B. The National Policy & the CPR

From HCO Jr

Part 7. All Aboard for the West → A. Red River Settlement & Insurrection → B. National Policy & the CPR → C. North West Mounted Police → D. Aboriginal Treaties → E. North West Rebellion → F. Rise of British Columbia → G. Making a Western Home

Prairie Schooner on the Cariboo Road

Introduction

After Manitoba entered Confederation, Canada very quickly began to spread further west. British Columbia joined Confederation, and soon after the prairies began to fill with settlers. This is a very important part of Canada's history. The Canadian mounties were created. A new railway was built that crossed the country from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Treaties were signed with First Nations people on the prairies. Another resistance started on the prairies as the Métis tried again to protect their rights. In some ways it was a very great time for Canadians. However, for the Métis and First Nations of Canada it was a very difficult time.

British Columbia Enters Confederation

British Columbia had been a British colony since the 1700s. When Canada was formed in 1867, politicians talked about British Columbia becoming part of the new country. However, it was a great distance away on the Pacific Ocean. Ottawa and the rest of Canada seemed very remote to people living in British Columbia. Would they want to join a country that was so far away?

British Columbia had not been a very large colony. It’s population was scattered over a large area. It only had 10,000 people living in it. This changed in the 1850s when gold was discovered in an area known as the Cariboo. The Cariboo Gold Rush brought thousands of people to British Columbia. All of these prospectors hoped to discover gold and become rich.

As the population grew, the colonial government of British Columbia borrowed money to pay for new roads and other services. However, when the gold rush ended the government found itself with a lot of debt and no way to pay it back. British Columbia’s population began to fall again as people left the province when the gold rush ended.

First BC/Vancouver Island Stamp, 1860

British Columbia’s government realized it needed to join with a larger country to survive. There were two options: Canada or the United States. In some ways the United States was a better choice. It was much closer. The United States already had states and territories on the Pacific Coast. Some important politicians in the United States were pressing the US government to accept British Columbia into the country. A group in British Columbia sent a petition around in 1869 to convince people in the colony to join the United States. Only 149 people in the colony signed it.

What about joining the new Dominion of Canada? People in the colony wanted to remain part of the British Empire. There were problem to be overcome before British Columbia could join Canada. The biggest problem was transportation. To travel by foot, canoe and horse from Vancouver to Toronto would take over one year. A new form of transportation was needed to make the journey from Central/Eastern Canada to Britsh Columbia shorter.

The answer was a railway. Railways were being built in Canada in the 1850s, but no one had built a railway stretching right across the country. Canada had purchased Rupert’s Land and now had the land to build a railway on.

All that was needed now was a new government in British Columbia that wanted to join Canada.

British Columbia and the Debate to Join Canada

Amor de Cosmos

In 1869 British Columbia had a new governor, Anthony Musgrave. Governor Musgrave wanted the colony to join with Canada. An important promise he wanted from the Canadian government was that a railway would be built joining Vancouver and other BC towns to the rest of Canada.

Governor Musgrave had a lot of support from a man with the odd name of Amor de Cosmos ("love of the universe"). Mr. Cosmos' real name was William Smith. He was the founded and editor of a newspaper in Victoria called The British Colonist. Cosmos wrote editorials and articles in his newspaper convincing British Columbians that joining Canada was the best solution for their province.

In the spring of 1870s the British Columbia legislature passed a motion giving the government permission to negotiate with the Canadian government and join Confederation. Three delegates were sent to Ottawa that year to meet with Prime Minister Macdonald. The prime minister was not available, so George-Étienne Cartier and Francis Hincks met with the British Columbia delegation.

Joseph Trutch, BC Delegate to Ottawa, 1871

The negotiations were very easy. Cartier and Hincks gave British Columbia everything it wanted. Both Cartier and Hincks did not want to see British Columbia become part of the United States. Joseph Trutch, one of the BC delegates, said that all British Columbia wanted to join Confederation was a wagon road linking their colony with the rest of Canada. Instead Cartier and Hincks said that the Canadian government would built a permanent railway.

On July 20, 1871, British Columbia officially became Canada's sixth province.

Admission of BC

Settling the Canadian Prairies

There are many things to consider when learning about the history of the Canadian prairies: the creation of the Mounties, the arrival of settlers, the National Policy, the building of the railway, treaties with First Nations people, and the North West Rebellion. It is not a simple history of pioneers starting farms.

The North West Mounted Police

Canadian Mounties are a national symbol of Canada. Although Mounties only wear their red uniform when they are on parade or acting as a symbol many people have that image of Mounties.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police were first called the North West Mounted Policy. They were created in 1873 by Prime Minister Macdonald’s government. Their job was to patrol the Canadian prairies (called the North West Territories at that time).

Why did the government need Mounties? There were a few reasons. One reason was First Nations people. In the United States in the 1870s there were wars between First Nations people such as the Sioux Nation and the United States government. The US government had broken their treaties with the Sioux, and some leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse decided to lead a resistance against the US government. Battles, such as the Little Big Horn, were fought between Sioux Warriors and the United States military.

