1534 jacques cartier 1984 coin value

Historical Dictionary of Canada

Second Edition

Barry M. Gough

The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

2011

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Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.scarecrowpress.com

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom

Copyright © 2011 by Barry M. Gough

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gough, Barry M. Historical dictionary of Canada / Barry M. Gough. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8108-5496-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7504-3 (ebook) 1. Canada—History—Dictionaries. I. Title. F1026.G69 2011 971.003--dc22 2010022542

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

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To the memory of Robin W. Winks, American scholar extraordinaire of Canada.

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v

Editor’s Foreword Jon Woronoff vii

Preface ix

Acronyms and Abbreviations xv

Maps

1 Canada xix

2 Eastern North America, 1763 xx

3 Native Tribes of Eastern North America xxi

4 San Juan Boundary Dispute xxii

5 The Alaska Boundary xxiii

6 Nunavut xxiv

Chronology xxv

Introduction 1

The Dictionary 49

Appendix: Governors General, Prime Ministers, and Colonial Governors of Canada 445

Bibliography 449

About the Author 497

Contents

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vii

It is easy to get the wrong impression about Canada. A new country. Perhaps compared to some in Asia and Europe. But it was first “discov- ered” more than 1,000 years ago, and then again about 500 years ago, and was gradually colonized and settled by outsiders for four centuries. However, before that, there were the native peoples, some of whom remain. Empty. True, the present population is small for such a big place, but many are concentrated in large, modern cities and most are urbanized. A rather simple, homogeneous entity. Hardly, for the popu- lation, despite any melting-pot effect, is rather heterogeneous and the provinces maintain considerable autonomy, some actually demanding more and one still hankering for independence. A geographical append- age of its powerful southern neighbor, the United States. Despite very close economic and other links, Canadians usually go their own way and have created a strikingly different society.

Canada is a very complex, and intriguing, nation that certainly deserves to be better known by foreigners and probably Canadians as well. That is the purpose of this second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Canada. It presents the country, traces its history, takes a good look at the current situation, and offers some insight into the future. It does so through concise and informative entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and ethnic groupings. Other entries deal with important political, economic, social, and cultural aspects. The broader context is provided by an insightful introduction, and the centuries-long history is traced in the chronology. Admittedly, this book can only go so far. But it is a particularly good starting point be- cause of a comprehensive and intelligently structured bibliography that can easily direct readers toward whatever subject might interest them.

To write such a book, it is obviously necessary to know Canada well. That first requirement is amply met by the author, Barry M. Gough,

Editor’s Foreword

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viii • EDITOR’S FOREWORD

who has spent many decades studying Canadian history and politics and visiting different parts of the country. It is even more important to develop a knack for explaining Canada to others, which Dr. Gough has done during a long stint as professor of history and Canadian stud- ies at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and as a guest professor at various other universities. In addition to lecturing, he has written half a dozen books on Canada’s history as well as numerous shorter works. Before retirement, he also held important posts in the academic world, including president of the Organization for the His- tory of Canada. This has given him more than enough opportunities to explain Canada to foreigners, and also to Canadians, which might actually be harder. In this edition, Dr. Gough takes on an even broader and more varied range of subjects of interest to both publics and acquits himself very well.

Jon Woronoff Series Editor

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ix

The history of Canada is much more than that of the nation state: it is a complicated set of intersecting or sometimes parallel stories. For that reason, any attempt to grasp the essentials of the country’s national his- tory as well as its component parts, peoples, races, and ethnicities needs be approached with caution and even trepidation. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Canada reinforces the above in spades, for contrary to the hopes and expectations of many Canadians and “Canada watchers” that the country would become more unified, the plurality or varieties of national human experience continue.

As a subject of study, Canada presents undiminished opportunities for the historian of whatever inclination or desire—except, perhaps, tropical affairs. The same prospect faces the student of history: a country as vast, diverse, and ever changing as this offers near limit- less possibilities for examination and reflection. Far from being dull or irrelevant, Canada’s history remains most promising for the study of racial accord, native affairs, federalism, regional diversity, economic challenges, patronage, religions, cultures (indigenous and transplanted), multiculturalism, immigration policies, social welfare experimentation, and nation building. In large measure, it must be said that Canada’s is not a recent history and that each generation seems to prepare its own guides to national history and historical literature. Almost without fail I have attempted to keep this a modern study, with emphasis on the era since 1867 and particularly since 1914.

That Canada’s history is so little known beyond Canada’s boundar- ies cannot be blamed on the rest of the world alone. Although it is true that Canadians have failed to broadcast the nuances of their remark- able (if complex) history, it is also true that not until the mid-1970s and the T.H.B. Symons report To Know Ourselves: The Report of the Commission on Canadian Studies (1975) did Canadian history become

Preface

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x • PREFACE

acknowledged as a fundamental requirement for a Canadian university undergraduate history degree. Most practicing historians of my age took few Canadian history courses, for they were nonexistent. We now look with envy at the rich, varied backgrounds that our younger colleagues bring with such passion to classrooms and seminars. These new-age time bandits are opening to public view hitherto closed documents and are broadening our vistas as they reveal the complexities of the past. They are aided by the wizardry of Web searches.

The fact of the matter is that our current age has had to frame a national history on the foundations of a very few scholars’ pioneer- ing endeavors. I acknowledge the work of some of the past masters of the Canadian history profession: Donald Grant Creighton, Harold Adams Innis, Gustav Lanctot, John Bartlett Brebner, W. L. Morton, C. P. Stacey, Michel Brunet, W. S. McNutt, Morris Zaslow, A.R.M. Lower, and Margaret Ormsby. They established a national history based on a wide-ranging consensus that attempted to explain the national experience. It would take another generation after them, and those who immediately followed them, to pull down accepted remnants of the national historical edifice and in place build a new history characterized by region and class, and when that had virtually run its course, by gender, race, and ethnicity. Contemporary histo- rians of Canada continue to face the same problem: how to balance specific subjects with the vital necessity of recounting and explaining the national experience. The remarkable shift of the historiography away from the national theme has brought many new studies into the enlarging appreciation of readers of Canadian history. Now, greater understanding is available about ethnicity, family history, women, children, multiculturalism, class, labor, and culture. Not a few authors who have constructed “national” histories of Canada have found that their overabiding attention to the subthemes has obliged them, in subsequent editions of their work (and in answer to their critics), to address the national themes, the national story.

In following these trends, preoccupations, and fashions, I can only say how grateful I am to the Canadian Historical Review for its ongo- ing bibliography of historical works and its extensive book review sec- tion. These alone allow students of Canadian history a comprehensive place to begin the effective study of a subject that many feel has been hijacked by special interest groups.

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PREFACE • xi

In large measure, the study of Canada abroad is still in its infancy. On the world’s stage, Canadian history seems to be a best kept secret. Having lectured on Canada and its history in remote fields, such as Aus- tralia, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, I have inadvertently acquired sympathy for those inquisitive enough to want to know more about my country’s history and its peculiarities (which to some seem absurdities). For this reason, I have sought to provide helpful descriptions for the outsider when these are called for. This book, which rests heavily on the previous work of others whose books are listed in the bibliography, is intended as a compendium of fundamentals and as a guide to a rich historical literature of a modern nation with a recent history of five centuries.

Many helped in bringing this project through various stages. I have relied on the advice of many in the shaping of this work, its parameters, and items and topics for inclusion. It is not possible to give thanks to each and every scholar, librarian, archivist, and institutional aide. Bruce Hodgins assisted with historiography, the late Peter Russell with sport, Terry Copp with Normandy, and Paul Summerville with banking and the Bank of Canada. Additional thanks go to Mike Baker, Katie Pick- les, Maria Tippett, and Walter Sendzik. I also thank John McCallum of Wilfrid Laurier University’s library for assistance in making the bib- liographical search less arduous and at the same time more complete. Electronic means have been employed to good effect in the preparation of the bibliography. Cameron Croxall assisted with articles on Inuit subjects. Elsie Grogan provided word processing help. I have relied heavily on Gerry Hallowell’s Oxford Companion to Canadian History, James Marsh’s Encyclopaedia of Canada, W. S. Wallace’s Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and Mel Hurtig’s The Canadian Encyclopaedia, as well as other guides listed in the bibliography. Above all, the multivolume The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, available online, is a perennial source of accurate information, authoritative bib- liographic entries, and prudent scholarly guidance, bringing as it does into print the remarkable lives of prominent Canadians.

Once again, the wise counsel and patience of the series editor, Jon Woronoff, is greatly appreciated. I have again the pleasure of thanking the late Robin W. Winks for suggesting that I undertake this book. If those who consult this work find their long-sought-after answers, and if their appreciation of the essentials of Canadian history is enhanced,

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xii • PREFACE

I shall be grateful. Not least, if Canadians confused by their own per- plexing national crisis shall have found some solace in the fact that their present state of affairs has been preceded by numerous variants of similar conundrums, I shall be eternally delighted. Notice of errors would be appreciated. I alone am responsible for errors of omission and commission.

In regards to nomenclature, the reader should note that, on editorial advice, I have chosen to use Great Britain rather than United Kingdom. When used collectively, western provinces specifically refers to Mani- toba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, though British Columbia is some- times but not always part of the collective. Atlantic Canada includes Newfoundland and Labrador, but the Maritimes includes only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Northwest Territo- ries has gone though numerous changes over time; in this book, I have employed the then current spelling.

Of all the terms in Canada, none is more confusing than Indian, which is not a correct term but still exists in Canadian administrative, legal, and constitutional language (Indian Act, for instance). I have used the term aboriginal peoples whenever possible. It includes three desig- nations in keeping with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)— Indian, Métis, and Inuit. (Once again, it will be noted, the term Indian is used—and in the Canadian constitution.) First Nations has also been employed, principally as an umbrella term for those who are members of the Assembly of First Nations, the powerful aboriginal lobby group. Readers will also find the use of Native, or native, an earlier replace- ment for Indian until such time as aboriginal peoples replaced it. For some university presses and scholarly journals in Canada, aboriginal is now accepted usage, but this adoption is not widespread, and aborigine is essentially an Australian term for indigenous populations there but will not do in Canada. One also sees in the historical literature of Canada the term indigenes. These points are brought up here to stress how unsteady are the terms in use.

The name Canada has gone through many uses, from the Iroquoian Kanata—meaning “a few houses up the river”—to the vast nation that now inhabits northern North America. At one time or another New France or Quebec was synonymous with Canada. And British North America after 1763 was the prototype of what was to follow in the Do- minion of Canada, or more commonly, Canada.

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PREFACE • xiii

This second edition provides the opportunity to include new entries while at the same time strengthening, updating, or modifying others. The political landscape has changed remarkably in Canada since publi- cation of the first edition a decade ago; in consequence, the introduction has been expanded, and many new entries are included to embrace as subjects the new and prominent political participants on the national scene. Areas of increasing attention here are the economy, including energy, manufacturing, banking, currency, trade, and welfare. There are more entries on social topics, including health care, unions, and Ameri- can Vietnam War resisters. There are also more entries on historians of Canada, and enhanced entries on Canadian historical literature. Cana- da’s military activities as a member of NATO’s forces in Afghanistan merit a number of additions, notably one on the Afghanistan mission. There are new entries on radio and television, transportation, and space. Architecture, art, film, music, and theater are new entries, too. Numer- ous new biographical entries are included. The bibliography has been expanded, strengthened, and updated. A section on Arctic sovereignty and security has been added, as well as a guide to recommended read- ing. The bibliography now includes selected websites to guide users to documents, facts and opinions, and historical works, and to provide gateway access to official repositories as well as historical organiza- tions and institutes.

