governments met with the Mohawk Warrior Society and negotiated the land agreement. ONTARIO. One of the four original provinces to join the confederation in 1867, Ontario (the name is Iroquoian for “beautiful water”) is bordered by Québec, Manitoba, the Great Lakes, and James Bay, an annex of Hudson Bay. The province is the second largest in area size. About 90 percent of the population lives within 160 kilometers of the southern border. The Iroquois and Huron were the dominating natives in the area. With the arrival of the French fur traders, the Huron nation became military allies and trading liaisons for the French. Jesuit missionaries attempted to build a settlement in Huronia, but the Iroquois attacked the settlement in 1649, effectively destroying the Huron nation. The end of the American Revolution created an influx of Loyalists from the United States. Thousands immigrated to the Ontario region and began to colonize. The Constitutional Act of 1791 named this area Upper Canada. The name was changed to Canada West in 1840 under the Act of Union that combined Upper and Lower Canada into one colony. The name Ontario was adopted in 1867 with the passing of the British North America Act (Constitution Act of 1867). After the War of 1812, in which Ontario was a battleground, new immigration came from Great Britain. Much of the southern Ontario peninsula was then opened to settlement, on a regular survey pattern. Principal roads were laid down. Scottish and Irish settlement
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came especially to the northern parts of southern Ontario, sometimes called the Celtic fringe. Amish settled in Waterloo County, half of them from Alsace Lorraine and half from Pennsylvania and other American jurisdictions. After 1815, Americans crossing into southern Ontario and settling there are sometimes called the late Loyalists. After 1945, the ethnic population of Ontario changed dramatically. Germans, Estonians, Latvians, Italians, Greeks, and others came in increasing numbers. Asians and Arabic peoples were a feature of population growth in the years after 1985. The majority of the Ontario population is English-speaking, but the province also has the largest number of French-speaking people outside of Québec. The native population is largely of Algonkian and Iroquoian descent. Geography gave Ontario the role of keystone in the emerging federal structure of Canada, the capital being situated at Ottawa. Economically, Ontario is the richest province in Canada. It is the center of the nation’s banking. The northern part of Ontario holds an abundance of natural resources and the southern part is highly industrialized. The primary industries in the province range from agriculture to mining to forestry. Although a majority of the agricultural output is produced in a small part of southern Ontario, the province is one of Canada’s main producers of agricultural products. The primary industries provided the foundation for the economic development of Ontario, but the manufacturing and service industries have also become large contributors. The province accounts for more than 50 percent of the manufactured goods in Canada, the automobile industry being the largest sector in the province. The service industry, including tourism, is the largest element of the economy of Ontario. The Ontario provincial parliament, with its seat in Toronto, has 125 members. Ontario is represented by 98 members in the House of Commons and 24 senators, the largest representation of any province. The population exceeded 13 million in 2009. ORANGE ORDER. In 1830, the First Grand Lodge of the Orange Order was established by Irish Protestants in Canada. Its growth to 2,000 lodges and 100,000 members in the 1880s made it a powerful pressure group, reinforcing pro-British and Tory sympathies and opposing French Canadian “papists.” In 1848, Louis Lafontaine introduced a Secret Societies Bill, designed to check such actions. In
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the 1860s, the Order sought a relationship with the monarchy, but this was declined. Orangeman Thomas Scott, from Ontario, was killed during the Red River Rebellion, leading the Order to campaign for protection of rights. D’Alton McCarthy’s Equal Rights Association was one such group; the Manitoba Schools Act was an indirect result. Sectarian strife continued in Canada. In 1877, during a parade in Montréal, an Orangeman was murdered. Rising resentment, exploited by John A. Macdonald, allowed for a Conservative victory in 1878. In return, Macdonald included the grand master, Mackenzie Bowell, in his cabinet. ORDER OF CANADA. Created on 1 July 1967, the Order of Canada is the centerpiece of the national honors system, which includes orders, decorations, medals, and heraldic devices. The Order is a fraternity of merit that recognizes significant achievement in important fields of human endeavor. There are three levels of membership: the Companion (C.C.) level recognizes international service or achievement, or national preeminence; the Officer (O.C.) level recognizes national service or achievement; and the Member level (C.M.) recognizes outstanding contributions at the local or regional level or in a specialized field of activity. The queen of Canada is the sovereign of the Order. The governor general is the chancellor and principal Companion of the Order of Canada and presides over its affairs, in accordance with the terms of its constitution. An advisory council, chaired by the chief justice of Canada, recommends to the chancellor the names of those considered to be worthy of appointment. Federal and provincial politicians and judges are not eligible while holding office. There are no posthumous appointments to the Order, and the number of persons who can be appointed is limited by its constitution. Officers and Members may be elevated within the Order in recognition of further achievement. The badge of the Order is a stylized snowflake bearing the crown, a maple leaf, and a Latin motto: desiderantes meliorem patriam, which proclaims the aspirations of members of the Order who, in their lives and work, have demonstrated that “they desire a better country.” OREGON TREATY. Officially the Treaty of Washington, this Anglo-American treaty, finalized 15 July 1846, divided the farthest
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west between the two powers along the 49th parallel to the middle of the straits leading to the Pacific, leaving Vancouver Island in British hands. The Oregon Treaty gave Great Britain navigation rights in the Columbia River, which were later abandoned. The water boundary was confused and led to the San Juan Boundary dispute, eventually resolved in 1872 in the United States’ favor by arbitration. Oregon now refers to the state of that name in the United States, but in the 1820s through 1840s, the term referred to a much larger area west of the Rocky Mountains. Historians sometimes refer to it in that time as Old Oregon. Canadian historians note in particular the unrivalled dominance of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in Old Oregon, until American settlers arriving overland established communities and provisional government after 1843 and called for U.S. annexation of land. Peaceful resolution of these difficulties was effected by the Oregon Treaty. HBC possessory rights south of the boundary were the subject of protracted, successful negotiations. OSLER, WILLIAM (1849–1919). Physician and professor of medicine Sir William Osler was born in a hamlet north of Toronto. Energetic, small, and wiry, he had tremendous compassion for children and for patients. He was educated at Trinity College School then McGill University, where, after travels in Europe, he became a professor of medicine. Later was appointed to Pennsylvania University and Johns Hopkins University. In 1905, he was appointed Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine. He wrote the classic medical textbook Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892), in print until 1947. In it, and in his medical lessons, he taught physicians that they were treating individuals not diseases. Doctors, he insisted, should cultivate cheerful inscrutability with the sick and dying—and keep written records. He died of a respiratory infection and was, in accordance with his wishes, autopsied at home. He expressed many aphorisms, including “Go slowly and attend to your work, live a godly life, and avoid mining shares.” OTTAWA CONFERENCES. In 1894, a colonial conference was held in Ottawa to promote communication between portions of the British Empire. In 1932, the Ottawa Economic Conference, chaired by Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, considered the possibility of
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multilateral tariffs but, because of various complications, ended with certain bilateral arrangements. The conference adopted limited imperial preference as the result of a new protective tariff adopted by the British earlier that same year. See also COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS.
– P – PACIFIC CABLE. A brainchild of Canadian scientist and telecommunications genius Sandford Fleming, the Pacific Cable stretched underwater 6,000 kilometers from Bamfield, British Columbia, to Fanning Island, south of Hawaii in the mid-Pacific, and became operable on 31 October 1902. From Fanning Island, links were made to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and elsewhere. Altogether, the Pacific Cable was known as the All-Red Route. The cable station at Bamfield relayed the first telegraph message to circle the globe and had military significance in both world wars. It set in motion communication advancements that led to fiber optic cable and satellite technology. The link gave the British Empire the ability to communicate around the world in 10 to 12 hours. Radio diminished the value of cable for commercial but not military traffic. The Bamfield cable station, at one time employing 45 persons, was decommissioned in 1959. The grounds are now used by the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center. PACIFIC SCANDAL. It has been said that Canada was the creation of the railway age. The completion of the transcontinental railway on Canadian soil in 1885 (regular service established 1886) marked the material link of communication from Atlantic to Pacific. Along the way, there were many physical and technical difficulties. There were also political and financial complications, as shown by the particulars of the Pacific Scandal. As of 1876, the Intercolonial Railway linked the Atlantic seaboard and St. Lawrence waterways (essentially Halifax to Montréal, with links to Toronto and Chicago). But British Columbians and others were calling for a Canadian link to the Pacific (rather than via the Union Pacific and Central Pacific route in the United States). In fact, by the Terms of Union whereby British Columbia joined Canada (1871), the Canadian government guaranteed completion of
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a railroad from central Canada to the Pacific within 10 years. Apart from the physical, engineering, and topographical impediments, the supreme question was how to finance this grand design, and this brought government and private capital into a special relationship. The key date was 1872, when the railway charter for a Canadian Pacific Railway line was granted to Hugh Allan, a Montréal shipping magnate and investor. Information leaks revealed that Allan had contributed $300,000 to Conservative party coffers and to the personal bankrolls of John A. Macdonald, the prime minister, and George Étienne Cartier. A telegram from Macdonald to Allan read: “I must have another ten thousand; will be the last time of calling; do not fail me.” These revelations forced Macdonald to resign in November 1873. An election was held in 1874, and the Liberal Party and its leader, Alexander Mackenzie, were swept into power. The Liberals were always lukewarm on building such a railway, arguing that trade by rail could flow north and south via spur lines from U.S. railroad systems. Macdonald was put into opposition for four years; the Conservatives had been discredited. Although the Liberals attempted to pacify British Columbia (called by some at the time “the spoilt child of confederation”), various delays ensued, owing to construction, surveying, and engineering requirements or other difficulties. There was also an economic depression in the late 1870s. In 1878, the Conservatives were reelected. Under the Canadian Pacific Railway Act (1880), the national enterprise was given new life. This biggest corporate arrangement in 19th-century Canadian history required various cash subsidies (originally $25 million), land grants (25 million acres “fit for settlement”), 700 miles of existing track, a 20-year holiday from paying corporate taxes, and 20 years to complete the project. Another $27 million was required to complete the railway, and this came from the public purse. On 7 November 1885, the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, near Golden, in the heart of British Columbia’s mountain wilderness—bringing to an end the saga of the Pacific Scandal. This was the biggest, most significant issue in public policy making in the 1800s in Canada, but Macdonald and the Conservatives survived it, and the Liberals did not make sufficient gains at the expense of their rivals. See also TRANSPORTATION.
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PADLOCK LAW. Québec province’s anti-communist legislation, the Padlock Law was enacted in 1937 by the Union Natíonale led by Maurice Duplessis. The law authorized closure of premises suspected of producing communist propaganda. Inasmuch as “communist” was not defined or limited, the government hindered growth of the leftwing Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and also used the law against unions. In 1957, the Supreme Court of Canada declared it unconstitutional. PALLISER EXPEDITION. This 1857–1860 British expedition was made under the sponsorship of the Royal Geographical Society and was led by its initiator, Capt. John Palliser of the Royal Engineers. The expedition examined three significant regions: the Canadian Shield between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg, the prairies of south Saskatchewan, and the passes of the Rocky Mountains. Palliser kept a journal and made comprehensive reports, notably to the Colonial Office in London. In the southwest of the western interior, north of the 49th parallel, he found abundant good soil but decried the extensive sandy wastelands that became known as Palliser’s Triangle. These wastelands he thought unsuitable for settlement, but he had visited this locale in a particularly arid year. Scientific knowledge of this area was also advanced by the Henry Youle Hind expedition, 1857–1858. Hind was a geologist and instructor at Trinity School in Toronto. The Canadian Red River, Assiniboine, and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition, to give it its exact name, was funded by the Province of Canada. It gave a more promising account of the possibilities of settlement in Saskatchewan than Palliser. In consequence, the findings of the Hind expedition were of value to the arguments of the Canadian expansionists who looked west for enlargement of the political sphere of the Province of Canada. PAPINEAU, LOUIS-JOSEPH (1786–1871). As speaker of Lower Canada’s House of Assembly, Papineau, a French Canadian lawyer, championed independence from Great Britain, more self-government, and separateness from Upper Canada. In 1832, he championed legislation to allow Jews to be elected to the legislative assembly. As one of the most remarkable and serious republican theorists of Cana-
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dian history, he led the Patriotes during the Rebellions of 1837 and was charged with treason. Escaping to the United States, he returned to his homeland after the General Amnesty of 1844. He left public life to devote time to his family and his seigneurie. In 1850, he built Manoir Papineau, a magnificent seigneurial house overlooking the Ottawa River. It is a National Historic Site. PARIS, TREATY OF. The Treaty of Paris of 1763 ended the Seven Years War. The definitive treaty of peace and friendship between the British, French, and Spanish kings was concluded in Paris on 10 February 1763. It is also known as the Peace of Paris. By it, France ceded Canada to the British, retaining only St. Pierre and Miquelon Islands as shelter to French fishers, and some residual fishing rights (of fishing and drying on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland as specified in the Treaty of Utrecht) and also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence a distance of three leagues off shore. France also ceded all territories east of the Mississippi River, Cape Breton Island, the St. Lawrence Islands, Dominica, Tobago, the Grenadines, and Senegal to Great Britain. The French renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia or Acadia, guaranteeing the whole to the British. Britain thereby established its preeminence in North America. The British granted the liberty of the Catholic religion to the inhabitants of Canada and allowed worship of it as far as the laws of Great Britain permitted. Spain surrendered East Florida to Great Britain but received by secret arrangement the Louisiana Territory and New Orleans from France. Great Britain returned Cuba to Spain, and Guadeloupe, Martinique, and other captured islands to France. PARLBY, IRENE MARRYAT (1868–1965). Born in London, England, to a military family, Parlby settled in Alberta in 1896. Married to Oxford-educated Walter Parlby, she struggled to improve the lives of Alberta farm women and children, who suffered from isolation, poor health and dental care, and inadequate schooling. A suffragist, she stood for women’s rights. Becoming part of the populist conservatism of Alberta, she joined the United Farmers of Alberta, became its president in 1916, and was elected to the provincial legislature in 1921. She represented the riding of Lacombe for 14 years. Named minister without portfolio, the first woman cabinet member
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in Alberta, she sponsored the Minimum Wage for Women Act (1925). She was one of the Famous Five in the Persons Case. Prime Minister Richard Bedford Bennett appointed her a Canadian delegate to the League of Nations, Geneva, in 1930, a position she held to 1934. She was a reluctant politician who did not like campaigning. She was the first woman to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta. PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. Canada’s parliament has inherited much of the British traditions as exhibited in the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, England. In fact, Canada’s parliament represents Canadian institutions in public decision making and democracy. The Parliament of Canada resides in Ottawa, Ontario; the Government of Canada is headquartered in the National Capital Commission’s domain, which embraces Ottawa and Hull, Québec. Parliament Hill, on a bluff jutting into the Ottawa River, puts its buildings into spectacular relief. The architecture is mainly in the Gothic style. The Parliament Buildings are evocative symbols of Canada. Flanked by the East and West Blocks, the Center Block of Parliament—with its distinctive Peace Tower and library—is familiar to Canadians and many people around the world. These buildings represent, too, the echoes of past times and personalities. Around Parliament Hill are many statues of great personages of yesteryear: Samuel de Champlain, John A. Macdonald, Wilfrid Laurier, and William Lyon Mackenzie King, to name a few. In the 1840s, the government of the Province of Canada could not agree on a site for the capital—Montréal, Québec, Kingston, and Toronto were considered. In 1857, Queen Victoria, whose opinion was requested, chose Ottawa (previously Bytown) as permanent capital. Ottawa was then a rough-and-tumble lumber town. The choice of Ottawa was a political compromise; it also lay a more secure distance from the American border. The Center, East, and West Blocks of the Parliament Buildings were built 1859–66 (excluding the Peace Tower and library). When the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, the buildings were immediately chosen as seat of government for the new federation, which assembled there for the first time on 6 November 1867. The library was completed in 1876.
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On 3 February 1916, a fire started in the Parliamentary Reading Room in the Center Block. The fire claimed seven lives and reduced all but the northwest wing and the library to a charred shell; the library was saved by its closed iron doors. Rebuilding immediately began, despite the war, and the new structure embraced the Gothic Revival style of the original. The new building was opened on 26 February 1920 and completed in 1922. Architectural features include stateliness and vibrancy: vaulted ceilings, marble floors, dramatic lighting (giving an atmosphere of solemnity), bright detail, gargoyles, bird and animal sculptures, and stone friezes recounting events of Canadian history. The Library of Parliament, a showpiece of Gothic Revival architecture, is the jewel of national architecture. A white marble statue of young Queen Victoria is to be found there. The library services parliamentarians and their staffs. Rising above the Parliament Buildings is the distinctive, massive Peace Tower built to commemorate the end of World War I. On its third floor is the Memorial Chamber, a tribute to Canadians who died in armed conflicts of the nation. In front of the Peace Tower, and inside the central gates, is the Centennial Flame, first lit on 1 January 1967 to mark the second century of Canadian confederation. The East Block’s rooms have been restored to appear as in John A. Macdonald’s time. Other government buildings nearby include the Confederation Building, Wellington Building, Langevin Building, and Victoria Building. Parliament consists of the House of Commons Chamber, where elected representatives known as members of Parliament (MPs) gather to debate legislation, move financial motions, and conduct the nation’s legislative business, and the Senate Chamber, where senators review bills passed in the House of Commons and introduce their own legislation (other than money bills). The Senate is the upper house of Parliament through which all legislation must pass before it becomes law. Its members, chosen in all 10 provinces and territories, are appointed by the governor general on recommendation of the prime minister. The throne in the center of the Senate’s dais is used by the queen or the governor general on ceremonial occasions such as the Opening of Parliament. The Senate is ruled over by a speaker. See also PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM.
