A Country of Our Own
Page 12
Newfoundland joined on March 31, 1949. It was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001.
The British North America Act, which gave Canada its constitution as well as the power to amend that constitution, remained an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Then, in 1982, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau brought the British North America Act home to Canada. It was renamed the Constitution Act, 1867, and became part of the new constitution of Canada.
Nunavut Territory was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999.
Images and Documents
Image 1: The Parliament Buildings were begun in 1859, and mostly completed by the time of Confederation. The Peace Tower was not finished until 1927; it was named to commemorate the end of the First World War.
Image 2: Animals such as pigs and cows roamed freely, even on Sparks Street, now one of Ottawa’s best-known streets.
Image 3: In this 1867 photograph, the elegant Parliament Buildings in the background contrast with the rougher buildings of the remote lumber town.
Image 4: Ottawa was notoriously muddy. Many streets had no sidewalks, or very narrow ones, and water drained along open channels in the roads.
Image 5: Built between 1826 and 1832, the Rideau Canal’s locks allowed ships to reach Ottawa from Lake Ontario at Kingston, and avoid the rapids at the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers.
Image 6: Sleighs were not only a necessary mode of transportation, they provided the means for many hours of pleasure and enjoyment.
Image 7: Timber chutes called “sliders” allowed lumber rafts to bypass the rapids, then continue to the many mills downstream.
Image 8: Travelling shows such as the Hanlon Brothers’ Circus, as well as P.T. Barnum’s Great Travelling Museum, promised “the most stupendous array of talent ever congregated in one entertainment.”
Image 9: Even paddlewheel steamers, such as the Corsican in this vintage postcard, braved the fierce Lachine Rapids south of Montreal.
Image 10: The fashionable resort of Cacouna drew many civil servants’ families in the summer months. Bathers were dressed from neck to ankle.
Image 11: John A. Macdonald of the Liberal-Conservatives was appointed the first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada. He went on to govern from 1867–1874 and again from 1878–1891.
Image 12: Thomas D’Arcy McGee (above) joined with John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier of the Parti blue and George Brown of the Clear Grits to become driving forces behind Confederation.
Image 13: Queen Victoria’s royal proclamation of March 29th, 1867, decreed that “… the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be One Dominion under the Name of Canada.”
Image 14: The provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick formed the new Dominion of Canada in 1867. Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, portions of Rupert’s Land, and British Columbia did not join until later.
Acknowledgements
Cover cameo (detail): A Village Maiden, 1886, Sir George Clausen, Bridgeman Art Library International, CH 497785.
Cover background (detail): Parliament Building, Centre Block, Library and Archives Canada, C-002244.
Image 1: Centre Block, Parliament Buildings under construction, Samuel McLaughlin, Library and Archives Canada, C-003039.
Image 2: Sparks St. West end Corner of Kent Street, Harry Walker, Library and Archives Canada, C-011384.
Image 3: Looking West from Court House to Parliament Hill, Acc. No. 1976-33-1, Samuel McLaughlin, Library and Archives Canada, C-001185.
Image 4: Horse-drawn omnibus on Sparks. St. between Elgin and Metcalfe St., City of Ottawa Archives, CA-001504.
Image 5: Locks on the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, ON, about 1890; Topley Studio, Gift of Mr. Stanley G. Triggs, © McCord Museum, MP-0000.25.163.
Image 6: Front View of the Parliament Building, Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1976-33-1, Gift from Ralph Greenhill, C-048710.
Image 7: Timber slide, Ottawa, ON, 1866, William Notman, © McCord Museum, 1-22716.1.
Image 8: Hanlon Brothers’ ad, Ottawa Citizen, October 29, 1866.
Image 9: Montreal. Steamer Corsican in the Great Lakes, from a Notman photograph, courtesy of Walter Lewis, from Maritime History of the Great Lakes website.
Image 10: At the Beach, Collections Canada, C-023503.
Image 11: Sir John A. Macdonald, K.C.B, William Notman, National Archives of Canada, C-030440.
Image 12: Portrait of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, William Notman, Library and Archives Canada, C-016749.
