The Toronto Police Were Domestic Missionaries in the Battle for a Christian Moral Society

With the increasing incorporation of municipalities across Upper Canada, the battle for a Christian moral society gradually shifted to elected councils and municipal police forces. Far from giving up the struggle, they gave it new life. Nicholas Rogers describes the Toronto police of the later nineteenth century as 'domestic missionaries' in the cause, adopting moral reform as their 'particular vocation.'

--David Murray, Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History (2002; repr., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 88.

Enforcement of a Strict Christian Moral Code in Upper Canada

The enforcement of a strict Christian moral code had a long royal pedigree in Upper Canada, as it did in Britain. Ever since the conquest of Quebec, the King had instructed the men who governed the Canadas to 'cause all Laws already made against Blasphemy, Profaneness, Adultery, Fornication, Polygamy, Incest, Profanation of the Lord's Day, Swearing and Drunkenness, to be vigorously put in Execution in every part of your Government; And ... [to] take due care for the Punishment of these, and every other Vice and Immorality ...'

--David Murray, Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849, Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History (2002; repr., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 77-78.

Tory Government: There Is a Class Which Ought to Monopolize Government Office

Tory government, according to the Globe, held 'that there is a certain class, on whose brows is stampt Legislator, or Ruler of the mass, without regard to their qualification for such an office.' The Examiner also ridiculed the notion that there was a class which ought to monopolize government office. There was only 'an assumed caste' of ambitious men who cloaked 'their selfishness and the haughty superciliousness' of their demands in talk of a virtuous gentry.

--Jeffrey L. McNairn, The Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada, 1791-1854 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 256.

Tory Ruffianism: Using the Unenfranchised as Shock-Troops and Enforcers

Some, like W.W. Baldwin, a leading lawyer and politician, believed on principle that the use of violence against political opponents was "in the strictest sense uncivilized." Moreover, it violated the rule of law, a fundamental principle of the British constitution as understood by Baldwin and other reformers; for this reason also it was unacceptable. The use of the unenfranchised as shock-troops and enforcers remained distinctly tory weapons. In offering a clear alternative to tory ruffianism, the reformers continued to discredit one of the most significant aspects of early tory governance.

--Carol Wilton, Popular Politics and Political Culture in Upper Canada, 1800-1850 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000), 202.

The Durham Meetings: Swinging Upper Canadian Public Opinion Against the Existing System of Government

"Lord Durham," commented Upper Canadian Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Arthur, "has thrown a firebrand amongst the People." Aghast at Lord Durham's success in swinging Upper Canadian public opinion against the existing system of government, Arthur railed against the Durham meetings, powerful expressions of a new spirit of political reform. These Durham meetings -- sixteen in all -- were held throughout the province in the summer and fall of 1839. They attracted huge crowds in support of the principal recommendations of Lord Durham's recently published report: responsible government and the union of the Canadas.

--Carol Wilton, Popular Politics and Political Culture in Upper Canada, 1800-1850 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000), 194.

The Americans Should Always Be Considered Aliens

There had been considerable concern about the loyalty of the American settlers in the colony from the very beginning; and after the war it was frequently wondered if any American could be trusted. Surely "the Americans should always be considered Aliens," Rev. John Strachan stated. They "should be declared incapable of holding landed property or of having any share in government." The security and well-being of the colony demanded, as far as men like John Strachan were concerned, that it be freed "of the depravity of the American character" and from "the contamination of the United States."

--Jane Errington, The Lion, the Eagle, and Upper Canada: A Developing Colonial Ideology (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994), 166.
 

Alberta and the Constitution: Additional Protection for Provincial Resource Ownership and Senate Reform

Perhaps the point to stress is that the 1982 Constitution Act brought to a successful conclusion Alberta's campaign to provide additional constitutional protection for provincial resource ownership. Indeed, Alberta secured more from the 1982 Act, with respect to economic protection, than did Quebec with respect to cultural protection. In any event, the stage was set for the second and more difficult act in the constitutional drama—the reform of national institutions, and more specifically the Senate.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 74.

Western Alienation Is a Political Ideology That Sees Central Canada as the Economic Exploiter

Economic discontent within Alberta, and within the broader western region, provides the foundation upon which the political superstructure of western alienation has been constructed. In an earlier work, I defined western alienation as follows:

Western alienation is best seen as a political ideology of regional discontent. [It] embodies a socially shared set of interrelated beliefs with some degree of cultural embodiment and intellectual articulation, with a recognized history and constituency, and with recognized spokesmen and carriers of the creed. Western alienation encompasses a sense of political, economic and, to a lesser extent, cultural estrangement from the Canadian heartland.

It is important to note that the dominant theme of western alienation, the belief that the West is always outgunned in national politics and as a consequence has been subjected to varying degrees of economic exploitation by central Canada, enjoys both deep historical roots and contemporary nourishment.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 70.

Western Alienation in Alberta

Albertans' preoccupation with their sense of place within the Canadian community leads us to western alienation, a sentiment by no means confined to Alberta but which often finds particularly virulent expression within the province. It also leads us to the heart of the constitutional strategies adopted by Alberta governments, strategies which have left their mark on the broader Canadian constitutional landscape. Alberta governments, and particularly those of the last two decades, have pursued two quite different constitutional objectives—the enhancement or at least protection of provincial jurisdiction and the reform of national institutions. Until the early 1980s, the two objectives found expression within a coherent constitutional strategy. In more recent years, however, this strategy has started to unravel as the two objectives have come into conflict with one another.

--Roger Gibbins, "Alberta and the National Community," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 67.