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PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. The parliamentary structure in Canada consists of the queen, represented by the governor general, the Senate, and the House of Commons. The governor general summons Parliament, brings its sessions to an end by prorogation, and formally assents to every bill before it can become law. In practice, the governor general exercises all these powers on the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet. A bill must be agreed to by both Houses and receive the Royal Assent before it can become an Act of Parliament. The powers of the Senate and the House of Commons are constitutionally equal except that financial legislation may not be introduced in the Senate. All senators are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are elected by the people. The House of Commons plays the most important part in the parliamentary process. English and French enjoy equal status in both houses of Parliament; members are allowed to deliver speeches in either language. The Senate consists of 104 members, appointed by the government. The numbers are based on regional location: 24 from Québec; 24 from Ontario; 24 from the maritime provinces (10 each from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, four from Prince Edward Island); 24 from the western provinces (six each from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia); six from Newfoundland and Labrador; and one each from the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory. At the time of confederation, Québec and the maritime provinces insisted on equality in the upper house to counterbalance the weight of Ontario in the lower house, where representation is based on population. All bills must be passed by the Senate before they can become law, and the upper chamber has the constitutional right to reject any bill, and keep rejecting it as often as it sees fit. As well, it can amend bills, although it cannot initiate or increase the amount of any bill dealing with taxation or expenditure. Senators represent provinces. In recent years, there has been much discussion about having senators voted in by the region they represent, so as to make their actions more accountable to the people. The Canadian House of Commons was modeled after the British Parliament. The rules and procedures stem directly from Westmin-
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ster, the British House of Commons. The House of Commons is the center of parliamentary activity and public attention. It is here that the prime minister and the leader of the opposition regularly confront one another and where the nation’s business is freely and openly transacted. By law, a general election must be held at least once every five years. Parliament may be dissolved and an election called before five years has elapsed. The power to dissolve Parliament resides with the governor general, but only on the advice of the prime minister. PARTI QUÉBE˙COIS (PQ). The Parti Québécois was formed by René Levesque after the defeat of the Liberal Party in Québec in 1968, essentially for being insufficiently nationalistic. It began as a protest party rooted in ethnic and cultural solidarity for French-language protection. Members, sometimes called Pequistes, gained widespread support from business and labor. The PQ suffered bitter defeats in 1970 and 1973 but formed a government after the electoral victory of 19 November 1976; it was reelected in 1981. Urging various forms of independence such as “sovereignty association” and later complete independence, the PQ lost the 1980 provincial referendum that asked the people of Québec if they wanted to remain within Canada. In 1995, the leader, Jacques Parizeau, introduced a bill in the National Assembly of Québec calling for public ratification of independence, to be proclaimed. Lucien Bouchard became the PQ’s leader in January 1996 and also premier of Québec, but he resigned on 11 January 2001. PATTISON, JAMES A. (1928– ). A business executive and philanthropist, Pattison was born in Lakeland, Saskatchewan, educated at the University of British Columbia, and lives in Vancouver. A self-made billionaire, he first bought a Vancouver car dealership, and then built the Jim Pattison Group into the largest privately held company in Canada. The Group, with 26,000 employees and assets of $5 billion plus (2009), has sectors in signs and advertising, auto leasing, dealerships and fleet management, fishing and fish packing, forest products, and television and radio stations. He was chair and president of Expo 86, a world-class exposition held in Vancouver. PEARSON, LESTER BOWLES (1897–1972). A history lecturer, diplomat, and politician, Lester Pearson was born in Aurora,
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Ontario, son of a Methodist minister. He was educated at Toronto and Oxford. After teaching at the University of Toronto, he joined the Department of External Affairs in 1928, rose in its ranks, and served as Canada’s ambassador to the United States from 1945 to 1946. Appointed the senior advisor to the Canadian delegation to the San Francisco Conference in 1945, he then served as secretary of state for external affairs in 1948–57. His plans for the resolution of the Suez Crisis through UN-sponsored peacekeeping attracted widespread acclaim. Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. He then followed a career in national politics. Elected to Parliament as a Liberal for Algoma, Ontario, Pearson became leader of the Liberal Party and leader of the opposition in succession to Louis St. Laurent. He fought several elections but never succeeded in commanding a majority in the House of Commons. All the same, his administrations consolidated various pieces of social, medical, and welfare legislation. Of particular note, as prime minister (1963–68), he introduced the Canada Pension Plan and the Canadian Health Act (universal medical care) and sought to counter separatism in Québec. He introduced the Flag of Canada, led Canada’s centennial celebrations in 1967, and launched the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. An activist politician right for the times, his achievements within a short period were many and fundamental to the nature of modern Canada. PEMMICAN. The essential portable provision of fur traders and western travelers, pemmican was made from buffalo meat, cut with the grain in strips and dried, then pounded and covered with melted fat in a sewn-up bag the size of a flour sack (each weighing 90 pounds). Kept in a seam-greased bag, this high-protein food would keep for years. Berries could be added. Three-quarters of a pound was a reasonable daily ration. As bison are nowadays a protected species, modern recipes begin with the requirement “to procure a moose, or other large animal.” Pemmican, fundamental to the fur trade and its expansion north and west, was made principally in and around Red River and the South Saskatchewan River. In Athabasca, in the region of Peace River, it was made by the Beaver peoples.
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PERSIAN GULF WAR. On 2 August 1990, armed forces of Iraq under the orders of Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait. The United States rallied allies against this aggression and the threat to world oil supplies. With UN approval, a U.S.-led coalition attacked Iraq in January 1991. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney pledged support. Canadian armed forces sent to the theater consisted of several elements, none of them combat ground troops. The Canadian government sent a 530-person hospital unit to attend to wounded coalition personnel during the buildup leading to Operation Desert Storm. Also, a three-unit naval task force was dispatched to the Persian Gulf with a destroyer tender. The hurried reequipping of these ships showed glaring inadequacies in Canada’s defensive systems. These ships, which took up station as part of an international maritime task force, were used to enforce the embargo on Iraqi shipping and to support the land-based forces. Two squadrons of CF-18 fighters were stationed at Qatar and flew 2,700 sorties to give air support to allied and neutral shipping in the gulf. The Air Command Transport Group supplied logistical support for Canada’s first military operations in the Middle East. Iraq accepted the terms of ceasefire on 3 March 1991. After the war ended, Canadian forces helped in the cleanup of Kuwait and aided in clearing some of the millions of mines laid down. There was no significant casualty among the 2,400 Canadians deployed. Saddam Hussein remained in power for another 12 years until the Iraq War swept him from power in 2003. PERSONS CASE. In Henrietta Muir Edwards and Others v. Attorney General for Canada and Others, popularly known as the Persons Case, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on 24 April 1928 that the word “persons” in section 24 of the Constitution Act of 1867 could not be understood to include women and therefore women were ineligible for Senate membership. The ruling was on technical or narrowly constitutional grounds rather than sexism. On appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in favor of “a large and liberal interpretation” rather than “a narrow and technical construction,” concluded on 18 October 1929 that “persons” applied to both the male and female sexes. Joining journalist Edwards in the challenge were suffragist Nellie Mooney McClung, Alberta cabinet minister Irene Marryat
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Parlby, temperance champion Louis Crummy McKinney, and Emily Ferguson Murphy, first female jurist in the Commonwealth. Albertans all, though not all were born there, they became known as the Famous Five. On 18 October 2000, a cluster statue of the Famous Five was unveiled at Ottawa’s Parliament Hill. None of the Famous Five were either born or raised in the Canadian West. In 2009, by legislation, they were made Honorable Senators. Cairine Wilson, not one of the Famous Five, became the first female senator, selected by Prime Minister Mackenzie King in 1930 to the upper chamber. PICTOU. Pictou, Nova Scotia, is one of many towns of Atlantic Canada and the maritime provinces with a diverse heritage. On Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Pictou Harbor was first occupied by the Mi’kmaq, then by French traders and missionaries. In 1762, the Philadelphia Company obtained a grant for settlement purposes. In 1773, the brig Hector brought 200 Highlanders (mainly from Ross-shire) to Pictou, most of them embarking at Ullapool in western Scotland. Their memorable departure, recorded by oral testimony, was reminiscent of the Mayflower leaving Leiden with Puritans aboard. It was a nightmare voyage: crowded hold, dysentery, hurricane, bad food and water; 18 died on the passage. The Hector arrived at Pictou on 15 September 1773. Too late to plant crops, the immigrants were dependent on settlers living there and in nearby villages such as Truro. They gathered clams, fished, hunted, and developed farms. In the early 19th century, Pictou exported lumber and timber to Great Britain. The town had sawmills, foundries, biscuit-making establishments, and flour mills. Railways and highways bypassed the town. In the late 20th century, the town had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. This traditional center of Highland settlement became a locus for tourism based on its Scottish heritage. PIERCE, WILLIAM HENRY (1856–1948). A missionary and author, Pierce was born at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to a woman of the Port Simpson tribe and a Scottish father in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Pierce was brought up by the Port Simpson peoples. He was much influenced by the zeal of the Anglican lay minister Father William Duncan and by the kind-
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ness of Captain Lewis of the HBC steamer Otter, on which he served as a sailor for more than two years. Pierce became an interpreter to Anglican missionaries. He was a strong temperance supporter and founder of many such societies for the Methodists. He went to the new station at Fort Wrangel, Alaska, in 1877. He also worked at Port Essington, then at a Nisga’a mission station, at Bella Bella, and at Bella Coola. In 1895, he was appointed to Rev. Thomas Crosby’s steamboat Glad Tidings mission. He worked on the Upper Skeena River for a time. He recounted his experiences in his memoir From Potlatch to Pulpit (1933), a vital source for the study of the history of these early missions. PITCHER, HARRIET BROOKS (1876–1933). A nuclear physicist born in Exeter, Ontario, Pitcher attended McGill University in 1894 and won a number of scholarships and awards. She graduated with an honors degree in mathematics and natural philosophy. While studying under the direction of Ernest Rutherford, she concentrated her research on radioactivity. Her work proved to be very important as it assisted Rutherford and Frederick Soddy, who discovered the secret to radioactivity in 1902. Although not receiving the recognition she deserves, Pitcher was one of the pioneers of modern nuclear science. PLACENTIA BAY CONFERENCE. On 9 to 12 August 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and their respective advisors, met aboard the U.S. cruiser Augusta and the British battleship Prince of Wales in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter (subsequently the basis of the United Nations Charter) was agreed on at the conference, and a note was drafted that threatened Japan with joint action if it continued to act aggressively (a watered-down version sent to the Japanese ambassador in Washington, D.C., was practically meaningless). A joint telegram was sent to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suggesting the Three-Power Conference. PLAINS CREE. Prior to European contact, the Plains Cree comprised a few small bands in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. After contact with Europeans, first the French and later the British traders, the Cree population swelled as bands with firearms and horses joined
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the Cree. The expansion of the fur trade increased their wealth but had devastating social effects. Many traders took Cree women as wives. From these unions were born Métis. They allied themselves with the Assiniboine against the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Sarcee. Plains Cree spread over northern Alberta to the Peace River. Smallpox in the 18th century, notably 1781 and 1782, drastically reduced the population of Cree, as did a further outbreak in the 1830s. The decline of buffalo, the source for pemmican, further reduced their food supplies and their numbers. See also INDIANS. PLANTERS. Between 1759 and 1774, some 8,000 planters—an English term for colonists—arrived in Nova Scotia from the colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. The year 1760 is regarded as particularly significant. Their purpose was to establish an English Protestant community. The British had begun deporting Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755 and encouraged the settlement of Nova Scotia with loyal subjects. At that time, France was the most likely enemy, and subsequently the Seven Years War (1756–63) was fought, in part for control of Nova Scotia. Planters settled much of the Annapolis Valley—Liverpool, Yarmouth, Cumberland, and also places in New Brunswick. The planters replaced the Acadians and shaped the cultural history of the area in a different way. Settlers also arrived from other jurisdictions: for instance, in 1772–75, over 20 ships carrying more than 1,000 settlers from Yorkshire reached Nova Scotia. Most settled in the Chignecto region, soon to be the border counties straddling Nova Scotia and the newly formed New Brunswick. Acadian culture did not disappear altogether, and the relationships between Acadians and planters is a subject for important historical inquiry. Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, beginning in 1993, developed a curriculum in Planter Studies; the leader for this was John Victor Duncanson (1919–1999), foremost expert on the documentation of planter history. The Friends of Planter Studies, headquartered at Acadia University, has a newsletter, Planter Notes, and a society for the promotion of these matters. PONTIAC’S WAR. Chief Pontiac (1720?–69) of the Ottawa nation at the close of the Seven Years War (1756–63) led a series of dev-
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astating attacks against fur trading posts and British garrisons. He organized the Ottawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwa into an alliance in 1763 and led these people to attack Fort Detroit, killing 46 British soldiers. As the alliance grew, British settlers and additional posts were attacked. Within a short period of time, 2,000 settlers had been killed and eight garrisons captured. As French assistance failed to materialize, the alliances disintegrated, and Pontiac signed a number of treaties in the summer of 1766. His actions led to strong reactions and penalties from the British commander in chief, Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. POUNDMAKER (1826–1886). A Stoney native, Poundmaker was the adopted son of Crowfoot, a Blackfoot chief. In 1878, Poundmaker became a band chief of the Cree and was instrumental in signing Treaty Six. In the Northwest Rebellion, he attempted to restrain his band from violence. He was ignored and his band raided Battleford, Northwest Territories. Although seen as an agitator by police, Poundmaker prevented the massacre of Col. William Otter’s troops on Cut Knife Hill by allowing the force to retreat. Poundmaker was forced to surrender and served a three-year sentence. The sentence was due to a fear by the Canadian government of native uprisings in the west. POWLESS, ROSS (1926–2003). Possibly Canada’s greatest lacrosse legend, Powless, a Mohawk, was born on the Six Nations Reserve of the Grand River territory in southwestern Ontario. He played for many Mann Cup champions, including the Peterborough Timbermen. He coached and promoted All-Indian Nations Lacrosse Tournaments in Canada. He endured racism, reacting stoically. He was much admired for his work to reinstate native government at Ohswekan, Six Nations Reserve. After some 30 years in lacrosse, he became a carpenter and foreman, and he worked on the Burlington Skyway Bridge. PRESS. The Canadian press has always been a force for Canadian democracy. Journalists have been called the watchdogs of democracy; reporters are expected to monitor the actions of influential people and provide unbiased reports to the public. Freedom of the press to
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report without interference has been called a fundamental cornerstone of democracy by the United Nations. The Canadian Association of Journalists states (2002): “Our privilege and duty as investigative journalists is to defend free speech, inform self-governing citizens, encourage deliberation on public policy and serve the public interest.” In Canada, freedom of the press is protected under section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Many colonial capitals and towns had newspapers and gazettes almost from their founding. The Halifax Gazette was Canada’s first newspaper, appearing in 1752. In Halifax, Joseph Howe, a newspaper proprietor, championed responsible government. La Presse of Montréal, founded in 1844 by William-Edmond Blumhart, was intended to counter Le Monde and has become a powerhouse in the Canadian press, its editors Liberal oriented. Journalist Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “the pen of Canadian confederation,” was an Irish voice in Ottawa and elsewhere. In Toronto, the Globe rose to prominence under the leadership of George Brown, a powerful reformist politician and an architect of Canadian confederation who also played a role in negotiations with the British government. Now regarded as the national daily, the Globe and Mail has a more global reach. The colorful Amor de Cosmos founded a newspaper, the British Colonist, in 1860 to oppose Governor James Douglas of British Columbia and the concentrating of power in his hands. A dominating figure of the 20th century was John Wesley Dafoe, editor of the Winnipeg Free Press, 1901–1944. He was the “editor statesman” of Canadian affairs. He had a deep knowledge of international affairs and was conscious of Canada’s role in the wider world. During the interval between the two world wars, he raised his voice against the failure of the democracies to oppose the rise of Adolph Hitler and National Socialism. Conrad Black, who began his career as a reporter in Québec’s Eastern Townships, bought up many newspapers and chains. He founded the National Post as a counter to the Globe and Mail. Like Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Thomson before him, he went on to powerful positions in British publishing and entrance into the House of Lords. Many families have had powerful influences in the press, notably the Southams, Bassetts, and Aspers. The Pacific Press is the owner of the Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun. An increasing number of papers are amalgams of older titles, notably
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the Victoria Times Colonist, whose roots date (as the British Colonist) to 1858. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, most daily newspapers had magazine sections of importance to literature, the arts, travel, and history. Weekly magazines sprang up, B. K. Sandwell’s Saturday Night a noteworthy example. Maclean’s is a notable survivor of Canadian magazines. The Walrus is a recent arrival. Time and Reader’s Digest have special editions printed in Canada for Canadians. Quill and Quire is a noted journal for the publishing world. The press has always been closely attached to politics in Canada and in the debates leading up to confederation. In the colonial age of Ontario, the giant of journalism was William Lyon Mackenzie, a champion of reformist causes, noted rebel, and later mayor of Toronto. Among the important and influential personages who have influenced the course of Canadian history or have been important commentators are George Brown, already mentioned; Henri Bourassa, champion of Québec’s separate voice and destiny; Bruce Hutchinson, the historian and biographer; and Stuart Keate, editor and publisher. Canadian political affairs are covered in Ottawa by the Parliamentary Press Association, some members of which have gone on to other lines of work, including politics and academic life. The press in Canada is characterized by considerable diversity, though the large majority of papers are in the English language, a minority in French, and the remaining fragments in other languages. In 1917, the Canadian Press, a cooperative news agency, was founded, particularly to supply news about the progress of World War I. It partners with agencies such as Broadcast News Ltd. to provide data to radio and television networks and stations. Each of the provinces and territories has a parliamentary press gallery, the whole linked to the vital centers of power and influence of the media, especially in Ottawa and Toronto. PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (PEI). Located in eastern Canada, off the north shores of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, PEI holds the distinction of being the smallest Canadian province. Jacques Cartier, there on 29 June 1534, described it as “the fairest land that may possibly be seen.” The province joined the confederation on 1 July 1873.
