(1867-1913) Immigration and Industrialization

*success
In 1867, the new state—beginning with Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario—
expanded extraordinarily in less than a decade, stretching from sea to sea. Rupert's Land, from
northwestern Québec to the Rockies and north to the Arctic, was purchased from the Hudson's
Bay Company in 1869-70. From it were carved Manitoba and the Northwest Territories in 1870.
A year later, British Columbia entered Confederation on the promise of a transcontinental
railway. Prince Edward Island was added in 1873. Alberta and Saskatchewanwon provincial
status in 1905, after mass immigration at the turn of the century began to fill the vast Prairie
West (see Territorial Evolution).

Sir John A. Macdonald's Dream

*success
Under the leadership of the first federal prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and his chief
Québec colleague, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, the Conservative Party — almost permanently in
office until 1896 — committed itself to the expansionist National Policy. It showered
the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) with cash and land grants, achieving its completion in 1885.
The government erected a high, protective customs-tariff wall to shield developing Canadian
industrialism from foreign, especially American, competition. The other objective, mass
settlement of the west, largely eluded them, but success came to their Liberal successors after
1896. Throughout this period there were detractors who resented the CPR's monopoly or felt —
as did many in the West and on the East Coast — that the high tariff principally benefited
central Canada. Yet the tariff had support in some parts of the Maritimes.

Rise of Radical Nationalism

*success
The earliest post-Confederation years saw the flowering of two significant movements of
intense nationalism. In English Canada the very majesty of the great land, the ambitions and
idealism of the educated young and an understanding that absorption by the United States
threatened a too-timid Canada, all spurred the growth of the Canada First movement in
literature and politics — promoting an Anglo-Protestant race and culture in Canada, and fierce
independence from the U.S.. The Canada Firsters' nationalist-imperialist vision of grandeur for
their country did not admit the distinctiveness of the French, Roman Catholic culture that was a
part of the nation's makeup.
The group's counterparts in Québec, the ultramontanes, believed in papal supremacy, in the
Roman Catholic Church and in the clerical domination of society. Their movement had its roots
in the European counter-revolution of the mid-19th century. It found fertile soil in a French
Canada resentful at re-conquest by the British after the abortive Rebellions of 1837, and
distrustful of North American secular democracy. The coming of responsible
government in Nova Scotia and in the Province of Canada by 1850, and of federalism in the new
Confederation, encouraged these clericalist zealots to try to "purify" Québec politics and society
on conservative Catholic lines. The bulwark of Catholicism and of Canadien distinctiveness was
to be the French language. Confederation was a necessary evil, the least objectionable non-
Catholic association for their cultural nation. Separatism was dismissed as unthinkable and
impractical, in the face of the threats posed by American secularism and materialism. But a pan-
Canadian national vision was no part of their view of the future.
These two extreme, antithetical views of Canada could co-exist so long as the English-speaking
and French-speaking populations remained separate, and little social or economic interchange
was required. But as the peopling of border and frontier areas in Ontario and the West
continued, and as the industrialization of Québec accelerated, conflicts multiplied. The harsh
ultramontane attacks on liberal Catholicism and freedom of thought in Québec alarmed
Protestant opinion in English Canada, while the lack of toleration of Catholic minority school
rights and of the French language outside Québec infuriated the Québecois (see Manitoba
Schools Question). Increasing, social and economic domination of Québec by the Anglophone
Canadian business class exacerbated the feeling.

Prosperity and Growth

*failure
Economic growth was slow at first and varied widely from region to region. Industrial
development steadily benefited southern Ontario, the upper St Lawrence River Valley and parts
of the Maritimes. But rural Ontario west of Toronto and most of backcountry Québec steadily
lost population as modern farming techniques, soil depletion and steep increases in American
agricultural tariffs permitted fewer farmers to make their living on the land. Emigration from the
Maritimes was prompted by a decline of the traditional forestry and shipbuilding industries. The
Maritime economy was also hurt by the withering of bilateral trading links with the New
England states, due in part to Ottawa’s protectionist National Policy. Nationwide, from the
1870s through the 1890s, 1.5 million Canadians left the country, mostly for the U.S.
(see Population).

