In 1864 Macdonaldâs conservative government was defeated in the house and the Governor, Lord Monck, was ready to dissolve the assembly. George Brown at that point rose to the occasion and offered Macdonald the opportunity to forma coalition government. The offer was accepted under the leadership of Sir Etienne Tache and the movement towards confederation had begun. The leaders of the movement, with John A Macdonald at the forefront sailed to Prince Edward Island in 1864 and meet with the maritime leaders who themselves were looking at their own union. With Champaign and banqueting as their allies, Macdonald and company managed to convince enough of those assembled at Charlottetown that a grander Canadian Union would be the answer. They agreed to reassemble at Quebec City and the Quebec resolutions were hammered out which would form the basis of the new Canadian Confederation or the British North America Act.
Although Macdonald was a late convert to federalism he did become its main supporter. Macdonaldâs influence is reflected throughout the documents and most of it is in fact written in his hand. He and his colleagues tried to learn from the American experience what not to do and come up with a better option. In 1865 Macdonald, Brown and several other of the fathers of confederation set sail for England where they meet with the Queen, partied often and worked to get the required acts passed in Westminster. In the meantime an Irish group known as the Fenians invaded Canada from the United States on June 1st, 1866. They were determined to recruit the Canadians to their cause and create an anti-British nation in North America. These invaders were quickly forced back across the boarder but the result of their invasion was to so infuriate Canadians and inflame anti-American feelings that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia quickly approved of the move towards confederation and during the spring of 1866 the British Parliament passed the British North America Act and set July 1st, 1867 as the date when the new nation would come into being. Macdonald was chosen as the obvious man to become the first Prime Minister and was proclaimed Knight Commander of the Bath and hence became Sir John A. Macdonald.
rogerthelodger on May 14th, 2017 at 18:10 UTC »
"His private life was full of tragedy and sorrow. He watched for more then a decade while his first wife, desperately ill, died slowly. His son died as a baby and his daughter was born with Hydrocephalus which caused a swelling of the brain and brain damage. He would return late at night from a session in the commons to hold and rock his little baby girl to sleep. It is little wonder, in his day and age, that he sometimes turned to the bottle for solace." from the same link
neanderthalman on May 14th, 2017 at 18:09 UTC »
A part of our heritage
randomspiritlover69 on May 14th, 2017 at 16:43 UTC »
Ah, the good old days!