Looking Past the Murky Lens
Finding the true architect of Confederation takes analysis, time, and effort; one cannot judge the book of Confederation just by glancing at its cover, instead one must delve into the topic in order to fully realize what is going on and uncover the truth. In reality, the legitimate leader and architect of Confederation is George-Étienne Cartier, while the commonly known characters of John A. MacDonald and George Brown are simply figureheads and puppets, easily manipulated into the role of architect. Cartier embraces the mold of architect in his actions of uniting Canada, while Brown and MacDonald do not do this on multiple occasions, instead opting into the role of discrimination and dependency. Furthermore, Cartier
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One of Cartier’s main goals was to unite and promote harmony within all the different groups of people in Canada. In this journey of establishing Canada, he was able to do so by looking at the whole situation when making decisions. This resulted in an unbiased choice that emphasizes equality between all Canadians. In his capacity, Cartier was able to work extensively with the parliament and politicians in both Upper and Lower Canada, where he became known as MacDonald’s ‘Siamese twin’. In his role as part of the main organ of Confederation, for instance when he worked as Acting Prime Minister in MacDonald’s absence, Cartier played key roles securing Rupert’s Land and in drafting the Manitoba and British Columbia Acts. As a result of Cartier’s intensive work uniting all provinces of Canada and promoting harmony between the English and French, he is considered to be the true architect of Confederation. When making decisions that have a profound impact on the future of Canada, he always looked at the final goal of uniting all the provinces while giving each its own identity. Cartier was someone who was able to make swift and accurate decisions that had an intense impact and huge benefit for Canada in the long run. Despite his efforts of bringing Canada together, there were still physical …show more content…
MacDonald. While he truly changed the course of Canada’s history, some of his interactions with Canadians has tainted his reputation putting him in unfavourable light as an architect. The history of mistreatment and strained relationships for MacDonald is not only limited to Aboriginals, but also stretches to his interactions with Asians. He goes on to limit their rights and promote alienation and exclusion making him unworthy of being an architect of Confederation. Despite being often cited as a champion of Aboriginal rights, MacDonald treated many First Nations groups poorly, stealing their land and starving them in order to achieve his goal. MacDonald’s treatment of Aboriginals hurt the growth of Canada and set a standard of maltreatment toward Aboriginals that is continued today. While he was labelled as a friend and admired by Aboriginals, MacDonald’s actions reveal his true feelings and demonstrate his lack of regard for their wellbeing and rights. One can see that his mistreatment extends not just to those in Canada, but also those who are emigrating from other countries and regions, such as Asia. MacDonald was especially racist toward Asians, creating legislation that excluded the Chinese and Mongolian, marking them to be unfit for political office and representation. He felt that this exclusion was necessary to establish European dominance across Canada and
When Confederation happened New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were thinking of joining with the other Maritime provinces to make their own confederation but John A. MacDonald convinced everyone to unify with Ontario. Many people living in the Maritimes didn’t want to join because they were worried about many things like not having an equal voice with Ontario and Quebec. They thought they had enough natural resources like fishing and mining and didn’t need the other provinces. There were positive and negative consequences of Confederation for the people in the Maritimes.
As seen in the earlier paper, the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation played a significant role in the development and progression of the United States of America. Although the Federalist were involved in the transformation as well, one must also have an insight as what was occurring during the time of the switch. As one knows now, both documents relate to one another, and were intended to service America and protect the people’s freedom by imposing the law. The Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, because it was not stable, it limited the power of Congress, and limited the National government.
As British Columbia became larger talks about it joining confederation began to arise. Confederationists began to propose the idea of BC joining Canada, but a large amount of people also wanted to join the United States or maintain ties with Britain. A hearing was held that had equal sides anti-confederationists and confederationists. Just then Governor Seymour died and Anthony Musgrave was appointed to become his replacement. Musgrave went around to the annexationists and anti-confederationists winning them over and getting terms from them.
Did the confederation become a compromise among the colonies? All the colonies faced challenges before joining the confederation. This essay will be explaining the compromises made among the colonies after joining confederation in the 1860s. It will prove that colonies gained and loosed a lot by considering the social, political and economic challenges that existed before the joining the confederation, and compromise that colonies reached to join the confederation to form a new country called Canada.
John A. Macdonald was among one of the most influential figures in Canada's formation as a nation. Serving two terms as the Prime Minister of Canada, Macdonald exerted his influence on generations to follow by shaping a unified country and implementing controversial policies that altered countless lives. His innovative ideas drove monumental shifts in Canadian culture and provided a blueprint for leadership nationwide and beyond. This essay will display how John A. Macdonald transformed Canadian society through dedicated action, determination, noble values and aspirations— proving to be an exceptional leader who rose far beyond being simply the first Prime Minister of Canada.
