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John Sandfield Macdonald was the Premier of Ontario during the Confederation (1867).

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Upper Canada was the predecessor of modern-day Ontario. It was created in 1791.

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Background: First Nations, France and War

The area that became Upper Canada was populated originally by First Nations people, in particular the Wendat, Neutral, Tionontatehronnon (Petun) and Algonquin, among others. Samuel de Champlain visited the region in the early 17th century. He claimed the territory for France and was followed by other French explorers. Missionaries were particularly active in Huronia, east and south of Georgian Bay ( see Sainte-Marie among the Hurons). Through the fur trade, the French firmly established themselves in the area by the 18th century. modern Toronto, Windsor, Niagara and Kingston were established.

During the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the French abandoned most of the region to the British. Upon the surrender of Montreal in September 1760, Britain effectively took over the territory that would later become Upper Canada. After the Treaty of Paris (1763) and the Royal Proclamation later that year, the borders of Britain's new Province of Quebec were expanding.

With the of 1774, the borders moved west into what is now southern Ontario, north to include all of Labrador, and south into the Ohio Valley. When the American Revolution began in 1775, the permanent European population of western Quebec consisted mainly of French-speaking settlers around Detroit. By the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783, what had been a trickle of wartime Loyalist refugees into the area became a stream. About 7,500 refugees established a British-centered ideology that would influence much of Upper Canada's future.

Settlement by Loyalists

Governor Sir Frederick Haldimand began Loyalist settlement initiatives. He established militia units in range of quickly-surveyed townships along the American border. In the event of war, these veterans were intended to form a defensive barrier. Three main areas were selected: along the St. Lawrence River; around Kingston and the Bay of Quinte; and in the Niagara Peninsula. A fourth, near Detroit, was considered, but its scheduled surrender to the US postponed development.

Land was granted in lots, with heads of families receiving 100 acres, additional family members getting another 50 acres, and field officers receiving up to (and eventually more than) 1,000 acres. Clothing, tools and provisions were supplied for three years. Such conditions favoured the Loyalist migrants, many of whom did well. Many disgruntled Americans, some simply "land-hungry," eventually moved north to join them. By 1790, western Quebec had a population of about 10,000 settlers.

The Loyalists who came to Upper Canada, mostly American frontiersmen, were well able to cope with the rigours of new settlements. In addition, they were not politically docile. Many had been in the forefront of political protest in the old American colonies. Although they had not been ready to take up arms for colonial rights, they were prepared to use every legal and constitutional means at their disposal to better their lives. Their main concerns included a push for more representative government, as well as laws and institutions that reflected their British heritage, not those of France. It was their constitutional complaints that caused Britain in 1791 to modify the inadequate of 1774.

New Colony Created

The result was the Constitutional Act, 1791. The Act divided the Province of Quebec into Lower Canada to the east (on the lower reaches of the St. Lawrence River) and Upper Canada (along the lower portion of the present-day Ontario- Quebec boundary) to the west. The Act also established a government that would largely determine the colony's political nature. It also strongly influenced the territory's social and economic character.

The Constitutional Act was, in large part, a clear response by the British to the American Revolution. As the British government saw it, the excess of democracy that had permeated the American colonies would not be allowed in the two new provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. A lieutenant -governor was established in each province, with an executive council to advise him, a legislative council to act as an upper house, and a representative assembly. Policy was to be directed by the executive, which answered not to the elected assembly but to the Crown.

It was hoped that the Church of England would tie the colonies more firmly to Britain. In Upper Canada, a permanent appropriation of funds "for the Support and Maintenance of a Protestant clergy" was formally guaranteed by the establishment of one-seventh of all lands in the province as clergy reserves. The proceeds from their sale or rental went to the church. Subsequent instructions established crown reserves on another seventh of the land. The revenue from these were used to pay the costs of the provincial administration.

Land ownership, the question that concerned most settlers, was to be on the British pattern of freehold tenure. The Seigneurial system common in Lower Canada was permanently eradicated in the upper province. Meanwhile, the voting franchise was fairly wide. The assembly in Upper Canada numbered no fewer than 16 members while the Legislative Council was made up of at least seven.

Simcoe Takes Charge

The first leader of this new wilderness society was Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. His stated purpose was to create in Upper Canada a "superior, more happy, and more polished form of government." He wanted not only to attract immigrants, but also to renew the empire and set an example that would win Americans back into the British camp. Governmental institutions were established, first at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and then at the new capital at York (now Toronto). Simcoe used troops to build a series of primary roads, got the land boards and land distribution under way, established the judiciary, made inroads in abolishing slavery in 1793 ( An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude Statutes of Upper Canada) and showed a keen interest in promoting Anglican affairs.

When he left the province in 1796, due to illness, Simcoe could take pride in his achievements, even though he had failed to convert Americans from republicanism or to persuade Britain to turn Upper Canada into a military centre. To Britain, Canada still meant Quebec, and Simcoe's elaborate plans for the defence of a western frontier beyond the sea-lanes were unrealistic.

Upper Canada did not flourish under those who succeeded Simcoe as lieutenant-governor. In the years between his departure and the War of 1812, the province largely remained a remote frontier of fragmented but growing settlement. And land, the only real source of prosperity, had too often been carelessly carved up in huge grants by lax administrators.

Family Compact Takes Control

Politics began to emerge in provincial life. The Constitutional Act, 1791, by its very nature, had created a party of favourites. Lieutenant-governors chose their executive and legislative councils from among men they could trust and understand, who shared their solid, conservative values: namely, Loyalists or newly arrived Britons. These men - later called the Family Compact - quickly became a kind of Tory club, or faction permanently in power. They could not conceive any brand of loyalty to the Crown apart from their own. When opposition arose, as it did frequently over budget matters, those advocating an extension of the legislative assembly's powers gathered support. However, they were met by serious opposition from the Compact, who sometimes threatened or brought charges of sedition. But the influence of sincere political critics such as Robert Thorpe, Joseph Willcocks and William Weekes was to be washed away by the War of 1812.

War of 1812

During the War of 1812, Upper Canada, whose inhabitants were predominantly American in origin, was invaded a number of times and partly occupied. American forces were repulsed by British regulars assisted by Canadian militia and Indigenous groups. The war strengthened the British link, rendered loyalism a hallowed creed, fashioned martyr-heroes such as Sir Isaac Brock and Tecumseh, and appeared to legitimize the political status quo.

The war ended Upper Canada's isolation. American immigration was formally halted, but Upper Canada received an increased number of British newcomers, some with capital to spend. The economy continued to be tied to Britain's colonial trade policies and mercantilism. The wheat trade became most important to Upper Canadian farmers. Still, the war had been very costly, and the province remained capital poor. For example, the Welland Canal Co., a public works venture, had to look abroad for investors ( see also Welland Canal).

Economic Turmoil

The expense of administering the growing colony increased substantially in the early 1820s, and schemes to reunite the two Canadas were occasionally considered. In 1822, an effort was made to adjust the customs duties shared with Lower Canada to provide the upper province, which had no ocean port, with a larger share of revenue. In practice, this effort proved largely unsuccessful.

Revenues remained inadequate and the province was plunged into debt. It was unable to pay the interest on its own badly received bonds without further borrowings. The establishment of the Bank of Upper Canada (1821) and other banks failed to bring real fiscal stability. The contributions of the massive British-based colonization venture, the Canada Company, also fell short. In fact, Canada Company payments were used to defray the salaries of government officials (the civil list), thus averting the assembly's desire to control government revenues.

The War of 1812 allowed the Family Compact, led by Anglican Archdeacon John Strachan (later bishop of Toronto), to consolidate its political control, often in ways that were corrupt. There is evidence of patronage appointments to official positions and to emerging banks, and the preferential granting of land. The group was rigorous and methodical in its administration, though not always so sound in its financial management. It did have a strong sense of duty toward development, as shown by its unswerving support of public works such as the Welland Canal. But an oligarchy increasingly proved to be an anachronism in an age that was tilting towards democracy.

