Province of Canada

“ A plan by which it is proposed to ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever, the national character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national character which must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that of the British Empire; that of the majority of the population of British America; that of the great race which must, in the lapse of no long period of time, be predominant over the whole North American Continent. ”

“ Each province has a lieutenant-governor and a single legislative chamber, with a representation of four members in the Senate and five in the House of Commons of the Dominion parliament. The control of the public lands is retained by the general government on the ground that it has been responsible for the development of the country by railway construction and emigration. With the rapid increase of population, production in Canada also greatly increased ”

“ The great English colony which stirs the pages of more than two centuries of history has for its capitals such proud and notable cities as Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Halifax, and many others, to distinguish the progressive civilization of the region east of Lake Huron—the older provinces. But the Canada of the geographies of to-day is a land of greater area than the United States; it is, in fact, the "British America" of old. A great trans-Canadian railway has joined the ambitious province of the Pacific slope to the provinces of old Canada with stitches of steel across the Plains. ”

“ As each province has a legislature of its own to manage its local affairs, it is as if England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland had separate parliaments in addition to that at Westminster. Canada has thus become really a daughter-nation of Great Britain. The mother-land leaves her free to manage all her own local affairs.
For fuller details concerning Canada, her educational equipment and natural resources, see Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, MacKenzie, Yukon, Ungava, Labrador and Franklin. ”

“ The Parliament of Canada may from time to time establish new Provinces in any territories forming for the time being part of the Dominion of Canada, but not included in any Province thereof, and may, at the time of such establishment, make provision for the constitution and administration of any such Province, and for the passing of laws for the peace, order and good government of such Province, and for its representation in the said Parliament. ”

“ Having said so much relative to the coloured people of Canada, we will say a word as to Canada itself:—the Province of Canada extends over an area of 242,500 square miles, or 240,000,000 acres, consequently one-third larger than France, and nearly three times larger than Great Britain and Ireland, the settled portion is about 40,000 square miles, the entire population in the Canadas exceeds 2,500,000. That part of Canada east of the Ottawa river is called Lower Canada, the inhabitants are chiefly French extraction, in this part of the colony, 160,000,000 acres ”

“ The boundaries of Canada are, the United States on the south; the Atlantic Ocean, Labrador, and Hudson's Bay, on the east and north; and a wild and undescribed region on the west. This country is divided into two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada: the executive power in each province is vested in a governor; and a legislative council and an assembly are appointed for each, having power, with the consent of the governor, to make laws. In the legislative council of Lower Canada, there are fifteen members ”

“ That since the division of the Provinces the population of Upper Canada has increased much more rapidly than that of the Sister Province, a circumstance not less to be ascribed to the prevalence and influence of British Laws than to its superior climate and soil.
That your Petitioners, sensible that the prosperity of Upper Canada is daily increasing, view with alarm any chance of prospect of a change by which that prosperity may be checked or diminished, and they cannot but consider the proposed Union of the Provinces as a measure which must have such a tendency. ”

“ In truth, it is a queer, romantic Province, that ancient Province of Quebec,—ancient in store of heroic and picturesque memories, though the three centuries of its history would look foreshortened to people of Europe, and Canada herself is not yet alive to the far-reaching import of each deed and journey of the chevaliers of its early days.
Here, a hundred and thirty years after the Conquest, a million and a half of Normans and Bretons, speaking the language of France and preserving her institutions, still people the shores of the River and the Gulf. ”

“ The two old provinces of Canada, called Ontario and Quebec, were, with the two additional provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to form one dominion, under the name of Canada. Elaborate provision was made for the supreme government of the Dominion, with governor-general and council, a parliament consisting of a House of Commons running not more than five years, and a senate for life, with lieutenant-governors and special legislatures for each province. In 1870 the newly erected province of Manitoba was admitted to the Dominion, in 1872 British Columbia, and in 1873 Prince Edward Island. ”

“ The eastern provinces are Ontario and Quebec, which lie along the St. Lawrence River and its Great Lakes, and extend along Hudson Bay as shown on accompanying map. The central provinces are Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, which occupy the prairie area lying between the wooded region of eastern Canada and the Rocky Mountains. The western or Pacific province is British Columbia, which lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. Northern Canada is the territory lying between the northern limits of the eastern, central and western provinces, already mentioned, and the Arctic Ocean. ”

