Wilfred Laurier and the Modernization of Canada

1. Socials 10: Chapter 7 The Emergence of Modern Canada C Cullen Revised March 2011

2. In 1896, Wilfred Laurier of the Liberals became Canada’s first French Canadian prime minister. His election was helped by a problem over schools in Manitoba, as the provincial government of that province had gone against the Manitoba Act and brought in an English-only school system. Laurier promised to intervene if voted into power, something the ruling Conservative prime minister had failed to do. Laurier’s promise helped the Liberals win widespread support from Quebec. Once Laurier was in office, he did address the issue and encouraged the Manitoba premier to adopt a compromise solution, but many French Canadians felt that he did not do enough.

3. Laurier faced several issues that divided English and French Canadians. Many English considered themselves imperialists and were deeply loyal to Britain, while most French did not want any close ties to Canada’s “mother country.”

4. Canadian soldiers in South Africa One major issue was the Boer Warin South Africa. Britain asked Canada for money and troops to help them win the war against the Boer (Dutch) settlers. English Canadians were eager to help, while most French Canadians wanted to stay out of the conflict. Laurier compromised and sent 7300 volunteers who would fight as part of the British army. This solution angered many French Canadians, while some English Canadians felt that Canada could have done even more.

5. A second issue involved the role of Canada’s navy. Britain and Germany were involved in a naval race and tensions were building between the two countries. Both nations were building large battleships called dreadnoughts.

6. HMS Rainbow 1914 Canada’s only West coast warship at the start of WW1 Britain wanted Canada to supply money or to build ships to contribute to the British navy. Most English Canadians supported this plan, but the majority of French Canadians wanted Canada to have its own navy. Laurier compromised once again, and decided Canada would have its own navy that could be turned over to Britain in times of emergency. To complicate matters, Canada’s first warships were two vessels lent to Canada by Britain: the Niobe and the Rainbow. This miniscule navy was nicknamed the “tin-pot navy.” English Canadians were upset because they felt Laurier had let down the British Empire, while some French Canadians were upset that Laurier’s solution might tie Canada too closely to Britain.

7. Canada and the United States had a major disagreement about the border between Alaska and Canada. The area in questions was known as the Alaska Panhandle. Canadians wanted the border to allow them direct access to the Yukon through the Lynn Canal to get access to the Klondike Gold Fields.

8. Britain votes for the U.S. The dispute was handed over to an international tribunalthat ruled in favour of the Americans. Many Canadians were upset with the British judge who had cast the deciding vote in favour of the USA. Canadians saw this as a betrayal after their assistance with the Boer War and naval issue.

9. Another controversial issue for Laurier centred around the concept of reciprocity (free trade) with the United States. Western farmers were in favour of free trade because they could buy cheaper farm equipment from the Americans than from Ontario and Quebec manufacturers, and they convinced Laurier to support their position. Most Canadian businessmen were opposed, as they felt that they couldn’t compete with American companies. As well, some nationalists feared that free trade might make American manifest destiny more likely. This became a key issue in the 1911 federal election, which Laurier lost to Robert Borden’s Conservative Party.

10. Gold was discovered in the Klondike region of the Yukon near the turn of the century and tens of thousands of miners trekked to the north. It was a perilous trip and many died or turned back along the way. Some lucky prospectors did make a fortune in gold, and the wealth from this event helped boost Canada’s economy and also was a factor in helping to end a world depression.

11. Dawson City became a boom town during the Gold Rush and became the first capital city of the Yukon, when it became an official territory of Canada in 1898.

12. The Canadian economy boomed during Laurier’s time. There was an increased demand for Canada’s natural resources, and industries such as logging, pulp and paper, mining, wheat farming, and fishing prospered.

13.                                 <> Clifford Sifton Laurier hoped to bring many new settlers to the Prairies and he encouraged his Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton, to advertise in Europe and the United States. Sifton adopted the slogan of “Canada: The Last Best West” and portrayed Canada as a land of free farmland, great climate, and economic prosperity. Advertising posters did not show the harsh winters, mosquitoes, or lack of good roads.

14. Eastern European immigrants 1911 Sifton wanted large American and European farming families to come to Canada: people who were used to dryland farming and who would be able to handle the harsh winter conditions. He described such a family as a “stalwart peasant in a sheep-skin coat… with a stout wife and a half-dozen children.” Some upper class Canadians looked down upon such immigrants and saw them as inferior and undesirable.

