By P. E. Bryden

From the time Canada first became a nation in 1867, the federal government in Ottawa and the provincial governments across the country have been engaged in regular and sometimes vicious battles over money. The British North America Act established a federal system for Canada. That meant that control over issues was divided between the two levels of government. The division, in the Canadian case, was not equal. The national government was responsible for big items of national significance, and the provincial governments were responsible for small issues of local significance. Read the full story

By P. E. Bryden

Canadians take their constitutions seriously. We celebrate the passage of the first national constitution — the British North America Act — every year on July 1. We constantly debate what it means. And we fight about how to change the constitution almost constantly. It is, perhaps, the one thing that unites Canadians from the 19th century through the 21st century, and from British Columbia to Nunavut to Newfoundland — an almost pathological need to debate, argue, battle and complain about the constitution. It has made us a very strange country indeed. But it has made us a country. Read the full story

By P. E. Bryden

The eastern coast of Canada is home to some of the nation’s oldest settlements. The Beothuk First Nation populated the most easterly corner of the area, while the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq inhabited territory that would become New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. But it was fish that lured Europeans to the shores of Atlantic Canada: the Norse established settlements about a thousand years ago in the area we call Newfoundland, and Portuguese, English, French and Spanish fishermen were making regular summer runs to one of the richest fishing areas in the world — Newfoundland’s Grand Banks — by the 15th century. Read the full story

By P. E. Bryden

Before Europeans arrived in North America, by far the most heavily populated part of the continent was the Pacific Coast. Perhaps as many as three-quarters of Canada’s First Nation population lived west of Ontario. But all these First Nations communities, and the lands that they called home, were nothing more than fantasies in the imaginations of European explorers, who first landed on North America’s east coast. Read the full story

By P. E. Bryden

Quebec is Canada’s oldest province. The French explorer Samuel de Champlain established the first continuous permanent settlement in North America in 1608 on the shores of the St. Lawrence River at what would become known as Quebec City. The area had already long been inhabited by Iroquois and Algonquin First Nations, and further north by Inuit, but with Champlain’s settlement the French staked a claim to Quebec. Read the full story

By P. E. Bryden

A popular song in the 1960s declared Ontario “a place to stand and a place to grow.” As Canada’s most populous province, and the centre of the majority of Canadian business, it has certainly proven to be both a place to stand and a place to grow for many Canadians — more than 13 million at last count. But Ontario’s origins were much more humble. Read the full story

By Patrick Brennan

After 1841, the colony of Canada comprised Canada West, overwhelmingly English-speaking and Protestant, and Canada East, predominantly French-speaking and Roman Catholic, though with a substantial English-Protestant minority. By the early 1860s, the legislature, which gave Canada East and West equal weight, had become paralyzed and the Canadas were headed for divorce. Canada West longed to secure its economic future by annexing Britain North America’s western territories. And given its larger population, negotiating every measure with the French Canadian minority was also a sore point. For their part, French Canadian politicians opposed change for fear it would weaken their minority position. Out of this hopeless political deadlock emerged the idea of forging a larger British North American union — Confederation. Read the full story