Many years after the Treaty of Paris, in 1791, London administered the Constitutional Act that divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, “…with the dividing line running from a little west of Montreal Island to Ottawa and up to Hudson’s Bay Company territory…” . Within the Act London appointed a lieutenant governor, executive council, legislative council, and a house of assembly, in every province. Upper Canada consisted of mostly francophone and native populations. Lower Canada also had a Parliament with the same structure of government as Upper Canada with mostly an English speaking population.

For many reasons the government set up by the British did not work out as planned and many

From the Reform party, led by George Brown, of mostly protestant farming communities derived two main goals. These goals were to have representation in the assembly that is population warranted and to annex the territories of Hudson Bay Company. George Brown stated, “We have two countries, two languages, two habits of thought and action, and the question is can you possibly carry on the government of both with one legislature and one executive. That is the question to be solved.” The Reform party wanted to have a confederation with local governments.

On March 29, 1867 the British North American Act was signed by Queen Victoria and later proclaimed in July. This brought together the Dominion of Canada, Ontario and Quebec (also know as the Province of Canada), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This act was basically known as the written law for Canada. The beginning of the Act establishes federal union of the colonies and to have a constitution from the British Government. With this unionization the Queen would still be the principle authority figurehead. Although, the Queen still had this authority she appointed and knighted Sir John A. Macdonald, for his efforts in the Confederation, to be Prime Minister of the new Dominion.

In a Conference held by the Colonial Office to discuss Maritime Union, the Province of Canada attended and proposals of the union of all colonies were discussed and sketched out. From this conference the final terms of the British North American Act was derived. However, Maritime’s did not like to terms, Nova Scotia harbored most of those feelings. Nova Scotia was under the government of Charles Tupper who was elected in 1863. Tupper realized the fact that Nova Scotia didn’t want Confederation so he deliberately didn’t press the issue until Cardwell brought in a Pro-Confederation. He knew that elections would not be up until a couple of years later so he quickly got a resolution thru both houses. Despite the manipulation efforts by Tupper he succeeded in supporting the Confederation, and the British Parliament established the British North American Act. By Tupper’s manipulation Macdonald had been blinded and now faced the task of trying to pacify the terms to Nova Scotia.

Some topics in this essay:
North America, North American, Province Canada, George Brown, Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, Minister Dominion, Upper Canada, United Kingdom, Civil War, british north, british north american, north american, north america, british north america, lower canada, british government, nova scotia, upper canada, north american act, province canada, american act, bay company, hudson bay company, upper lower canada,