15. There were many reasons that potential immigrants were lured to Canada. These positive factors (pull factors) included free land, a stable government, freedom of religion, and the potential for jobs

16. Sometimes people immigrated to Canada because of negative issues (push factors) in their own homelands. Examples of push factors were war, poverty, religious persecution, drought, or lack of farming land.

17. Prairie Farm house Many of the new immigrants were disillusioned by the reality of the situation once they reached the Canadian prairies. The land was often uncleared, the farms isolated, and the weather much harsher than they had been led to believe.

18. Home children, British orphans or children of poor families, were sent to Canada for a better life working on prairie farms. Some were treated well, but many were used as slave labourers and endured terrible conditions.

19. One of the largest groups of immigrants were the Ukrainians, who came to Canada to escape famine and overpopulation in their homeland. They helped contribute to Canada’s farming success, but ironically were interned as “enemy aliens” during World War 1.

20. Doukhobours coming to Canada 1898 Another group of immigrants to Canada were the Doukhobours, who came from Russia because of religious persecution. Some of them eventually came into conflict with the British Columbia government because of their refusal to send their children to public schools.

21. Many new prairie farmers built their first homes with sod. These primitive homes were nicknamed “soddies.”

22. Pile of bison bones in Saskatchewan around 1890. Bones were ground up to use as fertilizer. The natural prairie ecosystem was changed by the arrival of European immigrants. Much of the natural vegetation was stripped away to clear the land for planting crops. Sometimes poor farming techniques led to soil erosion, as the best topsoil dried out and blew away in windstorms. Also, Many of the larger animals, such as the bison, were overhunted or lost their traditional grazing lands.

23. Several new transcontinental railways emerged during Laurier’s time, including the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Northern. Eventually, all the railways except the CPR were grouped together and renamed the Canadian National Railways (CNR) which would be “owned by the people of Canada”. (p.268)

24. As the railways were built, new towns sprang up along their routes. Many of these were early fur-trading posts, which expanded as the railway brought new settlers and trading opportunities. Some of the fur-trading prairie towns included Saskatoon, Edmonton, Prince Rupert, and Kamloops.

25. Some new immigrants settled in the cities. The poorer people often lived in crowded, unsanitary apartment buildings known as tenements.

26. Around the turn of the century, many workers tried to form labour unions (trade unions) to help fight for better working conditions such as higher wages, shorter hours, accident insurance, and the right to strike. At first, the government was not very sympathetic and tended to side with employers in cases of disagreement. When workers went on strike, they could be replaced, union leaders could be arrested, and the militia might be called in to break up demonstrations and force people back to work.

27. Robert Dunsmuir was Vancouver Island’s first millionaire. He made his fortune in the coal mining business, and his mines were notorious for poor safety conditions and lack of concern for the workers’ rights. Dunsmuir hired Asian and other immigrant workers to replace striking miners and refused to allow unions. He later passed on ownership of his mines to his son James.

28. Dunsmuir later supervised the building of Craigdarroch Castle, which became his family home in Victoria.

29. Robert’s son James Dunsmuir had his own family mansion constructed: Hatley Castle which is now part of Royal Roads University.

30. Looted home of a Chinese strikebreaker Militia arrives to arrest protesting strikebreakers in Nanaimo. After the Dunsmuirs sold their coal mines, a very bitter strike broke out from 1912-1914. Strikebreakers were hired and became the victims of violence and harassment. The new company evicted the families of the strikers from the company houses, which caused more resentment and hardship. By the end of the dispute, 179 miners had been arrested.

31. During Laurier’s time in office, only males of European descent were allowed to vote. Women, aboriginals, and Asians were all not permitted to vote in provincial or federal elections.

32. Nellie McClung, one of Canada’s most famous suffragists Women who fought for the right to vote were known as suffragists. Many suffragists also supported prohibition: the banning of alcohol, as they thought alcohol contributed to poverty, family violence, and other social problems.

33. 1916 march In Manitoba Manitoba was the first Canadian province to grant women the right to vote in 1916, followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta. Ontario and BC were next in 1917. Quebec was the last province to bring in women’s suffrage and waited until 1940 to allow women this right.

34. Chinese lumber workers Chinese immigrants played an important role in B.C.’s history. Not only did they help to build the CPR, they were active in the Cariboo Gold Rush, the salmon canneries along the Pacific coast, and the Vancouver Island coal mines. Unfortunately, they were not always appreciated and became victims of racism and discriminatory practices. Chinese workers were often paid less than their white counterparts, and were not accepted into mainstream society.

