The Ferryman's Toll - The Nationalist Film Board - Creation of Canada - Part 7

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 That was a great start.

00:01:42.140 Tech issues.

00:01:43.440 What's going on, everybody?

00:01:44.520 It is Wednesday, December 17th.

00:01:48.580 We're back for part seven of Creation of Canada.

00:01:52.300 I just realized it kind of sounds like I'm losing my voice.

00:01:56.900 I haven't really talked that much today.

00:01:59.820 I didn't even realize.

00:02:01.340 I think this is like the first time I've said anything all day, so that's funny.

00:02:07.120 Maybe it's just because my voice isn't warmed up.

00:02:10.800 Anyways, we're back for part seven of Creation of Canada.

00:02:15.340 This is the Triumphant Union and Canadian Confederation.

00:02:22.400 So it covers a period of 1863 to 1867.

00:02:26.880 And obviously, this is a relatively important time period for Canada and Canadians.

00:02:35.760 This is where, you know, the process of us becoming an independent nation begins in earnest.

00:02:42.360 And, yeah, obviously, this is all in the shadow of the American Civil War.

00:02:49.240 So this episode is interesting.

00:02:51.100 It covers, obviously, the last two years of the American Civil War, 1863, 1865, and how that had a really impactful effect on the direction that Canada was going as a colony or as an independent nation, etc.

00:03:07.360 It gets into all the reasons that led to Confederation.

00:03:14.480 I could break it down.

00:03:16.840 There's four major points or so that they bring up in this episode.

00:03:21.680 The first, the American Civil War, and all of the reasons, really, that have come up before.

00:03:27.220 You know, threat of American annexation.

00:03:30.600 You know, desire to establish an economic union among Britain's colonies in North America.

00:03:37.360 The desire to build a transcontinental railroad, which you could only do with the latter occurring.

00:03:46.540 The, you know, Quebec not being interested in independence because it would have led to their annexation or them being swallowed by the United States.

00:03:56.540 So we'll get into all these topics tonight.

00:04:00.360 And then, yeah, there's only two more episodes left in the series.

00:04:03.300 So it should be a good episode.

00:04:07.720 And, yeah, there's lots to talk about in this one.

00:04:10.240 So I'm not going to belabor the point here.

00:04:13.140 Let's just get into it.

00:04:14.320 Let's watch this episode.

00:04:15.760 And then I'll be back with some clips to go over.

00:04:18.100 But before I do that, though, just, you know, to address it now.

00:04:22.240 Brian, 7316, give me five subscriptions.

00:04:24.420 Thanks so much, man.

00:04:25.160 I really appreciate that.

00:04:27.800 And, yeah, we'll be back in a bit.

00:04:30.780 Cheers.

00:04:48.100 Cheers.

00:04:49.100 Cheers.

00:04:50.680 Cheers.

00:04:51.880 Cheers.

00:04:55.320 Cheers.

00:05:04.780 Cheers.

00:05:06.080 Cheers.

00:05:06.380 Cheers.

00:05:06.760 Cheers.

00:05:07.640 Cheers.

00:05:08.080 Cheers.

00:05:10.480 Welcome.

00:05:11.000 Cheers.

00:05:11.240 Cheers.

00:05:12.200 Cheers.

00:05:13.160 Cheers.

00:05:14.040 Cheers.

00:05:15.200 Cheers.

00:05:15.960 Cheers.

00:05:16.180 Cheers.

00:05:16.580 Cheers.

00:05:17.040 Cheers.

00:05:17.500 In April, 1863,

00:05:45.800 uneasy Canadians watched the terrible civil war in America

00:05:49.800 enter its third bloody year.

00:05:51.800 Most Canadians opposed slavery

00:05:54.800 and therefore had tended to support the Union,

00:05:57.800 and Canadian business wanted nothing

00:05:59.800 to disturb the boom in trade with the North.

00:06:02.800 But Britain, while proclaiming neutrality,

00:06:05.800 had angered the North by recognizing

00:06:07.800 the Confederacy as a belligerent,

00:06:09.800 and soon Northern interference with British shipping

00:06:12.800 threatened to embroil the Union in full-scale war with Britain.

00:06:17.800 If war came, Canada would be a certain target.

00:06:21.800 But would it be defended?

00:06:24.800 Some thought Britain had become indifferent to North America,

00:06:27.800 or that the colonies themselves would not resist

00:06:30.800 because they felt that sooner or later

00:06:32.800 their absorption into the Union was inevitable.

00:06:35.800 But Britain unhesitatingly rushed troops to Quebec,

00:06:38.800 and the vigorous cooperation of all Canadian groups,

00:06:41.800 English, French, Irish,

00:06:43.800 firmly revealed their preference for a future

00:06:46.800 separate from the United States.

00:06:49.800 Outright war was avoided,

00:06:51.800 but although Anglo-American tension remained dangerous,

00:06:54.800 complacent Canadian politicians couldn't even agree

00:06:57.800 on a stronger militia bill.

00:06:59.800 Some felt that they had a sure defense in the Confederate Army,

00:07:03.800 which was now invading the North.

00:07:05.800 But on July the 4th,

00:07:07.800 the Battle of Gettysburg ended with the Confederates in full retreat,

00:07:11.800 and on the same day,

00:07:13.800 the fall of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two.

00:07:17.800 Weary President Lincoln had found his man at last,

00:07:25.800 the victor of Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant.

00:07:29.800 Taciturn and tenacious,

00:07:31.800 he was soon turning the vastly superior potential of the North

00:07:35.800 into an unrelenting offensive

00:07:37.800 against the outnumbered and desperate Confederates.

00:07:40.800 From Chattanooga to the wilderness,

00:07:53.800 Grant's massive armies harried and pursued

00:07:56.800 the failing Confederate forces.

00:07:58.800 And by late 1864,

00:08:00.800 the crumbling of Southern armies

00:08:02.800 indicated that the Union would triumph.

00:08:10.800 In the new Union armies,

00:08:13.800 none were more capable or more dashing than the Irish. 1.00

00:08:16.800 But even as they rose to distinction in the service of the Union,

00:08:20.800 many a homesick Irishman brooded on another cause,

00:08:23.800 Irish freedom and the Fenian Brotherhood.