Rebellion in 1837

By 1820, opposition in the province was becoming sophisticated, but its politics were not yet dominated by disciplined parties. Some agitators, such as the "Banished Briton" Robert Gourlay, had dramatized popular grievances in martyr-like fashion. Until the mid-1830s, opposition was usually led by more moderate politicians such as Dr. William Baldwin, Robert Baldwin and Reverend Egerton Ryerson.

Reformer William Lyon Mackenzie wanted Upper Canada to be a US-style republican democracy. He desired a province composed of firmly patriotic farmers, ready to become British-American revolutionaries. Mackenzie's Rebellion of 1837 sought to seize power from the Family Compact and its supporters in the church. It failed because, like so many politicians after him, Mackenzie failed to understand the basic, moderate political attitudes of Upper Canadians.

Mackenzie's violent posturing and his poorly supported rebellion turned out to be unnecessary. Gradual democratic reforms were already underway in both the colony and Britain. The inadequacies of the Constitutional Act, 1791, with its rigid colonial structures, were by now apparent. For Upper Canada, real political change could only come from England, although it could be accelerated by advocates in the province.

Some immediate change came through the efforts of the Earl of Durham in 1838. As governor general of British North America, he spent only a few days in Upper Canada. But he found time for a short, formal visit to Toronto and an interview with Robert Baldwin. He also received sound counsel from his advisers, especially Charles Buller, all of which he included in his famous report ( see Durham Report).

Union with Lower Canada

Durham's report and its recommendations set in motion a scheme that had long been considered: the reunification of Upper and Lower Canada. By 1838, Upper Canada had a diverse population of more than 400,000 people. It stretched west from the Ottawa River to the head of the Great Lakes. It was still a rough-hewn and somewhat amorphous community, poorly equipped in terms of schools, hospitals or local government. From his lofty imperial perch, Durham suggested that a reunion of the provinces would swamp the French of Lower Canada in an English sea. More importantly, the economic potential of both colonies would be enhanced, thereby making them less burdensome to Britain.

Durham insisted that these outcomes would easily be advanced under responsible government. The Cabinet, or executive council as it was called then, would be made responsible and accountable to the elected assembly rather than to the Crown and the lieutenant governor. The errors of the Constitutional Act, 1791 could be exorcised and unruly politics subdued without fear of further revolts. Britain approved the union, although the actual granting of responsible government would take almost a decade more.

On 10 February 1841, Upper Canada's history came to an end. The colony united with the largely French-speaking Lower Canada to form the new Province of Canada ( see Act of Union). Despite their tumultuous history, Upper Canadians could make some claim to having a collective past. With the prospects of a rapidly increasing population, greater democracy and improving agricultural opportunities, they could look forward to a brighter, collective future.

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The area that became Upper Canada was populated originally by First Nations people, in particular the Wendat, Neutral, Tionontatehronnon (Petun) and Algonquin, among others. Samuel de Champlain visited the region in the early 17th century. He claimed the territory for France and was followed by other French explorers.

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Delegates at the Charlottetown Conference

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Delegates at the Charlottetown Conference

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These are all of the Delegates at the Charlottetown Conference including Sir John A Macdonald.

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The lands that make up present-day Ontario, the most populous province of Canada as of the early 21st century have been inhabited for millennia by groups of Aboriginal people, with French and British exploration and colonization commencing in the 17th century.

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The History of Ontario covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. The lands that make up present-day Ontario, the most populous province of Canada as of the early 21st century have been inhabited for millennia by groups of Aboriginal people, with French and British exploration and colonization commencing in the 17th century. Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian ( Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) and Iroquoian ( Iroquois, Petun and Huron) tribes.

French explorer Étienne Brûlé surveyed part of the area in 1610-12. The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England, but Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615. In their effort to secure the North American fur trade, the English/British and the French established a number of fur trading forts in Ontario during the 17th and 18th centuries; with the former establishing a number of forts around Hudson Bay, and the latter establishing forts throughout the Pays d'en Haut region. Control over the area remained contested until the end of the Seven Years' War, when the 1763 Treaty of Paris awarded the colony of New France to the British.

Following the American Revolutionary War, the province saw an influx of loyalist settle the area. In response to the influx of loyalist refugees, the Constitutional Act of 1791 was enacted, splitting the colony of Quebec into Lower Canada (present day southern Quebec) and Upper Canada (present day southern Ontario). The Canadas were reunited as the Province of Canada by the Act of Union 1840. On July 1, 1867, the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were united to form a single federation. The Province of Canada was split into two provinces at Confederation, with the area east of the Ottawa River forming Quebec, and the area west of the river forming Ontario.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the region was inhabited both by Algonquian ( Ojibwa, Cree and Algonquin) and Iroquoian ( Iroquois, Petun and Huron) tribes.

French explorer Étienne Brûlé surveyed part of the area in 1610-12. The English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into Hudson Bay in 1611 and claimed the area for England, but Samuel de Champlain reached Lake Huron in 1615. French Jesuit missionaries began to establish posts along the Great Lakes, forging alliances in particular with the Huron people. Permanent French settlement was hampered by their hostilities with the Five Nations of the Iroquois (based in New York State), who became allied with the British. By the early 1650s, using both British and Dutch arms, they had succeeded in pushing other related Iroquoian-speaking peoples, the Petun and Neutral Nation, out of or to the fringes of territorial southern Ontario. In 1747 a small number of French settlers established the oldest continually inhabited European community in what became western Ontario; Petite Côte was settled on the south bank of the Detroit River across from Fort Detroit and near Huron and Petun villages.

The British established trading posts on Hudson Bay in the late 17th century and began a struggle for domination of Ontario. With their victory in the Seven Years' War, the 1763 Treaty of Paris awarded nearly all of France's North American possessions ( New France) to Britain. The region was annexed to Quebec in 1774. The first English settlements were in 1782-1784, when 5,000 American loyalists entered what is now Ontario following the American Revolution. From 1783 to 1796, Britain granted individuals 200 acres (0.8 km ²) of land per household and other items as compensation for their losses in the Thirteen Colonies and a start for rebuilding their lives. This resettlement substantially increased the European population of Canada west of the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence during this period.

The Constitutional Act of 1791 recognized this development, as it split the Province of Quebec into the Canadas, Lower Canada east of the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River confluence, the area of earliest settlement; and Upper Canada southwest of the confluence. John Graves Simcoe was appointed Upper Canada's first Lieutenant-Governor in 1793.

Owing to grievances from the impressment of American sailors by the British, and suspected British support of Native Americans in the American Northwest Territory, the United States declared war on the United Kingdom on July 1, 1812. Given its proximity to the United States, colonies in British North America, including Upper Canada found itself an active theatre of war throughout most of the conflict.

The earliest offensives of the war took place near southwestern Ontario and the upper Great Lakes region, with American forces briefly crossing into present day southwestern Ontario, before a British-First Nations force launched an offensive into the Michigan Territory. However, on 10 September 1813, after the Americans gained gained control of Lake Erie, British forces evacuated Detroit, and eventually decided to withdraw from the entire area. American forces under William Henry Harrison caught up to the retreating British-First Nations force, decisively defeating them at the Battle of the Thames. Tecumseh, leader of a First Nations confederation, was killed shortly after the remaining British forces decided to fall back to Burlington; disrupting the military alliance between British and First Nations.