“ And it is thought—likewise correctly—that the great resources of Upper Canada, were that province too a State, would become greatly more available than they now are: its population would increase; its cities and towns enlarge; and every man having an acre of land, or a lot in a town in it, would become much better off than he is at present. ”

“ Ministers had for some time directed their attention to the subject, and on the 4th of March Pitt moved for leave to bring in a bill for regulating the government of Canada, and entered into a minute detail of every provision which he meant to propose. He proposed to divide Canada into two provinces, Upper and Lower, and to establish distinct legislatures; the division being meant to separate the parts which were chiefly inhabited by French Canadians, from those inhabited by more recent settlers. The legislature of each province was to consist of a council and house of assembly. ”

“ Once granted responsible government, and the liberty to make her own mistakes. Upper Canada went ahead. The population rose to 952,004 in 1851 and to 1,396,091 in 1861. Politically she found Lower Canada an uneasy yoke-fellow. The equality of representation, granted at the union, at first unfair to Lower Canada, became still more unfair to Upper Canada, as her population first equalled and then surpassed that of her sister province. The Roman Catholic claim to separate state-aided schools, at length conceded in 1863, long set the religious bodies by the ears. Materially the province prospered. ”

“ Lawrence and the great lakes, but light was breaking into the limitless area beyond, and as men’s visions widened, there came more movement and more unrest.
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We have no regular census of the two Canadas between the year 1790, when there was an imperfect enumeration of the inhabitants of the then undivided province, and the years 1824-5; but in 1800 the Lieutenant-Governor estimated the population of Lower Canada at 160,000, while in 1806 an estimate of 250,000 is given from another source, the population of Upper Canada in the same year being estimated at 70,000. ”

“ Such was the political system of Canada, while Canada was a province of France. Power was centralized, and the ordinary safeguards of freedom were wholly wanting. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions were placed in the same hands. There was not a shred of popular representation, there was not even a vestige of municipal rights.4 Canada was good for priests and, to some extent, for soldiers; there was room in it and a living for an agricultural peasantry, and for the trapper and backwoodsman, who was a law to himself. ”

“ It will thus be seen that in the cities of Canada, those in the Upper Section of the Province contribute less, in proportion to their population, than do those in the Lower Section; while in the rural parts, Upper Canada contributes a larger number for each 1,000 inhabitants than does Lower Canada. ”

“ For some years after the conquest, the form of government was purely military. It was, indeed, only in 1774, that two Acts were passed by the British government, one with the view of providing a revenue for the civil government of the Province of Quebec, as the whole of Canada was then termed, the other, called "The Quebec Act," defining the boundaries of the Province, setting aside all the provisions of the Royal proclamation, of 1763, and appointing a governing Council of not more than twenty-three, nor less than seventeen persons. ”

“ In each province there is a lieutenant-governor, appointed by the Dominion government for five years, an executive council, and a legislature consisting of only one house, except in Nova Scotia and Quebec where a legislative council appointed by the crown still continues. The principles of responsible government exist in all the provinces, and practically in the North-west territory. ”

“ In the state of mind in which I have described the French Canadian population, as not only now being, but as likely for a long while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control over this 741 province would be, in fact, only facilitating a rebellion. Lower Canada must be governed now, as it must be hereafter, by an English population ”

“ The French Canadians remained where they were. Most of the new Anglo-Canadians settled in the Maritime Provinces or moved west into what is now Ontario. A few settled in rural Quebec on lands outside the line of seigneuries. The Eastern Townships, that part of the province lying east of the Richelieu and nearest the American frontier, absorbed many English, Irish, and Scots, as well as a good many Americans who were attracted by cheap land. Ontario, or Upper Canada, received still more Americans, who were to be a thorn in the side of the British during the War of 1812. ”

“ The natural advantages of the Province of Upper Canada are inferior to none on this side of the Atlantic; there can be no separate interest through its whole extent. The British form of government has prepared the way for its speedy colonization ”

“ First were the Maritime Provinces, with western bounds touching the eastern bounds of Quebec, but in reality with the settlements of New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island separated from the settlements of Quebec by a thousand miles of untracked forest. Only the Ottawa River separated Quebec from Ontario, but one province was French, the other English, aliens to each other in religion, language, and customs. A thousand miles of rock-bound, winter-bound wastes lay between Ontario and the scattered settlement of Red River in Manitoba. ”