Riendeau A Roger E. Brief History of Canada
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA
x
distinct nations in the northern half of North America emerge. The
recent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has generated
increased interest in the similarities and differences between Canada
and the United States.
The book is divided into fi ve sections to refl ect the various stages of
Canadian development. The fi rst section (chapters 1–2)—“Exploring
the Northern American Frontier”—presents a brief overview of the
lesser-known presettlement era. For thousands of years, before the
North American frontier was politically divided into national domains,
the natural divisions of geography prevailed and the vast and varied
landscape, along with climatic conditions, virtually dictated the course
of social, economic, and political development. So long as the land
remained in a state of wilderness, the Native peoples were masters of
their own destiny, developing their distinct cultures and societies and
eventually serving as indispensable partners to unacclimatized European
explorers, traders, missionaries, and settlers. The serendipitous European
rediscovery of North America initially around the turn of the second
millennium and again in the late 15th and 16th centuries set the stage
for settlement and imperial rule.
The second section (chapters 3–5)—“The French Empire in Northern
America, 1608–1760”—focuses on the imperial competition between
France and Britain before a national distinction between Canada and the
United States became clear. The opening of a lucrative market for beaver
fur hats and coats in Europe in the early 17th century induced French
traders to explore the interior of North America via the St. Lawrence–
Great Lakes waterways and to establish colonies in Quebec and Acadia
(Nova Scotia). Early French colonial development was hampered not
only by warfare with the Iroquois but also by clashes between the fur
traders—who preferred to leave the land in its wilderness state—and
Catholic missionaries, who desired to spread Christianity by promoting
settlement. The establishment of a paternalistic and authoritarian style
of government and feudal social institutions within a North American
frontier environment ensured that New France would evolve unlike its
English colonial counterparts to the south and in relative isolation from
France. The westward expansion of the French fur-trading frontier by
the mid-18th century led to a military collision with the English-owned
Hudson’s Bay Company to the north and the embryonic American set-
tlement frontier to the south. The struggle for the North American
frontier was not settled on the battlefi eld so much as on the balance
sheet, as English willingness to protect the valuable thirteen colonies
xi
ultimately exceeded the French desire to sustain what the philosopher
Voltaire called “a few acres of snow.”
The third section (chapters 6–10)—“The British North American
Colonies, 1760–1867”— traces the adjustment of French colonists to
British rule, the growth of English-speaking settlement through American
and British immigration, the development of a staple-based economy,
and the establishment of British political institutions. As the pioneer
communities of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence regions developed socially
and economically, they came to demand greater political freedom just as
Britain was seeking to shed the burdens of empire in the late 1840s. The
prospect of independent survival and growth outside the protection of
the empire and in the shadow of the expansionist United States induced
the various British North American colonies to join forces to form a
nation under a constitutional framework that combined British parlia-
mentary democracy with American-style federalism. The marriage of
economic and political convenience that became the Dominion of
Canada in 1867 proved as diffi cult to arrange as it was to sustain.
The fourth section (chapters 11–15)—“The Foundations of Canadian
Nationhood, 1867–1931”—starts by explaining the nature of the
Canadian national constitution, the expansion of Canada into a transcon-
tinental nation from the Atlantic to Pacifi c shores, the origins of the
modern national political party system, and the implementation of an
economic development strategy known as the National Policy. The fi rst
three decades of Canadian nationhood were marked by the persistence of
regional and cultural confl ict, which refl ected the uncertainty and dis-
satisfaction with this bold national experiment. However, Canada’s eco-
nomic fortunes took a turn for the better in the fi rst three decades of the
20th century as millions of immigrants, largely from overseas, came to
settle on the western prairie wheat lands and in the eastern manufactur-
ing centers. The opening of the vast northern resource frontier was a
further boost to urban and industrial growth, in addition to promoting
closer economic ties with the United States. With economic and territo-
rial expansion came a growing national self-confi dence that demanded a
greater voice in the conduct of foreign policy, which had remained under
British control after Confederation. Britain’s decline as a world power
and Canada’s outstanding performance during World War I set the stage
for the achievement of full national autonomy within the new British
Commonwealth under the Statute of Westminster in 1931.