00:08:31.800 The roots of Fenianism lay in the harsh soil of Irish misery. 0.99

00:08:36.800 Overpopulation and the failure of the potato crop

00:08:39.800 had produced stark famine in the hungry forties.

00:08:42.800 Hundreds of thousands of helpless and demoralized people perished,

00:08:46.800 despite desperate relief efforts.

00:08:58.800 Rebellion had followed in 1848,

00:09:01.800 but it was ill-organized and ineffective

00:09:04.800 and had been easily crushed.

00:09:11.800 Ruthless evictions had been justified

00:09:13.800 by the oppressive landlord class

00:09:15.800 as the only solution to Irish overpopulation.

00:09:19.800 The dispossessed cotters had no choice but to emigrate. 1.00

00:09:23.800 With them, they carried a deep hatred of England.

00:09:27.800 And this had found expression in the Fenian Brotherhood.

00:09:30.800 By 1863, it was powerful enough to hold a convention

00:09:35.800 and declare a Republic of Ireland free from Britain.

00:09:39.800 In pursuit of this great dream,

00:09:41.800 the Fenians fostered a mood of conspiracy and violence 0.98

00:09:45.800 and called for the use of terror against England.

00:09:48.800 To the north, under the lingering skies of a Canadian summer,

00:09:57.800 even the frowning fortress of Quebec seemed peaceful.

00:10:02.800 Yet Canada remained tense and heavily garrisoned.

00:10:05.800 The war scare had brought to North America 0.93

00:10:07.800 the biggest contingent of crack British troops since 1814.

00:10:13.800 Thus Britain's resolve that the future of the colonies

00:10:16.800 was not to be determined by American power alone

00:10:19.800 was unmistakably backed up by the whole might of the empire.

00:10:24.800 And the colonists themselves proved enthusiastic and grateful hosts.

00:10:28.800 But in London, there was a growing feeling among British politicians

00:10:40.800 that a firm imperial posture in North America,

00:10:43.800 however necessary for the moment,

00:10:45.800 couldn't be maintained indefinitely.

00:10:47.800 The truth was, John Bull was feeling the pinch where it hurt most.

00:10:54.800 But there was a high price tag on the arms of empire.

00:10:58.800 Only the newest designs could keep Britain's navy supreme.

00:11:02.800 Only widely scattered facilities could keep ready the great Atlantic fleet,

00:11:07.800 which Palmerston had alerted in case of war with America.

00:11:11.800 And North American winters meant long layups and expensive idleness.

00:11:17.800 As the military bills were added up at Westminster,

00:11:27.800 the suspicion grew on both sides of the house

00:11:30.800 that imperialism was becoming more give than take.

00:11:37.800 Men like Richard Cobden had long argued

00:11:40.800 that colonies were more lost than gain,

00:11:43.800 and they struggled to bridle the British lions' costly fits of imperial temper.

00:11:49.800 Other members on both sides felt that the colonies should pay for helpful imperial roars,

00:11:56.800 but were as anxious to keep the flag flying as the anti-imperialists were to pull it down.

00:12:02.800 Yet it could be said of most people in Britain in the 60s,

00:12:07.800 whether wealthy or working class,

00:12:10.800 that for them, imperial affairs ran second to problems at home.

00:12:14.800 But behind the Roman facades of British finance there was already at work a new kind of imperialism, 0.56

00:12:24.800 whose origin lay in the ever-expanding productivity of British capitalism.

00:12:29.800 Skilled muscle and pounding machinery had turned all England into a workshop,

00:12:40.800 whose products were of a variety and volume which dwarfed anything ever known before.

00:12:46.800 A determined new breed of men, investors and financiers rather than owners,

00:12:54.800 discussed in their drawing rooms and clubs new concepts like the climate of investment.

00:13:00.800 Soon, politicians were feeling their influence.

00:13:03.800 Lobbying was the preferred method.

00:13:06.800 A quiet word here, a timely introduction there,

00:13:09.800 and everywhere the hint that since business was so obviously good for Britain,

00:13:15.800 British government should be concerned with making things good for business.

00:13:22.800 So they haunted the corridors of power,

00:13:24.800 confident that if money talked, it would be listened to,

00:13:28.800 perhaps by a cabinet minister or an important member of a board of trade.

00:13:33.800 Free trade.

00:13:38.800 Thirty years of it had tripled Britain's exports.

00:13:41.800 Could not the expansion of British commerce everywhere

00:13:45.800 give new meaning and justification to the imperial system?

00:13:49.800 The explosion of industrial productivity

00:13:52.800 meant that the nation's power and prosperity

00:13:55.800 could now be pushed up and up by a ceaseless export drive.

00:14:00.800 The only limit being the capacity to deliver the goods.

00:14:10.800 Britain's ship owners did deliver the goods.

00:14:13.800 But investors found that risks could be great

00:14:16.800 and rates high on routes that now stretch literally to the ends of the earth,

00:14:22.800 to distant and indispensable depots like Melbourne in booming Australia.

00:14:27.800 Canton, where politics were complicated and unpredictable.

00:14:32.800 And Hong Kong, open door to China. 0.93

00:14:36.800 So in certain British business circles of the sixties,

00:14:39.800 there arose the vision of a world-girdling system of communications.

00:14:44.800 It was a truly imperial vision,

00:14:46.800 which looked to the imperial government for support and subsidy.

00:14:50.800 British North America had a vital role to play in this system,

00:14:55.800 as a bridge between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

00:14:58.800 It could become part of a shorter route from London to the Orient.

00:15:03.800 The link, of course, would be a transcontinental railway.

00:15:07.800 At the moment, no more than a dream.

00:15:10.800 Promoters from bitter experience with colonial railroads knew that the best laid schemes

00:15:19.800 didn't always convince London.

00:15:21.800 Even the intercolonial railroad scheme had failed to win effective imperial backing,

00:15:28.800 despite the possibility of an American alternative.

00:15:31.800 Unsound railroads had already lured many victims in Britain and Canada into wild speculation.

00:15:40.800 Many a promoter, carried along by reckless expenditure,

00:15:43.800 ran far ahead of his financial resources.

00:15:46.800 But if plans for eastward expansion had to be scrapped,

00:15:56.800 the frustrated imperialists of Toronto could still dream

00:16:00.800 of appropriating the trade and land of the Northwest.

