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MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1964

1864 Paradoxes noted in 1964 party climax

of thelshould Prince Edward lsland:faced long years of bitter dis- have a smaller representation;appointment. than Montreal?" Ib'red k Less than nine months after§Whealan. himself a Father of the sweeping but unhinding ac- i Confederation. cord was town the colonial legislature al-i most unanimously registered its' Charlottetown Examiner. was} rejection of ‘ . . . we believe would prove polit-l Island commercially and fin- uionn.’ anciallyi disastrous.

’e Confederation retained; a few fervent supporters, theyl

(Editor's note: As “a so]- ute to Charlottetown. P.B.l.. on the 100th anniversary of the famous Charlottet ow n Conference," British Amer- ican Oil Co. Ltd. produced a handsome booklet telling “What Canada Celebrates in 1964". It was written by the executive editor of The uardian and The Evening Patriot and is reproduced below with the permission of the company.)

By BURTON LEWIS

There is much of paradox in the story of Canadian Confed- eration. At first glance staging the opening act in the nation- al celebration of its centenary,

Princ Edward Island, throughout 1964, appear the most striking paradox of all. After all. 1964 is only 97 years not 100, after official accomp- lishment of Confederation. and Prince Edward Island is a province which refused to enter for six further years.

Yet what is being celebrated. of course. involves all of Can- ada—the first Confederation Conference — the first r e a "coming together" of the lead- ing public men from what were then scattered. struggling North American colonies with separ- ate British allegiance—the ini- tial push which has, through

ition government Province of Canada lformerly‘ known as Upper and Lower Can- ada but by then joined in a most imperfect union as Can- ada East and Canada West. or the Canadasl sought permis- sion to submit unofficially a plan for federal union of th British North American col- onies.

Arrangements were made for the meeting and some suggest that Charlottetown was chosen

ically.

Whll

to what the Charlottetown Con- ference created in spirit. on .llecembcr 26, 1864. he had this n say in his paper:

“The cause of Confederat- ion happily does not depend on the will of the small pol- iticans of the small island of . Prince Edward. if the cause

be fought with success on the main land. its consummation cannot be delayed through the petulancc of this little place . . . But we cannot re- sisl smiling at the exceeding simplicity of those who think that the other Provinces will

Their best-remem-p Ed confederate while the British ust go to the

e o esman. ward

Government in expense of keeping up a pro- tectorate over this patch 0

sand bank in the Gulf of St.

Lawrence. . .

\Vhelan died shortly after Con- federation was achieved but t two months after the before his province entered it,

of the Quebec Confer-lon December lo. l867 At

author of The reached at Charlotte-lUnion of the British Colonies, 'and editor-owner of oldl

.one of the first to describe the' “dead set

“a Union which . as against I

Jus close . ence. which gave formal shape; that junction Prince Ed-~

:every real sense, “where ;ada began," and this is what the country is now celebrating.

ward Island had provided an atmosphere in which previously disparate colonies were able to bring forth an authentic nat- ional spirit ahead of nationhood, and even though no immediate. soil to accommodate its roots was found in the province where that spirit emerg . WHERE CANADA BEGAN But what was left in Char- lottetown was a permanent spec- ial character as the place, in an.

It is a celebration which

readily encompasses each per- “13

son who becomes exposed to it. Even complicated history ex- presses itself clearly, simply and delightfully in a setting which includes both the build- ings where it was shaped and that history while epitomizingi

.- so

these surroundings the

I whole broad story of “tough

old Canada" can be lam an felt as stemming from what federation, July 1. 1867, and its flcshing out—creation of tabs in 1870—entry of British Columbia in 1871 and Prince Edward Island in ins—prov- incial status for Alberta and Saskatchewan in mos—the rounding out of the union with Newfoundland’s entry in 194 . It was within a special quality of hospitality, which r as one of the island’s surest distinctions. that the start was

ers, found enough confidence in each other to form the bond which has grown and endures as the main strength of natio - hood.

