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1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom
Fitful Growth: Economy
Economy
Policy Foundations
Block Settlements
| Joseph Pope, Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald G.C.B., First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, Volume 1 (Ottawa: J. Durie & sons, 1894). |
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Sir John A. Macdonald, n.d. Macdonald, Prime Minster of Canada from 1867-1873 and 1878-1891, endeavoured to promote economic development through the National Policy, a program that imposed high tariffs to bolster domestic industries and subsidized the building of a transcontinental railway to encourage the settlement of the West. |
When the British colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada (comprising a union of Canada East and Canada West) joined in Confederation in 1867, the new Dominion of Canada needed immigrants. Within six years, Canadian territory expanded to include Prince Edward Island, the interior lands belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, and the colony of British Columbia. With a relatively small national population
and now extensive, largely unoccupied lands spreading to the west, the federal government made immigration a priority. It sent government agents to Europe to promote immigration with the hopes of recruiting that larger overall population that would secure Canadian sovereignty over western lands, bolster national demand for goods, and stimulate the nation's still small manufacturing sector.
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Background