Several invasion attempts by American forces were also attempted at the Niagara Peninsula. On October 13, 1812, an American invasion attempt was prevented at the Battle of Queenston Heights; although the commander of British forces in Upper Canada, Major-General Isaac Brock, was killed during the battle. On April 27, 1813, American forces raided and briefly occupied York, the capital of Upper Canada. A month later, American forces captured Fort George prompting the British to retreat to the Burlington Heights. However, further advances into the peninsula by American forces were halted at the battles of Stoney Creek and Beaver Dams; prompting the Americans to eventual withdraw from the peninsula on December 10, 1813. An American invasion force advancing towards Montreal was also repulsed at the Battle of Chrysler's Farm on November 13, 1813.

In the summer of 1814, the Americans conducted another invasion of the Niagara Peninsula, successfully defeating the British at the Battle of Chippewa. However, American forces were prompted to withdraw to Fort Erie following the Battle of Lundy's Lane on July 25, 1814. American forces managed to repulse a British siege of the fort, although the Americans evacuated the fort shortly after the siege was over in November 1814. Transgressions conducted by American occupying forces while in Upper Canada, including the burning of York and the raid on Port Dover later influenced the actions of British commanders in other theatres of the war, most notably the burning of Buffalo and Washington. The conflict was concluded in December 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

After the War of 1812, relative stability attracted increasing numbers of immigrants from Britain and Ireland rather than from the United States. Colonial leaders encouraged this new immigration. However, many arriving newcomers from Europe (mostly from Britain and Ireland) found frontier life difficult, and some of those with the means eventually returned home or went south. But population growth far exceeded emigration from this area in the following decades.

Canal projects and a new network of plank roads spurred greater trade within the colony and with the United States, thereby improving relations over time. Ontario's numerous waterways aided travel and transportation into the interior and supplied water power for development. Canals were capital-intensive infrastructure projects that facilitated trade. The Oswego Canal, built in New York 1825-1829, was a vital commercial link in the Great Lakes-Atlantic seaway. It was connected to Ontario's Welland Canal in 1829. The newly fashioned Oswego-Welland line offered an alternate route to the St. Lawrence River and Europe, as opposed to the Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to New York City via the Mohawk and Hudson rivers.

In the absence of a hereditary aristocracy, Upper Canada was run by an oligarchy or closed group of powerful men who controlled most of the political, judicial and economic power from the 1810s to the 1830s. Opponents called it the "Family Compact", but its members avoided the term. In the religious sphere, a key leader was John Strachan (1778-1867), the Anglican bishop of Toronto. Strachan (and the Family Compact generally) was opposed by Methodist leader Egerton Ryerson (1803-1882). The Family Compact consisted of English gentry who arrived before 1800, and the sons of United Empire Loyalists, who were exiles who fled the American revolution. The term "family" was metaphorical, for they generally were not related by blood or marriage. There were no elections and the leadership controlled appointments, so local officials were generally allies of the leaders.

The Family Compact looked to Britain for the ideal model of society, where landed aristocrats held power. The Family Compact was noted for its conservatism and opposition to democracy, especially the rowdy United States version. They developed the theme that they and their militia had defeated American attempts to annex Canada in the War of 1812. They were based in Toronto, and were integrated with the bankers, merchants and financiers of the city, and were active in promoting canals and railroads.

Many men chafed against the anti-democratic Family Compact that governed through personal connections among the elite, which controlled the best lands. This resentment spurred republican ideals and sowed the seeds for early Canadian nationalism. Accordingly, rebellion in favour of responsible government rose in both regions; Louis-Joseph Papineau led the Lower Canada Rebellion and William Lyon Mackenzie led the Upper Canada Rebellion. The rebellions failed but there were long-term changes that resolved the issue.

Although both rebellions were put down in short order, the British government sent Lord Durham to investigate the causes of the unrest. He recommended that self-government be granted and that Lower and Upper Canada be re-joined in an attempt to assimilate the French Canadians. Accordingly, the two colonies were merged into the Province of Canada by the Act of Union (1840), with the capital at Kingston, and Upper Canada becoming known as Canada West. Parliamentary self-government was granted in 1848.

Due to waves of increased immigration in the 1840s, the population of Canada West more than doubled by 1851 over the previous decade. As a result, for the first time the English-speaking population of Canada West surpassed the French-speaking population of Canada East, tilting the representative balance of power.

An economic boom in the 1850s, brought on by factors such as a free trade agreement with the United States, coincided with massive railway expansion across the province, furthering the economic strength of Central Canada, pre-confederation.

A political stalemate between the French- and English-speaking legislators, as well as fear of aggression from the United States during the American Civil War, led the political elite to hold a series of conferences in the 1860s to effect a broader federal union of all British North American colonies. The British North America Act took effect on July 1, 1867, establishing the Dominion of Canada, initially with four provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. The Province of Canada was divided at this point into Ontario and Quebec so that each major European linguistic group would have its own province.

Both Quebec and Ontario were required by section 93 of the BNA Act to safeguard existing educational rights and privileges of the relative Protestant and Catholic minorities. Thus, separate Catholic schools and school boards were permitted in Ontario. However, neither province had a constitutional requirement to protect its French- or English-speaking minority. Toronto was formally established as Ontario's provincial capital at this time.

Once constituted as a province, Ontario proceeded to assert its economic and legislative power. In 1872, the Liberal Party leader Oliver Mowat became premier, and remained as premier until 1896, despite Conservative control in Ottawa. Mowat fought for provincial rights, weakening the power of the federal government in provincial matters, usually through well-argued appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. His battles with the federal government greatly decentralized Canada, giving the provinces far more power than Prime Minister John A. Macdonald had intended.

Mowat consolidated and expanded Ontario's educational and provincial institutions, created districts in Northern Ontario, and fought tenaciously to ensure that those parts of Northwestern Ontario not historically part of Upper Canada (the vast areas north and west of the Lake Superior-Hudson Bay watershed, known as the District of Keewatin) would become part of Ontario, a victory embodied in the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act, 1889. He also presided over the emergence of the province into the economic powerhouse of Canada. Mowat was the creator of what is often called Empire Ontario.

The boundary between Ontario and Manitoba became a hotly contested matter, with the federal government attempting to extend Manitoba's jurisdiction eastward to the Great Lakes, into the areas claimed by Ontario. In 1882 Premier Mowat threatened to pull Ontario from Confederation over the issue. Mowat sent police into the disputed territory to assert Ontario's claims, while Manitoba (at the behest of the national government) did the same. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain, serving as Canada's highest appeal court, repeatedly issued rulings taking the side of provincial rights. These decisions would to some extent neutralize the power of the central government, creating a more decentralized federation.

John Ibbitson writes that by 1914:

Confederation had evolved into a creation beyond John A. Macdonald's worst nightmare. Powerful, independent provinces, sovereign within their own spheres, manipulated the rights of property, levied their own taxes-even income taxes, in a few cases-exploited their natural resources, and managed schools, hospitals, and relief for the poor, while a weak and ineffectual central government presided over not much of anything in the drab little capital on the banks of the Ottawa.

In the 1894 election, the main issues were the Liberals' "Ontario System", as well as opposition to French language schools and a rise in anti-Catholicism (led by the Protestant Protective Association (PPA)); farmer interests as expressed by the new Patrons of Industry; support for Toronto business, woman suffrage, and the temperance movement; and the demands of labour unions. Mowat and the Liberals maintained their large majority in the assembly.

As the population increased, so did the industries and transportation networks, which in turn led to further development. By the end of the 19th century, Ontario vied with Quebec as the nation's leader in terms of growth in population, industry, arts, and communications.

Ontario large manufacturing and finance sectors waxed profitable in the late 19th century. Lucrative new markets opened up nationwide thanks to the federal government's high-tariff National Policy after 1879, which limited competition from the United States. New markets out west opened after construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (1875-1885) through Northern Ontario to the Prairies and British Columbia. Tens of thousands of European immigrants, as well as native Canadians, moved west along the railroad in order to acquire land and set up new farms. They shipped their wheat east and bought from local merchants who placed orders with Ontario wholesalers, especially those based in Toronto.

