Documents for "Canadian History":

• British North America Act law passed by the British Parliament in 1867 that provided for the unification of the Canadian provinces into the dominion of Canada. Until 1982 the act also functioned as the constitution of...

• Canada Act also called the Constitutional Act of 1982, which made Canada a fully sovereign state. The British Parliament approved it on Mar. 25, 1982, and Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed it on Apr. 17, 1982...

• Canada Company land settlement company chartered in England in 1826. It was initiated by the Scottish novelist John Galt, who proposed that Upper Canada (Ontario) sell government lands in order to raise money to...

• Canada First movement party that appeared in Canada soon after confederation (1867). Its purpose was to encourage the growth of nonpartisan loyalty to the new dominion of Canada. In Toronto, in 1874, it founded the Nation and the National Club and entered the political field as the Canadian National Association, which encouraged immigration and native industry, and a more independent stance for Canada. Although its...

• Canadian Alliance former Canadian political party that had its origins in the Reform party of Canada, which was founded in 1987 in Winnipeg, Man., as a W Canada-based conservative alternative to the Progressive Conservative party. Fiscally conservative and strongly in favor of tax cuts, the Alliance was also strongly federalist. The Reform party's formation was spurred in part by reaction against Prime Minister Brian Mulroney 's attempts to negotiate a special status for Quebec within the Canadian confederation (see also Meech Lake Accord ). Led by Preston Manning , the party campaigned strongly against the Charlottetown Accord (see Canada ) in 1992, and in the 1993 elections it won 52 parliamentary seats, siphoning many votes from the Progressive Conservatives. In 1997, Reform won 60 seats, becoming the largest opposition party. The...

• Canadian Prime Ministers since Confederation Canadian Prime Ministers since Confederation Prime Minister Political Party Dates in Office Sir John A. Macdonald Conservative 1867-73 Alexander Mackenzie Liberal 1873-78 Sir John A. Macdonald...

• Clergy Reserves those lands set apart in Upper and Lower Canada under the British Constitutional Act of 1791 "for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy." "Protestant clergy" was interpreted to mean the clergy of the Church of England. This interpretation was fiercely upheld by John Strachan and others but dissatisfied other Protestant denominations and became an issue...

• Conservative party in Canada. 1 Former Canadian political party that merged with the Progressive party to form the Progressive Conservative party. 2 Officially the Conservative party of Canada, political party formed in 2003 by the merger of the Progressive Conservative party (PC) and the Canadian Alliance (CA). In 1993 the Progressive Conservatives, who had held a parliamentary majority, were savaged at the polls as many voters in W Canada deserted the PC for the young Reform party (the predecessor...

• Co-operative Commonwealth Federation see New Democratic party.

• coureurs de bois [Fr.,=woods runners], unlicensed traders during the French regime in Canada. Traders were required to be licensed, but to only a favored few were licenses granted. The coureurs de bois defied regulations and ventured into the Canadian wilderness. Although they stimulated the growth of the fur trade and the exploration of Canada, their defiance caused problems for the government...

• Family Compact name popularly applied to a small, powerful group of men who dominated the government of Upper Canada (Ontario) from the closing years of the 18th cent. to the beginnings of responsible government...

• Fort Frontenac see Kingston , Ont., Canada.

• Fort Henry see Kingston , Ont., Canada.

• Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) , Canadian separatist group formed in the 1960s to bring about the independence of Quebec, which has a French heritage, from the rest of Canada, which has a primarily British tradition. Using public...

• Hudson's Bay Company corporation chartered (1670) by Charles II of England for the purpose of trade and settlement in the Hudson Bay region of North America and for exploration toward the discovery of the Northwest Passage...

• Jesuit Estates Act law adopted in 1888 by the Quebec legislature, partly to indemnify the Society of Jesus for Jesuit property confiscated by the British during the period after the suppression (1773) of the society...

• Jesuit Relations annual reports and narratives written by French Jesuit missionaries at their stations in New France (America) between 1632 and 1673. They are invaluable as historical sources for French exploration...

• Liberal party Canadian political party. Prior to confederation in 1867, reform parties advocating greater local participation in provincial governments, free trade, and increased separation of church and state...

• Meech Lake Accord set of constitutional reforms designed to induce Quebec to accept the Canada Act. The Accord's five basic points, proposed by Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, include a guarantee of Quebec's special status as a "distinct society" and a commitment to Canada's linguistic duality. Other provisions increase provincial powers in immigration, provide for provincial input in appointing supreme court judges, restrict federal...

• New Democratic party (NDP), Canadian political party, founded in 1961 when the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) reorganized itself and entered into close ties with Canadian labor unions, especially the...

• North West Company fur-trading organization in North America in the late 18th and early 19th cent.; it was composed of Montreal trading firms and fur traders.

• Pacific scandal 1873, a major event in Canadian political history. Charges were made in Parliament that the Conservative administration of Sir John A. Macdonald had accepted campaign funds from Sir Hugh Allan in return for a promise to award Allan's syndicate the contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Macdonald's statement that the contract and the contributions were unconnected was received...

• Parti Québécois (PQ), provincial political party committed to the independence of Quebec. Founded in 1968, it soon became a force in provincial elections. In 1976, led by René Lévesque , it captured control of the provincial assembly. Among its first acts was the passage of Bill 101, controversial legislation that made French the official language of Quebec and prohibited the use...

• Progressive Conservative party former Canadian political party, formed in 1942 by the merger of the Progressive and Conservative parties. Beginning with the first Canadian prime minister, John A. Macdonald in 1867, the Conservative party dominated Canadian politics for much of the first three decades after confederation in 1867. The Conservative party's commitments to a strong confederation, national...

• Quebec Act, 1774 passed by the British Parliament to institute a permanent administration in Canada replacing the temporary government created at the time of the Proclamation of 1763. It gave the French Canadians...

• Red River Rebellion see Riel, Louis.

• Red River Settlement agricultural colony in present Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota. It was the undertaking of Thomas Douglas, 5th earl of Selkirk. Wishing to relieve the dispossessed and impoverished in Scotland and Northern Ireland, he secured enough control of the Hudson's Bay Company to obtain from it a grant of land called Assiniboia. This project met opposition from the very start, principally from the North West Company , but also from the fur traders in the Hudson's Bay Company. Despite efforts to discourage the colony, Miles Macdonnell, a Selkirk man, brought a small group to the colony in 1812. The determined...

• Reform party in Canada: see Canadian Alliance.

• Riel's rebellions see Riel, Louis.

• Social Credit economic plan in Canada, based on the theories of Clifford Hugh Douglas. The central idea is that the problems fundamental to economic depression are those of unequal distribution owing to lack of purchasing power. To solve these difficulties Douglas proposed a system...

• United Empire Loyalists in Canadian history, name applied to those settlers who, loyal to the British cause in the American Revolution, migrated from the Thirteen Colonies to Canada. Some emigrated during the Revolution,...

• Vinland or Wineland, section of North America discovered by Leif Ericsson in the 11th cent. The sources for the knowledge of Leif Ericsson's exploration differ as to whether it was planned or accidental, but it is definitely known that he found a land containing grapes...

• Westminster Conference 1866-67, held in London to settle the plan for confederation of the Canadian provinces. The resolutions on confederation that had been framed at the Quebec Conference (1864) were the basis for...

• Wineland see Vinland.