Barry M. Gough

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xv

ALTA Alberta APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation BC British Columbia BCATP British Commonwealth Air Training Plan BNA British North America CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CCF Cooperative Commonwealth Federation CEF Canadian Expeditionary Force CFB Canadian Forces Base CGS Canadian Government Ship CIIA Canadian Institute of International Affairs CNRail Canadian National Railway CPC Conservative Party of Canada CPR Canadian Pacific Railway CPRail Canadian Pacific Railway CRTC Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications

Commission CSA Canadian Space Agency CSIS Canadian Security Intelligence Service DEW Distant Early Warning DIAND Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development EU European Union FIRA Foreign Investment Review Agency FLQ Front de Libération du Québec G8 Group of Eight GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product HBC Hudson’s Bay Company HMCS Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship

Acronyms and Abbreviations

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xvi • ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

IJC International Joint Commission IODE Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire ISAF International Security Assistance Force JCPC Judicial Committee of the Privy Council MB Manitoba MP Member of Parliament NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NASA National Aeronautical and Space Administration NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NB New Brunswick NDP New Democratic Party NFB National Film Board NL Newfoundland and Labrador NFLD Newfoundland NORAD North American Air Defense Command NRC National Research Council NS Nova Scotia NT Nunavut NWC North West Company NWT Northwest Territories OAS Organization of American States OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-

ment ONT Ontario PC Progressive Conservative Party PEI Prince Edward Island PJBD Permanent Joint Board on Defense PQ Parti Québécois QUE Québec RCAF Royal Canadian Air Force RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCN Royal Canadian Navy RE Royal Engineers RMC Royal Military College of Canada RN Royal Navy SASK Saskatchewan UFA United Farmers of Alberta UK United Kingdom

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ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS • xvii

UN United Nations UNCLOS United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Or-

ganization U.S. United States of America YK Yukon

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C an

ad a

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Eastern North America, 1763

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N at

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Tr ib

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San Juan Boundary Dispute

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The Alaska Boundary

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Nunavut

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xxv

c. 875 Celt-Irish monks from Iceland possibly settle Cape Breton and are absorbed into the Mi’kmaq population.

1004–1005 Leif Ericson winters in Vinland (L’Anse aux Meadows, NFLD).

1005–1008 The brother of Leif (Thorwald Ericson) spends two win- ters in Vinland.

c. 1420 Basque whalers begin to hunt in the Labrador Sea.

1494 Treaty of Tordesillas awards Spain imperial control of Western Hemisphere other than Brazil (Portugal).

1497 24 June: John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) lands on Cape Breton and claims land for King Henry VII of England.

1504 First establishment at St. John’s, Newfoundland. Norman fish- ing village established on Avalon Peninsula.

1534 7 July: First recorded exchange between Europeans and native peoples. Jacques Cartier trades for furs with the Mi’kmaq. 24 July: Cartier lands at Penouille Point, St. Lawrence River, erects a cross, and claims land for the King François I of France.

1558 First settlers arrive aboard brig Hawke in Trinity, Newfound- land.

1583 5 August: Sir Humphrey Gilbert takes possession of Newfound- land for Queen Elizabeth I of England.

1598 French colony called La Roche founded on Sable Island.

1603 Samuel de Champlain’s first voyage to Canada.

Chronology

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xxvi • CHRONOLOGY

1605 1 August: French colony of Port Royal established along Bay of Fundy.

1608 3 July: Champlain founds settlement at Québec.

1609 First contact between the French in New France and the (Wen- dat) Huron peoples. 30 July: Champlain assists Huron and allies in defeating Iroquois on the shores of Lake Champlain.

1610 14–19 June: Champlain and Huron and Algonquin allies defeat an Iroquois party at Richelieu River.

1610–11 Henry Hudson in the ship Discovery winters in James Bay. Champlain sends trading explorer Étienne Brûlé to winter among Hu- ron.

1613 July: Port Royal, Bay of Fundy, attacked and burned by Samuel Argall, on orders from Governor Dale of Virginia; first English expedi- tion against Acadia.

1619 August: Ill-fated expedition of Jens Munck, sailing for King of Denmark, reaches Churchill River, Hudson Bay, and winters; finds no Northwest Passage.

1621 James I of England grants Acadia to Sir William Alexander.

1622 July: First Scots colonists arrive in Nova Scotia.

1625 June: First Jesuit missionaries arrive in New France to bring Christianity to native peoples.

1627 Compagnie des Cent-Associés founded under French crown protection to colonize New France under corporate monopoly.

1629 19 July: English captain, David Kirke, captures Québec;

1632 29 March: Québec with Port Royal returned to France by Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye.

1639 Smallpox epidemic sweeps through St. Lawrence Valley; Al- gonquin and Huron nations suffer substantial losses.

1642 Fort Richelieu built to protect southern approach to Montréal.

1644 March: Settlers near Montréal defeated by Iroquois.

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CHRONOLOGY • xxvii

1653 Iroquois make peace with French, ending destruction of Huronia and devastation of Huron peoples by war.

1660 May: Battle of the Long Sault, Ottawa River (near Hawkes- bury), between 16 French led by Adam Dollard des Ormeaux and 44 native allies and some 800 Iroquois; all French fighters in this battle are killed.

1663 Sovereign Council of New France created, and with it the first constituted civil and military government of the colony under specifi- cally royal auspices and regulation.

1665 30 June: France’s Carignan-Salières Regiment, 1,100 strong, arrives to defend New France; posts constructed.

1670 2 May: Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) chartered by King Charles II of England, subsequent to successful voyage of the Nonsuch and establishment of Charles Fort.

1673 Construction begins of French fort at Fort Frontenac (Kingston, Ontario).

1686 Expedition of de Troyes and Sieur d’Iberville marches from St. Lawrence River to Hudson Bay and seizes three HBC posts. 19 No- vember: England and France agree on neutrality pact to settle dispute over Hudson Bay.

1690 William Phips of Massachusetts leads force to Port Royal, which surrenders 21 May, and proceeds to Québec, but Governor Louis de Buade Frontenac puts up stout defense. D’Iberville, with three war- ships, enters Hudson Bay, raids Fort New Severn.

1692 22 October: Madeline de Verchères leads defense of family fort against Iroquois.

1696 4 July: Frontenac quits Montréal with 2,150 men to punish Iro- quois for attacks on settlements.

1700 8 September: Iroquois, Abenakis, and Ottawas agree to peace terms with governor of New France, Louis de Callières.

1701 Detroit established by Cadillac; Iroquois enter into great treaty of friendship with French.

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xxviii • CHRONOLOGY

1702–13 Queen Anne’s War (part of War of the Spanish Succession) sparks many raids and massacres. In 1710, English conquer Port Royal, rename it Annapolis Royal. In 1711, Adm. Hovenden Walker’s Royal Navy expedition fails to reach Québec.

1713 11 April: Treaty of Utrecht signed by England, France, and Spain. The treaty recognizes British sovereignty over Hudson Bay, Acadia, and Newfoundland. France retains New France, Île St. Jean (PEI), and the right to fish and use parts of the Newfoundland shore. Spain relinquishes claims to Newfoundland.

1735 French fortress Louisbourg (begun 1719) completed on Île- Royale, Cape Breton, and is considered strongest fort in America.

1749 9 July: Col. Edward Cornwallis establishes Halifax, a British settlement and imperial arsenal at Chebucto, Nova Scotia.

1756 Britain declares war on France, beginning Seven Years War (French and Indian War). 5 August: French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm forces surrender of British garrison at Oswego; British lose command of Lake Ontario.

1757 21 January: French defeat Maj. Robert Rogers and his Rangers near Ticonderoga in Battle on Snowshoes. July/August: French take Lake George and later Fort William Henry.

1758 26 July: British forces seize Fortress Louisbourg from French. 13 September: British capture city of Québec after battle on the Plains of Abraham.

1760 8 September: Articles of Capitulation of Montréal establish interim terms later sanctioned by Québec Act of 1774. 9 September: French surrender city of Montréal, ending French conquest of New France.

1763 10 February: British, French, and Spanish sign Treaty of Paris. The treaty places Canada under British sovereignty, outlines boundary of Canada that includes Great Lakes basin and stretches west to north- eastern bank of Mississippi River; new British colony is called Québec. 7 October: Royal Proclamation creates Province of Québec and recog- nizes certain rights of native peoples.

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CHRONOLOGY • xxix

1774 Québec Act passed by British Parliament.

1775 5 September: American forces led by Brig. Gen. Richard Mont- gomery and Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler from Crown Point invade Saint Jean. 31 December: American forces led by Col. Benedict Arnold at- tempt to capture town of Québec but are unsuccessful.

1776 Loyalists from American revolutionary war settle in Nova Sco- tia, Prince Edward Island, and Québec.

1778 Fur trader Peter Pond crosses Methye Portage and opens Atha- basca to Montréal-based trade.

1783 Treaty of Versailles, Article I, recognizes sovereign United States of America and defines first Canadian-American border.

1784 First Loyalists settle in Ontario; New Brunswick created as a province.

1785 Beaver Club founded in Montréal, with membership limited fur traders who have spent at least one year in the interior.

1788 John Meares, British trader, arrives at Nootka Sound, among the first of many sea otter traders.

1789 Nootka Sound Incident, when Spanish commandant seizes Brit- ish shipping, forcing diplomatic protests and threat of war; Spain backs down.

1791 10 June: Constitutional (or Canada) Act given royal assent in London for the division of Québec and creation of provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

1793 22 July: Alexander Mackenzie, first to cross continent north of Mexico, reaches Mackenzie Rock, Dean Channel, BC.

1811 3 May: HBC grants shareholder Lord Selkirk 116,000 square miles for Red River settlement.

1812 9 June: U.S. President James Madison declares war on Britain, beginning War of 1812.

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xxx • CHRONOLOGY

1813 September: Battle of Lake Erie (Put-in Bay) and subsequent retreat of British Army to Moraviantown. 5 October: death of Indian patriot and British ally Tecumseh.

1814 25 July: Battle of Lundy’s Lane, Niagara Peninsula, perhaps hardest fought campaign of land war. 14 August: Schooner Nancy lost to U.S. Navy at Nottawasaga, Upper Canada. 11 September: U.S. Navy defeats British forces led by General Prevost on Lake Champlain. 24 December: Britain and United States sign Treaty of Ghent to end War of 1812.

1816 19 June: Massacre of Seven Oaks, Red River; Cuthbert Grant and associates kill HBC Governor Semple and 19 of his men.

1817 Rush-Bagot Convention limits British and U.S. naval arma- ments on Great Lakes.

1818 Convention of 1818 between United Kingdom and United States extends Canadian-American boundary west to Stoney Mountains.

1821 After years of acute rivalry and bloodshed, Hudson’s Bay Com- pany and North West Company merge under name of the former.

1829 6 June: Shawnadithit, last known Beothuk, dies in Newfound- land. 29 November: Welland Canal completed, bypassing Niagara River and providing a waterway between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

1834 17 February: Lower Canada assembly adopts Ninety-Two Resolutions demanding constitutional reforms.

1837 16 November: Rebels in Lower Canada attack British troops after British government’s attempt to run province without consent of the Assembly. 5 December: William Lyon Mackenzie leads rebel force in Upper Canada into Toronto with hopes of capturing the city. 7 December: Rebels, led by Mackenzie, defeated in a half-hour battle by British forces at Montgomery’s Tavern, west of Toronto. Rebellions continue into 1838.

1838 8 December: Nils von Scholtz, who led group of American and other foreign invaders, hanged at Fort Henry, Kingston.

1839 11 February: Lord Durham presents British Parliament with his Report on the Affairs of British North America.

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CHRONOLOGY • xxxi

1840 23 July: Upper and Lower Canada merged into one province called Canada, governed through elected Assembly and appointed Legislative Council, under an appointed governor general. 10 August: First manned flight, by balloon Star of the East, at Saint John, New Brunswick.