00:16:03.800 This dream, too, faced many obstacles.

00:16:09.800 North of Lake Superior, a road or telegraph line seemed ambitious enough,

00:16:19.800 let alone a railroad.

00:16:26.800 Only a trickle of Canadian settlers had filtered through to the Great Plains.

00:16:31.800 And only a very few had made the long, hard journey overland

00:16:35.800 to the forests and peaks of British Columbia.

00:16:39.800 For them, the lure was gold, not settlement.

00:16:47.800 On the plains, the number of independent traders steadily increased

00:16:52.800 and the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company steadily declined.

00:16:57.800 Yet the Northwest remained almost unchanged.

00:17:00.800 Its great prairies were as empty as ever in their vast sweep along the unguarded frontier,

00:17:06.800 across which lay the outposts of a troubled union.

00:17:14.800 Realists were forced to admit that the present Canada

00:17:18.800 and its traditional economy could underwrite little expansion.

00:17:22.800 Reciprocity with the United States had meant substantial growth for traditional exports.

00:17:28.800 And these had also held their markets in Britain, despite loss of preference.

00:17:38.800 But a feeling in business circles that the economy was inadequate

00:17:41.800 and already starting to stagnate, was shared by men like A.T. Galt.

00:17:46.800 As Canada's Minister of Finance, his chief worry had been that revenues fell increasingly short

00:17:53.800 of covering her expenditures.

00:17:55.800 A concern also shared by his French compatriot, Georges Etienne Cartier.

00:18:01.800 Their colleague, John A. MacDonald, felt that only wider economic horizons could make Canada solvent.

00:18:09.800 The scattered British North American colonies had obvious potential.

00:18:23.800 If only they could be economically associated.

00:18:26.800 But could you ask MacDonald, ever have economic cooperation without political unity?

00:18:33.800 A united British North America would be more than a bridge.

00:18:38.800 The St. Lawrence system would have a Canadian hinterland, instead of competing with New York for the trade of the American West.

00:18:47.800 And if a united British North America could be created, a British-backed transcontinental railway, advocated by men like Edward Watkin in London, would be a more appealing proposition.

00:19:01.800 For such a railway would be not only a link in a worldwide system, but also the spine of a new transcontinental nation.

00:19:09.800 Desperate for credit, Galt had proposed a general federation in 1858.

00:19:19.800 But London had shown limited enthusiasm for a scheme it felt premature.

00:19:24.800 Meanwhile, Edward Watkin's International Financial Society had acquired a major interest in the debt-ridden Grand Trunk Railway and in the Hudson's Bay Company.

00:19:34.800 There was method in the financial madness of this shrewd underwriter and reorganizer.

00:19:40.800 Soon he was lobbying everywhere for the notion that federation would completely revitalize British North America's economic prospects.

00:19:49.800 Including his own, of course.

00:19:51.800 London, though encouraging discussion, remained uncommitted.

00:19:56.800 But suddenly, late in 1863, the British cabinet made federation official policy.

00:20:04.800 Encouraged, John A. MacDonald arranged a truce among Canadian politicians.

00:20:10.800 And at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in September 1864,

00:20:15.800 Canadian and maritime delegates found enough in common to continue at Quebec in October.

00:20:21.800 Here, tentative agreement on a federation was reached.

00:20:25.800 The second transcontinental nation had taken its first step.

00:20:29.800 Why did Britain act when she did? 0.98

00:20:35.800 During the war scare of 1861, Britain had shown that she would not abandon Canada to the United States.

00:20:41.800 But she didn't care to go on repeating the demonstration.

00:20:43.800 Moreover, it was clear that the Union was going to win.

00:20:48.800 What if she found in the British presence to the North an excuse for settling old scores?

00:20:53.800 But if Britain were to withdraw, it must be without loss of prestige in the eyes of the United States.

00:21:00.800 Canadian Federation seemed a basis for just such a withdrawal with honor.

00:21:04.800 A stronger Canada, standing on its own, might be acceptable to the United States.

00:21:10.800 Then, suddenly, more trouble.

00:21:12.800 More trouble.

00:21:17.800 In Richmond, Southern leaders knew by 1864 that their strategy for winning Britain's support had failed.

00:21:25.800 Mighty King Cotton, who was to have won recognition, had been shackled.

00:21:31.800 And the Union Eagle was tearing at the Confederacy's vitals.

00:21:35.800 In Canada's larger towns, Confederate agents had been working to crystallize anti-Northern feeling.

00:21:46.800 Well financed, they operated from the better hotels.

00:21:50.800 Typical was George Sanders, a fanatical Confederate, whose legitimate propaganda seemed something else to the anti-Canadian press of the North.

00:22:00.800 But by the fall of 1864, the hotel lobbies were full of rumors that more serious schemes were afoot.

00:22:13.800 Tension grew as Union agents tried to watch the Confederates, and Canadian agents tried to watch everybody.

00:22:22.800 Finally, in mid-October, a group of desperate Confederates descended from Canada to raid the town of St. Albans, Vermont.

00:22:45.800 This brought a roar of rage from the North. 0.63

00:23:00.800 But in a few days, the Confederate criminals were arrested by Canadian authorities.

00:23:05.800 In Washington, where four years of war had stretched nerves to the breaking point, it was hardly surprising that the eagle screamed.

00:23:19.800 For long enough, it had felt itself surrounded by enemies on all sides.

00:23:23.800 The cocksure France of Napoleon III, Britain, the ancient foe, and now her nasty offspring. 0.99

00:23:34.800 It was hardly surprising that some angry congressmen were willing to back any sort of countermeasure, even a military one.

00:23:42.800 But Secretary of State Seward, while agreeing to suspend the rush-baggett agreement, preferred to play for concessions from an embarrassed Lord Monk.

00:23:55.800 Unfortunately, a preliminary hearing of the St. Albans raiders ended abruptly when they were released on technical grounds by the Canadian judge.

00:24:12.800 Soon, a renewed wave of anger enabled the congressional enemies of free trade to win adoption of a resolution terminating the reciprocity treaty.

00:24:38.800 There was no lack of will, it seemed, for taking John Bull by the throat.