*success
Fortunately, prosperous times came at last, with the rising tide of immigration—just over 50,000
immigrants arrived in 1901, jumping to eight times that figure 12 years later. A country of 4.8
million in 1891 swelled to 7.2 million in 1911. The prairie "wheat boom" was a major
component of the national success. Wheat production shot up from 8 million bushels in 1896 to
231 million bushels in 1911. Prairie population rose as dramatically, necessitating the creation of
the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905 and the completion of two new cross-
Canada railways — the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern. Western cities,
especially Winnipeg and Vancouver, experienced breakaway expansion as trading and shipping
centres. Nearly 30 per cent of the new immigration went to Ontario, with Toronto taking the
lion's share for its factories, stockyards, stores and construction gangs. Both Toronto
and Montréal more than doubled their population in the 20 years before 1914.

Social Change, Government Expansion

*success
As Canada increasingly became an urban and industrial society, the self-help and family-related
social-assistance practices of earlier times were outmoded. The vigorous Social
Gospel movement among Protestants and the multiplication of social-assistance activities by
Roman Catholic orders and agencies constituted impressive responses, however inadequate.
Governments, especially at the provincial level, expanded their roles in education, labour and
welfare. An increasingly significant presence in social reform work was that of women, who also
began to exert pressure for the vote.

Through immigration, Canada was becoming a multicultural society, at least in the West and in
the major, growing industrial cities. Roughly one-third of the immigrants came from non-
English-speaking Europe. Ukrainians, Russian Jews, Poles, Germans, Italians, Dutch and
Scandinavians were the principal groups. In BC there were small but increasing populations
of Chinese, Japanese and East Indians. There were growing signs of unease among both English
and French Canadians about the presence of so many "strangers," but the old social makeup of
Canada had been altered forever.

Rebellion in the West

*failure
Meanwhile, there was a reduction in the extent of territories controlled by First Nations, and in
their degree of self-determination. In the Arctic, the Inuit remained largely undisturbed, but
most western First Nations and Métis people lost their way of life as white settlement, farming
and railroads encroached on much of their hunting lands. In 1869-70 in the Red River region,
and in 1885 at Batoche in Saskatchewan, there were unsuccessful armed Métis rebellions led
by Louis Riel (see Red River Rebellion; North-West Rebellion). During the second uprising some
Aboriginal groups were directly involved. Otherwise the settlement of the West was generally
peaceful — land was obtained in exchange for treaty and reservation rights for First Nations,
and through land grants to the Métis. Order was kept by the new, North-West Mounted Police.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

*failure
In 1896 the prime ministership of Canada passed to the Québecois Liberal Roman Catholic
Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He presided over the greatest prosperity Canadians had yet seen, but his 15
years of power were bedeviled and then ended by difficult problems in Canada's relationships
with Britain and the U.S.. During Laurier's tenure, Britain's interest in a united and powerful
empire intensified. Many English Canadians were swept up in Imperial emotion and Canadian
nationalist ambition, and called for an enlarged imperial role for Canada. They forced the
Laurier government to send troops to aid Britain in the South African War, 1899-1902, and to
begin a Canadian navy in 1910. In the same spirit came a massive Canadian contribution of men
and money to the British cause in the cataclysm of the FirstWorld War.
By then the Laurier administration had been defeated, in part because too many English
Canadian imperialists thought it was "not British enough," and because the growing nationaliste
movement in Québec, led by Henri Bourassa, was sure that it was "too British," and would
involve young Québec boys in foreign wars of no particular concern to Canada. But the chief
cause of Laurier's defeat in the general election of 1911 was his proposed reciprocity or free
trade agreement with the U.S., which would have led to the reciprocal removal or lowering of
duties on the so-called "natural" products of farms, forests and fisheries.
The captains of Canadian finance, manufacturing and transport excited the strong Canadian
suspicions of American economic intentions and, with their support, the Conservative
Opposition under Robert Borden convinced the electorate that Canada's separate national
economy and imperial trading possibilities were about to be thrown away for economic, and
possibly political, absorption by the U.S..

