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Political Nationalism and Confederation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

F. R. Scott
F. R. Scott*
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Extract

To Canadians living in the 1860's, as to Canadians of the 1940's, the world seemed a very dangerous place. In many respects the threats to Canadian survival must have appeared even greater then than now. The American Civil War brought large-scale fighting closer than the present campaigns in Europe or Asia. The Fenian raids, apparently backed by wide American support, looked more ominous than U-boats in the St. Lawrence. The most disastrous international alignment that could ever befall Canadians—a war between the United States and Great Britain—appeared once again imminent. Internally there were equivalent dangers. The constitution of 1841 had broken down in the province of Canada, rendering stable government impossible. Political deadlock had been reached. Though French Canadians were able to enjoy the gratifying spectacle of British Canadians caught in the very constitutional trap—equal representation regardless of population—which had been designed to assure British supremacy, the situation could not continue. The economic outlook was no brighter. Imperial preferences had disappeared with the free trade movement, and though a successful readjustment had been made by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 this too was about to end. Notice of the cancellation of the Treaty was given by the United States in March, 1865. Thrust out into the economic world first by England, Canadians were rejected a second time by their other mainstay. And when they looked westward for new frontiers, they saw an advancing wave of American settlement, backed by western railways, threatening to engulf the unsettled prairies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , August 1942 , pp. 386 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1942

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References

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39 Reg. v. Taylor, 36 U.C.Q.B. at p. 220; Smiles v. Belford, 1 O.A.R. 436. See Clement, W. H. P., The Law of the Canadian Constitution (ed. 1, Toronto, 1892), pp. 57 ff.Google Scholar

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56 Ibid., p. 70.

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106 The overwhelming weight of Canadian authority outside the courts now acknowledges that the Privy Council has interpreted the B.N.A. Act in a manner contrary to the intentions of the Fathers.

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111 Ibid.

112 For the list of reserved bills see ibid., at p. 672.