00:24:49.800 The bitter American election of late 1864 helped inflame the crisis, for strong words made good politics.

00:24:57.800 Lincoln did win a second term, but four years of war had taken a terrible toll, and the weary president wanted only to end the conflict.

00:25:09.800 So the administration tried to limit the scope of retaliation against Canada, suggesting she had been careless rather than hostile.

00:25:18.800 Early in 1865, the Canadian legislature was summoned by Lord Monk, who had been working to counter American extremists.

00:25:32.800 Soon, watchful newspapers in the North reported the passage of a new act closely regulating the movements of aliens in Canada.

00:25:51.800 Uncle Sam calmed down.

00:25:54.800 Confederate dreams of Anglo-American war might have come true if General Dix's dangerous order to ignore the Canadian border had stood for very long.

00:26:06.800 But Seward had Lincoln revoke it.

00:26:09.800 The Confederate plotters were too late.

00:26:12.800 Had the raid occurred in 1861, when Seward was suspected of wanting war with England, it might have changed history.

00:26:18.800 But now Seward saw a Confederate trap and would not risk imminent victory by expanding the war.

00:26:26.800 So he bargained for a limited goal, a stronger Canadian neutrality law.

00:26:32.800 And Monk responded.

00:26:34.800 Soon, Seward quietly reinstated the Rush-Baggett Agreement.

00:26:38.800 Reciprocity, however, was gone beyond recall.

00:26:41.800 Amidst all this, the Canadian legislature debated the Confederation scheme, which English and French Canadians saw rather differently.

00:26:51.800 The English of Upper Canada had grown steadily in self-confidence.

00:27:00.800 For some time, they had felt themselves ready for a fuller nationality.

00:27:04.800 And they looked with approval on the efforts of the political tailors in London to get their gangling colonial lads into more grown-up talks.

00:27:13.800 Unification by peaceful means contrasted sharply with the doleful plight of poor Colombia. 0.91

00:27:24.800 Real sympathy could hardly conceal a certain smugness.

00:27:30.800 Nor could the Canadian image of America remain unaffected by the inflammatory propaganda of North and South, inspired by mutual hate.

00:27:39.800 Mutual hate.

00:28:09.800 All too true were the realities of race hate and social violence.

00:28:28.800 The uninhibited side of American politics had confirmed traditional anti-Republican prejudices among English Canadians.

00:28:35.800 They saw a caricature of Uncle Sam.

00:28:39.800 And although graft and corruption were really worldwide, they were apt to think of them as distinctively American.

00:28:46.800 That this brash customer could still be taken in hand by John Bull was reassuring.

00:28:54.800 And who else but John could talk to Sam on equal terms.

00:29:00.800 John Bull should stay in the picture, English Canadians felt, even as they welcomed Federation. 0.98

00:29:05.800 For French Canadians, the issue of Federation was not so simple.

00:29:15.800 For them, the British presence was not the result of choice, but the consequence of a lost imperial war.

00:29:22.800 There had been military surrender to superior British power, but no spiritual surrender.

00:29:32.800 British troops maintained British sovereignty.

00:29:35.800 And men like Sir John Colburn, who crushed their revolt in 1837, symbolized the brutal fact of alien occupation.

00:29:48.800 So whenever the Yankee cousin twisted the British lion's tail, radical French opinion was apt to enjoy it. 0.98

00:29:54.800 But a Roman Catholic clergy of great ability had taken over leadership of the struggle to preserve the French Canadian nation.

00:30:05.800 Church leaders had never forgotten the devilish forms in which the American revolutionaries had depicted Catholicism.

00:30:13.800 Nor that extremist opinion in Protestant America was intent on making the church sever its ties with Rome.

00:30:20.800 Homage to the Pope became servility in the ugly caricatures of American alarmists who felt endangered by creeping Catholicism.

00:30:40.800 Bugaboo about a world-embracing Catholic imperialism was widespread in America.

00:30:44.800 Yet despite anti-American feelings, some church leaders were hesitant, and among many laymen there were doubts about giving up a union where they had been equals for a federation where they would be a minority.

00:30:59.800 Their leader was A. A. A. Dorian, who attacked the federation scheme as a monster, whose many English-speaking heads would swallow a helpless Quebec.

00:31:13.800 French Canadian leaders in federal politics would soon become French-speaking Englishmen, he said, sacrificing Quebec to the majority.

00:31:25.800 But Georges Etienne Carchet, Macdonald's French lieutenant, thought otherwise.

00:31:32.800 If the association between English and French in Canada could not be developed, annexation to the United States would follow, reducing Quebec to political impotence.

00:31:43.800 The British connection was invaluable, said Carchet. Had not the best ally against local abuse of French rights always been the British crown?

00:31:57.800 As for Quebec, it would move ahead with the expansion of the new Canada and its railways. Railways in which, as it happened, Carchet had investments.

00:32:08.800 The press was sharply divided.

00:32:13.800 But Dorian supporters lost out to Carchet by a narrow margin.

00:32:32.800 With the results of the debate now clear, the church felt it should throw the full weight of its authority behind the majority decisions.

00:32:40.800 The choice was simply the lesser of two evils necessary for self-preservation.

00:32:50.800 One key vote in the legislature was revealing.

00:32:54.800 English-speaking members voted 65 for, 11 against.

00:32:59.800 Not much doubt there. Indeed, the English had everything to gain.

00:33:02.800 Representation in the new federal parliament would be by population, and their increasing numbers should mean control.

00:33:10.800 Freed from French obstruction, Confederation, they felt, would be progressive, liberal, prosperous, and Protestant.

00:33:18.800 Just like them.

00:33:20.800 French-speaking members voted 26-4, 22 against.

00:33:25.800 Plenty of doubt there.

00:33:26.800 Those for Confederation had seen two choices.

00:33:30.800 Annexation to the United States and probable absorption.

00:33:33.800 Or Confederation.

00:33:35.800 The English would get what could no longer be denied them anyway. 0.85

00:33:39.800 But the French would at least have local government with entrenched rights, which guaranteed survival.

00:33:45.800 In Washington, on March 4th, 1865, President Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term.

00:33:57.800 Victory for the Union cause was in sight. 0.65

00:34:00.800 On April 2nd, as Grant's armies closed in, Rebel President Davis ordered Richmond's arsenals and factories destroyed.