Canada Emerges on World Stage

*success
Yet the war also had a positive impact on Canada. Industrial productivity and efficiency had
been stimulated. Canada won a new international status, as a separate signatory to the Treaty
of Versailles, and as a charter member of the new League of Nations. And the place of women
in Canadian life had been upgraded dramatically. They had received the vote federally, primarily
for partisan political reasons. But their stellar war service, often in difficult and dirty jobs
hitherto thought unfeminine, had won them a measure of respect; they had also gained a taste
for fuller participation in the work world. Canadian men and women, on a much broadened
social scale, had been drawn into the mainstream of a western consumer civilization.

*failure
The war itself ushered in slaughter on an industrial scale, and Canada paid a high price. Among
the roughly 630,000 who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 425,000 were sent
overseas — witnessing the horrors of battlefields at Ypres, Vimy, Passchendaeleand elsewhere.
By the end, more than 234,000 Canadians had been killed or wounded in the war.

By 1919, the attempted shift to a peacetime economy was soon clouded by

high inflation and unemployment, as well as disastrously low world grain prices. Labour unrest
increased radically, farmer protests toppled governments in the West and Ontario, and the
economy of the Maritimes collapsed. Resentment over conscription remained intense in
Québec. The early national period of Canadian innocence was over.

(1919-1938) Labour Unrest and the Great Depression

*failure
Canada's population between the world wars rose from 8 to 11 million; the urban population
increased at a more rapid rate from 4 to 6 million. The First World War created expectations for
a brave new Canada, but peace brought disillusionment and social unrest. Enlistment in
the armed forces and the expansion of the munitions industry had created a manpower
shortage during the war, which in turn had facilitated collective bargaining by industrial workers.
There had been no dearth of grievances about wages or working conditions, but the demands
of patriotism had usually restrained the militant. Trade-union membership grew from a low of
143,000 in 1915 to a high of 379,000 in 1919, and with the end of the war the demands for
social justice were no longer held in check. Even unorganized workers expected peace to bring
them substantial economic benefits.

Labour Troubles
*failure
Employers had a different perspective. Munitions contracts were abruptly cancelled and
factories had to retool for domestic production. The returning veterans added to the disruption
by flooding the labour market. Some entrepreneurs and political leaders were also disturbed by
the implications of the 1917 Russian Revolution and were quick to interpret labour demands,
especially when couched in militant terms, as a threat to the established order. The result was
the bitterest industrial strife in Canadian history. In 1919, with a labour force of some 3 million,
almost 4 million working days were lost because of strikes and lockouts. The best-known of that
year, the Winnipeg General Strike, has a symbolic significance: it began as a strike by
construction unions for union recognition and higher wages, but quickly broadened to a
sympathy strike by organized and unorganized workers in the city. Businessmen and politicians
at all levels of government feared a revolution. Ten strike leaders were arrested and a
demonstration was broken up by mounted policemen. After five weeks the strikers accepted a
token settlement, and the strike was effectively broken.
Industrial strife continued, with average annual losses of a million working days until the mid-
1920s. By then the postwar recession had been reversed and wages and employment levels
were at record highs for the rest of the decade. Some labour militants turned from the
economic to the political sphere, becoming successful early in the decade in provincial elections
in Nova Scotia, Ontario and the four western provinces, and J.S. Woodsworth, the pioneering
preacher-turned socialist politician, was elected in north Winnipeg in the 1921 federal election.