1841 Kingston selected as capital of Province of Canada.

1842 9 August: Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed between Britain and United States; sets boundary between New Brunswick and Maine, at Saint John River.

1843 March: Fort Camosun (Fort Victoria), Vancouver Island, founded as HBC trading base.

1844 John A. Macdonald elected to parliament. 5 March: First issue of the Globe newspaper.

1845 19 May: Capt. Sir John Franklin begins third expedition to search for Northwest Passage, does not return.

1846 15 June: Oregon Boundary Treaty signed by Britain and United States, sets boundary along 49th parallel west of Rocky Mountains, leaving Vancouver Island in British hands and status of San Juan Ar- chipelago uncertain.

1849 19 January: HBC awarded charter to develop new colony of Vancouver Island. 11 October: Montréal citizens, including French Canadian liberals and English merchants, issue manifesto urging an- nexation to United States; parliament buildings in Montréal destroyed by Tory mob.

1854 6 June: United Province of Canada and United States sign Reci- procity Treaty. 27 November: HBC ships bring 75 English coal miners, wives, and children to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island.

1854–72 San Juan Boundary dispute results in British loss of San Juan Island to Washington Territory.

1857 26 November: Macdonald becomes premier of Province of Canada.

1859 Victoria Railway Bridge completed across St. Lawrence River at Montréal.

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1861 8 November: Trent affair prompts British naval and military reinforcement of British North America.

1862 Esquimalt, Vancouver Island, named British naval headquarters for Pacific Station.

1864 22 June: Tories and Reformers in Canadian Assembly form coalition led by John A. Macdonald and George Brown to unite British North America into one nation. 1 September: Delegates from maritime provinces and United Province of Canada meet in Charlottetown, PEI, to discuss possible union. 28 October: Delegates from Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island adopt Québec Resolutions, theoretical foundation for creation of Do- minion of Canada.

1866 7 March: 10,000 Canadian militia called out for protection against feared Fenian raids. 17 March: Canada-U.S. Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 repealed by United States. 31 May–2 June: Battle of Ridge- way, Ontario, forces Fenians to retire. December: Westminster Confer- ence of delegates from British North American provinces discuss terms of future confederation.

1867 Emily Howard Stowe becomes Canada’s first female medical doctor. 29 March: British Parliament passes British North America Act (BNA Act), providing for union of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada into self-governing dominion called Dominion of Canada. 1 July: BNS Act goes into effect with Sir John A. Macdonald as Can- ada’s first prime minister.

1868 22 May: Railway Act describes organization of railway com- panies, outlines regulations for operations, and provides possible sub- sidies for railways meeting certain government regulations. Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “the pen of Canadian confederation,” shot and killed in Ottawa by Fenians.

1869 22 June: Gradual Enfranchisement of Indians Act strips native women of their status if they marry non-Indians. 22 June: Rupert’s Land Act establishes provisional government of Rupert’s Land and Northwestern Territory when united with Canada, and calls for lieuten- ant governor to regulate affairs under law for the peace, order, and good government thereof. 11 October: Led by Louis Riel, the Métis of Red

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River prevent Canadian surveyors from entering Métis territory, begin- ning Red River Rebellion of 1869–70. 2 November: A Métis group led by Riel take control of Fort Garry.

1870 2 March: Thomas Scott of Ontario, an Orangeman, executed by Riel provisional government to show Canadian government that Métis of Red River are to be taken seriously. 15 July: Manitoba enters confed- eration. 24 August: Métis of Red River flee as military units under Col. Garnet Wolseley arrive and establish order; Riel flees to United States.

1871 8 May: Treaty of Washington signed between Britain and United States recognizes Canada’s boundaries, gives Americans free access to Canada’s inshore fisheries, and provides no compensation for Fenian raids on Canada. 20 July: British Columbia enters confedera- tion. 3 August: First Indian treaty negotiated by Dominion of Canada signed, under which Ojibwa and Cree of southern Manitoba surrender 43,250 square kilometers of their territory and receive reserves of land.

1872 Riel returns from exile to continue Métis crusade for rights. 14 April: Dominion Lands Act allows federal government to retain control of all public lands and resources in western Canada. 14 June: Mac- donald’s Conservative government passes Trade Unions Bill, workers allowed to be members of unions.

1873 2 April: Preliminary charges of bribery made against Mac- donald’s government, known as Pacific scandal, leading to royal com- mission. 23 May: North West Mounted Police (later Royal Canadian Mounted Police) established. 1 July: Prince Edward Island enters confederation. 4 July: Revelations of Pacific scandal imply Macdonald and Conservative government took bribes from Canadian Pacific Rail- way Company. October: Riel first elected to Parliament. 5 November: Macdonald and cabinet resign due to Pacific scandal; governor general places Alexander Mackenzie and Liberals in power.

1874 22 January: Liberals defeat Conservatives in election and Mackenzie forms first Liberal government in Canada.

1875 19 September: Supreme Court of Canada established but Judi- cial Committee of the Privy Council in London remains ultimate legal authority until 1949.

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1876 12 April: Parliament passes Indian Act placing natives in sepa- rate legal category as wards of the government. 1 June: Royal Military College of Canada opens in Kingston, Ontario. 10 August: Canadian Alexander Graham Bell invents telephone.

1878 17 October: Macdonald again becomes prime minister.

1879 14 March: Conservatives pass National Policy legislation.

1880 26 March: Attempted assassination of George Brown. 7 May: Indian Act of 1880 passed by federal government, formally establishes Department of Indian Affairs. 31 July: Britain transfers sovereignty of Arctic Islands to Canada. Alexander Tilloch Galt appointed first Cana- dian high commissioner to United Kingdom, Canada’s first diplomatic representative abroad.

1881 Parliament approves charter of new Canadian Pacific Railway.

1883 18 November: Standard Time, originated by Sandford Fleming, instituted in Canada.

1885 19 March: Métis establish provisional government in North West Territory; Louis Riel president of provisional government and Gabriel Dumont its adjutant-general. 26 March: Northwest Rebellion begins between Métis and Cree and the North West Mounted Police at Duck Lake, Northwest Territories (NWT). 12 May: Canadian militia defeats Métis at Battle of Batoche, NWT, ending Northwest Rebellion; Riel surrenders 15 May; Dumont escapes to United States). 7 Novem- ber: Last spike driven by Donald Smith at Craigellachie, BC, complet- ing Canada’s first transcontinental railway. 16 November: Riel hanged in Regina for high treason. 25 November: Rocky Mountains Park (Banff National Park) established. 27 November: Wandering Spirit and seven other rebel Indians hanged for murders at Frog Lake in April.

1886 4 July: Canadian Pacific Railway’s first transcontinental pas- senger train arrives in Port Moody, BC. 20 November: Royal Conser- vatory of Music incorporated in Toronto.

1887 28 April: North-West Territories Act specifies French be given equal status with English in government and courts of the NWT.

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1891 5 March: Last time Macdonald leads Conservatives to election victory. 6 June: Death of Macdonald, in Ottawa.

1893 27 October: National Council of Women formed. 27 Novem- ber: Montréal Amateur Athletic Association wins first Stanley Cup in hockey.

1896 6 July: Province of Québec’s boundaries enlarged to shores of Hudson Bay. 11 July: Wilfrid Laurier leads Liberals to election victory, becomes Canada’s first French-speaking prime minister. 27 November: Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior, unveils extensive immigration drive to populate prairies and elsewhere, favoring immigrants with farming experience.

1897 Klondike gold rush in Yukon commences.

1898 13 June: Federal government proclaims Yukon District a terri- tory, giving it separate status.

1899 30 October: Canadian contingent sails from Québec for South Africa to fight in Boer War.

1902 9 June: Boers defeated; end of South Africa war.

1903 Alaska Boundary Commission decides boundary between Can- ada and Alaska. 20 October: Grand Trunk Pacific operates Canada’s second transcontinental railway, first truly transcontinental railway, running coast to coast.

1905 1 September: Acts of parliament create Alberta and Saskatch- ewan as provinces.

1909 Halifax and Esquimalt naval bases transferred from Britain to Canada. 23 February: First flight in British Empire of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine at Baddeck, Nova Scotia, by J.A.D. McCurdy.

1910 4 March: Avalanche in Rogers Pass, BC, sweeps 62 railway clearing workers to their death. 4 May: Royal assent given to Laurier government’s Naval Service of Canada bill, beginning of Canada’s navy.

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1911 2 May: Hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls officially in- augurated. 22 September: Robert Borden becomes prime minister as Conservatives defeat Liberals in federal election.

1912 2 September: First Calgary Stampede.

1914 29 May: Liner Empress of Ireland collides with Norwegian merchant ship, death toll of 1,012. 19 July: Dust explosion at Hillcrest, Alberta, coal mine kills 189 miners. 4 August: Britain declares war on Germany, and Canada automatically enters World War I .

1916 6 February: Fire in Houses of Parliament, Ottawa.

1917 2 April: Commencement of Royal Flying Corps training at Camp Borden, Ontario. 19 May: Conscription for Canada. 14 April: Canadian troops capture Vimy Ridge. 12 August: Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop awarded Victoria Cross. 28 August: Parliament passes Military Service Act. Conscription riots in Québec. 6 December: Belgian munitions vessel explodes in Halifax Harbor, destroying large part of the city and killing more than 1,000. 15 December: Borden re- elected, forms Union government that is pro-conscription, with cabinet of Conservatives and Liberals.

1918 1 April: Riots in Québec against conscription. 24 May: Cana- dian women win right to vote in federal elections. 5 June: Canadian- U.S. agreement establishes air stations at Dartmouth and Sydney, Nova Scotia, to carry out antisubmarine patrols. 8 August: Canadian Corps, with Australian forces, crushes German divisions near Amiens. 9. October: Canadian Corps captures Cambrai. 11 November: Canadian Corps recaptures Mons. World War I ends with Armistice.

1919 17 February: First French Canadian prime minister, Laurier, dies. 15 May: General strike begins in Winnipeg, lasting more than one month. 6 June: Parliament passes Air Board Act creating board to con- trol aeronautical matters in Canada. 14–15 June: First nonstop trans- Atlantic flight, by Alcock and Brown, from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Ireland. 28 June: Canada as part of the British Empire signs Treaty of Versailles with Germany to end World War I.

1920 First exhibition of Group of Seven artists, at Art Gallery of Ontario. The Beaver magazine launched. 1 February: Royal North

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West Mounted Police and Dominion Police merge to become Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 3 April: Parliament orders organization of Royal Canadian Air Force. 10 July: Borden resigns as prime minister, replaced by Arthur Meighen.

1921 6 December: Mackenzie King becomes prime minister as Lib- erals defeat Conservatives.

1922 11 February: Canadian doctors Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin for control of diabetes. 28 June: National Defence Act passed, incorporating Department of Naval Service, Department of Militia and Defence, and Air Board. Also this year, Robert Flaherty’s film Nanook of the North issued.

1923 2 March: Canada and United States sign Halibut Treaty, first commercial treaty negotiated by Canada without participation of Britain. 1 July: Chinese Immigration (Exclusion) Act closes doors to Chinese immigrants, known as “Humiliation Day” in Chinese commu- nities; it is repealed in 1947.

1924 1 April: King’s Regulations and orders for Royal Canadian Air Force come into effect.

1925 30 January: Canadian Institute of International Affairs founded. 29 October: In federal election, Liberals lose majority status but King remains prime minister as Progressives support Liberals, giving Liber- als a functional majority.

1926 29 June: Liberal government collapses; Governor General Vis- count Byng asks Arthur Meighen of Conservatives to form government. 2 July: Meighen defeat on no-confidence vote after three days in of- fice. 14 September: King leads Liberals to victory and again becomes prime minister. 19 November: Balfour Report adopted by Imperial Conference, recognizes certain autonomous communities within British Empire, including Canada.