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Prior to European contact, the province was inhabited by the Mi’kmaq. The Europeans to first settle on the island were French, who called the island Île St. Jean. Sovereignty passed to Great Britain in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris. The British changed the name to Prince Edward Island in 1799 in honor of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Charlottetown, the capital, hosted the first conference to consider the confederation of British North America, in 1864. For that reason, PEI has often been called “the cradle of confederation.” The majority of the present-day inhabitants are of British origin. The small size of the island and the economic conditions there have resulted in few immigrants. Of the population, 56 percent are rural. In addition to the cities of Charlottetown and Summerside, there are seven towns. The coast is dotted with small harbors that are suitable for inshore fishing vessels. Deepwater ports are located at Charlottetown and Summerside. The resources of the province are the soil and the sea. In agriculture, the most important product is potatoes. Tourism contributes to the economy of the province. Electricity is mostly imported from New Brunswick by undersea cable. The Confederation Bridge, linking the island to the mainland, was opened in 1987. The island will always be associated in the literary realm with Lucy Maud Montgomery’s endearing, best-selling novel Anne of Green Gables. The province has a 32-member legislative assembly. The province’s representative in Ottawa consists of four members of the House of Commons and four senators. The population was 141,000 in 2009. PROCLAMATION OF 1763. This statement of imperial administration and intent was issued by Britain’s King George III on 7 October 1763 after the conclusion of the Seven Years War. It is sometimes called the Royal Proclamation of 1763. It extended British laws and institutions to the British province of Québec and contracted the boundaries of the colony. The proclamation established four colonial governments for the regions of Québec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. It gave Québec its first civil government under British rule; civil government in Québec was effected 10 August 1764. Executive authority was placed in the hands of a governor and council.
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Legislative power was granted to the governor, acting in conjunction with the council and assembly. Courts of Justice were to be immediately established, and all cases were to be determined “as may be agreeable to the laws of England.” In fact, though this implied apparently the total abolition of French law, French civil law continued to operate in the Province of Québec. The proclamation was silent on the question of religion, but the 1763 Treaty of Paris granted privilege of freedom of worship to the Roman Catholics, “as far as the laws of Great Britain permit.” It provided some protection for the rights of native peoples. It announced a prohibition of settlement beyond the western “line.” The reason for this was to prevent clashes between whites and Indians in the future. No white settlements were to be permitted beyond the crest of the mountains—“beyond the Heads or Sources of any of the Rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West.” Of special significance in aboriginal history, the proclamation set forth principles of treaty making, forbidding natives to sell lands directly to any other than constituted governments, through crown agents. The proclamation thus forms a powerful historical document in Indian and Métis rights; it has been called the Magna Carta of Indian Rights. It stated that aboriginal lands cannot be purchased directly but only by agents of the crown: the crown pledged that “the several nations or Tribes of Indians . . . who live under our Protection should not be molested or disturbed in the Possessions of such Parts of our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are reserved to them.” PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE PARTY. This right of center and populist party emerged from the Conservatives of John A. Macdonald, grew in power under Robert Borden, and faced difficult times during the Great Depression under R. B. Bennett. It constantly traded power with the Liberals. In 1944, the Progressives joined the Conservatives and the name Progressive Conservative Party dates from that event. Prominent in later years were the prime ministers John George Diefenbaker, Joe Clark, and Brian Mulroney. The reformulation of the party in the early years of the 21st century resulted in the new name Conservative Party of Canada.
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PROGRESSIVE PARTY. Founded in 1920 by agrarian interests, especially in the prairies and Ontario, this reform-minded movement sought lower tariffs, reciprocity with the United States, reduced freight rates, nationalized railways, and more accountable members of Parliament. Canadian farmers massively turned away from the old-line parties that were controlled by eastern business interests. The Farmers’ Platform was originally drawn up by the Canadian Council of Agriculture and reissued as the New National Policy in 1918. This was the doctrinal basis of the Progressive Party, a federal party. The provincial parties tended to be called United Farmers. In the 1921 election, Progressives returned an astonishing 65 members to the House of Commons, making them the second largest party in the Commons. Agnes MacPhail was elected, the first woman member of Parliament. Party leader Thomas Crerar, an ex-Liberal elected as a Progressive, declined being named leader of the opposition. This hindered the party’s advancement. In subsequent years, the Liberal Party under Mackenzie King drew away disaffected Progressives and brought them into important positions. In consequence, the numbers of Progressives in the Commons dropped in the election of 1925 and again in 1926. Some radical members joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (later the New Democratic Party) in 1932. The remnant linked with the Conservative Party in 1942, giving it the name Progressive Conservative Party. Agrarian discontent of this era transformed Canadian politics. It broke the twoparty mold and institutionalized western disaffection. The agrarian discontent that enshrined itself in this political movement survives in a muted voice in today’s Canadian Conservative Party.
– Q – QUÉBEC. The Province of Québec is the largest province in landmass in Canada and second largest in population. In 1534, explorer Jacques Cartier claimed the land for France. The area became a frequent point of return and exchange for fur traders during the summer months. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain built the Habitation at Québec (the origin of Quebec City). The colony began to flourish and the area became known as Nouvelle France, or New
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France. On 13 September 1759, during the Seven Years War, Québec fell to British control in the famous battle on the Plains of Abraham. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 placed Great Britain in control of Canada. The Proclamation of 1763 put in place its governmental system. With the Constitutional Act of 1791, Québec became Lower Canada. In 1840, it was renamed Canada East. Upon confederation in 1867, the province reclaimed its name, Québec. Throughout this period, military fortifications continued to be expanded, signifying the strategic importance of the river narrows as a key to the continent. Montréal grew in commercial significance, in banking, and in commerce. After the War of 1812, massive new defensive works were erected to guard against an attack from the United States that never came. The Québec economy is based on agriculture and forestry, but it also has strong mining and shipping industries. Manufacturing has been traditionally strong, especially in the textile area. The powerful rivers that drain the Canadian Shield make Québec the largest producer of hydroelectricity in Canada. The population of the province is predominantly French speaking, but there is a large contingent of native peoples and a minority of English-speaking people. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Iroquois, Naskapi, Montagnais, Cree, Huron, Algonquin, Malecite, Mi’kmaq, and Inuit were all living within the vast area of Québec. Today, the native population is significantly reduced, but they still remain an important part of Québec society. In 1896, Québec’s boundaries were enlarged to the shores of Hudson Bay. Québec’s legal system does not follow the common law of British tradition, unlike the rest of Canada, but that of the civil code of French tradition. The provincial government of Québec is the 122-member National Assembly. Federally, Québec is represented by 75 members in the House of Commons and 24 senators. The population of Québec was about 7.8 million in 2009. See also QUÉBEC ACT OF 1774; REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION. QUÉBEC ACT OF 1774. Designed to give Québec a new colonial constitution, the Québec Act established the use of French civil law in Québec (British criminal law applied universally elsewhere in British colonies). It revised the oath of holders of public office so that it was acceptable of Roman Catholics. The rights of the Catholic
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Church to tithe, or tax, were enshrined. Government was to be appointed, and the promise of an assembly, as given in the Proclamation of 1763, was suspended. The use of French is not mentioned in this act. The architect of the Québec Act was Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester. QUÉBEC CITY. Québec—where the river narrows—was a First Nations location at the time Samuel de Champlain chanced on it in 1608 and ordered the erection of the “Habitation,” a combined fort, residence, and office on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River. This was a seed to the European colonization of Canada, though it was not the only such location of colonization. By the time Champlain died (1635), the location had already once been conquered by the English, the Kirke brothers, in 1629, and returned to France at the peace of 1632. The Habitation was rebuilt, and the fort and settlement of that day continues to be an important location for archaeological work, though the location of Champlain’s grave is not known. Archaeologists have found various artifacts of the era as well as cannon platforms, and the surviving visual records have guided the search. From the beginning, Québec was a military post, for its situation and value was strategic. It depended for its existence on local garrisons, ramparts, and cannon, and good relations with First Nations. It also depended on protection from the sea. Though the location was ice locked in winter, spring breakup could bring supplies from Atlantic communities or from metropolitan France. By the same token, the river could be the way that enemies (such as the Kirkes) could arrive. The history of Québec is very much a military one. The early French population consisted of soldiers and mariners, merchants, farmers, and fur traders, especially the coureurs de bois (runners of the woods) and the voyageurs, the canoe travelers who did the heavy hauling of French empire in the interior. Religious orders, male and female, soon made their appearance here, and after 1632 the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, held a monopoly of religious activity in the colony and in the pays d’en haut, or high country (the interior). The fur trade was the main current of trade and commerce, and the agricultural activities based on the seigneurial system gave support to the trade and diversity to the economy. In 1657, a Jesuit,
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Bishop Laval, established a seminary. In 1668, the King’s Daughters, or filles du roi, arrived at Québec as prospective wives, in a plan developed by Jean-Baptiste Talon, the intendent (chief administrator), and Laval. In 1660, a crisis of defense occurred and the home government introduced a new civil (as opposed to a commercial) administration, establishing a royal colony, New France. The local administration worked hard to win the alliance of the local Montagnais chiefs and conceded a property at Sillery to them. When Champlain arrived, the Huron-Wendat people numbered about 30,000 in the region. Champlain formed a trade alliance with them and joined against the Iroquois in subsequent wars. Disease eventually decimated the Huron-Wendat, though pockets of them survive. Québec has been the scene of many military incursions. In 1690, New Englanders under William Phipps attacked and were repulsed. In 1711, a Royal Navy expedition under Admiral Hovenden Walker never made its destination, destroyed by navigational difficulties. In 1759, the expedition of Major General James Wolfe and Vice Admiral Charles Saunders captured Québec. France relinquished sovereignty to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. In 1775, American forces under Benedict Arnold attacked overland from Maine but were repulsed. The major fortifications of Québec seen today were built at the cost of the British taxpayer; they were designed to protect this Canadian nodule of power against feared American military incursion by land and sea in the years after the War of 1812. Québec City had been severely damaged by British gunnery during the Seven Years War (1756–63), and in the siege 535 houses were burned and much of the lower town, including some ecclesiastical places and establishments. The new government was headquartered in the city, and was administered on military lines until the Constitutional Act of 1791. The city remained the center of administration and public assemblies down to the present time. Québec City was the capital of Lower Canada, later Canada East, and even later the Province of Québec. Québec City was also the national capital until the Union Act of 1840 robbed this ancient capital of its national primacy, and Ottawa eventually supplanted it. In October 1864, representatives from Ontario, Québec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland met here
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to discuss union of the colonies under a federal banner. The resulting Québec Resolutions were an indication of colonial intentions. All agreed to it, except Newfoundland. This was the basis of the first Dominion of Canada of 1867. Québec City is a world heritage jewel, having been designated in 1985 as a UNESCO site. In 1870, Lord Dufferin, the governor general of Canada, had requested that the fortifications of Québec be preserved. The Citadel is one of the governor general’s seats or residences. The Place-Royale restoration project was begun in 1966, and other efforts were undertaken to revitalize the Old City, which had suffered from commercialization and neglect. The Chateau Frontenac (1893) and the Palais Station (1916) are two examples of late 19th-century building that is central to the current architectural treasures of the city. Another location of similar value is the Armories. Québec City is home to the Royal 22nd Regiment, the famed “Van Doos,” whose memorial chapel is in the Citadel. The architect Eugéne-Etienne Taché undertook a French renaissance in the 19th century, recreating the era of Champlain. Premier Tascherau’s Francophile provincial government of the 1920s and 1930s created an urban planning commission and construction projects influenced by the Beaux-Arts movement in Paris. In the 1960s, Jean Lessage’s government launched the restoration project for the Historic District of Old Québec. Laval’s seminary grew into Laval University, one of the earliest universities in the New World, a powerful seat of learning. In later years, the University of Québec would establish a noteworthy institution. The city grew outward, especially to the west, and the railway age and urban transportation helped the spread, including a railway bridge across the St. Lawrence River. Steam navigation from Europe to Montréal benefited Québec City as a port of call and as a customs and immigration post. In 1908, a remarkable 300-year celebration of Québec’s founding occurred here, marked by military displays, a grand historical pageant, and a great naval parade and display. In 2008, the 400th anniversary was celebrated with less bravado and more attention to architectural renovation and restoration—and the continuity of the French fact in North America. During World War II, Québec City was twice the location for meetings between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British
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Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Mackenzie King of Canada acted as host. These summits were called Quadrant (1943) and Octagon (1944). Québec’s population in 2009 was 493,000; with the metropolitan area included, 785,000. QUEENSTON HEIGHTS, BATTLE OF. Queenston Heights was the site of a major event of the War of 1812, a battle around which legends grew and national identity formed. On 13 October 1812, the battle took place between American militia crossing the swift and dangerous Niagara River at Queenston Heights and a combined force of British regulars and Canadian militia. British general Isaac Brock led the attack against the invading Americans and was killed. Nevertheless, the British circled the American force and forced surrender. The battle was a significant victory for Canada as it prevented American forces from occupying Canadian territory and gaining a hold in the area.
– R – RADIO. Stations started broadcasting in Canada in the 1920s. An important feature of Canadian radio from the outset was Canadian content in news and British content in the form of audio material supplied by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The first station was CFCF (formerly XWA) in Montréal, an English station, followed by CKAC, also in Montréal, Canada’s first French-language radio station. By 1923, there were 34 radio stations in Canada. In addition to the dissemination of news and discussion of political, economic, and social matters, they provided opportunity for Canadian musicians and rapidly expanding jazz and popular music. In 1925, the Canadian Performing Rights Society was established to administer public performances and royalties for composers and lyricists. It later became known as the Composers, Authors, and Publishers Association of Canada (CPAC). Home radios became common in the 1930s. Prominent in the administration and development of a selfconscious Canadian broadcasting policy was Graham Spry, who feared the deleterious influences of American radio. He knew of the BBC model, but this would not suit the Canadian circumstances of
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diversity. In 1932, the first Broadcasting Act was passed by Parliament to create the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). American competition for the airwaves of Canada resulted in Canada passing Canadian content legislation to help Canadian artists. In the 1950s, CHUM, in Toronto, began a long-running Top 40 chart. In 1971, regulations came into force requiring AM stations to devoted 30 percent of their musical selections to Canadian content. It contributed to the development of a nascent Canadian pop star system. Introduction in the mid-1970s of FM broadcasting stations made possible extended performances beyond the standard three-minute musical event. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) grew as the managing agent of private radio on both bands, naturally having regulation also of television. By 2000, Canadian content was increased to 35 percent. Licensing arrangements of material used on stations allowed for a governmentregulated system of benefit to musicians whose work had been broadcast. Levies on the purchase of music compact discs in Canada, for instance, were designed to benefit performing musicians and allied artists who had created or were creating music. Public radio in Canada, by which is meant the CBC, whether in the English or French service, has always tried to maintain a national center of gravity as well as demonstrating regional and ethnic diversity. Less well known, but significant, is its international coverage. See also GZOWSKI, PETER. RAILWAYS. See TRANSPORTATION. REBELLIONS OF 1837. In Lower Canada and Upper Canada, rebellions occurred that are integral to the process called the fight for responsible government. The causes were different for the two colonies or provinces, they but had significant effects—and long after the fact, they advanced the causes of colonial self-government. After 1791, each of the colonies was ruled by a governor and executive council, and each had a legislative assembly whose political power was severely constrained by virtue of executive power. The Lower Canada assembly was dominated by middle-class, nationally conscious French Catholics who were largely excluded from policy-making, for the governor and executive council were
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controlled by English-speaking persons or French who were in partnership with this oligarchy. Reform-minded champions for democratization, with ties to the press, called for protection of French rights against English dominance. These same persons called for the reform of government, for what became known as responsible government: the legislative assembly would control policy, and the executive would be responsible to the legislative arm. In Lower Canada, the executive was dominated by the Château Clique, an unflattering reference to those close to the governor’s residence. This urban group had powerful influence in political appointments, crown land grants, banking, business, public works contracts, and education. Against this Tory, or Blue, group stood the reformers, particularly Louis-Joseph Papineau, eloquent leader of the Patriote Party (1826) in the Legislative Assembly. In 1834, a list of grievances, the Ninety-two Resolutions, was issued. A key issue was control over the provincial civil service and, related to this, the right to determine how revenues raised in the colony were spent. In the 1830s, there were economic depression, agricultural failure, cholera, and an electoral riot. These fueled dissension. The governor held firm against this rising tide of resentment. In 1837, Papineau and the Patriotes led an armed rebellion. It began as a street fight in Montréal. On 23 November, a small British Army force attacked poorly armed and trained Patriotes (led by Wolfred Nelson) at St. Denis, Richelieu River, but after an attack of five hours was obliged to withdraw. On 25 November, at St. Charles, south of St. Denis, the Patriotes were defeated by British regulars, giving them control of the Richelieu River valley. Papineau fled to the United States. In December, a fierce battle was fought at St. Eustache, northwest of Montréal. British forces (1,200 regulars under Sir John Colborne) attacked the Patriotes headed by Amury Girod and Jean-Olivier Chénier, and the rebellion was put down. Chénier and 70 Patriotes were killed; 118 were taken prisoner. The rebellion disrupted trade, caused widespread migration to the United States, and indicated to the British government that reform ought to be taken seriously. In consequence, Lord Durham was sent out as governor general and special commissioner to investigate the causes of the rebellion and was charged with making recommendations to the British government.
