|
Fathers of Confederation |
Maritime Union | George Brown
| Pan-Federalism |
US Civil War |
Canada's
Proposals | River
Cruise | Charlottetown
| The Quebec Conference |
The London Conference |
July 1, 1867
With the political deadlock in the Union
of the Canadas bringing progress to a halt, it would be
expected that a similar experiment with other colonies
would be frowned upon by Great Britain but to the
contrary, political union was viewed as a solution to
many problems and ultimately a larger politic union was
with the Canadas and other colonies as a way out of
their deadlock. The Governor of New Brunswick, Francis
Bond, lead the charge when he campaigned for a
Maritime Union between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island and possibly Newfoundland. in
1863/64. The idea was pursued and the colonial
legislatures agreed to gather in Charlottetown on Prince
Edward Island on September 1st, 1864 to discuss Maritime
union.
When news of this
meeting became known in the Canadas, John A Macdonald
decided to lead a contingent of coalition government and
opposition members to Charlottetown to propose a larger
union of the colonies. They campaigned for an invitation
to the conference and many spent much of August visiting
the Maritimes in order to establish and build ties with
the leaders of those colonies that would be attending
the conference.
The Canadian members
arrived at Charlottetown after the Conference had begun
but quite quickly managed to take centre stage and
proposed a union with the following advantages.
-
Expanded markets
with each other would fuel economic growth
-
Interregional
investment would also contribute t economic growth
-
An Inter-colonial
railway would open up markets and provide better
communication and commerce between the regions
-
The railway would
also provide a better infrastructure for resisting
American encroachment upon any of the members of the
Union
-
Maritime
politicians would have a larger landscaped to
participate in as their careers advanced.
-
The power and
influence of a larger North American Union as
opposed to smaller regional governments who might
work at cross purposes
-
The entrenchment
of particular rights for various regions in the
Union to protect their indigenous cultures (Prince
Edward Island wanted the buyout of absentee
landowners as a condition of their joining the
union)
From a political point
of view, many of the reasons and arguments mad in the
Federalist Papers written by Jay, Madison and Hamilton
in the U.S. were generally applied to the Canadian
situation. The result was that the project of Maritime
Union was set aside and the members of the conference
all agreed to pursue the objectives of a larger union
and meet again in Quebec City in October. The agenda had
been set and it was just a matter of grinding through
the details in order to bring about a British North
American Union.
|