1927 2 March: Judicial Committee of the Privy Council awards Lab- rador to Dominion of Newfoundland, settling dispute between Canada and Newfoundland. 17 September: Canada elected to a nonpermanent seat on Council of the League of Nations.

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1929 29 October: Montréal and Toronto stock markets suffer worst crash in history; Canada enters Great Depression. 18 November: Tidal wave hits Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula, leaving its mark on 50 communities and killing 27 people.

1930 5 February: Cairine Wilson becomes first Canadian woman to hold seat in Canadian Senate. 28 July: Richard B. Bennett becomes prime minister after Conservative victory over King and Liberals. 20 September: Parliament passes Unemployment Relief Bill focused on public jobs to reduce effects of unemployment.

1931 11 December: Statute of Westminster enacted by British Parlia- ment clarifies powers of dominion parliaments and allows dominions full legal freedom. Canada requests that British Parliament retain power to amend BNA Act.

1932 1 August: Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) formed (forerunner of New Democratic Party), a socialist, political organization led by J. S. Woodsworth, Agnes MacPhail, and others.

1933 28 November: Newfoundland’s Assembly accepts Amulree Report in which status of dominion is reduced and Newfoundland is governed by British commission.

1934 3 July: Parliament creates Bank of Canada.

1935 28 June: Bennett’s Employment and Social Insurance Act receives royal assent and is dubbed the “New Deal” after Roosevelt’s New Deal in the United States. 1 July: Riot in Regina ends trek of “On to Ottawa” protesters. 5 July: Canadian Wheat Act creates Canadian Wheat Board. 14 October: Mackenzie King leads Liberals to victory over Bennett’s Conservatives. 15 November: Canada and United States sign trade treaty to lower tariffs.

1936 Canadian units fight in Spanish Civil War. 23 June: Canadian Broadcasting Act creates Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a national, publicly owned television system.

1937 10 April: Trans-Canada Air Line Act creates national airline in Canada; renamed Air Canada in 1965.

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1938 17 November: Canada, United States, and Britain sign trade treaty to allow easier access into each country’s markets.

1939 2 May: National Film Board established to promote Canadian filmmaking. 16 May: Beginning of royal visit to Canada. 10 Septem- ber: Canada declares war on Germany, entering World War II. 17 December: Canada signs agreement with Britain to develop air training in Canada for the Royal Canadian Air Force and other British Com- monwealth air forces.

1940 26 March: King and Liberals reelected with a majority. 25 April: Québec becomes last province to give women the vote in pro- vincial elections. 3 May: Rowell Sirois Commission completes study of federal-provincial relations, a landmark study of Canadian federalism. 18 August: Canada and United States sign Ogdensburg Agreement defense pact creating Permanent Joint Defence Board to deal with protection of North America. December: First Canadian-built corvettes depart for Britain, used as escorts in Battle of the Atlantic.

1941 7 December: Following Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declares war on Japan.

1942 26 February: Relocation and internment of Japanese ordered. 2 April: In nationwide plebiscite, Canadian people vote in favor of conscription. 11 May: German U-boat attacks two freighters in St. Lawrence River, first enemy action in inshore Canadian waters.

1943 30 April: Rear Admiral Leonard Murray, Royal Canadian Navy, becomes commander in chief of Canadian Northwest Atlantic with headquarters in Halifax. 10 July: Canadian troops land in Pachino, Sic- ily. 3 September: 1st Canadian and 5th British Divisions land in Reggio di Calabria, Italy; 8 September: Italy signs armistice with Allies.

1944 6 June: Units of Canadian Army, along with British and Ameri- cans, land at Juno Beach, Normandy. 16 September: Allied leaders meeting in Québec City to discuss prosecution of war include British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King. 23 November: Parlia- ment passes National Resources Mobilization Act to dispatch 16,000 conscripts to Britain.

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1945 21 February: Canadian troops capture German defense com- plex, the Siegfried Line. 7 May: German forces surrender to Allies. 11 June: King and Liberals reelected. 26 June: Canada joins 50 nations signing World Security Charter, creating United Nations (UN). 2 Sep- tember: Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.

1946 16 February: Liner Mauritania berths at Halifax, where 943 brides and children disembark. March: Gouzenko spy case exposed. 14 May: After Parliament passes Canadian Citizenship Act, a person born in Canada is to be recognized as a Canadian citizen in all countries, not as a British subject.

1947 13 February: Imperial Oil Company discovers Alberta’s Leduc oil field.

1948 8 August: King, longest-serving prime minister, announces retirement and Louis St. Laurent chosen as successor.

1949 31 March: Newfoundland and Labrador enter confederation. 4 April: External Affairs Minister Lester B. Pearson signs agreement creating North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), making Canada part of military alliance with United States, Britain, France, and oth- ers. 3 June: St. Laurent and Liberals successful at federal election. 16 December: British Parliament passes statute that provides Canada with power to amend the BNA Act.

1950 30 June: Canadian government supports UN policy in Ko- rea; Canada provides units of Royal Canadian Navy to participate in military activities during Korean War. 22 July: Former Prime Minister Mackenzie King dies.

1951 June: Indian Act revised by Parliament; Indian women married to non-Indian men excluded from provisions of the act. June: Massey Report completed on Canadian culture. 13 November: National Ballet of Canada opens.

1952 27 July: Korean War ends. 14 October: External Affairs Minis- ter Pearson elected president of UN Assembly. Also this year, Canada’s first television station, CBFT, begins transmission in Montréal.

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1953 2 June: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 13 July: Stratford Shakespeare Festival opens. 10 August: Liberals under St. Laurent defeat Progressive Conservatives under George Drew.

1954 30 March: Canada’s first subway opens in Toronto. 8 April: Construction of Pinetree radar line announced. August: British Empire Games held in Vancouver, highlighted by “Miracle Mile,” when Roger Bannister and John Landy first run the mile under four minutes. 9 September: Marilyn Bell, age 16, becomes first person to swim across Lake Ontario. 15 October: Hurricane Hazel sweeps through southern Ontario.

1955 17 March.: Montreal riot after Canadiens’ hockey star Maurice Richard is suspended. 5 May: Canada and United States sign agreement for U.S. to build Distant Early Warning network of radar in Canada’s north and Alaska. 5 May: Canadian Labour Congress formed.

1956 10 January: Parliament passes Female Employees Equal Pay Act guaranteeing financial equality to men and women involved in identical or substantially identical work. October: Collapse of Hun- garian uprising against Soviet authority; about 37,000 refugees subse- quently arrive in Canada. 4 November UN officially implements plan tabled by Secretary of State for External Affairs Pearson for emergency forces to be sent to Suez Canal to help find peaceful solution to crisis there.

1957 10 June: John Diefenbaker leads Progressive Conservatives to victory, ending 22-year federal reign of Liberals. 21 June: Diefenbaker appoints Canada’s first female cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough. 12 September: Canada and United States sign air defense agreement for North America, creating the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). 14 October: Pearson receives Nobel Peace Prize for his peace plan in Suez Canal crisis.

1958 31 March: Diefenbaker and Progressive Conservatives re- elected. 24 October: Nova Scotia mining disaster.

1959 20 February: Avro Arrow (A.V. Roe’s strike fighter) project terminated by Diefenbaker’s government, with loss of 20,000 jobs. 26 June: St. Lawrence Seaway opens.

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1960 10 March: Parliament grants native peoples right to vote in federal elections. 22 June: Jean Lesage and Liberals elected in Qué- bec, initiating Quiet Revolution. 10 August: Canadian Bill of Rights enacted.

1961 17 January: Diefenbaker and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisen- hower sign Columbia River Treaty. 16 May: U.S. President John F. Kennedy visits Ottawa to beef up Cold War solidarity against Soviets but ruffles feathers. 3 August: New Democratic Party formed (replac- ing CCF), Canada’s third major federal political party; T. C. Douglas chosen as leader. 18 November: Saskatchewan becomes first province to legislate universal medical or health insurance. 31 December: Na- tional Indian Council formed.

1962 18 June: Diefenbaker and Progressive Conservatives reelected to a minority government. 1 July: Medicare introduced in Saskatch- ewan and opposed by striking doctors. 30 July: Trans-Canada Highway completed. 29 September: Canadian-built satellite Alouette launched into space by U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 22–28 October: Cuban missile crisis. 11 December: Last capital punishment and hangings in Canada, at Don Jail, Toronto.

1963 4 February: House of Commons votes no confidence in Dief- enbaker’s Progressive Conservative government; Diefenbaker forced to call an election. 8 April: Pearson leads Liberals to power with minority government. April–May: Québec separatists of Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) set off bombs in Montréal. April–May: Royal Commis- sion on Bilingualism and Biculturalism begins work.

1964 15 December: Parliament adopts new flag for Canada, a red maple leaf on a white background between two red bars.

1965 16 January: Pearson and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson sign automobile pact, American cars and car parts allowed to enter Canada duty free. 5 March: Lucien Cardin charges that Progressive Conservatives covered up spy and sex scandal (Munsinger Affair). 8 November: Pearson and Liberals reelected.

1966 21 December: Royal assent given to Medical Care Act, provid- ing Canadians universally with basic medical coverage.

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1967 27 April: Montréal hosts world’s fair, Expo 67, invigorating Canadian identity. 24 July: French President Charles de Gaulle visits Montréal, announces, “Vive le Québec libre!” and his early exit to France is requested by Government of Canada.

1968 20 April: Pierre Elliott Trudeau becomes prime minister after Pearson steps down. 25 June: Trudeau leads Liberals to majority gov- ernment. 15 October: René Lévesque forms Parti Québécois to push for a sovereign Québec.

1969 9 September: Official Languages Act makes English and French official languages of Canada.

1970 5 October: Terrorist group Front de libération de Québec (FLQ) kidnaps British Trade Commissioner James Cross. 10 October: FLQ kidnaps Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. 16 October: Trudeau invokes War Measures Act to counter FLQ terrorists. 18 October: Laporte found dead in trunk of car and FLQ takes responsibility. 3 De- cember: Cross released by FLQ. Canada’s last aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure scrapped.

1971 3 April: University of Toronto engineers help Apollo 13 astro- nauts return safely.

1972 28 September: Canada defeats Soviet Union in eight-game hockey series. 30 October: Trudeau and Liberals hold onto power, but Liberals and Conservatives receive same number of seats in parliament.

1973 12 December: Foreign Investment Review Agency (FIRA) es- tablished, to screen foreign business activities and intended take-overs.

1974 8 May: Trudeau and Liberal minority government defeated in no-confidence vote; Trudeau forced to call an election. 8 July: Trudeau and Liberals reelected with majority. 30 July: Québec’s provincial parliament passes legislation making French the only official language of Québec.

1975 24 March: Beaver adopted as national symbol by Canadian Sovereignty Act. 30 July: Liberal government creates Petro-Canada Corporation when global energy crisis increases oil prices alarmingly.

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1976 4 June: Canada declares 200-nautical-mile coastal fishing zone. 14 July: Parliament abolishes capital punishment. 17 July: 21st Sum- mer Olympics opens in Montréal. 15 November: Lévesque and Parti Québécois win provincial election.

1977 26 August: Québec’s provincial parliament passes Bill 101, creating Charter of the French Language, all children to attend French school unless one of their parents attended an English primary school. 6 September: Highway signs changed to metric system.

1978 15 September: Sudbury labor strike at nickel producer INCO begins, with catastrophic effects to community (ends 7 June 1979). 18 October: Allan Blakeney’s New Democratic Party (NDP) government in Saskatchewan wins third straight election.

1979 29 January: During Iranian revolution, anti-American actions in Tehran lead to cloak-and-dagger rescue through Canadian embassy. 22 May: Joe Clark becomes prime minister as Progressive Conserva- tives form minority government. 13 December: Clark defeated in no- confidence vote and forced to call election.