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The second phase of rebellion came after Durham’s departure from Canada in early November 1838. There were incidents at Napierville and Odelletown. Rebels were captured at Caughnawaga by the Iroquois allied to the British. At Beauharnois, the Patriotes won the day but then were scattered; 108 rebels were convicted by courts-martial, and of 99 condemned to death, 12 went to the gallows and 58 were transported to Bermuda and Australian colonies. The six battles of the two campaigns left 325 dead, 27 of whom were soldiers and the rest rebels. For a time, therefore, the power of the oligarchy was reinforced and the reform processes curtailed. The English-French division continued unabated. In Upper Canada, the issues were related to denominational and urban-rural differences. Upper Canada’s founding had been on Anglican expectations, and one-seventh of all crown lands, known as “clergy reserves,” were set aside for what was expected to be an established church. The politics, institutions, and administration of Upper Canada were run by the elite clique known as the Family Compact. Rule was by patronage. In the 1820s, Methodists complained of their disadvantages, and particularly control of the clergy reserves. By the mid-1830s, William Lyon Mackenzie, publisher of the Colonial Advocate, was championing radical reform. In 1835, he published his Seventh Report on Grievances, which listed the demands of the extreme Reformers. One such was that the Legislative Council be elected (and not chosen by the governor). In 1836, the new lieutenant governor, Francis Bond Head, dissolved the Legislative Assembly on grounds that it would not vote funds for government monies. Bond Head actually led the Tory party to victory in the general election that followed. Mackenzie continued to promote rebellion and was encouraged by Patriote activities. He advocated American democratic institutions instead of British moderate changes. On 7 December, Bond Head sent a 1,500 strong York militia against 300 or 400 mustering rebels at Montgomery’s Tavern. Heading south on Yonge Street, it routed a mob of rebels. Many of the protesters came from the Home District north of Toronto and represented the agrarian sector of the populace from which Mackenzie drew his strength. Mackenzie promptly fled to Navy Island, Niagara River, in the United States, and there proclaimed a Canadian republic in exile. He was arrested by American authorities and briefly
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imprisoned. He was later granted amnesty by Canadian officials and after 13 years in exile returned to Toronto in 1849. He was reelected to the Assembly. Meanwhile, at Brantford, 500 rebels under Charles Duncombe were dispersed by a force under Allan Macnab. Other rural disturbances fizzled out. Many of the rebels were aided in the United States by Hunters Lodges, and in 1838 these groups were engaged in actions against Pelee Island, Lake Erie; Prescott (Battle of the Windmill) on the St. Lawrence River; and Windsor. These raids were poorly arranged and were unsuccessful, but they made the Canadian-American border a place of turbulence during those years and immediately after. See also BIDWELL, MARSHALL SPRING. RECIPROCITY. A concept and movement begun in British North American colonies to facilitate trade with the United States along free trade lines. Reciprocity called for bilateral reduction of tariffs. In 1854, the governor general, Lord Elgin, negotiated the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, the commercial results bringing unrivaled prosperity. In 1866, Washington abrogated the arrangement. Sir John A. Macdonald’s national policy and tariff were designed to provide protection for the Canadian economy and build up a manufacturing base. Reciprocity was encouraged by the Liberal Party and argued strongly by them in the 1911 election (which they lost because of it). Free trade, however, returned in 1989 under the Progressive Conservatives and expanded to embrace Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. RED RIVER REBELLION. An 1869–70 uprising by the Métis National Committee, of which Louis Riel was secretary, the rebellion strove against what was seen as an unauthorized Canadian takeover of Assiniboia and Manitoba upon the demise of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) as a landholding power. The rebellion was caused by Canadian blunders, specifically failure to advise the Métis and other residents of Assiniboia of the change in status from HBC to Canadian sovereignty. Lt.-Gov. William McDougall was prevented from entering Red River. The Métis declared martial law and tried and executed Thomas Scott, an Ontario member of the Orange Order. This
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sparked a Canadian official response. A Canadian armed force was sent in aid to the civil power. Meanwhile, Riel, leading a provisional government, issued a “Declaration of the People of Rupert’s Land and the North West.” John A. Macdonald, the prime minister, sent Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona) to negotiate. Eventually Riel’s government fixed on some demands for Manitoba’s provincial status. Canada then passed the Manitoba Act, creating a new province in 1871. Riel was elected as MP but was denied taking his seat in Parliament, and he went into temporary exile in the United States. REFORM PARTY OF CANADA. Founded in 1987 by Preston Manning, the Reform Party had as one of its central tenets grassroots populism and was interested in promoting changes to Canada’s system of representative democracy. Party policies included potential recall of parliamentarians, “recall rules,” and citizens initiatives. Manning was an Alberta member of Parliament. In 1997, upon the federal election, he became official leader of the opposition. The Reform Party subsequently became the Alliance Party and later merged with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada. See also PROGRESSIVE PARTY. REFUGEES. Canada resettled a quarter of a million refugees in the years 1947 to 1967, 95 percent of whom were from Eastern Europe. In November 1946, Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced emergency measures to bring some refugees and displaced persons in camps from Europe. In 1956–57, Canada received 37,500 Hungarians fleeing Soviet repression, and in 1968, 8,800 from Czechoslovakia for similar reasons. In the 1970s, refugees came from Uganda (after the 1972 expulsion of Asians), Chile (after the 1973 coup d’état), Vietnam (after the fall of Saigon in 1975), and Lebanon (after the civil war in 1975). Since 1979, refugees have been accepted under humanitarian immigration policies if designated political prisoners or oppressed persons. Poland, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran, nations of the former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan are examples of the source countries of such refugees. Regina. The capital and commercial center of Saskatchewan, Regina is 160 kilometers north of the U.S. border and is set in a wide alluvial plain. The city is named for Queen Victoria (Victoria Regina).
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Founded in 1882 as a creature of the Canadian Pacific Railway and made capital of the Northwest Territories in 1883, it was at the same time selected by the North West Mounted Police as its western headquarters and training depot. Growth was slow, with only 2,250 citizens in 1901. Steady growth came thereafter with immigration, trains, and the growth of farming. Regina was named capital of the Province of Saskatchewan in 1905. By 1911, there were more than 30,000 citizens. The city suffered setbacks, including a tornado in 1912 and a depression in 1914. Further, the outbreak of World War I halted the city’s growth. Then came other difficulties: the Great Depression and then the cruel drought that set back agriculture. Only in 1939, with the coming of World War II, did Regina’s economy revive. Steady growth followed, especially in the 1980s and first decade of the 21st century. The city played an important role in the history of Canadian protests, and the Regina Manifesto that gave birth to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (New Democratic Party) in 1933 was proclaimed here. The 1935 “On to Ottawa Trek” of 1,000 unemployed and disaffected men, protesting conditions in federal work camps, ended its eastwards progress here in an event known as the Regina Riot. Wascana Lake is the heart of the city, and nearby stands the beautiful legislative buildings. Nearby, too, are the Art Gallery, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Saskatchewan Center of the Arts, and Saskatchewan Science Center. Regina’s market square consists of 24 blocks of downtown. The city has a large number of aboriginal peoples (Indians and Métis). Surrounded by rich wheat lands, Regina is headquarters for the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the world’s largest grain-handling cooperative. It also boasts a steel mill and oil processing facilities. Among the institutions of higher education are the University of Regina, Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology, and Saskatchewan Federated College. The Saskatchewan Roughriders play in the Canadian Football League. The population is about 208,000. REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION. The British North America Act, or Constitution Act of 1867, accorded 65 seats in the House of Commons to the Province of Québec and assigned seats to the
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rest of the federation in relation to Québec’s population/seat ratio. Though designed to guarantee “rep-by-pop” and ensure Québec’s representation irrespective of its population, it additionally stipulated that no province could lose a seat unless its population lessened by more than 5 percent relative to the national population of the previous census. The subsequent decline of population in the Maritimes and in Saskatchewan brought political pressure from these regions to avoid anticipated electoral losses. In 1915, a constitutional amendment established the senatorial floor rule. Under this, a province’s number of seats in the Commons could never fall below its number in the Senate. Within a century, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia were at or near this equivalency. In 1946, the 5 percent decline rule was abandoned. See also PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. This doctrine shaped in British North America had vast implications for government liberalization and eventual decolonization in other parts of the British Empire. Its adherents, specifically Robert Baldwin and L. H. Lafontaine, argued for local controls on matters of local responsibility, including patronage (control over the civil list). Central to their argument was that the legislature should decide upon the ministry to take control of the affairs of the government. Put differently, it meant that the executive had to have the confidence of the legislature. The concept, a reversal of all that had gone before, was recommended by Lord Durham and advanced by Joseph Howe. In 1846, the Colonial Office issued instructions that the governors of British North American provinces were to accede to the will of the assembly. This was first done in Nova Scotia and later in Lower Canada and Upper Canada, effective 1848. Prince Edward Island acquired responsible government in 1851, New Brunswick in 1854, and Newfoundland in 1855. See also GOVERNORS GENERAL. RIEL, LOUIS (1844–1885). Leader of the Métis during the Red River Rebellion and North West Rebellion, Louis Riel remains one of the most controversial of Canada’s historical figures. He has been styled a martyr, hero, saint, traitor, and lunatic. Riel was born at Red River,
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Assiniboia. A studious youth, he was sent to Québec for education in law and the priesthood but completed no formal training in these fields. He returned to Assiniboia, where his father was a leading advocate of local and Métis rights. A fiery orator, Riel was secretary of the Métis National Committee that denied Canadian attempts to exert sovereignty. He drafted declarations of independence, of Métis rights, and of compromise—intended demands for Manitoba as a Canadian province. He fled to the United States to escape capture after the Red River Rebellion. Although elected as a member of Parliament for a federal riding in the new Province of Manitoba, in 1873 and 1874 he was denied his seat. He went to live in Montana, where he taught school on the Sun River Reservation. In 1875, he was granted amnesty on a condition of a further five years of exile. In his exile, he suffered a nervous breakdown and experienced delusions about being a messiah. He planned to set up an independent republic in the North American west with its own pope. In 1884, Riel returned to lead the Métis rising in 1885. He was caught by Canadian authorities and tried for high treason. At his trial, he would not let his lawyer make a plea on the grounds of insanity. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Although the jury recommended clemency, after reprieves and a mental examination, Riel was hanged 16 November 1885 in Regina, the capital of the Northwest Territories. He was buried in the St. Boniface Cathedral graveyard, Winnipeg. His is a sad life of unfulfilled hopes, of physical and mental illness, of lost causes. In his time, English Canadians remembered him for his implication in the institution of martial law that brought about the death of Orangeman Thomas Scott. By contrast, French Canadians tended to view his life as that of a martyr, and outrage at his execution brought nationalist and provincial rights activist Honoré Mercier to power in Québec in 1886. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald would do nothing to save Riel, “though every dog in Québec bark in his favor.” But that Riel was killed for political reasons is hard to credit. Still, Riel remains one of the most complicated, enigmatic personalities in Canadian history. In 1998, in a controversial move, the Government of Canada offered a pardon to Riel as part of its “offer of reconciliation” to Canada’s aboriginal peoples.
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ROBINSON, JOHN BEVERLEY (1791–1863). A lawyer, politician, and jurist, Robinson was a member of the Family Compact, the sociopolitical elite of Upper Canada. In the wake of the War of 1812, Robinson became attorney general of Upper Canada and later chief justice. He tightened regulations, thereby classifying Americans as aliens to deprive them of property and civil rights. President of the Executive Council in 1830, he was, during the Rebellions of 1837, instrumental for the execution of two Upper Canada rebels and the banishment of 25 others. ROSS, MALCOLM (1912–2002). Described as “CanLit’s great caretaker” by the Globe and Mail (30 November 2002), Ross was an academic and editor who popularized Canadian writing in the late 1950s. He held the belief, or vision, that there was a Canadian identity, Canadian art, and Canadian literature. He grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and after university (undergraduate, post-graduate) went to work with John Grierson, head of the National Film Board. He then turned to academic life, teaching at the University of Manitoba, Queen’s University (where he resurrected the floundering literary magazine Queen’s Quarterly), and later Trinity College, University of Toronto. He persuaded Jack McClelland of McClelland and Stewart, the Canadian publishers, to launch the hugely influential paperback series New Canadian Library, with Ross as editor. He wrote many books on Canadian identity, arts, and culture. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1976 and received numerous other awards, including 11 honorary degrees. A superb teacher, he was also a noted academic administrator. He died in Halifax. ROUGES. The reform party of Canada East that emerged from the late 1840s was known as the Institut Canadien or the Rouges. Influenced by American republicanism and French radicalism, the Rouges were led successively by Louis Joseph Papineau and A. A. Dorion. They opposed confederation. Later they allied with the Clear Grits to form the federal Liberal Party. In Québec, they were opposed by conservative and Roman Catholic forces. ROY, GABRIELLE (1909–1983). Celebrated as a novelist at home and abroad, Roy was born to a large family in St. Boniface, Mani-
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toba, and attended convent school. Going to Europe to study drama and escape an unhappy family life, she began her writing career. She returned to Canada, settled in Montréal, and became a journalist. Her great novel Bonheur d’occasion (1945) established her reputation; it was published in New York in 1947 as The Tin Flute. It opened an era of realism in literature and was all about a working-class family of Montréal’s Saint-Henri district. La Petite Poule d’Eau (1951)— Where Nests the Water Hen (1951)—tells about francophone life in rural Manitoba. It contains the classic line that the further north you go, the easier it is to love. She wrote many other books, children’s stories, and short stories. She married Marcel Carbotte, and they lived their later years in France and Québec City, home for the rest of her life. She received many prizes, including France’s Prix Fémina. Her autobiography, kept under wraps until her death, La Détresse et l’Enchantment (1984), appeared in English as Enchantment and Sorrow (1987); it tells of her life between hope and despair and of love and its price of pain. ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE. See CANADIAN AIR FORCE. ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE (RCMP). This police service—originally called the North West Mounted Police, a term used until 1920—was founded by the government of John A. Macdonald in 1873. Its expressed purposes were to provide security in the North West Territory in the aftermath of the Red River Rebellion of 1869–70. That territory became part of Canada on 15 July 1870, which did not include the small Province of Manitoba (created by the Manitoba Act, 12 May 1870). Its incipient headquarters were in Regina (it became headquarters, Northwest Territories Council, from 1883). Regina became the base of training and operations. It was natural that law and order would follow in the wake of territorial expansion. The Canadian government, too, feared American expansion north from Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana. In addition, liquor traffickers were active north of the 49th parallel. Missionary demands required a response. Treaties with Indians (Treaties 1–7, and others signed by 1877) allowed for the expansion of agriculture, immigration, settlement, and railway construction in lands adjacent to the 49th parallel. The formation of the RCMP was
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commensurate with all these historical dimensions and forces. In a famous march in 1874 from Ontario, known as “the law marches west,” this paramilitary force (numbering 274 personnel) went to the North West Territory by cart, horse, steamboat, and raft. Modeled on the Royal Irish Constabulary, Canada’s Mounted Police were intended to be dissimilar from the U.S. Cavalry, the powerful, coercive force of U.S. expansion into American Indian areas. Mountie posts were set up at numerous locations, including Moose Jaw, Swift Current, Maple Creek, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge Whoop-up, Fort Macleod, and Calgary. Some of the posts were of a transitory nature. Fort Walsh, for instance, in the Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, was built in 1875 by “B” troop under James Morrow Walsh, and used for eight years. During that time, the police extended law and order to the region, dealt with whisky traders, with local tribes, and with the thousands of Sioux who sought refuge in Canada after confrontations with the U.S. Cavalry at the Little Big Horn, Montana. With the coming of the railway, the signing of treaties, and the return of the Sioux (the famed warrior leader Sitting Bull left in 1881) to the United States, Fort Walsh was dismantled and abandoned in 1883. The expansion of posts, particularly in northern latitudes, was equally commensurate with Canadian commercial and political ambitions. In 1885, long-standing discontent among Indians and Métis against Canadian government indifference to their poverty, disruption of political economies, unfulfilled promises, and much else exploded in what is known as the Saskatchewan or Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The buffalo, staple of the plains Indians and Métis diet, was in fast decline. The RCMP found itself on the receiving end when fighting began near Duck Lake on 26 March. A mounted and militia force found itself defeated; soon the whole area was in Métis or Indian hands except for weakly held positions at Prince Albert, Battleford, and Fort Saskatchewan. The rebellion ended on 2 July with the surrender of Big Bear. The role of the RCMP in the pacification was considerable, and while the army could return to its barracks, the police remained as the support of the civil power. Thereafter a position of benevolent authority was assumed by the RCMP, the force being a direct representative of the Canadian government and the NWT Council.
