Conferences

The Charlottetown Conference, September 1–9, 1864

Main article: Charlottetown Conference

In the spring of 1864, New Brunswick premier Samuel Leonard Tilley, Nova Scotia premier Charles Tupper, and Prince Edward Island premier John Hamilton Gray were contemplating the idea of a Maritime Union which would join their three colonies together.

 

 

Delegates of the Charlottetown Conference on the steps of Government House, September 1864.The Premier of the Province of Canada John A. Macdonald surprised the Atlantic premiers by asking if the Province of Canada could be included in the negotiations. After several years of legislative paralysis in the Province of Canada caused by the need to maintain a double legislative majority (a majority of both the Canada East and Canada West delegates in the Province of Canada’s legislature), Macdonald had led his Liberal-Conservative Party into the Great Coalition with George-Étienne Cartier’s Parti bleu and George Brown’s Clear Grits. Macdonald, Cartier, and Brown felt that union with the other British colonies might be a way to solve the political problems of the Province of Canada.

 

The Charlottetown Conference began on September 1, 1864. Since the agenda for the meeting had already been set, the delegation from the Province of Canada was initially not an official part of the Conference. They were allowed to address the Conference, however, and were soon formally invited to join the Conference.

 

No minutes from the Charlottetown Conference survive, but we do know that George-Étienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald presented arguments in favour of a union of the four colonies; Alexander Tilloch Galt presented the Province of Canada’s proposals on the financial arrangements of such a union; and that George Brown presented a proposal for what form a united government might take. The Canadian delegation’s proposal for the governmental system involved:

 

preservation of ties with Great Britain;

residual jurisdiction left to a central authority;

a bicameral system including a Lower House with representation by population (rep by pop) and an Upper House with representation based on regional, rather than provincial, equality;

responsible government at the federal and provincial levels; and

the appointment of a governor general by the British Crown.

After the Conference adjourned on September 9, there were further meetings between delegates held at Halifax, Saint John, and Fredericton. These meetings evinced enough interest that it was decided to hold a second Conference.

 

 

The Quebec Conference, October 10–27, 1864

Main article: Quebec Conference, 1864

 

Delegates at the Quebec Conference, October 1864.After returning home from the Charlottetown Conference, John A. Macdonald asked Viscount Monck, the Governor General of the Province of Canada to invite delegates from the three Maritime provinces and Newfoundland to a conference with United Canada delegates. Monck obliged and the Conference went ahead at Quebec City in October.

 

The Conference began on October 10, 1864 on the site of the present-day Château Frontenac. The Conference elected Étienne-Paschal Taché as its chairman, but it was dominated by Macdonald.

 

At the end of the Conference, it adopted the Seventy-two Resolutions which would form the basis of a scheduled future conference. The Conference adjourned on October 27.

 

more to come… kinda busy!