Reconsidering Confederation: Canada's Founding Debates, 1864-1999

About the Book

July 1st 1867 is celebrated as Canada's Confederation, the date that Canada became a country. But 1867 was only the beginning. As the country grew from a small dominion to a vast federation encompassing ten provinces, three territories, and hundreds of First Nations, its leaders repeatedly debated Canada's purpose, and the benefits and drawbacks of the choice to be Canadian.

Reconsidering Confederation brings together Canada's leading historians to explore how the provinces, territories, and Treaty areas became the political frameworks we know today. In partnership with The Confederation Debates, an ongoing crowdsourced, non-partisan, and non-profit initiative to digitize all of Canada's founding colonial and federal records, this book breaks new ground by integrating the treaties between Indigenous peoples and the Crown into our understanding of Confederation.

Rigorously researched and eminently readable, this book traces the unique paths that each province and territory took on their journey to Confederation. It shows the roots of regional and cultural grievances, as vital and controversial in early debates as they are today. Reconsidering Confederation tells the sometimes rocky, complex, and ongoing story of how Canada has become Canada.

Table of Contents:

• illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Reconsidering Confederation
• Daniel Heidt
• Compact, Contract, Covenant: The Evolution of First Nations Treaty-Making
• J.R. Miller
• Ontario: The Centre of Confederation?
• Daniel Hedit
• Quebec and Confederation: Gains and Compromise
• Marcel Martel, Colin M. Coates, Martin Paquet, and Maxime Gohier
• The Maritimes and the Debate over Confederation
• Phillip Buckner
• Resisting Canada's Will: Manitoba's Entry into Confederation
• Robert Wardhaugh and Barry Ferguson
• "The interests of Confederation demanded it": British Columbia and Confederation
• Patricia E. Roy
• "It is better to have half than none at all": The Yukon and Confederation
• P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Ken S. Coates
• Creating New Provinces: Saskatchewan and Alberta
• Raymond B. Blake
• " A More Accurate Face on Canada to the World": The Creation of Nunavut
• P. Whitney Lackenbauer and Andrew Legare
• Confederation Quotes: Sources and Further Reading
• Contributors
• Index

About the Author :
P. Whitney Lackenbauer is a professor of History at St. Jerome's University (University of Waterloo) who specializes in Arctic sovereignty and security issues, Aboriginal-state relations, circumpolar history, and modern Canadian military, diplomatic and political history. He is the editor of the multi-award-winning A Historical and Legal Study of Sovereignty in the Canadian North (UCalgary Press). Chercheur indépendant, Daniel Heidt est specialiste en histoire politique de l'Ontario et du Canada ainsi que l'Arctique dans la période de la Guerre froide. Il a fondé et géré Les Débats sur la Confédération. Ken S. Coates is a prolific author who has written on many subjects and whose prize-winning scholarship has drawn international attention. Coates has more than 25 years of post-secondary education experience in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan. Coates has been a Department Head, Dean of Arts, Dean of Arts and Science, and Vice-President. He lives in Canada. Marcel Martel is a professor in the Department of History at York University, where he holds the Avie Bennett Historica Dominion Institute Chair in Canadian History. He is the author of Not This Time: Canadians, Public Policy, and the Marijuana Question, 1961-1975 (2006), Le Deuil dâun pays imaginé. Rêves, luttes et déroute du Canada français (1997), and co-author of Speaking Up. A History of Language and Politics in Canada and Quebec (2012). Colin M Coates teaches Canadian studies and history and is the Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York University. Phillip Buckner is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. He is also professor emeritus of History at the University of New Brunswick.

Review :
Much more than a basic outline of regional differences during the process of Confederation . . . Reconsidering Confederation provides a very extensive selection of excellently written articles that effectively interrogate the foundational debates of Confederation. - Alex Gagne, BC Studies