Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914) is history of Canada from the formation of the Dominion to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Canada had a population of 3.5 million, residing in the large expanse from Cape Breton to just beyond the Great Lakes, usually within a hundred miles or so of the Canada–United States border. One in three Canadians were French, and about 100,000 were aboriginal (First Nation, Inuit, Métis). It was a rural country composed of small farms. With a population of 115,000, Montreal was the largest city, followed by Toronto and Quebec at about 60,000. Pigs roamed the muddy streets of Ottawa, the small new national capital.
Besides subsistence agriculture, the economy was based on exports of lumber, fish and grain, and the import of investment capital from London and New York. Factories were small, except for those making farm implements. Overall the economy prospered in the first years of Confederation, but a world-wide depression 1873–1896 severely hurt the export economy, reduced the inflow of foreign capital, and reduced the flow of immigration. Economic growth of total GNP (in constant dollars) averaged only 2.4 percent per year, 1870 to 1896, then surged to 6.2 percent, 1897–1913. Part of that increase was due to population growth. The rate of growth of GNP per capita was 1.3%, 1870 to 1896, then surged to 2.6 percent, 1897–1913. The growth rate was respectable, but lower than that of the United States, and fuelled a sense of disappointment that Confederation had not delivered on its promise of prosperity.
Politically, the Father of Confederation, John A. Macdonald (1815–1891) and his Conservative Party ("Tories") dominated national politics until his death (with one interruption). The Liberals ("Grits") under Wilfrid Laurier (1841–1919) were in power 1896 to 1911, and then were ousted in a campaign based on anti-Americanism by Robert Borden.
Francophones had a distinct and traditionalistic culture, led by the landholders and the priests. The Anglophones took pride in their monarchism and in their refusal to be swallowed up by the United States. Baseball and lacrosse were favourite sports. Cultural facilities were limited. There were only two public libraries in the entire new country; half the adults in Quebec could not read. Hard drinking in all ranks was the norm; in fact, the new prime minister, John A. Macdonald, was sometimes drunk in public. Politically, the new nation was defined by its practicality, realism, and stoicism; it had little interest in theory or esthetics. Much more important was loyalty to family, church, political party, and Queen Victoria. Historians later emphasized the iconic phrase "Peace, Order and Good Government" ("paix, ordre et bon gouvernement") as founding constitutional principles, but at the time it was rarely quoted.
On the eve of the great war in 1914, the national population had reached 8.1 million. Most of the growth had taken place in the new western provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, while immigration from abroad reached 400,000 annually. The great national achievement was the building of transcontinental railways that opened the prairies to settlement. The rich new farmlands, combined with technological advances enabling wheat farming at higher latitudes and increased investment from Great Britain, made Canada a major exporter of wheat. Issues of anti-imperialist nationalism versus imperial nationalism and loyalty to the Crown continued. So too did increasingly bitter disputes on language issues, especially the role of the French language outside Québec. Ethno-religious tensions flared between the French Canadians and the English Canadians, between the Catholic Irish ("greens") and the Protestant Irish ("Orange"), and between the Europeans and the Asians on the West Coast.
Confederation
In the 1860s, the British were concerned with the possibility of an American assault on Canada in the wake of the American Civil War. Britain also feared that American settlers might expand to the north, into a land that was technically British but which was sparsely settled. There were also problems with raids into Canada launched by the Fenian Brotherhood, a group of Irish Americans who wanted to pressure Britain into granting independence to Ireland. Canada was already essentially a self-governing colony since the 1840s, and Britain no longer felt it was worth the expense of keeping it as a colony. Both sides would, it was felt, be better off politically and economically if Canada was independent. These factors led to the first serious discussions about real, formal political union in Canada. However, there were internal political obstacles to overcome first. The Province of Canada had little success in keeping a stable government for any period of time; the Tories, led by John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, were constantly at odds with the "Clear Grits" led by George Brown. In 1864, the two parties decided to unite in the "Great Coalition". This was an important step towards Confederation.
Meanwhile, the colonies further east, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, were also discussing a political union with each other. Representatives from the Province of Canada joined them at the Charlottetown Conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1864 to discuss a union of all the colonies, and these discussions were extended into the Quebec Conference of 1864. While there was opposition in each of the colonies, only Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland decided to remain outside of the planned Confederation. In 1867, representatives of the other colonies travelled to Britain to finalize the union, which was granted by the British North America Act (BNA Act) on July 1, 1867.
