In the fall of 1864, representatives of the Canadas, then the Provinces of Lower Canada (Québec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) boarded the brand new steamer “QUÉBEC” on the St Lawrence River to attend a conference in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island. The topic: possible confederation with the British colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. These delegates from the Canadas were George Brown, Alexander Campbell, Georges-Etienne Cartier, Alexander Galt, Hector Langevin, John A. Macdonald, William McDougall, and Thomas D’Arcy McGee. Some details of the trip are in a letter dated Sept. 13, 1864 written by George Brown to his wife Anne:
“Our party had great fun coming down the St Lawrence having fine weather, a broad awning to recline under, excellent stories of all kinds, an unexceptionable cook, lots of books, chessboards, backgammon, and so forth.” ...Having dressed ourselves in correct style, our two boats were lowered man-of-war fashion and being each duly manned with four oarsmen and a boatswain, dressed in blue uniforms, hats, belts, etc, in regular style, we pulled away for shore and landed like Mr. Christopher Columbus who had the precedence of us in taking possession of portions of the American continent.”
There were two more such conferences, one a few months later in Québec City, the Capital of the Canadas at the time, and one in 1867 in London England that lasted several weeks. The end result was proclamation of the British North America Act on July 1, 1867. It was the founding of the Dominion of Canada, with Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Other provinces joined at later dates. Source: National Archives of Canada Web sites.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
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