Lesson 4 · Discover Canada p.34–40
1867 to the Great War: Riel, the railway, the Mounties, and women winning the vote.
Learn this table as a ladder. Three entries are worth the most: 1871 British Columbia (bought with a railway promise), 1949 Newfoundland (the last province), and 1999 Nunavut (the newest territory).
| 1867 | Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick |
| 1870 | Manitoba, Northwest Territories |
| 1871 | British Columbia |
| 1873 | Prince Edward Island |
| 1898 | Yukon Territory |
| 1905 | Alberta, Saskatchewan |
| 1949 | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| 1999 | Nunavut |
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, born in Scotland on 11 January 1815, a lawyer in Kingston, Ontario. Parliament recognizes 11 January as Sir John A. Macdonald Day. His portrait is on the $10 bill. p.35
Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.
When Canada took the northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, the 12,000 Métis of the Red River were not consulted. Louis Riel led an uprising and seized Fort Garry. Ottawa retook it in 1870 and created Manitoba. A second rebellion in 1885, in present-day Saskatchewan, led to Riel's trial and execution for high treason — strongly opposed in Quebec. He is seen by many as the father of Manitoba. p.35–36
Macdonald founded the North West Mounted Police in 1873, with headquarters at Regina. Today they are the RCMP.
British Columbia joined in 1871 on the promise of a railway. The last spike was driven on 7 November 1885 by Donald Smith, Lord Strathcona. It was built by European and Chinese labour; Chinese workers were then subjected to the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee, for which Canada apologized in 2006. The railway symbolised unity. p.37
Sir Wilfrid Laurier — the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation — encouraged immigration to the West. His portrait is on the $5 bill. One million British and one million American immigrants arrived during the boom of the 1890s and early 1900s.
At Confederation the vote was limited to property-owning adult white males. Dr. Emily Stowe, the first Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada, founded the suffrage movement.
| 1916 | Manitoba — first province to grant women the vote |
| 1917–18 | Most female citizens aged 21+ get the federal vote |
| 1921 | Agnes Macphail, farmer and teacher, becomes the first woman MP |
| 1940 | Quebec grants women the provincial vote (Thérèse Casgrain) |