The Ferryman's Toll - The Nationalist Film Board - Creation of Canada - Part 5

00:00:00.000 Yes, just trying to hit cellular certificates for a few years?

00:00:01.620 Well, then you can't fiddling that prettyeln.

00:00:03.940 Ah!!!

00:00:05.440 Well, now we're back.

00:00:09.440 Oh, see if Bunch on it orwecause we're here.

00:00:15.140 ...There's a bunch of packs but I don't actually use any numbers in this Exploration Mile.

00:00:21.120 Going out to...

00:00:24.700 Just even go out and just throw in the game here

00:00:27.440 Thank you.

00:00:57.440 Thank you.

00:01:27.440 Thank you.

00:01:57.440 Thank you.

00:02:27.440 Thank you.

00:02:57.440 Thank you.

00:03:27.940 Now, the reason I find this episode particularly interesting, and I think you'll note some of these as well as we go through it, is there is an immense amount of similarities between what plays out between 1840 and 1860 in Canada, and what is playing out today within our own government in the context of relations with the United States and the country as a whole.

00:03:53.720 So if you pay attention, you'll notice a lot of similar kind of sentiments going around and things that are worth maybe paying attention to because a lot of the things that we're experiencing now in terms of the arguments for American annexation or a more American-style system and stuff like that, none of these things are new.

00:04:17.620 The regionalism is not new.

00:04:47.600 The vendorgy are also known for economic CAMs on the other than 2060 to the end of the episode, but you'll start noticing some of those kind of cliche attitudes both, you know, internally towards themselves and externally to America.

00:04:59.240 So, you know, without, you know, much more ado, let's get into it.

00:05:03.320 the first you know the fifth episode of creation of Canada in the new equation

00:05:08.120 annexation and reciprocity I'll see you guys in about an hour

00:05:33.320 sign and don't forget to sing us in about a Hello

00:06:03.320 how long did the struggle for a border actually go on looking back you might think that it was

00:06:24.400 over by 1846 that was the year that britain and the united states settled their dispute

00:06:30.280 over the oregon territory and now the boundary line was fixed across the middle of the continent

00:06:36.460 almost exactly as we know it today but the struggle was hardly over in the century and a

00:06:44.380 half that had gone before canadians french or english had been involved in no fewer than six

00:06:50.500 full-scale wars with their neighbors to the south most of these had been inspired by fear of canada

00:06:57.020 as a potential attacker but now this fear had almost vanished however many americans still had

00:07:05.460 a strong desire to expand their territory and the wide open spaces of british north america

00:07:11.340 might become a tempting target efforts to seize canadian territory in the american revolution

00:07:17.980 and in the war of 1812 had failed after 1812 american imperialism had turned south to easier

00:07:26.900 targets in the spanish-speaking world florida texas california but mightn't it soon be canada's turn

00:07:34.960 again also certain americans presented an ideological threat for canada with their republican anti-monarchy

00:07:43.720 propaganda to survive canada had to show determination but from the 1830s on there were plenty of signs that

00:07:52.160 this determination might be lacking

00:07:54.880 in london there was growing concern over unrest in colonial canada for there had been rebellion there

00:08:06.380 in 1837 and now as the young queen victoria listened to her advisors she learned that the situation was still

00:08:14.820 grave some english leaders called for tighter imperial control over canada while others suggested more

00:08:22.300 political and economic freedom for the colony one thing was certain a change was needed especially with

00:08:30.440 canadian rebel leaders across the border in the united states still fanning the flames of revolution

00:08:37.400 here it was easy to rouse support among republicans who would be only too glad to invade canada again

00:08:48.520 with these threats to british authority in the background queen victoria's government decided it would send

00:08:54.920 john lampton lord durham to canada he would find the causes of unrest and would suggest remedies

00:09:02.680 although some cynics suggested that this was just a joyride for radical jack durham

00:09:17.080 in quebec lord durham was surrounded by reminders of british imperial rule such as the citadel that towered

00:09:24.120 above the city like a military proclamation the british army was master here and was determined to stay

00:09:32.520 but there were also venerable streets and lofty churches

00:09:35.960 to remind durham of the french and catholic character of the historic st lawrence valley

00:09:40.920 nearby at wolf's cove durham could see the spot where his problems had begun

00:09:53.080 for events here some 80 years before had led to britain's conquest of new france ambitious protestant

00:10:00.760 traders had followed the conquest but over the years they had made little impact on the french canadian way

00:10:06.840 of life and they had helped to create among the habitans a deep dislike for anglo-saxon officialdom

00:10:17.960 the french canadians began to compare their poverty and toil with english canadian wealth and well-being

00:10:25.960 and aspiring leaders compared their political impotence with the privilege and power of the english

00:10:31.480 there was deep resentment too in paying taxes that would benefit the english merchants

00:10:38.840 by creating public works that seemed useless to the french 0.82

00:10:47.800 bolder spirits among the quebecers had been rallied by the oratory of louis joseph papineau

00:10:53.560 who denounced colonial oppression and ultimately called for a republic

00:10:57.560 this had brought rebellion but it had been short-lived ruthlessly suppressed by british gunfire the

00:11:06.200 deportations and executions that followed greatly deepened the hostility between the two peoples of canada

00:11:16.200 durham understood why canadian radicals had rebelled he minced no words in calling for

00:11:22.600 responsible government for the colony an executive responsible to elected representatives the canadians

00:11:29.960 should be masters in their own house if coercive imperial bonds were loosened deeper emotional ties

00:11:37.480 would grow to link canada with britain this alone was the answer to republicanism but on the so-called

00:11:45.240 racial issue durham outraged the french canadians he said they were a people with no history and

00:11:51.320 no literature they must give up their vain hopes for nationality and submit to vigorous rule by the 0.98

00:11:58.520 superior english it was an attitude that would poison english french relations for a long time to come

00:12:08.520 sailing from quebec durham returned to england to give the prime minister the famous report

00:12:14.520 embodying his conclusions london rejected durham's plea for responsible government but it did adopt his

00:12:22.360 recommendation that upper and lower canada become one political entity this union was affected in 1840

00:12:31.400 making the french feel like a helpless minority rather than a frustrated majority but in montreal

00:12:38.920 the english were pleased for the boundary had been an obstacle to commerce

00:12:47.560 but soon in london agricultural interests were fighting another measure that would help montreal

00:12:54.520 in 1843 however the canada corn act was passed and now american wheat shipped through canada

00:13:01.800 would be given british tariff preference now the route to europe through canada st lawrence river system

00:13:10.920 would surely demonstrate its superiority over the american hudson erie route

00:13:20.680 rapids on the st lawrence system had led to the building of canals

00:13:24.920 and now these were improved and augmented in a vigorous new program of public works the lachine canal near

00:13:31.960 montreal was deepened to nine feet as compared with the erie canals four feet and the wellin canal was also

00:13:39.400 improved american wheat ground into flour shared in the tariff preferences and shiny new mills arose to

00:13:49.160 handle the heavy traffic anticipated by canadian investors more transportation would be needed

00:13:55.640 and the shipbuilding industry turned out a host of proud new vessels

00:14:00.280 everywhere hopes were high that canada's ports would flourish as never before

00:14:11.960 but traffic on the st lawrence turned out to be far less than had been expected

00:14:16.040 although it was cheaper and easier to get from the west to montreal than to new york

00:14:22.280 montreal's port charges were higher and the navigational hazards of the river route beyond montreal

00:14:28.840 with its storms and its twisting channel meant high rates for pilotage and insurance on the long voyage

00:14:35.240 to the sea thus the cost factor militated against montreal's ambitions

00:14:46.040 and so despite the best efforts of montreal western trade continued to drain away to the other route

00:14:53.400 provided by the erie canal and the hudson river this trade came from fast growing lake ports like chicago

00:15:00.760 where the first wheat shipment in 1838 had heralded an ever-increasing flow of traffic toward the atlantic coast

00:15:07.720 after crossing the lakes to buffalo cargos had to be reloaded into flat canal barges drawn horses

00:15:17.640 but even this necessity for trans shipment did not detract from the popularity of the erie canal

00:15:23.400 from buffalo goods proceeded at a mile and a half per hour and a cent and a half per mile

00:15:37.560 it was the best bargain cheap and safe after the canal came the smooth hudson river with the dynamic port of new

00:15:45.560 york at his mouth the harbor here was ice free the year round another advantage over montreal

00:15:57.080 meanwhile to the north a discouraged montreal newspaper noted that winter had arrived and that

00:16:03.640 an embargo which no human hand can remove is laid on all our ports while winter might bring all kinds of

00:16:11.880 zestful outdoor sport it meant long months of stagnation for the commerce of canada's inland waterways

00:16:24.120 and now in addition to the ice there was another threat

00:16:34.760 the first railways made their appearance in the united states in the 1830s

00:16:39.320 and before long they were puffing away in every direction carrying goods and passengers

00:16:46.120 for the st lawrence river route it meant still more competition

00:16:55.240 soon there was a network of feeder lines leading to the sea and even more serious a new law now allowed

00:17:02.520 canadian exports and imports to pass through the united states duty-free on their way to and

00:17:09.080 from american ports so canadian goods too flowed to new york

00:17:21.240 but railroads also offered the possibility of adding an ice-free atlantic port to the st lawrence system

00:17:27.560 and soon montrealers were drawing up plans for lines to portland and boston

00:17:32.280 the first small step in this direction came in 1836 with canada's first railway 14 miles long near montreal

00:17:47.240 meanwhile across the sea in england john bull faced an upheaval that would have repercussions in canada

00:17:54.600 in the corn exchange the land-owning tories discussed ways to keep cheap imported food

00:18:00.520 out of the country so their own produce would fetch the highest possible prices

00:18:09.080 british agriculture traditionally had great political influence the winds of change were blowing

00:18:15.880 and the very landscape was being altered for england's green and pleasant land was now increasingly scarred

00:18:23.320 by mines and mills as the temple built up in the industrial revolution

00:18:29.320 the factories were creating a powerful new class the managerial middle class whose interests clashed with

00:18:50.040 those of the agricultural landlords the stock exchanges symbolized the growing power of this new class

00:18:57.000 which sought political solutions for its problems problems that involved the poverty of the workers in the slums

00:19:14.120 industrialization had brought unprecedented misery with streams of laborers leaving the farms for the overcrowded cities 0.99

00:19:21.640 here there were long hours of back-breaking work for pathetic wages

00:19:27.720 employers wanted food made cheaper so the workers could be kept alive on the lowest possible wage

00:19:34.360 one way to bring food prices down would be through free trade with the abolition of the whole system

00:19:40.600 of imperial tariff preferences on which canada had built her economic hopes

00:19:44.840 the factory owners of the new middle class in england were growing in wealth and political power it was

00:19:57.480 these men who formed the anti-corn law league to fight the high cost of food they were determined

00:20:04.200 to end the nation's dependence on expensive british grain and protected imperial imports and richard

00:20:11.400 cobden their chief philosopher attacked a system which he said was less concerned with the welfare of humans

00:20:18.840 than the welfare of pigs

00:20:20.360 and so the long protected land-owning tories joined battle with the new industrialists

00:20:32.440 the political race of the century was on with banners unfurled

00:20:43.400 the tories argued that britain's wealth was her agriculture and this must be protected against

00:20:49.000 foreign competition but the free traders insisted that if manufacturing costs could be kept down

00:20:55.320 through low wages and cheap bread then exports would be cheap and everyone would prosper

00:21:10.200 the tories protested that all the factory owners really cared about

00:21:13.880 was saving on wages but cobden was a master propagandist

00:21:18.760 and to more and more people his loaf looked like the very best buy

00:21:27.880 even sir robert peel the tory prime minister came to agree with cobden

00:21:33.000 peel was disturbed by stories of famine in ireland and depression at home

00:21:37.960 so he finally decided to support the idea of cheap bread

00:21:41.880 even though this would split the tory party

00:21:50.440 under peel's leadership the corn laws were repealed in 1846

00:21:55.720 now there was free trade and canada was left in the lurch without the imperial preferences

00:22:01.800 that had nourished her commercial ambitions 0.96

00:22:03.800 storms on the saint lawrence symbolized the rough weather that lay ahead for canada's economy

00:22:15.400 now american wheat could go straight to britain without passing through canada

00:22:20.120 and many a mill closed its doors for lack of business

00:22:23.000 in the wintry montreal of 1848 it seemed that the new commercial empire of the saint lawrence

00:22:34.040 was mortally wounded and it had been so patiently built up to replace the long gone fur trading empire

00:22:42.760 a chilling blanket of gloom descended on the icy streets of the city's business community

00:22:48.840 montreal's businessmen reacted with bitterness they were englishmen and tories and now england had

00:23:01.480 pulled the rug out from under them on top of this there was the rebellion losses bill to anchor them

00:23:08.760 this legislation appropriated a hundred thousand pounds to compensate those who had suffered property

00:23:14.600 loss in the uprising of 1837 french canadian rebels would share in the compensation and the angered

00:23:21.960 english loyalists demanded that the governor general veto the bill french domination they cried

00:23:29.320 but lord elgin refused to interfere and this meant in effect that responsible government had come to canada

00:23:37.640 for the english merchants it was the end of special privilege and they reacted with violence

00:23:44.600 and on an april night in 1849 a tory mob set fire to canada's parliament buildings in montreal

00:23:55.560 the firemen were mocked in their hopeless struggle by a chant of tory hatred and strangely enough

00:24:16.840 the men who had been driven to this outburst of violence to this destruction of a british institution

00:24:23.000 were the very men who most fondly cherished memories of loyalty to britannia

00:24:31.960 memories of loyalty under wolf at quebec of loyalty in wars against the indians

00:24:39.000 memories of loyalty and suffering during the american revolution when their fathers had stood by britain

00:24:45.240 and of course 1812 but what devils now infested the land of britannia

00:24:56.600 what scoundrels now ruled england turning her against her loyal sons in canada 0.99

00:25:06.760 new men were at the helm in england and in canada the smoking ruins of parliament

00:25:12.360 attested the fury of loyalty and love that felt rejected

00:25:17.240 and now that rejected love suddenly took a surprising direction

00:25:28.280 a manifesto calling for union with the united states

00:25:32.360 it was drawn up six months after the burning of parliament and it got nearly 1500 important signatures

00:25:46.600 british sovereignty voluntarily surrendered to the yankees

00:25:51.320 this was the proposal of the annexation manifesto and it was being made by leaders

00:25:56.920 of the commercial community in montreal it would simplify the map of north america in such a way

00:26:04.200 that the st lawrence system would work at last with american capital credit and price structures