Alberta Fights for Equality with the Other Provinces

For the first 25 years of Alberta's existence, the provincial government tried to convince Ottawa to give it resource ownership. In 1927, agreement was reached in principle and three years later the Constitution was amended to incorporate the terms of the Natural Resources Transfer Act, 1930. A comparison of the Transfer Act with Section 109 of the Constitution Act, 1867, quickly reveals that its provisions are far more detailed and comprehensive. The preamble to the 1930 Act contains the following statement:

And whereas it is desirable that Alberta should be placed in a position of equality with the other provinces of Confederation with respect to the administration and control of its natural resources as from its entrance into Confederation in 1905.

--J. Peter Meekison, "Alberta and the Constitution," in Government and Politics in Alberta, ed. Allan Tupper and Roger Gibbins (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1992), 247.

British Columbia Loves Playing the Anti-Ottawa Card

Successive provincial governments have played the anti-Ottawa card over and over again. Duff Pattullo did so in the 1930s, first over the high cost of social expenditures for the unemployed, then over the recommendations of the Rowell-Sirois Royal Commission report in the late 1930s that greater powers be given to the federal government. “We who are beyond the Rocky Mountains want to be left free to act ... we do not want to be hogtied and hamstrung, and that is exactly what will happen if this report is implemented.” W.A.C. Bennett wrapped himself in the flag of defender of provincial interests when it came to the development of electricity on both the Columbia and Peace Rivers, picking fights with the federal government and powerful Vancouver-based economic interests, and winning... Glen Clark attempted to mobilize regionalist sentiments in the summer of 1996, taking on the federal government in his defence of BC fishermen caught up in a dispute with their Alaskan counterparts over diminishing salmon stocks: “British Columbia is going to have to demand more jurisdiction over fisheries. We just cannot rely on the federal government ... They just don’t understand British Columbia.”

--Philip Resnick, The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000), 3-4.
 

I Would Not Object to a Little Revolution Now and Again in British Columbia

British Columbia has been a province of Canada since 1871, but it has always been an awkward partner in Confederation. From the very beginning, its political leaders threatened to go their own way if Ottawa failed to live up to the terms of its agreement to build a railway to the Pacific within ten years. “I would not object to a little revolution now and again in British Columbia, after Confederation, if we were treated unfairly; for I am one of those who believe that political hatreds attest the vitality of the state,” argued Amor de Cosmos, one of BC’s early premiers. In 1876, the BC legislature, unhappy with delays in the construction of the transcontinental railway, passed a motion threatening secession from Canada. Not for nothing did John A. Macdonald come to describe British Columbia as “the spoilt child of the dominion.”

--Philip Resnick, The Politics of Resentment: British Columbia Regionalism and Canadian Unity (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2000), 3.

Lower Canada's Agricultural Crisis Caused a Reversion to Subsistence Agriculture

During much of the first half of the nineteenth century, agriculture in Lower Canada was in a state of crisis. Wheat failed, and there was no commercial substitute. Crop failures became more frequent after 1815, and by the 1830s wheat had failed permanently throughout much of the seigneurial land, which included most of the arable land along the St Lawrence River. In terms of expenditure priorities, wheaten flour ranked not far behind the omnipresent debt charges, but reports of malnutrition, hunger, and even starvation confirm the statistical evidence pointing to a sharp decline in consumption of wheat during the 1830s and 1840s. Quebec farmers could no longer produce enough wheat for their own consumption, let alone for export markets, and, having no other marketable commodity, the habitants reverted to a subsistence agriculture and to a diet based on potatoes, barley, and peas.

--John McCallum, introduction to Unequal Beginnings: Agriculture and Economic Development in Quebec and Ontario until 1870, The State and Economic Life (1980; repr., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), 4.

British Columbia's Economic Elites Threaten to Separate from Canada because of an Unfair Share of Economic Development Money

Since the 'contract' for federation, BC has always been sensitive about getting its 'fair share' of economic development moneys. Whenever nineteenth-century federal governments questioned the desirability of building the long-promised railway to the Pacific, BC politicians never hesitated to threaten separation. The province saw the railway as its share of the Confederation pie, as well as being absolutely essential to its economic expansion, a view that ever since has set the tone for Ottawa-Victoria relations over development aid. The demand for a fair share has preoccupied many BC politicians. The threat of separation has mellowed somewhat in the last three decades, but a belief still lingers among some of the economic elites that if there were to be no obvious net economic benefit, then BC should go its own way by setting up independently, joining the United States, or even starting a new union. This financial-ledger style of relationship has frustrated federal politicians.

--Edwin R. Black, "British Columbia: 'The Spoilt Child of Confederation,'" in Politics, Policy, and Government in British Columbia, ed. R.K. Carty (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1996), 34.

Is British Columbia the Spoilt Child of Confederation?

Ottawa's habit of calling BC self-centred or spoiled began more than a century ago. Almost as soon as the West Coast settlements had joined the federation, eastern politicians and newspapers noticed a barrage of constant complaints coming from the new province. Better-endowed with natural resources than most, BC's inhabitants nevertheless had a pesky habit of insisting that the rest of the country had made an enforceable contract in 1871: the railway was a paramount condition of Confederation. BC insisted time and time again that the Terms of Union had to be kept, or 'the deal was off.' What the alternative might be was not clear, in either the last century or this, but there has always been a suspicion that the US was seen as a substitute partner.

--Edwin R. Black, "British Columbia: 'The Spoilt Child of Confederation,'" in Politics, Policy, and Government in British Columbia, ed. R.K. Carty (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1996), 33.