The Mounties March West

Mounties were sent to the prairies to work with First Nations people and try to prevent this type of warfare from starting. Macdonald hoped that the Mounties would settle disputes between settlers, fur traders and First Nations people before violence started. American fur traders from the American prairies would cross into Canada to get furs. They often cheated and stole from Native peoples.

One horrible instance, in the Cypress Hills area of Saskatchewan, provides a good example of how violent the prairies could be. In 1873 a group of American hunters were killing buffalo on the Canadian prairies. One of their horses was stolen. They thought that a group of Assiniboine First Nations had stolen their horse. They attacked this group of Assiniboine and murders two dozen men, women and children.

When Canadians learned of this massacre they were outraged. This attack pushed the Canadian government to create the NWMP and send them out to the prairies. In 1873, three hundred Mounties began the long trip to the prairies. These three hundred men had to patrol an area that was larger than France. They built simple forts to act as shelter, prisons for men they arrested, and to act as depots to hand out supplies to people.

NWMP Post at Fort Walsh

Mounties patrolled on horseback and integrated themselves into the community. They helped resolve family and community problems, fought prairie fires, drove cattle rustlers out of the region, and delivered emergency supplies to starving Aboriginal bands. Mounties also worked to drive out American fur traders who were cheating and stealing from First Nations people. Over time some First Nations leaders came to respect the Mounties.

Mounties did much more than just be police officers. Mounties also:

Delivered mail
Took census
Collected customs duties
Provided medical services
Wrote down weather reports
Handed out relief supplies to settlers and First Nations people
Acted as Justices of the Peace for the territories.

The Canadian Pacific Railway

The New North West Passage

Once the promise was made to build the railway the Canadian government moved quickly to complete the railway. However, it was not completed until 1885. Why did it take so long to build?

Today many people have a romantic understanding of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). They have an image of a country being opened up for settlement, and pioneer families entering the west to start new lives. Part of this story is true. Many families immigrated to Canada and started new lives on the Canadian prairies. However, there are other parts of this story which are not so nice.

The Pacific Scandal

Hugh Allan

Prime Minister Macdonald's government looked for a private company to built part of the railway. Two companies applied to build the railway.

One company was based in Montreal. It was the Canadian Pacific Company. The other company was based in Toronto. It was called the Interoceanic Company. Sir Hugh Allen was the president of the Canadian Pacific Company. Sir Allen, to make sure his company received the contract to build the railway, gave large sums of money to Prime Minister Macdonald. The prime minister would use this money to help him when the next election came in 1872

Macdonald and his Conservative Party won the election of 1872. After they won the contract was given so Sir Allen's company. Eventually the Liberal Party found out that Sir Allen had given a lot of money to Macdonald and the Conservative Party to get this contract. This became known as the Pacific Scandal.

Canadians were so angry that Prime Minister Macdonald resigned as prime minister. A new election had to be called in 1873. This time the Conservatives lost. The Liberal Party came to power, and Canada's new prime minister was Alexander Mackenzie.

The Depression and Macdonald Returns

Alexander Mackenzie Promises Miss BC a Railway

When Alexander Mackenzie became prime minister he faced a problem. Canada's economy went into a depression. People lost their jobs, factories closed, and there was not very much money in the country. The new Liberal government did not have enough money to pay for the building of the railway.

Prime Minister Mackenzie's government hired companies to survey the route that the railway would be built on. His government did a lot of the background work that was needed to build the railway.

During his time out of office, John A. Macdonald worked very hard to rebuild the Conservative Party. In 1878 a new election was called (Canada must have a federal election every five years). Because of the depression, Alexander Mackenzie's government was not very popular. People thought that Mackenzie had broken Canada's promise to build a railway to British Columbia. It was not Mackenzie's fault since the bad economy made it very difficult for the government to afford a railway.

Macdonald, however, had a new policy for Canadians that promised to bring good economic times back to Canada. It was called the National Policy. Macdonald promised Canadians better times, jobs and a railway to western Canada.

Macdonald and the Conservatives won the 1878 election.

The National Policy

Macdonald's National Policy

What was the National Policy? It was an election promise made by the Conservatives. There was only one part to the National Policy: tariffs. However, over time two other things became associated with the National Policy: immigration and the CPR.

The Tariff

What is a tariff? A tariff is a tax that governments put on goods that are imported (or brought in to) a country. Tariffs are put in place to protect factories in a country. It prevents factories from other countries selling similar goods.

For example, imagine you own a company in Canada in 1878. Your company makes ploughs for farmers. You can make ploughs, and sell them for $100 each. You can't sell your ploughs any cheaper. This price allows you to make some money for each plough that you sell. However, there is a company in the United States that also makes ploughs. They can ship their ploughs to Canada, and sell them for $85.

1878 Election Poster

Your company can't sell ploughs for $85 because your factory would lose money. The Canadian government, however, can put a tariff on American ploughs that are shipped into Canada. Before the ploughs enter Canada, the government charges the American company $25 on every plough. The American company has to increase the cost it sells its ploughs for to meet this cost. Now their ploughs cost $110 dollars. Canadian farmers will buy your ploughs now because they are $10 cheaper.

