1867 & All That

This week Anne McDonald joins the pod to talk about her book Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles. The diary is one of the very few documents written by a woman to talk about the events of Confederation - in this case the Quebec Conference of 1864 and the weeks after. It gives us John A and Leonard Tilley as widowers on the make, along with plenty more intriguing details.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat   

Late in the night on an Ottawa street someone snuck up behind Thomas D'Arcy McGee and shot him dead. We're back with David Wilson this week to talk about McGee and his assassination.  There's really no one better to talk to than Wilson, the author of an award-winning two volume biography of McGee.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat   

This week we kick off our bonus interview episodes by welcoming University of Toronto professor David Wilson to talk about everyone's favourite Irish revolutionaries (who also happened to profoundly shape Canadian history) the Fenians.  Wilson's new book Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police is a dual history of the Fenians and also very much about the rise of Canada's first secret police to infiltrate Fenian networks in the 1860s. It's a magnificent feat of academic research and Hollywood-esque story-telling.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat   

The final episode of Season 2 answers all the big questions about Confederation: What just happened? Why? And - my favourite - so what? We rehash the the main events, talk way too much about federalism (sorry), and look ahead to the Canadian empire building that we will cover in Season Three. And yes there will be a Season 3 in case you were wondering. What's more, I even throw in a hint that you might not have to wait until next season to get more 'all that' from 1867 & All That. Yes, bonus episodes are in the works! If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat   

It's time to get Confederation done - but only after completing our trilogy of constitutional conferences, this one in London just before Christmas of 1866. The Canadians make the Maritimers wait for four months before they finally arrived across the ocean - having been busy fighting about (what else?) religion and schools. But don't worry: the "Fathers of Confederation" finally complete the deal to officially create the Kingdom of Canada (well, no, the Brits turned down that name, but they did find an alternate that worked just about as well). There's also a fire and a romantic story, not to mention an out-of-date television reference. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat   

The Fenians are back at it this week - threatening to raid New Brunswick and then (for real) attacking along the Niagara frontier. Arthur Gordon of New Brunswick steps up and makes things happen, obliterating the niceties of responsible government along the way. And the two maritime colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia agree that perhaps there ought to be - wait for it! - yet another conference to talk about this whole Confederation business.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

The radical Irish republicans are coming and they're going to scare British North Americans into a confederation. This week we learn all about Irish secret societies and their plans to invade Canada. We also catch up with the crumbling government of New Brunswick that, even though it was only recently elected, is determined to fall apart and hand the colony back into the hands of those who supported Confederation.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

We time travel back one month earlier to February 1865 when everyone in Canada wanted to give a speech. And so they did. Canadians debated Confederation and we have the highlights. Then we turn east as the gloomy news for confederation supporters turns even gloomier. PEI doesn't like the scheme and Nova Scotia is running scared. But at least the Americans have stopped fighting each other. That was probably good news - unless, that is, it meant they were free to turn their attentions northward... If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

Early 1865 is a bad time for supporters of Confederation in British North America. Joseph Howe is back - and he is penning scathing attacks on the Confederation scheme that derail the Quebec Resolutions in Nova Scotia. The situation in PEI isn't much better. And in New Brunswick, Albert James Smith takes down the Tilley government.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

This week we catch up on the activities of a posse of Confederate soldiers who decide that the best way to fight their war with the American Union is to take over a town in Vermont - just long enough to rob all the banks anyway. But when they flee to Canada, things get interesting, especially for the Canadians. We also see this week just what the public thought of the Confederation scheme. The result? Not so much glee as a mixed bag of opinions with plenty of criticism. And then things get really interesting when a Lower Canadian police magistrate decides to create another war scare because, well, we haven't had one of those in a few months... If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

We are heading to Quebec this week to drink more champagne, dance the night away, and spend hour after hour in conference meetings. There will be plenty of debate over pragmatic issues like the composition of the Senate and the House of Commons. But there will also be a lot of shared assumptions, little-debated and cherished all the more for it, about the desire to stay British even as the delegates created a new nation. Oh, and not to be American too! If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

We're off on board the Canadian steamer Queen Victoria this week as the Canadians crash the Maritime Union party at Charlottetown. We'll drink a fair bit of champagne, eat more than our share of oysters, and watch as the British North Americans decide that political matrimony might not be such a bad thing after all.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

