Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67


Book Description

In Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-1867, Ged Martin offers a sceptical review of claims that Confederation answered all the problems facing the provinces, and examines in detail British perceptions of Canada and ideas about its future. The major British contribution to the coming of Confederation is to be found not in the aftermath of the Quebec conference, where the imperial role was mainly one of bluff and exhortation, but prior to 1864, in a vague consensus among opinion-formers that the provinces would one day unite. Faced with an inescapable need to secure legislation at Westminster for a new political structure, British North American politicians found they could work within the context of a metropolitan preference for intercolonial union.




The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony


Book Description

An unparalleled look at AmericaÍs Revolutionary War invasion of Canada







Violence, Order, and Unrest


Book Description

This edited collection offers a broad reinterpretation of the origins of Canada. Drawing on cutting-edge research in a number of fields, Violence, Order, and Unrest explores the development of British North America from the mid-eighteenth century through the aftermath of Confederation. The chapters cover an ambitious range of topics, from Indigenous culture to municipal politics, public executions to runaway slave advertisements. Cumulatively, this book examines the diversity of Indigenous and colonial experiences across northern North America and provides fresh perspectives on the crucial roles of violence and unrest in attempts to establish British authority in Indigenous territories. In the aftermath of Canada 150, Violence, Order, and Unrest offers a timely contribution to current debates over the nature of Canadian culture and history, demonstrating that we cannot understand Canada today without considering its origins as a colonial project.







The Franchise and Politics in British North America 1755-1867


Book Description

To discuss the history of the franchise in Canada, Mr. Garner had to go back well before Confederation because 1867 did not mark the beginnings of a new franchise. Until 1885 the federal government employed the provincial franchises at each federal election, and the provinces in turn continued for some years the franchises that had served their colonial predecessors. This then is the story of the development of the franchise in each of those British colonies which came to form the nucleus of the Dominion of Canada from the establishment of their representative assemblies until they joined Confederation.




The Loyalists


Book Description

In 1783 and 1784, some fifty thousand Americans felt that they could not support the revolution against Britain. They were called Loyalists – and there would be no place for them in the new United States. As they streamed into the Canadian colonies to the north, they changed forever the face of settlement there. Their arrival would eventually lead to the formation of the provinces of New Brunswick and Ontario. First published in hardcover in 1984, the bicentenary of the migration, The Loyalists tells the very human story of these people – of the societies that shaped them, the attitudes that motivated them, and the circumstances that determined their future and influenced the future of Canada. It went on to win the Secretary of State's Prize for Excellence in Canadian Studies.