Lord Durham was a man with liberal beliefs who was sent to Canada to study the affairs of British North America. He was given the task of writing a report, which would give suggestions on how to solve the problems Britain was facing with its colony. His report shook the systems already in place and changed Canada forever. To some he is a hero, but to others he is very much disliked. Nonetheless, Lord Durham’s report directly led to the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada being united.
After their triumph in the American Revolution, colonists came together as one to forge the United States of America and to reorganize the colonies after the war. The Articles of the Confederation were America’s first form of self-government. During the time period in which they were in use, there effectiveness were tested through events dealing with foreign relations, economic conditions and the settlement of western lands. Although the Articles experienced some success in dealing with western land, the general effectiveness of the Articles was poor and created potential problems for the young nation. Under the Articles of Confederation its powers included conducting foreign relations, settling disputes between states, controlling maritime
The Newly formed government set out to make itself different from the British rulers. They wanted to form a representative government. One where the power rested with the people through the elected representatives. The Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, set out to detail the individual’s liberties and the government’s’ duty to protect those liberties.
Although the intention of the Articles of Confederation was to create a stable government for the 13 colonies, it was sadly designed poorly resulting in an overall ineffective government. The Articles may have been rewarded with some success with respect to western lands, but the overall effect was negative, especially the economic conditions. The economic conditions were primarily the most negative aspect of the Articles of Confederation. The inability to tax settlers caused the federal government to have a serious shortfall in revenue, and the restriction to regulate trade added to the chaos.
In my opinion confederation was a significant event in history and very important to canadian history. It was an important event in history because there would be no more disagreements between the colonies. Also Canada would become stronger moneywise, military wise and would have a lot more transportation. If it wasn’t for confederation we wouldn’t have visited ottawa.
Canada is now known to be a diverse, multicultural, bilingual and inclusive nation largely as a result of his work. Pierre Elliott Trudeau also believed in an equal Canada for all, he is primarily the one to introduce rights and freedoms to the citizens of Canada. While some view Pierre Trudeau as impulsive, for enforcing the War Measures Act, Trudeau enacted this for the protection of Canadian citizens against radical extremist and his actions were more rational than impulsive for the situation that had suddenly occurred. Pierre Trudeau was one of Canada’s greatest Prime Minister’s, who’s impact fundamentally changed the course of the nation by introducing multiculturalism, for introducing the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and for paradoxically upholding democracy by strong action during the October Crisis.
Institutional and historical analysis often portray the motives of governments, especially in the cases of Quebec separatism and Aboriginal mistreatment. History describes attempts at compromise to rectify the problems by altering political institutions to provide more autonomy to the provinces, witness in various accords and the methods described previously. However, in regards to Aboriginals a historical relationship of exploitation and eradication sheds on the systemic issues that Aboriginals cope with and the institutions that caused them. As scholars of Canadian politics, it is important to consider historical and institutional analyses when looking at any issue, as it reveals the underlying motives of actors in regards to the cleavages that comprise a state.
The British North America Act created an enduring federation that matured into a peaceful, prosperous and well governed state, while challenging successive governments to alter its amending formula and distribution of powers to meet the needs of its inhabitants, except the British North American Act didn’t take many groups of people like the First Nation, Acadians, and Irish into consideration . The B.N.A Act created the dominion of Canada, established powers of the federal government and provincial government from the dominion of Canada. It set out rules of how the government of Canada work. Although not everyone was satisfied with the outcome of the B.N.A Act. Even though the 1867 constitution did establish a workable system of government, it did not prevent disputes over the division of powers in overlapping areas of authority such as taxation and in new areas
William Lyon Mackenzie King, a man of glory, forever changed Canada’s constitution during the tumultuous nineteenth century and resolved all difficulties Canada faced on its way to becoming a strong, independent, and autonomous nation. His contributions and sanctions targeted all factors at the time and had interrelated effects on the construction of Canada. Unlike other Canadian politicians, King handled every crisis with thorough planning and achieved promising outcomes from unsolvable problems. It is without a doubt that King was the most influential figure in Canada’s development. His role in the autonomy, economic development, and social stability stands as solid evidence of the pioneering impacts he had on Canada’s advancement.
For a long time the debates had been going about how was the better prime minister of Canada. On the the top of most lists of best prime ministers are Mackenzie King and Sir John A. Macdonald. For example, according to the Expert Survey that was made in 2013 “Laurier came first, Macdonald second, and King third, but the difference in their overall scores was negligible”. Both prime ministers had a strong vision of the country that helped shaped Canada to become the country it is today(in 2015). Thesis: Sir John A.Macdonald was one of the founding fathers, but William Lyon Mackenzie King had to lead the country through the part of Depression and WWII, and they both have made different positive contributions to Canada and are highly respected