|
A New Nation |
Nova Scotia Balks |
The Northwest Territories |
Manitoba & Riel |
Federal Provincial Relations |
British Columbia |
Prince Edward Island |
The Washington Treaty |
Scandal |
Liberal Interlude |
The National Policy |
The Railroad |
Immigration |
Rebellion | Transition
The second pillar of Sir John A
Macdonald's National Policy, after the building of the
railway was the filling of the western lands with
farmers to grow crops and purchase eastern Canadian
manufactured products. As the railway reached far out
onto the western Prairies the immigrants had to be
recruited and brought, by train, to the rich farmlands,
but by the late 1880's the flow of immigration had not
only stalled out but many homesteaders were picking up
their stakes and heading south into the United States.
The challenge to the
national Policy was that because of high tariff rates
between Canada and the United States the excess product
from the west, if not sold in Eastern Canada, could not
be sold in the US where the Canadian prices were not
competitive. Talk of opening up the north south trade
routes sprang up as quickly as the economic hardships
did and as immigration trickled to hat and then started
to drain off to the south. The excitement of the
boom of new cities and towns that was generated as the
railway was being built now also settled down. Land
prices in Winnipeg, as an example, went from being some
of he highest in the world to very ordinary.
Macdonald looked towards the British
Empire for closer economic ties rather then the US and
as a source of immigrants to fill up the western lands.
The immigration would not really pickup until the
Liberals were in power and Seaton started his campaign
throughout Europe for the people who would fill the
Prairies. |