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Historians cite the end of violence as the end of the frontier west in Canada. But the era of settlement and of European immigration was only just beginning, and the contrast with the U.S. frontier experience is startling. By that time, the RCMP was a force of 1,000. In 1919, the Parliament of Canada acted to merge the Dominion Police into the RCMP. The RCMP assumed greater roles in provincial policing. Some provinces, notably Québec, retained their own provincial police, while British Columbia disbanded its own provincial police and entered into a leasing arrangement with the RCMP in 1950. Civic police continued in many and perhaps most Canadian cities. Newfoundland adopted the RCMP in 1950. In the modern era, the RCMP took on an iconic character. Urban and suburban policing began, with Ottawa and Regina as joint training headquarters. The uniforms and riding skills of the Mounties are legendary; the Musical Ride, famous. In 1974, women were admitted into the force. Dark clouds came over the reputation of the RCMP with the Cold War, and the storm gathered further after the end of the Cold War. The scope of the RCMP expanded to include drug enforcement, investigations of economic and syndicate crimes, counterterrorism, investigations into spying such as the Igor Gouzenko affair, and counterespionage. See also SECRET SERVICE. ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY. See CANADIAN NAVY. ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE OF CANADA (RMC). The RMC was established in Kingston, Ontario, in 1874 to educate and train Canadian officers. The training and education reflected those of British military schools, notably Sandhurst, as the RMC was originally staffed by British officers. In the early years, RMC graduates were sent to Britain to serve with the British Army. After 1919, RMC graduates were required to join the permanent force or the militia. In 1979, the RMC began admitting female cadets. In 1995, upon the closure of the Collège Militaire Royal (St. Jean, Québec) and Royal Roads Military College (Victoria, British Columbia), it again became Canada’s only military college with university degree-granting status. The largest undergraduate degrees are awarded in science and engineering; there is a postgraduate program in War Studies. See also CANADIAN ARMY.
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RUPERT’S LAND. See HUDSON’S BAY COMPANY; MANITOBA; NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. RUSH-BAGOT AGREEMENT (1817). The Rush-Bagot Agreement (or Convention) was a sequel to the Treaty of Ghent. After the War of 1812, Great Britain and the United States agreed to establish limits on the number of naval vessels in the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. The limit was two ships each on the upper lakes, none to exceed 100 tons or to have more than one 18-pound gun, and one each on Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain. This was the first arms limitation treaty in history. In reality, demilitarization of border fortifications and the equally important seaboard naval defenses was a lengthy, gradual process that did not produce general mutual disarmament until after the Treaty of Washington, 1871. In fact, “the myth of the unguarded frontier” was developed by the Canadian historian Charles P. Stacey. RYERSON, ADOLPHUS EGERTON (1803–1882). An educator and reformer, Ryerson was born in Norfolk County, Upper Canada, of a Loyalist family. In 1825, he became a Methodist preacher, and in 1829 editor of the Christian Guardian, organ of the Wesleyan Methodists. He attacked the exclusive claims of the Church of England, led by Rev. John Strachan, to the clergy reserves. He strongly opposed, as a Loyalist, William Lyon Mackenzie and the rebels of the 1830s. He supported the administration’s electoral victory under Governor Charles Metcalfe in 1844. Ryerson’s powerful, reforming, and Methodist personality and character led to further significant contributions: first president of the University of Victoria College (then at Cobourg) in 1841; chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada in 1844 (held to 1876); and founding editor of the Journal of Education. He was the architect of the public school system of Ontario, and he had wide influence across Canada, mainly in western provinces and the territories. Ryerson Press became the imprint for the United Church of Canada but was later purchased by McGraw-Hill. He wrote a history of the Loyalists (1882) and a history of Canadian Methodism (1882). Ryerson University, Toronto, is named after him.
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– S – SABLE ISLAND. Canada’s “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” at the edge of the continental shelf, Sable Island has been the center of intensive exploration for oil and natural gas. Uninhabited except for lighthouse keepers, wild horses, and seasonal Coast Guard personnel, it has an important maritime heritage in ship casualties. A natural gas pipeline began moving the commodity to market (destination Portland, Maine) in 1999. SACHS HARBOR (IKAAHUK). One of many Inuit communities, Sachs Harbor, or Ikaahuk, is on Banks Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Thule house ruins indicate Inuit occupation about 500 years ago. Visited by Royal Navy explorers Frederick Beechey (1820) and Robert McClure (1851), it became a permanent Inuit community in 1929 when three Delta Inuit families sailed in their own schooners to Sachs Harbor, where they trapped white fox. This prosperous trading and trapping community became the site of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment post in 1953. SAGARD, GABRIEL (?–1650). Missionary, traveler, and historian Gabriel Sagard came to Canada in 1623 as a friar in the Recollet order. He traveled to Huron country, living there for a year or so (1623–24). He returned to France and wrote two fine books: Le Grand voyage au pays des Hurons (1632) and L’Histoire du Canada (1636), both published in Paris. The former is a valuable ethnology of the Huron and recounts the demanding lives of the missionaries. The latter incorporates the former book but adds considerable detail on the arrival of the Jesuits in Canada, the capture of Québec by the English (1629), and France’s temporary abandonment of the colony. Sagard was the first religious historian of Canada. He left the Recollets sometime shortly after 1632 and may have joined the Franciscans. The Recollets were excluded from Canada when France regained control from the English in 1632. SAILING SHIPS. Much of Canada’s early history occurred during the great age of sail, when sailors “under canvas” crossed the Atlantic
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on expeditions of trade, settlement, and exploration. By the mid-19th century, Canada had become a principal seaborne nation. Canada’s ports were crowded with sailing vessels, and its shipbuilding yards flourished. Canada’s ships sailed every major ocean and visited every major port doing the world’s business. Over 4,000 ships, each exceeding 500 tons burthen, were built in Canada. In 1878, Canadianregistered ships numbered 7,196 and totaled more than 1.3 million tons. Among the nations, Canada stood fourth in seagoing tonnage. Canada had an abundance of good timber—tamarack, spruce, and especially pine—near to shipyards, which were established in secure harbors and river mouths. Canada also possessed good ship designers and shipwrights, and builders were able to sell their vessels to U.S., British, Norwegian, and other seaborne traders. Canadian vessels were given the highest quality rating—14 years A.1—by the marine insurer Lloyd’s of London. Canadian ships were built at numerous locations. The coastal trader Northwest America, built by John Meares, was launched at Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, in 1788. The first lumber carrier, the Columbus, 3,690 tons, was built at Île d’Orleans in 1824. The 2,459-ton William D. Lawrence, launched at Maitland, Nova Scotia, in 1874, was the largest wooden full-rigger built in Canada. Other famous ships of this period include the Marco Polo, launched at Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1851, which made her name trading to Australia during the gold rush; the square-rigger Canada, 2,137 tons, launched at Kingsport, Nova Scotia, in 1891, which ended her worldwide trading career in 1926; and the squarerigger City of Toronto, built in the Great Lakes. Canadian ports constructed a variety of smaller commercial craft. Victoria, for instance, built sealing vessels; ports on the St. Lawrence River built one- or two-masted traders. Atlantic yards built whalers and sealers and fishing and trading schooners such as the Bluenose. York and Mackinaw boats were built for specific needs determined by geography. Canada also built naval ships. The three-decker HMS St. Lawrence, launched at Kingston, Ontario, in 1814, displaced 2,304 tons and was intended to carry 119 guns and 1,000 men. HMCS Venture, built in Nova Scotia in 1937, was a three-masted schooner for officer training. At important centers from Halifax to the lower Great Lakes, smaller naval vessels were built, maintaining shipbuilding traditions
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dating from René La Salle’s Griffon, launched on the Great Lakes in 1679, and the British brig Ontario, launched at Oswego, New York, in 1755. The age of sail came to an end gradually with the introduction of steam propulsion and iron hulls, masts, and yards. Paddle steamers came first to the St. Lawrence in 1809, to the Great Lakes in 1817, and to the Pacific coast in 1835. In 1831, the Québec-built Royal William became the first merchant ship to cross the Atlantic primarily under steam. Canada’s shipbuilding industry made the transition to steam and iron. The 200-year era of Canadian ships under canvas came to an end, and with it came the nostalgia of an age when Canada was known for its great sailing ships. STE.-MARIE AMONG THE HURONS. Now a celebrated historic tourist attraction near Martyrs’ Shrine, Midland, Ontario, Ste.Marie among the Hurons was a Roman Catholic mission to the Huron, commenced in 1615 by Recollets and renewed in 1634 by the Jesuits. Superior Jean de Brébeuf established the mission to the Wendat, or Huron, people. In 1638, Jerome Lalemant, another Jesuit, arrived as the new superior. By 1639 (the date usually specified as the founding date of Ste.-Marie), 13 fathers were active in the stockaded mission, which served as a base for a cluster of outstations. It was a place of rest and repair for the Jesuits. In 1648, at its highest position of prominence, Ste.-Marie among the Hurons housed 19 priests and various assistants. The French planted gardens and imported livestock from Québec. From this post, the influence of the Jesuits spread among other tribes, including Petun, Nipissing, Ottawa, and various Algonquin bands. The geographical site was superb but also a source of weakness. Situated on or near the river route from Montréal via the Ottawa and French rivers, with rich agricultural soil, the Huronia missions became a key to French expansion in Georgian Bay, Lake Huron, and to the southwest and northwest. The Huron were great traders as well as farmers; their prominence in the Great Lakes area increased. The Iroquois, ambitious for greater fur trading wealth in the lands north and west of Huronia, had designs on the Huron and the trade opportunities of the northwest. With the Huron-Iroquois wars
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that commenced in 1648, Huron power collapsed. Disease (influenza, measles, smallpox) and internal dissension had also caused a crisis. Five priests were killed: Jean de Brébeuf, Antoine Daniel, Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, and Noël Chabanel. They were canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930. The Jesuits withdrew the mission 15 May 1649. Survivors scattered. The Jesuits burned Ste.-Marie on purpose, thus keeping it out of the hands of the Iroquois and avoiding desecration. For a year, the mission was transferred to Christian Island, Lake Huron. But because of starvation and winter hardship, it was removed altogether to Québec on 10 June 1650. Beginning in 1855, archaeological investigations were undertaken. These were completed in the mid20th century by K. E. Kidd for the Royal Ontario Museum and Wilfrid Jury of the University of Western Ontario. In 1964, the Government of Ontario began the reconstruction of the mission as a heritage site and museum. See also CARHAGOUHA; SAGARD, GABRIEL. ST. GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, TREATY OF. This treaty returned the settlements at Port Royal and Québec in New France, as well as ships and cargo seized from Champlain, to France on 29 March 1632. Québec had been occupied for three years following its conquest by English pirates led by David Kirke. ST. JOHN AMBULANCE. The St. John Ambulance and Order of St. John, Priory of Canada, a charitable organization, traces its origins to the Middle Ages when the religious Order of St. John was established to provide care, comfort, and protection to Christian pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem. During the 19th century, an English foundation using the name Order of St. John began teaching classes in first aid. It also established volunteer ambulance brigades and home nursing programs. St. John first aid training was brought to Canada, in part due to the efforts of British military personnel serving in the country. Brigadier Surgeon C. M. Douglas taught the earliest recorded St. John first aid class in Canada in the winter of 1882–83, in Québec City. Other classes were soon being taught in Montréal and in Halifax, where, in the 1890s, a St. John Ambulance Brigade was established; several
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members would see service with the Canadian militia in the South African War (Boer War). With the outbreak of the World Wars I and World War II, St. John volunteers, mainly women, were organized in Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) in order to assist in convalescent hospitals and aid in the transfer of soldiers departing from or returning to Canada from service overseas. In 1917 and again in 1944, Canadian VAD personnel were dispatched overseas to serve in a wide range of roles transporting and treating the casualties of these two conflicts. Over 300 Canadian and Newfoundland St. John VADs saw service overseas in World War I, while over 200 saw overseas service in the World War II, with many more serving in Canada. In the years since World War II, St. John Ambulance has continued as a structure within which trainers could contribute to the health of their communities by teaching St. John first aid courses developed in keeping with current medical knowledge. Volunteers serving in St. John Ambulance Brigade divisions offer first aid at public events and in many civil emergencies, including the 1956 Springhill, Nova Scotia, Mine Disaster, the 1997 Manitoba Red River Flood, and the 1998 ice storm, widespread in eastern Canada. By the turn of the 21st century, St. John had some 7,000 instructors, volunteers, and staff teaching first aid, and some 13,000 brigade members. The Order of St. John is part of the Canadian honors system. The Queen is sovereign head of the order; the governor general serves as prior of Canada, and provincial lieutenant governors and territorial commissioners serve as vice priors in their respective jurisdictions. ST. LAURENT, LOUIS (1882–1973). A lawyer, law professor, and prime minister, St. Laurent was born in Compton, Québec. St. Laurent was appointed minister of justice in Mackenzie King’s government in 1941. He was elected for Québec East the following year. He supported conscription in 1944 and became secretary of state for external affairs in 1946. Chosen by King as his successor, “Uncle Louis” became prime minister on 15 November 1948. He won increasing majorities in the elections of 1949 and 1953. His government extended old-age pensions, enacted hospital insurance and equalization payments to provinces, and brought Canada in as
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a signatory member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He was a strong advocate of the United Nations, and his government dispatched forces to the Korean Conflict. His government was defeated by John G. Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative Party in the election of June 1957. He retired from politics in 1958. St. Laurent was also a law professor at Laval University, president of the Canadian Bar Association, and counsel to the Rowell-Sirois Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations. ST. LAWRENCE RIVER. The St. Lawrence River figures prominently in Canada’s early history. Its name was given by French mariner Jacques Cartier on 10 August 1535, the feast day of St. Lawrence. Cartier and Samuel de Champlain referred to the river and its mighty estuary as Rivière du Canada, “the great river of Canada,” a description that stands the test of time. It was the route of exploration, the center of New France’s development, and a commercial highway that aided in the economic growth of Canada. The river is still a major shipping route and also provides electric power. The St. Lawrence River and valley was a focal point for native, French, and English settlers. Sedentary native groups, such as the Iroquois, were settled on the future sites of Québec (Stadacona) and Montréal (Hochelaga) at the time the first explorers ventured into the St. Lawrence. Cartier found the river with the aid of natives in 1535. The French explorers and traders developed settlements around the native areas on the lower St. Lawrence, eventually forcing the natives from the land. By 1760, the length of river bank between Montréal and Québec was patterned with long seigneurial strips. The St. Lawrence River was used for various commercial enterprises from lumber, wheat, and the fur trade. The prosperity of Québec and Montréal stem from the importance that the St. Lawrence River played in Canada’s economic growth. Historian Donald Creighton contends that those persons who exploited the commercial prospects of the St. Lawrence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries created, with the help of British trade and navigation regulations, an empire—“the empire of the St. Lawrence”—that reached to the western provinces and to the Mackenzie River running north. This is called “the Laurentian thesis.” The east-west axis that reaches 3,790 kilometers into North America facilitated the growth of Canada as a
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nation. See also INNIS, HAROLD ADAMS; SAILING SHIPS; ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY. ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY. This waterway is a system of locks, canals, and channels that link the Atlantic with various Great Lakes heads and ports in the continental interior. By 1900, a shallow (14 feet depth) canal had been completed, and in many cases existing canals were deepened and widened. Canada was the instigator in building the modern seaway, telling the United States in 1951 that Canada would go it alone and build it entirely on Canadian territory if the United States did not become a partner. In 1954 came the final agreement, and construction ensued. The Seaway was opened on 26 June 1959. Canadian and U.S. administrations were established to manage this great engineering feat. The original specifications allowed for ships of up to 222.5 meters in length, 23.2 meters breadth, and 7.0 meters draft to sail from Montréal to Duluth, Minnesota. Immediately after opening, oceanic trade came to the continental heartland, beneficial to Canadian and U.S. business. The Seaway made possible the exploitation of vast iron ore deposits of Québec and Labrador. It also made possible for Canada to become a world leader in export of grain. It aided intermodal transportation arrangements. Bulk cargo increased by three times in the first three decades of operation. It has been fairly said that the Seaway gave Canada long-range prosperity. However, the environmental problems accompanying the opening of the Seaway deserve comment. Ships from Europe and Asia bring creatures unknown to the natural history of North America, the zebra mussel being the most damaging. See also ST. LAWRENCE RIVER. ST. ROCH. This vessel was built for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by Burrard Dry Dock Company, Vancouver. It was launched May 1928 and that summer sailed on its maiden voyage to northern waters. Until 1939, the ship served the western and central Arctic, operating from Vancouver. In 1940–42, the St. Roch made the historic 28-month voyage through the Northwest Passage from west to east; it returned from Halifax via a more northerly Arctic route in 1944. In 1950, it sailed from Vancouver via the Panama Canal to Halifax, becoming the first ship to sail completely around the North
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American continent. In 1954, the St. Roch was retired from service and returned to Vancouver via the Panama Canal. It became a national historic site in 1962 and was restored and placed in a shelter at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. Sergeant Henry Larsen was the vessel’s famous commander. The ship patrolled the Arctic waters, asserting Canadian sovereignty, carrying out assigned tasks of law enforcement and territorial administration. Besides maintaining game laws and arbitrating disputes, the Arctic Service took census and compiled statistics. They checked on the living condition of aboriginal peoples, transferring the sick to hospital for treatment, authorizing the issue of rations for the destitute, aged, and infirm, and conveying children to and from school. As sole representatives of the Canadian government, they were also charged with an ambitious mandate—“to uphold and enforce Canada’s sovereignty of her Arctic Islands.” SAN JUAN BOUNDARY DISPUTE. One of several contentious border problems in Canadian history, this one erupted in 1859 at the height of the British Columbia gold rush. This bore on the question of what was the water boundary as set forth in the Oregon Treaty of 1846. The issue was control and sovereignty of the San Juan Islands, specifically San Juan Island. But it also related to taxes to be collected. U.S. authorities in Whatcom County, Washington Territory, claimed taxing powers on U.S. soil. Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) authorities headquartered at Victoria, Vancouver Island, and dominated by the arch-patriot James Douglas, fought for British control. The “Pig War,” as it is sometimes called, was sparked when an HBC boar was shot on 15 June 1859 by American squatter Lyman Cutler on company land. On 18 July 1859, General Harney, U.S. Army, ordered 60 soldiers under Capt. George Pickett from Fort Bellingham to San Juan Island. Field guns were landed by the Americans and preparations made for heavy guns to be sited. Douglas wanted the Royal Navy to intervene, but although there was some show of British naval force, no violence occurred. When Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes, Royal Navy, arrived and heard the details of the escalating problem, he is reputed to have exclaimed, “Tut, tut, no, no, the damned fools.” He calmed things down. San Juan Island was placed under joint Anglo-American occupation until 1872. As
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the British Foreign Office and Lord Aberdeen, the British secretary of state, merely wanted to preserve Vancouver Island—and not the adjacent islands—for Britain, the entire San Juan archipelago became U.S. territory. SASKATCHEWAN. This province is the only one in Canada to have no natural boundaries. The boundaries are lines of latitude and longitude. Cree, Blackfoot, Assiniboine, and Chipewyan tribes were inhabitants of the area prior to immigrant settlement. Among the first settlers of the area were the Métis, descendants of European fur traders and their native wives. The scene of a rebellion led by Louis Riel in 1885, Saskatchewan also saw the actions of Canadian military forces that brought an end to the rising. The promise of free or cheap land created a wave of European immigrants in the early 1900s. Saskatchewan became a province of the confederation in 1905. The province has more farmland that any other province in Canada. Saskatchewan produces a large portion of Canada’s wheat. The province is also rich in minerals. Saskatchewan is the world’s leading exporter of uranium and the world’s largest producer of potash. It has oil and natural gas. Although agriculture has long been regarded as the basis of the economy, in fact, the mining and manufacturing industries are expanding. The largest city is Saskatoon. The capital of Saskatchewan is Regina. Other cities and towns in order of size are Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, and Battleford. The provincial legislative assembly has 64 seats. Saskatchewan holds 64 seats in the House of Commons and has six senators. The population exceeds 1 million. See also ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE. SASKATCHEWAN RIVER. The Saskatchewan was called Kisiskatchewani Sipi, “swift-flowing river,” by the natives. Henry Kelsey (1690) and Pierre La Vérendrye and his sons (c. 1741) were the first Europeans to see it. The east-flowing river was a transportation route used by both the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company. The Saskatchewan also provided an east-west highway that linked the western provinces to the English commercial enterprise during a period of questions about sovereignty over land in the west.
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SCHUBERT, CATHERINE O’HARE (1835–1918). Born in Rathfriland, County Down, Ireland, Schubert was married at Springfield, Massachusetts, to August Schubert. Together they ran a beer hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, before moving to Fort Garry in 1862 with their three children. Strong-willed and determined, when her husband wanted to leave her and the family behind to seek his fortune in the Cariboo with the Overland Party of 1862, she would hear nothing of it. The only woman Overlander, Schubert was pregnant with her fourth child when she undertook the journey. The baby, Rose, was born at Kamloops, British Columbia, a few hours after her mother’s arrival there in October 1862. August Schubert mined in the Cariboo for 11 years, beginning in 1863, while the family stayed at Lillooet. They then lived in various places before settling in Spallumcheen, British Columbia. SCOTT, FRANCIS REGINALD (1899–1985). F. R. Scott was born in Québec City, son of a poet and archdeacon. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, returning to Montréal and McGill University, where he became a professor of law with a specialty in constitutional law. He became dean of law in 1961. Inspired by J. S. Woodsworth, in 1932 he co-founded the League for Social Reconstruction, a socialist study group that led to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He served as national chair for the CCF and helped write the Regina Manifesto. In the mid-1950s, he completed analytical studies on such landmark legal cases as the Padlock Law and Roncarelli v. Duplessis. In 1962, he guided transformation of the CCF into the New Democratic Party, then retired from partisan politics. He served on the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. In 1970, he supported the War Measures Act. As a writer, he published Poems of French Canada, Essays on the Constitution, and Collected Poems, all winners of the Governor-General’s Award. Scott was active in the Penal Association. An expert on law, economics, and international relations, he wrote widely on those subjects, more particularly assessing the constitutional issues of his time (e.g., the constitutionality of the Richard Bedford Bennett’s New Deal). He edited several scholarly and learned journals. It has been said of F. R. Scott that he was his own blasted pine tree, an allusion to a pine swept by the wind into twisted form. He started
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to teach constitutional law the year before the Great Depression, when, as he put it, the whole North American economy collapsed, and the world seemed turned upside down. As a teacher, he was also a social activist. No one, he believed, could live through the Depression and be unaffected by it. Canadian institutions, he believed, needed reform. His poetry, marked by epigrammatic expression, had a strong sarcastic note to it and much irony. He was a strong supporter of bilingualism and the free development of Canada’s two principal cultures alongside other ethnic groups. He fought racial intolerance and was a committed civil libertarian. In his time, he stood for the idea of Canada. His creed was: “The world is my country / The human race is my race / The spirit of man is my God / The future of man is my heaven.” SCOTT, THOMAS (1842?–1870). An Ontario member of the Orange Order, Scott was executed by a firing squad by order of the Métis provisional government in Assiniboia, Manitoba. He became a martyr for English-speaking, Protestant causes, and his death brought calls for revenge. John A. Macdonald’s government put down the rebellion by show of force; Louis Riel, the Métis leader, went into exile. It is said that Scott’s ghost was in the courtroom when Riel was found guilty in 1885. D’Alton McCarthy’s agitation and the Manitoba Schools Act represented attempts to secure English, Protestant rights, but the agitation split the country. SECORD, LAURA INGERSOLL (1775–1868). Born in Massachusetts, Secord immigrated to Upper Canada with her family after the American Revolution. In June 1813, during the War of 1812, she overheard a number of American officers discussing an attack on a nearby British outpost. Hearing this, Secord moved to inform the British of the attack, aided by natives. She arrived at the British encampment on 22 June 1813. Two days later, natives ambushed the Americans as they approached the post. She became a hero after it was discovered that she had been the person who forewarned the British. SECRET SERVICE. Canada’s first secret service and counterespionage organization was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
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(RCMP). It was concerned with internal security and only incidentally with intelligence gained from outside. Highly effective before and during World War II, its gleanings were largely ignored by Canadian and British governments. Gen. Walter Kirvitsky (a.k.a. Walter Thompson) defected from the Soviet Union and was followed by unidentified foreigners all the time he was in Canada. The RCMP advised authorities, including the British about this, but the information was ignored. However, when Igor Gouzenko defected in 1945, the RCMP used his evidence to round up the whole Soviet spy ring in Canada, including such people as Fred Rose, MP; P.F.P. Smith of the National Research Council in Ottawa, Kathleen Willsher, a registrar in the British High Commission in Ottawa; and D. G. Lunan, editor of Canadian Affairs. In the 1960s, the RCMP targeted the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), a terrorist campaign organized apparently with Soviet involvement. The campaign climaxed in the Cross-Laporte kidnappings in 1970 and played a positive role in René Levesque’s Parti Québecois coming to power. In 1977, the government-appointed Commission of Inquiry, probing allegations into RCMP wrongdoings, concentrated on operations against FLQ terrorists. Various RCMP personnel were charged with and convicted of illegal wiretapping and of breaking and entering. Justice David C. McDonald, who conducted the inquiry, found that the RCMP had made surreptitious entries “without consent or warrant,” and exhibited “a willingness on the part of some members to deceive those outside the Force who have some sort of constitutional authority.” In consequence, the government established a new agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Its activities are governed by the 1984 Canadian Security Intelligence Act. Its role is to gather intelligence and look after internal security and counterespionage; it was given broad powers under stringent controls. Its activities are monitored by the Security Intelligence Review Committee. See also OCTOBER CRISIS. SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM. See NEW FRANCE. SELKIRK, EARL OF (THOMAS DOUGLAS) (1771–1820). In 1811, the Earl of Selkirk acquired from the Hudson’s Bay Company
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(HBC), by buying up its shares, a grant to 300,000 square kilometers of land in what is now southern Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Selkirk paid 10 shillings a year rent on the land, an area five times bigger than his native Scotland. Selkirk hoped to relieve the distress of Scottish and Irish peasants at home and keep them in the British Empire by giving them arable land in Rupert’s Land. These settlers, he argued, would provide food for the HBC and thereby save it money. And positioned along the rival North West Company’s (NWC) thoroughfare to the Athabasca country, they were strategically situated to cut off NWC trade and provoke the Métis who claimed the area (and its hunting territories) as their own. Selkirk Settlers reached the territory in stages: 18 in 1812, 120 in 1813, and 83 in 1814. Canadian fur traders called them “oatmeal eaters.” Fur trader and explorer Alexander Mackenzie, with the NWC, had engaged in a stock-buying war against Selkirk but failed to stop the settlement. Terribly cold winters, pestilence, killing frosts, recurring spring floods, and hostility from the NWC all combined to make the early years of the settlers trying ones. On 8 January 1814, Governor Miles MacDonnell issued the Pemmican Proclamation, forbidding the trappers to take provisions in the territory. By 1815, conflict between the two companies had reached decisive proportions. In June 1816, in the Battle of Seven Oaks, near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, the Nor’Westers defeated HBC forces and drove the settlers from Red River. Meanwhile, Selkirk, acting without legal right, decided to retaliate and seize the NWC’s Fort William. This proved to be a costly mistake. Various court cases went against him. Mackenzie and Selkirk settled out of court. Selkirk returned to Europe a broken man and died in France in 1820. Mackenzie died the same year in Scotland. They had fought an interesting war between the fur trade and settlement. The rivalry had been violent, and the Colonial Office in London was anxious to end frontier warfare: they therefore encouraged the union of the two corporations under the HBC name in 1821. SELKIRK SETTLERS. See SELKIRK, EARL OF. SENATE. See PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS; PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM.
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SEPARATISM. In various forms and expressions, this Québec-based pragmatic ideology proposes a separate status—and even independence or sovereignty—for the Province of Québec. Of indeterminate though ancient roots, it may be said to express itself in Louis Papineau and Jean-Olivier Chénier’s Rebellions of 1837, in the Front de Libération du Québec violence of the October Crisis in 1970, in the election of the Parti Québecois in 1976 and the unsuccessful referendum of 1980, and in the return to power of the Parti Québecois in 1994. At times vibrant, at other times muted, separatism has attracted many Québecois of all classes. To date, however, federal forces and internal Québec influences and constituencies have made independence but a dream for its adherents. In 2000, the federal government effected the Clarity Act; its purpose was to set forth the rules of the game of secession in regard to any province intending to leave confederation. SEVEN YEARS WAR. The Seven Years War (1756–63) was waged between Great Britain and its colonies on the one side, and France and its colonies on the other. Spain joined on the side of France in 1761. It was fought around the globe. In North America, the war began in 1754, as British colonists led by Maj. George Washington tried to force the French out of the Ohio Valley. The French sent reinforcements to Louisbourg to strengthen its position in the St. Lawrence Valley and tallied numerous victories in North America. In 1757, however, more than 20,000 British regulars arrived. This essentially turned the tide. In 1758, native allies of the French signed a peace pact with the British, leaving the French to battle alone. In 1759, Britain recorded a number of victories; the most noted was on the Plains of Abraham at Québec City. With the fall of Louisbourg, Québec, and Montréal, the French had all but lost in North America. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed Britain’s conquest of virtually all of New France, strengthening or affirming British control of Prince Edward Island, Acadia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. See also CARLETON, GUY; MONTCALM, LOUIS-JOSEPH DE; WOLFE, JAMES. SHAWNADITHIT (1800–1829). Shawnadithit was the last of the Beothuk nation. She was captured and worked as an unpaid slave
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for a British settler, who called her Nancy April. In 1828, concern about loss of the Beothuk nation led to finding Shawnadithit. She was brought to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and there taught William Cormack about the Beothuk culture and language. William Carson described her as “tall and majestic, mild and tractable, but characteristically proud and cautious.” She died of tuberculosis in 1829. But her teachings to Cormack, including her many drawings, preserved a record of the once vibrant Beothuk peoples. SIFTON, CLIFFORD (1861–1929). Defender of the Manitoba Schools Act, Sir Clifford Sifton later became minister of the interior under Wilfrid Laurier and promoted emigration from Central and Eastern Europe, bringing Ukrainians and Doukhobors to Canada. He resigned in 1905 when separate schools were restored in the Northwest Territories and again when his defection helped the Conservatives to victory in 1911. SIMCOE, ELIZABETH. See SIMCOE, JOHN GRAVES. SIMCOE, JOHN GRAVES (1752–1806). As first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada (1792–96), it fell to Major Simcoe to implement the structure set out in the Constitution Act of 1791. He substantially influenced the political, social, and economic development of what is now the Province of Ontario. He set in place the main roads, later highways; established the surveying and land management; oversaw settlement regimes; alienated Indian title for the short-lived naval base at Penetanguishene; and promoted the militia and military settlement. Simcoe was born in Cotterstock, England, on 25 February 1752. His father was a Royal Navy captain who died en route to Québec with Gen. James Wolfe in May 1759. Simcoe was educated at Exeter Free Grammar School, Eton, and Oxford. He began a lifelong military career in 1770 when he secured a commission as an ensign in the 35th Regiment of Foot. In 1775, Simcoe was sent with his regiment to Boston, then under siege by George Washington’s Continental Army. He was given command of the Queen’s Rangers in 1777. Used primarily for reconnaissance, his Loyalist force was one of the most successful British regiments during the war. Simcoe was captured in an ambush in 1779 and spent three months as a prisoner.
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In 1781, Simcoe returned to England on convalescent leave. The following year, he married Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim, a wealthy heiress. They purchased an estate at Wolford, and Simcoe spent the next few years enlarging and improving it, but always maintained a keen interest in events in North America. Appointed lieutenant governor of Upper Canada in 1791, he arrived in the new province in June 1792, accompanied by his wife and their two youngest children. Although there had been considerable Loyalist settlement in Upper Canada, particularly in the east, most of the province was still a wilderness. Simcoe presided over the introduction of British institutions of government. He devised military strategy for defending Upper Canada against the United States and built strategic roads to facilitate troop movements, promote settlement, and encourage trade. In 1793, he introduced a bill to prevent the introduction of further slaves into the jurisdiction. Simcoe thought imperially; he was an empire builder. Roads to him signified arteries of power, communications, and trade. He backed the schemes of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the fur trader and explorer, for western trade expansion to the Pacific. Simcoe was answerable to Lord Dorchester, the governor (in Québec), and to the Colonial Office. Health problems forced Simcoe to return to England in 1796. The following year, he served as governor in war-torn St. Domingo (Haiti). In 1798, Simcoe was appointed military commander for Devon and parts of Somerset. An invasion by Napoleon’s armies was anticipated, and he supervised defensive preparations. In 1801, he was given responsibility for all South West England with the rank of lieutenant general. In 1806, Simcoe was appointed commander in Chief in India. He was asked to undertake a special mission in Portugal en route to his new command, but he fell ill in Lisbon and returned to England. He died on 26 October and was buried at Wolford Chapel on 4 November. Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim was a 19-year-old heiress when she married. She chose to accompany her husband to Upper Canada in 1792 and endured the challenges of living in the new colony for four years. She often helped Simcoe with mapmaking and drawings for official documents. She also sketched, painted watercolors, and kept diaries that are filled with colorful vignettes that have provided histo-
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rians with rare insights into this period in Canadian history. After her husband’s death, she continued to live at Wolford. She managed her estates and was active in the evangelical movement of the Church of England. She died in 1850 at the age of 87. Since 1982, Wolford Chapel has been owned by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit provincial crown agency. The foundation acquires and holds title to the property and cultural works in trust for the people of Ontario. Wolford Chapel is the only foundation-owned property outside of Ontario. It is managed by a group of dedicated local volunteers. Simcoe Day—the August weekend Ontario holiday—is named in his honor. SIMPSON, GEORGE (1787–1860). A Scottish-born fur-trading magnate known as “the Little Emperor,” Sir George Simpson directed the North American operations of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) for 40 years, and was particularly prominent in the years after the merger of the North West Company and HBC in 1821. The merger gave Simpson, as governor of Rupert’s Land, ample scope to implement measures of consolidation and economy, including closing down unnecessary posts. He selected his preferred field officers and factors, laid off traders, reduced liquor trade to the aboriginals, and introduced “sustained-yield” practices in the hunting of beaver and other fur-bearing mammals. He was the architect of a regenerated, post-1821 HBC. He kept a “character book,” coded so that only he could know the acerbic, critical assessments he had given of his principal officers and major traders. He was powerfully influential in London financial circles. He wrote an important travel book containing insights into western and northern Canada, especially covering his journey from Edmonton House to the Columbia River, and he wrote of Alaska, California, Hawaii, and elsewhere. Simpson abandoned his Indian wife when he married an Englishwoman. He died at Lacine, Québec, in 1860. SIX NATIONS IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY. See IROQUOIS. SKELTON, OSCAR DOUGLAS (1878–1941). A civil servant and historian, Skelton was born in Orangeville, Ontario, and attended Queen’s University, where he studied Latin and English, and the
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University of Chicago. After working for four years on the staff of a Philadelphia literary magazine, he became a professor of political and economic science at Queen’s in 1908. Skelton’s first book was Socialism: A Critical Analysis (1911), which caught Vladimir I. Lenin’s attention. Most of his work was on Canadian history, including The Railway Builders (1916); The Canadian Dominion (1919), an early history of Canada written specifically for Americans; Life and Times of A. T. Galt (1920); and his classic Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1921), a sympathetic defense of its subject, and thus a contribution to the Liberal Party perspective in Canadian historical traditions. Skelton’s second career began almost immediately after the publication of his biography of Laurier. Skelton was long interested in Canada’s role in the British Empire. He was unsympathetic to England’s constant worries, and he was equally anxious to defend Canada’s interests and promote its autonomy. In many ways, then, Skelton became an architect of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Indeed, he led, with his political master William Lyon Mackenzie King, the quest for a separate Canadian external or foreign policy. Skelton joined the Department of External Affairs in 1923, accompanied the prime minister to London for the Imperial Conferences, and promoted the idea of an independent responsibility for Canada in external affairs, of which intra-imperial affairs were the first requirement. In July 1924, he resigned from Queen’s and became a permanent civil servant. In 1925, on Joseph Pope’s retirement, Skelton became undersecretary of state for external affairs. He brought in a group of able young persons: Hume Wrong, Norman Robertson, and Lester Pearson. SLAVERY. The first slave (and slavery) was introduced to New France in 1628. Slavery was declared legal there in 1709. New France was succeeded by the British colony of Québec in 1763 through the Treaty of Paris, and slavery was given new life under British law. Both panis (Indians) and blacks were slaves in Canada. Scholars estimate that in 1760, there were some 4,000 in slavery, a small portion of that jurisdiction’s population. The early economy of Canada required little plantation or mining labor, so slavery was primarily domestic.