Image 13: The Royal Proclamation of March 29, 1867, National Archives of Canada, C-060281.
Image 14: Map by Paul Heersink/Paperglyphs.
The publisher wishes to thank Barbara Hehner for her attention to the factual details, and Dr. Ross Fair of Ryerson University for sharing his historical expertise.
For my family, each and every one of them
Author’s Note
In the mid-1980s, on a trip to England to research the book I was writing, I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me on the plane. She was Sandra Gwyn, returning to London after a book tour in Canada, promoting her history of Ottawa, The Private Capital. Little did I know then how invaluable this excellent book would be to me over twenty years later, when I was writing my own book about Ottawa at the time of Confederation. I am deeply indebted to her and her book, with its detailed descriptions of muddy Ottawa in its early years.
Along with Rosie, I could most particularly identify with the smells Sandra Gwyn described. My husband and I moved to Ottawa when he joined the Foreign Service of Canada. We arrived in the city when I was expecting my first child. We rented a small apartment near the river, just above the E.B. Eddy factory, and the stink of that factory contributed more than a little to the dreadful morning, noon and night sickness that I endured.
In 1962, although far from being the rough sawmill town of the 1860s that Rosie Dunn knew, Ottawa was also far from being the vibrant, exciting, cultural city that it is now. Situated at the junction of two rivers and a canal, it still gave us lots of opportunities for boating and exploring. The Gatineau Hills across the Ottawa River afforded us with wonderful picnic spots — in spite of the inevitable blackflies and mosquitoes in the summer — and great skiing in the winter.
Although I was born in Toronto, and still love that city, Ottawa has always been special to me. During our thirty-four years in the Foreign Service, Ottawa was our home. We returned after every posting away to spend several years there. Every time we returned, we saw immense changes in the city. It grew, expanded and became the exciting and cosmopolitan metropolis that it is now, as we watched.
Writing this book has also been a great learning experience for me. When I was nine I moved with my parents to Argentina, and didn’t return to Canada until it was time for me to go to university. I missed learning about Canadian history during those years, so doing the research for this book taught me a lot about my own country. It was fun too. In the interests of that research, I took a breathtaking trip in a modern jet boat through the Lachine Rapids. It was hard to imagine old-time paddlewheelers going through that wild water on purpose.
One of the hardest things to figure out was the schedule for Rosie’s train trip from Québec City to Ottawa. I calculated the distance and worked out how long I thought it would have taken in 1866. Was I ever wrong! Luckily I was put in touch with a Mr. R.L. Kennedy, who makes a hobby of studying old-time train schedules. I found out from him that what takes around five hours nowadays would have taken more than a day, then.
Quick. Rewrite!
Canada is my home and it is an amazing country. I have thoroughly enjoyed digging deeper into the early years of its history and the history of the city that became its capital. Who would have ever believed that pigs once roamed the streets of Ottawa?
Yet again, I would like to thank my editors, Sandra Bogart Johnston and Diane Kerner. They are unbelievably talented and painstaking. I appreciate their sup
port and expertise more than I can say.
Thanks, also, to the staff of the National Library and Archives and the Bytown Museum in Ottawa. I spent many hours in both places. The assistance and resources I found there were invaluable.
Finally, I appreciate the meticulous fact checking of the text by Barbara Hehner and Dr. Ross Fair of Ryerson University. I am also indebted to R.L. Kennedy, who was able to provide me with schedules and routes of the trains in Québec and Ontario in 1866 and 1867.
While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Rosie Dunn is a fictional character created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction.
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Copyright © 2013 by Karleen Bradford.
Published by Scholastic Canada Ltd.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Bradford, Karleen
A country of our own [electronic resource] : the Confederation diary of Rosie Dunn / by Karleen Bradford.
(Dear Canada)
Electronic monograph in HTML format.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4431-2850-6
1. Canada–History–Confederation, 1867–Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series: Dear Canada (Online)
PS8553.R217C68 2013 jC813’.54 C2013-901794-1
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First eBook edition: September 2013
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