The fi fth and fi nal section (chapters 16–20)—“Affl uence and Anxiety
in the Modern Era”—follows the course of Canadian development from
the perilous 1930s to the present. The Great Depression brought pro-
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA
xii
longed and widespread economic and social distress and also altered
attitudes toward the appropriate role of the state in Canadian life. The
outbreak of World War II in 1939 dictated continued state intervention
as Canada impressively mobilized its own armed forces by asserting its
diplomatic and military independence from Britain and reinforcing its
continental defense strategy through alliances with the United States.
The postwar boom featured the rapid growth and diversifi cation of the
Canadian population in the wake of the resumption of mass immigra-
tion, the rise of the “welfare” state, and the emergence of Canada as a
“middle power” in an increasingly polarized world order. The so-called
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s brought Quebec’s growing sovereignty
aspirations to the forefront of national politics that were already divided
by divergent concepts of federal-provincial relations. By the end of the
century and millennium, the search for an elusive national unity con-
tinued, although Canadians could take pride in the many outstanding
achievements of its citizens and a level of stability and affl uence that
has been the envy of the rest of the world.
The story of Canada is about determined, opportunistic, and talented
men and women working together to overcome natural adversity and
obstacles in order to make valuable contributions to national and inter-
national progress. The evolution of Canada as a prosperous and peace-
ful community in the northern half of North America has been based
on a tolerance of diversity, whether expressed regionally, politically,
culturally, socially, linguistically, or religiously. Indeed, the sometimes
harsh and triumphant realities of the Canadian experience offer abun-
dant inspiration for an interesting and revealing portrait of a unique
land and its people.
The development of this book benefi ted from the assistance and
advice of several people, some of whom deserve special acknowledg-
ment. Heather MacDougall, my long-time colleague and friend from
the Department of History at the University of Waterloo, was a constant
source of encouragement and insight. Douglas Francis of the University
of Calgary, the coauthor of a major textbook on Canadian history,
offered his interesting perspective on the challenges of writing national
history. Miriam Grant, also of the University of Calgary, contributed
scholarly perspectives from the standpoint of a geographer. Dennis
Duffy, Cynthia Messenger, and Donald Boere, distinguished colleagues
at Innis College, University of Toronto, kept me in tune with the
Canadian literary, music, and arts scene. Special thanks should go to
Mary Kay Linge, senior editor at Facts On File, Inc., for her persistent
interest and patience in guiding this book to press. I am also grateful to
xiii
Sharon Fitzhenry and Richard Dionne of Fitzhenry & Whiteside for
their faith in the value of this book. Finally, for her unwavering sup-
port, caring, and love, I owe a greater debt than I can ever repay to my
wife, Diane Searles, to whom I dedicate this book.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
xiv
Acknowledgments for
the Second Edition
I
remain grateful to those individuals whose assistance and advice
I acknowledged in the fi rst edition of this book. In preparing this
revised edition, I again greatly benefi ted from the insights and encour-
agement of Professor Heather MacDougall, my long-time colleague and
friend from the Department of History at the University of Waterloo.
The advice of my colleague Professor Cynthia Messenger, the direc-
tor of the Writing and Rhetoric Program at Innis College, University
of Toronto, helped me to stay connected with my audience. Similarly,
Victor Chiasson, my former student at Innis College and now a school
principal and friend, offered advice that helped to relate the subject to
the audience. Special thanks go to Claudia Schaab, Executive Editor at
Facts On File, Inc., for keeping me on track and guiding this book to
press. Above all, I continue to be blessed with the constant support,
care, and patience of my beloved wife, Diane Searles, to whom I dedi-
cate this book.
xv
Introduction
W
hat is Canada? What is a Canadian? Efforts to answer these and
related questions have produced endless debates in political,
media, and intellectual circles, with no hint of consensus. In one of the
earliest attempts to defi ne Canada, George-Étienne Cartier, the leading
French-Canadian architect of Confederation, suggested in 1865 that the
impending union of the diverse and dispersed British North American
colonies “would form a political nationality with which neither the
national origin, nor religion of any individual, would interfere.” In
other words, Canadian nationalism was a unique political creation
that transcended cultural or social identity. A little more than a quarter
century later, Goldwin Smith, a former Oxford and Cornell University
history professor, somewhat more pessimistically agreed with Cartier,
arguing that “Canada is a political expression” artifi cially forced to
develop in defi ance of geographic and economic realities. In his book
Canada and the Canadian Question (1891), Professor Smith concluded
unequivocally that the struggling young nation could not possibly sur-
vive on its own and could only fulfi ll its destiny through a “reunion”
with the larger and more powerful United States: “The idea of a United
Continent of North America, securing free trade and intercourse over
a vast area, with external safety and internal peace is no less practical
than it is grand” (Smith 1891, 207).