1980 18 February: Trudeau elected prime minister as Liberals gain majority; Jeanne Sauvé becomes first woman speaker of the House of Commons. 22 April: Canada votes to boycott Moscow Summer Olympics in response to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 22 May: In a referendum, people of Québec vote to stay with Canada by a margin of 59 to 41 percent. 27 June: “O Canada” adopted as national anthem.

1981 23 September: Québec bans public signs in English language. 14 November: Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System, the Can- adarm, used in space by NASA space shuttle Columbia.

1982 15 February: Ocean Ranger oil-drilling crew lost in storm on Grand Banks, worst marine disaster in Canada since World War II. 17 April: New Canadian constitution becomes law as Queen Elizabeth II signs royal proclamation, final step in patriation process. The new constitution includes an amending formula to the British North America Act and provides Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

1983 Royal Commission on Equality in Employment recommends employment equity law. 23 December: Sauvé becomes first woman appointed governor general of Canada.

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1984 29 February: Trudeau announces retirement after 16 years in office. 16 June: John Turner selected as prime minister by Liberals following retirement of Trudeau. September: Pope John Paul II makes first papal visit to Canada. 4 September: Brian Mulroney becomes prime minister as Progressive Conservatives win electoral majority. 5 October: Marc Garneau becomes first Canadian astronaut in space, as part of a NASA mission on space shuttle Challenger.

1985 20 February: First test flight of American cruise missile over Canadian air space. 24 June: Air India jet explodes, killing 329, includ- ing 280 Canadians. 28 June: Bill C-31, amended Indian Act, reinstates pensions and confers status on descendants. 11 August: American ice- breaker Polar Sea passes through Northwest Passage without permis- sion of Canadian government.

1986 17 March: Prime Minister Mulroney and U.S. President Ronald Reagan sign agreement to deal with acid rain. 2 May: World’s fair Expo 86 officially opens in Vancouver, BC. 4 August: Canada imposes eco- nomic sanctions on South Africa as measure against apartheid.

1987 4 October: Canada and United States agree on terms of a free- trade agreement.

1988 February: Calgary hosts 15th Winter Olympics. 22 September: Prime Minister Mulroney delivers apology to Japanese in Canada for internment and other wrongs. 24 September: Ben Johnson sets world record in 100 meters and wins gold at Seoul Olympics; two days later he loses medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. 21 Novem- ber: Mulroney and Progressive Conservatives reelected with majority. 15 December: Supreme Court strikes down Québec’s French-only sign law. 18 December: Québec Premier Robert Bourassa uses section 33 of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “notwithstanding” clause) to enforce French-only sign law in Québec.

1989 2 December: Audrey McLaughlin becomes leader of New Democratic Party, first woman to lead national political party. 6 De- cember: In Montréal Massacre, 14 women killed by a gunman.

1990 25 January: Andrew Thompson, deputy chief economist for Royal Bank of Canada, indicates Canada in a mild recession. 21 May: Lucien Bouchard resigns as environment minister due to failure of

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Meech Lake Accord. 24 May: In Regina v. Sparrow, Supreme Court rules native rights cannot arbitrarily be restricted or abolished by governments. 31 May: Supreme Court rules that governments cannot unilaterally ignore treaties with natives. 23 June: Jean Chrétien elected leader of federal Liberals. 11 July: Mohawks in Oka, Québec, erect barricades to protest expansion of municipal golf course on disputed land. 25 July: Lucien Bouchard forms Bloc Québécois with MPs from Québec. 7 August: HMCS Halifax, first of 12 patrol class frigates, launched at Saint John, New Brunswick. 9 August: British Columbia reverses 117-year-old policy by acknowledging rights to aboriginal land title. 6 September: New Democratic Party of Ontario, led by Bob Rae, elected to a majority.

1991 1 January: Federal Goods and Services Tax becomes law. 22 January: Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, House of Commons passes motion to go to war with Iraq as part of UN coalition. 27 Febru- ary: Cease-fire announced in Persian Gulf War. 15 April: Canada agrees to send peacekeepers to Iraq-Kuwait border for a one-year UN mission. 17 April: Canada sends monetary aid to Iran to help with massive influx of Kurdish refugees. 12 June: Ovidi Mercredi, a Cree, elected by As- sembly of First Nations as national chief. 5 December: Senate assents to gun control bill that stiffens regulations on buying and storing guns. 16 December: Federal government and Inuit of NWT tentatively settle massive land claim deal to create a new territory called Nunavut.

1992 30 January: NASA’s space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth with Canadian crew member Roberta Bondar, the second space pioneer from Canada. 21 February: Canada joins UN peacekeeping coalition force to enforce a cease-fire in former Yugoslavia. 2 March: Canada sends 100 troops to Cambodia as part of UN peacekeeping force. 6 March: Commercial salmon fishing in Newfoundland banned for five years to stop depletion. 22 April: Gwich’in of Mackenzie Delta sign land claim settlement with federal government. 4 May: Plebiscite on proposed boundary to create Nunavut approved by NWT voters. 30 May: Canada backs UN trade sanctions against Yugoslavia to attempt to halt bloodiest fighting since World War II. 1 July: Canada celebrates 125th birthday. 13 October: Michael Ondaatje, Canadian novelist, wins Man Booker prize, for The English Patient. 24 October: Toronto Blue Jays first Canadian team to win World Series. 26 October: Charlotte-

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town Accord rejected in nationwide referendum. 30 October: Inuit, federal, and territorial leaders sign political accord for division of NWT and creation of Nunavut effective 1 April 1997. 15 December: Canada sends troops under UN flag to Somalia to assist in humanitarian relief. 17 December: Prime Minister Mulroney signs North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with U.S. President George H. W. Bush and President Salinas of Mexico.

1993 13 January: Major General Lewis MacKenzie retires from Canadian Armed Forces after completing mission that included leading UN peacekeeping force of 1,200 in war-torn Yugoslavia. 16 February: 1,200 troops of Royal Canadian Regiment deployed into devastated area of Sarajevo to escort UN convoys. 29 March: Catherine Callbeck becomes first elected woman premier of province as Liberals win landslide victory in Prince Edward Island. 15 June: Kim Campbell replaces Prime Minister Mulroney as leader of Conservatives. 15 June: Canada ends 29 years of peacekeeping duty in Cyprus. 31 August: A 500-year-old way of life in Atlantic Canada ends as federal government virtually closes East Coast cod fishing due to rapidly depleting stock. 14 September: Québec Premier Robert Bourassa retires from politics. 24 September: Canadian government lifts sanctions against South Af- rica. 25 October: Chrétien leads federal Liberals to landslide victory; Progressive Conservatives reduced to two seats, and newly formed Bloc Québécois becomes Official Opposition; Campbell resigns. 4 Novem- ber: Chrétien sworn in as Canada’s 20th prime minister.

1994 1 January: NAFTA comes into effect, bringing Mexico into partnership with Canada and United States to create world’s largest free-trade zone. 10 May: South Africa opens embassy in Ottawa. 20 June: Canada resumes economic aid to Cuba. 14 July: Canadian gov- ernment announces it will not take part in an invasion of Haiti. Septem- ber: In Québec provincial election, Parti Québécois (PQ) succeeds with platform calling for proceeding with separation from Canada.

1995 January: Canadian Airborne Regiment disbanded. March: Spanish fishing vessel Estai seized on Grand Banks, and North At- lantic Fishing Organization acquires enhanced regulatory powers. Jacques Parizeau resigns as premier of Province of Québec, and Luc- ien Bouchard announces intention to leave House of Commons and

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seek leadership of PQ. 2 September: Serial rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo found guilty as charged. 14 October: Alexa McDonough chosen leader of Federal NDP. 26 October: Cree and Inuit of Québec, by referendum, reject separation from Canada. 27 October: Montréal unity rally held. 30 October: “No” forces win Québec referendum by slim margin; Jacques Parizeau promises to “exact revenge” for loss. 31 October: Newfoundland passes constitutional amendment reforming school system.

1996 22 March: Nisga’a agree to land claim and self-government settlement. 28 May: BC’s NDP reelected under Glen Clark. Septem- ber: Guy Bertrand wins right to seek injunction preventing any further referenda on Québec sovereignty; Québec government then declares courts have no jurisdiction over such issues.

1997 31 May: Crowds walk newly opened Confederation Bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. 2 June: Liberals under Chrétien reelected in national election, with reduced majority. 19 July: Canadian fishing boats blockade Alaskan ferry at Prince Rupert, BC; diplomatic solution reached by Canadian and U.S. representatives. 17 November: Hibernia crude pumped from Newfoundland’s first offshore oil field. 25 November: Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group meets in Vancouver, with protests and demonstrations. 26 November: Justice Horace Krever’s report on “tainted blood” sup- ply filed in Parliament, cites neglect and mismanagement by authorities.

1998 January: Ice storm, “storm of the millennium,” batters eastern Ontario, southern Québec, Atlantic Canada, and New England, causing 24 deaths and at least $1 billion in damage.

1999 24 March: Four Canadian CF-18s join NATO raid on Serbian position in Prista, Kosovo, and areas north of Belgrade.

2000 1 April: Nunavut becomes Canada’s third territory. 27 Novem- ber: Liberals under Chrétien win majority in national election. Sep- tember: Pierre Trudeau’s death sparks outpouring of grief and national reflection. Stockwell Day elected leader of Canadian Alliance Party.

2001 U.S.-Canada Auto Pact ends. 20–21 April: Summit of the Americas, chaired by Prime Minister Chrétien, held in Québec City; representatives of 34 countries propose free-trade pact for Americas.

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11 September: Terrorists hijack four commercial airplanes, destroy World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, and attack Pentagon, bringing forth “war against terrorism” and later NATO military action in Afghanistan with Canadian participation.

2002 18 April: Four Canadian soldiers die in Afghanistan in “friendly fire” incident, sparking discussions of Canadian-U.S. military relations and command and control. June: G-8 initiative launched at Kananaskis, Alberta, for clean-up of world nuclear sites. 10 December: Parliament ratifies Kyoto Protocol, which calls for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5.2 percent by 2012; later abandoned as govern- ment policy.

2003 April: Jean Charest forms Liberal government after electoral defeat of Bernard Landry’s Parti Québécois. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) arrived in Canada from China, provoking health care emergency in Ontario. 10 June: Same-sex couples get legal right to marry in Ontario by Ontario court ruling; first gay marriage takes place same day. 15 October: Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance establish Conservative Party of Canada. Canadian parliament decides not to join U.S.-led coalition against Iraq.

2004 11 February: Auditor General of Canada, Sylvia Fraser, pro- duces scathing details against Martin government and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), prompting firing of Minister Alfonso Galiano and launching of inquiries. 28 June: 38th federal election returns Liber- als in minority government. Fire on board HMCS Chicoutimi, resulting in death of Lt. Chris Saunders, forces government inquiry into sub- marine acquisition program. 23 November: Federal cabinet approves extension of 2002 agreement with U.S. on mutual military assistance. Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew authorized to sign official ex- change of notes with United States to improve bilateral security through enhanced military cooperation with respect to maritime, land, and civil support functions.

2005 27 January: Government of Canada agrees with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador on sharing off-shore oil revenues, an eight-year term to be renegotiated on expiry. Also this year: Senate ap- proves bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Commission set up to inquire into “Sponsorship scandal” later ends with inconclusive action.

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2006 Toronto Seventeen arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. 23 January: In federal election, Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government defeated, ending years of Liberal government. Stephen Harper, Conservative Party of Canada, forms minority government, becomes Canada’s 22nd prime minister. February: Canada’s combat infantry force begins operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan, against Tali- ban in effort to secure that province. Parliament extends Afghan mis- sion to February 2009. 13 September: Lone gunman kills one student and injures 19 at Dawson College before being shot dead by Montréal police.