Early drafts of the BNA Act showed that Macdonald and the other Fathers of Confederation had viewed the new nation as a kingdom, calling for the official name of the country to be the "Kingdom of Canada". Though it is still considered that Canada became a "kingdom in her own right" in 1867, it was felt by the Colonial Office in London that a name such as Kingdom of Canada was too "premature" and "pretentious." Instead the term "Dominion" was adopted. In 1879, July 1 was formally established as Dominion Day to celebrate Confederation. While the BNA Act gave Canada a high degree of autonomy within the British Empire, this autonomy extended only to internal affairs. External affairs, such as border negotiations with the United States, were still controlled from Britain. The new country was led by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, leader of the Conservative Party.
Social and political tensions Canada's material condition was weak, 1867–1896, and the psychological mood became increasingly embittered. Historian Arthur Lower concludes that in the late 1880s, "never before or since has Canada reached such a low state; never has there been so little evidence among its people of national spirit." The economy grew very slowly, and large districts, especially in the Maritimes and Quebec were becoming more poor every year. Canada industrialized very slowly, and therefore generated few high-paying jobs. The hard-scrabble farms were hard-pressed to compete with American agriculture. Immigrants were bypassing Canada for the fast-growing United States, where high wages and new jobs and fresh lands were awaiting the ambitious. Many Canadians themselves emigrated to the States. Anglophones went to New York, Michigan and Minnesota. Quebeckers move south into the textile mills of New England. A half-million people left the Maritimes, and few newcomers arrived. The Fathers of Confederation had envisioned fast economic growth through building a transcontinental railroad network. But it was not finished until the late 1880s, and it seemed to produce more frustration and dismay than prosperity. In Manitoba, for example, local businessmen and speculators were outraged when the Canadian Pacific Railway suddenly shifted its operations away from the centre of the province, to the southern edge, and its lawyers and politicians blocked the opening of rival lines. Canadians distrusted their politicians, and repeatedly sought out and discovered corrupt deals, especially financial contracts made by and for the benefit of politicians. There was a widespread sense that Confederation had been a failure. Provincial politicians sought to weaken the powers of the central government, and there were few local voices speaking in support of it.
Battles over language Religious, language and ethnic differences worsened decade by decade. European Canadians were highly religious, but the Protestants and Catholics hated each other. The Francophones saw their traditional culture under siege by the Anglophones, who controlled business and finance across Canada, including Quebec's, and systematically blocked the expansion of French language schools outside Quebec. The hanging of Louis Riel for treason in 1885 convinced Francophones they were under attack, and permanently undermined the Conservative base in Quebec. French nationalism emerged as a powerful force that is still a dominant factor in Quebec's history. Inside the Irish community, the longstanding bitterness between the Protestant Orange and the Catholic green continued unabated. The Orange boasted of the supremacy of their Anglo-Saxon civilization and Protestant culture over the backward, medieval, priest-ridden Catholicism. They ridiculed the French and Irish races as backwards and ultimately doomed. The ethnic-religious-language lines were sharply drawn. Intermarriage was rare and indeed friendships and casual communication were not sought after. The Catholic Irish, however, joined with Protestants to block the expansion of French schools outside Quebec, thereby causing severe tensions inside the Catholic community.
Anglophones generally trusted Britain and the British Empire, but London had different ideas. London pushed for Confederation after the American Civil War so as to avoid the enormous expense of defending Canada against a possible American invasion. In the Alaska boundary dispute it demonstrated that the goodwill of the United States outweighed Canadian interests. Many businessmen, on the other hand, wanted to join the United States, leading to political tension in the upper-class clubs and boardrooms.
Finally after 1896, with the opening of the rich Western wheat plans, did the Canadian economy recover. Immigration surged, and a spirit of optimism returned to Canada.
First Nations As part of Confederation, Canada was now responsible for existing treaty obligations with First Nations. Under Macdonald, Canada bought Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory (NWT) from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869. This was unceded First Nations territory and the new government continued the British policy of acquiring land through treaty negotiations with several First Nations to enable European settlement. The exception was the existing colony of British Columbia, which did not enter into treaties with the Coastal First Nations. The Numbered Treaties were negotiated by the Government of Canada and various First Nations, beginning with Treaty 1 in 1871. In these treaties, the First Nations gave up aboriginal title to vast amounts of land, in exchange for reserves for their exclusive use and various promises of schools, food and other entitlements.