National Unity in Canada: A Paradox

Marc Chartrand

HIST 3441

Dr. C.M. Davis

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What is unity? In a literal sense, unity refers to the quality of being united into one, marked with

integrity: “undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting”1. In the realm of history,

national unity exists in a sovereign state when the subjects of that state collectively identify with each other as

one people, and identify with their state as one single, national entity. National unity usually appears in countries

whose populations share a common language, culture, heritage, ethnicity, and share common interests, values,

and beliefs. Since the 17th and 18th centuries, the colonies which would combine to form Canada were marked by

a striking disunity, lacking almost all of the aforementioned characteristics. Interestingly, these features, which

resulted in intensified domestic strife, tension, and animosity amongst the colonies, were driving factors for

“national unity”, culminating in the formation of the Canadian nation with the Constitution Act of 1867. Canada,

then, can be seen as a national paradox.

In Destinies: Canadian History since Confederation, historian Robert D. Francis and his colleagues

explain that “in many cases the European communities in Canada began as pockets of settlement, independent

of one another, founded at different times, and with people of various European backgrounds”2 As these colonies

developed independently, they also grew apart from one another. Any efforts made towards the unification of

the Canadian nation in the decades leading up to the First World War can be classified as inherently futile,

regardless of whether or not they were made out of political trickery or in the spirit of national development and

Confederation. The only two senses of unity which were ever genuinely during these years were political and

geographical, not national. Disunity, however, was at the heart of Canadian political, economic, and social

dialogue of the early 20th century.

The fragile political and regional unity created in 1867 began to deteriorate in the 1870s and in the

following decade with the implementation of Macdonald’s National Policy. By 1880, sentiments that the

1 WordNet

2 Francis, xix
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fledgling union would soon fall apart were widespread throughout the nation3. There were serious doubts about

the potential for successful national development in the Maritimes where the rural economy “languished while

the West developed as a great agricultural area and central Canada became the heartland of industrial growth.”4

Industrialization in Eastern Canada was slow and painstaking. The Atlantic farmers could no longer compete

with the more favourable climate and fertile land further west. Modern technology, the invention of the steam

engine, and the assembly lines of mass production in Central Canadian factories sharply decreased the demand

for age-old Maritime industries. In New Brunswick, the staple industries of shipbuilding, foundries, and carriage

manufacturers (like the Campbell Carriage Factory in Sackville) were forced to close down, unable to compete

with their industrialized western counterparts. At the Charlottetown Conference, the Canadian delegation

promised that confederation would offer the Atlantic colonies a larger domestic market for their products. By

1914, the Maritimes had become a market for expensive goods manufactured in the west. While industry in the

central provinces began to flourish as a result of the National Policy, the more agrarian-based pre-industrial

economic foundation of the Maritimes had become obsolete5. This regional economic imbalance was now a

central feature of Canadian development.

In central Canada, political and ethnic tension between French and English populations flared over issues

such as the relations between Canada, the British Empire, and the United States, Canada’s role in international

affairs, and the nature of British imperialism. Canada was torn between supporters of a strong imperial

relationship with Britain, advocates of Goldwin Smith’s emphasis on renewed affiliation with the United States,

and the followers of Quebec nationalist politician Henri Bourassa, who presented his argument on the

3 Francis, 107

4 Francis, 131

5 Francis, 131
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importance autonomy and sovereignty in Canadian politics6. French and English Canadians were in fierce

opposition in regards to social matters as well. Religious institutions and educational systems took completely

different courses in various regions. A strong emphasis was placed on Roman Catholic dogma and the

importance of Catholic Church in Quebec, where bishops and clergy officials were still very influential7. No

nationalized system of education existed and a standard national curriculum was impossible given the natural

bias preventing any construction of a common history that all Canadians could share. On the eve of the First

World War, no manifestations of national unity were apparent: French-English rivalry had been renewed,

decisions pertaining to regional affairs and management still faced many cultural barriers and social institutions

operated highly ineffectively and inefficiently. Furthermore, no general consensus or direction in matters of

foreign policy existed, nor did any real Canadian autonomy exist in international affairs.

Western Canada was similarly plagued by disunity and conflict, epitomized by the North-West Rebellion

of 1885 in which the Canadian government sanctioned the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel8. Charles

Darwin’s Origin of Species, a theory on evolution and natural selection, led to a revolution in the scientific

community and the rise of eugenics9. Eugenics, the study of discrepancies in human evolution and genetics,

became extremely popular, and was used to justify the assimilation and ethnocentrism towards aboriginal people

in the United States and Canada. The North American Indian was portrayed as scientifically inferior to the white

man, and it was “white man’s burden” to civilize these seemingly savage people.10 As Canadian historian and

6 Francis, 100, 107

7 Gougeon, 21, 30-35

8 Stonechild, 106

9 Kevles, 254

10 Francis, 111-112
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author A. Blair Stonechild explains in his essay The Indian View of the 1885 Uprising, that during these racially

charged times, the Canadian government used the rebellion as a tool to “achieve a goal which had eluded it since

1870, that of gaining total control over Indians”11. Indian culture was destroyed as First Nations peoples were

displaced onto reservations where they were stripped of their heritage, language, and lifestyle; turned into

“wards of the state”, forced to conform to European demands, and forced to become dependent upon the

systems of white man for survival. In the article Taming Aboriginal Sexuality: Gender, Power, and race in

British Columbia, bestselling author Jean Barman similarly describes the way aboriginals, especially women,

were “tamed” and exploited by European males12. Aboriginal and native groups were not the only ones to face

injustice, discrimination, and abuse during the racially charged times of early 20th century Canada.

Ethnic conflict was compounded by the arrival of waves of immigrants from China, Japan, and India as a

result of Macdonald’s National Policy. By 1903, the government began to impose a head tax of $500 on all

Chinese immigrants13. The ethnic and cultural division explained earlier occurred on a large, national scale.

However, the growth of western cities with large immigrant populations such as Vancouver, were smaller

reflections of this larger segregation. In Vancouver and Victoria, Chinese and Japanese quarters had already

begun to develop by 191014. For visible minorities in these places, cultural assimilation, ethnocentrism, and the

social anxiety that resulted were a part of daily life.

Apart from increasing political discord and rising ethnic segregation across Canada, a third, new

dimension of division could be identified by 1890. Social division emerged in Canada as a product of

11 Stonechild, 106

12 Barman, 160

13 Magocsi, 359

14 Magocsi, 358, 365

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industrialization, commercial development, and the rise of free enterprise. Class division became most apparent

and widespread in metropolitan areas and cities of central Canada such as Montreal and Toronto. Factories

replete with the latest modernizations in machinery and industrial technology were accompanied with the

division (specialization) of labour and introduced to Canadian cities. This was most important development of

the Laurier and Borden years: the fundamental economic transition towards capitalist methods of production,

organization, and finance.

By the turn of the 20th century, mercantilism was obsolete. It remained only as a reminder of Canada’s

colonial past; a remnant of past economic ties with Britain and a vestige of pre-industrial Canada. Capitalism

quickly transformed the largely agrarian-based national economy an industrial powerhouse. By 1914, factories

and big industry became staple parts of the Canadian economy. The new industrial base was able to accumulate

massive amounts of wealth as a result of incredible mechanical revolutions and low-cost labour provided by

Canadians, drastically improving efficiency and increasing output. Although capitalism managed to bolster the

economy by generating wealth and attracting investment, it had dire consequences.

Capitalism created unprecedented and irrevocable forms of division. Remarkable amounts of wealth

were being accumulated and unevenly distributed. All the profits were held and concentrated in the hands of

financiers and investors, who accounted for less than 1% of the populations (the bourgeois as Marx would put

it). The wages of factory workers were tiny fractions of the total revenue generated by the products of their

labour. Under this system, all production is owned by the business or factory owner. The rise of capitalism and

industrialization created not only created economic and physical stratification, but also powerful social and class

division.

The rise of industry in Canadian cities dramatically increased the demand for labour and managed to

provide thousands with gainful employment. However, this economic growth came at a price. Urban areas

became increasingly populated as an influx of people from rural and remote regions flooded to the city in search
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of work. The population of Toronto increased from 86, 000 in 1881 to 381, 000 in 1911, and Montreal from 140,

000 in 1881 to 490, 000 in 191115. The implications of industrialization would forever change the face of Canada

by creating a new working class. Urban society became strikingly stratified as a large working class and a

smaller middle class began to appear. Peter DeLottinville paints a grim portrait of the urban lifestyle,

transgressions, and hopes of Canada’s early working-class in his article Joe Beef of Montreal: Working-Class

Culture and the Tavern, 1869-188916. Many working-class families resided in bleak and impoverished slums

with no access to clean drinking water, health, or social services17. With such a large urban populations of

workers centralized in districts, labour unions were quickly established, creating animosity between the

government, employers and their employees. Between 1900 and 1911, over 1000 labour disputes, many in the

form of strikes, were recorded18. The exploitation of workers by their employers and the rise of labour unions,

natural consequences of capitalism, transcended the economic realm and became defining features of Canadian

society.

Fifty years after Confederation, nearly all aspects of Canada, whether political, economic, or social, were

marked by distinct signs of disunity, division, and discord. As new political ideas, factions, and principles were

developed, people were forced to take sides and defend their own interests. Westward expansion, the advent of

open immigration, and the rise of social Darwinism and eugenics led to widespread social anxiety, racism, and

cultural divergence. The introduction of capitalist modes of production and finance which provided the nation

with a strong economic base and rapid economic growth only led to further economic division. Capitalism

15 Wallace, 162

16 DeLottinville, 226

17 Durnford, 305

18 Francis, 164
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created striking disparity as it marginalized the role of the worker and widened the gaps between the rich and

poor. The rise of labour unions threatened economic and social stability and livelihood while inconsistent

industrialization and urbanization helped in compounding regional economic disparity and renewing tension

between the different provinces and territories. Modernization also resulted in class antagonisms, which featured

the socio-economic partition of the Canadian population. Even in the more positive religious and social reform

movements of the early 20th century were in contest with one another, and resisted by more conservative

factions19. Any semblance to national unity or integrity in 1914 could be passed off as a figment of the Canadian

imagination.

19 Francis, 171, 188

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Bibliography

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Canadian History. By R. D. Francis and Donald B. Smith. Toronto: Nelson Thomson Learning, 2002.
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Durnford, Hugh. Heritage of Canada. Canada: Reader's Digest, 1978. Print.

Francis, Robert D., Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith. Destinies: Canadian History since Confederation.
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Gougeon, Gilles. A History of Quebec Nationalism. Toronto: J. Lorimer &, 1994. Print.

Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity. Cambridge, Mass.:
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Print.

Wallace, W. Stewart, and Robert H. Blackburn. "Economic HIstory." The Encyclopedia of Canada;. Toronto:
University Associates of Canada, 1948. 153-67. Print.

WordNik. "Unity - Definition, Examples and Meaning from Wordnik." Wordnik: All the Words. Web. 01 May
2010. <http://www.wordnik.com/words/unity>.