As Canada overcame its early growing pains and prospered as an
independent nation in the 20th century, the search for a national iden-
tity continued in more optimistic, even if confl icting, terms. On the one
hand, critics of Smith offered an “imperialist” or “Laurentian” perspec-
tive, emphasizing the importance of Canada’s ties with Britain (and
earlier France) in the development of political institutions and a trans-
atlantic and transcontinental economy based on the St. Lawrence–Great
Lakes waterways and the Canadian Pacifi c Railway. In the fi rst half of
the 20th century, this perpective appealed to a population that was
predominantly of British origin and which still perceived Britain to be
the leading world power. By the 1960s, as the Canadian population
became more multicultural and as British power faded in the world,
this perspective still had appeal among those who feared that Canada
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA
xvi
was in danger of becoming a satellite of the burgeoning American
empire. On the other hand, more sympathetic to Smith was a “conti-
nentalist” or “liberal nationalist” perspective that focused on the North
American rather than European character of Canada and the primacy
of north-south linkages and direction of development over east-west
tendencies. The appeal of this perspective grew as the United States
rose to world power and as the Canadian economy and defense strategy
became more dependent on closer ties with its southern neighbor.
Attempts to make sense out of Canada and to tell its history have usu-
ally embraced one of these perspectives.
The limitation of traditional perspectives about Canada presented
by politicians, media pundits, and the intelligensia is that they tend to
underestimate the strength and resilience of a unique Canadian
nationality derived from a shared experience of the past and the will-
ingness to respond to the challenges of geographic limitations, regional
economic disparity, social and cultural diversity, political compro-
mise, and international diplomacy. The growing inclination of the
Canadian people to defi ne their own sense of national identity is evi-
dent in the recent response to the offi cial decennial census. Throughout
most of the 20th century, the Canadian government asked the popula-
tion to identify ethnic origins or nationality in terms of “British,”
“French,” or others (most commonly European). By 1991, however,
more than 1 million census respondents, representing about 4 percent
of the population, were rejecting the choices that they were being
offered and were writing in “Canadian” as their total or partially ethnic
origin. When the census was revised in 1996 to include “Canadian” as
a choice, 31 percent of the respondents, or nearly 9 million people, so
identifi ed themselves. In the most recent census of 2001, almost 40
percent of the respondents, or 12 million people, identifi ed Canadian
as their sole ethnic origin or in combination with other origins. It
would appear that Cartier’s “political” nationality has evolved into a
“popular” nationality.
In essence, Canada has survived as a distinct national community
since 1867 because its people, whether they are descended from the
Aboriginal, French, Anglo-Saxon, other European, Asian, African, or
Latin American cultures, have the collective will to recognize them-
selves as part of a common experience. Even those who have contem-
plated leaving the national community from time to time have been
reluctant to lose the benefi ts of being Canadian. The uniqueness of the
Canadian experience and its impact on the evolving national identity
becomes more apparent and appreciated as its story unfolds.
xvii
A Brief History of Canada, Second Edition is divided into 20 chapters.
The fi rst two chapters present a brief overview of the lesser known pre-
settlement era. For thousands of years, before the North American
frontier was politically divided into national domains, the natural divi-
sions of geography prevailed, and the vast and varied landscape along
with the climatic conditions virtually dictated the course of social, eco-
nomic, and political development. So long as the land remained in its
wilderness state, the Native peoples were masters of their own destiny,
developing their distinct cultures and societies and eventually serving
as indispensable partners to unacclimatized European explorers, trad-
ers, missionaries, and settlers. The serendipitous European rediscovery
of North America initially around the turn of the second millennium
and again in the late 15th and 16th centuries set the stage for settlement
and imperial rule.
Chapters 3–5 focus on the imperial competition between France and
Britain before a national distinction between Canada and the United
States became clear. The opening of a lucrative market for beaver fur
hats and coats in Europe in the early 17th century induced French trad-
ers to explore the interior of North America via the St. Lawrence–Great
Lakes waterways and to establish colonies in Quebec and Acadia (Nova
Scotia). Early French colonial development was hampered not only by
warfare with the Iroquois but also by clashes between the fur traders
who preferred to leave the land in its wilderness state and Catholic mis-
sionaries who desired to spread Christianity by promoting settlement.
