Why was charlottetown conference important

The delegates agreed to meet again in Quebec City the following month. Quebec Resolutions Quebec Resolutions read more Albans Raid St. Albans Raid read more Road to Union The Charlottetown Conference.

The Charlottetown Conference By the early s, the British colonies of North America were considering the benefits of a union. The American Civil War had created a new military power and a renewed threat to the small, divided colonies to the north.

And British public opinion had been in favour of reducing, if not eliminating government spending in North America, especially for defence. This was the first digital, multimedia history of Canada. It started out as a laserdisc in and the CD-ROM version has been used in schools across the country.

It has been approved as a curriculum-supporting resource by provincial and territorial ministries of education. This online, public domain site is the fifth edition of the project. They hoped this would give them political strength and help attract financial investment. Prince Edward Islanders welcomed any project that might buy out landlords who owned large swaths of island property but lived outside the colony.

However, overall support for Maritime union did not run deep. Meanwhile, Britain wanted to reduce its financial and military obligations to its North American colonies. These factors led to fears in Canada of American annexation.

See also: Annexation Association. The province had also had a series of weak and unstable governments. This fueled the demands for change and the pressure for a new political structure. When Canadian political leaders learned through Samuel Tilley of the upcoming conference in Charlottetown , they seized on the chance to attend.

The three Maritime provinces each named five delegates to Charlottetown. Each delegation included members of the government and the opposition. Conservative premier Charles Tupper led the Nova Scotians. The latter in particular became a fervent supporter of Confederation. Three of its delegates — Palmer, Coles and Macdonald — later opposed Confederation. Despite this, all three are recognized as Fathers of Confederation. See also: Fathers of Confederation: Table.

Tupper was 43 and Tilley They were middle-aged politicians who hoped to someday operate the institutions they were creating. Leaning against a column, he jauntily raises his stovepipe hat to shield his eyes from the sunlight. There were some notable omissions from the all-male group of Maritime delegates.

Andrew Macdonald was the only Catholic , and he came from a privileged Highland Scots background. Although the proposed united province was unofficially called Acadia, there were no francophone representatives. Meanwhile, Indigenous people and Black Canadians were excluded from public life. Some accounts of the Charlottetown Conference imply that the small-town Maritime politicians were dazzled by the Canadians into accepting a new and wider vision of nationhood.

In fact, Confederation with the Province of Canada had been widely debated for many years in the Maritimes. However, it was mainly seen as a long-term development. Nova Scotians Tupper and McCully had supported uniting all the provinces. Gray of New Brunswick had called for a federal union as far back as Tilley was guardedly in favour.

Coles even outlined a Confederation scheme. However, his insistence that the capital should be in Charlottetown was unrealistic. They were well equipped to assess Canadian proposals. However, he was absent on an official mission. He expected Charlottetown to produce a scheme for Maritime Union and promised to co-operate in its adoption. However, he soon rejected the wider scheme of Confederation.

Several were political heavyweights. Legal knowledge and political smarts made Conservative John A. Macdonald a key figure in the proceedings. It is unlikely that French was spoken at the conference.

By stresses and strains within Canada were near the breaking point. The population of Canada West Upper Canada; present-day Ontario was outstripping that of Canada East Lower Canada; present-day Quebec , yet the political system gave equal representation to both sections of the province. As the Reform party became stronger in Canada West, the situation became increasingly unstable.

Between and there were two elections, four administrations, and an atmosphere that was increasingly tense and acrimonious. Among the opponents was Macdonald, who preferred legislative union with a strong central government to a federal system. But Cartier had endorsed federalism, and without his support, Macdonald would have been politically isolated.