00:26:11.720 prosperity would finally come in the form of ships to crowd the river

00:26:16.680 the canadian group anxious to embrace uncle sam was mainly english but there were irishmen in it too

00:26:28.120 they had their own motives stemming from the tragic history of misery in their home country

00:26:33.800 where the failure of the potato crop had brought famine in the 1840s

00:26:45.080 for many irishmen emigration to north america was the only escape from slow death in their overpopulated

00:26:51.800 country half starved and fever ridden many families headed for lower canada and with them they brought a

00:26:59.400 strong resentment against british oppression british authority had brought them starvation and now some

00:27:06.680 were ready to support any move against england in the movement to join the united states the montreal

00:27:17.720 english and irish elements were joined by a small but lively french canadian faction ideas from paris

00:27:24.840 had influenced these quebecers ideas which in france and all over europe had brought violent disturbances 1.00

00:27:31.480 in 1848 to challenge both civil and religious authorities these radical european ideas held great appeal for louis

00:27:43.480 joseph papineau british rule was once again the target for this quebec rebel of 1837 now back from exile

00:27:52.200 and calling for liberty democracy and union with the united states

00:28:03.480 meanwhile the annexationists were being closely watched in britain

00:28:07.560 where the prime minister lord russell was surrounded by a swarm of problems arising out of troubles at home

00:28:14.120 and a restless empire lord russell's policy for canada had shown indecision on earlier occasions

00:28:32.840 and this had caused him trouble but now his reaction to the annexation manifesto was resolute reflecting the

00:28:39.800 contempt reserved by john bull for scurvy republican names republicanism was foreign nonsense the majestic lion of 0.90

00:28:52.120 constitutional monarchy might well scold the democratic donkey for his schoolboy errors

00:29:01.000 thus in the reply sent by her majesty's government to the annexationists in canada

00:29:06.120 they were bluntly advised that their movement was scarcely short of treasonable

00:29:14.760 back in canada the word treason was upsetting to many respectable people who had naively hope that britain

00:29:21.720 might approve union with the united states it was a confusing time of conflicting loyalties and desires

00:29:29.400 and some people played it safe by sporting both flags on the same pole

00:29:39.960 but the union jack in tory toronto was still the flag that exerted the strongest emotional pull

00:29:47.640 great value was placed on the english heritage here

00:29:50.200 and although businessmen were irritated by britain they were starting to look at the supposed commercial

00:29:56.280 advantages of union with an increasingly skeptical eye

00:30:05.080 as for the irish it seemed that george washington's republic was attractive to them

00:30:10.440 for no reason other than its anti-british flavor

00:30:13.000 and for most french canadians the american juggernaut posed a special threat

00:30:19.640 on the map as it now stood the french balanced the english of canada

00:30:25.560 but if canada became american the french would become an isolated minority overwhelmingly outnumbered

00:30:32.200 thus any onrush of americanism was seen as a real danger to french cultural survival

00:30:42.840 though canada appeared vulnerable to the eagle's attack the crown had its champions ready to come to

00:30:49.320 the rescue to save her from being devoured they were alert to the possibility that the little group of

00:30:56.200 annexationists might tempt some americans to respond for in washington there were still men who dreamed of more territory

00:31:05.880 and who might like to dress themselves in the regalia of a crusade against the crown

00:31:10.600 those who feared american aggression recalled president monroe a quarter of a century earlier whose

00:31:25.800 nationalism seemed to provide a formula for imperialism had he not hinted that the united states

00:31:32.840 would support rebellions against european rulers in the western hemisphere might not this apply to

00:31:40.360 canada henry clay was another ghost of the war hawk past and so was thomas hart benton and now there

00:31:50.920 was zachary taylor to worry about he was a general who had won many victories over the mexicans a man who

00:31:57.880 showed great enthusiasm in using troops to expand the size of the republic

00:32:14.440 victory in mexico inflamed war fever in the united states and a grateful nation elected general zachary

00:32:21.720 taylor to the presidency but many feared that he would be a tool of the expansionists who believed it

00:32:28.760 was america's manifest destiny to conquer all north america

00:32:35.720 would manifest destiny look northward the great expanses of british north america were tempting

00:32:51.480 but there were richer areas to compete for the attention of the expansionists

00:32:56.120 seizures of spanish and mexican territory had already given the united states florida and texas

00:33:02.120 now it was new mexico and california where gold had been discovered now all america cried california here i come

00:33:20.920 many a potential buccaneer who might gladly have troubled the canadian border went to california instead

00:33:27.480 driven by a greed so great that in san francisco bay ships lay unmanned their crews having deserted to go to

00:33:35.720 the mines once again it seemed that america's adventures in the south and west kept potential

00:33:44.440 pressure away from canada but there were still some hungry eyes in washington that persisted in looking

00:33:52.120 northward the militant spirits included general winfield scott who was shown as a wild man in a

00:34:01.400 cartoon of the time moderates were restraining him as he zealously preached annexation of canada

00:34:08.600 while a chorus of canadian voices mocked him by reminding him of the war of 1812 as a youth general

00:34:16.840 scott had served in that war and surely ought to remember how the americans had failed in that dream

00:34:23.000 of conquest

00:34:27.320 friends of the canadian annexationists evoked little response

00:34:34.120 and president taylor himself was restrained throughout

00:34:38.040 and the american navy stopped a few would-be warriors all set to sail on a private mission

00:34:43.720 of conquest in this comic opera episode cuba was the preferred target but canada was not forgotten

00:34:55.480 and so there was no increased pressure on canada

00:35:00.120 there were bigger opportunities elsewhere to beckon american energies

00:35:03.640 it became obvious to the english-speaking annexationists in montreal that they had no real support they

00:35:15.400 had earned a stern reprimand from britain and the united states was not exactly reaching out to them

00:35:23.080 as for the french canadians they were coming to realize that the survival of their culture was more

00:35:29.400 likely in a small canada than in a huge united states moreover they were finding that politics in canada

00:35:37.720 tended to divide along class lines rather than racial lines and it had become possible to cooperate

00:35:44.920 with the english reformers of upper canada and so the annexationist mood subsided but there was obviously

00:35:53.560 something wrong with the canadian economic system unless it was corrected there might be another

00:35:59.640 movement to join the united states and the americans might be more responsive

00:36:10.040 the somber expanse of canada without british economic protection could this ever become a commercial state

00:36:18.920 perhaps only indians could live here after all 1.00

00:36:25.960 yet all around there was a vast potential source of wealth the forests

00:36:33.240 for many years canadian timber had had a lucrative market in england where it enjoyed strong tariff

00:36:39.000 preferences but now in the movement toward free trade these preferences had been withdrawn

00:36:45.960 for pessimists in montreal there was doubt whether the timber trade once so brisk could now survive at all

00:37:01.400 in london at the exposition of 1851 canadian timber merchants showed their wares to the world

00:37:08.040 in the great crystal palace the interest aroused proved that with or without tariff protection

00:37:15.080 a good product could still find a market and buyers found that canadian squared pine

00:37:21.560 was indeed a good and competitive product

00:37:29.080 but meanwhile in canada parliament continued to battle economic problems and lord elgin the governor

00:37:36.040 general was much absorbed by them elgin refused to be pessimistic and kept pointing to positive

00:37:44.840 factors like the improvements recently completed on the st lawrence where the deepening of the channel

00:37:50.520 below montreal meant that bigger ships could now use the river elgin was also encouraged by recent

00:37:59.000 progress in the building of railways typical of the enterprises underway was the great western

00:38:05.480 which started from niagara passed through hamilton and reached the town of london by 1853

00:38:12.280 here was access to a rapidly growing grain production area

00:38:23.080 in the united states railways already linked the great lakes and the sea

00:38:28.520 but montreal would also have a short route to ice-free atlantic ports with railways to boston

00:38:34.040 via the american network and to portland so lord elgin could be moderately optimistic

00:38:45.000 the improved st lawrence waterway was beginning to see at least a portion of the two-way anglo-american

00:38:51.080 traffic that had so long been hoped for underlying this was a boom economy in england

00:38:58.040 whose growing demand greatly expanded canadian wheat and timber production

00:39:03.480 and for the recently rebellious montreal merchants the return of profits meant a return of loyalty to the crown

00:39:11.000 as a diplomat lord elgin was fully aware of the american role in these developments

00:39:22.680 and in 1851 he journeyed south to boston to lend his presence to the celebrations marking the arrival of

00:39:29.800 the first train from montreal

00:39:37.960 for boston the new railway would provide a bridge through canada to the great west

00:39:43.800 the ohio mississippi area whose growing cities mirrored the relentless expansion of america

00:39:49.640 what a difference there was between the rustic chicago of 1820 and the busy commercial chicago of 1850

00:39:58.600 also phenomenal was the growth of detroit

00:40:04.680 as for pittsburgh it was already becoming an industrial giant

00:40:12.040 america's growth needed building materials

00:40:14.760 and new railways like the ones linking boston and ogdensburg and bytown and prescott were built to

00:40:21.080 bring lumber down from canada the new york central already linked new york and niagara

00:40:27.320 and now the great western was built through canada to join it with the michigan central which went to

00:40:33.000 chicago and at niagara where a deep gorge separated the two countries new economic ties were symbolized by a

00:40:42.680 great new bridge

00:40:48.120 but despite the return of better times elgin remained cautious

00:40:54.520 if the boom were to pass in canada while the united states maintained its prosperity

00:41:00.440 there might well be a new cry for annexation up till now canada had given little thought to reciprocal

00:41:08.760 trade with the united states there had been some exchange of goods between the two countries

00:41:14.440 but canadian businessmen had mainly acted as middlemen between the united states and britain

00:41:21.960 it now occurred to elgin that the benefits of real reciprocal trade might stave off any future

00:41:28.600 annexationist moves could this trade be encouraged for the answer elgin looked south

00:41:37.800 and he found problems

00:41:42.040 the vast growth of new york symbolized a powerful new force in america

00:41:46.680 the expansion of industry in the northern states here and elsewhere along the atlantic seaboard

00:41:54.120 new industries were springing up at an unprecedented rate and like infant industries everywhere they

00:42:00.360 feared competition and sought high tariffs thus many northern industrialists fought every move

00:42:07.720 toward reciprocity threatening to bury lord elgin's hopes

00:42:17.560 but when lord elgin looked further south he found a very different america

00:42:23.160 this was a vast world of plantations and had no significant industry

00:42:29.000 it was therefore strongly opposed to tariffs that would raise the price of imported goods

00:42:34.120 cotton had brought great wealth to the south and gave it power in its quarrel with the north over tariffs

00:42:47.560 but slavery was an even more bitter issue between north and south

00:42:52.360 and it threatened to tear the country asunder there were really two societies in the united states

00:42:58.520 one with slavery and one without the question now concerned the huge new areas of the west would they be slave or free

00:43:09.320 in the late 1840s the issue aroused violent passions with the idea of slavery repugnant to most northerners

00:43:18.040 and yet to southerners it was the white man's right to take his slaves with him when he went west

00:43:24.280 to settle new lands never had there been such an angry dispute

00:43:38.120 tempers became so heated that on one occasion a southern senator actually pulled a pistol on a northern senator

00:43:46.440 with compromise urgently needed henry clay proposed a solution in a superb speech to the senate

00:43:54.040 it succeeded and thus ended a deadlock that had kept american politicians too busy to consider helping canadian annexationists

00:44:06.680 clay's compromise admitted california to the union as a free state

00:44:11.800 while slavery would be permitted in new mexico and utah

00:44:15.160 northern politicians were pleased but southern leaders like john calhoun were left burning with resentment and defiance

00:44:33.480 meanwhile far from the heat of southern anger

00:44:36.600 an issue that seemed to be unrelated through the attention of lord elgin

00:44:40.920 in these icy waters which stretched from labrador to maine there were fabulous schools of fish

00:44:47.240 that for centuries had attracted fishermen from every quarter

00:44:51.320 but now these quiet harbors echoed to the sounds of an international dispute as to just who had the right to fish here

00:44:58.440 new england fishermen felt it their natural right to be here off britain's maritime colonies

00:45:09.320 but newfoundlanders nova scotians and new brunswickers insisted it was illegal 0.73

00:45:18.920 after the american revolution the americans managed through negotiation to retain their rights

00:45:24.360 off this coast but after the war of 1812 the peace treaty excluded american fishermen from most of britain's

00:45:32.040 territorial waters the question now was just what constituted territorial waters

00:45:38.440 one way to define the limits was to draw a line three miles out to sea following the curves of the shoreline

00:45:53.320 foreign ships could fish in the bays but only outside the three mile limit

00:45:58.680 another theory held by the nova scotians said that the line ran from headland to headland

00:46:04.600 and thus american fishermen must stay out of the bays altogether

00:46:09.560 but fishing was better inside the bays so naturally that was where the americans wanted to be

00:46:17.000 and some new englanders went right into shore cheerfully ignoring both interpretations of the treaty

00:46:22.600 american fishermen insisted this was their right dating back to pre-revolutionary days

00:46:35.880 but to the british they were common poachers with a disregard for the law that was typically yankee

00:46:43.480 what they needed was a lesson from the navy

00:46:50.760 in may 1852 19 british cruisers arrived to drive out american fishermen

00:46:57.160 it became a time of exciting chases and arrests

00:47:00.200 under the eyes of the royal navy fishing off the maritimes became a very hazardous occupation for america

00:47:13.720 and they now saw john bull as an ugly bully cutting off the very means of livelihood from the honest

00:47:21.000 new england fisherman and his starving family

00:47:29.160 so disturbed were the new england fishermen that they managed to pressure washington into sending a

00:47:34.520 small naval squadron to the disputed fishing grounds it seemed that john bull and brother

00:47:40.440 jonathan were squaring off again for what might well be a dangerous head-on collision

00:47:46.040 the british lion could afford to be cocksure the royal navy was still supreme at sea

00:47:57.400 and its guns were not to be trifled with but although brother jonathan wept the british were careful not

00:48:03.480 to be too rough for they didn't really want to fight instead they wanted to use these bones of

00:48:10.920 contention for diplomatic purposes to win concessions from the americans in other areas

00:48:22.120 the concessions the british wanted had to do with trade they wanted food products and raw materials

00:48:30.760 from their north american colonies to be allowed into the united states duty free in return the americans

00:48:38.520 would get the fishing privileges they wanted as well as free navigation on the saint lawrence

00:48:44.280 and free entry into canada for their raw materials at first the maritime colonies particularly nova

00:48:51.480 scotia objected for it was their fisheries that were at stake but they came around after considering

