Canada's Founding Debates PDF
Preview Canada's Founding Debates
CANADA'S FOUNDING DEBATES Canada's Founding Debates is about Confederation - about the process that brought together six out of the seven territories of British North America in the years 1864-73 to form a country called Canada. It pre- sents excerpts from the debates on Confederation in all of the colonial parliaments from Newfoundland to British Columbia and in the con- stituent assembly of the Red River Colony. The voices of the powerful and those of lesser note mingle in impassioned debate on the pros and cons of creating or joining the new country, and in defining its nature. In short explanatory essays and provocative annotations, the editors sketch the historical context of the debates and draw out the signifi- cance of what was said. By organizing the debates thematically, they bring out the depth of the founders' concern for issues that are as vital today as they were then: the meaning of liberty, the merits of democ- racy, the best form of self-government, the tension between collective and individual rights, the rule of law, the requirements of political leadership, and, of course, the nature of Canadian nationality. Canada's Founding Debates offers a fresh and often surprising perspective on Canada's origins, history, and political character. JANET AJZENSTAT is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Mc- Master University. PAUL ROMNEY has been writing on Canadian history for thirty years. IAN GENTLES is Professor of History at Glendon College, York Uni- versity. WILLIAM D. GAIRDNER is an author and independent scholar interested in Canadian history and politics. This page intentionally left blank CANADA'S FOUNDING DEBATES EDITED BY JANET AJZENSTAT, PAUL ROMNEY, IAN GENTLES, AND WILLIAM D. GAIRDNER UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com First edition published as Canada's Founding Debates © William D. Gairdner 1999 Published by Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited Paperback edition © William D. Gairdner 2003 University of Toronto Press Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-8607-1 (paper) Printed on acid-free paper National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Canada's founding debates / edited by Janet Ajzenstat... [et al.] Includes index. ISBN 0-8020-8607-1 1. Canada - History - Confederation, 1867 - Sources. 2. Canada - Politics and government - 1841-1867 - Sources. 3. Canada - Politics and government - 1867-1873 - Sources. 4. Canada - History - 1841-1867 - Sources. 5. Constitutional history - Canada - Sources. I. Ajzenstat, Janet, 1936- FC472.C3542003 971.04'9 C2003-900684-0 F1032.C266 2003 University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). CONTENTS Maps vi Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 PART ONE WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT LIBERTY 1 Constitutional Liberty 13 2 Responsible Government 22 3 Parliamentary Government and the Upper House 77 4 Equality of Representation 103 PART Two WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT OPPORTUNITY 5 Economic Prosperity and Individual Ambition 123 PART THREE WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT IDENTITY 6 British or American? 167 7 British or Canadian? 200 8 What Is a Canadian? 229 PART FOUR WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT THE NEW NATIONALITY 9 Federal Union 261 10 Minorities and Minority Rights 327 PART FIVE HOW TO MAKE A CONSTITUTION 11 Consulting the People in Constitution Making 357 12 Direct Democracy: Pro and Con 420 Appendixes A The Quebec Resolutions 465 B The Legislators 473 C Afterword on Books 477 Picture Credits 483 Index 485 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS T HE EDITORS GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE the gen- erous assistance of the Donner Canadian Foundation in support of their research and in the preparation of the manuscript for publication. We thank Jeffrey L. McNairn for his invaluable help in assembling the Confederation documents of the Atlantic and western provinces and for his advice on crucial aspects of the pro- ject. Mistakes are ours alone. We gratefully acknowledge the help of archivists and librarians in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, and the provincial archives of the Maritime provinces and British Columbia. And we thank the students, spouses, and colleagues who traced historical references on the Internet and in libraries and searched the picture archives. To Don Bastian and to Rosemary Shipton we owe a special debt for the tact and skill they brought to the task of editing and designing this book. Canada's Founding Debates is a William D. Gairdner produc- tion. The conception, choice of researchers, and the energy behind the project are entirely his. In the winter of 1996-97 he read excerpts from the debates of 1865 in the legislature of the Province of Canada, and the idea blossomed. He wrote the Donner Canadian Foundation: "There is a book of passionate, interesting material to be assembled by scholars who know how to tease out the spirits of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Burke, Locke, and others who haunt these pages and point to the fascinating conflicts of political, constitutional, economic, and social opinion that were common fare in our founders' day and that echo still." From the beginning he envisaged the commentary as a "conversation with — ix —
The list of books you might like
