Unit Overview: The Road to Democracy

This unit will focus on two key societal relationships - the relationship between the members of a society and the decision-making processes that govern their society, and the relationship between the peoples and the land. During the 19th century, the peoples of British North America faced challenges and issues surrounding both of those relationships.

Resource exploitation was aimed at meeting the needs of European and other foreign markets. The pattern of development, starting with the fur trade, continued into the nineteenth century. The reliance on foreign markets secured the economic well-being of the colonies, but also placed them in a vulnerable position. Their economic well-being depended on access to foreign markets, and foreign decision makers could determine whether those markets would be available. If access to those markets was restricted, the economic well-being of the colonies was endangered.

Events during the first half of the nineteenth century demonstrated the vulnerability inherent in depending on foreign markets. The uncertainties associated with the repeal of the Corn Laws, and later the cancellation of a reciprocity agreement with the United States, convinced many that there were advantages to developing a larger domestic economy. That interest contributed to the political union of the colonies and the creation of Canada.

The advent of responsible government politicized the debate between the two linguistic communities, forcing elected members of each population to form political alliances to fulfil their respective agendas. The political alliances were fragile, and a succession of short-lived governments and legislative paralysis characterized the politics of mid-nineteenth-century British North America.

Some political leaders in the colonies saw a possible solution to legislative paralysis and economic uncertainties in the political union of all the colonies of British North America and the development of a national economy.

The political process that led to the creation of Canada was largely a dialogue between the English-speaking and French-speaking communities of central Canada. Within the two communities, there were lively debates concerning the merits of creating a new nation and what form such a nation take. For French Canada, the paramount political goal was to ensure the continuation of the French language and French-Canadian culture. French-Canadian political leaders were determined that if there was to be a new nation, French Canada would possess the means to protect its identity and culture. A federal structure, which provided Quebec with a provincial government possessing sovereignty in a number of jurisdictions, seemed the only solution.

External forces influenced public opinion within British North America and promoted the proposal for a political union of British North America. The U.S. Civil War was a period of crisis in Anglo-American relations. British North America became involved/intertwined in the international politics of that crisis in relations. Many Americans in the northern states felt that Britain was siding with the rebellious Confederacy. The British textile industry depended on importing cotton from the southern states. It was in Britain's interest to continue that trading relationship even during the Civil War. Confederate agents used British North America as a base to launch raids on northern U.S. settlements. The St. Albans Raid, the Trent Affair and the Fenian raids all strained relations between Britain and the United States.

A number of leading U.S. politicians proposed invading and annexing Britain's colonies. Although possessing adequate military power, the U.S. did not invade British North America. If the military option were not to be pursued, then other means of punishing the northern neighbour would be utilized. In early 1865, the U.S. government gave notice that it planned to end the Reciprocity Treaty with British North America, terminate the Rush-Bagot Treaty, and force British North Americans to have passports when entering the U.S. The ending of reciprocity generated support among British North Americans for a political union of the colonies.

The terms of the British North America Act of 1867 reflected the agendas of English and French Canada. Significant segments of the population of the new nation were neither consulted nor involved in the decision making surrounding Confederation. Women, First Nations peoples, and many non-Aboriginal adult males were denied the vote.

The B.N.A. Act created the institutions necessary for a federal state in which power and responsibilities were divided between a central government and the provincial governments. The Act also established the parliamentary structure that is still in operation today.

The proponents of Confederation had argued that a political union would promote economic growth and prosperity for all regions of the new nation. Confederation was now a reality and a strategy was needed to achieve the promised economic growth and prosperity. That strategy rested on securing access for Canadian products and resources in the markets of the world, and on developing a viable national economy that would generate economic activity and significantly contribute to the national well-being.

The National Policy, which envisaged a nation-wide economy influenced economic policy in the following decades. That Policy assigned economic roles to each region of the nation. The newly acquired Canadian West was to develop an agricultural-based economy that supplied resources for both the Canadian market and foreign markets, and serve as a market for the manufactured goods of Central Canada.

The Aboriginal peoples of the Prairies, although greatly impacted by the National Policy, were not consulted in developing or implementing it. The imposition of the Indian Act and the Department of Indian Affairs largely deprived First Nations peoples of control of the decision making that affected their lives.

Canadian women were also deprived of the right to participate in the political decision-making processes that governed the new nation of Canada. Their struggle to obtain the vote marked the first concerted attempt by a distinct population to challenge the political status quo and the assumptions underlying that status quo.

Core Material for Unit Two

Core material appears in bold type on the pages that follow. The remainder of the material in this unit is not core material; teachers may choose to work through all, some, or none of this material. This material should be seen as an opportunity to individualize instruction for students with different levels of intellectual ability and motivation. Teachers may also choose to substitute locally-developed material in optional areas where it is appropriate. Such material should reflect community interests and must also meet the skills, values, and concept objectives of the course.

Unit Two: Foundational Objectives

Foundational Objective 1

Know that within societies, there exists a competition among interest groups for influence over the society's decision-making processes, and that those groups will vary in terms of their ability to influence those processes.

Core Concepts

Interest Group

• Know that societies are composed of competing interest groups each with a power base (resources, numbers, organization) and each desiring decisions that will satisfy its needs/wants.
• Know that the francophone and anglophone populations of Central Canada possessed the economic and political power to influence the political structure of the proposed new nation.
• Know that the paramount concern of francophone leaders was to secure protection for French Canada's culture, language and religion, and that Confederation would only be possible if that protection was secured.

Regionalism

• Know that both regions and populations within the nation often act as interest groups seeking to influence national decision-making processes to secure their respective well-being.
• Know that there exists regional disparity in terms of political and economic influence over national decision making.
• Know that the forces of regionalism were to work against centralization of political and economic decision making controlled by one national government.

Federalism

• Know that the Canadian federal system of government is one in which political decision making is constitutionally allocated to either the national government or to provincial governments.
• Know that federalism balances the desire for overall unity with a desire to retain local or regional autonomy.
• Know that establishment of provincial governments reflected the concern of the both the francophone population of Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces, that a single national government would be dominated by Central Canada and would not represent the interests and well-being of other regions and populations of the nation.

Decision Making

• Know that the regions of Canada have varying degrees of political and economic influence over national decision making.
• Know that Central Canada's population had considerable political power, in terms of voters, and that translated into ensuring that Central Canada had a significant influence on how the National Policy was constructed.
• Know that national political leaders were aware of the economic and political power of Central Canada and that awareness influenced policy making.
• Know that the federal government did not involve the Aboriginal population and other residents of Rupert's Land in determining their opinions and needs.

Métis

• Know that Canadian acquisition of the North West had consequences for the Métis people of that region.
• Know that large-scale migration of Euro-Canadian settlers to the North West was seen by the Métis as a threat to their traditional economy and cultural identity.
• Know that the Métis sought, through negotiations, recognition and protection of their rights and landholdings.
• Know that provisions of the Métis Bill of Rights included:
  • that the territories must have the right to enter Canada's Confederation as a province;
  • that the people would have the right to send four members of Parliament to Ottawa;
  • that the Métis had the right to control their own local affairs;
  • that the Métis wanted French and English languages to be equal in the schools and law courts; and,
  • that the Métis wanted to keep their customs and their Métis way of life.
• Know that the policies and actions of the Canadian government towards the Métis had a negative impact on the unity of the nation.

First Nations

• Know that one of the goals of the Canadian government was to implement policies that would lead to assimilation of the First Nations who resided in the former Rupert's Land.
• Know that the Canadian government planned to relocate the First Nation peoples to reserves and thereby make the land available for European settlers to establish an agricultural-based economy.

Treaties

• Know that the Canadian government planned to acquire the lands of the Canadian West by negotiating treaties with the First Nations and that those treaties extinguished First Nations' land claims.
• Know that the First Nations and the Canadian government held differing assumptions concerning the terms and meaning of the treaties.

Indian Act

• Know that the Indian Act regulated most aspects of the lives of First Nation peoples.
• Know that the Indian Act defined who was considered to be an "Indian."

Foundational Objective 2

Know that the nation's economic well-being depended on the exporting of Canadian products to foreign markets and the development of a national consumer economy.

Core Concepts

Economic Well-being

• Know that dependence on exporting primary products made the British North American economy vulnerable to the trade policies of its significant trading partners, particularly Britain and the United States.
• Know that the economic well-being of the peoples of Canada, both before and after Confederation, has been closely tied to exporting resources and products to foreign markets.

Reciprocity

• Know that the policies of Canadian governments have tended to seek access to the American domestic market for Canadian products, particularly primary products.
• Know that there are geographic realities that have contributed to the desire to seek reciprocity with the United States.

National Policy

• Know that the National Policy articulated different economic roles for the different regions of the nation and that implementation of policies to fulfil those roles have had long-term consequences for the peoples of those different regions.
• Know that the prevailing economic paradigm provided a compelling need to secure the West.
• Know that to fulfil the Canadian West's economic role, as envisaged in the National Policy, it would be necessary to accomplish a number of tasks, some of which were to have profound consequences for the peoples of Rupert's Land.

Foundational Objective 3

Know that the history of the Canadian peoples has been greatly influenced by external forces and events.

Core Concepts

Manifest Destiny

• Know that many American politicians felt that it was the "manifest destiny" of the United States to take control of all of North America.
• Know that the perception that the U.S. represented a significant threat to British North America became a catalyst promoting Confederation and the expansion of the nation.

External Influence

• Know that a number of incidents that inflamed relations between Britain and the United States had consequences for British North America.
• Know that the actions of other nations revealed the vulnerability of an export-driven economy.
• Know that the U.S. Civil War was a period of crisis in Anglo-American relations and that crisis influenced the well-being of British North America.
• Know that there were a number of consequences emerging from the Civil War that promoted the political process leading to Confederation.

Foundational Objective 4

Know that dialectical thinking is a system of reasoned exchange between points of view in which the merits of each case (thesis) are discussed and evaluated.

Dialectic Evaluation

• Know that dialectical evaluation is the process of:
  • defining relevant viewpoints within the information;
  • testing the viewpoints for factual accuracy;
  • testing the viewpoints for their morality;
  • evaluating the factual and moral testing; and;
  • forming a conclusion about the issues.

Criteria

• Know that criteria are rules or standards which are accepted and used to provide a consistent basis for making judgements.

Evaluation

• Know that in determining whether a viewpoint is based on a legitimate moral principle, a variety of moral tests could be applied, including:
  • role exchange: is the principle still considered valid when it is applied to oneself?
  • universal consequences: would the principle still be considered valid if everyone behaved according to its dictates?
  • new cases: is the principle still valid when it is applied to a different but logically relevant case?

Foundational Objective 5

Know that every society will evolve, through debate and consensus, assumptions and practices concerning certain key societal relationships.

Know that within every society, there will exist a divergence of views concerning key societal relationships, including:

• whether individuals, groups, and regions within the nation, possess the means to influence societal and national decision making in a manner to benefit their respective well-being; and,
• whether society has achieved a balance in securing the interests and well-being of particular populations, groups and/or regions of the nation, and securing the interests and well-being of the entire nation.