00:48:58.200 the advantages of selling lumber coal and fish in the united states now this idea of reciprocal trade

00:49:07.000 had long been lord elgin's favorite formula and now he had the solid backing of the government in london

00:49:19.240 the british government had advanced reciprocity proposals that seemed agreeable to the american

00:49:24.280 administration but there was doubt whether congress would consent so the persuasive lord elgin was sent to

00:49:31.160 washington in washington's high society elgin was suave and confident but could diplomacy succeed in a country

00:49:45.080 where north and south seldom agreed on anything

00:49:50.440 the south was deeply suspicious about northern motives and supporting reciprocity

00:49:55.720 the north professed to see a bright economic future in free trade but the south wondered whether there

00:50:01.880 wasn't more to it than that

00:50:07.000 could the north be dreaming of a day when trade with canada might blossom into annexation

00:50:12.840 the south was outraged at the idea

00:50:14.760 union with canada would make the anti-slavery north far bigger than the south this fear had to be allayed

00:50:27.320 and lord elgin set about presenting a more accurate picture using fine champagne to bolster good

00:50:33.560 arguments about the north american economy

00:50:35.720 entertaining the southern senators lavishly elgin pointed out that a starving canada would always

00:50:46.200 want to join the rich united states but a canada fattened by reciprocity would want to remain independent

00:50:59.720 elgin's skillful persuasion worked

00:51:02.200 and enough of the skeptics were converted to give reciprocity a solid majority

00:51:10.040 before the reciprocity treaty the main pattern of trade in north america had been from east to west

00:51:16.520 canada's share had always been insufficient

00:51:20.520 but now there was the possibility of greatly increased north-south trade which became the goal

00:51:26.040 of both countries

00:51:32.120 in canada the lumber industry got a great boost from the reciprocity treaty

00:51:41.400 the production of square timber for the british market had long been profitable and now there was

00:51:46.840 a new demand from the mushrooming american cities for cheap boards and planks

00:51:51.800 before long british north america was dotted with busy sawmills

00:52:00.680 besides lumber the products of canadian mines were starting to make their way south

00:52:05.960 soon there was a healthy list of exports flowing across the boundary

00:52:09.880 that for so many years had frustrated the ambitions of canadian commerce

00:52:13.560 thus the 1850s saw a sharp acceleration in north-south trade

00:52:26.120 and there was a more efficient continental use of resources

00:52:29.800 like pennsylvania coal going to canada west and nova scotia coal finding markets in new england

00:52:39.960 meanwhile in england railways had spread extensively

00:52:44.120 and there were experienced builders and financiers ready to invest in new canadian railways

00:52:49.720 their skill and capital made possible the ambitious plan that would fill in the major gap on the canadian

00:52:59.080 railway map a grand trunk line would traverse the country and would promote east-west trade to a

00:53:07.320 point where it would balance the north-south axis in the process the saint lawrence system would be

00:53:14.360 strongly reinforced

00:53:20.920 new bridges new tracks new stations an exciting period of expansion as a mainline system a thousand miles

00:53:29.880 long became a fact in the 1850s and what pride in those locomotives

00:53:35.640 and greatest achievement of all there was the victoria bridge at montreal here and in shipbuilding

00:53:47.640 was evidence of the growing pace of canadian development

00:53:56.040 craftsmanship of all kinds and farm produce there was much to display at exhibitions in the growing

00:54:03.160 country during the railway age prosperity brought bright new facades to places like toronto with

00:54:12.760 its fine hotels its ambitious commercial buildings and the beginnings of its university

00:54:23.800 structures became ornate and imposing in toronto and hamilton as members of the upper crust

00:54:30.840 tried their best to emulate the elegance of london and there was a british quality too in the down-to-earth

00:54:37.800 individualism of the farmers of upper canada who were hardy enough to master the extremes of climate

00:54:43.960 and even make sport of it

00:54:52.440 with their veneration of fair play the english canadians embodied some of the best qualities of john bull

00:55:00.280 and yet they sometimes had grandiose notions of lordliness and they considered themselves vastly superior

00:55:07.320 to the uncouth yankee who dominated the continent in canadian eyes the americans were loud lawless violent

00:55:17.160 and ill-bred scorn for the yankee and scorn for the french canadian the quebecer had a cool dislike for the

00:55:27.720 upper canadian and the upper canadian misread this as the stubborn backwardness of a people inexplicably

00:55:34.840 less progressive than himself

00:55:41.880 the smaller towns of upper canada the cobergs the port hopes the kingstons reflected a life that was cozy

00:55:48.840 and comfortable european travelers contrasting it with the united states found it less vital and

00:55:55.880 dynamic but it was a considerable achievement and it was all the more to be treasured because of the fact

00:56:03.000 that just outside the door there often lay a brooding and untouched wilderness

00:56:15.960 immigrant ships from british ports did a steady business throughout these years crossing to ports

00:56:21.320 on the st lawrence their decks were crowded with the adventurous and the underprivileged eager to escape

00:56:27.880 overcrowding and poverty and make a fresh start in a more promising world

00:56:39.000 the hazards of the bush were overcome and the country saw the steady growth of a modest chain of

00:56:44.840 settlements that pushed back the wilderness north and west to lake huron and southward to the american

00:56:51.320 border in quebec by the end of the 1850s almost all of the good arable land south of the canadian shield

00:56:59.640 had been filled up but in britain the emigrants continued to leave for canada

00:57:09.800 in canada unlike the united states the rocky canadian shield blocked any easy movement to the west

00:57:17.240 and there were also desolate lands that cut canada off from the maritime colonies as a country canada

00:57:23.960 was indeed cribbed cabined and confined for some years now the shortage of new farmland

00:57:36.840 had led many french canadians down the winding roads that crossed the border into new england here they

00:57:43.800 found jobs in factory towns like lawrence and lowell manchester and providence life was agreeable here

00:57:51.560 and so many french canadians became franco-americans

00:57:59.400 at the same time surplus population from english canada was moving south and west across the border

00:58:06.360 into the ohio mississippi farmlands adding a canadian element to the flow of american pioneers

00:58:13.800 of the country

00:58:18.360 these departures from canada were frustrating to canadian patriots who felt they militated against

00:58:24.360 the growth and development of the country where it was the lands from michigan to minnesota that

00:58:29.560 were being settled not the still empty british northwest

00:58:33.240 yet this movement across the continent south and west spared canada the pressure that might have been

00:58:44.760 created if the americans had chosen instead to expand northward

00:58:49.160 so

00:58:56.520 meanwhile for canada's railway promoters there was discouragement over competition from new american

00:59:02.200 lines the limits imposed by canadian geography again became apparent

00:59:07.080 as traffic was drained away by feeder lines leading south.

00:59:17.680 Besides American competition, there were other worries for the railway builders.

00:59:22.980 Hasty construction for quick profits could and did lead to bad wrecks,

00:59:27.640 and overbuilding could lead to business crack-ups.

00:59:31.620 Thus, in Canada, railways and financial catastrophe became synonymous,

00:59:36.120 and many a promoter was haunted by nightmares involving his own puffing, snorting, debt-ridden creation.

00:59:49.460 Among the schemes that were going sour was one that had been particularly cherished by Canadian promoters.

00:59:56.120 Canada was already linked by rail to Boston and Portland.

00:59:59.740 But why rely on these American outlets?

01:00:02.640 Why not a railway from Quebec to Halifax,

01:00:04.820 thus linking Canada with the lively and industrious maritime colonies?

01:00:15.820 The people of the Maritimes were vigorous, proud, and independent.

01:00:21.060 New Brunswickers were convinced that their forests were the best,

01:00:25.060 and that their lumbermen had no equal.

01:00:28.000 For Nova Scotians, their fisheries led all others.

01:00:31.480 And as for shipbuilding, they had no rivals anywhere in the world.

01:00:40.400 But when it came to trade with the West Indies, for instance,

01:00:43.800 American competition was getting the lion's share, 0.67

01:00:46.720 with more capital to work with and cheaper products to sell.

01:00:49.840 Thus, a slow decline set in in the Maritimes,

01:00:56.840 especially as iron steamships replaced wooden sailing vessels.

01:01:00.540 Were the Maritimes doomed to stagnation?

01:01:07.080 There was a need for new economic orientation, perhaps to Canada.

01:01:12.320 But Canada remained remote,

01:01:15.040 and the scheme for a railway to Quebec was for years frustrated

01:01:19.600 because of financial and political obstacles.

01:01:22.960 The costs would be enormous.

01:01:25.600 But now a railway to Portland was being suggested

01:01:28.460 to link the Maritimes with the American system.

01:01:31.420 Exports going south had already increased thanks to reciprocity.

01:01:42.420 But the question was,

01:01:44.420 might all this not make it inevitable

01:01:46.320 that the Maritimes would someday join the United States?

01:01:50.460 Lord Elgin went back to England,

01:01:58.480 convinced that his reciprocity treaty

01:02:00.700 would give Canadians the prosperity they wanted,

01:02:04.460 to the extent that they would never again

01:02:06.960 think of joining the United States.

01:02:09.860 Trade flowing east and west

01:02:11.740 would be supplemented by trade flowing north and south

01:02:15.960 with the United States.

01:02:17.480 It would be a continental approach,

01:02:21.980 a new equation for Canadian survival.

01:02:26.340 But the pull to the south could become overwhelming.

01:02:30.540 And the way Americans were already going at Canadian resources

01:02:33.520 made some people think that Canada might end up

01:02:36.900 by being developed mainly for the benefit of the United States.

01:02:41.120 Indeed, there were some who already thought

01:02:42.980 that the only solution would be for Britain's various 0.79

01:02:46.660 North American colonies

01:02:48.120 to unite in a single nation

01:02:50.860 to counterbalance the giant to the south.

01:02:54.340 the highest boat

01:02:58.480 noi

01:03:03.800 we

01:03:08.160 who

01:03:10.080 co-chairs

01:03:11.480 we

01:03:12.100 Mah

01:03:16.680 you

01:03:17.840 Thank you.

01:03:47.840 Thank you.

01:04:17.840 Thank you.

01:04:47.840 Thank you.

01:05:17.840 Thank you.

01:05:47.840 We'll be able to draw some comparisons to the annexationists of 1840 and 50 to the maple MAGA of today and why it's not delusional but misguided.

01:06:33.180 The factories, mass production, etc.

01:06:35.020 A lot of this obviously happened in English cities is where it originates.

01:06:39.860 So, you know, the impacts of that, obviously, they were brought up to a certain extent in that episode, but we'll talk about it a little bit more in some of these clips here.

01:06:52.940 But I think it's funny that, you know, the more things change, the more they stay the same, don't they?

01:06:59.880 It starts off with a battle between the landholding upper class and the managerial economic class, you know, to the advantage of none of the people.

01:07:11.040 You know, it's nothing new under the sun.

01:07:14.720 The factories were creating a powerful new class, the managerial middle class, whose interests clashed with those of the agricultural landlords.

01:07:23.960 The stock exchanges symbolized the growing power of this new class, which sought political solutions for its problems, problems that involved the poverty of the workers in the slums.

01:07:35.700 Industrialization had brought unprecedented misery, with streams of laborers leaving the farms for the overcrowded cities.

01:07:54.860 Here, there were long hours of back-breaking work for pathetic wages.

01:07:59.980 Employers wanted food made cheaper, so the workers could be kept alive on the lowest possible wage.

01:08:06.260 One way to bring food prices down would be through free trade, with the abolition of the whole system of imperial tariff preferences on which Canada had built her economic hopes.

01:08:20.920 Yeah, so there's a bunch of things in that clip, obviously, that we could, you know, dig into from a bunch of different angles.

01:08:27.040 But the main one, obviously, there is this growing battle between, you know, the managerial class and the traditional aristocracy, which basically is where you get the formulation of the modern, in the English sense anyways, or in the British sense, labor versus Tories, or labor versus conservative.

01:08:48.680 That's where it originates from, in this time period.

01:08:52.760 So, yeah, something to consider there.

01:08:56.760 But again, obviously, neither of these are really interested in what's best for the common person there, as you can see.

01:09:02.780 You know, they both try to, in the episode, they get into it in a little bit more detail, but they both try to frame it as, you know, what's best for the people.

01:09:08.760 But both of them are just looking out for their own interests.

01:09:11.620 So, you know, in the case of the landholding Tories, they want to protect agriculture prices, you know, of English produce for obvious reasons.

01:09:22.200 So they want to favor English produce and produce, you know, produced within the empire.

01:09:28.860 So free trade, you know, economic, you know, arrangements that didn't prioritize their goods, obviously, they weren't interested in.

01:09:39.740 And on the flip side, you had these, this rising industrial class that just wanted cheap food through free trade because it could keep wages down.

01:09:48.540 So, yeah, the other element of this, too, regarding, you know, what it was like, you can go read accounts of this in a bunch of various sources.

01:10:01.180 Victorian England, there's a romance to it, but there's also like just an absolute disgust about it.

01:10:10.080 You can read this both in primary sources, just, you know, historical accounts of the time.

01:10:14.700 But you can also get this, you get this in, you know, books like, you know, Charles Dickens books get on this topic a lot, even Sherlock Holmes.

01:10:24.520 So obviously, Arthur Conan Doyle, the, I think the Sherlock Holmes series spans from the 1860s to, or the late 1860s to the 1920s in terms of like when it's set.

01:10:40.060 But the bulk of it is set in, you know, late Victorian England.

01:10:45.020 And you get a lot of the, like, the description of what it was like for the working class in that time period.

01:10:52.760 And it obviously is horrible.

01:10:54.120 The only reason I bring this up, you know, relative to our own history is that you get this impression today, you know, when people review history,

01:11:03.980 that England was just robbing everyone blind and the only reason that England has what it has is because, you know,

01:11:12.000 they robbed the third world and they took the gold from India or something and they took the diamonds from South Africa. 0.99

01:11:18.400 And yeah, obviously, some of that made the ruling class extremely rich.

01:11:24.460 And, you know, it made Britain rich to an extent, but most people were extremely poor.

01:11:30.640 You can go read accounts of what it was like in these workhouses.

01:11:35.020 And there are some insane stories like, you know, you could buy, there was, there was, in Victorian England,

01:11:43.960 there was places where you could pay to sit down and rest.

01:11:50.100 And they had a rope, right?

01:11:53.660 So in order to save room, they had a rope that was across like this bench and you could lean on the rope and go to sleep.

01:12:02.840 And you would pay like a penny for that.

01:12:05.380 If you wanted something nicer, they had like, you know, the two penny thing was like, you get a box,

01:12:09.820 like literally a coffin so that you're not, you know, sleeping on the same mattress as someone else.

