THE CONFEDERATION DEBATE
The parliament of Canada assembled on January 19th, 1865, to consider
the resolutions of the Quebec conference. The first presentation of
the reasons for confederation was made in the Upper Chamber by the
premier, Sir E. P. Tache. He described the measure as essential to
British connection, to the preservation of "our institutions, our
laws, and even our remembrances of the past." If the opportunity were
allowed to pass by unimproved, Canada would be forced into the
American union by violence; or would be placed upon an inclined plane
which would carry it there insensibly. Canada, during the winter, had
no independent means of access to the sea, but was dependent on the
favour of a neighbour which, in several ways, had shown a hostile
spirit. The people of the Northern States had an exaggerated idea of
Canadian sympathy with the South, and the consequences of this
misapprehension were--first, the threatened abolition of the transit
system; second, the discontinuance of reciprocity; third, a passport
system, which was almost equivalent to a prohibition of intercourse.
Union with the Maritime Provinces would give Canada continuous and
independent access to the Atlantic; and the Maritime Provinces would
bring into the common stock their magnificent harbours, their coal
mines, their great fishing and shipping industries. Then he recounted
the difficulties that had occurred in the government of Canada, ending
in dead-lock, and a condition "bordering on civil strife." He declared
that Lower Canada had resisted representation by population under a
legislative union, but that if a federal union were obtained, it would
be tantamount to a separation of the provinces, and Lower Canada would
thereby preserve its autonomy, together with all the institutions it
held so dear. These were the main arguments for confederation, and in
the speeches which followed on that side they were repeated, enforced,
and illustrated in various ways.
In the assembly, Mr. John A. Macdonald, as attorney-general, gave a
clear and concise description of the new constitution. He admitted
that he had preferred a legislative union, but had recognized that
such a union would not have been accepted either by Lower Canada or
the Maritime Provinces. The union between Upper and Lower Canada,
legislative in name, had been federal in fact, there being, by tacit
consent and practice, a separate body of legislation for each part of
the province. He described the new scheme of government as a happy
combination of the strength of a legislative union with the freedom of
a federal union, and with protection to local interests. The
constitution of the United States was "one of the most skilful works
which human intelligence ever created; one of the most perfect
organizations that ever governed a free people." Experience had shown
that its main defect was the doctrine of State sovereignty. This
blemish was avoided in the Canadian constitution by vesting all
residuary powers in the central government and legislature. The
Canadian system would also be distinguished from the American by the
recognition of monarchy and of the principle of responsible
government. The connection of Canada with Great Britain he regarded as
tending towards a permanent alliance. "The colonies are now in a
transition state. Gradually a different colonial system is being
developed; and it will become year by year less a case of dependence
on our part, and of overruling protection on the part of the mother
country, and more a case of a hearty and cordial alliance. Instead of
looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England will have in us
a friendly nation--a subordinate, but still a powerful people--to
stand by her in North America, in peace or in war."
Brown spoke on the night of February 8th, his speech, occupying four
hours and a half in delivery, showing the marks of careful
preparation. He drew an illustration from the mighty struggle that had
well-nigh rent the republic asunder, and was then within a few weeks
of its close. "We are striving," he said, "to settle forever issues
hardly less momentous than those that have rent the neighbouring
republic and are now exposing it to all the horrors of civil war. Have
we not then great cause for thankfulness that we have found a better
way for the solution of our troubles? And should not every one of us
endeavour to rise to the magnitude of the occasion, and earnestly seek
to deal with this question to the end, in the same candid and
conciliatory spirit in which, so far, it has been discussed?"
He warned the assembly that whatever else happened, the constitution
of Canada would not remain unchanged. "Something must be done. We
cannot stand still. We cannot go back to chronic, sectional hostility
and discord--to a state of perpetual ministerial crisis. The events of
the last eight months cannot be obliterated--the solemn admissions of
men of all parties can never be erased. The claims of Upper Canada for
justice must be met, and met now. Every one who raises his voice in
hostility to this measure is bound to keep before him, when he speaks,
all the perilous consequences of its rejection. No man who has a true
regard for the well-being of Canada can give a vote against this
scheme unless he is prepared to offer, in amendment, some better
remedy for the evils and injustice that have so long threatened the
peace of our country."
In the first place, he said confederation would provide a complete
remedy for the injustice of the system of parliamentary
representation, by giving Upper Canada, in the House of Commons, the
number of members to which it was entitled by population. In the
senate, the principle of representation by population would not be
maintained, an equal number of senators being allotted to Ontario, to
Quebec, and to the group of Maritime Provinces, without regard to
population. Secondly, the plan would remedy the injustice of which
Upper Canada had complained in regard to public expenditures. "No
longer shall we have to complain that one section pays the cash while
the other spends it; hereafter they who pay will spend, and they who
spend more than they ought, will bear the brunt. If we look back on
our doings of the last fifteen years, I think it will be acknowledged
that the greatest jobs perpetrated were of a sectional character, that
our fiercest contests were about local matters that stirred up
sectional jealousies and indignation to their deepest depth."
Confederation would end sectional discord between Upper and Lower
Canada. Questions that used to excite sectional hostility and jealousy
were now removed from the common legislature to the legislatures of
the provinces. No man need be debarred from a public career because
his opinions, popular in his own province, were unpopular in another.
Among the local questions that had disturbed the peace of the common
legislature, he mentioned the construction of local works, the
endowment of ecclesiastical institutions, the granting of money for
sectarian purposes, and interference with school systems.
He advocated confederation because it would convert a group of
inconsiderable colonies into a powerful union of four million people,
with a revenue of thirteen million dollars, a trade of one hundred and
thirty-seven million five hundred thousand dollars, rich natural
resources and important industries. Among these he dwelt at length on
the shipping of the Maritime Provinces. These were the days of the
wooden ship, and Mr. Brown claimed that federated Canada would be the
third maritime power in the world. Confederation would give a new
impetus to immigration and settlement. Communication with the west
would be opened up, as soon as the state of the finances permitted.
Negotiations had been carried on with the imperial government for the
addition of the North-West Territories to Canada; and when those
fertile plains were opened for settlement, there would be an immense
addition to the products of Canada. The establishment of free trade
between Canada and the Maritime Provinces would be some compensation
for the loss of trade with the United States, should the reciprocity
treaty be abrogated. It would enable the country to assume a larger
share of the burden of defence. The time had come when the people of
the United Kingdom would insist on a reconsideration of the military
relations of Canada to the empire, and that demand was just. Union
would facilitate common defence. "The Civil War in the neighbouring
republic--the possibility of war between Great Britain and the United
States; the threatened repeal of the reciprocity treaty; the
threatened abolition of the American bonding system for goods in
transit to and from these provinces; the unsettled position of the
Hudson's Bay Company; the changed feeling of England as to the
relations of Canada to the parent state; all combine at this moment to
arrest the earnest attention to the gravity of the situation and unite
us all in one vigorous effort to meet the emergency like men."
A strong speech against confederation was made by Dorion, an old
friend of Brown, a staunch Liberal, and a representative
French-Canadian. He declared that he had seen no ground for changing
his opinion on two points--the substitution of an Upper Chamber,
nominated by the Crown, for an elective body; and the construction of
the Intercolonial Railway, which he, with other Liberals, had always
opposed. He had always admitted that representation by population was
a just principle; and in 1856 he had suggested, in the legislature,
the substitution of a federal for a legislative union of the Canadas;
or failing this, representation by population, with such checks and
guarantees as would secure local rights and interests, and preserve to
Lower Canada its cherished institutions. When the Brown-Dorion
government was formed, he had proposed a federation of the Canadas,
but with the distinct understanding that he would not attempt to carry
such a measure without the consent of a majority of the people of
Lower Canada. From the document issued by the Lower Canadian Liberals
in 1859, he quoted a passage in which it was laid down that the powers
given to the central government should be only those that were
essential, and that the local powers should be as ample as possible.
"All that belongs to matters of a purely local character, such as
education, the administration of justice, the militia, the laws
relating to property, police, etc., ought to be referred to the local
governments, whose powers ought generally to extend to all subjects
which would not be given to the general government." The vesting of
residuary powers in the provinces was an important difference between
this and the scheme of confederation; but the point most dwelt upon by
Dorion was the inclusion of the Maritime Provinces, which he strongly
opposed.
Dorion denied that the difficulty about representation was the source
of the movement for confederation. He contended that the agitation for
representation by population had died out, and that the real authors
of confederation were the owners of the Grand Trunk Railway Company,
who stood to gain by the construction of the Intercolonial. "The
Tache-Macdonald government were defeated because the House condemned
them for taking without authority one hundred thousand dollars out of
the public chest for the Grand Trunk Railway, at a time when there had
not been a party vote on representation by population for one or two
sessions." He declared that Macdonald had, in Brown's committee of
1864, voted against confederation, and that he and his colleagues
adopted the scheme simply to enable them to remain in office. Dorion
also criticized adversely the change in the constitution of the Upper
Chamber, from the elective to the nominative system. The Conservative
instincts of Macdonald and Cartier, he said, led them to strengthen
the power of the Crown at the expense of the people, and this
constitution was a specimen of their handiwork. "With a
governor-general appointed by the Crown; with local governors also
appointed by the Crown; with legislative councils in the general
legislature, and in all the provinces, nominated by the Crown, we
shall have the most illiberal constitution ever heard of in any
government where constitutional government prevails."
He objected to the power vested in the governor-general-in-council to
veto the acts of local legislatures. His expectation was that a
minority in the local legislature might appeal to their party friends
at Ottawa to veto laws which they disliked, and that thus there would
be constant interference, agitation and strife between the central and
the local authorities. He suspected that the intention was ultimately
to change the federal union to a legislative union. The scheme of
confederation was being carried without submission to the people. What
would prevent the change from a federal to a legislative union from
being accomplished in a similar way? To this the people of Lower
Canada would not submit. "A million of inhabitants may seem a small
affair to the mind of a philosopher who sits down to write out a
constitution. He may think it would be better that there should be but
one religion, one language and one system of laws; and he goes to work
to frame institutions that will bring all to that desirable state; but
I can tell the honourable gentleman that the history of every country
goes to show that not even by the power of the sword can such changes
be accomplished."
With some exaggeration Mr. Dorion struck at real faults in the scheme
of confederation. The contention that the plan ought to have been
submitted to the people is difficult to meet except upon the plea of
necessity, or the plea that the end justifies the means. There was
assuredly no warrant for depriving the people of the power of electing
the second chamber; and the new method, appointment by the government
of the day, has been as unsatisfactory in practice as it was unsound
in principle. The federal veto on provincial laws has not been used to
the extent that Dorion feared. But when we consider how partisan
considerations have governed appointments to the senate, we can
scarcely say that there was no ground for the fear that the power of
disallowance would be similarly abused. Nor can we say that Mr. Dorion
was needlessly anxious about provincial rights, when we remember how
persistently these have been attacked, and what strength, skill and
resolution have been required to defend them.