During the 1878 election Macdonald made many speeches about this new tariff. He said it would protect Canadian factories and Canadian jobs. If people had jobs in factories this meant that farmers would have people to sell their food too. The National Policy would keep money in Canada.

Immigration

Immigration was not really part of the National Policy. However, it is such an important part of Canada's settlement of the West that people often think that it is.

The reason for this is the tariff. When Prime Minister Macdonald made speeches about the tariff he often spoke about immigration. Macdonald said that new immigrants would come to Canada, and use the new railway to settle out west. When their farms became successful they would be able to sell their wheat and other farm goods to people living in cities in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

Macdonald's idea was that the tariff and immigration would create a circle. Farmers sold their goods to people who lived and worked in cities. The people in the cities had jobs because the tariff protected their factories from competition from the United States. Farmers would use the money they made to buy good made in Canadian factories. Farmers and factory workers would support each other.

Before settlement could take place the government had to survey the land. The Canadian goverment passed the Dominion Lands Act in 1872 to control immigration to the prairies. The land on the prairies was divided into sections. Each section was 640 acres in size. Thiry-six sections equalled one township.

Each section was divided into 160 acre pieces called quarter-sections. When settlers arrived they were given one quarter-section. This was free-land. All the settler had to do was live on that land, and after five years provde that they had worked the land and started a farm.

By offering free land the Canadian government hoped that a lot of settlers would come to Canada and settle on the prairies. However, this did not happen right away. For many years people from Great Britain and Europe wanted to settle in the United States. They saw better opportunity in the U.S. than in Canada. For example, between 1867 and 1899 almost 1.5 million immigrants came to Canada. In the 1880s alone almost 5.5 million immigrants settled in the United States.

It was important for Canada to have settlers in the western prairies. If the United States sent settlers into the area there was a chance that it might claim ownership of the prairies. This is called annexation. If a government cannot show that it controls an area of its country than another country can claim that area.

Building the CPR, 1878-1885

Shortly after Macdonald was re-elected in 1878 a company offered to build the trans-continental railway. This was the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. It was led by three men from the Bank of Montreal: George Stephen, R.B. Angus and Donald Smith.

Building the railway was very expensive. Investors from Great Britain, the United States and Canada bought stock in this new company. The Canadian government also put forth a large amount of money. In its deal with the CPR Company, the Canadian government offered it:

$25 million dollars
25 million acres of land on the prairies. The CPR Company could sell this land in the future to raise money.
It did not have to pay any taxes on the 25 million acres of land the Canadian government gave it
The CPR did not have to pay any tariffs on materials it brought into Canada to build the railway
It was also given a monopoly over transportation. For the next twenty years no other private company was allowed to build a railway in western Canada and compete with the CPR.

CPR reaches Calgary

Many people think the CPR was built right across Canada. This is not entirely true. There were already many railways in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario. These railways went all the way to the small town of Callander in Ontario. The CPR would start from Callender and extend all the way to Vancouver.

However, the CPR company did not have to build the entire railway! The part of the railway that stretched from Callander to Winnipeg and through the mountains of British Columbia would be built by the Canadian government. The CPR Company only built the portion of the railway that crossed the prairies. This was the easiest (and cheapest) portion of the railway to build.

Construction of the CPR started in 1881. By 1883 the section through the prairies was finished. It stopped at Kicking Horse Pass in Alberta. From that point onwards the Canadian government had to build to the Pacific Ocean. The portion of the railway that crossed northern Ontario was not finished until 1885.

Chinese Labourers in the Selkirk Mountains

Building through the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia was very dangerous. A lot of explosives were used to blast through rock and even create tunnels through mountains. A lot of the workers used to build this section were Chinese immigrants. They came to Canada looking for work and a better life. However, they were treated very badly by the railway company. More than 6500 Chinese men worked to build the CPR through the mountains. It is estimated that three Chinese men died for every kilometer of track that was built through the mountains.

Building the CPR was very expensive. Even though it was given $25 million dollars, the CPR Company almost went bankrupt. In 1883 the Canadian government gave it another $22.5 million dollars. This was a very large amount of money at this time. It was almost equal the all the money the Canadian government spent in an entire year.

Official Last Spike Ceremony at Craigellachie

Finally, on November 7, 1885, at a ceremony in Craigellachie, British Columbia, the last spike was driven into the CPR by one of the owners, Donald Smith. The railway was not complete. In 1886, regular train service on the CPR began. When all the officials and dignataries left after the 'official' last spike ceremony the workers who where there held their own ceremony. They had not been asked to take part in the official ceremony - this was only for certain people. However, photographer agreed to take a picture of the workers who were there when the railway was completed.

CPR Workers Holding their Own Ceremony

What was the final cost of the CPR to the Canadian people?

10.4 million hectares of the best prairie land
63.5 million in public funds
Government loans of $35 million to the CPR Company.

The CPR was, at that time, the longest railway in the world. It would have a great impact on Canada's history. While the CPR did many positive things for Canada's development it had a devastating impact on First Nations people and the Métis. This is outlined in the next chapter.