35. Frank Oliver, Laurier’s immigration minister after Sifton, was determined to keep Canada mainly white, and brought in discriminatory laws to try to restrict immigrants from Asia. He also looked down upon Eastern European immigrants and considered them inferior to people of British descent.

36. Chinese immigrants also had to pay a discriminatory head tax to enter Canada, a fee no other ethnic group had to pay. The head tax started at $50, but was later raised to $500, a huge amount in those days. Racist government officials hoped that the tax would discourage Chinese men from bringing their families to Canada and that the men would return to China after their work terms were up. Eventually, the federal government completely banned immigration from China in the year 1923.

37. CPR labourers laying the CPR track. The CPR manager in BC, Andrew Onderdonk, recruited Chinese immigrants because he felt they would be a great source of cheap labour. The Chinese were instrumental in helping to build the BC section of the track, but suffered very high casualty rates.

38. Victoria Chinatown 1858 Victoria’s Chinatown Today Victoria Chinatown 1911

39. Damaged building after the 1907 anti- Asian riot in Vancouver Organizations such as the Knights of Labourand the Asiatic Exclusion League emerged in B.C. One goal of both these groups was to limit Asian immigration to Canada in order to protect “Canadian” jobs and to maintain the ethnic purity of the country. The Knights of Labour also worked tobring about better union rights for Canadian workers.

40. In 1907, Vancouver was the site of a nasty race-related riot. A group of Vancouver business-people were angry that BC’s lieutenant-governor James Dunsmuir refused to pass a bill that would prevent Japanese immigrants from coming to BC, so they attacked Chinese and Japanese businesses in the downtown area. Prime Minister Laurier officially apologized to the Japanese government, but later brought in legislation restricting Japanese immigrants to 400 people per year in Canada.

41. The Komagata Maru is on the left. The Rainbow is the larger ship in front. Immigrants from India were also targeted by British Columbians. The government created the Continuous Passage Bill, which stated immigrants to Canada must travel here by a direct route. A group of Sikhs from India decided to test this law and arrived in Vancouver on the Komagata Maru. They were denied entry to Canada despite the fact they were British subjects, and were and eventually sent back to India.

42. Sikhs aboard the Komagata Maru.

43. Conservative Leader and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper In August, 2008, Prime Minister Harper apologized on behalf of the former Canadian government for the unjust actions shown towards the people aboard the Komagata Maru. This followed his earlier apologies to the Chinese immigrants for the head tax and Canada’s First Nations people for the pain and suffering they experienced in the residential school system.

44. Mission Residential School 1880’s Canada’s First Nations people also faced discrimination and hardship. The 1876 Indian Act controlled many aspects of their lives. Aboriginal children were often sent to residential schools, where they experienced loss of language, culture and family ties. In many instances, they were also emotionally, physically, and / or sexually abused.

45. Map of B.C. reserves The Canadian government tried to take over much of the prime First Nations land in order to sell the land to European farmers. The Natives referred to the Royal Proclamation of 1763to prove that they had title to their land. In many cases, treaties were signed that relegated them to reserves. Sometimes, the federal government went back on their deals, and took cut-off landsaway from the reserves.

46. A carved figure welcomes guests to a potlatch. The potlatchwas an important West Coast aboriginal ceremony to celebrate weddings, births, or other important events. The British Columbia potlatch was banned by the federal government in 1884 in a special addition to the Indian Act. Many people thought that this was a deliberate attempt to try to destroy Native culture.

47. Aboriginals in British Columbia had held onto their land longer than First Nations groups in eastern Canada because there was much less settlement in the western regions during the 1700’s and 1800’s. Many of the Canadian immigrants came across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, and before the CPR was completed, few people wanted to make the long and dangerous journey all the way across the country to B.C, especially when the prime farmland was on the prairies.

48. The Nisga’aFirst Nations signed a historic treaty with the British Columbia and federal governments in 1998, after 91 years of negotiation. The treaty gave the Nisga’a money, a large tract of land (almost 2000 square kilometres), the right to natural resources on their land, and limited self-government. In return, the Nisga’a agreed to become taxpayers.

49. 1908 Model T Ford During Laurier’s reign, there were new transportation advances. Cars appeared in Canadian cities, with the American Model T Ford an early favorite. Airplanes were developed, although it would be many decades before they became practical for mass travel.

50. In 1901, Guglielmo Marconireceived the first transatlantic telegraph signal, and established a telegraph company stationed in Newfoundland that would allow British and Canadian citizens to communicate with one another. The first message was sent in Morse code. Soon the general public was able to transmit messages to and from Britain for a small fee.