Canada East

                       Fathers of Confederation

The Fathers of Confederation were the architects of the plan that resulted in the proposal that would bring the individual British American colonies together under a Federalist system. There were three main conferences which were held and to be included as a Father of Confederation, it means to have been in attendance during the debates during one of the conferences. These conferences were:

  1. The Charlottetown Conference - 1864
  2. The Quebec Conference - 1864 
  3. The London Conference - 1866

The Fathers of Confederation for the most part were leading politicians from the British Colonies interested in forming a Federal Union or a Confederation. Although not all colonies joined Canada in 1867, they eventually did join at a later date and in the case of Newfoundland, the last to join, not until 1949. As these additional Provinces joined Canada a second tier of "Fathers of Confederation" were added to the list. An example of this is Joey Smallwood who was the Premier of Newfoundland and led them into Confederation in 1949. He often bragged that he was the only living Father of Confederation. Without the action of these men, the union of the British colonies in North America would not have occurred. Here are the Fathers of Confederation in Canada East: 

                              George-Etienne Cartier

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When the British exiled a young lawyer named Georges-Etienne Cartier from Canada after the Papineau-Mackenzie rebellion in 1837, no one thought that 30 years later he would be one of the founders of a new Canadian nation.

Cartier, probably from the same family as the famed explorer Jacques Cartier, was born at St. Antonie, Quebec, Sept. 6, 1814. After being called to the Quebec bar in 1835 he became friendly with the patriot Jean Louis Papineau and joined Papineau's abortive revolt. It failed and Cartier fled into exile. However, by 1848, he was back and sufficiently in public favour to be elected to the Canadian (now Quebec and Ontario) Parliament. From 1858 to 1862 he was joint Prime Minister of Canada with Sir John A. Macdonald and they remained close associates for the rest of Cartier's life.

Among Cartier's many achievements were the codification of the civil law of Lower Canada (Quebec), helping to end the oppressive seigneurial tenure in the province and playing a prominent part in the  building of the Canadian Pacific and Grand Trunk railways. It was ironical that the former exile should be Canada's first federal militia minister in 1867. It was also ironical that Cartier, a devout Roman Catholic, later feuded politically with the church. It was largely through church influence that he was defeated in the 1872 general election. Another seat was found for him but he died a few months later on May 20, 1873, in London, England. 


                                           Alexander T. Galt

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It is because of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt that Canadians spend dollars and cents, rather than the British-style pounds, shilling and pence. This was the only way that Galt achieved his life-long dream of complete separation of all of the Canadian colonies from Britain-a dream never quite achieved.

Although he was born in London, England, on Sept. 6, 1817, the youngest son of famed colonizer John Galt, Alexander Tilloch Galt had small love for his homeland. In 1835 he emigrated to Sherbrooke where he entered the service of the British American Land Co. Later he was one of the contractors for the extension of the Grand Trunk railway west from Toronto. In 1849 he entered the service of the British American Land Co. Later he was one of the contractors for the extension of the Grand Trunk railway west from Toronto. In 1849 he entered the Canadian Parliament as a member for Sherbrooke. Soon after he signed a manifesto, favouring union with the United States, saying that was the only way Anglo-Saxon Protestant ascendancy could be maintained in Canada. He retired from Parliament but re-entered it in 1853. On the fall of the Brown-Dorion ministry in 1858 he was called on to form a ministry but deferred to Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Georges-Etienne Cartier on condition that federation be a main plank in their platform.

He became finance minister in their ministry and kept the office with a short break until Confederation. He was the first federal finance minister but resigned Nov. 4, 1867. In 1877 he was Canadian nominee to the Anglo-American fisheries commission at Halifax. From 1880-83 he was Canadian High Commissioner to the U.K. He died Sept. 19, 1893.


                                        Thomas D'Arcy McGee

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The short, hectic life of Thomas D'Arcy McGee was filled with poetry and violence. McGee was born at Carlingford, Ireland, April 13, 1825, the son of a coastguardsman. At the age of 17 he joined the great wave of Irishmen leaving their famine-stricken land and headed for the Americas. He got work as a newspaperman but within three years returned to Dublin to join a newspaper there. The failure of the revolt of the Young Ireland Party in 1848 caused his abrupt flight, disguised as a priest, even though he had not actively taken up arms. In the United States the second time, he worked first in New York and later in Boston. In 1852 he moved to Buffalo, but fire years later took the decisive step of moving to Montreal. There, in editing the New Era, he urged the formation of an independent Canadian nation.