01:12:15.960 Um, so like that, you can go, uh, Devin Stack actually got into this in his, um, episode that he did on Jack the Ripper.

01:12:27.440 You can go read about what it was like living in these, uh, bunk houses or, uh, communal housing, uh, in Victoria in England.

01:12:34.800 And it was awful.

01:12:36.020 So, yeah, uh, you know, your ancestors were probably not very privileged.

01:12:42.080 And this idea that, um, you know, they, uh, they, they were all just looting and pillaging the third world is nonsense.

01:12:50.220 So, yeah, but, uh, regardless, we'll keep going with the, uh, you know, the, the growing battle between the Tories and labor Tories and industrialists.

01:13:00.920 Um, you know, the factory owners of the new middle class in England were growing in wealth and political power.

01:13:08.720 It was these men who formed the anti-corn law league to fight the high cost of food.

01:13:14.960 They were determined to end the nation's dependence on expensive British grain and protected imperial imports.

01:13:21.780 And Richard Cobden, their chief philosopher, attacked a system which, he said, was less concerned with the welfare of humans than the welfare of pigs.

01:13:38.820 And so the long-protected land-owning Tories joined battle with the new industrialists.

01:13:44.400 The political race of the century was on, with banners unfurled.

01:13:56.080 Yeah, and obviously this in the context of Canadian is part of the reason that, uh, a lot of people were loyal to the British Empire, at least from the merchant class, is because they got those protections.

01:14:07.680 So, um, you know, this is where you get this, well, well, it'll come up in a second, but, yeah, you get this growing resentment of, you know, what was the point of British loyalty if you're just going to hand the same arrangements to anybody?

01:14:21.120 Um, yeah.

01:14:23.680 And then you get, uh, you know, the concepts like free trade, which, you know, again, there's positive arguments for and against, but.

01:14:30.820 The Tories protested that all the factory owners really cared about was saving on wages.

01:14:37.780 But Cobden was a master propagandist, and to more and more people, his loaf looked like the very best buy.

01:14:49.460 Even Sir Robert Peel, the Tory prime minister, came to agree with Cobden.

01:14:54.900 Peel was disturbed by stories of famine in Ireland and depression at home.

01:14:59.000 So he finally decided to support the idea of cheap bread, even though this would split the Tory party.

01:15:12.000 Under Peel's leadership, the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846.

01:15:17.460 Now there was free trade, and Canada was left in the lurch, without the imperial preferences that had nourished her commercial ambitions.

01:15:29.000 Yeah, so obviously that's the relevance to Canadians at the time, is that obviously free trade wasn't in their interest.

01:15:37.940 And many of them were loyalists specifically to avoid, you know, having this connection cut with Britain.

01:15:44.060 So they were pretty pissed, you know, as we find out in the next clip here.

01:15:53.060 And on an April night in 1849, a Tory mob set fire to Canada's parliament buildings in Montreal.

01:16:00.520 The firemen were mocked in their hopeless struggle by a chant of Tory hatred.

01:16:19.160 And strangely enough, the men who had been driven to this outburst of violence, to this destruction of a British institution,

01:16:28.160 were the very men who most fondly cherished memories of loyalty to Britannia.

01:16:36.940 Memories of loyalty under Wolfe at Quebec.

01:16:40.640 Of loyalty in wars against the Indians.

01:16:43.120 Memories of loyalty and suffering during the American Revolution, when their fathers had stood by Britain.

01:16:51.260 And of course, 1812.

01:16:57.360 But what devils now infested the land of Britannia?

01:17:01.680 What scoundrels now ruled England, turning her against her loyal sons in Canada?

01:17:06.940 New men were at the helm in England.

01:17:14.400 And in Canada, the smoking ruins of Parliament attested the fury of loyalty and love that felt rejected.

01:17:22.160 And now, that rejected love suddenly took a surprising direction.

01:17:27.740 A manifesto calling for union with the United States.

01:17:38.200 It was drawn up six months after the burning of Parliament.

01:17:41.920 And it got nearly 1,500 important signatures.

01:17:52.740 So yeah, I think there's some interesting parallels that we can draw to this day.

01:17:57.580 Obviously, no longer are we under the rule of the British.

01:18:03.840 But how familiar does that feel?

01:18:08.940 You have a sense of loyalty and patriotism and a desire for this country to do good.

01:18:15.860 And ruling over you, you have two elements of an elite.

01:18:19.640 You know, one, the traditional, you know, ruling class.

01:18:23.720 The other, a managerial, you know, economic class.

01:18:27.380 Or a political class versus an economic class would be another way of saying this. 0.94

01:18:32.100 Neither of which is interested in actually addressing the issues that are affecting the people.

01:18:37.080 And so you have a segment of society, you know, decide that, well, if this is how it's going to be, then we might as well just leave and, you know, throw off this ruling system.

01:18:52.320 Right?

01:18:53.900 I see the parallels to that.

01:18:55.720 It's a rejected loyalty, right?

01:18:59.080 You see that a lot with Canadians who now have turned towards annexationism or separation or even just leaving the country.

01:19:12.600 You know, three years ago, they were ardent patriots.

01:19:15.260 And I think that a lot of them still are, really, but they don't know what to do.

01:19:20.180 And they don't have an outlet for that patriotism.

01:19:22.640 And they're not seeing anybody, any leadership that's worth supporting.

01:19:27.360 And so they've turned to these, you know, alternative solutions.

01:19:30.920 Well, I wouldn't call them solutions.

01:19:32.200 But in their mind, what are alternative solutions?

01:19:35.920 You know, I can give you many examples of this in the Canadian, you know, political influencer sphere.

01:19:42.380 But, like, a good example of this would be, like, somebody like, I don't have any issues with him.

01:19:47.040 And it's not to single him out. 0.95

01:19:48.640 But somebody like Josh Bigger, a lot of you probably know him as best damn roofer. 0.60

01:19:53.940 You know, he was at all the protests and, you know, making videos and really supportive of, you know, everything patriotic Canadian. 0.98

01:20:03.040 And, you know, after all of the shit that he endured trying to be, like, a good patriotic Canadian, eventually says, you know what, this isn't worth it. 0.99

01:20:10.180 And he just says, fuck it, we might as well, you know, become American if this is how it's going to be. 0.99

01:20:15.500 So you can see how people will, you know, with that, you know, it's like that, like, almost like a relationship, right? 0.99

01:20:26.080 Where if your love and affection is going to be spurned at every opportunity, right? 0.99

01:20:31.800 You're going to be treated like garbage. 0.99

01:20:33.480 And there's somebody standing there with their arms open, you know, ready to embrace you. 0.99

01:20:38.280 Like, well, I might as well, you know, embrace this person.

01:20:42.220 At least they're not going to spurn my affection.

01:20:44.040 So, I mean, you can kind of see how some people would drift in that direction, I suppose.

01:20:52.920 But obviously, the reality is that support for annexationism then, as it is now, is really not that high.

01:21:01.200 And so while there was a spike in it, you know, it ultimately goes nowhere, as we saw later in this episode.

01:21:07.800 But it'll come up again in a couple of clips.

01:21:10.600 The Canadian group anxious to embrace Uncle Sam was mainly English, but there were Irishmen in it, too.

01:21:19.040 They had their own motives, stemming from the tragic history of misery in their home country,

01:21:25.020 where the failure of the potato crop had brought famine in the 1840s.

01:21:28.940 For many Irishmen, emigration to North America was the only escape from slow death in their overpopulated country.

01:21:44.380 Half starved and fever-ridden, many families headed for Lower Canada,

01:21:48.980 and with them they brought a strong resentment against British oppression.

01:21:52.680 British authority had brought them starvation, and now some were ready to support any move against England.

01:22:00.260 Yeah, so, obviously, there was an Irish contingent.

01:22:13.220 There was a growing number of Irish people in Canada at this time.

01:22:16.140 But as we, again, they did highlight this later in the episode, but there was no real love, necessarily, of America.

01:22:30.280 It was anti-British sentiment that does it, and, you know, such is similar today.

01:22:34.600 Again, there's a segment of people who, you know, because their hatred of the ruling government of the day in Canada is so strong,

01:22:44.060 you know, there's this desire to, for some reason, join a government that is equally as hostile to your existence,

01:22:51.000 or at least not much less hostile to your existence.

01:22:55.300 And, you know, you see this again, like, there's, it's not a real motivation of, a good example might be something like Alberta separatism.

01:23:06.940 A lot of these people are not real separatists.

01:23:09.240 They don't actually believe, you know, that, it's not like they hate being Canadian.

01:23:15.540 I have gotten into this before when it comes to Alberta.

01:23:17.780 You know, if you pull, I don't know what the answer would be today, but in 2021, they did a poll of Canadians and asked them, you know,

01:23:25.680 are you proud to be Canadian?

01:23:27.000 And the people who are most likely to respond yes to that question were Albertans and Saskatchewans.

01:23:32.420 So, you know, do they really reject Canada or do they reject, you know, the rule of the current government?

01:23:40.760 And the answer is they reject the rule of the current government.

01:23:43.360 And so that hatred for that, that ruling government is what drives them to either want to favor, you know, annexationism to America or separation.

01:23:54.560 So, you know, again, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

01:23:57.620 These are just the same concepts and sentiments that are repeating.

01:24:01.700 Because, like in this time period, you had a government that was not really interested in the, you know, daily lives and problems that, and issues that, you know, Canadians were facing.

01:24:14.760 It was remote.

01:24:15.960 It was focused on other things.

01:24:17.720 And so there's that neglect leads to, you know, a desire for an alternative.

01:24:23.960 It's the same, same thing as well with the French.

01:24:26.080 In the movement to join the United States, the Montreal English and Irish elements were joined by a small but lively French-Canadian faction.

01:24:38.220 Ideas from Paris had influenced these Quebecers.

01:24:41.540 Ideas which in France and all over Europe had brought violent disturbances in 1848 to challenge both civil and religious authority.

01:24:49.920 These radical European ideas held great appeal for Louis-Joseph Papineau.

01:24:59.960 British rule was once again the target for this Quebec rebel of 1837, now back from exile and calling for liberty, democracy, and union with the United States.

01:25:17.060 Yeah, and the same thing is true for the French. 0.60

01:25:19.000 So, again, small contingent of French who favor union with the United States.

01:25:25.120 Obviously, this is Louis-Joseph Papineau, who's the leader of, you know, the rebellion in Quebec, or at least the spiritual leader.

01:25:35.960 But there's no real positive support for it.

01:25:38.480 And this comes up, again, you know, like it's mentioned in that episode.

01:25:43.460 But, you know, the Quebecois are looking at this situation.

01:25:47.100 Yeah, some of them are dissatisfied with English rule or British rule.

01:25:52.360 And they want, you know, more representation or a different system.

01:25:58.440 But they're not actually interested in joining the United States.

01:26:01.100 That's just the easy option on the table.

01:26:03.200 And, you know, when, you know, emotions settle and spirits aren't so high and you look at it from a practical, you know, what would the effect of Quebec joining the United States be, you know, for them?

01:26:16.960 And the answer is they would lose their culture faster than if they were, you know, in a small Canadian state, which is what gets brought up.

01:26:24.320 But, you know, you can see this in the reaction of the Englishmen, even they, you know, don't really want to be, even at this time, it's not hostile towards Britain.

01:26:40.840 And you can see this in the reaction that they give to how, in the way that the English annexationists in Canada react to the Crown's response to their manifesto, their annexation manifesto.

01:26:57.100 Meanwhile, the annexationists were being closely watched in Britain, where the Prime Minister, Lord Russell, was surrounded by a swarm of problems arising out of troubles at home and a restless empire.

01:27:10.840 Lord Russell's policy for Canada had shown indecision on earlier occasions, and this had caused him trouble.

01:27:28.820 But now his reaction to the annexation manifesto was resolute, reflecting the contempt reserved by John Bull for scurvy Republican knaves.

01:27:40.840 Republicanism was foreign nonsense. 0.96

01:27:44.760 The majestic lion of constitutional monarchy might well scold the Democratic donkey for his schoolboy errors. 0.94

01:27:54.780 Thus, in the reply sent by Her Majesty's government to the annexationists in Canada,

01:27:59.740 they were bluntly advised that their movement was scarcely short of treasonable.

01:28:04.920 Yeah, so we play that clip to see, you know, how the British react to this, to this growing discontent in Canadian society.

01:28:16.400 And, yeah, I think, you know, their reaction to that is hilarious in this next clip.

01:28:25.260 Back in Canada, the word treason was upsetting to many respectable people who had naively hoped that Britain might approve union with the United States.

01:28:36.240 It was a confusing time of conflicting loyalties and desires, and some people played it safe by sporting both flags on the same pole.

01:28:44.760 But the Union Jack in Torrey, Toronto, was still the flag that exerted the strongest emotional pull.

01:28:58.700 Great value was placed on the English heritage here, and although businessmen were irritated by Britain,

01:29:05.240 they were starting to look at the supposed commercial advantages of union with an increasingly skeptical eye.

01:29:11.300 So, I love that clip for a few reasons.

01:29:17.840 There are so many similarities between what is said in that clip and today.

01:29:23.520 So, first of all, I think it's hilarious, as I said, that, you know, when they're accused of being treasonous or traitors, right, to Britain,

01:29:31.580 they're like, they're hurt, right?

01:29:34.780 This idea, like, basically, they're saying, we were loyal to Britain.

01:29:38.560 Our fathers were loyal to Britain.

01:29:40.400 And you have, you know, basically put us in a situation where we're now in a horrible economic situation and union with the United States,

01:29:49.980 who you've given basically free trade with, you know, so you're on good terms with the United States.

01:29:55.460 So, you know, why would you object to us becoming part of them?

01:29:59.140 And they're hurt.

01:30:02.040 They're like, this is not treason.

01:30:04.260 It's not like we're, you can see that they're not opposed to Britain.

01:30:07.940 They're not interested in fighting Britain.

01:30:09.940 They're not interested in breaking ties with Britain.

01:30:12.440 They just want a new, you know, economic and political arrangement.

01:30:16.800 So, the reaction to that, to me, is funny because I see the same reaction whenever people do that today.

01:30:23.940 When these people who are in favor of annexation by the United States or they're Alberta separatists or whatever, if you call them,

01:30:31.260 I've seen this happen where they're called traitors or treasonous or whatever, they react with indignant.

01:30:37.640 Like, they're indignant about it.

01:30:39.060 Like, how could you accuse me of that?

01:30:40.880 Like, I love this country and I love our people.

01:30:43.200 But, you know, this is just not working.

