Compte rendu/Book review: Andrew Smith, British Businessmen and Canadian Confederation: Constitution Making in an Era of Anglo-Globalization par Michael Commito (original) (raw)
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Much of the historiography of British Columbia’s 1871 entry into Confederation has concentrated on the motives of British Columbians in seeking union with Canada. This article examines the discussion of the province’s Terms of Union in the Canadian parliament and in the eastern Canadian press, and recasts the debate as a conflict between two competing visions of Canada’s economic future. Proponents of the admission of British Columbia believed access to the Pacific would transform the new Dominion into a commercial superpower. Opponents of the Terms looked upon distant, mountainous, and sparsely populated British Columbia as a liability, a region and a community that, unlike the Prairie West, could never conform to the agrarian ideal that underpinned their conception of Canada. A reconsideration of the Terms of Union debate in eastern Canada suggests a broader conception of what constitutes Canada’s founding debates, and supports the work of other scholars who have identified an agrarian-commercial cleavage as a defining feature of nineteenth-century Canadian politics. Une grande partie de l’historiographie sur l’entrée de la Colombie-Britannique au sein de la Confédération en 1871 porte sur les motifs qui ont guidé la population de la Colombie-Britannique à vouloir s’unir au Canada. Cet article traite du débat entourant les conditions d’adhésion de la province, qui a eu lieu au Parlement du Canada et dans la presse canadienne de l’Est. Il reformule la question et la présente comme un conflit entre deux visions contradictoires de l’avenir économique du Canada. Les partisans de l’adhésion de la Colombie-Britannique croient que l’accès au Pacifique transformerait le nouveau dominion en une superpuissance commerciale. Quant aux opposants, ils voient cette Colombie-Britannique éloignée, montagneuse et peu densément peuplée comme un boulet, une région et une collectivité qui, contrairement à la Prairie de l’Ouest, ne pourront jamais se conformer à l’idéal agraire que soustend leur conception du Canada. Un nouvel examen du débat sur les conditions d’adhésion qui ont eu lieu dans l’Est du Canada mène à une conception élargie de ce que sont les débats fondateurs du Canada. Cette vision rencontre les travaux d’autres chercheurs qui confèrent à la division agraire-commerciale un rôle déterminant de la politique canadienne du XIXe siecle.
Model and Anomaly: The Canadian Confederation Seen from France, 1864-1871
Globalizing Confederation: Canada and the World in 1867. Eds. Jacqueline Krikorian, Marcel Martel, and Adrian Shubert. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 110-126., 2017
The nineteenth century is usually considered a key period in the history of nation-building. In addition, its second and last thirds have been called the "age of capital" and the "age of empire," respectively. 1 This particular era, and especially the years 1848-1914, saw the birth or development of many concepts and ideas that have shaped the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While the past is sometimes described as "a foreign country," the nation-building processes that speckled the nineteenth century also loomed large in the twentieth century, and still resonate in our day and age. 2 In addition to their longevity, these processes inherently defy the very concept of "national history"nations usually define themselves as peculiar entities, distinct from others (especially their neighbours). In that regard, the Canadian case is of particular interest, as attempting to historicize the very meaning of "nation" in this country is, at best, multifaceted and slippery, and at worst, a constant headache. Nonetheless, one useful way of approaching the national question in Canada consists of focusing on non-Canadian perspectives on the Confederation period. More specifically, this chapter argues that diplomatic corps and newspapers of the French Second Empire viewed Confederation simultaneously as a foreign, unique phenomenon and as a process related to the European nation-building projects of the era. Few studies have been made on the views expressed in France on state formation in Canada between 1864 and 1871. 3 The reasons for focusing on these years are quite straightforward. The year 1864 is, of course, the year of the decisive Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, and 1871 marked the geopolitically significant entry of British Columbia, which turned the Dominion into a transcontinental entity.
Globalizing Confederation: Canada and the World in 1867, 2017
The constitution of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 did not provoke much commentary among Latin American observers. But while Canadian Confederation did not spark lively interest among elites south of the Rio Grande, it did not pass unnoticed. What explains Latin American’s disengagement with Canadian Confederation? Although there has been relatively little written the history of Canada-Latin American relations, existing accounts emphasize the lack of direct contacts between Canada and Latin American societies that persisted despite a shared geographic location in the Western Hemisphere. At first glance, the paucity of direct political or cultural links suggests that Canadian Confederation was simply not seen as important enough to warrant attention. Yet this proposition, while plausible, does not adequately account for Latin American perceptions of Confederation. Taking a synoptic view that draws on secondary accounts and primary source material, in particular contemporary newspaper articles from the region, the essay posits that Latin American observers were indeed interested in Canadian affairs, but that they saw events in the Great White North primarily through the lens of their own experience with emancipation from colonial rule and state-building. Latin America’s road to independence was highly disruptive and fraught with conflict. Their experience stands in stark contrast with the negotiated compact that characterizes Canada’s path to self-rule and independence. This focus explains why insurgencies and foreign incursions, such as the Fenian raids of the late 1860s, caught the attention of Latin American observers, whereas Canadian Confederation itself did not.
Canadian Trade Policy in the Age of American Dominance and British Decline, 1943-1947
Canadian Review of American Studies, 1977
Robert Bottm'ell and do/m •nglish "Canadian trade with both the United Kingdom and the United $•tes is of a complementary nature, and is a classic example of a basically sound division of labour;' the Rowell-Sirois Commission wrote in 1940. It continued: "Canada's position is similar to that of a small man sitting in a big poker game. He must play for the tull stakes, but with only a fraction of the capital resources of his two substantial opponents; if he wins, his profits in relation to his capital are very large, and if he loses, he may be cleaned out."• In the 1930's, this economic equation had not worked very well for Canada. Buffeted by an unfavorable international economic climate, Canada in 1938 possessed a standard of living lower than that of Great Britain; it went without saying that the American standard of living was an unattainable height for most Canadians.-' The small man in the poker game had been nearl;½ cleaned out, a fact which few Canadian officials or economists dared forget in the years that followed. Canadian trade policy during the 1940's was conditioned by the dismal experience of the 1930's. The spectre of depression was ever-present, and to exorcise it the small Canadian poker-player was driven back to the trading table, to gamble with his larger partners, the United States and Great Britain. During the war years, the Canadians occasionally suggested modifications in the rules of the game to afford some protection against bankruptcy. They discovered that the problem was greater than it had been, since now another player, Great Britain, was also in serious straits. As a direct consequence, Canada turned more and more often to the American side in the game, pursuing the goal ofa"sound division of labour"-and a sound bank balance.