2007 13 March: Canada 2006 census data released, giving population as 31,612,897. 9 April: Queen rededicates Vimy Memorial.

2008 Global recession reaches Canada. 4 March: Progressive Con- servatives win eleventh straight election victory in Alberta. 11 June: Prime Minister Harper apologizes to aboriginal people for past wrongs. 14 October: In federal election, Conservatives improve standing in House of Commons though short of overall majority. December: Liberal-led three-party coalition seeking to defeat government in House of Commons is blocked when governor general grants prorogation of Parliament at prime minister’s request. Michael Ignatieff becomes leader of Liberal Party.

2009 Government of Canada announces spending package of $40 bil- lion for economic recovery, designed to counter job losses. Many Cana- dians’ retirement savings hurt hard in recession. Interest rates low, and unemployment higher than normal and of long duration. Stock markets recover by year end. 30 December: Prime Minister Harper announces prorogation of Parliament until 3 March, resulting in widespread pro- tests against suspension of parliament’s activities.

2010 13 January: Canada deploys Disaster Assistance Response Team, Canadian Forces, to Haiti devastated by earthquake. 12–28 February: Vancouver hosts 21st Winter Olympics. 25–27 June: G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto; demonstrations and riots.

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1

Introduction

Once on the margins of European empires, notably those of France, England, and Spain, then a focus of international rivalries and wars during the 18th century, Canada is now a nation that is front and center in world affairs. Geographical position between Europe and Asia would be enough to make Canada a party to all that goes on around it. But the forces of history have shaped its destiny in particular ways, forced it to a sudden maturity, and proclaimed it an actor (and sometimes reluctant leader) among the modern nations of the world. Canada’s emergence as a modern industrial nation, and as a key player in the resource, com- modities, and financial institutions that make up today’s world, shows many aspects of what ex-colonial powers have gone through—except that compromise and reform rather than revolution and revolt have been the cardinal historical features.

With a diverse people spread over vast areas, Canada today is a country struggling to maintain its national identity because of the looming shadow of the world’s preeminent power, the United States. At the same time, ethnic divisions continue to beset the country, oblig- ing politicians to be brokers and seekers of compromise to maintain fragile unions and harmonious relationships. Of unique status, perhaps in the western and certainly North American world, is the duality of the founding European peoples of Canada, the French and the English, now often redefined, colloquially, as the Québécois and “the Rest of Canada.” Some Québécois are Canadians; others are separatists. If that were not enough, indigenous or aboriginal peoples often referred to as First Nations claim, and struggle to maintain, legitimate authority and constitutional recognition. And this is not all. Above all are economic globalization and the continued progression of a multicultural society. This, it may be realized, has been and continues to be an arduous des- tiny. It may be also classified as an incomplete odyssey. Some would proclaim Canada a work in progress. But it is not that, surely.

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2 • INTRODUCTION

Canada’s historical experience is also unique in the effect of climate and geography on regional national growth and problems. The com- plexities of the changing relationship between French and English Ca- nadians is well known even to outsiders, though the French fact is often ignored by onlookers and even despised by them. This is a great pity, for Canada’s diverse founding peoples and systems of government, ad- ministration, and commerce are at once her strength and her resilience, if not a bulwark against Americanization. The hard realities and sus- tained myths about Canada’s relationship with the United States since the days of the American Revolution have only been reinforced with the passage of time, notably the aftermath of 11 September 2001. Even so, the growth of a Canadian political and cultural entity has never wavered for the majority of Canadians of whatever background, past or present. Canadians know that the Americans and the British have no monopoly on patriotism, and Canadians for all their modesty and forbearance are in fact proud of their country and fiercely independent. In a way, they have had good masters, or examples, to follow.

Odd as it may seem, Canada is ex-empire, and this in two fundamen- tal senses: first, it was formerly part of the French Empire and then of the British Empire, and second, it benefited from the disarray of the first British Empire when the United States became an independent power—the Loyalist tradition finding strong root in British American and Canadian soil. Yet, surely, there’s an oddity here. For the British Empire, or the second British Empire as it is sometimes called, had Canada (or British North America until 1867) as its keystone. Canada is, in a sense, an inherited empire. The observant student of Canadian affairs of a legal, historical, and constitutional nature will observe that Canada is an empire by another name: it has a centralized as well as a decentralized government system, has established a federation for the better government of the whole, and has territories (rather than prov- inces) which it administers in effect as colonies. Its judiciary supports this empire. It has fiduciary responsibilities for First Nations. Ottawa, the capital, is the new London. To maintain such a fragile creation or polity requires more than model constitutions nicely applied: and for this reason, Canada is a remarkable achievement, the result of the ac- cidents and causes of history and strife, and strangely enough, it offers a model for other federations, binational states, and multicultural societ- ies and nations. If one were to will such into existence, it could not be

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INTRODUCTION • 3

done. Hence the value of studying its unique and compelling history, a history not of great departures, florid rhetoric, and instant causes that shake the world, but rather, to repeat, one of accord and compromise, lack of haste, and sure action.

Historical influences, then, have played a prominent role in the emergence of Canada, first under French and British colonization, then as a dominion of the evolving British Empire and Commonwealth, and today as an actor on the world stage. The influences from the past that have molded and continue to direct the present-day political, social, and economic behavior of modern Canada have a complexity all their own, but it ought to be stressed that 1982 was a particularly important year for the nation, for in that year all constitutional ties with the United Kingdom, save that of the monarchy, came to an end. By this, Canada was at last master in its own house—“our lady of the snows,” Voltaire called her.

Canada is a North American country, state, and nation of primar- ily European background, population, economy, culture, and political organization. It is a European polity in the North American continent. In most respects, frontier circumstances have had little to do with the nature of the nation and how it is ordered and governed. It is one of the world’s oldest democracies and one of the world’s most successful federations—a remarkable combination. The last of the major self- governing states in the Americas to be decolonized, Canada has links to Europe, particularly to Great Britain, that remain deep and continuing. This is recognized in symbols of sovereignty, for the head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The Crown is represented in Ottawa by the gover- nor general of Canada and also in judicial and legislative practices and procedures. However, despite this constitutional link with an important past, Canada is governed at home by Canadians. Fiercely independent, Canadians have shaped institutions for their own needs. This is the story of Canada in the 20th and into the 21st century.

LAND AND PEOPLE

Surrounded on three sides by great oceans—the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic—and bordering the United States on the south and west, Canada is a North American nation in northerly latitudes. Canada’s climate

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4 • INTRODUCTION

varies from temperate in the south to subarctic and arctic in the north. Canada stretches from Middle Island, in Lake Erie, north to Cape Co- lumbia, Ellesmere Island; and from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, west to the Yukon-Alaska border. Canada has an area of 3,851,809 square miles, second only in extent to the vast territories of Russia. Canada shares an unfortified frontier of almost 4,000 miles with the United States. France’s islands St. Pierre and Miquelon, that lie immediately south of Newfoundland, are the focus of the largely latent Canada- France maritime boundary dispute. Another latent problem is a quarrel with Denmark over islands in the eastern Arctic adjacent to Greenland, and Canada’s resurgent interest in Arctic sovereignty makes this matter more than a smoldering diplomatic file in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Canada’s vast area is diverse in its regional geographical character- istics, varying from the high Arctic to the boreal or northern forest— all in northern latitudes, above 60 degrees north. From east to west, Canada also varies from the waters, islands, and peninsulas of Atlantic Canada—some of which are an extension of Appalachia—to the St. Lawrence Valley, the Great Lakes lowlands, the Canadian (or Lauren- tian) Shield, the Red River Valley, the Canadian plains and prairies leading to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the mountains of the Continental Divide, and the rivers, valleys, and sounds, or fjords, of the Pacific Coast or cordillera. Only 9 percent of Canada’s land is arable. At one time, Canada’s forests were richer than they are now, and in greater demand on the world markets. Today, one-third of the world’s pulp and paper is produced in Canada.

Rich in minerals (uranium, gold, copper, and nickel, to name but a few), Canada also has considerable deposits of potash and sulfur. Can- ada is also blessed with abundant fresh water; indeed, one-seventh of Canada’s landmass is water. The generation of hydroelectricity derives from Canada’s great rivers and watersheds. In addition, Canada claims North America’s greatest reserves of natural gas, principally in Alberta but also in Saskatchewan, BC, and Nova Scotia. It boasts extensive coal deposits and petroleum holdings (fluid and shale); petroleum also exists in offshore Newfoundland and Nova Scotia (Hibernia Field). Canada’s wheat lands of eastern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have a reputation as the granary of North America. Its beef and pork industries

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INTRODUCTION • 5

are the world’s leading, notably in beef cattle insemination and bacon production.

Canada also can boast of excellent harbors, of commercial and stra- tegic value. Halifax on the Atlantic, Churchill on Hudson Bay, Vancou- ver on the Pacific are three such, to which might be added St. John’s in Newfoundland, Saint John in New Brunswick, Montréal, Toronto, Thunder Bay in Ontario, the lakehead of the Great Lakes, and Prince Rupert, in northern BC. Canada’s rivers of prominence are the St. Law- rence, which drains the Great Lakes (all of which, excepting Michigan, are shared by Canada with the United States), the Mackenzie, the Nel- son, the Churchill, the Saskatchewan, the Red and Assiniboine, and the Fraser and the Skeena. The Columbia River, important for hydro power generation, rises in Canadian lands, courses through BC, crosses the 49th parallel, and debouches into the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Or- egon. The Stikine River, which rises in the Yukon, flows to the Pacific through the Alaska panhandle. The Yukon River begins in Canada and flows through Alaska to the Bering Sea.

Canada’s population is approximately 34 million, making Canada only the 29th most populous country in the world. Its population is about the size of New York State or California. Its density of popula- tion is remarkably low by comparison to the United States or most Eu- ropean or Asian countries. Canada maintains a population growth rate of 1.06 percent (1996 estimate). In terms of origin it is, in percentages: British 40, French 27, other European 20, indigenous First Nations (Indian, Métis, and Inuit) 1.5, and other (mainly Asian) 11.5. In terms of religion, by percentage, it was by 1991 estimate Roman Catholic 45, United Church 20, Anglican 8, and other 27. But there have been steady if not rapid declines from these positions. The literacy rate, said to be 97 percent, is among the highest in the world. The rise of female university graduates and female entry into the professions has been a noteworthy development of the last decades.

If immigration was important in the making of the modern nation- state, it is equally important in the present state and growth of the country. A decline in birthrates and in the demand for labor necessitated aggressive immigration policies by the federal government so that the relatively rapid growth of population comes not from natural increase of its existing population but rather from immigration. Since 1960,

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6 • INTRODUCTION

Canada’s population has almost tripled. Immigration has been primarily from western Europe, notably Great Britain, and an upsurge of Orien- tals, notably Chinese and Koreans, began in the 1980s. Haitians went to Montréal and Jamaicans to Toronto. Chinese went to south Vancouver and East Indians, mainly Sikhs, went to Surrey, BC, and to Calgary. Middle-Easterners and North Africans arrived in increasing numbers in the 1990s. Civil distress, wars, and revolutions overseas brought Laotians, Vietnamese, Somalis, and various groups from the former Yugoslavia to Canada. U.S. immigrants to Canada have always been a small portion of the total number of newcomers, and the trickle north continues as an important force in the population increase but by no means a dramatic one. Immigrant families to Canada are known to be young in age, and immigration policy has favored family reunification.

Despite Canada’s abundant size and its comparatively small popula- tion, Canada has a population that is, according to economic indicators, immensely productive. On a per capita basis, there may be no more productive land or economy and, equally so, no people more blessed in resources, space, and productivity. Canada ranks seventh largest among the world’s economies, making Canada a member of the prized eight- nation economic giants known as the G-8. Today’s Canadian popula- tion is highly urbanized. The principal cities are Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. Cities of secondary importance in terms of size are Ottawa, Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, London, Halifax, and Winnipeg.