00:34:18.800 Next day, when Union troops entered the city, the end of the Confederacy was at hand.

00:34:23.800 Davis was forced to flee.

00:34:35.800 Union had prevailed. 0.56

00:34:37.800 And in Richmond, the great emancipator was welcomed by former slaves.

00:34:41.800 But the troubled and far-seeing president, even with the cheers of the victors ringing in his ears, never ceased to brood over the future of the defeated.

00:34:56.800 The South's physical power lay largely in ruins.

00:34:59.800 But could its racial philosophy be as easily destroyed as its railroads and factories?

00:35:06.800 Could the South be brought to trust the future rather than a haunted and corrupting past?

00:35:13.800 Only by a peace of reconciliation, said Lincoln.

00:35:17.800 And he ordered that Confederate prisoners be returned quickly to their homes.

00:35:21.800 Lincoln had said, with malice toward none, with charity for all, let us strive to bind up the wounds.

00:35:34.800 It was not to be.

00:35:45.800 Lincoln's dream of reconciliation was buried with him.

00:35:50.800 And unchecked sectional prejudice soon frustrated his national aspirations.

00:35:54.800 In Canada, a profound wave of sympathy swept the provinces.

00:36:02.800 Only in death did the patience and tact of a true friend show through all misunderstanding at last.

00:36:09.800 Already the armies of the Union, now the most powerful in the world, were flooding northward.

00:36:22.800 And, Canadians silently hoped, homewards.

00:36:25.800 And now that Lincoln was gone, what sort of men, Canadians were asking, might it serve?

00:36:39.800 Andrew Johnson, the new president, was thought a weak and troubled character.

00:36:45.800 Behind him stood Ulysses Grant and Phil Sheridan, masters of war.

00:36:50.800 And Thaddeus Stevens, who hated the Confederates, and felt the time had come at last for the court of American opinion to put the Confederacy's erstwhile friends on trial.

00:37:06.800 Louis Napoleon and those scoundrels, Punch, and the editor of the Times. 0.69

00:37:11.800 But it was the score at sea that most needed settling in the American view.

00:37:16.800 And here, the guilty party was clear.

00:37:22.800 John Bull had given the Confederates much more than sympathy.

00:37:32.800 The struggle for American unity had evoked powerful emotions, which were now reflected in a stronger nationalism.

00:37:39.800 Many Canadians feared that the banner of manifest destiny would be unfurled over the whole continent.

00:37:47.800 A new confidence and vigilance certainly were in evidence, especially with regard to Britain and France,

00:37:55.800 who were felt to be bowled over by America's new naval strength.

00:37:59.800 In 1864, Napoleon III had sent a French army to install the Austrian Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico.

00:38:12.800 But Secretary Seward insisted that the Monroe Doctrine be respected, and the French reluctantly withdrew.

00:38:18.800 But what about that other villain, Johnny Bull?

00:38:25.800 Were not some of his best imperial troops standing along America's northern frontier?

00:38:30.800 Some raucous voices suggested that the Monroe Doctrine should apply to these Europeans, too.

00:38:35.800 Might not the victorious Union commanders now look northward and find new uses for their veterans?

00:38:44.800 So the news that the great armies of the Union were to be demobilized quickly was greeted with joy.

00:38:54.800 With the utmost relief, Canadians saw the victors head for home.

00:38:58.800 But one group, the fanatical Fenian Brotherhood, was now ready to begin its own war.

00:39:18.800 The rapid disbanding of the Union armies made battle-hardened Irish veterans suddenly available.

00:39:23.800 Many, without immediate work, were easily recruited into the anti-British Brotherhood.

00:39:30.800 Soon, there were widespread rumors that the Fenian plotters were up to something big.

00:39:40.800 Military forces in Canada were frequently on the alert in early 1866.

00:39:44.800 For, as Canadians pointed out, to a seemingly apathetic Washington,

00:39:51.800 the Fenians had decided to free Ireland by attacking British power in Canada.

00:39:57.800 In June, the liberation of Ireland began.

00:40:00.800 The fire of the Fenian veterans threw the first Canadian forces which opposed them briefly off balance.

00:40:19.800 But reinforcements, rushed to the main danger points, soon forced Fenian withdrawal.

00:40:30.800 But there had been casualties, and Canada seethed with anger.

00:40:35.800 John Bull felt that now, Uncle Sam should recognize the Fenians for what they were.

00:40:45.800 Sam did seem more disposed to listen.

00:40:48.800 Steps were quickly taken to round up returning Fenians, 1.00

00:40:52.800 and a proclamation made invasion activities illegal.

00:40:55.800 The administration might not yet be willing to deal with Fenians in the Canadian fashion, 1.00

00:41:02.800 but it did seem willing to cool them off.

00:41:08.800 The real Fenian menace lay in the larger explosion they might cause in the powder keg of the American Congress, 1.00

00:41:16.800 where a powerful charge of anti-British feeling had accumulated during the war.

00:41:21.800 The American eagle was in a self-righteous mood,

00:41:25.800 and the rascally British lion must expect to pay for his recent sins against the Union.

00:41:37.800 Complicating everything was the sour relationship existing at the end of the war

00:41:42.800 between catty Columbia and haughty Britannia.

00:41:45.800 The bills for John Bull's Civil War escapades were now starting to come in.

00:42:01.800 It looked like the claims were going to be high.

00:42:04.800 The anti-Canadian mood in Congress after St. Albans had helped protectionists kill the reciprocity treaty with Canada.

00:42:17.800 But Canadians who tried to change congressional minds in Washington

00:42:22.800 found they were up against more than a passing mood.

00:42:24.800 Slave state opposition to free state expansionism had helped Canada.

00:42:31.800 But the achievement of reciprocity too had been helped by the particular economic outlook of the South.

00:42:37.800 The South was mainly agricultural and imported most manufacturers.

00:42:42.800 So Southerners had always felt low tariffs meant low import prices and prosperity.

00:42:52.800 But in the North, there had been increasing pressure from those who wanted protection for their growing industries through high tariffs.

00:43:00.800 A venerable tradition lay behind this economic philosophy.

00:43:09.800 President Washington himself at the first inauguration had worn a suit 100% made in America to encourage the infant textile industry.