01:30:45.960 So, even today, you can see the similarities.

01:30:47.820 The other thing that's so funny about it, that clip in particular, is the flying two flags on one pole.

01:30:54.340 And how often do we see that in modern times?

01:30:57.440 Like, the difference is that the modern flagpole is your Twitter bio or your banner, right?

01:31:02.380 Your name.

01:31:02.920 How many of these, you know, Canadian patriots have taken to flying, you know, the American and Canadian flag, you know,

01:31:10.360 this kind of conflicting dual loyalty that they have, you know, where they want, you know, to be Canadian patriots,

01:31:17.680 but they also want the benefits of being part of the United States.

01:31:21.280 So, there's that funny kind of, you know, history repeating where you see that.

01:31:29.240 And then the last part of that, too, it's funny, is, you know, it mentions that, you know,

01:31:36.220 English businessmen in Upper Canada or in Canada were viewing the benefits of so-called American trade with an increasingly skeptical eye.

01:31:46.260 And this is the same thing today.

01:31:47.760 All of the so-called benefits that, you know, are alleged to be found through annexation with the United States are shaky at best.

01:31:59.240 You know, you'll hear arguments for free speech.

01:32:01.460 You'll hear arguments for the Second Amendment.

01:32:04.680 You'll hear argument like, oh, our GDP would be better or our economics would be better.

01:32:08.760 And then you start actually thinking about what that means and what you have to give up to get that.

01:32:13.200 And you realize, like, are these benefits really worth it?

01:32:17.020 You know, maybe it's nice now, but is it going to be nice whenever Gavin Newsom is the president in 2028?

01:32:24.560 If he is, right?

01:32:28.380 So, yeah, I just, that clip in particular, I saw all kinds of similarities that we can, you know, make parallels with to modernity.

01:32:37.020 But it's really, it's really well summarized.

01:32:41.860 I'm going to play this clip, you know, by the narrator in this series, because this is just really summarizes it well.

01:32:49.840 It became obvious to the English speaking annexationists in Montreal that they had no real support.

01:32:57.040 They had earned a stern reprimand from Britain, and the United States was not exactly reaching out to them.

01:33:05.580 As for the French Canadians, they were coming to realize that the survival of their culture was more likely in a small Canada than in a huge United States.

01:33:16.120 Moreover, they were finding that politics in Canada tended to divide along class lines rather than racial lines,

01:33:25.300 and it had become possible to cooperate with the English reformers of Upper Canada.

01:33:31.080 And so the annexationist mood subsided.

01:33:34.980 But there was obviously something wrong with the Canadian economic system.

01:33:39.520 Unless it was corrected, there might be another movement to join the United States.

01:33:44.240 And the Americans might be more responsive.

01:33:50.300 Yeah, so obviously that's very well summarized.

01:33:53.260 And the reason that I wanted to include that clip is because the same thing is going to happen now.

01:34:00.120 This desire for annexation or even Alberta separation,

01:34:04.880 what these people are going to find as they continue this is that there's no real support for it.

01:34:11.000 There will be no real support for American annexation.

01:34:13.240 There will be no real support for separation from Canada and Alberta.

01:34:19.100 When they do their referendum, I believe it's 2026, Alberta is supposed to have a referendum on independence or separation.

01:34:27.440 I guarantee you that they will discover that there's not actually the support that they thought there was for that.

01:34:32.480 Maybe 30% of the province will agree to it.

01:34:36.700 And that's not a mandate in this kind of context.

01:34:39.820 So they're going to be in for a rude awakening, I think.

01:34:43.200 You know, the French as well, obviously, that, you know, they would if imagine if Canada had been absorbed.

01:34:52.500 Think about how much Canadian culture in general is driven by the gravity of American influence.

01:34:59.200 And imagine if Canada had been absorbed in, you know, the 1860s or, you know, any any period, you know, well in the past, do you think that the Quebec law would still exist in their modern form?

01:35:13.720 I highly doubt it. I think that their language would have would be essentially dead or all close to dead.

01:35:20.620 I think that, you know, their heritage would have been essentially wiped out and they would have ceased to exist.

01:35:24.840 So I think that they were correct in understanding that, you know, being absorbed into the American system would have destroyed them.

01:35:32.580 The last thing as well there that is interesting to bring up is just the Irish influence as well.

01:35:39.880 While, you know, it's small at this time period, again, the demand for it is limited.

01:35:44.900 It's basically a resentment of Britain, which is not, you know, pro-American.

01:35:49.100 Obviously, a lot of Irish went to America to get away from the British rule or the British system.

01:35:56.940 But in the context of, you know, Canadian of building a movement around Irish discontent, you know, building a Canadian annexationist movement around Irish discontent with, you know, British rule in Ireland, like good luck, like that never was going to happen.

01:36:12.940 And you can actually see this. I was just going to bring this up, you know, because I thought about it at the time period.

01:36:18.160 But one of the arguable first terrorist incidents in Canadian history happened in 1840.

01:36:26.600 And not a lot of people know about this, but the monument of Isaac Brock at Queenston Heights was built shortly after the War of 1812.

01:36:35.940 And it was actually blown up by an Irishman. 1.00

01:36:42.520 So what was his name again?

01:36:46.140 Benjamin Lett, an Irish Canadian rebel blamed for the act.

01:36:49.800 The monument of War of 1812 hero Sir Isaac Brock was damaged by a bomb on April 17th, 1840, planted by an anti-Irish agitator, Benjamin Lett, a participant in the 1837 rebellions who sought revenge but failed to bring it down.

01:37:10.160 The bomb caused serious damage, leading to its eventual disassembly and replacement by the taller, grander monument still standing today in the 1850s.

01:37:20.180 So, yeah, like this is not.

01:37:26.720 Was it really, you know, a belief in the American system or was it just discontent with British rule?

01:37:33.820 And I think the answer is fairly obvious.

01:37:35.560 The last thing from that last clip that I wanted to bring up as well, just as a side note, because I find this very interesting, is there's an acknowledgement from the French that British rule was done more along class lines than racial lines.

01:37:56.680 Now, the reason I bring that up is because this is 1967 commentary, and he's using racial in the same sense that today we would use national or ethnic.

01:38:10.300 So when he refers to the British ruling along racial lines in the context of Canada, what he's talking about is the French race and the English race.

01:38:21.840 He's not talking about blacks and, you know, minorities, he's talking about different races of, you know, the Aryan, you know, race.

01:38:31.680 So I just thought that that was interesting that he chose to use that word in 1967.

01:38:37.540 And this is just to show that it wasn't very long ago that all of these terms could be used interchangeably.

01:38:46.020 Ethnicity, race, nation, they were all kind of synonyms for one another, and they could be used in different contexts to mean a broader or more defined version of that thing.

01:38:57.460 But, yeah, I find that really interesting that they use the word racial in this context, especially, you know, this is 1965 to 67 that this was made.

01:39:09.980 So this is in the height of, you know, race laws in the United States and the civil rights movement.

01:39:18.900 And obviously, this has a spillover effect in Canada.

01:39:21.440 So, yeah.

01:39:25.280 All right.

01:39:26.180 But moving on from that.

01:39:27.940 So we get into, again, there's more comparisons to be drawn here, but we'll move on from the annexationist, you know, topic towards reciprocity.

01:39:38.580 As a diplomat, Lord Elgin was fully aware of the American role in these developments.

01:39:47.220 And in 1851, he journeyed south to Boston to lend his presence to the celebrations marking the arrival of the first train from Montreal.

01:39:55.720 For Boston, the new railway would provide a bridge through Canada to the Great West, the Ohio-Mississippi area, whose growing cities mirrored the relentless expansion of America.

01:40:15.160 What a difference there was between the rustic Chicago of 1820 and the busy commercial Chicago of 1850.

01:40:22.000 Also phenomenal was the growth of Detroit.

01:40:28.840 As for Pittsburgh, it was already becoming an industrial giant.

01:40:36.560 America's growth needed building materials.

01:40:39.400 And new railways, like the ones linking Boston and Ogdensburg and Bytown and Prescott, were built to bring lumber down from Canada.

01:40:46.920 The New York Central already linked New York and Niagara.

01:40:51.820 And now, the Great Western was built through Canada to join it with the Michigan Central, which went to Chicago.

01:40:58.880 And at Niagara, where a deep gorge separated the two countries, new economic ties were symbolized by a great new bridge.

01:41:08.340 So, obviously, you know, that clip is relevant for a few reasons.

01:41:18.360 First of all, you can see the change in attitudes between Canadians and Americans in this time period, where it's less hostile.

01:41:24.980 They're actively, you know, engaged in infrastructure projects to aid economic trade.

01:41:30.080 And, you know, it's a more friendly time period, obviously, than it was from 1763 until, you know, the current period.

01:41:41.320 But also, I thought that, you know, that clip is interesting because, again, you know, it's fun to just point out again in this series, you know, who built Chicago?

01:41:51.440 Who built Pittsburgh?

01:41:52.540 Like, if you're an American listening to this, like, there you go.

01:41:55.060 You can see over a period of 20 years, Chicago went from, you know, basically a small town into an industrial center, Pittsburgh.

01:42:03.720 What was the other one they mentioned there?

01:42:05.200 Detroit.

01:42:05.580 You know, this is the time period when a lot of the infrastructure that, you know, lays the groundwork for an advanced civilization is being built.

01:42:14.200 The railways, the bridges, the large industrial, you know, centers that are mass producing goods.

01:42:20.600 Like, this is, you know, this is when your cities were built.

01:42:26.060 This is when the groundwork was laid for modernity.

01:42:29.500 And you have, today, people lecturing you about, oh, immigrants built this country.

01:42:34.460 Like, no, you didn't.

01:42:35.840 You didn't.

01:42:36.700 You showed up whenever everything was built, basically, you know, and claimed that you're no different than any, you know, your average American or whatever.

01:42:45.820 So, yeah, just, I'm going to keep pointing that out through this series because it's just, it's a lie that, you know, they've repeated so often and so aggressively that a lot of Americans, Canadians, Australians,

01:42:59.160 they believe this nonsense that their country was built by foreigners, it was not.

01:43:06.300 And it's a lie that, you know, you should use historical argument to fight back on.

01:43:13.020 But, yeah, we'll get into reciprocity now.

01:43:16.220 Obviously, it's just cross-border trade.

01:43:17.940 The British government had advanced reciprocity proposals that seemed agreeable to the American administration, but there was doubt whether Congress would consent.

01:43:29.040 So, the persuasive Lord Elgin was sent to Washington.

01:43:36.960 In Washington's high society, Elgin was suave and confident.

01:43:41.660 But could diplomacy succeed in a country where North and South seldom agreed on anything?

01:43:50.280 The South was deeply suspicious about Northern motives in supporting reciprocity.

01:43:55.840 The North professed to see a bright economic future in free trade.

01:44:00.420 But the South wondered whether there wasn't more to it than that.

01:44:03.440 Could the North be dreaming of a day when trade with Canada might blossom into annexation?

01:44:12.660 The South was outraged at the idea.

01:44:19.100 Union with Canada would make the anti-slavery North far bigger than the South.

01:44:24.540 This fear had to be allayed.

01:44:26.180 And Lord Elgin set about presenting a more accurate picture, using fine champagne to bolster good arguments about the North American economy.

01:44:40.100 Entertaining the Southern senators lavishly, Elgin pointed out that a starving Canada would always want to join the rich United States.

01:44:48.960 But a Canada fattened by reciprocity would want to remain independent.

01:44:56.180 Elgin's skillful persuasion worked, and enough of the skeptics were converted to give reciprocity a solid majority.

01:45:11.340 So again, interesting parallels to today, right?

01:45:16.060 It's not even really different.

01:45:17.940 It's like, there's, there's, it's a really weird way of, of explaining this because it's not the same, but there's, it's like same, same, but different.

01:45:26.620 So today, it is not in the interest of the American right to have Canada join it for obvious reasons.

01:45:36.680 Canada is a more liberal, like the idea that Canada joins America and then Trump gets elected is crazy, right?

01:45:43.560 That would never happen.

01:45:44.460 So like, you know, that's, it's that similar line to today, like the, you know, the American South, uh, hostile towards, uh, you know, the, the idea of inclusion, because what would they do?

01:45:56.920 It would basically turn, uh, you know, it was just increase the size of democratic, um, you know, blue state America.

01:46:03.380 Um, so I think that's funny.

01:46:05.800 The reason though, it's funny is because unlike in that time period, it's actually Trump that is causing Canada to undergo economic conditions that are driving Canadians, you know, right-wing Canadians towards him.

01:46:21.300 So like, there's this weird kind of thing where, you know, a lot of the issues that we're facing is, uh, like the, the tariffs and stuff are being imposed by the people.

01:46:31.420 You know what I'm saying is it's like this weird kind of, um, onion that you have to like unwrap to understand.

01:46:39.760 So you've got Trump enforcing tariffs that are making economic situations worse in Canada, and that is driving Canadians towards them.

01:46:49.680 But also that's not in the interest of Trump's base to have Canadians, you know, want to support.

01:46:54.100 I don't know.

01:46:54.440 I just think it's a really, uh, funny kind of, uh, uh, layered cake there.

01:47:02.720 Um, yeah.

01:47:04.180 Before the reciprocity treaty, the main pattern of trade in North America had been from east to west.

01:47:10.740 Canada's share had always been insufficient.

01:47:14.440 But now there was the possibility of greatly increased north-south trade, which became the goal of both countries.

01:47:25.960 In Canada, the lumber industry got a great boost from the reciprocity treaty.

01:47:35.300 The production of square timber for the British market had long been profitable.

01:47:39.760 And now there was a new demand from the mushrooming American cities for cheap boards and planks.

01:47:46.220 Before long, British North America was dotted with busy sawmills.

01:47:54.900 Besides lumber, the products of Canadian mines were starting to make their way south.

01:47:59.300 Soon, there was a healthy list of exports flowing across the boundary that, for so many years, had frustrated the ambitions of Canadian commerce.

01:48:07.900 Yeah, so economic boom in Canada.

01:48:16.280 Obviously, this is the time period where you get this kind of, um, you know, stereotype of the Canadian lumberjack.

01:48:23.740 Uh, where you get a lot of the, uh, um, you know, like the Ottawa river logger types and things like that.

01:48:32.200 But, uh, yeah, obviously, you know, again, similar to today, it hasn't really changed that much.

01:48:38.080 Canada is largely driven by, you know, at least the economy is largely driven by raw material exports, uh, chiefly to the United States.

01:48:46.820 Um, you know, that's largely what our economy is.