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On 21 May 1793, however, Governor John Graves Simcoe of Upper Canada had legislation passed to say that any slave who reached the province would become free. The bill also was designed to prevent the introduction of further slavery into the jurisdiction. In consequence, slaves who had come with Loyalists were freed. In 1807, the British Parliament abolished the trade in slaves and, in 1833, by the Abolition Act, abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. Black Loyalists moved to Nova Scotia in 1775, although many migrated to Sierra Leone. In 1826, Upper Canada formally refused to return runaway slaves to the United States. The underground railroad commenced. Josiah Henson, a slave, escaped to Canada and, in 1849, wrote the story of his life. From this book and conversations with him, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her best-selling Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). In British Columbia, Governor James Douglas would not countenance slavery. Accordingly, black slaves found refuge in Victoria and on the principal Gulf Island, Saltspring. However, native or Indian slavery was more extensive and was a conspicuous feature of Northwest Coast tribes until abolished by British diplomacy, coercion, and gunboats in the 1860s. Many ex-slaves and their descendants, who had become Jamaicans or Bahamians, or other nationalities, moved to Canada. This process began after the easing of Canadian immigration regulations in 1967. SMALLWOOD, JOSEPH ROBERTS (1900–1991). A politician, journalist, union organizer, farmer, and broadcaster, Smallwood was the driving force that led Newfoundland into confederation in 1949. After two referenda to decide Newfoundland’s course, he was named its first premier in 1949. He held the position under the Liberal Party until 1972, helping to integrate Newfoundland into Canada. Smallwood became a popular figure in Newfoundland. After his retirement from politics in 1977, he prepared a multivolume Newfoundland encyclopedia. SOCIAL CREDIT PARTY. Based on monetarist policy developed by British engineer Maj. C. H. Douglas, who wrote a 1924 treatise on the subject, the Social Credit Party had its roots and evolved in Alberta. The leader was radio evangelist William (“Bible Bill”)
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Aberhart. He used his popular radio shows to underline the party’s philosophical underpinnings. Backed by disaffected farmers suffering continuing effects of the Depression and vested Eastern interests, Social Credit won 56 of 63 seats in the 1 September 1935 Alberta election. Alberta’s subsequent monetarist legislation was contested by the Government of Canada in an appeal to the Supreme Court and was declared ultra vires (outside the law). Beginning with Aberhart’s 1935 triumph, however, Social Credit won nine straight elections and governed the province until 1971. Social Credit’s influence in British Columbia derived from Alberta’s experience. There, in 1952, W.A.C. Bennett forged a new right of center coalition and called it Social Credit. Bennett was premier through six elections for a total of 20 years, “fighting off the socialist hordes,” as has been generally said. His son, William Richards Bennett, in 1975 led the party back into power. William Vander Zalm succeeded him as party leader and won his own election in 1986, but he left office in 1991 amid scandal. The Socreds, as they are called, were replaced as a center-right party by BC Liberals, who won in 1991. A Québec right-wing group known popularly as Créditistes (Ralliement des créditistes) existed for a time and, always a minority party, had a cluster of seats in the House of Commons in Ottawa. This entity, under leader Réal Caouette, was influential in bringing down Joe Clark’s 1979 government when they refused to back his budget. By the 1990s, Social Credit had disappeared as a force in provincial and federal politics, remnants joining other right or rightof-center parties or coalitions. Monetarist policies had been crushed by judicial ruling, and small-town and agrarian sentiment backed by religious and small business zeal found new leases on life in what was to become the Conservative Party of Canada and its precursor organizations, the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Alliance. SOCIAL GOSPEL. Certain late 19th- and early 20th-century Christian social policies referred to as the Social Gospel were precursors of the modern welfare state. Particularly prevalent among Congregationalists, Baptists, and Methodists, the Social Gospel promoted liquor
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control, prohibition, temperance, protection for the disadvantaged, and equality before the law. The Social Gospel had profound effects on creating in Canada egalitarianism and social improvement, including universal rights to education, to health care, and to pensions and unemployment insurance. Leaders included Salem Bland, Emily Ferguson Murphy, and J. S. Woodsworth. The Social Gospel is not to be confused with socialism, which is similar in many respects but is heavily union based. The Social Gospel was based primarily in church and volunteer organizations. SOUTH AFRICAN WAR (BOER WAR). Also called the Boer War, or the Anglo-Boer War, the South African War was fought from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902 for the defense of British imperial interests in southern Africa. The war was waged between the Boer republics in South Africa (Orange Free State and Transvaal) and the British and British imperial troops. Canada was divided in terms of support for the British; imperialists pushed to participate, but many French Canadians were opposed. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier authorized a force of 1,000 to be formed on a voluntary basis. Units were raised from 12 military districts in Canada. Companies numbered 125 soldiers each and drew from both the permanent force and militia. The first ship to carry Canadian troops was the Sardinia, a converted cattle transport, which left Québec City 31 October 1899. The first contingent was eventually augmented by some 6,000 other volunteers. The Canadians’ first action was 31 December 1899, when one company of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) took part in action with British and Australian troops at Sunnyside Kopje. The first significant battle the Canadians were in was Paardeburg, 18 to 27 February 1990. The weather took a heavy toll on the Canadians as they endured heat, sand, and especially disease. As the Boers continued to lose, they shifted to guerrilla tactics. The RCR sustained heavy casualties in ambushes, and the Boer tactics caused the war to drag on. By the end of the war, Canada had sent 8,372 troops to the field; 244 were either killed in action or succumbed to disease, 252 were wounded, and four were awarded the Victoria Cross. See also CANADIAN ARMY.
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SPACE. Canada’s involvement in space technology began with the Alouette program in 1958 and resulted in Canada becoming the third country in the world, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to put an artificial satellite into orbit. This involvement continues with Canadian development of communications and surveillance satellite technology, as well as participation in the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) programs and the International Space Station. Canada’s history in space is related to its partnership in the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). Alouette and the Ionosphere: The best-known early Canadian space program was the development of the Alouette and ISIS satellites in 1958–1962. The program, undertaken at the invitation of NASA, was designed to study the ionosphere from above. At that time, long-distance radio communication was only possible by bouncing signals off the ionosphere, and the hope was that research might enable scientists to make communications more reliable. The two Alouettes operated for 10 years before being shut down, while the two ISIS satellites remained operational until 1990. All four remain in orbit. The satellites were designed by the Defense Research Telecommunications Establishment in Ottawa, with RCA Victor of Montréal as the prime contractor and deHavilland and SPAR Aerospace as subcontractors, and all four were launched by NASA from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Telecommunications: Given Canada’s geographical size, the use of satellites to facilitate communications was a natural progression of the Canadian space program. The formation of a federal Department of Communications in 1969, with a mandate to expand communications capabilities, led to the incorporation of Telesat, a public-private partnership in 1969–92, and since then a wholly private operator of Canadian communications satellites. Telesat’s Anik A was the world’s first domestic communications satellite, having been launched in 1972 with the capability to transmit 12 color television channels back to Earth. Between 1972 and 2007, 15 Anik-series satellites were launched; four remain operational, providing television, voice and video telecommunications, and broadband Internet services throughout North and South America. The Anik series was joined, beginning in 1999, by the Nimiq series of satellites, which are used primarily by Bell ExpressVu.
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The Hermes Communications Technology Satellite was developed as a joint venture between Canada’s Department of Communications, NASA, and the European Space Agency. Launched in 1976, Hermes proved the viability of beaming Ku-band television signals directly to homes equipped with satellite dishes, and also of providing twoway satellite communications with moving vehicles such as ships or airplanes. Black Brant: One of the most successful Canadian space programs, Black Brant is likely the least well known. Beginning in the 1950s, the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE) researched the nature of the upper atmosphere both for long-range communications and ballistic missile defense purposes. CARDE contracted Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg to construct rocket fuselages for this purpose, and this program developed into the Black Brant sounding rocket. Over 800 have been produced and launched. The Black Brant XII is a multistage rocket with the capability to carry large scientific payloads up to 1,500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, and provide up to 12 minutes of microgravity time in which experiments can be conducted. NORAD and Ballistic Missile Defense: Since its formation in the late 1950s, it has been the responsibility of NORAD to defend Canada and the United States against air attack. Until the early 21st century it was understood that this included intercepting and defending against Soviet bombers or other unidentified aircraft entering North American airspace, and also the provision of early warning in the event of a ballistic missile attack. Defense against Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) was constrained in 1972–2002 by the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union, but after U.S. withdrawal from that treaty in 2002, a viable anti-ICBM system was deployed under the auspices of the U.S. Northern Command. Although Canada has officially declined to participate in this program, the NORAD agreement was amended in 2004 to allow information gathered by NORAD units to be provided to the missile defense organization. Moreover, the U.S. Air Force officer who commands NORAD is also the commander of USNORTHCOM. Thus, Canada is involved with missile defense whether the Canadian government has agreed to it or not, and this is widely seen as the price that must be paid to guarantee the survival of NORAD.
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Canadarm 1, Canadarm 2, and Dextre: Canadarm 1, or the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, was designed and built by SPAR Aerospace for NASA’s space shuttle program, with subcontractor work conducted by CAE Electronics and Rockwell International, among others. The purpose of the Canadarm is to lift payloads of up to 29 tons from the shuttle’s cargo bay and place them in orbit, or a reverse of the process. It can also be used as a mobile platform for spacewalking astronauts and, with the addition of a video camera, as a tool for inspecting payloads or the shuttle itself. This became particularly important after the destruction of the shuttle Columbia in 2003, and it is now NASA policy that all shuttles will carry a Canadarm for selfinspection purposes. A total of five Canadarm 1’s were constructed; one was lost on the shuttle Challenger in 1986. Canadarm 2, which is Canada’s primary contribution to the International Space Station, is officially known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System. Designed and developed by MD Robotics, a successor company to SPAR Aerospace, it is essentially a larger and more complex version of Canadarm 1, with the added capability of relocating itself around the station. Canadarm 1 first flew 19 November 1981 on board Columbia. Canadarm 2 was launched to the International Space Station and installed with the assistance of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on board Endeavor in 2001. Dextre, officially known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator and also known as the “Canada Hand,” is a two-armed robot that can be attached to the end of Canadarm 2. It is designed to perform tasks that would otherwise require spacewalks. Like Canadarm 2, it was designed and built by MD Robotics. It was launched in 2008. Human Spaceflight: The Canadian Astronaut Program, which led to Canadian participation is NASA’s manned space program, actually predates the formation of the Canadian Space Agency. The first six Canadian astronauts were selected from 4,000 applicants by the National Research Council in 1983, with Commander Marc Garneau of the Canadian Navy becoming the first to actually launch into space, in 1984. Between 1984 and 2008, eight Canadian astronauts, including two women, have participated in a total of 13 manned space missions, all on board NASA space shuttles. Air Force Colonel Chris Hadfield was the first Canadian to conduct a spacewalk, in 2001.
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MOST: The Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars telescope (MOST) is Canada’s first and only space telescope, launched in 2003. Developed by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in cooperation with Dynacon Enterprises, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia, MOST cost less than $10 million and is the size of a suitcase, making it the smallest space telescope yet developed. Despite this, it has made several important discoveries and continues to aid astronomers in the study of the stars. New Scientific and Hybrid Satellites: Three additional programs with scientific applications are SCISAT-1, CASSIOPE, and the Canadian Advanced Nanospace Experiment Program (CANXP). SCISAT-1 was designed and built by the CSA and Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg to perform a number of scientific functions, including the measurement of the chemical composition of the atmosphere. It was launched in 2003. CASSIOPE (Cascade, Smallsat, and Ionospheric Polar Explorer) is unique in Canadian space development in that it is a hybrid scientific/commercial satellite. CSA is not the lead agency on the project, that role being assumed by the Institute for Space Research at the University of Calgary. The scientific portion of CASSIOPE will study the effect of solar storms on the atmosphere— including the aurora borealis. The commercial side of the project will see the satellite equipped with a communications package allowing customers to upload information from a small unit in one part of the world and have it securely downloaded by another station in another part of the world no more than 90 minutes later. The vehicle, constructed by Bristol Aerospace in Winnipeg, was launched in 2008. Space Agencies: The CSA was founded under the terms of the Canadian Space Agency Act (1989). It assumed control of all Canadian government space programs from the National Research Council, and it is headquartered at the John H. Chapman Space Center in Saint-Hubert, Québec. The David Florida Laboratory, in Shirley Bay, Ontario, is where most space research, manufacture, and testing are conducted, and was inherited by CSA from the Defense Research Board. The former rocket launch site at Churchill, Manitoba, was not taken over by CSA. Despite significant investment by private companies to return it to operation as a commercial venture in the 1990s, by 1998 the site was abandoned.