00:43:18.800 By now, the infants had grown considerably.

00:43:25.800 But they showed little desire to honor the gospel of free trade, except by burying it.

00:43:38.800 By war's end, the North was a major industrial power.

00:43:42.800 With Southern opponents absent, protectionists had soon got tariffs raised.

00:43:53.800 And when the states were reunited again, the balance of power had shifted to the powerful North.

00:44:04.800 The features of modern America were beginning to appear.

00:44:07.800 Already, Wall Street symbolized the increased power of business, whose lobbyists found doors in Washington open.

00:44:20.800 Protectionists knew they could keep tariffs high.

00:44:27.800 It was a feverish and a bullion period.

00:44:29.800 Many looked West again.

00:44:37.800 Many looked West again.

00:44:39.800 The war had briefly absorbed the nation's energies.

00:44:42.800 But the same war had ended arguments about the future status of the West.

00:44:47.800 Schemes to divide the West into slave and free were now dead.

00:44:52.800 The nation was politically one now.

00:44:55.800 And free territory only awaited settlers.

00:44:59.800 They were into the Rocky Mountains now, into the rugged lands which would soon form states like Colorado.

00:45:09.800 And to the North, they were pushing into the Nebraska Territory.

00:45:16.800 Further North still, another thrust of American expansion pushed across the Upper Missouri toward British North America.

00:45:26.800 An old drama had a repeat performance in these lush future farmlands.

00:45:35.800 There were the heroes, new claimants, eager to move westward.

00:45:39.800 There were the victims, the prior claimants, blocking the road.

00:45:40.800 The heroes were real. The victims were real. The ending, as always, the same.

00:45:49.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:45:50.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:45:51.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:45:52.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:45:56.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:46:01.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:46:06.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:46:13.800 In the East, a frenzy of construction had made the 50s a golden age of railway building.

00:46:19.800 By 1860, the railroad network, reaching to the Mississippi, Missouri, reflected American development.

00:46:39.800 But men like Grenville Dodge were inspired by a truly imperial vision.

00:46:45.800 The railway must be extended in one great push right across the Great Plains.

00:46:55.800 Into them would move new millions, pursuing the American dream and building the last best west of all.

00:47:06.800 Dodge's schemes were followed closely in Canada.

00:47:09.800 During the war, he had one backing for his Union Pacific scheme,

00:47:14.800 which anticipated their own dream of a transcontinental railway.

00:47:19.800 To the mountains of Utah, the Union Pacific was now pushing westward.

00:47:24.800 While out of California, the Central Pacific drove to meet it, not far from Salt Lake City.

00:47:30.800 It was clear that by the end of the 60s, rails would indeed span the vast and lonely west.

00:47:57.800 In Congress, meanwhile, there had been a revival of the spirit of manifest destiny.

00:48:06.800 Republican radicals like Thaddeus Stevens had set a tone which could hardly be described as kindly.

00:48:13.800 Strident Ben Butler could talk as if the unification of the continent was the logical completion of the task he had begun as a general against the Confederacy.

00:48:26.800 Another general turned politician was Nathaniel Banks, whose bill for the entry of Canada into the Union was too much even for anti-British congressmen.

00:48:41.800 And Uncle Billy Seward reaffirmed his belief that the whole continent would soon be American.

00:48:48.800 Early in 1867, in an agreement with the Tsarist government, Seward bought Russian Alaska, 4,300 miles of coastline, and 375 million acres of land, all for $7,200,000.

00:49:06.800 But with only a few primitive native inhabitants, Alaska didn't seem much of a bargain.

00:49:16.800 Only its implacable coldness and barrenness impressed many politicians in Washington.

00:49:22.800 It was Seward's folly, many said, and the clever Russians had sold Uncle Billy a big lump of ice. 1.00

00:49:35.800 In fact, Uncle Billy had placed potential American pincers around the vast western emptiness of British North America.

00:49:48.800 Rapid progress on the Union Pacific also implied that Canadian expansionists had no time to lose.

00:50:00.800 Already, the railroad was making expansion westward more rapid and more ruthless.

00:50:06.800 Also underway was the savage extermination of the buffalo, which drove the Indians to a desperate and last-ditch resistance.

00:50:25.800 Helplessly, the defeated and discouraged Indians watched as the steam monsters rolled on. 0.77

00:50:40.800 The fast new trains meant the traditional overlander could now be followed by a new breed of settler, less hardy perhaps, but no less eager. 1.00

00:50:50.800 There seemed no limit to those westward bound.

00:51:00.800 But with the Civil War over, the doors of the American house were open again.

00:51:05.800 Now, they came crowding from every corner of Europe.

00:51:09.800 The greatest mass migration in the whole of history.

00:51:12.800 Soon, the Union Pacific would close the last gap in its construction.

00:51:29.800 While another transcontinental line, the Northern Pacific, with possible connections to Red River and British Columbia, was being talked of.

00:51:39.800 Would not the human tide flowing across these lines soon overflow into the still empty lands of British North America, bringing American sovereignty with it? 0.67

00:51:50.800 The harsh and stubborn wilderness north of Lake Superior made prospects for a railroad seem bleak.

00:52:11.800 So, if change came at last to the lands beneath the Northern Lights, would it not come under the stars and stripes, rather than the Union Jack?

00:52:21.800 And if American expansionists ever persuaded their government to annex the British Northwest as a land bridge to Alaska, who would stop them?

00:52:31.800 There was danger, too, in the East, where the bizarre Fenian antics, aimed at freeing Canada from Britain, were instead making her cling closer to her protector. 0.91

00:52:50.800 Canada's forces remained alert.

00:52:56.800 Fenian propaganda actually strengthened Canada's will to survive.

00:53:01.800 But in Washington, hostile congressmen, who had brushed aside Canadian efforts to save reciprocity, were confident that its loss would wreck Canada's economy and force her into the Union.

00:53:15.800 Many prosperous Canadians had rallied to the support of reciprocity, in the belief that it was indispensable.

00:53:22.800 They, and reciprocity's American supporters, had called on Washington to renew the treaty at a great gathering in Detroit.

00:53:30.800 So, when Washington said no, near panic made annexationist thoughts stir again in some Canadian minds.

