Confederation and the People

The Confederation story is often told in terms of the three conferences. The provincial leaders met at Charlottetown in the fall of 1864. Having agreed on Confederation in principle, they moved to Quebec City, where the union agreement was drafted. And then in the winter of 1866-67, the Fathers met British officials in London to cast their work in the formal language of constitutions. But to tell the story in this fashion encourages the idea that Confederation was a deal brokered by elites. It ignores "the people." It ignores the ratification process.

--Janet Ajzenstat, The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007), 32.