He entered the Canadian Parliament in 1858, being president of the council in 1862-1863 and minister of agriculture from 1864 until Confederation. When Sir John A. Macdonald was forming his first federal cabinet, McGee made a considerable sacrifice and stood aside, even though he was an obvious selection.

McGee, proclaimed the most gifted orator ever to sit in Canada's Parliament and a poet of some pretensions as well, met a violent end mainly because he publicly deplored the violent tactics of his fellow Irishmen, the Fenians. As he returned home from a late session of the commons, on April 7, 1868, he was shot and killed by a Fenian sympathizer P.J. Whelan.


                                            Hector L. Langevin

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Sir Hector Louis Langevin's political career touched the heights - and the depths. He was born in Quebec, Aug. 25, 1826, the son of Lt.-Col. Jean Langevin.

He became a lawyer, studying for a time in the Montreal office of Sir Georges-Etienne Cartier and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1850. Soon afterward he entered politics and form 1857 to 1867 represented Dorchester riding in the Canadian assembly. From 1864 to 1866 he was the solicitor-general for Lower Canada and at the time of Confederation postmaster-general. With Confederation, he became federal member for Dorchester and secretary of state in the first cabinet of Sir John A. Macdonald.
He held that office until 1869 when he switched to the public works portfolio, which he held until the fall of the Macdonald government in 1873. With the return of Sir John to power he became postmaster-general from 1878 to 1879 and then for a second time public works minister from 1879 to 1891, during which time he had been knighted. In 1891, however, he was compelled to resign as the result of charges of corruption that had arisen in his department. He was personally exonerated but found guilty of negligence. He died at Quebec, June 11, 1906.


                                             Etienne P. Tache

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Sir Etienne Paschal Tache was the oldest of the Fathers of Confederation. A doctor by profession, he was also an author, a soldier and of course a politician.

He was born at St. Thomas, Que., on Sept. 5, 1795. As a young man he fought the British during the war of 1812. After that he practiced medicine until he entered parliament in 1841, as a representative for L'Islet. He stayed there until 1846 when he became deputy adjutant-general of the Lower Canada militia, with the rank of colonel. In 1848, he was back in politics as commissioner of public works in the Baldwin-Lafontaine administration. In 1849 he changed to the portfolio of receiver-general and held various other offices until 1857. In 1856-57 he was technically prime minister but in reality was overshadowed by John A. Macdonald.

From 1857 until 1864 he was a member of the legislative council. He was knighted in 1858. In 1864 he was called from retirement to head up a new administration with Macdonald and after various political upheavals in June of 1864, became premier in the "Great Coalition" that aimed at furthering Confederation.
Tache presided at the Quebec Confederation conference but he did not live to see his dream come true. He died at his birthplace on July 29, 1865.


                                       Jean Charles Chapais

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Such is the turn of history that Jean Charles Chapais, one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, is frequently ignored by reference and history books which devote considerable space to the legal-political-literary career of his son, Sir Thomas Chapais.

Chapais senior was born in Riviere Ouelle, Que., Dec. 2, 1811. After being educated at Nicolet college and Quebec seminary, he became, like his father a merchant. His entry into politics came in 1851 with his election for Kamouraska riding in the Legislative Assembly of Canada.

In 1864 he was named commissioner of public works in the Tache-MacDonald administration and held the same office in the coalition government that followed. It was frequently the custom in Canada in the early days of Confederation for men to occupy seats in both a provincial legislature and in the federal parliament.

So in 1867 Chapais, who had been named Canada's first minister of agriculture, won election in the Quebec house for Champlain riding and sought election in Kamouraska federal riding. The Kamouraska result was indecisive and "no election" was declared. The following year Chapais was named to the Senate and continued to hold his agriculture portfolio until 1869 when he became receiver-general. He kept that post until the fall of the Macdonald government in the railroad scandal of 1873. Chapais continued active in the Senate until his death at Ottawa, July 17, 1885.