Its endurance in face of fierce and continuing tests tells not only of the worth of what was envisioned at Charlotte-

d town. but

depth at friendships s:oled there; and of the resulting trust. one for the other. between men t. possessed enough of great- to transcend their fal -

Somewhat prematurely and

mill unaccustomed filppancy, George Brown, as a spokes- man for the, Province of Can-

ada, gave this summing up: “Whether the result of our

the ice become completely broke the tongues ,of the wagged merrily. and the bonus of matrimony between all- the provinces of B.N.A. having been formally

laimed . . . the union was thereupon formally completed and proclaimed."

One bun years later. with the union long since con- firmed. the jubilance of that mood is ringing loudly all across

ofthewarmthendPiin

ce Edward island through. «it 1961. But it is a jubilance 1);. longing to all sounds. so do... the celebration on the Islam crowding almost every day 1., the year with the largest pr... gram of festival events em... arranged in this country, 1.. which all Canada is invite.”

It’s really Canada's party that is in process—a great party—- even though history has given Prince Edward Island the fun of being host.

FOREST FIRES RISE

OTTAWA (CPl—Forest fires burned an estimated 1,586,000 acres of Canadian timber dur. ing the first seven months of this year. .the forestry depart. ment reported Thursday. This greatly exceeds the estimated 366,000 acres burned in t game period last year. At July 31 there had been 5.526 fires compared wlth 5.197 in the same 1963 period.

as its locale in part to representation from Prince Ed- ward Island, with a population which remained predominantly‘ opposed to union of any sort for many years.

As for the attitude carried to the meeting by Prince Ed- ward Island whether on fed- eral or Maritime union. it cer- tainly differed from that of any other colony represented in ways which explain why it ap- peared to drag its heels and was last of the group to join Confederation.

Yet it is unlikely that the test of history will find anything uly perverse or wrong- headed, much less congenitally backward. about Island posit- ions in the Confederation era.

Islanders were at the begin- ning of their exercise of respon- sible government, which had come to them much later than to any of the other North Am- erican colonies involved. Their

E 3

the years. continued to shape Canada as a great northern nation. 3 Through that Conference‘ which opened at Charlottetown on September 1, 1864. the a

were successfully. irrevocablyi‘ planted, even though extended” difficult travail, almost three years of it. was to follow be-j fore Confederation was schiev-‘

e .

. And these are things that Ican be relived almost as easily as they can be recalled in Char- lottetown. There is no part of

Canada where the pre-Confed- o

eration past lives so closely with the present—where history from that era stands so ready to breathe down the neck of the observer who is alert to it—as h Prince Edward Is- land

During their eight days in the povince e meetin s of the Fathers of Confederation. whether serious or social. are known to have taken them into exactly six buildings. Five & them remain in use tod ﬁr almost the some purposes

midsthailtherestof

' a there cannot be found la many landmarks associat-

M ‘<

.the official Confederation reso-

largest problem, absentee land- lordism. was entirely different fro any ssue remaining in the other colonies and the Col- onial Office still was thwarting efforts to cure it legislatively.

Despite proposals advanced at the Charlottetown Conference.

lutions adopted at Quebec. as carried to London for imple- mentation. assured no cure for this fundamental problem. So long as it remain unres ved, the little colony had reasons for r

a new nation—as largely ir- relevant.

Besides. in the nature of things, an island has to think insularly, Only a land gap of some 500 miles, con to be

stood between the other Mari- time colonies and the Province of Canada with whlcr they were to join. But an additional gap of water. often Moreen u a bar to "continuous communications ” was not so easily bridged in the thinking of those who gov- erned Prince Edward Island in the 1864-67 ers. or Newfound- land when Confederation was reiected there.

ed with them directly, as a body, as survive in good cond- ition in Charlottetown and itsi

ens. ,

On the some public squarei

ere just has risen the. first? memorial to her nationhood ever; erected by Canada. the magnif-. icent new Fathers of Confed-l eration Memorial Centre, there1 still stands the venerable build-f ing in which effect was given} to the concept which has since guided Canada. t

This is the Provincial Build- ing (once the Colonial Build-1 ing), first occupied in 134M and it remains the seat of the. provincial government. he; table around which the found-[ ers of Canada gathered still! dominates the room, preserved. as the Confederation Chamber.! in which they passed their most‘ serious discussions.