Southern Confederate pirates bring the American civil war into Nova Scotian waters and we meet the pugnacious Charles Tupper who isn't afraid to use British cannons to fend off the threat. We are also introduced to an overly ambitious British Governor who historians love to chuckle over, and Sandford Fleming - the famous surveyor who comes east on his snowshoes with a message of goodwill and railway hope. Then we tag along on the rum-soaked  'Big Intercolonial Drink' - the warmup party to the Charlottetown conference, where D'Arcy McGee decides that what everyone needs is one big game of leapfrog. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

This week we begin in utter confusion - trying to figure out just exactly when New Brunswick achieved responsible government. There is, though, more familiar territory - about imperial economic preferences - and the seemingly always present scenarios of religious violence between Protestants and Catholics. Finally we meet Leonard Tilley, the most important and interesting political figure you might not have heard about. By the end of the episode, we're about ready to join back up with the Canadians again to pick up the story of the march towards British North American union. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat    

A London lottery creates more than 100 years of grumbling conflict on Prince Edward Island. We meet William Cooper who comes up with a too clever-by-half scheme to scoop the landlords from their properties. Then it's on to George Coles and responsible government. And finally we have a dash of Protestant-Catholic identity politics - because what episode would be complete without that savoury spice? If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat  

We're in Newfoundland this week so we are of course talking cod - and seals. But we also have a violent election in 1861 that involved an interfering Catholic Bishop, a British Governor behaving improperly, and troops firing on riotous crowds. Then there is a fight over something called The French Shore.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

George Brown takes a British holiday and falls in love. He comes back a changed man - sort of. In Canada, it's another round of wack-a-mole and governments are the mole. Sandfield Macdonald loses power only to get it back, only to lose it again, only to have Macdonald and Brown come into power and lose it themselves within two months. It's at that moment that the newlywed George Brown steps forward to say: 'Hold my beer'. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

A drunken John A Macdonald and his government collapse over their plan to bolster Canadian defence in the midst of the American civil war. Then another John Macdonald - John Sandfield Macdonald - creates a government built on the idea of the Double Majority. We have another religiously divisive murder - this one over runaway chickens no less - and then a fight about the creation of publicly funded Catholic schools. At the end, another government falls because... why wouldn't it?! If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

The Americans decide to fight a civil war over slavery and Britain and British North America discover that this is going to shape their future too. For instance, what happens when an American naval captain decides to board the British ship Trent and take two Confederate diplomats hostage? Did this mean war? We have all of this plus more, including Rep by Pop updates, a controversial census, and George Brown losing an election and deciding to take a vacation (which is more important than it might first seem). If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

Queen Victoria sends her teenage son (and aristocratic chaperone, the Duke of Newcastle) on a North American tour and the Canadians get a little over-excited. The Prince lands (and sometimes doesn't land) amidst the religious rivalries and the complications created by the exuberant supporters of the Orange Order. But first, we review where we are so far in the history of the Canadas at the end of the 1850s, as a sort of preamble to our push towards confederation.   If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

In one of the quirkiest episodes of Canadian political history John A Macdonald and George Etienne Cartier perform a political two-step to avoid facing an election. George Brown is more than a little disappointed. And it all started because Queen Victoria announced that Ottawa would be the Canadian capital. 

John A Macdonald asks the Queen a favour. Thomas D'Arcy McGee arrives in the country, wonders which gang he should join, and then almost becomes a martyr at an absolutely historic St. Patrick's Day party. Oh, and Ottawa becomes the capital.  If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

This week it's murder, mayhem, and controversy in the fallout from the murder of Robert Corrigan, an Irish Protestant tough guy who met a dark and painful end. Everyone is convinced that there is no justice for their own side. And then, almost randomly, the government sort of falls, only to be resurrected with a new and familiar face. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

The ornery and handsome George Brown is joined today by his nemesis - and later frenemy - John A Macdonald. The new Tory government gets things done and then goes and upsets Upper Canada by talking about Catholic schools. There's a massive railway fountain and a setup for the murder and mayhem that's coming next week.   I'm giving a lecture to the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy on Tuesday 17 March at 7PM EDT. The talk is titled "What's So Evil About the Notwithstanding Clause?" If this is at all enticing, you can register for the talk here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/christopher-dummitt-whats-so-evil-about-the-notwithstanding-clause-tickets-270340294097   If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

This week we're introduced to the handsome George Brown, the fervent and ornery Reformer who inspired both love and hate. Two former friends - Francis Hincks and Augustin-Norbert Morin - come back to take a brief stint on centre stage. The election of 1854 upends the whole system of political coalitions. Oh, yeah, and parliament burns down again. Twice. 