00:53:40.800 Meanwhile, hawkish orators, south of the border, were reminding audiences of their destiny to rule the continent.

00:53:52.800 And Secretary of State Seward did seem to many Canadians to be out to put the label U.S. on all of North America.

00:54:01.800 Was Alaska, then, only a first step?

00:54:11.800 This whole continent shall be, sooner or later, within the magic circle of the American Union, Seward had said.

00:54:19.800 Mightn't such a man see in the Fenian wild men convenient agents for expansion?

00:54:26.800 The fear that hatred of Britain might merge with American continental ambitions made Canadians feel they still needed a friend.

00:54:41.800 Perhaps the hovering eagle was deterred only by the lingering prestige of the British lion.

00:54:47.800 In March 1867, an unbiased observer would have said the odds favored the absorption of British North America into the United States.

00:55:04.800 Reciprocity was dead, and southern restraint on northern expansion was gone.

00:55:09.800 Unless there was haste, all Canada's hopes might be balked forever by new American advances.

00:55:15.800 The response was the final pushing through of Canadian Confederation.

00:55:20.800 When the bill passed the Commons in London in March, it stirred less interest than the dog tax bill which followed.

00:55:27.800 Even in Canada, where it became law on July 1st, celebrations were modest.

00:55:32.800 There had been no referendum.

00:55:34.800 This was just as well, for in Nova Scotia a majority was certainly against it.

00:55:38.800 So probably would have been a majority in Quebec, and New Brunswick had been scared into it by the Fenian threat. 0.95

00:55:45.800 Yet, the Canadian politicians had created something important.

00:55:50.800 The Dominion of Canada they had called the new creation.

00:55:59.800 A pretty grand name for a pretty modest miss. 0.96

00:56:03.800 But the new Dominion was simply the old province of Canada, with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia tacked on.

00:56:10.800 Yet it was the first embodiment of a tantalizing dream, of something grander than the narrow vistas of colonial politics.

00:56:22.800 Back in 1860 in Ottawa, the Prince of Wales had laid the cornerstone of an ambitious new parliament for the province of Canada.

00:56:31.800 Now, it became the Parliament of the new Dominion.

00:56:38.800 Canada's modern Parliament preserves in its neo-Gothic style the soaring hopes and complex inspiration of Confederation.

00:56:49.800 What was the inspiration?

00:56:52.800 A House of Commons? Surely British.

00:56:56.800 A Senate? Surely American.

00:57:00.800 The British North America Act clearly committed Canada to a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom.

00:57:14.800 This meant constitutional monarchy with the supreme executive power vested in the reigning sovereign.

00:57:21.800 It meant, too, the British tradition of the supremacy and sanctity of Parliament.

00:57:28.800 And it meant, finally, adherence to the British Cabinet system under which the Prime Minister and his Cabinet must normally be elected to Parliament and be responsible to it.

00:57:45.800 John A. Macdonald, the Canadian Prime Minister, had privately longed for a new dominion with one all-powerful central parliament, as in Britain.

00:57:59.800 But he knew this could not be.

00:58:02.800 But he knew this could not be.

00:58:06.800 Canada had to preserve a multiple identity.

00:58:09.800 And a unitary state was totally unacceptable to Quebec.

00:58:13.800 For an example of divided sovereignty, Macdonald had to look not to unitary Britain, but to Federal America.

00:58:25.800 Macdonald knew that after 1783, chaos and violence had almost destroyed the First American Confederation, whose central government had been too weak.

00:58:35.800 So he looked to the Federal Constitution of 1787, which had set up a stronger central government with certain specific powers.

00:58:45.800 But the various states were left with all the rest, including unspecified and potential rights.

00:59:02.800 Inevitably, the steady accumulation of rights by the states led to such a growth in their stature that the whole federal structure tottered.

00:59:11.800 Conflicting sovereignties and states' rights running amok, Macdonald felt, underlay the tragic sectional conflicts of recent American history.

00:59:29.800 The monarchist in Macdonald had little taste for the American presidential system.

00:59:41.800 The American chief executive, he felt, was a creature of the electorate and too open to influence.

00:59:48.800 Macdonald did adopt the American federal system, but allotted unspecified powers to the center so that any future growth in sovereignty would be safely Federal.

01:00:01.800 Macdonald was pleased with his new creation, rather an odd Anglo-American beast, some thought.

01:00:07.800 But he felt that he had obtained all the advantages of British central government within America's Federal system.

01:00:21.800 How did Uncle Sam react to the political events which so pleased Macdonald?

01:00:26.800 The truth was that the problems of Reconstruction permitted him little more than passing comment.

01:00:36.800 The new nation was left undisturbed to take pride in the dignified opening of the new Dominion Parliament.

01:00:44.800 Confederation was just starting to walk, and the many fathers were filled with admiration.

01:00:51.800 Confederation was just starting to walk, and the many fathers were filled with admiration.

01:00:57.800 Already in the new toddler, they saw a bold and independent young man who would take his proper place beside John Bull and Uncle Sam.

01:01:08.800 The dashing young man would still be British, of course. 1.00

01:01:12.800 But surely Sam would now see that John Bull and his offspring were different people.

01:01:18.800 Or would he?

01:01:23.800 That cocksure pose concealed many doubts.

01:01:32.800 Canadian Confederation was a calculated risk.

01:01:35.800 Britain gambled that her withdrawal from North America would reduce American hostility rather than wet expansionist appetites.

01:01:42.800 Canada gambled that the United States would now see that she was no mere appendage of Britain and would not exploit Canadian weakness.

01:01:50.800 Confederation, of course, had many causes.

01:01:54.800 It was a genuine response to internal problems too big for local solution.

01:01:59.800 But underlying everything was fear of the triumphant Union.

01:02:04.800 At the end of the Civil War, the United States had not made use of the greatest army in the world.

01:02:09.800 But manifest destiny was on the prowl, and Canada's destiny, far less manifest, had to be preserved.

01:02:17.800 Thus you could say that among the monuments to the Fathers of Confederation in Ottawa, there is one missing.

01:02:24.800 The one to Uncle Sam.

01:02:27.800 cono Sam.

01:02:28.800 495

01:02:30.800 C.

01:02:31.800 95

01:02:33.800 Aliberam

01:02:48.800 Thank you.