HISTORY

Canada’s history puzzles many outsiders, as it does naturally not a few who call themselves Canadian and live there. It features many unusual persons, various races and religions, businesses and empires, political parties and utopian experiments, and wars and social struggles. Cana- da’s history might best be seen as that of steps taken in the making of an unusual homeland. That history is, in its own way, a microcosm of world history and of international affairs in modern times, beginning with the Renaissance and Reformation. It dates to aboriginal times as well as to the eras of the Viking, Breton, and Portuguese mariners. Canada is arguably one of the most multicultural nations in the world,

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INTRODUCTION • 7

and in that sense one of the youngest nation-states, potentially perhaps the most promising. If outsiders consider Canadian politics and history dull or confusing, it is mainly because of a failure to appreciate the Canadian tendency toward accommodation and co-association. Conflict resolution is pervasive in Canadian society, and good manners and de- cency an invariable hallmark of personal relations.

Four continuities—imperial connections, two founding European peoples, federal-provincial relations, and a border with the United States—are to be found throughout the national experience, although the relative degree of importance of these varies from time to time. Similarly, the degree of importance of these continuities can vary widely from province to province and from region to region. These four strands of continuity underscore the predominant themes of Canadian history and the complexity of the nation’s past and its current historical legacies.

Historical Continuity 1: Imperial Connections

The first continuity is the connection to and devolution from the British Empire. Inasmuch as the creation of Canada as a nation rests on imperial projection of European power, first by France (and marginally Spain) and second by Britain (triumphant in 1763 in consequence of the Seven Years War), the relationships of French-speaking and English- speaking colonists to sovereign power and imperial structures of gov- ernment headquartered in Paris and London have been profound and pervasive. Such influences, now diminished to mere vestiges, declined rapidly after 1931. They may be said to have concluded on 17 April 1982, when the consolidated British North American Act of 1867 was “patriated,” that is, brought home or made native, by the Government of Canada. Concurrently, an amending formula for that same act was effected for the first time, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was brought into being. These were momentous days in the history of the Canadian constitution.

Until the Quiet Revolution of the mid-20th century, the Roman Catholic Church had a profound impact on the history of New France and Québec, especially in measures of community building, in societal integration and ethnic homogeneity, and in education, social welfare, and health care. Until 1763, French imperial institutions dominated

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8 • INTRODUCTION

Canadian life in New France. Thereafter, these continued as important legacies in civil law, the legalities of landholding, and the religious and educational institutions. Meanwhile, French Canadian society nurtured itself and expanded under a different, co-associational imperial power, that of Britain. Other parts of Canada, of Britannic stock, had a different sense of self and a different concept of identity.

The co-association of French and English in Canada was the first task that national politicians had to concern themselves with, besides looking after their local constituents. The balance was often difficult and ambiguous. Modern Canada grew up in an imperial age. Canada, the mother dominion, shared the sense of the British Empire’s power and global influence. Adherence to the tradition of a British imperial past may now be more sentimental than real. However, previous adher- ence to such values, particularly during the South African or Boer War, World War I, and World War II, showed Canada and Great Britain as the closest of allies. The current ties that bind are represented in Can- ada’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which indicates a rejection of isolationism and an affirmation of inter- national obligations for European stability.

Historical Continuity 2: Two Founding European Peoples

The second continuity of Canadian history is the interrelation- ship—more specifically, the friction—between the English and French in Canada. Separate entities developed side by side, although in business, government, and sport, both alliances and mergers were a way of life. Hostilities emerged long after the 1759 conquest and became pronounced in the 1820s, leading to the Rebellion of 1837 in Lower Canada and its aftermath. Education and language legislation restrictions induced feelings of confinement and discrimination. The conscription (the Canadian and British term for the draft) in the two world wars accentuated certain French fears that Canada was fight- ing British imperial wars. Later, rapid French Canadian population growth, gradual secularization of Québec, and growth of institutions in Québec (especially higher education) induced demands for greater powers for linguistic, educational, and provincial autonomy. The fed- eral government responded with a policy promoting bilingualism and biculturalism.

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INTRODUCTION • 9

In recent times, especially since 1976, discussion of separation has become an accepted part of Canadian political culture. However, more English-speaking people speak French than ever before, more school boards have “immersion” classes, and devolution of federal powers to provinces, including Québec, have negated many arguments for an independent Québec. However, the duality of the Canadian population is an ongoing feature of Canada. Not likely to disappear, the issue will reappear in different guises.

Historical Continuity 3: Federal-Provincial Relations

The third continuity of Canadian history is to be found in federal- provincial relations, or intergovernmental affairs as it is now called. The “Québec question” is one such major demonstration of the problem. Canada is a federation. That means that centralist views of what a fed- eration is—or might be—will vary from peripheral views of the same arrangement. “Double-image” federalism often reflects strong federal and strong provincial (or territorial) intergovernmental arrangements. Just about every province has called for greater provincial powers. Québec’s call is one variant of this; Ontario and especially Alberta and British Columbia have called for greater autonomy, especially over fis- cal matters.

Historical Continuity 4: The United States as Neighbor

The fourth continuity of Canadian history is the nation’s relation- ships to the United States. Living beside the world’s most powerful nation has had a profound effect on Canadian history. In colonial wars, especially in 1775 and 1777 during the American Revolution, and then again in the War of 1812, Canada was invaded by American armed forces. After the Peace of 1814, the continuing threat of American attack formed an important reason for British and Canadian defense preparations. The American Civil War and the Fenian (radical Irish nationalist) problems of the 1860s presented numerous cross-border and diplomatic problems. Anglo-American difficulties invariably had a side effect on Canada.

By 1914, such threats had disappeared. Allies in two great wars and in Korea, Canada and the United States established joint defense

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10 • INTRODUCTION

arrangements after 1940. The economies and transportation infrastruc- tures of the two nations are virtually merged, and this is evidenced in telecommunications, visual and print media, and automobile produc- tion. National security measures, including enhanced border security procedures, have been harmonized with those of the United States. Still, Canada’s foreign policy has attempted to steer an independent course as circumstances will allow. In the Vietnam War, for example, Canada maintained neutrality. In 2003, Canada did not join the “coalition of the willing” to wage war against Iraq. In peacekeeping, a separate and unique mode of foreign policy in keeping with United Nation objectives has been pursued by Canada. NATO obligations are being met through the Afghanistan Mission.

PERIODS OF CANADIAN HISTORY

For convenience, the history of Canada may be divided into periods: the colonial era to 1867; the national era, 1867 to 1914; national consolida- tion, 1914 to 1945; and the modern era, in three parts: 1945 to 1982, 1982 to 1999, and the new millennium: Canada since 2000. What fol- lows are brief profiles of these periods and a retrospective on Canadian history which comments on present directions and future prospects.

The Colonial Era to 1867

Prior to European exploration, Canada was inhabited by many differ- ent First Nations from the east coast to the west coast and in the Arctic. The native societies were far from primitive. At the time that Europeans began to explore Canada, in about 1000 CE, First Nations already knew much about the landmass and had adapted to the climate and weather of Canada. The natives of eastern lands incorporated agriculture, fishing, and hunting into their ways of life; those of western plains followed the migration patterns of the buffalo and other game. On the coasts, the natives relied on the seas as a means of subsistence. In their respective localities, they knew the rivers, lakes, and seas, and they had developed technological aids to assist in their travel. The birchbark canoe and the kayak are two important and well-known legacies, but to these could be added techniques for survival in the wilderness, such as tent making,

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INTRODUCTION • 11

berry collecting, and food dehydrating. Upon contact, European explor- ers were met by cultures that had adapted and incorporated the land into their daily lives. The explorers adopted many of these important aids to survival, and from natives they gained a greater degree of knowledge about the land they were exploring than they were prepared to admit in their writings.

The colonial era of Canadian history begins with the English claim to Newfoundland in 1583. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who made the claim, found Spanish and Portuguese fishing boats in St. John’s Harbor. British policy encouraged the fishery as a nursery of seamen, and until 1824 Newfoundland developed as an extension of metropolitan England. Settlement, though at first discouraged, brought desires for self-government, which was awarded by Britain in 1855. French claims to shoreline and inshore fisheries remained until 1906, but by 1713 English sovereignty was established over the island proper. The local indigenes, the Beothuk, died off by 1829, partly owing to diseases and to incursions by Mi’kmaq from Acadia.

At the same time that Newfoundland and Labrador were emerging as fishing stations of imperial importance, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island grew as places of colonization. Both of the latter began under the French flag. The French name for Nova Scotia, especially its western section, was Acadia. An important early colonization attempt by Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain at Port Royal marked the first Eu- ropean agricultural settlement on what is now Canadian territory. Under James I, the Scot Sir William Alexander received a charter to colonize Nova Scotia. In 1713, after suffering from colonial wars and pirate raids, Acadia passed into British hands—leaving Cape Breton and Île Saint-Jean (as Prince Edward Island was then called) under the French flag. Louisbourg was built as a French naval and mercantile base, and Halifax was founded as a British counterpart or counterweight to Lou- isbourg. In 1758, Louisbourg fell to British arms for the last time, and in 1763 British control was complete.

After the American Revolution, Loyalists came in numbers to the mainland or western segment of Nova Scotia, and the province of New Brunswick was created to serve local needs. The American Tory influence in this part of British America was profound and significant. Prince Edward Island, meanwhile, was established as a separate colony. Although much talk existed about a maritime union of these colonies,

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12 • INTRODUCTION

in association with Newfoundland, no such association came into being. Common needs for transportation and defense encouraged a closer as- sociation with the “Upper Provinces” of Québec and Ontario. However, strong particularities, oligarchies, and colonial capitals encouraged diversity, which remains as an important legacy of this period. Colo- nial culture remained closely tied to Mother England, though in some senses north-south links to New England contributed in another way to the separateness and diversity of these people in comparison to those of Newfoundland, Québec, or Ontario.

Québec claims the oldest permanent European colonization in what is now Canada, although this claim has been disputed. In 1608, Cham- plain established a habitation at the narrows of the St. Lawrence River, Québec. He is regarded as the founder of New France. “On arrival I looked for a place suitable to our settlement,” he recorded, “but I could not find any more suitable or better situated than the point of Québec, so called by the natives.” His men set to work clearing land, digging foun- dations and drainage ditches, and erecting a storehouse. The habitation, so called, had a stockade and moat for defense. Twenty-eight French- men, including Champlain, began the winter, but owing to the severity of that season and the scarcity of fresh food, a number died of dysentery and scurvy. When a mutiny plot was discovered, the ringleader was tried and hanged. But a beginning at trade and permanent occupation had been made. France had arrived in the New World in these northern latitudes, and the community grew, though frequently by fits and starts, into the anchor of French empire in America. Champlain’s place in early Canadian history is of prodigious importance, for from the nar- rows of the St. Lawrence River an empire grew to the west, north, and south—one with seemingly limitless possibilities though dependent for a time on sustenance from France, peace with rival colonial powers, and always, consent of the indigenous peoples.

From these early times, the fur trade was the engine of the colonial economy, the lifeblood of banking, commerce, and relations with native peoples. English pirates held Québec from 1629 to 1632, and raids by English colonists and British forces attempted to wrest the colony of New France away from Versailles. The Recollet, Jesuit, and Ursuline orders made vitally important contributions to religious development; they did so in missionary work as well as in settled jurisdictions. In other words, the wilderness as well as the town and parish saw the

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INTRODUCTION • 13

cross. In those days, the Church walked hand in hand with the State. All education came under their administration—and all social welfare, too. Settlement was developed under rigorous administration, both corporate and civil. The seigneurial system was a form of regulated frontier development, designed to open new lands to colonization and to encourage family growth. The system was not feudal as has been imagined. Rather, it encouraged strong family land ownership and it permitted transfer of the land title or occupancy. Moreover, and most importantly, it built a homogeneous society in the St. Lawrence Valley and immediate hinterland—a fundamentally important characteristic of the early history of Canada.