This week we revisit some old friends - William Lyon Mackenzie, Robert Baldwin, and Louis Lafontaine - and meet a new one - William McDougall. We learn that taking away a Chancery from Baldwin is one court too far, and we also get the first taste of our Clear Grits. If that doesn't mean anything to you yet, don't worry. It will soon. And don't forget the ex-priest Gavazzi who is in Montreal to raise a ruckus. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat 

We're back with Season Two of 1867 & All That and we're starting (where else?) with yet another riot. This time it's the controversial ex-priest and anti-Catholic Alessandro Gavazzi who seems determined to stir up anger on his trip to Canada. It's a sign that even after the victory of responsible government, not all is well in the Canadas.   If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making history. https://www.patreon.com/1867andAllThat     

This week we are at the end of Season One and we do our best to figure what just happened. What was responsible government? Why did it emerge when it did in the 1840s? And, most importantly, so what? What was the legacy of these events - the rebellions and responsible government - at the time and since? Hint: I think they do in fact matter.

Louis Lafontaine proposes the Rebellion Losses Bill into the Canadian parliament and things get ugly. A mob burns parliament; Montreal is turned inside out; even the Governor General Lord Elgin isn’t safe. Will responsible government hold? And at what cost? And, finally, why are Montreal Tories demanding to be annexed to the United States?

The potato blight arrives and disaster does too. It's time for coffin ships, disease, and economic strife as a new Governor General - Lord Elgin - arrives in the Canadas. There's another election and this time the Governor General stays out of it. Lafontaine and Baldwin have another go at governing and everything goes swimmingly until... well until February of 1849.

Lord Sydenham takes a summer work-cation in Nova Scotia and leaves a political system. Joseph Howe joins a coalition government and then falls out with the Governor. But he takes with him a Tory named James Uniacke who converts to the idea of responsible government. Free trade ideas take over in London and we fast forward through the 1840s to finally end up at the glorious election at the end of 1847 that changed British North American forever. 

Fresh from his libel trial, Joseph Howe gets himself elected to the Nova Scotian Assembly. And then he makes himself even more famous by doing what all Reformers seemed to desperately want to do in these years - he makes up some resolutions. Howe also writes some famous letters to Lord John Russell in England making the case for responsible government. Party lines are hardening in Nova Scotia and the Governor discovers that Joseph Howe is a real pain in the... 'dignity'. 

We are in Nova Scotia this week (and for the next two weeks) so it's rewind time as we (briefly) catch up on things like the Acadian expulsion and the rum trade with the West Indies. Then we zoom forward to meet one of the most interesting people in Canadian history: Joseph Howe, the poetry reading, donkey-owning rambler, who liked his drink and his politics - a man who wasn't easy to pin down. And we end up with the famous libel trial of 1835. Long live the free press!

Governor General Charles Metcalfe tries to keep a government going - fending off nice insults like 'Old Square Toes' - while Reformers try to embarrass his government into submission. And vying ideas of how to govern the Canadas face off in an as-yet-undecided mid 1840s contest: it's responsible government vs 'double majority'. And we have more duels, a bench-clearing parliamentary brawl, and a club-wielding civil servant bent on clearing his name.  

The Canadas have a new Governor General and this one comes with a cancerous tumour that is going to - yet again - limit his time on this planet. But while he's here, Lafontaine and Baldwin go toe to toe with him to determine who really controls the government. The Reformers pass a misjudged Secret Societies Bill, trying to ban the Orange Order and then step on their own foot by resigning on principle in a situation that doesn't show up their principles very well. We're introduced to a man named Dominick Daly who somehow ends up forming a government with two former Patriotes. And then, to top it off, Canadians head to the polls yet again. 

The new Governor General Charles Bagot decides to ask for forgiveness and not permission. And this means we have a government - sort of - controlled by the Reformers Louis Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin. Robert Baldwin is defeated by his cousin and that gives Lafontaine an idea. And our new Governor General, the one we've just met, goes and does what Governors General do at this time - he gets sick and dies. And that leaves the Reformers and responsible government, such as it so far is, very much in the lurch.

It all starts with a letter from Francis Hincks to Louis Lafontaine. But soon Robert Baldwin is getting in on the action and then the Reformer bromance really takes off - and all with the idea of responsible government at its political heart. The Assembly meets in the brand new capital of Kingston. We get an actual motion calling for responsible government that wins support. There's an unprecedented election in Upper Canada. And, we're not talking metaphorically here: Lord Sydenham falls off a horse. 

