Rise to Greatness: The History of Canada From the Vikings to the Present

1150 Pages·2014·8.92 MB·English

by  Conrad Black

ALSO BY CONRAD BLACK
Render Unto Caesar: The Life and Legacy of Maurice Duplessis
A Life in Progress
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom
The Invincible Quest: The Life of Richard Milhous Nixon
A Matter of Principle
Flight of the Eagle: A Strategic History of the United States

COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY CONRAD BLACK CAPITAL CORPORATION
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a
retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying
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infringement of the copyright law.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Black, Conrad, author
Rise to greatness : the history of Canada from the Vikings to the present / Conrad Black.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-7710-1354-6 (bound). – ISBN 978-0-77101355-3 (html)
1. Canada – History. I. Title.
FC165.B53 2014 971 C2014-904644-8
C2014-904645-6
Published simultaneously in the United States of America by
McClelland & Stewart, a division of Random House of Canada Limited
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014944153
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for use of
copyrighted material.
The excerpt from “Canada: Case History: 1945” by Earle Birney is taken from One Muddy Hand:
Selected Poems, Harbour Publishing, 2006, www.harbourpublishing.com. Reprinted by
permission.
The poem “W.L.M.K.” by F.R. Scott has been reprinted with the permission of William Toye,
literary executor for the estate of F.R. Scott.
Cover and text design by CS Richardson
McClelland & Stewart,
a division of Random House of Canada Limited,
a Penguin Random House Company
www.randomhouse.ca
v3.1
To these dear friends, by agreement in each case, all of whom assisted me in different ways with
this book:
PAUL G. DESMARAIS (1927–2013)
PAUL JOHNSON
GEORGE JONAS
M. BRIAN MULRONEY
JOHN N. TURNER
GEORGE (LORD) WEIDENFELD
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgements
FOREWORD by Paul Johnson
INTRODUCTION
Prelude: “The Land God Gave to Cain”: Original Inhabitants and Early Explorers, 874–
1603
: C 1603–1867
PART I OLONY:
Chapter 1: Champlain, the French Monarchy, New France, and the Maritime Colonies,
1603–1754
Chapter 2: Carleton, American Wars, and the Birth of Canada and the United States. The
British Defeat the French, the Americans and French Defeat the British, and the
British and Canadians Draw with the Americans, 1754–1830
Chapter 3: Baldwin, LaFontaine, and the Difficult Quest for Autonomy from Britain
While Retaining British Protection from the United States, 1830–1867
D 1867–1949
PART II: OMINION:
Chapter 4: Macdonald and the World’s First Transcontinental, Bicultural, Parliamentary
Confederation. The Pacific Railway, the National Policy, and the Riel
Rebellion, 1867–1896
Chapter 5: Laurier, the Dawn of “Canada’s Century,” and the Great War, 1896–1919
Chapter 6: King and the Art of Cunning Caution Between the Wars, 1919–1940
Chapter 7: King and the Art of Cunning Caution in War and Cold War, 1940–1949.
From “Premier Dominion of the Crown,” to Indispensable Anglo-American Ally
R 1949–2014
PART III: EALM:
Chapter 8: St. Laurent and Duplessis, Canada as a Middle Power, and Quebec in Pursuit
of Autonomy, 1949–1966
Chapter 9: Trudeau, Lévesque, and the Quebec Crisis, 1966–2000
Chapter 10: A Force in the World at Last, 2000–2014
CONCLUSION: REFLECTIONS AND PROSPECTS
Photo Insert
Photographic Credits
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
T , and for the sixth consecutive publication, to Barbara
HANKS IN PARTICULAR
for her customary forbearance and to my close associate, Joan Maida, for
her patient and efficient help, and thanks also to Doug Pepper and Jenny
Bradshaw and their colleagues at Penguin Random House Canada.
Others who have been helpful are very numerous, including those to
whom the book is dedicated. Many can be deduced from the text as it
has been my privilege to know a large number of the personalities
prominent in the last fifty years of the narrative. I am deeply grateful to
all who have assisted me.
Foreword
W I C B that he should write a history of Canada, I
HEN SUGGESTED TO ONRAD LACK
knew that, if he accepted the idea, he would do it well. I had no idea
that he would do it so quickly. I should have known better. Black is a
man of decision. Once he has decided to do a thing, nothing is allowed
to stand in his way. Having agreed with me that a history of Canada was
needed, he set to. He was well, indeed superbly, qualified for the job. He
has been a successful businessman. He has been an outstanding
newspaper owner. He has been involved in politics at local, national and
international levels. He is wonderfully articulate, and a man who sees
things with remarkable clarity. Not least he is subtle.
I stress subtlety because the history of Canada is a study in
understatement. It is an enormous country, like the United States. But
whereas, in America, everything that happens is proclaimed from the
house-tops, printed in capital letters, painted in technicolour and
reverberates with blood and thunder, Canadian history rarely rises above
a whisper. Its story is fascinating but it is written in lower case. It has
produced many remarkable men and, increasingly, women. But in the
theatre of the world they seldom take centre stage. Its very size
underlines its character. Amid its huge prairies and limitless tundra, its
boundless wastes of ice-floes and frozen seas, the outstanding
characteristic is silence. One must listen, and listen hard. And what
emerges is paradox.
Canada is like one of those banks said to be too big to go bust. Its
sheer enormity saved it from outright conquest by any one state.
Wrested from its native population by Samuel de Champlain – whose