01:48:50.300 So, um, but yeah, obviously this drove development and, um, you know, again, just to bring it up, you know, this is where, this is who was building this country, uh, before it became a country.

01:49:05.200 Meanwhile, in England, railways had spread extensively and there were experienced builders and financiers ready to invest in new Canadian railways.

01:49:15.180 Their skill and capital made possible the ambitious plan that would fill in the major gap on the Canadian railway map.

01:49:26.880 A grand trunk line would traverse the country and would promote east-west trade to a point where it would balance the north-south axis.

01:49:36.600 In the process, the St. Lawrence system would be strongly reinforced.

01:49:45.180 New bridges, new tracks, new stations.

01:49:50.540 An exciting period of expansion as a mainline system a thousand miles long became a fact in the 1850s.

01:49:58.200 And what pride in those locomotives.

01:50:04.680 And greatest achievement of all, there was the Victoria Bridge at Montreal.

01:50:09.940 Here, and in shipbuilding, was evidence of the growing pace of Canadian development.

01:50:18.740 Yeah, so once again, there was nothing here, or sorry, everything was already here.

01:50:23.620 You know, your ancestors just stole it from a bunch of redskins. 1.00

01:50:27.880 The Indian who showed up here yesterday is just as Canadian as you were. 0.99

01:50:31.780 Yeah, it's obviously nonsense.

01:50:34.340 You know, these infrastructure projects were huge.

01:50:36.760 The amount of labor and resources that went into building them to establish, you know, a modern society is incalculable.

01:50:45.280 And, you know, the people who tell you otherwise are just, they're disingenuous and they're manipulative.

01:50:50.120 They're just, they're not, they're doing it in bad faith.

01:50:52.820 They don't actually even believe what they're saying.

01:50:54.660 But, you know, one of these, one of the interesting things about this time period is, again, you get this kind of formulation of, you know, the Canadian identity into the opposition, in opposition of the American identity.

01:51:11.040 And this next clip, I think, is hilarious.

01:51:14.140 You know, it's pretty, it's pretty, there's, there's something about this that holds true today.

01:51:19.100 And I'm not even saying it's a good thing, but it is true.

01:51:22.600 So, yeah, I'll just let it rip.

01:51:23.820 Prosperity brought bright new facades to places like Toronto with its fine hotels, its ambitious commercial buildings, and the beginnings of its university.

01:51:34.180 Structures became ornate and imposing in Toronto and Hamilton, as members of the upper crust tried their best to emulate the elegance of London.

01:51:50.360 And there was a British quality, too, in the down-to-earth individualism of the farmers of upper Canada,

01:51:55.700 who were hardy enough to master the extremes of climate, who were hardy enough to master the extremes of climate, and even make sport of it.

01:52:01.060 With their veneration of fair play, the English Canadians embodied some of the best qualities of John Bull.

01:52:14.780 And yet they sometimes had grandiose notions of lordliness, and they considered themselves vastly superior to the uncouth Yankee who dominated the continent. 0.99

01:52:26.060 In Canadian eyes, the Americans were loud, lawless, violent, and ill-bred. 1.00

01:52:33.780 Scorn for the Yankee, and scorn for the French-Canadian. 0.93

01:52:41.180 The Quebecer had a cool dislike for the upper Canadian, and the upper Canadian misread this as the stubborn backwardness of a people inexplicably less progressive than himself.

01:52:52.140 The smaller towns of upper Canada, the Cobourgs, the Port Hopes, the Kingstons, reflected a life that was cozy and comfortable.

01:53:06.220 European travellers, contrasting it with the United States, found it less vital and dynamic.

01:53:12.540 But it was a considerable achievement.

01:53:14.580 And it was all the more to be treasured, because of the fact that just outside the door, there often lay a brooding and untouched wilderness.

01:53:30.180 Yeah, so, I think that clip actually, you know, even though it's kind of, I don't know, not necessarily entirely favourable to English Canadians,

01:53:40.460 I think that actually there's some truth to a lot of what they say there.

01:53:44.580 So, first of all, you get that kind of stereotype of the, you know, like the Canadians embracing, like, a harsh climate.

01:53:53.340 So, you know, they show the clips of, you know, early English Canadians out there racing sleds, you know, pulled by horses or curling.

01:54:01.800 Like, they're literally, like, you know, that still is them curling rocks, right?

01:54:06.320 You know, the beginnings of that kind of attitude of, like, you know, we can endure the harsh conditions.

01:54:11.980 But then, you know, you counteract that with their attitudes towards Americans.

01:54:15.660 And, like, nothing's really changed.

01:54:17.680 And, like, I don't necessarily agree with that attitude.

01:54:19.640 But that is the attitude that you'll get from a lot of Canadians towards Americans, that they're, like, loud, violent.

01:54:27.460 Like, what was the other one there? 0.96

01:54:31.060 Lawless and ill-bred.

01:54:33.680 Yeah, like, I don't know about the ill-bred anymore. 1.00

01:54:38.220 They wouldn't necessarily bring that up.

01:54:39.600 But they would certainly refer to Americans as, you know, boorish or loud, like, obnoxious, you know, violent, right?

01:54:48.720 Like, these are the same stereotypes that you'll see today of Americans.

01:54:51.520 So you can see it's formulating in this time period this kind of attitude towards, you know, the American system and what it produces in contrast to the British.

01:55:00.180 So whereas you have, you know, the American, you know, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, the Canadian version is peace, order, good governance.

01:55:09.200 Like, these are two very different attitudes, both rooted in, you know, Anglo-Saxon tradition, but, you know, different manifestations of it.

01:55:17.380 So it's an interesting juxtaposition, right?

01:55:21.420 And then you also get the English, you know, Canadian attitude towards the French, which, again, in some ways hasn't changed.

01:55:29.560 You know, this kind of, like, I see this, it's one of the most common complaints that you'll hear from English-speaking Canadians about French Canadians is that they're,

01:55:37.240 you know, they're snobbish, like, they don't, they're standoffish, they're cold, you know, they have this kind of, like, you know, resentment towards, and, yeah, like, I get what they're saying.

01:55:51.820 Like, anybody who's been to extremely French parts of Quebec will know what that kind of feeling is.

01:55:58.040 But it's, I think it's, it's misguided.

01:56:00.500 They don't understand what it is.

01:56:03.260 It's, it's a hostility.

01:56:05.000 It's an inherent kind of resentment the same way that you would, as an English-Canadian, have resentment towards, like, imagine, imagine if, you know, Chinese people or whatever, Indians came to Canada, right?

01:56:19.260 And they come to your, whatever, small town or they come to, you know, your city, and they're speaking Punjabi at you.

01:56:26.140 And they're, like, insisting that you understand that.

01:56:30.280 And even if you speak Punjabi, you're, like, we speak English here. 0.99

01:56:34.120 It's the same kind of shit that you get with Quebecers that I've noticed is that they, like, I don't really resent it that much because I understand where it comes from. 1.00

01:56:41.860 But a lot, I think it gets mistranslated by a lot of English-Canadians, so, you know. 0.99

01:56:50.500 Leifner says they talk too fast was the one I heard.

01:56:53.020 I actually agree.

01:56:54.200 Like, I can actually understand French when it's spoken slowly.

01:56:57.560 Like, if the person, if they're not using, like, very, like, colorful or complicated language, like, if they speak to me like I'm a child, I can actually understand what they're saying. 0.98

01:57:10.580 But they basically have to talk to me like I'm an idiot. 0.88

01:57:13.760 So, Raises Jack Loops says I visited Montreal. 0.99

01:57:18.260 Didn't get that.

01:57:18.760 You wouldn't get that as much in Montreal.

01:57:20.680 More Quebec City or other parts of, like, rural Quebec, you'll get that more.

01:57:25.240 Montreal is an international city.

01:57:28.000 Depends on what part of Montreal you go to as well.

01:57:30.240 But, yeah.

01:57:33.120 So, yeah, I just think that clip in particular is funny because you get these beginnings of, like, the Canadian stereotypes, both how they see themselves, how they see Americans, how they see French Canadians.

01:57:43.200 You know what I mean?

01:57:43.580 It's an interesting section of that episode.

01:57:50.720 And, yeah, now I'll turn towards expansion.

01:57:54.620 I forget why I pulled this clip, but I'll remember when I played it.

01:57:58.380 Immigrant ships from British ports did a steady business throughout these years, crossing to ports on the St. Lawrence.

01:58:05.540 Their decks were crowded with the adventurous and the underprivileged, eager to escape overcrowding and poverty and make a fresh start in a more promising world.

01:58:14.720 The hazards of the bush were overcome, and the country saw the steady growth of a modest chain of settlements that pushed back the wilderness, north and west to Lake Huron and southward to the American border in Quebec.

01:58:34.520 By the end of the 1850s, almost all of the good arable land, south of the Canadian Shield, had been filled up.

01:58:42.960 But in Britain, the emigrants continued to leave for Canada.

01:58:47.340 In Canada, unlike the United States, the rocky Canadian Shield blocked any easy movement to the west.

01:58:59.540 And there were also desolate lands that cut Canada off from the maritime colonies.

01:59:04.600 As a country, Canada was indeed cribbed, cabined, and confined.

01:59:09.720 Yeah, so I bring that up.

01:59:17.740 The reason I put that in there was because this is a time period where Canadians actually start looking towards Western expansion in earnest.

01:59:23.940 And it'll come up in the next episode more so.

01:59:26.980 But you can see, like, that narrow strip of land is still – like, that's where – what is it?

01:59:31.220 What percentage of – is it 60% or 70% of Canadians still live in that strip of land, basically along the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes?

01:59:38.780 So, yeah, it's a huge portion of them anyways.

01:59:43.360 So, obviously, that's, you know, the heart of Canada.

01:59:49.300 And this is why a lot of Westerners in particular, like Albertans and, you know, people from Saskatchewan, Manitoba,

01:59:59.220 they have this resentment towards that, you know, what's referred to as the Laurentian elite, you know, the rule from Ontario and Quebec.

02:00:07.120 The truth is, though, like, that's where Canada originates from.

02:00:11.060 And, you know, the funny thing about it is – and we'll get into this as well in the next episode – but on a huge portion,

02:00:19.900 the overwhelming majority of people who settled from Alberta or settled in Alberta and the Prairies and out west,

02:00:27.920 they didn't come from Europe.

02:00:33.380 Florida, Florida Sachs has gotten into this, but, like, it'll be brought up in the coming episodes.

02:00:39.660 The majority of people who moved west moved west from Ontario and Quebec and the Maritimes.

02:00:47.120 It wasn't people who had, you know, freshly immigrated and they end up straight in Alberta, you know, or Saskatchewan. 0.82

02:00:56.780 That's not how it happened.

02:00:58.420 And so, the thing that I think is interesting about that is that there's this kind of, like, disconnect that exists between, you know,

02:01:05.140 the modern west and Canada, you know, proper.

02:01:08.860 However, when they see themselves as different, it's like you came – your ancestors came from Canada and not from Britain.

02:01:18.900 And even if they did, the chances are that they settled in somewhere in the Maritimes or somewhere in Ontario before moving west.

02:01:26.560 So, this idea that, you know, you just appeared there, you know, you moved – it's true in some cases, obviously,

02:01:34.700 and this is what, you know, could be referred to as the white ethnics, right?

02:01:39.060 Yeah, there was some Ukrainians and Poles and stuff like that who moved directly from Eastern Europe to the prairies.

02:01:47.580 But that was not the majority at all.

02:01:50.260 The vast majority of them actually came from Canada. 0.91

02:01:56.120 And, yeah, racist jackalope in the comments.

02:01:58.260 There's a lot of Americans migrated to Alberta, too.

02:02:00.380 Yeah, and this is where you do get – like, look, I'm not going to deny it.

02:02:04.020 I've lived in Alberta.

02:02:05.340 There is an American kind of flavor to Alberta.

02:02:11.020 Like, they do kind of have a more American style about them than the rest of Canada.

02:02:17.960 And that's where that comes from.

02:02:19.500 There's a decent portion of them were actually Americans who settled in that territory not realizing where they were.

02:02:24.560 Or they did it because they just found lands there and, you know, had moved north.

02:02:28.460 So, yeah.

02:02:31.780 So, I just wanted to point that out with the expansion.

02:02:37.420 And, you know, another one today, the population drain.

02:02:41.100 So, they brought this up.

02:02:41.960 And, again, like, parallels to today.

02:02:44.200 Same thing, right?

02:02:45.000 For some years now, the shortage of new farmland had led many French Canadians down the winding roads that crossed the border into New England.

02:02:55.760 Here, they found jobs in factory towns like Lawrence and Lowell, Manchester and Providence.

02:03:02.460 Life was agreeable here.

02:03:03.760 And so, many French Canadians became Franco-Americans.

02:03:11.620 At the same time, surplus population from English Canada was moving south and west across the border into the Ohio-Mississippi farmlands, adding a Canadian element to the flow of American pioneers.

02:03:24.880 These departures from Canada were frustrating to Canadian patriots, who felt they militated against the growth and development of the country, where it was the lands from Michigan to Minnesota that were being settled, not the still-empty British northwest.

02:03:45.920 Yet, this movement across the continent, south and west, spared Canada the pressure that might have been created if the Americans had chosen instead to expand northward.

02:04:04.680 So, again, how long has this been a problem, right?

02:04:09.760 It's still a problem today.

02:04:11.380 You know, there's an emphasis on it today of people, you know, draining.

02:04:15.260 They call it brain drain now, or you could just call it population drain, but, you know, in this time, not necessarily brain drain, but, you know, high-quality professionals, tradesmen, etc., you know, finding opportunities in the States.

02:04:33.440 And there is a certain, like, look, I'm not going to deny it, there's a certain resentment there, isn't it?

02:04:37.200 But we've seen this with, look at how, you know, Clyde do-nothing is being treated there for his, you know, push to get people to move south.

02:04:48.680 It's considered, you know, unpatriotic and almost treasonous, right?

02:04:52.700 So, yeah, like, I just thought that was funny, too.

02:04:56.520 There's just another parallel with today.

02:04:58.280 And, you know, the reason that – I'll play the last clip, and then I'll get into why I think it's important to draw all these parallels and, you know, important to consider as we move forward into the next episodes.

02:05:12.200 The people of the Maritimes were vigorous, proud, and independent.

02:05:23.680 New Brunswickers were convinced that their forests were the best and that their lumbermen had no equal.

02:05:30.560 For Nova Scotians, their fisheries led all others.

02:05:34.640 And as for shipbuilding, they had no rivals anywhere in the world.

