The
Twentieth Century Shall Belong to Canada
In
the early 1900s, Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier boldly predicted
that "as the nineteenth century was the century of the United
States, so shall the twentieth century belong to Canada." The
main reason for his optimism was increased immigration into the
Prairie West. During Laurier's term as Prime Minister (1896-1911),
hundreds of thousands of immigrants chose the West as their destination.
This influx had long been awaited.
The
West and Confederation
At
the time of Confederation in 1867 the Prairie West current
day Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta was not part of the
new Canadian union. The Hudson's Bay Company held title to the land.
This vast territory, however, was attractive to Canadians, including
Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, for a number
of reasons.
Macdonald believed
that adding the Prairie West to Confederation would keep Canada's
powerful neighbour, the United States, from moving into the territory
and claiming it as its own. The addition would also allow Canadians
to continue pursuing their dream of creating a nation from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. Most importantly, it would give Canada an opportunity
to fill the land with settlers who would develop the region and
strengthen the country's economy. These settlers would, it was hoped,
help make Canada a world leader in agricultural production. They
would also contribute to the development of Canadian business by
buying goods manufactured by Eastern Canadian companies.
With these objectives
in mind, Canada purchased the land in 1869, and, in 1870, Manitoba
and the North West Territories (current day Saskatchewan and Alberta)
were officially added to Confederation. The search to find people
to fill the vast territory began in earnest.
Prior to 1870,
the population in the Prairie West was small. There were very few
farms, and most of the cultivated produce was used almost strictly
for the purposes of self-sufficiency or to provide for local markets.
Despite the large tracts of available land, the Canadian government
could not immediately open it all up to new settlers. First, it
had to recognize the land rights of the region's Aboriginal inhabitants.
Compensation for the land was negotiated through a number of Indian
Treaties signed between 1871 and 1877.
|
|
|