Not until 1763 did the king of France relinquish claims to sovereignty over Canada. That famous year, Québec passed officially to British sovereignty, though military occupation had began in 1759. It is impor- tant to understand that Québec’s subsequent prosperity and uniqueness depended on the duality of French Canadian resourcefulness and Brit- ish security, for in the years after 1763, a benign British policy allowed for the continuance of French civil law and Roman Catholic practices (including tithing), while at the same time British military capabilities prevented armed American revolutionaries from capturing the colony in 1775 and 1777.

By virtue of the (Royal) Proclamation of October 1763, the Prov- ince of Québec was declared as an administrative unit of British North America. The province did not include Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Rupert’s Land. From 1763 to 1791, when the British government divided the territory of Québec into Upper and Lower Canada, the governors in Québec answered to the ultimate will of Great Britain, its parliament and ministers, but largely and extensively directed the course of Québec’s destiny on the spot. This was especially true during the governorships of James Murray, Guy Carleton, and Frederick Haldimand. Carleton principally directed the growing autonomy of Québec by the terms of the Québec Act of 1774 (of which he was the architect). This act enlarged the province’s boundaries and trade and guaranteed its unique civil rights in law and religion. Administration of justice was little changed during this period. Concilial government was extended, and the ancient political and social patterns, developed during the era of New France, were extended and engendered. The year 1774 marked the establishment of a recognized

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14 • INTRODUCTION

distinct colony: with a French-speaking majority under Roman Catholi- cism and using French civil law. What they could not change—and, significantly, did not seek to change—the British government and governors embraced to their own benefit and that of the new Canadian subjects of George III. The Québec Act was unrevolutionary.

For 30 years, Québec grew and strengthened as a single unit. The American invasions during the American Revolution were resisted and thrown back, principally by British forces. French Canadian councilors, clergy, administrators, merchants, and seigneurs dominated the day-to- day workings of the province. Commerce, including banking and ship- ping, was almost exclusively the domain of the British. Further, British imperial legislation encouraged the fur trade in British hands, making the St. Lawrence River the entryway, or vestibule, to the continental interior. This measure was undertaken at the expense of the New York– based fur trade into the Great Lakes and Ohio country. Canadian canals and harbor installations were built to facilitate trade and overcome the geographical obstacles of the St. Lawrence above Montréal.

Many interpretations exist on the nature and historical meaning of the Québec Act. Bostonians claimed it was a means of raising Roman Catholics for a Canadian militia to attack Boston. To call it a “legal monument of British justice and generosity,” as Britannic-minded his- torian William Kingsford did more than a century ago, is equally incor- rect and wrongheaded. The Québec Act granted liberties but only in the sense of that age. Governor Carleton (later Lord Dorchester) was seek- ing to engender Québec’s population in its civic and political loyalties, and he thought in terms of imperial defense and good administration. In the circumstances, London released its tight control and ended the military regime, at the same time devolving administration to a prov- ince whose political, judicial, and economic structures were largely put in place in the two decades before the 1763 transfer of sovereignty. The quality of British administration contrasted sharply with the graft and corruption during the governorship of the Marquis de Vaudreuil and un- der chief administrator Francois Bigot. The Roman Catholic Church’s extensive (some thought it priest-ridden) power was enhanced with the rapid growth of the Québécois population, often called “the revenge of the cradle.” The conquest, the Québec Act, and the division of the Province of Québec in 1791 into Upper and Lower Canada have often been cited by historians of Québec, especially nationalist inspired ones

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INTRODUCTION • 15

and above all separatists, as measures of British imperial suppression. Those perspectives are false. The year 1791 was further proof of Lon- don’s desire to give integrity to its colonial jurisdiction administered in Québec City, and the representative form of legislative government introduced that year accorded exactly with the growth of such govern- ment in the emerging and diverse second British Empire. Using the conquest as a symbol of oppression is in contravention and denial of historical facts. Such repressive measures as were enacted by London and British governors date from a later period, the 1820s and 1830s and the age in which British ministers of state sought to reinforce crown and parliamentary authority in an imperial context at a time of revolutionary instability in post-Napoleonic Europe.

Throughout the first two centuries of Canadian history under Euro- pean influence, native peoples played a significant role in the balance of power in North America. Montagnais, Huron, Iroquois, and Ottawa (among others less prominent) shaped the course of history in the St. Lawrence lowlands and Great Lakes. But native numbers suffered be- cause of disease, displacement, and warfare; they also declined because of internecine rivalry and native diseases, many introduced even before European contact. Natives traded for guns and ammunition, liquor, tobacco, cloth, beads, and other commodities. In consequence, they became dependent on European traders. In their treaty making, agents of imperial powers did not always favor tribes, or kept them at odds with one another. Indians were the key to the control of the empire of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes area, and the northwest trade beyond Detroit, Michilimackinac, and Grand Portage. In fact, Indians held the balance of power in the interior; they were a decisive factor in France’s war against Britain in North America. When, about 1757, native al- legiance generally transferred to Britain, France lost its valued native help in North America. Indians acted out of self-interest; their roles and political stances were often paradoxical or ambiguous. The Iroquois fought first against the British, then against the French, their double intent to defeat both. Britain maintained that native alliance through the American Revolution and the War of 1812. After 1815, as native mili- tary support was no longer needed, Indians ceased to have such value to the Crown. This began an era of neglect or indifference.

In the American Revolution, Canada became the bulwark of the Brit- ish Empire in North America. Halifax, and Nova Scotia generally, was

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16 • INTRODUCTION

a key “anchor of empire.” So were Québec and Montréal, which were heavily fortified. In Nova Scotia, which had many New England family connections, there was much residual affection for the revolutionaries of Boston and New York, but no general overt action against the Crown occurred. Nor in the Province of Québec were there any armed risings against the Crown. American armed invasions in 1775 by Benedict Ar- nold and in 1777 by John Burgoyne were checked or stalled. Smallpox wasted Arnold’s army as well. The war had important consequences: Loyalists (refugees from republicanism) came in heavy numbers to British North America. This, in turn, necessitated constitutional change: the establishment of New Brunswick and Upper Canada (now Ontario) as colonies or provinces.

The War of 1812 saw a continuance of British dominance in Québec and the failure of assault from the United States. Upper Canada was a battleground between U.S. and Canadian armed forces. Struggles for command of the Great Lakes continued, and favored the Americans. But the peace of 1814 showed no changes to the boundaries. Québec remained untouched.

In the internal affairs of Québec, two features are noteworthy: the evolution of the seigneurial system of landholding, a quasi-feudal ar- rangement that allowed for patterned communities; and the prevalence of the Roman Catholic Church and other French institutions, including language and schools. Britain had no desire to live by the sword. As the French-speaking population grew, which it did rapidly in the early 19th century, so did indigenous desires for colonial self-government. Constitutional measures and means of government as instituted by the British government were manipulated by the English minority, sowing seeds of discontent and rebellion. Despite warnings of disaffection, the British ministry in London did not heed the rising storm signals, and in 1837–38 came the Lower Canada rebellion, the largest insurrection in Canadian history. Some of the rebels sought security by crossing the border to the United States. Many were caught, tried, and convicted. Some found guilty were shipped to Bermuda or to Tasmania. Others were tried and hanged. One of them, Chevalier de Lorimier, on the eve of his hanging in 1839, issued these words: “For [my countrymen] I die on the gallows like a vile murderer, for them I leave behind my young children and my wife with no other support, and for them I die shouting ‘Long live freedom. Long live independence.’” Those words echo down

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INTRODUCTION • 17

the years. As former Québec premier Bernard Landry said in 2009: “In- dependence and freedom of nations must be pursued until it is achieved. Nations that can be free have a duty to be. Québec can be, and it must do it. What Chevalier de Lorimier said in 1838, we can say today, and we will say it as long as [independence] is not done.”

In response to the rebellion, London intended remedial measures, including commissioning a new governor, Lord Durham, to inquire into the causes of disaffection and report accordingly. His report is regarded as a magna carta of the British Empire, for it encouraged colonial self- government without Britain in any way abandoning responsibilities for foreign affairs. Durham’s report had many other recommendations, including the introduction of municipal government and the encourage- ment of a distant federal structure of British colonies in North America. Eventually, in 1849, self-government was achieved by Lower Canada, or Canada East as it was then called. Meanwhile, Montréal and the Province of Québec had grown into a powerful focal point of Canadian politics and financial affairs.

Ontario grew out of, or more correctly was separated from, Québec in the year 1791. Loyalist settlers from the United States had settled lands on the north shore of the upper St. Lawrence and of Lakes Ontario and Erie. The freehold land tenure of Upper Canada set it apart from the distinct seigneurial system of landholding (leasehold) in Lower Canada. In addition, Upper Canada had a primarily English-speaking populace which, equally, set it aside from that of Québec. Events of the War of 1812 reinforced anti-American sympathies among the Upper Canada population. Upper Canada was renamed Canada West in 1840, and for a time Canada West and Canada East formed a sort of double govern- ment of co-association. Meanwhile British settlers, mainly from Ireland and Scotland, arrived in Canada West in large numbers, on assisted passages from Great Britain. “Late Loyalists” arrived from the United States, taking up inexpensive lands. Religious diversity replaced an older Anglican oligarchy, and the struggle for public lands and educa- tion took on nonsectarian dimensions out of necessity. Public schools and the university in Toronto (the colonial seat) responded to these nonsectarian requirements. British assisted immigration from Ireland and Scotland, sometimes called “shoveling out paupers,” brought thou- sands of impoverished, land-seeking immigrants to Canada, particularly to Ontario, and by dint of numbers mightily increased the non-Anglican

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18 • INTRODUCTION

nature of the original European population. Tensions between Roman Catholic and Protestant Irish were a by-product of this immigration. The first schools, public and private, were established in this period, and the first colleges and universities, too. The mid-19th century was thus profoundly important in Canada’s history.

The rapid growth of public schooling dates from approximately 1840 to 1870. Primary and elementary education became mandatory in most British North American colonies by 1846, with Ontario a national leader in English education curriculum development, teacher training, and learning materials production (especially primers, textbooks, maps, and atlases). By 1870, most colonies and provinces had high school, or secondary, education as a mandatory requirement for students up to age 16. Manual and technical training was in its infancy (apprentice- ship the route to tradesman qualification), and domestic science not yet thought of as a subject to study in schools. The centralized Ontario curriculum, the growth of hospitals and health clinics, the founding of institutions for the insane and criminally insane, and the establishment of orphanages and systems of child welfare followed a general trend of foundation and then expansion. But demand outdistanced supply, and in the late 19th century, despite the emergence of many volunteer orga- nizations that had responded to societal needs, the population’s needs remained great. A public awareness of social and health needs emerged from this time, aided by a largely publicly funded, publicly conscious system of education from primary through elementary and then through high school years.

Throughout much of this era, the commerce of British North America depended largely on resource extraction and staple trades. Key among these were furs, fish, sawn timber, spars, gypsum, potash, and wheat. Later, shipbuilding became a major sector of the economy, most hulls being built for export sale. Railroad and canal development encour- aged Canadian exports. The infrastructure of ports was strengthened. Halifax, Montréal, Québec, and Toronto all emerged as important en- trepôts. Meanwhile, the Montréal-based North West Company (based on earlier practices of French traders) was succeeded by the Hudson’s Bay Company (founded 1670), and during the 19th century the fur trade persisted, though trade became more diversified by the company.