Mackenzie King and the New Politics

*success
In postwar provincial elections, farmers' parties formed governments in Ontario, Manitoba and
Alberta, and in the federal election of 1921, won by William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberals, the
new Progressive Party captured an astonishing 65 seats on a platform of lower tariffs, lower
freight rates and government marketing of farm products.
These social protests declined by the end of the decade. Industrial expansion, financed largely
by American investment, provided work in the automotive industry, in pulp and paper and
in mining. Farm incomes rose after the postwar recession, reaching a high of over $1 billion in
1927. The political system also offered some accommodation. Most provincial governments
introduced minimum wages shortly after the war, and the federal government reduced tariffs
and freight rates and introduced old-age pensions. By the end of the decade the impetus for
social change had dissipated. Even wartime prohibition experiments had given way to the
lucrative selling of liquor by provincial boards.

Great Depression
*failure
But the good times of the late 1920s didn't last. In fact, they masked brewing trouble in financial
markets, and the coming trauma of the Great Depression. For wheat farmers it began in 1930
when the price of wheat dropped below $1 a bushel. Three years later it was down to about 40
cents and the price of other farm products had dropped as precipitously. Prairie farmers were
the hardest hit because they relied on cash crops, and because the depressed prices happened
to coincide with a cyclical period of drought, which brought crop failures and a lack of feed for
livestock. Cash income for prairie farmers dropped from a high of $620 million in 1928 to a low
of $177 million in 1931 and did not reach $300 million until 1939.
Disaster also struck many industrial workers who lost their jobs. Unemployment statistics are
not reliable partly because there was no unemployment insurance and so no bookkeeping
records, but it is estimated that unemployment rose from three per cent of the labour force in
1929 to 20 per cent in 1933. It was still 11 per cent by the end of the decade. Even these figures
are misleading: the labour force included only those who were employed or looking for work,
excluding most women. Those identified as unemployed were often the only breadwinners in
the family.

Sacrifice and Social Change

*success
As the previous war had, the Second World War reinvigorated Canada's industrial base and
elevated the role of women in the economy; women earned good incomes at jobs created by
the huge demand for military materiel, and also vacated by men going to war. More than a
million Canadians served full-time in the armed forces between 1939-1945, allowing Canada to
play a critical role in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Allied bombing campaigns over Europe, the
invasions of Italy and Normandy, and the subsequent liberation campaign in western Europe.
More than 45,000 Canadians died fighting in Hong Kong, Dieppe, on the Atlantic and across
Europe.
Canada's political landscape had been fundamentally changed by the First World War. During
the Second, many predicted another transformation. In 1943 the socialist Commonwealth-Co-
operative Federation (CCF) party, a product of 1930s political discontent, stood highest in new
public opinion polls. It became the official Opposition in Ontario in 1943 and in 1944 won
decisively in Saskatchewan. In Québec, Maurice Duplessis's Union Nationale recaptured power.
Federally, Québec's Bloc populaire retaliated against conscription in 1944. Once again it seemed
that the traditional Canadian party system would become a casualty of a European war.

Liberal Era Dawns in Ottawa

*success
In 1945, the Liberals added a new commitment to social welfare and Keynesian management of
the economy (see Keynesian Economics). Liberal welfare policies — including family
allowance begun in 1944, and unemployment insurance (see Employment Insurance), begun in
1940 — attracted many workers and farmers, and rebuffed the challenges from the CCF on the
left and the Conservatives on the right. Although the national Liberals continued to enjoy
support in all regions and from all economic groups, the CCF and Social Credit held power,
respectively, in Saskatchewan and Alberta throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, and Social
Credit governed BC from 1952 to 1972.

9 colossal Canadian failures

1. Ross Rifle: Arguably the biggest failure in Canadian history. The Conservative government of
Robert Borden selected the Canadian-made hunting rifle over the British Lee-Enfield for use in
the First World War. The Ross Rifle overheated if fired too much and jammed if exposed to mud,
like, say, from a trench, and the bayonet would fall off if you ran. It endangered thousands of
troops who relied on it in battle. It was, however, a great hunting rifle.

2. Habakkuk: This was an idea of Geoffrey Pike, an Englishman, but Canadian Liberal prime
minister William Lyon Mackenzie King invested $100 million (in 1942 dollars) in it. The plan?
Build ships out of a substance made of ice and wood pulp, things Canada has plenty of, to use in
the Second World War. Habakkuk aircraft carriers with payloads of hundreds of planes would
provide cover for invasions and convoys. You know, until they melted. A test ice ship was built at
Patricia Lake, Alta. It all came to an end when scientist killjoys explained that no one could make
enough “pykete,” as the ice-wood pulp mixture was called, in one winter for even a single ship.

3. Sprung Greenhouse in Newfoundland:This strange industry child of Progressive Conservative

premier Brian Peckford’s provincial government and Charmar Holdings Ltd. in the late 1980s had
the goal of bringing futuristic greenhouses, developed by Calgary businessman Philip Sprung, to
the rock. Supposedly capable of accelerating plant growth, the sprawling complex would
theoretically produce 4,000 tonnes of produce a year. Oh, scientists warned there wasn’t
enough daylight, but that didn’t stop the government from investing $14.5 million.
Newfoundland, fruit basket to the world? Um, no. The hydroponics plant failed almost
immediately. The province bought it out for $3 million and sold it for $1 to new investors. It
closed for good in 1990.

4. Vancouver’s first ambulance: In 1909 the city got its first ambulance. Everyone was very
excited. On its first trip with the city crew it ran over an American tourist at the corner of Pender
and Granville. He became the first patient transported in the ambulance.

5. Canada’s not-highest mountain: Canadian botanist David Douglas has a big tree named after
him, the Douglas Fir. He was also known for a long time as the man who discovered the tallest
mountain in Canada. In 1827, he named it Mount Brown after another botanist. Turns out
Douglas wasn’t even close about the height of the mountain. In fact, if he looked around from
that mountaintop, he would have seen other higher peaks all around. Still, for almost 70 years it
was called the highest peak in Canada. Douglas was a great botanist but not so much a good
surveyor.

6. Fast ferries: Glen Clark, the NDP premier of British Columbia in the late 1990s, had what
sounded like a good idea—bring shipbuilding back to British Columbia by creating a fast ferry
that would be trendsetting. The plan was for three ferries to be built at $70 million each. Even
with cost-cutting measures that crippled the fleet, the ships cost twice that much to build and
the program topped out at almost $450 million. By the time the Liberals came to power in B.C.,
the ferries were up for sale. They were sold for $20 million. Not each—for the whole fleet of
three.

7. Springmobile: Tom Doherty built a three-wheeled vehicle in Sarnia, Ont., powered by a big
spring. Designed to be a cheap substitute for the newfangled cars, his 1895 invention was called
the Springmobile by some locals. It would accelerate 3 to 5 kilometres an hour and travel about
two blocks. Then you’d need to get out and crank up the spring. It didn’t sell well and Doherty
switched the spring to an internal combustion engine. It was banned from use in town because
it was so loud it frightened the horses. He eventually got out of the car manufacturing business
and went into politics. He was somewhat more successful there, becoming mayor of Sarnia.

8. Cygnet II:Alexander Graham Bell was a smart guy but not all his ideas were winners. His idea
for the Cygnet II was to give his plane lift with tetrahedral kites, as in two wings that looked like
a wall of kites. He built a prototype at Baddeck, N.S., and Canada’s premier pilot J.A.D. McCurdy
had the honour of testing it on Feb. 22, 1909. The Cygnet II swanned around on the ice of the
frozen lake but there wasn’t an engine made that could get the 4,000 kites moving fast enough
to get airborne.

9. Townsend: Ontario in the 1970s had some problems. The Progressive Conservative
government of the day was being criticized for not dealing with the chronic housing shortage.
The solution, arrived at by provincial treasurer John White, was to create cities. One of these
was near Nanticoke and was called Townsend. In 1974, the province spent the equivalent of
more than $260 million in today’s money to buy 3,700 hectares. The population was supposed
to be 100,000 by year 2000. Today about 1,500 call it home.