02:05:42.200 But when it came to trade with the West Indies, for instance, American competition was getting the lion's share, with more capital to work with and cheaper products to sell.

02:05:55.740 Thus, a slow decline set in in the Maritimes, especially as iron steamships replaced wooden sailing vessels.

02:06:06.940 Were the Maritimes doomed to stagnation?

02:06:09.720 There was a need for new economic orientation, perhaps to Canada.

02:06:15.900 But Canada remained remote.

02:06:18.500 And the scheme for a railway to Quebec was for years frustrated because of financial and political obstacles.

02:06:25.580 The costs would be enormous.

02:06:28.220 But now a railway to Portland was being suggested to link the Maritimes with the American system.

02:06:34.000 Exports going south had already increased thanks to reciprocity.

02:06:45.060 But the question was, might all this not make it inevitable that the Maritimes would someday join the United States?

02:06:53.060 So, again, parallels, right?

02:07:02.280 Maritimes facing a really hard economic time.

02:07:05.620 Not a lot going on.

02:07:09.200 Today, they're dependent on Canada.

02:07:11.560 In that time, they would have been more dependent on trade with the United Kingdom.

02:07:14.720 But, again, this concept of regionalism and issues like that, as well as just to bring up in that point as well, this is where you get, like, these kind of, again, you know, the formulating identities, right?

02:07:29.660 In this case, you know, New Brunswick are seeing themselves as, like, the best timbermen in the world.

02:07:34.940 And the Nova Scotians seeing themselves as the best shipbuilders or fishermen or whatever, right?

02:07:40.400 You get these kind of stirrings of, like, the regional cultures that still exist today in Canada, or at least, you know, the remnants of them still exist.

02:07:47.560 So important.

02:07:48.340 But the reason that I wanted to, you know, talk about this episode in the context of, you know, modern Canada and what's going on today is because all of these issues that occurred in the 1840s and 1860s and continued on after were overcome.

02:08:11.240 All of these issues were overcome, and it led to the formulation of the Canadian nation and one of the greatest civilizations that's ever existed, one of the wealthiest civilizations that's ever existed in the history of the world, right?

02:08:29.020 In terms of standard of living, in terms of, you know, our cities, our infrastructure, all these things, right?

02:08:36.320 A hundred years after this time period, Canada is one of the most desirable places in the world to live, and it was achieved by overcoming all of these obstacles.

02:08:45.840 And this is, you know, it's not the next episode that we get into this, but it will be coming up soon.

02:08:50.880 These are the obstacles that were overcome by the Fathers of Confederation.

02:08:57.440 These are the issues that John A. McDonald sought to address.

02:09:00.980 These are the issues that George Etienne Cartier sought to address, and Darcy McGee, and et cetera.

02:09:07.040 These are the issues that they were trying to overcome, and they were able to.

02:09:10.820 And so this idea, like, the reason why so many Canadians are drawn today towards these solutions, these quote-unquote solutions that they think are legitimate,

02:09:21.580 are because they don't know their own history.

02:09:23.460 And if they did, they would realize that what we need is not annexationism.

02:09:27.500 It's not, you know, an American-style system.

02:09:30.000 It's not, it's none of these things.

02:09:31.660 It's not separation and regionalism and, you know, destroying the country.

02:09:36.640 It's a new confederation.

02:09:38.940 It's a new resurgence of our own.

02:09:41.340 It's getting back to the roots of how we overcame these issues.

02:09:44.740 Not by embracing the solutions that failed to begin with.

02:09:51.060 We succeeded in getting over this, and then it was sabotaged in the 1960s.

02:09:55.940 All of these issues have been exacerbated and been brought back to the forefront because of inept leadership and incompetence in the bureaucracy.

02:10:08.140 This isn't a failure of the Canadian identity.

02:10:10.320 It's a failure of leadership.

02:10:11.700 And so this is why we push, as Snitter brought it up, the counter-revolution.

02:10:19.880 That's what needs to be brought up.

02:10:22.460 And so this is part of why I'm doing this series, right, is to bring up, like, we have solutions to these problems.

02:10:28.620 And, yes, it's a modern time, and the solutions are going to look different than they did in 1867.

02:10:34.440 But we can overcome these issues.

02:10:37.280 So, yeah.

02:10:41.040 That was all the clips that I had for this episode.

02:10:43.540 I hope, you know, I really drove it home, like, how many similarities there are.

02:10:48.320 Because there obviously are a lot of similarities between this time period and a lot of the stuff that we're facing today.

02:10:53.240 But, yeah, yeah.

02:11:00.540 Braid sirens are the solutions going to be final. 0.55

02:11:03.680 Yes.

02:11:04.380 Yes, they will.

02:11:07.140 I only marked one comment there from Ike Remotely.

02:11:12.440 It says, we need more exploration opportunities to excite our lost traveling spirit.

02:11:16.700 I don't think that you need, you know, more exploration.

02:11:24.540 I think they're out there.

02:11:27.180 Part of what we offer through Second Sons is, like, it's not that we're offering it, but we're providing, you know, the opportunity, I suppose, for guys to have a reason to actually get to know various regions of the country.

02:11:43.400 I learned more about Canada driving across it and just meeting people in different regions about it than I did from any, you know, books like this.

02:11:53.800 You get to actually know the regions.

02:11:56.060 You know, this is why I know that, you know, this notion that Alberta is based and, you know, conservative is nonsense.

02:12:04.840 I've lived in Alberta.

02:12:05.960 I've been to, God knows how many, the nature of the work I was doing in Alberta brought me all over the place.

02:12:11.920 And I can tell you that this idea that Alberta is some kind of haven of baseness and traditional values is nonsense.

02:12:19.640 Of course, it does exist there, but not in any more of a capacity than it does in any other region in the country, because I've been to other regions of the country and it's the same.

02:12:29.060 You know, Calgary, I think it's hilarious.

02:12:32.700 A lot of people say, you know, Alberta has more in common with Montana than it does with, you know, Ottawa.

02:12:41.020 Okay.

02:12:42.040 Rural Alberta has more in common with rural Montana.

02:12:46.340 Of course it does.

02:12:47.740 Yeah.

02:12:48.120 It's the same climate, same kind of economy, same, you know, they're farmers, they're ranchers, they're, you know, stuff like that.

02:12:55.360 Yeah, that's correct.

02:12:56.320 In fact, rural Montana and rural Alberta, very, probably, you know, extremely similar.

02:13:01.100 I don't, I don't disagree.

02:13:02.800 Calgary has more in common with New York than it does with rural Montana.

02:13:08.300 Calgary and Edmonton have more in common with Ottawa and Toronto than they do with, you know, rural Montana.

02:13:16.900 I'm sure, I'm sure Boise, is that, no, what's, what is Great Falls?

02:13:21.000 I'm sure Great Falls is more similar to fucking New York than it is to, or maybe that's not, I don't know how big Great Falls is. 0.90

02:13:28.760 But you know what I'm saying? 0.99

02:13:29.880 Like, if you go to the capital of Montana, you're going to see the same shit that you see in downtown Calgary. 1.00

02:13:35.220 I guarantee it. 1.00

02:13:36.780 Why?

02:13:37.220 Because it's not a rural-urban divide.

02:13:41.940 So, yeah. 0.99

02:13:43.940 Yeah, Racist Jackalope says, Idaho's state capital, Boise, has fag parades. 0.99

02:13:48.540 Exactly. 0.94

02:13:49.120 Like, this is, I don't know why people think this, this idea that, you know, Alberta and Montana are like, they're two peas in a pod compared to, you know.

02:13:57.700 So, if you talk to, I guarantee you that you would have actually more in common, if you're a rural Albertan, you'll have more in common with a rural, you know, Quebecer than you do with somebody from Great Falls, for the most part.

02:14:16.640 Same thing with Ontario.

02:14:18.120 Like, if you go to rural Ontario, they're the same as the guys in rural Alberta.

02:14:22.320 They're the same, man.

02:14:24.040 I've met them.

02:14:26.120 They're almost, aside from maybe the accent and, you know, maybe sometimes a cowboy hat, there's not really that much difference.

02:14:36.080 So, yeah.

02:14:40.980 But this idea that, you know, they're just lost because they haven't really, I think Canadians probably need to be a little bit more introspective.

02:14:51.320 And they need to reflect on their own past, as opposed to glorifying America's past.

02:15:03.360 So, all right.

02:15:05.480 I'll do any super chats that came in here now.

02:15:08.580 The first one there is Garen over on Entropy just threw up a Roman.

02:15:13.340 So, thank you for that.

02:15:14.540 Cheers.

02:15:15.120 Really appreciate the support.

02:15:21.320 I lost it now, but I did remember.

02:15:31.300 So, Ticklegrass gifted five subscriptions and, oh, God, what was it?

02:15:36.600 Somebody gifted 20 subscriptions and now I can't remember their name.

02:15:46.700 I'm sorry.

02:15:47.120 I'm sorry.

02:15:47.720 Whoever.

02:15:48.500 Maybe somebody in the chat knows.

02:15:50.980 Throw it up.

02:15:52.540 And I'll, if you remember who gifted all those subscriptions that a ton of you took.

02:15:58.380 So, please post their name so I can just thank them.

02:16:02.700 Thank you, Leifners.

02:16:03.860 Malibu Coke.

02:16:04.800 Thank you for the 20 subscriptions.

02:16:07.920 That's, you're awesome.

02:16:09.240 Really appreciate that.

02:16:11.440 Brian7316 says, great series, Alex.

02:16:13.000 It seems that all our problems, all the problems are economical in nature.

02:16:16.200 Also, the art of the meme is hilarious in our country as early as, yeah.

02:16:19.060 You know, memeing is an ancient culture.

02:16:22.780 It's an ancient custom.

02:16:26.920 The Romans did it with graffiti. 0.99

02:16:29.300 We do it with digital Photoshop memes.

02:16:33.220 And, you know, they used to do it with cartoons.

02:16:35.620 It's, you know, some things never change.

02:16:39.580 As for all the problems being economical in nature.

02:16:43.240 Yeah, that actually, that's not, um, warfare is almost always economic in nature.

02:16:54.620 Um, even a lot of the times, whenever it seems like it's not, it is.

02:16:58.860 The American Revolution was economic in nature.

02:17:01.460 The Russian Revolution was economic in nature.

02:17:03.960 Um, it's not, you know, I don't think it's really that, um, it's usually war is not motivated

02:17:10.960 by moral issues.

02:17:12.820 Um, very rarely is that the case.

02:17:15.260 Uh, and when it is, it's usually, they're usually smaller wars, to be honest.

02:17:20.660 But war as an institution is economic in nature.

02:17:25.200 The very early, like, do you think that the earliest tribes who were going to war or fighting

02:17:32.480 with one another were doing it because one disagreed with the other's ideology or gods?

02:17:38.300 No, man, they were going to war with each other over territory and resources.

02:17:43.580 So most, uh, you know, conflict is economic in nature, at least at its root.

02:17:49.220 And then a lot of the times these things tend to take on a moral aspect to them because people

02:17:58.100 are looking for justifications for the economic aspect of it.

02:18:01.920 So good examples of that would be something like, uh, the American civil war.

02:18:06.140 It starts at like, that's, it was an economic issue, a state's right issue, right?

02:18:11.660 Um, it was basically the industrial economy of the North versus the, you know, agricultural

02:18:17.980 economy of the South, different interests.

02:18:20.140 You saw that in this episode where, you know, um, the South is against free trade because

02:18:27.360 it's not beneficial to them and their raw materials, whereas the North is more partial to free

02:18:32.480 trade because it benefits them and they're, they're mass producing goods.

02:18:36.140 So, um, you know, that, that was the, the, the real reason for the start of the civil war.

02:18:42.860 And eventually as the war drags on, they're trying to find, you know, moral arguments to

02:18:48.580 justify the war.

02:18:49.580 And so we all, we'll actually see this in the next episode of this series, which covers

02:18:54.100 the first half of the American civil war.

02:18:56.740 It's, I think the next episode is 1850 to 1863 in this series.

02:19:00.860 And, uh, I mean, we talked about it a little bit in this episode as well, obviously, because

02:19:05.380 the beginnings of the American civil war are starting in this time period, like the, what

02:19:10.000 led to it.

02:19:10.540 Um, but, um, one of the ways that the North kept Europe out of the civil war was by making 0.74

02:19:21.840 a moral argument.

02:19:22.700 And so, you know, the emancipation proclamation was at 18, 1863.

02:19:28.360 I think the emancipation proclamation comes out and that is, um, what made the war untenable

02:19:35.380 for the British to come in on, on the side of the South.

02:19:39.120 Uh, the, the British were more favorable to the South, um, for, for a bunch of reasons.

02:19:46.120 One, they actually liked the idea of splitting America up because it would make it less of

02:19:51.220 a powerhouse and, you know, divide and conquer.

02:19:53.200 So like, if you can divide your enemy into pieces or, you know, an economic rival into

02:19:57.140 multiple States that has advantages to you.

02:20:00.020 But the other advantage obviously is that, you know, Britain was more interested in the

02:20:04.420 raw materials of the South than they were in the, the, the, uh, you know, factory produced

02:20:09.880 goods of the North Britain made its own goods.

02:20:12.440 So it needed the raw materials.

02:20:13.920 It wanted the cotton.

02:20:14.840 It had, um, a desire for the agricultural produce, the tobacco, not for the mass produced goods

02:20:21.700 in new England factories.

02:20:22.860 And so they were favorable towards the South.

02:20:25.780 What convinced them to not come in on the side of the South was that this perception that

02:20:31.900 they were fighting for the cause of slavery.

02:20:33.800 So the moment the North said, no, we're fighting against slavery.

02:20:37.300 Britain was like, I'm out.

02:20:39.660 Basically that was it.

02:20:41.120 Um, you know, I'm not, I'm not coming in on the side of the pro I'm not coming in on the

02:20:46.060 pro-slavery side, even though that's an incorrect way of looking at the American civil war.

02:20:51.420 So, um, yeah, that's all to say, yeah, war conflict, it's almost always economic in nature

02:20:59.660 more than it is culture, even race.

02:21:02.840 Um, although, you know, these things, uh, you know, two races can often live, you know,

02:21:12.200 in peace until they're competing over economic resources and then it becomes a race war. 0.72

02:21:16.460 Right.

02:21:17.120 So, yeah.

02:21:19.980 Um,

02:21:24.260 former member says, uh, what series slash topic are you covering after this?

02:21:29.240 Enjoying this?

02:21:29.780 Thanks, man.

02:21:30.460 Um, I have a few things that I'm considering.

02:21:33.900 I might do, uh, some movies that were also produced around this time period.

