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ulated east-west trade across the cbl–
onies. By 1857, MacDonald had
come to power in Kingston. The
stage was set. The final push carne in
1865-66.
The United States emerged from
the bitter Civil War of 1861-65
enraged with Britain over her tacit
support of the Southern Confedera–
cy. The United States suspended the
Reciprocity Treaty. She also bran–
dished a formidable army.
Now even the most blind Cana–
dians grasped the foil y of further dis–
unity. MacDonald had met with the
leaders of New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia and Prince Edward Island in
1864 to coyly preach the gospel of
Confederation. The time was ripe.
The Confederation of Canada was
proclaimed in London by the British
North Amer ica Act, effective July
1, 1867. George Brown, a former
adversary of MacDonald 's but a
leading father of Confederation,
spoke the words forever giving the
lie to those who would truncate Can–
ada: "No man who has a true regard
for the well-being of Canada can
vote against this scheme unless he is
prepared to offer sorne better rem–
edy for the evils and injustices that
have so long threatened the peace of
our country."
Georges Cartier's statesmanlike
reply? "There is the question."
It
still is.
Unity brought blessings. Psalm
72:8 enshrined the national motto:
"And his dominion shall be from
sea even unto sea." A salute and a
prophecy! Canada prospered. By
1905 nine provinces stretched from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, the vast
western prairies filling with settlers
eager for a slice of the "last, best
West." Canada, in the words of his–
torian A.R.M. Lower, was "carpen–
tered together, not smelted."
But the hard-won unity was stil l
vulnerable, very vulnerable.
The vast western prairies re–
sented colonial-like ties to the old
heartland of Ontario and Quebec.
T he Western Rebellions, an upris–
ing of combined l ndian and part–
native settlers, shocked eastern
Canada. 1t also sold them on the
need for a continental railway,
another massive boost to unity
completed in 1885.
In 1896 carne a new milestone–
Canada elected her first French-
14
Canadian Prime Minister, Wi lfrid
Laurier. The elegant and cultured
Laurier helped smooth over rank–
led domestic feelings aroused by
Canada's participation in the Boer
War ( 1899-1902) , which sorne
viewed as a squalid police action of
the British Empire.
World War I plunged Canada
into the boiling conscription crisis
of 1917. Mandatory conscription,
as blood flowed in Flanders' fields,
enraged sorne French-Canadians
who resented defending the British
Empire. The issue ftared anew in
World War 11.
Yet the 1950s and 1960s were
remarkably stable and cohesive.
Population soared from 15.5 mil–
lion to 23 miUion between 1955
and 1975. The gross national prod–
uct multiplied
2\12
times. :Sut
affiuence, secularism and the per–
vasive mass media eroded the
church-oriented, traditionalist so–
cial arder in Quebec. Theology
counted for little on the job market.
Too often the best jobs went to the
English. A "quiet revolution"
ticked away in Quebec. The feeling
that Quebec must modernize and
catch up went hand in hand with
the growing desire to be
maitres
chez nous- masters
in our own
house.
.
In 1968 Rene Levesque, a fiery
journalist and academic, founded
the Partí Quebecois, outward ly
committed to separation from Can–
ada. Quebec grabbed world head–
lines in October 1970 when a cell
of separatist militants murdered a
provincial official and kidnapped a
British trade commissioner. Prime
Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a
devout federalist, speedily crushed
the urban terrorists.
The last decade of Canada's his–
tory is readily available. So Jet us
now turn to Canada's future.
The Future
Today, a pause has settled over
Canada.
It
is a time to take stock.
Was it the heady prosperity of an
affluent society that accentuated
the regionalism, the fragmentation,
the decentralizing forces that
almost tare Canada apart in the
1970s? Today she is an incredibly
fortunate country. She has survived
an acute threat to nationhood
waged on four fronts at once-
regional, economic, constitutional
and political.
Canada's future hinges on the
spirit of cooperation, not confronta–
t ion. Her bistorians and writers
have always known this.
lt
was
statesmanship, conci l iation, the
willingness to negotiate, the pa–
tience to muddle through the giant
obstacles sprinkled with a dash of
optimism for the future-these
intangibles have been the strength
of the Canadian Confederation.
'Patience, caution and a practica!
optimism- these are spiritual qual–
ities. Not glamorous attributes, yet
they made Canada possible. Cana–
da's original English-French duali–
ty opened the door for a distinctive
accomplishment: not a melting pot
but a mosaic; not a conquering
manifesto for mankind to embrace
but a practica! necessity to build a
society where fair play and toler–
ance might override diversity. Con–
ciliation, not confrontation, is the
Canadian way.
Canada demonstrates to the
world how a sprawling continental
power with a mixed population can
hold together if there are enough
men of goodwill to moderate the
harshness of debate, to see the
other's point of view.
This tolerant common sense
wedded to a sense of excitement
about the future has always made
Canada attractive to outsiders.
It
is a national destiny that Cana–
dians did not particularly choose.
History and geography handed it to
them. Patiently forging links of uni–
ty and community in a land where
the individual can easily be swal–
lowed, in a land sometimes bleak and
inhospitable for much of the year–
this is a distinctive Canadian
achievement. No wonder they tradi–
tionally prize cooperation, common
sense, the middle way.
These qualities must be guarded if
Canada is to endure. For Canadians
to ignore them in their immense land
prone to overweening regionalism is
to strike at the roots of national exis–
tence.
As the 1980s continue, Cana–
dians need to heed the wisdom pro–
nounced in the same book that gave
her her splendid national motto:
"And if a kingdom be divided
against itself, that kingdom cannot
stand" (Mark 3:24).
o
The
PLAIN TRUTH