Student Tasks

Historical Context for Teachers

Early history

• Throughout its history, the territory that is now included in the province of Québec has changed its name, border and form of government many times.
• From 1534–1763, the territory was part of the French colony of New France. After British victories at Québec in 1759 and Montréal in 1760 during the Seven Years’ War, the French signed the 1763 Treaty of Paris in which they handed over New France and the rest of France’s colonial possessions in North America to Great Britain.
• The British renamed the colony Québec and, in 1774, set out the constitution for the new colony in the Québec Act.
• The Québec Act established a set of rules that provided a measure of protection for the French-speaking peoples living in the middle of British territory in North America: The French system of private law was allowed for civil matters, Roman Catholics were allowed to freely practise their religion and many French-speaking Canadians were invited to participate in government for the first time.
• The 1791 Constitutional Act split the colony of Québec into the Canadas that included a predominantly French-speaking colony called Lower Canada and an English-speaking colony called Upper Canada.
• In 1791, the population of Lower Canada was 160 000 people, of which only 20 000 spoke English.
• After rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 to 1838, the 1840 Act of Union abolished the legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, and joined them into a single legislature in what was called the Province of Canada.
• The Province of Canada was divided into two areas: Canada West (previously Upper Canada) and Canada East (previously Lower Canada).

Political and economic problems

• Both Canada East and Canada West were given equal representation (42 seats each) in the Legislative Assembly, despite the fact that the 1841 census revealed that Lower Canada had 650 000 people, while Upper Canada had just slightly more than 450 000. Many people in Canada East felt cheated because the equal representation system was both unfair and undemocratic. Canada East had nearly 200 000 more people than Canada West, yet elected the same number of representatives.
• From 1840 to 1867, Canada East’s population nearly doubled, as both Montréal and Québec City grew quickly. By 1861, Montréal had a population of 90 000 people and Québec City had a population of 50 000. French-speaking Catholics made up the majority of the population in Canada East, while English-speaking Protestants made up only 15 percent of the population.
• The population in Canada West grew much faster and, by 1851, had exceeded Canada East’s population. After the 1851 census, politicians in Canada West began campaigning for representation by population. “Rep-by-pop,” as it was called, would give Canada West more seats in the Legislative Assembly because of their larger population than Canada East.
• The English minority in Canada East were the commercial leaders of the colony and enjoyed great political and financial power.Canada East’s economy was based on logging, lumber processing and commercial agriculture. Due to its location on the St. Lawrence, and a well-developed canal system, many large companies and banks were located in Montréal.
• In 1846, the Corn Laws, the Province of Canada’s preferential trading system with Great Britain, ended and in 1847 the preferential tariffs on timber ended as well. This meant that the cost of importing and exporting goods to Canada became very expensive and the economy of the Province of Canada decreased substantially as a result.
• In 1854, the Reciprocity Treaty was signed, guaranteeing free trade between the United States and Great Britain’s North American colonies.
• Railway construction also contributed to increased trade. In 1853, construction began on the Grand Trunk Railway that ran through Canada East and West. By 1861, the Province of Canada’s debt reached $50 million, as the government was forced to borrow money to buy out the Grand Trunk Railway Company.

Confederation introduced

• In 1858, politicians George-Etienne Cartier and Alexander Tilloch Galt introduced the idea of a federal union of the British colonies in North America. The idea was to link the colonies politically but permit each colony to control their internal affairs. The concept was refused by Queen Victoria later that year.
• Canada East had two main political parties. The Parti Rouge was a radical French-Canadian Liberal group led by Jean Baptiste Etienne and Antoine-Aime Dorion. The Conservative Parti Bleu, led by George Etienne Cartier, supported traditional values and religion to maintain the French culture.
• Both during and after the American Civil War, Canada East and Canada West were concerned about military threats from the United States. Great Britain and her North American colonies supported the South during the war. After the North’s victory in the Civil War, Canada worried that the North’s large standing army would attack Great Britain’s colonies in retaliation for supporting the South during the war.
• By the 1860s, Great Britain could no longer afford to pay for the defense of the colony and asked United Canada to assume some responsibility for it.
• In 1862, a conference was held between delegates from the United Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to discuss building an intercolonial railway to link all of the colonies of British North America. Unfortunately, the colonies could not come to an agreement on how to finance the cost of building the railroad, and no agreement was reached.
• The political system of United Canada was extremely unstable because of equal representation for both Canada East and Canada West. Votes often ended in deadlock because members voted along French and English lines. In slightly more than 15 years, Canada experienced 15 different ministries and more than half a dozen elections.
• In 1864, “The Great Coalition,” a political alliance between John A. Macdonald of the Conservatives, George Etienne Cartier of the Parti Bleu and George Brown of the Clear Grit party, came to power to break the political deadlock and to advance the idea of confederation.
• On September 1, 1864, representatives from Canada joined delegates from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in a meeting at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island to discuss the idea of a Maritime union.At the conference, representatives from Canada, George-Etienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald, changed the discussion from a Maritime union to Confederation, a wider union of all British North American colonies.

Decision on Confederation

• After the success of the Charlottetown Conference, the Québec Conference was organized for October 1864 to allow delegates to come to agreement on the terms for Confederation. One of the main areas of disagreement between the colonies was the number of seats each would receive in the Senate.
• Canada East worried that rep-by-pop would give English-Canadians more legislative power and would threaten the survival of French language and culture.
• The delegates drafted the 72 Resolutions, or Québec Resolutions, an agreement outlining the terms of union and the formation of the country and its government.
• The Québec Resolutions were met with mixed reactions in Canada East. The Parti Rouge disagreed with the Resolutions while the Parti Bleu and the Catholic Church supported them.
• On March 11, 1865, the Legislative Assembly of United Canada voted 91 to 33 in favour of Confederation.
• In 1866, the United States ended the Reciprocity Treaty. This reduced Canada’s exports to the United States and left Canada without a dominant trading partner.
• In 1866, a radical Catholic Irish group living in the United States called the Fenians led failed attacks into New Brunswick, Canada West and Canada East. The Fenians wanted Irish independence from Great Britain and attacked British colonies in North America as a way of pressuring the British government.

North American provinces, territories and colonies, 1867 - 1870

By Golbez - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons