September, 1917, the Quebec Cantilever Bridge, one of the engineering
triumphs of the world, even larger than the famous Forth Bridge, was
completed at a cost of 15 million dollars. The special importance of
this structure is, that by connecting the Government railway lines on
the south of the River St. Lawrence with those on the north, it
shortens the distance between Halifax and Winnipeg by two hundred
miles. The necessity for good roads has not been overlooked.
Parliament authorised under the Canada Highways Act of 1919, a grant of
20 million dollars, {472} for the purpose of road construction and
improvement. This sum allotted to the various provinces is granted on
condition that the amount should be supplemented by the provinces
themselves. The 250,000 miles of public highways will therefore be
extended gradually but effectively in the future.
In the same year, there occurred the death at Ottawa of one whom Canada
could ill afford to lose; a statesman whose prestige at home and abroad
stood out on the pages of the Dominion's history. Nominally the leader
of the Liberal Party, Sir Wilfrid Laurier was more than that. He was a
great national figure. As a statesman of broad imperialistic views, as
an orator of brilliant gifts, as a zealous guardian of all that he
considered to be for Canada's best interest, he will rank high among
the makers of the Empire.
Fortunately the visit of the Prince of Wales came at a time when the
Dominion badly needed royal encouragement. Arriving in the late summer
of 1919, he was enthusiastically received. As the Quebec Bridge had
just been completed he formally opened it for traffic, and later on, as
a good Mason, laid the foundation stone of the tower of the new
Parliament Buildings at Ottawa. Becoming enamoured with the
possibilities of the two new provinces in the Northwest, he purchased a
ranch of 1,600 acres in Alberta, under the foothills of the Rocky
Mountains, proceeded to stock it with horses and cattle of the best
English pedigree, and engaged a number of ex-Service men to manage the
property. If there had been any doubt in the minds of the western
settlers about His Royal {473} Highness, this removed it. To-day east
and west vie in acclaiming the present Heir-Apparent to the British
throne with an affection as genuine as it is evident.
When the Dominion Government, owing to the exigencies of war, began to
impose restriction on the manufacture, importation and sale of
intoxicating liquors in Canada, the old question of Prohibition came to
the fore again. It was remembered that a plebiscite in favour of it
had been carried on September 29, 1898, but never taken advantage of by
the Federal authorities; Temperance organizations throughout the
country took it up, and in order to meet the popular clamour the
various provincial Assemblies passed some form of legislation which
resulted in the country going "dry." Quebec, however, has only agreed
to an amendment of the Canada Temperance Act by which the Dominion
Government can prohibit the importation of intoxicants, but cannot
prevent the province from making and selling under Government control
such wine, spirits or beer as the people may desire. British Columbia
afterwards voted for Government control in October, 1920.
In July, 1920, after nine years of power laden with some of the
heaviest responsibilities ever imposed upon a Canadian statesman, Sir
Robert Borden was compelled to resign the premiership through ill
health. His efforts for the autonomy of the Dominion, consistent with
Empire unity, culminating in her inclusion as a separate and equal
nation at the Peace Conference in Paris, 1919, and the right to appoint
her own Minister at Washington {474} will make for him a prominent
place in the history of Canada.
The leadership of the Coalition Government which was elected in 1917
passed to the Hon. Arthur Meighen, who was Minister of the Interior in
the Borden administration.
A year afterwards, having completed the full tenure of office, His
Excellency the Governor-General, the Duke of Devonshire, returned to
England, and was succeeded by General Lord Byng of Vimy, the hero of
the Canadian soldiers in the war.
When the Annual Imperial Conference was called in July, 1921, the
acting Premier, the Hon. Mr. Meighen, repaired to London to gain some
insight into the many intricate problems which came before the Council.
On his return home he decided that the political situation demanded a
general election. In this, no doubt, he was influenced by the rise of
a Progressive Party, or as it is better known, the United Farmers'
Organisation.
Starting as a purely agrarian movement the U.F.O. became a co-operative
society, finally growing into a strong political party in provincial
and federal politics. Ontario and Alberta soon fell to their prowess,
and it was thought that the same result would happen in the Dominion
arena. The ideas advocated by the new third party were a more modified
protection to home industries as opposed to the decidedly protectionist
policy of the Coalition Government; opposition to the return of the
Government controlled railways to {475} private ownership; stimulation
of immigration along definite lines; and the creation of means whereby
capital for production could be supplied to settlers on safe and sound
lines.
Whether the Progressive party will continue to be a factor in Canadian
politics is for the future to decide. The net result of the general
election of 1921 was the almost complete disappearance of the Coalition
party and the meagre election of the out and out Liberals under the
Hon. William Lyon Mackenzie King, who had been a minister in Sir
Wilfrid's cabinet some ten years previously. The number of
Progressives elected did not come up to the general expectation, but
they represent a considerable number, in fact being second in strength
to the party called upon to form the Government. Their leader, the
Hon. T. A. Crerar, who had resigned from the Coalition Cabinet of Sir
Robert Borden two years previously, is a leader of some force and
ability. But Mr. King has surrounded himself with a cabinet of
considerable Parliamentary experience, so there is every reason to
expect that the Liberal Party will be in power for the usual life of a
Parliamentary term.
Perhaps the most outstanding event of the year in which Canada was
interested, was the Disarmament Conference at Washington, where she was
represented by Sir Robert Borden. If it did anything, it certainly
paved the way for saving billions of dollars by restricting the
construction of capital ships, and in this Canada was no mean factor.
But before all, it is domestic problems which concern the Dominion
particularly. No country {476} realises better than she does that it
is coal and comfort which will attract settlers from the Motherland to
till her fields, build up her factories and engage in the trade which
makes a nation truly great. As Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have no
coal mines, "white coal" is a vital necessity. Not long ago the
Dominion Water Power Branch took a census, and found that Canada has
available nineteen million horse-power. Of this practically 90 per
cent. of the Central Station power is derived from water power, 95 per
cent. being in the above-named provinces, which have to import their
coal supplies from other provinces and the United States. As far back
as 1911 the Province of Ontario realised this, and began to arrange for
the building of the Chippawa-Queenston Power Canal and plant, which
represents an investment of almost a hundred million dollars. The
plant will have a capacity of 650,000 horse-power, which will be
distributed throughout Canada and possibly the neighbouring States, and
will be an important addition to the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power
Transmission System which was inaugurated at Kitchener, Ontario, in
October, 1911.
Elsewhere in the Dominion the fuel problem is being met by fresh
discoveries. In the Mackenzie River district gushers of oil have been
struck, in one case producing a flow at the rate of 1,000 barrels a
day. Already several large companies are operating in that district.
As for comfort, not only Canada but also the world realises that the
day of hand power is past. Without agricultural implement machinery
driven {477} by motor force, it would be impossible for the great
Northwest to yield the harvests which she does without a labour to
which new settlers would be unaccustomed. By means of the
hydro-electric commission homes are warmed in winter, lighted all the
year round, as indeed are the cities, towns and villages, and cooking
for the family accomplished with a modicum of trouble. Electric
railways connect communities and settlements. The telephone is in
almost everyone's home. So that with the pianola, the gramophone, and
other means of diversion, the winter nights are not what they were to
the people in the years of the nineteenth century.
In railroad facilities Canada, if anything, is fifty years ahead of her
time, so well are they developed. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway,
from Monckton, New Brunswick to Winnipeg and thence to Prince Rupert,
B.C., which was commenced in 1905, and finished in 1915, was leased on
its completion to the Grand Trunk Railway Company for fifty years.
Owing to the war, and the financial difficulties in which the
constructing company found itself, the system of 22,000 miles of line
was taken over by the Government in 1921, after an arbitration which
excited much comment on both sides of the Atlantic. The decision
regarding it was given by the Canadian Grand Trunk Arbitration Board at
Montreal, headed by Sir Walter Cassels, and one of the members of the
Board was no less a person than ex-President Taft, now Chief Justice of
the United States. As a conspicuous result of political action the
{478} construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway is still more the
subject of politics than of history, and it is quite likely to remain
in that phase for some time.
The year 1921 will also be memorable for the work of the joint
American-Canadian Commission appointed to investigate the possibility
of the proposed Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Waterways. It was estimated
that the initial cost of canalising the St. Lawrence River,
constructing six dams in the rapids and improving the St. Claire and
Detroit Rivers will be 253 million dollars, the up-keep requiring 2 1/2
million dollars annually. Fortunately considerable revenue can be made
through the sale of the five million horse-power obtained from the dams
which will pay a large part of the carrying charges. The great value
of such a public work is in the relief from congestion on the railways,
particularly the American, at crop-moving time. One of the most
important results will be that Port Arthur, Ontario will virtually
become a seaport.
In all this work of expansion and progress the women of Canada have
taken their place. This was recognised when the War Committee of the
Borden Cabinet called a Conference of representatives of women's
organisations in February, 1918. The initiative was rewarded by a
closer co-operation on the part of these societies with the Government,
especially in connection with the conservation of food, the compilation
of a National Register and the increased production in industrial
occupations. Later in 1918, an Act was passed by which Canadian {479}
women received the Federal electoral vote on the same basis as men. In
addition to electing a woman as member of the provincial legislature,
the British Columbia Assembly had the honour first of choosing one of
the fair sex for Speaker which, however, was declined, Mrs. Mary E.
Smith, the Labour candidate-elect, maintaining that she could be more
useful as a private member than either as Speaker or a member in the
Government. When Mrs. Irene Parlby was similarly successful in
Lacombe, Alberta, she was not so modest when Premier Greenfield offered
her a position without portfolio in the United Farmers' Cabinet. To
those who have the feminine movement at heart, these instances will
certainly be a source of much encouragement.
But, perhaps, the west of Canada is more willing to depart from the
established order than the east. Then, again, the conditions are
different. The maritime provinces have been living in peace and amity
with their neighbours for many years. The immigration problem,
carrying with it different races, conflicting ideas and unsatisfied
ambitions, does not present itself in the same way. Halifax and
Quebec, where immigration is concerned, are mainly ports of entrance,
and intending settlers are generally Europeans.
It is not the same at Victoria and Vancouver. This was recognised in
1907, when the Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux was sent by the Dominion
Government to Tokio to make representations to the Japanese Government
regarding the restriction of its nationals from emigrating to Canada
which was resulting in {480} racial riots. The Nippon Cabinet received
the _démarche_ in the right spirit, and so any cause for
misunderstanding was removed. That was why the Dominion of Canada
adhered to the Anglo-Japanese Treaty when it was renewed in 1913, and
why the Japanese battleship _Asama_, after grounding on the coast of
Lower California, was refitted at Esquimault. At that naval station in
1914 Canada had only one small cruiser of 3,600 tons, the _Rainbow_,
used more for revenue purposes than for any idea of defence or offence.
The new Canadian Air Board, by the introduction of aircraft on the
Pacific Coast to assist in preventing opium smuggling, has almost
removed the reason for retaining even that vessel. But it is still
equipped as a training ship for the Royal Canadian Navy which, after
the close of the war, was strengthened by the addition of three
cruisers, the _Aurora_, _Patriot_ and _Patricia_.
Fortunately the naval treaty between the British Empire, the United
States and Japan, signed in February, 1922, will at least remove any
doubt about Canada's pacific intentions in her developments of the
west. By that agreement the above nations will respect the _status
quo_ in regard to fortifications and naval bases on their coast
territories. No new ones are to be established. Moreover, no measures
shall be taken to increase the existing naval facilities for the repair
or maintenance of naval forces.
Thus with prosperity at home, and peace with those abroad, people of
the land of the Maple Leaf and the Beaver will look upon the twentieth
century {481} as peculiarly their own. But in doing so it will not be
without a wrench to see old institutions alter and in some cases pass
away. One of these is the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, which in
November, 1919, became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provision
being made for the absorption of the Dominion Police which during the
Great War acted as a secret service to counteract enemy plots against
the country. Recently the force has been bitterly opposed by Labour,
on the ground that its real purpose is to break strikes, an objection
originating in the force's very efficient action during the Winnipeg
riots. Otherwise there would be no grounds for its disbandonment
except economy, before which even history and tradition must bow.
The growth of labour organisations in Canada, however, ranks _pari
passu_ with that of the large cities. To gauge the extent one has only
to mention that in 1911 there were 133,132 members in the labour
unions, but in 1920 there were 373,842, or almost three times as many.
Of the definite groups the railway employees stand first, representing
23.45 per cent. This explains why the railway situation in Canada is
always a matter of no small interest to the people. As most of the
organised workers are members of international unions, which cover the
whole of the United States and Canada, their electoral power may be
readily estimated. In justice to them, it must be said that labour, as
compared with that in other countries, is remarkably safe and sane.
During the war, trade union restrictions were subordinated to the
country's {482} need, and now that it is over the one desire in the
ranks is to keep industry on its feet, so that there may be a busy and
contented Dominion. If at times there is a louder outcry against
immigration, it is largely owing to the idea that the new-comers cannot
be assimilated under existing conditions. But every Canadian,
irrespective of class or calling, recognises that if the premier
Dominion is to maintain its position and prestige in the Empire--and
for that matter in the world--there must be more population.
In these days some people are inclined to speak of the near
disappearance of free land in Canada. If by free land it is meant that
there is no longer the liberty to settle at random without any
qualifications for so doing, then there is truth in such a statement.
But the history of Canada during the past two decades proves that if
the Dominion is to prosper, there must be settlers who either have the
necessary farming knowledge or the ability to acquire it. In either
case the Government or the Railways will grant land as near free land
as it can be made.
To train young farmers in the science and practice of agriculture,
colleges and experimental farms have been established, and both
Canadians and new-comers have taken advantage of them. For instance,
in 1874 there were twenty-eight students at the Ontario Agricultural
College at Guelph. To-day the total enrolment is about 2,400. It can
be seen, then, that there is a real desire upon the part of the rising
generation for a scientific knowledge of farming, without which even
virgin {483} soil cannot yield indefinitely. It is admitted that there
may be more comfortable conditions in other countries, but Canada still
remains the land of opportunity towards which the people always extend
a beckoning hand.
When the grain is on the stalk, and the fields of wheat extend as far
as the eye can see, the glowing red sun sinks beneath a golden horizon
at the end of a summer's day. But, like young Canada, it rises again
the next to breathe life on the land and destiny of the Empire's Great
Dominion.
[1] Speech, House of Commons, March 13, 1900.
{484}
INDEX.
Abbott, Sir J. J. C., 415
Abenakis, 114; allies of French, 212
Abercromby, General, defeated by Montcalm, 245
Acadia, meaning; of, 5; its modern divisions, 5; occupied by
De Monts, 50-54; history of, as French possession, 92-109, 203,
206-208; ceded to England; 208; French inhabitants of, 218;
their unhappy fate, 231-236
Acadians, expulsion of, 231-236
Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 219
_À la clair fontaine_, French Canadian ballad, 452
Alaska, discovery of gold in, 430
Alaskan boundary award, 430, 461
_Alcide_ and _Lys_, French frigates, captured by English, 229
Alexander, Sir W. (Lord Stirling), receives rights in Acadia,
and names Nova Scotia, 89
Alfonce, Captain Jehan, French pilot, 47
Algonquin Indians, 114; tribal divisions of, 114, 115; customs
of, 123-128; illustration of, 111
Alverstone, Lord, Chief Justice of England, 430
American Canadian Waterways Commission, 478
American Revolution, War of, attitude of French Canadians during,
282; Canada invaded, 283, 284; Montreal taken, 283; Quebec
besieged, 285-287; death of Montgomery, 285; American troops
retire from Canada, 286, 287; defeat of Cornwallis, 288;
peace, _ib._
Amherst, General, 242, 245
Amundsen, Roald, 465
Andastes, 82, 83
Anglo-Japanese Treaty, 480
Annapolis (Port Royal), valley of, 51, 52; old capital of Nova
Scotia, 206. _See_ Port Royal
_Anse-an-Foulon_ (Wolfe's Cove), Wolfe ascends Quebec heights
from, 254-256; Montgomery's march from, 285
Antillia, 21
Archibald, Adams, first Governor of Manitoba, 392
Arctic Exploration, 464
Argall, Samuel, destroys St. Sauveur and Port Royal in
Acadia, 64, 65
Arms of the Dominion. _See_ cover of this volume [Transcriber's
note: missing from book]
Armistice, 469
Arnold, General Benedict, his expedition against Quebec, 284-286;
raises siege, 286
Arthur, Sir George, Canadian Governor, 355
Ashburton Treaty, 375
Assembly, Legislative, first at Halifax, 302; at Quebec, 306;
in other provinces, 302, 303. _See_ Legislatures, House of
Commons
Assiniboia. _See_ Red River
Association of Nations, 457, 467
Astrolabe, lost by Champlain, 79
Atlantis, island of, 12
Ayleswurth, Mr. A. B., 430
Autonomy Bills, 461
Baie Verte, Fort at, 229, 230
Baldwin, Robert, Canadian reformer, 342, 350, 364; portrait of, 365
Ballads of French Canada, 450-453
Bank of England, 468
Barre, La, Canadian Governor, 195
Batoche, fight at (in 1885), 397
Battles, 460, 465
Beaujeu, Captain de, defeats Braddock, 230
Beauséjour, Fort, 229; captured by English, 230
Bedard, French Canadian journalist, 313, 314
Bering Sea question, 324
Biard, Father, Jesuit missionary, 61, 64
Biencourt, son of Baron de Poutrincourt, 60; his Acadian career,
60-65, 94; death of, 94
Bienville, father of Louisiana, 225
Big Bear, Indian chief, 395, 398
Bigot, Canadian Intendant, his crimes, 249; punishment of, 267
Binyon, Laurence, 466
Bishop's Palace, 305, 307
Borden, Sir Robert, 464, 468, 473, 475
Boston, City of, founded, 100
Bougainville, siege of Quebec, 253, 254, 256; his later career, 253
Boundaries of Canada under Quebec Act, 266, 277; treaty of peace
of 1783, 289; in 1842 (Ashburton treaty), 375; in 1856 (Oregon),
375; after confederation in 1867, 380; in 1896, 4, 5
Bourgeoys, Margaret, founder of Congregation de Notre-Dame in
Canada, 136
Bourgoyne, General, defeated at Saratoga, 288
Bourlamaque, General, 248, 254
Bowell, Mackenzie, Canadian premier, 394, 415
Braddock, General, defeated at Monongahela, 230
Brant, Joseph ("Thayendanegea"), Mohawk chief, 298-300; autograph
and portrait of, 299
Brantford, named after Indian chief, 300. _See_ Brant
Brebeuf, Jean de, Jesuit Missionary, 86; his heroism and death,
142; relic of, 143
Bressani, Jesuit Missionary, 138
Brion, Seigneur de, French Admiral, 32
British Columbia, scenery of, 16, 17; history of, 404, 405; enters
Canadian confederation, 406; Indians of, 402
British North America Act of 1867, unites Canadian provinces,
374, 428
British troops and warships withdrawn, 433
Brock, Major-General, during war of 1812; defeats Hull, 322; dies
at battle of Queenston Heights, _ib._; portrait of, 323;
monument to, 336
Brockville, city of, 324
Brodeur, Hon. Mr. L. P., 433
Brown, George, Canadian journalist and statesman, 372; political
career, 372, 406-408; his part in confederation, 372, 410, 412;
autograph and portrait of, 409; monument to, 413
Bruce, John, at Red River (1869), 388
Brulé, Etienne, Indian interpreter, 81, 84, 85
Bullion, Madam de, founder of Montreal Hôtel de Dieu, 134
Byng, Lord, 465, 474