02:21:40.080 There's a few like biography style, uh, movies about, um, you know, John A. Macdonald that

02:21:46.700 we could look at.

02:21:48.000 Um, you know, there's also, I could go into, uh, there's a documentary series about, uh,

02:21:54.300 the 1837, 1838 rebellions.

02:21:57.720 Um, I could do Canada people's history, which is quite a long series.

02:22:03.020 So I, the reason that I'm not sure about that is cause I think it's like 20 episodes.

02:22:07.000 Um, it's a, yeah.

02:22:21.260 Canada people's history is 17 episodes.

02:22:24.020 I think they're an hour long, but I can't, I can't remember.

02:22:27.100 Maybe they were shorter.

02:22:27.800 Um, now the reason why I would like to do that is because it actually, I think it's

02:22:33.520 a good series.

02:22:34.300 A lot of people would disagree with that cause they think there's too much liberal bias,

02:22:38.640 uh, thrown into it, which there is because it was produced in the nineties.

02:22:42.340 So you get a lot more of the slant, um, you know, than you do in something produced in

02:22:47.800 1967.

02:22:48.440 But that's part of the reason why I would want to do it, particularly after this one,

02:22:54.520 because it shows you the difference in how, you know, Canadians looked at their history

02:23:00.440 in 1967 versus what it was becoming in the early nineties or in the late nineties.

02:23:04.320 I can't remember.

02:23:04.900 When was Canada people's history?

02:23:06.900 Uh, when was it produced?

02:23:18.440 Um, why does it say it was, uh, it was released in 2000.

02:23:33.000 Why did I think it was sooner?

02:23:34.460 But yeah, um, so like that could be interesting cause we could do a little bit debunking.

02:23:43.400 We could, you know, talk about the liberal slant in it.

02:23:46.580 And also it's just a very highly produced, it's a well-produced series.

02:23:50.600 Like in terms of this, the style of it, the, um, like there's, there's actual video accompanying

02:23:58.820 it in it.

02:23:59.540 So, uh, I mean, I'm, I'm tempted to do that, but 17 episodes is a lot, um, to do on one series.

02:24:07.140 So I'm torn.

02:24:08.720 Um, also Steve, Steve Hansen did, uh, cover that entire series as well on his own.

02:24:14.100 So like, if, if you want to, you can go, he, he already did his kind of, uh, look at it. 0.92

02:24:18.180 But yeah, um, uh, Justin for father says, this channel is my fucking jam.

02:24:33.660 History is important. 0.97

02:24:34.620 If we know it, we can change, we can forge a path forward for white people. 0.99

02:24:38.340 So, yeah, um, it is important.

02:24:41.060 Um, again, a lot of Canadians just, they don't, they don't know any, it's not that they don't

02:24:47.440 know enough.

02:24:48.420 It's that they don't know anything.

02:24:50.360 Um, look, you don't have to be an expert in Canadian history, uh, or anything, but, uh,

02:24:57.180 the degree, like, I'll, I'll tell you this right now.

02:24:59.740 Uh, people like all of the people, I guarantee you, every single person who is in favor of 0.95

02:25:06.960 annexation, every single one has not, no, no knowledge of any of this shit at all. 0.99

02:25:13.340 The Clyde do somethings, Marty up, they don't know any of this shit. 1.00

02:25:17.100 Um, which is why they're so ignorant. 0.99

02:25:20.640 Um, if they, if they had taken the time to take a step back and not focus on what's going 0.94

02:25:29.640 on every single day and be locked into current events, and they started looking backwards

02:25:36.760 and looked at their own history and the context of current events in the, in, you know, relative

02:25:43.260 to their history, they would have a much different opinion, but they don't do that.

02:25:47.220 So that's why, you know, it is what it is.

02:25:52.300 Um.

02:25:59.640 Uh, just Brian, Brian says some support for your work with the sons.

02:26:12.260 I tried to send subscriptions, but for some reason, rumble wouldn't let me great work.

02:26:15.760 I don't know if you meant to send that as a super chat, but thanks, man.

02:26:18.220 I appreciate that.

02:26:18.980 Um, uh, Snare says that doesn't pay their bills evidently. 0.99

02:26:26.660 Well, and Marty, Marty's not making anything from this shit. 0.98

02:26:29.220 Um, so yeah, um, in the case of Clyde, yeah, it's, it's obviously, you know, it's so much 0.99

02:26:39.280 easier to just be like, what, what is, what's the most outrageous thing that I could be outraged

02:26:44.820 about today and then, you know, make a five to 10 minute video about how outrageous that

02:26:50.460 outrageous thing is.

02:26:51.580 Yeah.

02:26:51.880 Like, yeah, it's, it's a really easy, uh, you know, mass produced.

02:26:57.360 Swap way of, of getting clicks and likes and views.

02:27:06.960 Um, I'm, I'm more interested in doing stuff like this, even if it's not going to get the

02:27:13.620 views, um, but frankly, I think that we don't really need the masses to, to know this stuff.

02:27:24.720 If, if enough of us have an understanding of history and to start, you know, framing the

02:27:31.240 problems we face in a historical context, instead of, uh, you know, just spurging out

02:27:35.800 from one outrageous thing to another, then we're going to start being able to push this

02:27:39.380 in the right direction.

02:27:40.280 And I, honestly, I think we've already had success.

02:27:43.320 Um, I think a lot of these initiatives are, are paying dividends already.

02:27:49.460 A great one is like operation ensign.

02:27:51.820 I see the, the red ensign must be at its absolute peak since 1965.

02:28:01.260 I would love to see the stats on it.

02:28:03.420 Um, but like the number of people rocking ensigns as their Twitter pictures or their banners,

02:28:11.800 um, flying them, buying them, you know, wrapping it as, as the symbol, like it's gotta be, there's

02:28:18.940 gotta be more red ensigns in circulation than there has been since 1965.

02:28:23.320 Um, and that was up, like that was largely us.

02:28:26.140 Um, like I'll, I'll own that.

02:28:28.660 We were the ones who pushed that.

02:28:30.140 Of course, there was people who came before us and, you know, we're, we're espousing this

02:28:34.420 and that's where, you know, we pick up that torch.

02:28:36.540 But I think we, as in, you know, the Diagon crew, second sons, um, you know, the influencers

02:28:42.320 that surround us, um, and, you know, friendlies, not just us.

02:28:46.000 I don't mean just like us as in like me, Derek and Jeremy or whatever.

02:28:49.440 Uh, I mean, like, um, you know, Lee Stewie's and Fortisax and, you know, Dominion Society,

02:28:56.360 all these people, like we are the, we're bringing it back as a symbol of a counter revolution.

02:29:01.460 And like, that's, that's largely us.

02:29:04.900 Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm really proud of that, honestly.

02:29:16.000 All right.

02:29:25.820 Um, this was a shorter one.

02:29:27.480 So, uh, I don't know if there's anything else really to get into regarding this episode

02:29:32.780 or that, uh, racist Jackalipses, didn't the Canadian government call it a hate symbol?

02:29:38.580 Well, indirectly, the Canadian government paid for the establishment of a group called the

02:29:44.720 Canadian Anti-Hate Network who calls the red ensign a hate symbol in certain contexts and

02:29:51.320 then distributes that material to schools as, you know, part of their anti-racist initiative.

02:29:56.060 So yeah, indirectly, the government has called the red ensign a hate symbol.

02:30:03.220 Um, now one of the, one of the reasons why it's such a great symbol is because they can't

02:30:07.320 get rid of it.

02:30:08.320 Um, uh, it's used in military context.

02:30:13.380 It's used by legions.

02:30:15.040 It's used, uh, on historical naval vessels and stuff like that.

02:30:19.780 There's, they can't ban it.

02:30:21.660 Um, if they did, it would be the most transparent anti-Canadian, you know, uh, iconoclasm conceivable.

02:30:28.480 So they just can't, um, good, good luck, um, trying to go down that route.

02:30:36.400 Uh, will they try?

02:30:37.920 I don't know, maybe, but, um, I just don't think they have, they don't have the political

02:30:42.700 capital to ban it.

02:30:43.940 Now, things like, uh, you know, Sigruns and, uh, Hackengroys. 1.00

02:30:49.380 Yeah.

02:30:49.660 Those are going to get banned, obviously, but, uh, they can't, they can't take the red ensign. 0.76

02:30:55.520 And one of the, one of the interesting things is that by taking away the red ensign as the

02:31:02.520 flag and replacing it with, you know, this, the modern multicultural red maple leaf, which

02:31:08.260 is why they got rid of the ensign.

02:31:10.720 Yes.

02:31:11.000 They took away a powerful symbol from, you know, the, the, from, you know, circulation within

02:31:18.100 Canadian society.

02:31:19.040 However, that act itself hands us that symbol, that uniquely powerful symbol.

02:31:27.700 And basically we just get to claim it.

02:31:30.660 So, um, yeah, uh, they, they handed us a uniquely powerful symbol that we can use against them.

02:31:37.900 And you would be foolish not to try and, uh, um, proliferate its use.

02:31:44.780 So, um, yeah, Raid Siren says, we have to accept that we cannot go back to a past Canada

02:32:07.340 that no longer exists, but we can't build a new Canada without intimate understanding

02:32:11.740 of our past.

02:32:12.380 That is bang on a hundred percent.

02:32:15.480 Um, all these people who have new visions of what Canada should be, none of them for

02:32:20.600 the most part, very few, like I can count on one hand, how many people or organizations

02:32:25.600 I know of that, uh, have an understanding of Canadian history and have rooted that in their

02:32:33.240 vision of what the country should be.

02:32:35.360 Um, most of the people trying to say what Canada should or shouldn't be have no understanding

02:32:41.800 of their own history.

02:32:42.580 And that's why their visions are ultimately impotent.

02:32:45.380 Um, they're, they're just using, um, you know, other people's visions, whether it's, you

02:32:54.780 know, if it's the, the European modern liberal or the American, you know, uh, libertarian style

02:33:04.000 or the German national, none of these people are rooting it in Canadian identity.

02:33:09.040 And that's why they will fail.

02:33:10.480 Um, unfortunately in some cases and fortunately in others, but yeah.

02:33:15.360 Uh, Ike remotely says, where would I find a second son's hat only for members?

02:33:24.100 Yeah.

02:33:24.480 Uh, only members are given our, um, apparel.

02:33:28.880 Uh, if you want red, red ensign stuff is sold by a bunch of different people, uh, operation

02:33:34.060 ensign.ca.

02:33:35.080 I think they have toques out now.

02:33:36.340 I don't know if they're available yet, but they have like, like this shirt.

02:33:39.460 Uh, that's operation ensign.

02:33:46.160 Um, there's a few people that are making stuff, uh, themselves.

02:33:51.440 So you can get that stuff, but our, our club, um, you know, branded, uh, gear like patches,

02:33:59.560 jackets, shirts.

02:34:00.760 Yeah.

02:34:01.020 That's only for members for obvious reasons.

02:34:03.780 Cause we can't be selling that to just anybody.

02:34:06.000 It would be, uh, a recipe for disaster.

02:34:09.420 All right.

02:34:33.080 Uh, Hansel Sven says, uh, thank you for the mention Canada people's history, uh, review.

02:34:39.400 Can be found on odyssey.

02:34:40.620 Yeah.

02:34:40.800 You can check out, uh, that on, uh, his channel there.

02:34:44.140 If you're interested, I still might do it just because I would like to revisit it myself

02:34:48.760 in the kind of, you know, the context of analysis, but yeah, we'll see.

02:34:55.040 Maybe I'll, I'll skip over that one and do some, some shorter stuff, but we're, I mean,

02:34:59.860 we're, we still have four parts of this series left to go.

02:35:02.340 So, uh, I'm going to try to actually do them, uh, quicker now.

02:35:06.200 I'll probably try to do another one this week.

02:35:08.140 I might do the next one tomorrow, uh, in this series, if I can do all the clipping and notes

02:35:15.920 and stuff beforehand, but yeah, um, we'll see.

02:35:20.020 You might do that tomorrow.

02:35:20.720 With all that, um, I think we'll wrap it up for tonight.

02:35:35.540 Thanks everybody for tuning in.

02:35:36.940 I hope you enjoyed that episode.

02:35:38.740 Um, I actually really liked that one.

02:35:40.820 Um, I found myself kind of chuckling to myself as I was, it's been a, I think the last time

02:35:46.680 I watched this series in its entirety was over a year ago.

02:35:49.780 And now I'm just like rewatching them before to refresh and make notes and do the clips and

02:35:53.860 stuff.

02:35:55.040 Um, but I found myself chuckling a lot as I was watching.

02:35:58.100 I was like, yeah, this is exactly like today.

02:36:00.760 Um, the one, the one that made me burst out laughing was the flying two flags on one pole.

02:36:07.260 I was like, there's so many people doing that right now.

02:36:10.100 Right.

02:36:10.540 Like how common is that to see, you see some Canadian, um, who's recently added the American

02:36:16.780 flag to their bio just because they're, they're so frustrated with where things are at and they

02:36:20.900 don't know, you know, like basically they, they've just decided they're going to allow

02:36:24.740 themselves to be sucked into the American, uh, identity.

02:36:28.380 So, yeah.

02:36:32.400 All right.

02:36:34.200 Um, yeah, we might, uh, see you guys tomorrow night.

02:36:38.240 Um, and.

02:36:40.540 Um, if not later this week, I'll do another episode.

02:36:44.640 Um, I might do a, I might do a daily tool too, if there's, you know, something going

02:36:49.960 on that's worth getting into.

02:36:51.800 But, um, honestly, I just don't see it.

02:36:55.060 I don't see the point.

02:36:56.300 There's so many people that cover current events, um, and what's going on.

02:37:00.260 And, uh, to be honest, I'm just not really interested in what's going on because to me,

02:37:05.400 it's just a lot of noise.

02:37:07.020 Um, so I'll focus.

02:37:10.540 I'll focus on this for now and, uh, we'll do the current event review stuff on plot army.

02:37:15.260 So, yeah.

02:37:17.100 All right.

02:37:18.460 Have a good night, everybody.

02:37:19.960 And, uh, enjoy the rest of your week.

02:37:21.640 If I don't talk to you again, cheers.

02:37:22.700 Thank you.

02:37:22.880 Thank you.

02:37:23.300 Thank you.

02:37:26.300 Bye.

02:37:27.300 Bye.

02:37:28.820 Bye.

02:37:30.040 Bye.

02:37:30.380 Bye.

02:37:34.640 Bye.

The Ferryman's Toll - December 10, 2025

The Nationalist Film Board - Creation of Canada - Part 5

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