Farming was generally quite profitable, especially after 1896. The major changes involved mechanization of technology and a shift toward high-profit, high-quality consumer products, such as milk, eggs and vegetables, for the fast-growing urban markets. It took farmers a half century to appreciate the value of high-protein soybean crops. Introduced in the 1890s, acceptance was slow until 1943-52, when farmers in the southwestern counties expanded production. Farmers increasingly demanded more information on the best farming techniques. Their demands led to farm magazine and agricultural fairs. In 1868 the assembly created an agricultural museum, which developed as the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph in 1874.

Commercial wine production in the province began in the 1860s with an aristocrat from France, Count Justin McCarthy De Courtenay in County Peel. His success followed the realization that the right grapes could grow in the cold climate, producing an inexpensive good wine that could reach a commercial market. He gained government support and raised the capital for a commercial-scale vineyard and winery. His financial success encouraged others to enter the business.

The care of illegitimate children was a high priority for private charities. Before 1893, the Ontario government appropriated grants to charitable infants' homes for the infants and for their nursing mothers. Most of these infants were illegitimate, and most of their mothers were poor. Many babies were admitted to the homes in poor physical condition, so that their chances of survival outside such homes was poor.

The changes in the next generation in the town of Woodstock in southwestern Ontario exemplified the shift of power from the Tory elite to middle-class merchants and professionals. The once-unquestioned leadership of the magistracy and the Anglican Church, with their closed interlocking networks of patron-client relations, faded year by year as modern ideas of respectability based on merit and economic development grew apace. The new middle class was solidly in control by the 1870s, and the old elite had all but vanished.

While Anglicans consolidated their hold on the upper classes, workingmen and farmers responded to the Methodist revivals, often sponsored by visiting preachers from the United States. Typical was Rev. James Caughey, an American sent by the Wesleyan Methodist Church from the 1840s through 1864. He brought in the converts by the score, most notably in the revivals in Canada West 1851-53. His technique combined restrained emotionalism with a call for personal commitment, coupled with follow-up action to organize support from converts. It was a time when the Holiness Movement caught fire, with the revitalized interest of men and women in Christian perfection. Caughey bridged the gap between the style of earlier camp meetings and the needs of more sophisticated Methodist congregations in the emerging cities.

The ideals promulgated by English author and reformer Thomas Hughes, especially as expressed in Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), gave the middle class a model for sports that provided moral education and training for citizenship. Late in the 19th century, the Social Gospel themes of muscular Christianity were influential, as in the invention of basketball in 1891 by James Naismith, an Ontarian employed at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School in Massachusetts. Outside of sports, the social and moral agendas behind muscular Christianity influenced numerous reform movements, thus linking it to the political left in Canada.

Numerous local rivalries had to be overcome before physicians could form a single, self-regulating, and unified medical body for licensing and educating practitioners. Professionalization began with the first medical board in 1818, and an 1827 act that required all doctors to be licensed. From the 1840s on, the number of new doctors with medical degrees increased rapidly because of legislation and the establishment of local medical schools. The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons was chartered in 1869.

As physicians became better organized, they gained passage of laws controlling the practice of medicine and pharmacy, and banning marginal and traditional practitioners. Midwifery-practised along traditional lines by women-was restricted and practically died out by 1900. Even so, the great majority of childbirths took place at home until the 1920s, when hospitals became preferred, especially by women who were better educated, wealthier and more modern, and more trusting of modern medicine.

In 1912, Regulation 17 was a regulation introduced by the government of Ontario designed to shut down French-language schools at a time that Francophones from Quebec were moving into eastern Ontario. In July 1912, the Conservative government of Sir James P. Whitney issued Regulation 17, which severely limited the provision of French-language schooling to the province's French-speaking minority. French could only be used in the first two years of schooling, and after that students and teachers were required to use English in classrooms. Few of the teachers at the French-language schools were fluent in English, so the schools had to close. The French-Canadian population, which was growing rapidly in eastern Ontario from migration, reacted with outrage; journalist Henri Bourassa denounced the "Prussians of Ontario". With the Great War raging, Anglophones were insulted by the comparison. The restriction on French- language schools contributed to the Francophones turning away from the war effort in 1915 and refusing to enlist. But, most of Ontario's Catholics were Irish, led by Irish Bishop Fallon, who united with the Protestants in opposing French schools. The government repealed Regulation 17 in 1927. Ontario has no official language, but English is considered the de facto language. Numerous French language services are available under the French Language Services Act of 1990 in designated areas where sizable francophone populations exist.

The British element strongly supported the war with men, money and enthusiasm. So too did the Francophone element until it reversed position in 1915. Given Germany as one of the Axis Powers, the Canadian government was suspicious of the loyalty of residents of German descent, and anti-German sentiment escalated in the country. The City of Berlin was renamed Kitchener after Britain's top commander. Left-wing anti-war activists also came under attack. In 1917-18 Isaac Bainbridge of Toronto, the dominion secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Canada and editor of its newspaper, Canadian Forward, was charged three times with seditious libel and once with possession of seditious material; he was imprisoned twice.

Premier Hearst had a number of progressive ideas planned for his next term, but his Conservatives were swept from power in 1919 by a totally new farmer's party. The United Farmers of Ontario, with 45 seats, formed a bare majority coalition with the trades union party, known as the "Ontario Independent Labour Party", with 11 seats. They selected farm leader Ernest Drury as premier, enforced prohibition, passed a mother's pension and minimum wage which Hearst had proposed, and promoted good roads in the rural areas. The farmers and unionists did not get along well. The 1923 election reflected a popular move to the right, with the Conservatives winning 50% of the vote and 75 seats of the 111 seats, making George Howard Ferguson premier.

When surveys of public health showed infant mortality rates were high in Ontario, particularly in the more rural and isolated areas, the provincial government teamed with middle-class public health reformers to take action. They launched an educational campaign to teach mothers to save and improve the lives of infants and young children, with the long-range goal of uplifting the average Canadian family.

Anti-German sentiment after 1914 and the accession of Conservative William Hearst to the premiership made prohibition a major political issue, as many residents associated beer production and drinking with Germans. The Methodists and Baptists (but not the Anglicans or Catholics) demanded the province be made dry. The government introduced prohibition of alcoholic sales in 1916 with the Ontario Temperance Act. However, drinking itself was never illegal, and residents could distill and retain their own personal supply. As major liquor producers could continue distillation and export for sale, Ontario became a centre for the illegal smuggling of liquor into the United States. The latter passed complete prohibition, effective after 1920. The "drys" won a referendum in 1919. Prohibition was ended in 1927 with the Conservative establishment of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

However, the government still controls the sale and consumption of liquor, wine, and beer to ensure compliance with strict community standards and to generate revenue from the alcohol retail monopoly. In April 2007, Ontario Minister of Provincial Parliament Kim Craitor suggested that local brewers should be able to sell their beer in local corner stores; however, the motion was quickly rejected by Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Following a massive defeat in 1934 by the Liberals, the Conservatives reorganized over the next decade. Led by pragmatic leaders Cecil Frost, George Drew, Alex McKenzie, and Fred Gardiner, they minimized internal conflicts, quietly dropped laissez-faire positions, and opted in favor of state intervention to deal with the Great Depression and encourage economic growth. The revised party declared loyalty to the Empire, called for comprehensive health care and pension programs, and sought more provincial autonomy. The reforms set the stage for a long run of election wins from 1943 onward.

The post- World War II period was one of exceptional prosperity and growth. Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area in particular, have been the destination of most immigration to Canada, largely immigrants from post-war Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. After changes in federal immigration law in 1967, most immigrants now come from Asia. In terms of ancestry, Ontario has changed from a largely ethnically British province, to one that is very diverse.

Toronto replaced Montreal as the nation's premier business centre because the nationalist movement in Quebec, particularly with the success of the Parti Québécois in 1976, systematically drove Anglophone business away. Depressed economic conditions in the Maritime Provinces have also resulted in de-population of those provinces in the 20th century, with heavy migration into Ontario.

By contrast the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), which rebranded itself as the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961, was in the doldrums after the war. Its best showing was in 1948 when it elected 21 MPPs, and formed the official opposition. Purists said its decline resulted from a loss of Socialist purity and abandonment of the founding left-wing principles of the movement and party. They said democratic socialist activity in terms of activism, youth training, and volunteerism was lost in favour of authoritarian political bureaucracy. Moderates said the decline demonstrated the need for cooperation with Liberals. Political scientists said the party lacked the more coherent organizational base it needed to survive.

The NDP routinely captured 20-some percent of the vote. In its surprise win in 1990, the NDP took 38% of the vote, won 75 of the 120 seats, and formed a government under Bob Rae. He served as premier but Ontario's labour unions, the backbone of the NDP, were outraged when Rae imposed pay cuts on unionized public workers. The NDP was defeated in 1995, falling back to 21% of the vote. Rae quit the NDP in 1998, describing it as too leftist, and joined the Liberals.

Women's labour laws

Ontario's Fair Employment Practices Act combatted racist and religious discrimination after the Second World War, but it did not cover gender issues. Most human rights activists did not raise the issue before the 1970s, because they were family oriented and subscribed to the deeply embedded ideology of the family wage, whereby the husband should be paid enough so the wife could be a full-time housewife. After lobbying by women, labour unions, and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the Conservative government passed the Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act in 1951. It required equal pay for women who did the same work as men. Feminists in the 1950s and 1960s were unsuccessful trying to gain passage of a law to prohibit other forms of sex discrimination, such as in hiring and promotion. The enforcement of both acts was constrained by their conciliatory framework. Provincial officials interpreted the equal pay act quite narrowly, and were significantly more diligent in tackling racist and religious employment discrimination.

Mineral exploitation accelerated in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of important mining centres in the northeast like Sudbury, Cobalt and Timmins.

Energy policy focused on hydro-electric power, leading to the formation in 1906 of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPC), renamed Ontario Hydro in 1974. HEPC was a unique hybrid of a government department, a crown corporation, and a municipal cooperative that coexisted with the existing private companies. It was a "politically rational" rather than a "technically efficient" solution that depended on the watershed election of 1905 when the main issue became "Niagara Power". The Conservative slogan was "water power of Niagara should be free".

The Conservatives replaced the Liberals and set up HEPC. In 1908 HEPC began purchasing electricity from Niagara Falls. In the next decade it purchased most of the privately owned distribution systems and built an integrated network. The availability of cheap electric power stimulated the development of industry. The Ford Motor Company of Canada of Canada was established in 1904. General Motors Canada was formed in 1918. The motor vehicle industry became by 1920 the most productive industry in Ontario and a customer for smaller suppliers.

Entrepreneurship was exemplified by the career of John Northway (1848-1926). Beginning as a tailor in a small town, he moved to Toronto and soon developed a chain of department stores. His innovations in the sewing and marketing of ladies' wear stimulated the rise of a Canadian ladies' garment industry. Northway pioneered modern business and accounting methods. He innovated as well in labour relations, as a pioneer in sickness and accident compensation and profit-sharing schemes. A millionaire by 1910, he played a leading role in Toronto's civic life.

Legal and police reform

The construction of roads and canals depended on numerous workers, whose wages often went to liquor, gambling and women, all causes for fighting and rowdiness. Community leaders realized the traditional method of dealing with troublemakers one by one was inadequate, and they began to adopt less personal modernized procedures that followed imperial models of policing, trial, and punishment through the courts.

Toronto, Hamilton, Berlin (Kitchener), Windsor and other cities modernized and professionalized their public services in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. No service was changed more dramatically than the police. The introduction of emergency telephone call boxes linked to a central dispatcher, plus the use of bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles, shifted the patrolman's duties from passively walking the beat to fast reaction to reported incidents, as well as handling automobile traffic. After 1930 the introduction of police radios speeded response times.

Once they had taken control of the practice of medicine, the doctors on the Medical Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) turned their attention to the quality of medical education in the province. Marginal and untrained practitioners were banned, but the question rose of the permanence and the quality of proprietary for-profit medical schools. CPSO-imposed regulations in the 1860s to increase faculty size and raise matriculation standards. They required students to take Council-administered examinations. Toronto had two medical schools - Trinity Medical School and the Toronto School of Medicine (TSM). During the 1880s the TSM added instructors, expanded its curriculum, and focused on clinical instruction. Enrollments grew at both schools. Critics found proprietary schools lacking, especially for their failure to offer sufficient instruction in the basic sciences.

In 1887, the TSM became the medical faculty of the University of Toronto, increasing its emphasis on research within the medical curriculum. Trinity realized that its survival depended as well on close ties to basic science, and in 1904 it also merged into the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. In 1923 University of Toronto researchers J. J. R. Macleod (1876-1935) and Frederick Banting (1891-1941) won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their 1921 discovery of insulin, putting Toronto on the world map of leading science.

Transportation

The rapid spread of automobiles after 1910 and the building of roads, especially after 1920, opened up opportunities in remote rural areas to travel to the towns and cities for shopping and services. City people moved outward to suburbs. By the 1920s it was common for city folk to have a vacation cottage in remote lake areas. A stretch of the Queen Elizabeth Way ("QEW") opened in 1939, becoming one of world's first controlled-access highways. The trend of city dwellers opening vacation cottages surged after 1945. It brought new money into remote areas, while also bringing negative environmental impacts and occasional conflict between cottagers and the permanent residents.

The Ontario Retirement Pension Plan was passed by the Liberals and will start operations in 2017. It is intended to cover an estimated 3.5 million workers in Ontario who do not have workplace pension plans. It is designed to supplement the Canada Pension Plan, and provide up to 15 per cent of a retiree's pre-retirement income as an annual pension.

1. ^ Peter A. Baskerville, "Entrepreneurship and the Family Compact: York-Toronto, 1822-55", Urban History Review Feb 1981, Vol. 9 Issue 3, pp 15-34

2. ^ Virtual Vault Archived 2016-03-21 at the Wayback Machine, an online exhibition of Canadian historical art at Library and Archives Canada

3. ^ R. Cole Harris; et al. (1987). Historical Atlas of Canada: The Land Transformed, 1800-1891. University of Toronto Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780802034472.

4. ^ Gaffield, Chad (1987). Language, Schooling, and Cultural Conflict: The Origins of the French Language Controversy in Ontario.

5. ^ Cecillon, Jack (December 1995). "Turbulent Times in the Diocese of London: Bishop Fallon and the French-Language Controversy, 1910-18". Ontario History. 87 (4): 369-395.

6. ^ Barber, Marilyn (September 1966). "The Ontario Bilingual Schools Issue: Sources of Conflict". Canadian Historical Review. 47 (3): 227-248. doi:10.3138/chr-047-03-02. S2CID 161879218.

7. Joan Sangster, "Women Workers, Employment Policy and the State: The Establishment of the Ontario Women's Bureau, 1963-1970", ^ Labour / Le Travail (1995) 36#1 pp. 119-145 in JSTOR

8. ^ Freeman, Neil (September 1992). "Turn-of-the-Century State Intervention: Creating the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, 1906". Ontario History. 84 (3): 171-194.

9. ^ Wilson, G. Alan (March 1964). "John Northway's Career: An Approach to Ontario's History". Ontario History. 56 (1): 37-44.

10. ^ Wilson, Alan (2005). "Northway, John". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XV (1921-1930) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.

11. ^ "Population urban and rural, by province and territory (Ontario)". Statistics Canada. 2005-09-01. Archived from the original on 2006-11-13.

12. ^ "Canada's population". The Daily. Statistics Canada. 2006-09-27. Archived from the original on 2008-11-04.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography online, short scholarly biographies of every major Canadian who died before 1930

Baskerville, Peter A. Sites of Power: A Concise History of Ontario. Oxford U. Press., 2005. 296 pp. (first edition was Ontario: Image, Identity and Power, 2002). online review

Christou, Theodore Michael. Progressive Education: Revisioning and Reframing Ontario's Public Schools, 1919-1942 (2012)

Drummond, Ian M. Progress Without Planning: The Economic History of Ontario from Confederation to the Second World War (1987)

Hall, Roger; Westfall, William; and MacDowell, Laurel Sefton, eds. Patterns of the Past: Interpreting Ontario's History. Dundurn Pr., 1988. 406 pp. excerpt and text search

McCalla, Douglas. Planting The Province: The Economic History of Upper Canada, 1784-1870 (University of Toronto Press, 1993). 446 pp.

Mays, John Bentley. Arrivals: Stories from the History of Ontario. Penguin Books Canada, 2002. 418 pp.

Schull, Joseph. Ontario since 1867 (1978) 400pp; general survey emphasizing politics

Whitcomb, Dr. Ed. A Short History of Ontario. (Ottawa. From Sea To Sea Enterprises, 2006) ISBN 0-9694667-6-5. 79 pp.

White, Randall. Ontario: 1610-1985 (1985), general survey emphasizing politics

Celebrating One Thousand Years of Ontario's History: Proceedings of the Celebrating One Thousand Years of Ontario's History Symposium, April 14, 15, and 16, 2000. (Ontario Historical Society, 2000) 343 pp.

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The History of Ontario covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. The lands that make up present-day Ontario, the most populous province of Canada as of the early 21st century have been inhabited for millennia by groups of Aboriginal people, with French and British exploration and colonization commencing in the 17th century.

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This is the front and back of a nickel from the Confederation.

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The Great Coalition of 1864 united George Brown’s Reformers, John A. Macdonald’s Liberal Conservatives in Canada West, and George-Étienne Cartier ’s bleus in Canada East, in support of Confederation.

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Reasons for Confederation

The union of British North America was a long-simmering idea. But by the 1860s, it had become a serious question in the Province of Canada. In the Atlantic colonies, however, a great deal of pressure would still be necessary to convert romantic ideas of a single northern nation into political reality.

Reasons for Confederation

American Annexation

The creation of a huge United States army during the American Civil War (1861-65), combined with Britain's desire to reduce its financial and military obligations to its colonies in North America, boosted fears of American annexation. Canadian expansionism was considered by some as a pre-emptive action to reduce the chances that territories to the west and north of the Canadas would be annexed by the United States.

Trade

Confederation could offer the colonies strength through unity, an idea that gained steady support, especially in the wake of the US abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty in 1866. In the face of dwindling external markets, Confederation could provide the colonies with the ability to sell goods to each other more easily.

Railways

Railways offered a new and infinitely faster way to transport goods and resources as well as troops and weaponry, which would help boost economies and strengthen borders. In 1862, the Province of Canada had refused to pay a portion of the costs for the Intercolonial Railway, proposed to run from Halifax to Québec. That sparked discussions among the Maritime colonies about merging into a single unit in the hopes of gaining political strength and attracting overseas financial investment. The Canadians would come around eventually.

Road to Confederation

The Great Coalition

Charlottetown Conference

Fathers of Confederation

The Charlottetown Conference was, in the words of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, an "extraordinary armistice in party warfare" - and one that paved the way for Confederation.

Mothers of Confederation

The wives and daughters of the original 36 men have also been described as the Mothers of Confederation for their role in the social gatherings that were a vital part of the Charlottetown, Québec and London Conferences. Official records of the 1864 Charlottetown and Québec Conferences are sparse. But historians have been able to flesh out the social and political dynamics at play in these conferences by consulting the letters and journals of the Mothers of Confederation. They not only provide a view into the experiences of privileged women of the era, but draw attention to the contributions those women made to the historic record and political landscape.

Québec Conference

Confederation, 1867

Worried about the cost of defending Britain's North American colonies against potential US aggression, British Colonial Secretary Edward Cardwell was a strong supporter of Confederation. He instructed his governors in North America in the strongest language possible, to promote the idea, which they did. The London Conference, from December 1866 to February 1867, was the final stage of translating the 72 Resolutions of 1864 into legislation. The result was the British North America Act of 1867 (now called theConstitution Act, 1867), which passed through the British Parliament and was signed by Queen Victoria on 29 March 1867. It was proclaimed into law on 1 July 1867, which Canadians now celebrate as Canada Day .

Indigenous Perspectives

Indigenous peoples were not invited to or represented at the Charlottetown and Québec Conferences, even though they had established what they believed to be bilateral (nation-to-nation) relationships and commitments with the Crown through historic treaties. Paternalistic views about Indigenous peoples effectively left Canada's first peoples out of the formal discussions about unifying the nation.

Despite their exclusion, Confederation had a significant impact on Indigenous communities. In 1867, the federal government assumed responsibility over Indigenous affairs from the colonies. With the purchase of Rupert's Land in 1869, the Dominion of Canada extended its influence over the Indigenous peoples living in that region. Seeking to develop, settle and claim these lands, as well as those in the surrounding area, the Dominion signed a series of 11 treaties from 1871 to 1921 with various Indigenous peoples, promising them money, certain rights to the land and other concessions in exchange for their traditional territories. Most of these promises went unfulfilled or were misunderstood by the signatories. The years following Confederation saw increased government systems of assimilation, including reserves, the and residential schools.

The Dominion Grows

Having rejected Confederation in 1869, Newfoundland and Labrador finally joined in 1949. In 1999, Nunavut, meaning "our land" in Inuktitut, was carved out of the Northwest Territories as part of the largest Indigenous land claim settlement in Canadian history.

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The union of British North America was a long-simmering idea. But by the 1860s, it had become a serious question in the Province of Canada. In the Atlantic colonies, however, a great deal of pressure would still be necessary to convert romantic ideas of a single northern nation into political reality.

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Map of when the provinces joined the Confederation

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Map of when the provinces joined the Confederation

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Under the Act of Union of 1841,  what is now called Ontario was called Canada West.

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Ontario became one of the founding members of the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867 when it joined New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Québec in Confederation.

Province of Canada

Upper Canada ( Ontario) and Lower Canada ( Québec) merged into the Province of Canada as a result of the rebellions that disrupted the territories in 1837. The merger came largely out of the Durham Report, in which Lord Durham argued that a combined colony would offer an improved system of commerce and ensure the survival of an English-speaking majority.

Durham described them as "two nations warring in the bosom of a single state." He recommended assimilating the French, a "people with no literature and no history" in his view, under the government of a single legislature.

The union came into effect in 1841. The new province - consisting of the renamed Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Québec) - struggled financially at times. New waves of British immigration could not find farmland beyond the Canadian Shield, which stunted the growth of the colony.

In February and March 1849, the Montréal Riots erupted, when protests against the weakened economic state of the colony, and the passing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, drew angry crowds into the streets. They threw rotten eggs and stones at the carriage of Governor General Lord Elgin. That night, people burned the Parliament building in Montréal.

The capital of the province subsequently moved out of Montréal. Confederation was proposed as a way of easing these French-English tensions, and of resolving the state of political deadlock that had arisen between Canada East and Canada West, making the combined colony difficult to govern.

Confederation Talks

A new way forward emerged in 1864, when three of the province's four political parties backed Confederation. In Upper Canada ( Ontario) John A. Macdonald led the Conservatives, while George Brown rallied the Clear Grits. In Lower Canada ( Québec) A.A. Dorion's Parti Rouge opposed it, while George-Étienne Cartier's Conservatives supported it. Proponents said French Canada would get its provincial capital and its identity back, and Québec's interests would be protected in Confederation by a French presence in a federal Cabinet.

Given that their neighbours to the south were about to fall into the brutal American Civil War, cooler heads also sought a more peaceful way to live together in Canada. Some feared an expansionist United States might annex parts of British North America, and saw that Confederation would provide strength to resist any such aggression.

Macdonald, Cartier and other members of a Canadian delegation attended the Charlottetown Conference in 1864. Originally designed to discuss Maritime Union, the Charlottetown meeting resulted in an agreement between the Canadians and the Maritime colonies to pursue Confederation. This was followed by another meeting in Québec City, in which the details of Confederation were ironed out.

The Province of Canada broke up in early 1867, being divided into Ontario and Québec; the Dominion of Canada brought them together, plus New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as provinces in Confederation on 1 July 1867.

Fathers of Confederation

The "Fathers of Confederation" are the men who attended one or more of the conferences at Charlottetown, Québec City, and finally London. For Ontario, that includes George Brown, Sir Alexander Campbell, James Cockburn, William Pearce Howland, Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Oliver Mowat.

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Ontario became one of the founding members of the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867 when it joined New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Québec in Confederation. Upper Canada ( Ontario) and Lower Canada ( Québec) merged into the Province of Canada as a result of the rebellions that disrupted the territories in 1837.

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John A Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada.

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Sir John Alexander Macdonald, lawyer, businessman and the first prime minister of Canada (photo by William James Topley, courtesy Library and Archives Canada/c-10144).

Early Life and Education

Macdonald's personal papers provide insight into his life, but his exact birth date remains a mystery. His father's journal lists 11 January 1815 as Macdonald's birth date and his family celebrated his birthday on 11 January. However, a certified extract from the registration of his birth cites 10 January. Macdonald was brought to Kingston, Upper Canada, by his parents, Hugh Macdonald and Helen Shaw, when he was five years old. As his father opened a series of businesses in the area, Macdonald grew up in Kingston, and in the nearby Lennox, Addington, and Prince Edward counties. Macdonald attended the Midland District Grammar School, as well as a private school in Kingston, where he was educated in rhetoric, Latin, Greek, grammar, arithmetic and geography.

Early Career

At age 15 Macdonald began to article with a prominent Kingston lawyer. Both at school and as an articling student, he showed promise. At 17 he managed a branch legal office in Napanee by himself, and at 19 opened his own office in Kingston, two years before being called to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Macdonald's early professional career coincided with the rebellion in Upper Canada and subsequent border raids from the US. He was in Toronto in December 1837 where, as a militia private, he took part in the attack on the rebels at Montgomery's Tavern. In 1838 he attracted public notice by defending accused rebels, including Nils von Schoultz, leader of an attack on Prescott.

Credit: Library and Archives Canada/C-009267.

Legal Career and Business Interests

Macdonald practised law for the rest of his life with a series of partners, first in Kingston (until 1874) and then in Toronto. His firm engaged primarily in commercial law; his most valued clients were established businessmen or corporations. He was also personally involved in a variety of business concerns. He began to deal in real estate in the 1840s, acquired land in many parts of the province - including commercial rental property in downtown Toronto - and was appointed director of many companies (which were located mainly in Kingston). For 25 years (including the years when he was prime minister), he was president of a Québec City firm - the St Lawrence Warehouse, Dock and Wharfage Co - and in 1887 he became the first president of the Manufacturers Life Insurance Co of Toronto.

Personal Life

Macdonald's personal life was marked by a number of misfortunes. His first wife, his cousin Isabella Clark, was an invalid during most of their married life and died in 1857. His first son died at the age of 13 months, while a second son, Hugh John (born in 1850) survived. In 1867, Macdonald married Susan Agnes Bernard, who gave birth in 1869 to a daughter, Mary. Sadly, Mary was afflicted with hydrocephalus and never walked, although she lived to 1933.

Door to Politics Opens

Macdonald entered politics at the municipal level, serving as alderman in Kingston 1843-46. He took an increasingly active part in Conservative politics and in 1844 (at age 29) was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada to represent Kingston. Parties and government were in a state of transition; a modern departmental structure had begun to evolve, but the British government had not yet agreed to responsible government in British North America, and the role of the Governor General was still prominent.

In this context Macdonald's political views proved cautious; he defended the imperial prerogative and state support of denominational education, and opposed the abolition of primogeniture (which stipulated that when a property owner died without leaving a will, his eldest son would inherit everything). Above all, he emerged as a shrewd political tactician who believed in the pursuit of practical goals by practical means. His obvious intelligence and ability brought him his first Cabinet post as receiver general in 1847 in the administration of W.H. Draper, which was defeated in the general election that year.

Macdonald remained in Opposition until the election of 1854, after which he was involved in the creation of a new political alliance, the Liberal-Conservative Party. This new party brought together the Conservatives with an already existing alliance between Upper Canadian Reformers and the French Canadian majority political bloc, the .

"The Old Flag, The Old Policy, The Old Leader," poster published by the Industrial League to appeal to the old ways on which Macdonald built the power of the Conservative Party (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-6536).

Premier of the Province of Canada

Once returned to office, Macdonald assumed the prestigious post of attorney general of Upper Canada. On the retirement of Conservative leader Sir Allan Macnab (which he helped to engineer in 1856), Macdonald succeeded him as joint-premier of the Province of Canada, along with Étienne-Paschal Taché (and then with George-Étienne Cartier 1857-62, with the exception of the two-day Brown- Dorion administration in 1858).

Macdonald and Confederation

During the years 1854-64 Macdonald faced growing opposition in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada) to the political union with Canada East (formerly Lower Canada); in 1841 the Province of Canada had been created, uniting the two colonies under one parliament. The Reform view, voiced by George Brown of the Toronto Globe, complained that the legitimate needs and aspirations of Canada West were frustrated by the "domination" of French Canadian influence in the government of Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. By 1864 the political and sectional forces in the province were deadlocked, and Macdonald reluctantly accepted Brown's proposal for a new coalition of Conservatives, Clear Grits, and Bleus, who would work together for constitutional change. Macdonald and the coalition played a key role in the Confederation of British North America in 1867, which brought together four new provinces ( Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia) to form the Dominion of Canada.

Credit: Library and Archives Canada/ARCH Rare NC1445 B4 fol.

While conceding the necessity of a federal arrangement to accommodate strong racial, religious and regional differences, Macdonald's preference was for a strong, highly centralized, unitary form of government. Macdonald took a leading role in the drafting of a federal system in which the central government held unmistakable dominance over the provincial governments. His great constitutional expertise, ability and knowledge were quickly recognized by the imperial government. Lord Monck, former Governor General of the Province of Canada, and the first Governor General of the Dominion, appointed Macdonald as the first prime minister of Canada on 1 July 1867. Macdonald was also created Knight Commander of the Bath, becoming Sir John A. Macdonald.

The Nation Builder

During his first administration 1867-73, Macdonald became a "nation builder." In this period Manitoba, the North-West Territories (present-day Saskatchewan and Alberta), British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island joined the original four provinces of Confederation. The Intercolonial Railway between Québec City and Halifax was begun and plans were made for a transcontinental railway to the Pacific coast. These undertakings involved unprecedented expenditures of public funds and did not proceed without incident. Manitoba entered the union following an insurrection led by Louis Riel against the takeover of the area by the Dominion government, thereby forcing Macdonald's government to grant provincial status much sooner than had been intended and to accept a system of separate schools and the equality of the French and English languages.

The Pacific Scandal

Macdonald's involvement in the negotiations for a contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway to British Columbia involved him eventually in the Pacific Scandal. During the 1872 election large campaign contributions had been made to him and his colleagues by Sir Hugh Allan, who was to have headed the railway syndicate. Macdonald claimed that his "hands were clean" because he had not profited personally from his association with Allan, but his government was forced to resign in late 1873 and in the election of 1874 was defeated. Some of these political problems stemmed from the fact that he, like many of his contemporaries, was at times a heavy drinker. By his own admission, Macdonald could not recall periods of time during the 1872 election and the negotiations with Allan. His drinking subsequently became more moderate.

Print by John Henry Walker, 1850-1885. Credit: McCord Museum/M930.50.6.5:.

Return to Power

Fortunately for Macdonald his defeat in 1874 coincided with the onset of a business depression in Canada, which gave the Liberal administration of Alexander Mackenzie a reputation for being ineffectual. In 1876, at the instigation of a group of Montréal manufacturers, Macdonald began to advocate a policy of "readjustment" of the tariff - a policy that helped him return triumphantly to power in 1878. He remained prime minister for the rest of his life.

National Policy

The promised changes in tariff policy were introduced in 1879 and frequently revised in close collaboration with leading manufacturers; this became the basis for Macdonald's National Policy, a system which protected Canadian manufacturing through the imposition of high tariffs on foreign imports, especially from the United States. Appealing to Canadian nationalist and anti-American sentiment, it became a permanent feature of Canadian economic and political life. However, the economy as a whole continued to suffer slow growth, and the effects of the policy were uneven.

First published in Grip, September 28th, 1878.

The Canadian Pacific Railway

The great national project of Macdonald's second administration was the completion of the transcontinental CPR, an extremely difficult and expensive undertaking that required extensive government subsidization. Macdonald played a central role in making the railway a reality. He was involved in awarding the contract to a new syndicate headed by George Stephen, which called for a government subsidy of $25 million and 25 million acres (10 million hectares) of land, and on two occasions, in 1884 and 1885, he agreed to introduce legislation for the further financial support of the railway. Its completion in November 1885 made possible the future settlement of the West ( see Canadian Pacific Railway).

Canada's Growing Autonomy

The physical linking of the Canadian community was accompanied by the first steps towards eventual autonomy in world affairs. Macdonald did not foresee Canadian independence from Britain but rather a partnership with the mother country. Yet during his time in office Canada moved closer to independence. Macdonald himself represented Canada on the British commission that negotiated the Treaty of Washington of 1871. In 1880, the post of Canadian high commissioner to Britain was created, and in 1887 Finance Minister Charles Tupper represented Canada at the Joint High Commission in Washington.

Challenges

The last stage of Macdonald's public career was plagued by difficulties. The North-West Resistance occurred when Macdonald himself was superintendent general of Indian Affairs. The subsequent execution of Louis Riel in 1885 greatly increased animosity between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians, and cost Macdonald political support in Québec, where Riel was regarded as a martyr to the forces of Anglo-Saxon imperialism. In addition, Ontario Premier Oliver Mowat launched a series of successful legal challenges to the powers of the central government, resulting in a federal system that was much less centralized than Macdonald had intended. The federal power of disallowance, which enabled the federal Cabinet to cancel provincial legislation, had been freely used during the early days of the Dominion, but was virtually abandoned by the end of the 19th century due to provincial opposition.

Legacy

Macdonald's contribution to the development of the Canadian nation far exceeded that of any of his contemporaries, yet he was not by nature an innovator. Confederation, the CPR, and the protective tariff were not his ideas, but he was brilliant and tenacious in achieving his goals once convinced of their necessity. As a politician he early developed shrewdness and ingenuity. He kept a remarkable degree of personal control over the functioning of the Conservative party and was adept in using patronage for political advantage. He was a highly partisan politician, partly because he genuinely believed it was essential to maintain certain political courses. He was particularly concerned with maintaining the British connection to Canada - including the tradition of parliamentary supremacy - against the threat of American economic and political influences, such as the doctrine of constitutional supremacy.

Credit: Harold M. Daly/Library and Archives Canada/C-002079.

Macdonald was an Anglophile, but he also became a Canadian nationalist who had great faith in the future of Canada. His nationalism was primarily central Canadian and English Canadian; his concern with Québec was largely political. He accepted the existence of a unique French Canadian community and especially a French Canadian claim to a due share of government patronage, but after Cartier's death in 1873 he did not share equal political power with a strong "Québec lieutenant," nor did he give senior Cabinet positions to French Canadian politicians. His overriding national preoccupations were unity and prosperity. An 1860 speech summed up his lifelong political creed and political goals: "One people, great in territory, great in resources, great in enterprise, great in credit, great in capital."

Indigenous Policy

As both prime minister and minister of Indian Affairs, Macdonald was responsible for Indigenous policy, including the development of the residential school system and increasingly repressive measures against Indigenous populations in the West. To Macdonald, the building of the CPR took priority over almost everything else. According to historian James Daschuk, Canadian officials withheld food from Indigenous people until they moved to reserves, thus clearing the land needed for railway construction - thousands died.

Yet, Macdonald also tried to extend the federal vote to all Indigenous males, as long as they met the same conditions as other British subjects. Under his proposal, they would not have to give up Indian status in order to vote (as was the case under previous legislation). Macdonald's proposal was controversial, and the final Electoral Franchise Act of 1885 was a compromise. The Act extended the vote to Indigenous men who lived on reserves if they owned land and had made at least $150 worth of improvements to their property. However, it excluded all Indigenous men in the West - this was likely influenced by the North-West Resistance of 1885. In 1898, the legislation was repealed and many Indigenous men were again disqualified.

Chinese Immigration

Although Macdonald proposed extending the vote to all Indigenous males, he at the same time passed legislation to exclude those of Chinese origin.

In the 1880s, around 15,000 Chinese labourers helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway - working in harsh conditions for little pay, they suffered greatly and historians estimate that at least 600 died. Their employment had caused controversy, particularly in British Columbia, where politicians worried about the potential economic and cultural impact of this influx of Chinese workers. Macdonald, however, defended their employment in constructing the railway.

As the project neared completion, though, Macdonald and the Canadian government excluded "persons of Mongolian or Chinese race" from voting, because they had "no British instincts or British feelings or aspirations" ( Electoral Franchise Act, 1885). The same year, they passed the Chinese Immigration Act, which stated that anyone of Chinese origin had to pay a "head tax" of $50 upon entering the country.

Macdonald's policies and his personal views about Chinese immigration have been hotly debated. While some have accused him of racism, others argue that he was quite progressive by the standards of the time. As Richard Gwyn has pointed out, some criticized him at the time for being too moderate - in comparison, the United States had banned all Chinese immigration in 1882 - and the Canadian government under Liberal leader Sir Wilfrid Laurier soon increased the head tax to $500 in 1903.

Two hundred years after Macdonald's birth, we have a more complex and more complete picture of Canada's first prime minister. One of the most influential and important Canadians of all time, Macdonald was not without flaws. New generations and scholars continue to examine and debate his political ruthlessness, as well as his Indigenous policies and his approach to Chinese immigration. For good and ill, Macdonald helped make Canada what it is today.

See also Prime Ministers of Canada: Table.

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Sir John Alexander Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada (1867-73, 1878-91), lawyer, businessman, politician, (born 10 or 11 Jan 1815 in Glasgow, Scotla...

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At the time of Confederation in 1867, about 3.5 million people had settled in the British North American colonies. Seventy-five percent of these people lived in Ontario and Quebec.

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Ontario (1867) - Library and Archives Canada

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In 1791, the former Province of Quebec was divided into two territories: Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec). In the new Upper Canada, land grants were based on the British tradition of free and common socage, rather than on the French colonial tradition of seigneurial tenure.