Within it also can be se the guest book in which the. cheif architect of Confederat- ion, during a later visit. regis-! tered himself as "John A. Mac- donald, Cabinet Maker."

A half dozen blocks away. retaining graciousness to match its age, is Government House

where entertainment provided!

Canada‘s creators was so lav- ish that. it verged on revelry. Today as in 1864, and as it h been since 1835, it is the resi- dence of the province's lieuten- ant governor.

And three of the four resi- dences in which those who at.- tended the first Confederation Conference enjoyed further hos- pitality—long hours of festive eating and drinking at two din~ acre and two luncheon—con- tinue to grace the Charlotte- towr area.

So much. then. for that orig-

as W

hat paradox. With Confederat--

ion regarded as a single chap- ter, and probably the great- est chapter in thls country's put, Prince Edward island's remaining links with it. its share

s

D = a.

in its opening pages. are incomparable.

the official , Nova Scotis, k and Prince Ed- ﬂlnd. all but disregard- dy subject that was before them. ’ h room for doubt. in- ' ever, the ve been

d its declar- ‘éhsldering t motive unlon

“time

_ g;

3'

leral union, to enable "our Can-

‘month or two here in public

dial

no it" ice

P.E.l. JOINED LATE

Only later political and finan- cial crises, plus explicit acdon on land tenure problems and added constitutional guarantees, carried the province into Con- federation in 1873. But the fierce struggle over all these matters lay well ahead, as the Char- lottetown Conference opened. At that time. as described by P.B. Waite, author of the Life and Times of Confederation. there was a simpler situation in which “Prince Edward Is- landers were determined that Charlottetown would remain the capital of something. if only of P.E.I."

As leader of the opposition in the province and ater to be- come premier and a Father of Confederation. George C ole s v n argued it would be a des- irable capital for any new fed- adian friends . . . to spend a ‘business. fi only to escape the fever and ague of their own _ Province." . And Donald G. Creighton has ‘written that the Conference reached a complete impasse on the Maritime union proposal be- cause -of "Prince Edward Is- land's impossible demand that the capital . . . be established at Charlottetown." Be that is it may, Jonathan McCully, a Nova Scotia delegate, summed things up by saying action on

M n me union not as left, unfinished but “unbegun.”

It was left that way because sentiment. at least for the time being, swung unanimously be bind the federal union plan on- pounded by the men from Canedas: John A. Macdonld, George Brown, Georges - tier and Alexander Gait in par- ticular.

No minutes were kept of the gathering but whatever it was the Canadians «feed—whether a vial eat 1 In argument, eloquence. extraord- inary warmth camaraderie. combination of all—it prevailed at Charlottetown to establish the idea of Confederat- _ion for the first time as political reality.

Many strains lay ahead for it. The apparent unanimity of the Conference soon was to be- come fractured. starting in Prince Edward Island. Before the year was mt a Charlotte- town peper (The at, Dec. 10. 1N4) was to declare that Islanders had “rejected the 'glory argument' . . . as (being frothy as the sparkling champagne whose eff may almost be termed its 1 spiration ”

Arguments that the province would benefit from Confederat- the

"Could it melt the

D n v

were satin:

I closed by the Intercoionial Railway"

erveseence ‘ ..

. . . The same Name The Same Good Service

1857 -1964

107

YEARS

HOLMAN'S of P.E.l. was already 7 years old . . . when the Follies of Confederation met in Charlottetown for this historic meeting. We are proud that our ﬁrm has grown and prospered as Canada expanded and become a richer land for its ever gearing number of citizens.

We are proud to pay our tribute to the “Fathers” who launched Confederation one hundred years ago. Their conﬁdence that line un-

ionoflhecolonieswoiddresldl-lne great nation stretching across

North America from ocean to ocean has been vindicated by the yeorsondlheydeservefilhonor aslbefoundersofolwoountry.

During this century this ﬁrm has consloolly met-tile new chal- lenges that changing times always present and we have grown as our country has grown. Oll’ success in " dentin lhefocnholwe have kept the oonﬂdenceoftllebuyingpub- licondoswelookoheodlheprospeclis good for Canada and for

Holmao's.

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SUMMERS")! and CHARLOTTE OWN

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