It is early 1841 and the Canada's have been officially joined together. Now Lord Sydenham has to find someway of making the shotgun marriage actually work. A lot of reformers were hoping for a switch to this newfangled thing called 'responsible government'. But Lord Sydenham has his own system instead - and a plethora or corrupt electoral techniques to make sure it will work, at least in the short term.

How did we go from loyalist victory in the rebellions to loyalist anger in the Rebellion Losses Bill mob riot in 1849? When did winning look so much like losing?This week we start in 1849 but quick return to the years right after the rebellions. Lord Durham is back (but don't worry, as usual, he's not staying long); there's a new Governor General with a new nickname (welcome Le Poulet); Lower Canada and Upper Canada are forced to marry; Robert Baldwin is back in yet another executive (how long will he last this time?); and we have more elections in the Canadas which means, you guessed it, more election violence. 

The Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 are finally over. Houses have burned; Governors General have come and gone; rebels have fled, been imprisoned, hanged and been exiled. And now we need to figure out what it all means. We step back in this episode to ask:what caused the rebellions? why did they fail? could they have succeeded? And then there is the most important historical question of all: so what?

The secret Hunters Lodges come out of hiding and launch attacks in the autumn of 1838 and General Colborne, and especially the loyalist militia, get back to their work of suppressing rebellion. The rebel leaders once again show themselves not quite up to the task; we have a naval raid along the St Lawerence gone wrong, and blood on the streets in Windsor. But most importantly, it all wraps up. Rebellion rises from the ashes only to be forcefully told to go back where it came from. 

Winter extends from 1837 to 1838 and the rebels in exile try to turn around their fortunes. William Lyon Mackenzie captures an island. Canadian loyalists sink a ship but they also kill an American. Radical Patriotes read a revolutionary declaration into the late February winter wind in Lower Canada and then are chased back across the border. We meet Lord Durham, the new Governor General, and he hatches a scheme to deal with rebel prisoners. And there are enough cross-border attacks to keep everyone on edge.

A Swiss-born revolutionary stirs things up in an already pretty agitated region of rebellion west of Montreal. Things turn pretty dire for the Patriotes this week. There is fire, and then some more burning. Then, to make things fun, more fire. And General Colborne earns a nickname - the 'vieux brulé' (that is, old firebrand). So, yeah, fire.

The regular troops have left Upper Canada to go help put down rebellion in Lower Canada and that gives William Lyon Mackenzie an idea. Well, he had the idea already, but this seems like a good time to act on it. We have rebellion in Upper Canada. There is a secret meeting at a brewery; rebels and loyalists shoot at each other and then run away; there is even a Laura Second tie-in. But none of this can stop Mackenzie from having a very bad day. 

An intercepted letter proves fateful to the fate of rebellion. And the remaining British force in the Richelieu valley heads toward (and not away from) conflict. The early good showing of the Patriotes proves short-lived but, by the end of November 1837, it is still unclear how the rebellion in Lower Canada will turn out. 

The Rebellion in Lower Canada is absolutely underway this week - the Patriotes leaders flee Montreal; the habitants fortify local strongholds; and the British General Colborne sends troops out to try to drown the the flames of rebellion before they burn too strong. And we have pig noises. Just because.

It's the summer of 1837 and Lower Canada is in turmoil - horses are losing their tails, effigies are burning, the charivari has turned political, and we have more (and more) resolutions. Oh, and a little thing called rebellion breaks out.

A special bonus episode from our sister podcast Cool Canadian History. You can - and should! - subscribe to more than one Canadian history podcast.

From 1834 to 1836 reformers in both colonies move from hope to anger as two new governors, in their very different ways, prove to not be what the more radical of reformers want. We have the famous 92 resolutions that might (maybe) read like a passive aggressive almost break-up letter. And we also have a Governor General and his lasso knighthood, and much, much more.

In Upper Canada a fiery reformer named William Lyon Mackenzie shows that anger at the political system can flourish even amongst supposedly loyal English speaking colonists. Mackenzie also learns that printing presses don't swim very well.

An election in Montreal in 1832 turns bloody and serves as our entry point into understanding the divisive politics of Lower Canada in the years before the rebellions. We make sense of the the rising Patriotes movement, the nature of government and the constitution, and the legacy of the Conquest of New France and the American Revolution.