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SPANISH CIVIL WAR. See MACKENZIE-PAPINEAU BATTALION. SPORT. In all ages of modern Canada’s history, sport has played an important role. Sport a national preoccupation, a national pastime, and a daily subject of discussion. In addition, the organization of sport competitions has had a profound impact on the physical infrastructures of Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, Québec City, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria—as well as many other cities and towns. How sport developed in Canada is of importance to the study of the national history. Sport was a force in building a national ethos. Championships acquired became national achievements, especially against rival nation-states and even ideologies. Games and sport generally are forces of social integration and community building; in consequence, Canadian schools, colleges, and universities have stressed athletic and sport events, and prided themselves on great teams of the past and present. Canada’s national game is lacrosse, a native (or aboriginal) invention, noted in the various fur trade and traveler narratives. Mohawk lacrosse star Ross Powless called lacrosse “the game the Creator gave us.” It is pleasing to note that Canada (itself a native name of community, or houses clustered together) should have adopted a native game for its national sport. But a national sport may not be the most well-known national athletic or sporting activity. Hockey, generally regarded as the Canadian game of choice, has flourished in Canada and had a period of great growth in the 20th century. Canada was part of the British Empire for many years, so it is natural that British games took root in Canada. The most prominent is rugby, played variously across the country, but less so than Canadian football (that is, the Canadian variant of American football). Rugby in Canada conforms to the classic rules of British and international rugby and has never followed Australian or Rugby League (an English variant) rules. Rugby was instituted in Canada by military and naval forces and was developed by public and private schoolteachers. In some cities of Canada, school superintendents (such as John Gough of the Greater Victoria School Board) refused as late as 1960 to introduce Canadian football (again the variant of American football) in public schools on the grounds of its expense, or its more
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dangerous format (leading to more numerous injuries). By contrast, in some communities such as Vancouver, rugby and Canadian football developed side by side. Another sport introduced from England was cricket, which had in the early years of colonial development a great following—but one that lessened with the growing popularity of softball and baseball. West Indian and Indian/Pakistani immigration helped give cricket a new lease on life in the 1960s and 1970s. In short, rugby and cricket have long histories in Canada, even though these sports are the preoccupation of a devoted few. Much the same could be said of what is known in Canada as grass hockey (thus differentiating it from ice hockey). Soccer (the English “football”) has a wider following and a longer history. Beginning in the 1970s, baseball became a national spectator preoccupation, and Canada’s two Major League Baseball franchises, the Montréal Expos of the National League and the Toronto Blue Jays of the American League, had large followings. The Expos left Montréal. Long before such premier professional teams came to Canada, excellent baseball and softball teams, whether amateur, semiprofessional, or professional, existed in Canada. Softball, for instance, is a major preoccupation in some cities, including Victoria. Little League Baseball, introduced in the 1950s, has had a strong following in most Canadian cities. Football, especially the Canadian variant of American football, which has a wider and longer field and a 12th player on each side, has a large professional and amateur following. It is characterized by a strong aerial game, owing to the fact that there are only three “downs” rather than four (the ball must be advanced 10 yards without penalty to get a first down). Other sports of prominence include curling, golf, and tennis. In addition, there are skating, skiing, bobsledding, and numerous other individual and team activities of competition. When Canadians think sport, however, they think hockey. Harshness of climate, availability of outdoor ice, and the ethos of the game all contributed to national possession of the sport, and even obsession. It has no rival for affection, from young or old, male or female. Lord Stanley, the governor general in 1888–93, donated a cup for the national championship—and it has since become emblematic of
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professional hockey’s highest prize. The Stanley Cup was first played for in 1893, and the Allan Cup, emblematic of amateur championship, in 1908. The Memorial Cup is the prize of Junior hockey. In the early 20th century, the Stanley Cup was a Canadian championship and was won by such unlikely teams as the Victoria Cougars. In later years, hockey went “north and south,” including American teams in the major league, the National Hockey League (NHL). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Stanley Cup was fought for by Toronto, Montréal, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Boston. Later, with league expansion, new teams were given franchises in St. Louis and Los Angeles, for example. In Canada, new NHL teams were established in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. Québec City and Winnipeg once had NHL teams; eventually the franchises shifted south of the border to American cities. Another factor influencing hockey’s change was the introduction of outstanding players from Sweden, Finland, and Eastern Europe. Track and field hold a special place in Canadian athletic history. Prominent among early athletes of historical note are Percy Williams, sprinter, who won gold at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics; steroiduser Ben Johnson, winner in Seoul in 1988 after his record-shattering 100 meters and then disqualified (and suspended indefinitely); and Donovan Bailey, who won gold with his record-breaking 1996 Atlanta Olympic 100-meter dash. Canadians are less successful in longer-distance races, though in relays (both male and female) great successes have been achieved. Abby Hoffman, a middle-distance runner, represented Canada at four Olympics and later became a prominent supervisor of sports services for the Ontario Ministry of Culture and Recreation and also director general of Sports Canada. She actively campaigned for women’s and girls’ sports, particularly athletics and fitness programs. She was, too, a champion for gender equity in sports. Canada hosted the British Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954, at which the “miracle mile” was won by Roger Bannister of England. The Commonwealth Games were held in Victoria in 1994. Canada has hosted the 15th Winter Olympics in Calgary (1988), the Summer Olympics in Montréal (1976), and the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver (2010).
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Golf remains one of Canada’s great sports or recreations. The game is regulated by the Royal Canadian Golf Association, headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, at Glen Abbey Golf Club, where the Canadian Open is frequently played. Older courses in Canada include Royal Montréal (est. 1873, the oldest golf club in North America), Royal Ottawa, and Victoria Golf Club. Included in the greats of golf architecture are Stanley Thompson, who designed Kitchener Westmount, and A. Maccan, the Victoria Golf Club. Golf clubs were sometimes established by garrison social societies (e.g., the Royal United Services Club of Victoria established Uplands Golf Club). Prominent golf champions of Canadian history are Vancouver’s Stan Leonard (professional), Kitchener’s Gary Cowan (amateur, senior professional), and Brights Grove’s Mike Weir (professional). In 2007, Alison Murdoch, Victoria Golf Club, tied the record of winning four Canadian Women’s Senior titles (with Marlene Stewart Streit and Gail Borthwick). Canada’s greatest golf legend is Marlene Stewart Streit, manytime winner of the Canadian and U.S. amateur championships. In 2004, she was elected to the World Hall of Fame of Golf. Of an earlier time is Ada Mackenzie (1918–71), regarded by many as the first woman of Canadian golf, who for half a century dominated Ontario and Canadian women’s golf (and promoted women’s golf fashion). Other women prominent in Canadian sport are Barbara Ann Scott, a figure skating champion; Marilyn Bell, a long-distance swimmer who completed crossings of Lake Ontario and the Strait of Juan de Fuca; and Nancy Greene, a downhill skier who was the first to profit widely from financial investments, endorsements, and public appearances. STACEY, CHARLES PERRY (1906–1989). A historian and soldier, Stacey was educated at Toronto, Oxford, and Princeton universities. He wrote many little-known articles on the War of 1812 and on Canadian defense; he was an expert on government-military relations in Canada and the British Empire. Colonel Stacey became an army official historian and later director of the Canadian Army Historical Section in 1945. In his time, he was considered the foremost practitioner in the field of Canadian military history in Canada. His trenchant, well-researched works include Canada and the British Army
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(1939) and Canada and the Age of Conflict in two volumes (1977, 1981). His memoirs are entitled A Date with History (1983). STAEBLER, EDNA CRESS (1906–2006). A journalist, author, and benefactor, Staebler was born in Berlin (later Kitchener), Ontario, and educated at public schools. She spent all spare hours in the Kitchener Public Library, then went to study arts at the University of Toronto (BA 1929). After her marriage ended, she made her winterized cottage at Sunfish Lake, Ontario, her writing-home. There she befriended literary aspirants, publishers, editors, and noted authors. Her award-winning article on swordfishing attracted much attention in Maclean’s Magazine in 1948. Her passion for writing and people shone forth in Cape Breton Harbour. Her books on Mennonite cooking, including Food That Really Schmecks (1968), had landslide appeal. Staebler’s generous benefactions to Wilfrid Laurier University extended her warm reach and humanity. She encouraged the literary genre of creative nonfiction. In 1990, she initiated and endowed an annual book prize for beginning authors on Canadian subjects or locations. STANFIELD, ROBERT (1914–2003). Premier of Nova Scotia for 10 years, beginning in 1956, Stanfield was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1967. He fought three successive elections but could never overcome Pierre Trudeau and Trudeaumania. He was an outstanding public servant and businessman; his family business was in undergarments, in Truro, Nova Scotia. He had great public appeal and integrity. STANTON, AMBROSE THOMAS (1875–1938). At the time of his death, Sir Ambrose Stanton was chief medical advisor to the secretary of state for the colonies and had his offices in Downing Street, London. Born in Kendal, Durham County, Ontario, he attended local schools, Port Hope High School and the University of Toronto. He took various courses in London, England, where he was associated with the Institute of Tropical Medicine. He served with distinction in the British Malay States and found cures for beriberi and melioidosis, two debilitating and fatal diseases. Later, in London, he
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was at the center of tropical medical research, mainly in advisory and administrative capacities. He was knighted (KCMG) for his distinguished contributions to medical science. His work was recognized in Canada, and the University of Toronto awarded him a doctorate in science in 1934. He was one of Canada’s sons who went outward into the services of the British Empire, and he brought great credit to his home communities, his province, and his country. STATUTE OF WESTMINSTER. An act of the British government passed in 1931, the statute proclaimed that no law passed by Westminster should apply to a dominion without the dominion government’s request and consent. The statute also preserved the British North America Act (Constitution Act of 1867) as a British statute, to be amended only at Westminster, when asked to do so by Canada’s parliament. It declared Great Britain, Canada, and other self-governing dominions to be linked by common allegiance to the crown, though in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their internal or external affairs. STEELE, SAMUEL BENFIELD (1851–1919). Born at Purbrook, Simcoe County, Ontario, Sam Steele enlisted in the militia at the age of 15 to fight the Fenian Raids by Irish nationalists in the United States who were threatening to invade Canada in 1866. In 1870, he again joined the militia to put down the Red River Rebellion led by Louis Riel. In 1873, Steele joined the newly formed North West Mounted Police and became superintendent of this force in 1885. He commanded the cavalry during the Northwest Rebellion that year. Two years later, he was sent to the Kootenay district of British Columbia, where he helped bring peace between the settlers and the local Indians. In 1898, Steele was ordered to the Klondike and put in charge of the North West Mounted Police posts on the Chilkoot and White passes. He then became commander of all police in the newly established Yukon Territory and gained much respect for establishing law and order among the unruly miners. Steele left the Yukon in 1899. He later fought in the South African War (Boer War) and served in World War I with the rank of major general. Knighted in 1918, he died in London, England.
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STEFANSSON, VILHJALMUR (1879–1962). An explorer, lecturer, and publicist of the Arctic regions, Stefansson was born in Arnes, near Gimli, Manitoba, the son of Icelandic immigrants who shortly thereafter moved to North Dakota. He studied at the Universities of North Dakota, Iowa, and Harvard. In 1904, he went to Iceland to study anthropology and archaeology. Stefansson made three expeditions of note. In 1906–07, he went to the Mackenzie River delta of northwestern Arctic Canada with the expedition led by Ernest Leffingwell and Ejnar Mikklesen. Stefansson learned to live, speak, eat, and hunt like the Inuit. Between 1908 and 1912, he conducted an ethnological survey of the central Arctic coast for the American Museum of Natural History and the Geological Survey of Canada. Between 1913 and 1918, under Canadian government auspices, he commanded the Canadian Arctic Expedition, using sleds in his explorations after the loss of the supply ship Karluk in 1914. Stefansson extended contemporary knowledge of the Arctic Archipelago. He mapped large regions of coastline and gained increased knowledge of Inuit life. He developed a thesis that the Arctic was a habitable zone where life could be sustained even on the ice floes without supplies. By rejecting the idea that Arctic exploration was difficult or venturesome, he invited the censure of other explorers, such as Roald Amundsen. Stefansson believed that the north was rich in natural resources and could serve as a shortcut between major centers of commerce and civilization. He also developed a theme of human history, now largely discredited, that great empires in northern climes had supplanted lesser empires in more southerly latitudes. Realizing that future exploration of the north could be conducted by airplane, Stefansson retired in 1919 to write and lecture. Among his 24 books, the following volumes enjoyed a wide readership: My Life with the Eskimo (1913), Friendly Arctic (1921), The Northward Course of Empire (1922), Hunters of the Great North (1922), Ultima Thule (1940), and his autobiography, Discovery (1964). He died in Hanover, New Hampshire. STEVESTON. Initially a fishing village, Steveston, British Columbia, is now a part of metropolitan Vancouver. It is on Lulu Island, Fraser River. Its history is central to that of the experience of Japa-
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nese Canadians. The first Japanese arrived in 1887; by 1927, there were 3,000 in Steveston. A Japanese school, Japanese hospital and Buddhist temple, and a Japanese benevolent society were established. Sumo games, judo, and kendo were popular sports, also baseball. A fishers’ co-op (and store) was established to market fish and establish credit. Many women found summer work in canneries or worked in fields harvesting strawberries. Because of its location on the lower Fraser River, Steveston was a port for ferry traffic, principally to Vancouver Island (this was before Tsawwassen was developed as a ferry terminal). In the 1940s and 1950s, CP Coast Steamships maintained a Sidney to Steveston service. Beginning in 1921, government restrictions took two forms against the Japanese. First, the federal authorities restricted the number of fishing licenses awarded to Japanese (the policy announced in 1927 was gradually to eradicate ethnic Asian fishers). Second, evacuation of the Japanese from the coast during World War II destroyed the community. After the war, many Japanese went to their native home, on repatriation ships. Steveston is still a symbolic center of Japanese life in Canada. The story of early Steveston is that of a community built, lost, and destroyed. The modern history of Steveston is that of a popular suburb adjacent to the Vancouver International Airport and the City of Vancouver. STO:LO. The Sto:lo (from a Salish word meaning “people of the river”) are the ancestral nation of the Fraser River, Hope, and the Fraser Canyon, British Columbia. They trace their heritage back about 11,000 years. That history goes hand in hand with life on the Fraser River. The river supplied means of food and transport to the early Sto:lo, and it figured highly in their ceremony and ritual. A common annual tradition was to share the first salmon caught with the whole community; then the bones of the fish were returned to the river from which they had come. The Sto:lo share the rich aboriginal history of the Fraser Canyon with various First Nations scattered from Hope to Lytton. All are currently involved in actively protecting their aboriginal fishing and treaty rights. They are also involved in various tourism, fishing, and forestry initiatives. Museums and art galleries at Hope, Yale, and Lytton are repositories of their history. See also INDIANS.
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STOWE, EMILY JENNINGS (1831–1903). An educator and doctor, Stowe was born in Norwich, Ontario, attended teachers’ college in Toronto, and became the first woman principal in Canada. With the illness of her husband, she decided to attended medical school to obtain a better job to offset the cost of hospital bills. She was not admitted by the University of Toronto and instead attended the New York Medical College for Women. In 1867, she received her degree, moved to Toronto, and became the first Canadian woman doctor to practice medicine in Canada. In 1877, Stowe organized the first women’s rights group in Canada to lobby against laws unfair to women. The group became the Toronto Women’s Suffrage Association. In 1883, her daughter, Augusta, became the first woman to receive a degree in medicine in Canada. Today, many rights of Canadian women were a result of the efforts of Dr. Emily Jennings Stowe. STRACHAN, JOHN (1778–1867). The first Anglican bishop of Toronto (1839–67), Strachan was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and educated at Aberdeen and St. Andrews universities, arriving in Upper Canada in 1799 to take charge of a school projected by Governor John Graves Simcoe. Strachan took orders in the Church of England in 1803. His high-church leanings were suitably Tory and shaped establishment thinking. He became one of the pillars of the Executive Council and Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada but left both by 1841. Meanwhile, he had become one of the Family Compact, the dominant clique running the Province of Upper Canada. In 1827, Strachan became the first president of King’s College, Toronto. When this was reorganized as the University of Toronto (1850), he ceased his connection, founding the University of Trinity College, Toronto (1851). SUEZ CRISIS. A major event in the history of Canadian, foreign policy, the Suez Crisis emerged when Egypt, under its president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, expropriated and nationalized the Suez Canal Company, hitherto an Anglo-French company. When diplomacy failed, France and Great Britain launched a plan with Israel in which Israel attacked Egypt to regain the canal, and then France and Britain intervened to “stabilize” the situation. At first, Canada did not “condemn” the intervention, only “regretted” it. Canadian public opinion was greatly divided by the Suez Crisis. In fact, the British action
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severely split Commonwealth opinion on the matter, for hitherto consultation in advance of action (an understood technique of intraimperial diplomacy) had been the rule. At the United Nations, the Anglo-French intervention was looked on as a violation of the UN Charter. Canada voted with the United States against Britain and Russia in condemning the British and French governments. Under the leadership of Lester Pearson, secretary of state for external affairs of Canada, and of Canadian diplomats at the UN, the UN reached a settlement and introduced a peacekeeping force. Under command of Maj. Gen. E.L.M. Burns of Canada, the UN Emergency Force supervised the evacuation of the Canal Zone. The Middle East situation had been defused, if temporarily. Pearson’s leadership was much lauded at the time; he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957. It is less possible to judge the political consequences of the Suez Crisis to Canadian national politics. Not unlikely, however, the Liberal position against Britain (which provoked much complaint in Britain and in Canada) reduced national trust in the Liberal Party as the ruling party. In 1957, at the general election, the Liberals lost power to the Progressive Conservative Party under John George Diefenbaker. Canada had acted out of self-interest in the Suez Crisis. A “middle power,” Canada backed the United States and UN against the country’s imperial ally and against France and Israel. The event may therefore be considered a declaration of independence in foreign affairs for Canada. SUPREME COURT OF CANADA. Created by the Dominion Act of 1875, the Supreme Court of Canada was promoted by Edward Blake. Until 1949, however, the court of last resort was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in London. By the 1949 Supreme Court Amendment Act, the Court was reaffirmed as the final arbiter, thus ending appeals to the JCPC.
– T – TAINTED BLOOD INVESTIGATION. See KREVER TAINTED BLOOD INQUIRY.
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TALON, JEAN-BAPTISTE
TALON, JEAN-BAPTISTE (1625?–1694). The first intendant, or chief administrator, of New France, Talon (Comte d’Orsainville) served in 1665–68 and subsequently 1670–72. Educated by the Jesuits in Paris, in about 1653 he entered the French administrative service. On his appointment to New France in 1665 as intendant, he was responsible for justice, administration, and finance in the colony. With his arrival he inaugurated a period of striking development. His energetic efforts reflected the surge of royal interest in Canada and French overseas territories at that time. During his tenure, colonization and immigration increased under various schemes. He fostered the colony’s trade: he was the first to build ships in the colony, and the first to establish a brewery. The seigneurial system likewise grew substantially. Defense measures were taken. Working hand in hand with the governors of the day and the clergy, he helped consolidate the French empire of the St. Lawrence. Private affairs in France necessitated his return there in 1668, but he resumed the intendancy in 1670, then returned to France in 1672 and was appointed secrétaire du cabinet and valet de chambre of the king. He died in Paris. TECUMSEH (1768–1813). The Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was a brilliant orator. Tecumseh joined his brother Tenskwatawa, “The Prophet,” in an armed resistance against American forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. He was an ally of the British in the War of 1812. Maj. Gen. Isaac Brock wrote of him: