Charlottetown Conference Case Study

Independence was not the issue at this meeting, rather the members in Congress sought to “right the wrongs” that the colonies had endured. Along with that redemption, the members of the First Continental Congress sought to gain a voice in London, something they were denied of.

If the Maritime colonies had been able to isolate themselves, they could have lived contentedly for a long period of time, but other pressures would force Maritimers to reconsider Confederation. One of these outside pressures was the support Great Britain was giving to this idea of Confederation in British North America. Great Britain no longer wanted to be concerned with nor did they wish to provide the financial assistance to support Canada in any war.

The meeting was secret because the delegates didn’t want Britain to know that the colonists were uniting. All 13 colonies sent delegates except for Georgia (because they desperately needed the support of British soldiers to face the attacks of restive Creek) to discuss the American Revolution and the resistance to the British Government. They sent a letter to King George III explaining the issues that the colonists had with the way they were treated and demanded that the King repeal the Intolerable Acts or they would boycott English goods. When King George III heard of the colonists' demands, he answered: "The die is now cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph"(The Path to American Revolution). King George III's decision not to repeal the Intolerable Acts or any of the other taxes finally caused the Revolutionary War that led to the independence of the

The next major issue was that of immigration which brought tens of millions of people from Europe. These people would be heading to the United States, Upper Canada or Lower Canada. When these immigrants came they would land in Quebec and with them they would bring disease that killed a large amount of French Canadians. This aggravated the French people because "they saw this as a plot of the English to get rid of the French Canadians". Adding to these problems was the establishment of the British America Land Company. This new land company was given over 500 acres of Lower Canada's prime land. The company would not allow French people to buy this land; only the English and Americans could purchase the land. The French people found it increasingly difficult to get land and the government wasn't doing anything about this. All of these problems lead to the assembly issuing the ninety-two resolutions that had two main points that were responsible government and control of money. The ruling English class didn't want the French people to gain this power because they wanted to French to remain oppressed and out of the upper class "The Chateau Clique in Lower Canada wanted to prevent the French from winning complete control over the government and English speaking people would be under the control of the French." The response to the ninety-two resolutions was the issuing of the ten resolutions from Britain that stated that there would be no

The conference had been planned as a meeting of representatives from the Maritime colonies: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland agreed with the movement, but was not notified in time to take part in the proceedings.[1] Britain encouraged a Maritime Union between these colonies, hoping that they would then become less economically and politically dependent on the Crown, and provide for greater economic and military power for the region in light of the American Civil War. However,

The colonists’ were upset because the British won, but were being moved out like they had lost. In the Transcript of the Proclamation of 1763, it states, ” And We do further strictly enjoin and require all

Canadian confederation was a process in which the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into one government of Canada, on July 1 1867. However Canadian confederation did not just happen like that there were causes that lead to confederation. The causes which lead to confederation are; political deadlock, American civil war, the railway, cancellation of reciprocity treaty, and Britain creating her colonies self-sufficient. So today in this essay I will be discussing about the causes of confederation.

In the years leading up to this meeting, called the “Second Virginia Convention,” the British Crown had been increasingly exerting its authority over its colonial constituents. Several substantial taxes on colonial imports and exports had been

Britain began to be very over populated, which means the british wanted to expand and move into the Ohio Valley area right along the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River. In order for the French to keep Canada connected with the lower part of the Mississippi as well as the Caribbean the French needed to keep that land. Nobody looked at whose land this really was,

When news of this meeting became known in the Canada’s, John A Macdonald decided to lead a contingent of coalition government and opposition members to Charlottetown to propose a larger union of the colonies. They campaigned for an invitation to the

This was only one of the things that the people of Canada gained control of. Prior to confederation, Great Britain controlled everything from where Canada’s taxes went, to who ran the country and was in

The first colonies that united were the three maritime colonies. The three colonies organised a conference in Charlottetown (PEI). New foundland was also interested to unite with the other 3 colonies but they didn't accept until it was too late to attend that conference. John A Macdonald was present at this gathering. He strongly suggested that they unite with canada because he was building the railroad and he wanted to bring it all the way to the maritimes to trade resources with the maritime colonies and have better defense during war, that was the only way he could do that. The three maritime colonies and newfoundland were the first colonies to unite. Paragraphe:(Colin M. Bain, p.59)and (P.B.Waite, 03/28/17)

In the meantime, the Sea-related areas of a country of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island had been discussing the idea of a union among themselves. The first Charlottetown Conference in September 1864 was (at first/before other things happened) planned as a meeting to debate this idea of Sea-related union. Macdonald, Cartier and Brown invited themselves to the (meeting to discuss things/meeting together) to try to sell their idea of a larger union of all the British North American (groups of people or other living things). For seven days they took control of the (list of things to deal with/desire to reach a goal) and made their convincing arguments. The main points of the Canadian proposal were continued loyalty to Britain; a strong federal government, but (related to a local area) control over local affairs; representation in the Lower House or Assembly based on population; and an Upper House or Senate to provide (related to a large area) representation. Many of the same issues were still being discussed at the second Charlottetown Conference in 1992. Not all Sea-relatedrs were sold,

The 72 resolutions were put together by many delegates especially John A MacDonald. Macdonald contributed to 50 out of the 72 resolutions created to define the future of Canada. The resolutions were formed by what was clearly laid out at the Charlottetown Conference and included also “Constitutional frame work for a new country” (encylopedia CHANGE) The resolutions outlined the idea of federalism , the powers and responsibilities of each province and how a senate would be placed in the middle among the three regions; Canada East, Canada West and Atlantic colonies to contribute and equal voice. The membership in the House of Commons was defined and based upon representation by population, this was outlined in one of the

For the province of British Columbia, during the original talks of confederation between the province of Canada and the Maritimes that were taking place, the separate colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were already discussing the possibilities of their union in the early 1860s. After the economic decline of the original gold rush, the two were essentially fused in land and government - which would eventually become officially acknowledged by Britain and the other colonies by the year of 1866. Furthermore, it should be stated that the financial position of the province was not necessarily in a good position - having gone through hard economic times with colonial administrations heavily stressing financial resources as well as the increase of the government’s debt, as infrastructure needs could no longer be met in cost.