The establishment of a paternalistic and authoritarian style of govern-
ment and feudal social institutions within a North American frontier
environment ensured that New France would evolve unlike its English
colonial counterparts to the south and in relative isolation from France.
The westward expansion of the French fur trading frontier by the mid-
18th century led to a military collision with the English-owned
Hudson’s Bay Company to the north and the embryonic American set-
tlement frontier to the south. The battle for the North American fron-
tier was not settled on the battlefi eld so much as on the balance sheet,
as English willingness to protect the valuable Thirteen Colonies ulti-
mately exceeded the French desire to sustain what the philosopher
Voltaire called “a few acres of snow.”
The following fi ve chapters explore British rule in North America.
They trace the adjustment of French colonists to British rule (chapter 6),
the growth of English-speaking settlement through American and British
immigration (chapter 7), the development of a staple-based economy
(chapter 8), and the establishment of British political institutions
INTRODUCTION
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA
xviii
(chapters 9 and 10). As the pioneer communities of the Atlantic and
St. Lawrence regions developed socially and economically, they came
to demand greater political freedom just as Britain was seeking to shed
the burdens of empire in the late 1840s. The prospect of independent
survival and growth outside the protection of the empire and in the
shadow of the expansionist United States induced the various British
North American colonies to join forces to form a nation under a con-
stitutional framework that combined British parliamentary democracy
with American-style federalism. The marriage of economic and political
convenience that became the Dominion of Canada in 1867 proved as
diffi cult to arrange as it was to sustain.
Chapters 11–15 describe the foundations of Canadian nationhood
from 1867 to 1931. Chapter 11 starts by explaining the nature of the
Canadian national constitution, the expansion of Canada into a trans-
continental nation from the Atlantic to Pacifi c shores, the origins of the
modern national political party system, and the implementation of an
economic development strategy known as the “National Policy.” The
fi rst three decades of Canadian nationhood were marked by the persis-
tence of regional and cultural confl ict that refl ected the uncertainty and
dissatisfaction with this bold national experiment. However, Canada’s
economic fortunes turned for the better in the fi rst three decades of the
20th century, as millions of immigrants—largely from overseas—came
to settle on the western prairie wheatland and in the eastern manufac-
turing centers. The opening up of the vast northern resource frontier
was a further boost to urban and industrial growth, in addition to pro-
moting closer economic ties with the United States. With economic and
territorial expansion came a growing national self-confi dence that
demanded a greater voice in the conduct of foreign policy, which had
remained under British control after Confederation. Britain’s decline as
a world power and Canada’s outstanding performance during World
War I set the stage for the achievement of full national autonomy
within the new British Commonwealth under the Statute of Westminster
in 1931.
The last fi ve chapters follow the course of Canadian development
from the perilous 1930s to the present. The Great Depression brought
not only prolonged and widespread economic and social distress but
also altered attitudes toward the appropriate role of the state in
Canadian life. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 dictated contin-
ued state intervention, as Canada impressively mobilized its own armed
forces by asserting its diplomatic and military independence from
Britain and reinforcing its continental defense strategy through alliances
xix
with the United States. The postwar boom featured the rapid growth
and diversifi cation of the Canadian population in the wake of the
resumption of mass immigration, the rise of the “welfare” state, and the
emergence of Canada as a “middle power” in an increasingly polarized
world order. The so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s brought
Quebec’s growing sovereignty aspirations to the forefront of national
politics already divided by divergent concepts of federal-provincial
relations. As the 20th century turned into the 21st, the search for an
elusive national unity continued, although Canadians could take pride
in the many outstanding achievements of its citizens and a level of sta-
bility and affl uence that has been the envy of the rest of the world.
The story of Canada is about determined, opportunistic, and talented
men and women working together to overcome natural adversity and
obstacles in order to make valuable contributions to national and inter-
national progress. The evolution of Canada as a prosperous and peace-
ful community in the northern half of North America has been based
on a tolerance of diversity, whether expressed regionally, politically,
culturally, socially, linguistically, or religiously. Indeed, the sometimes
harsh and triumphant realities of the Canadian experience offer abun-
dant inspiration for an interesting and revealing portrait of a unique
land and its people.
INTRODUCTION