01:03:18.800 Thank you.

01:03:48.800 Thank you.

01:04:18.800 Thank you.

01:04:48.780 That's your, you know, Cole's notes on Canadian Confederation and what really accelerated it in the 1860s. So pretty important, obviously.

01:04:59.960 It's pretty, it's really pretty straightforward.

01:05:05.200 It's not overly complicated.

01:05:09.380 They, like we saw all the reasons for it within that episode.

01:05:16.520 Fears that, you know, the U.S. would eventually, like, get around to its manifest destiny of trying to conquer the entire American continent.

01:05:25.980 Fears that, you know, Britain couldn't continue engaging in, you know, the policing of its empire globally at the scale that it had grown to.

01:05:38.520 You know, a desire for greater autonomy among Canadians in general.

01:05:44.940 The idea that the disparate, you know, ununited colonies of British North America were going to be susceptible to all kinds of economic and political pressures from the United States and potentially other forces, right?

01:06:01.980 Such as the Fenians. 1.00

01:06:31.960 The Canadians don't gain control over their foreign policy until the 1920s.

01:06:36.480 They don't get an actual bill of rights until Diefenbaker in the, what is that, the late 50s, I think.

01:06:43.380 So, you know, this is just, you know, the first step in Canada becoming an independent nation.

01:06:50.940 And obviously, you know, one thing the episode that we just watched does really well is summarizing all the different, you know, things that have been brought up over the first six parts of this series and kind of, you know, showing how it was not something that happened in a vacuum.

01:07:10.960 You know, these, these reasons persist and a lot of them persist even to today.

01:07:16.100 So, as we've spoke about, particularly in the episode about annexationism and reciprocity.

01:07:22.940 So, anyways, let's get into some of the clips that I pulled for this episode.

01:07:27.940 I'll do, sorry, I'll do the super chats that came in while we're doing that.

01:07:34.400 I think there's only a couple there.

01:07:36.140 So, Uncle Kenny gifted a subscription.

01:07:40.720 Thanks, man.

01:07:41.120 And Justice for Fathers says, no reciprocity without, with USA, fine.

01:07:49.220 Alors, les Anglais et les Français souderont et baliteront cette nation ensemble.

01:07:56.000 And we did and will now.

01:07:57.680 I think it means, then the French and English will unite to construct a nation ourselves or together.

01:08:11.760 I'm not exactly sure what the translations are.

01:08:16.220 That's probably the gist of it, though.

01:08:20.900 All right.

01:08:23.560 I think that was it.

01:08:27.680 Okay.

01:08:33.120 Yeah, I'll just, I'll start going through the clips here.

01:08:35.360 If, if you have comments or questions, whatever, you can throw them in the chat there and we'll get underway.

01:08:41.920 Some thought Britain had become indifferent to North America or that the colonies themselves would not resist

01:08:47.620 because they felt that sooner or later their absorption into the Union was inevitable.

01:08:52.960 But Britain unhesitatingly rushed troops to Quebec

01:08:56.040 and the vigorous cooperation of all Canadian groups, English, French, Irish,

01:09:01.580 firmly revealed their preference for a future separate from the United States.

01:09:07.040 Outright war was avoided.

01:09:08.960 But although Anglo-American tension remained dangerous,

01:09:12.340 complacent Canadian politicians couldn't even agree on a stronger militia bill.

01:09:17.080 Some felt that they had a sure defense in the Confederate Army, which was now invading the North.

01:09:22.620 Yeah, so we actually talked about this a little bit in the last episode.

01:09:29.380 This idea that, you know, Britain did not leave Canada hanging out to dry and was always there whenever it was needed,

01:09:36.280 because this happened multiple times, you know, dozens of times, really, over the course of a century,

01:09:42.640 where the threat of American invasion was there and Britain was there to supply troops and a navy to help defend it.

01:09:50.500 So, you know, there's that that's where you get that kind of reciprocal love that comes particularly in the First World War,

01:09:58.780 where you have Canadians in, you know, a massive outpouring of patriotism for the United Kingdom,

01:10:04.180 signing up well above, you know, what they were per capita in in the United Kingdom.

01:10:10.400 I think only I think it was only Australia that had a higher per capita enlistment in 1914 than Canada among all the colonies.

01:10:19.340 So, yeah, like Canadians were quite patriotic towards Britain and the empire in this time period.

01:10:27.440 And that's because of things like that, like the you know, these stories would have been passed down.

01:10:32.360 And the War of 1812, we even saw that in the War of 1812 episode,

01:10:36.620 they were doing celebrations the way we do today for World War One and World War Two up until the 1960s.

01:10:42.400 And they still continue to this day, though, although they're much smaller in scale, obviously.

01:10:46.780 But yeah. Yeah. And then the other thing in that clip as well is, you know, the note that for their own reasons,

01:10:55.240 the, you know, English loyalists, the Quebecois, the Irish and, you know, various other, you know, British populations in the British North American colonies were not interested in annexationism.

01:11:11.140 And when it did arise, it was always a small faction predominantly constrained to the the merchant class more than anything.

01:11:19.240 They were the ones that flirted most often with American annexationism because they wanted preferable trade circumstances.

01:11:31.240 All right. But obviously, the Irish in particular were a problem because of the United States.

01:11:38.000 And this this obviously continues, but we'll get into the Irish, the Fenians and the ramifications,

01:11:44.440 a little bit of the ramifications anyways, that that had back in Europe as well in the new Union armies.

01:11:51.140 None were more capable or more dashing than the Irish. 1.00

01:11:55.000 But even as they rose to distinction in the service of the Union, many a homesick Irishman brooded on another cause,

01:12:02.020 Irish freedom and the Fenian Brotherhood.

01:12:09.120 The roots of Fenianism lay in the harsh soil of Irish misery. 0.99

01:12:14.440 Overpopulation and the failure of the potato crop had produced stark famine in the hungry forties.

01:12:21.140 Hundreds of thousands of helpless and demoralized people perished, despite desperate relief efforts.

01:12:36.440 Rebellion had followed in 1848, but it was ill-organized and ineffective and had been easily crushed.

01:12:44.440 So, obviously, in this time period, 1840s and well into the 1850s and 60s, Irish immigration to North America,

01:12:58.720 but particularly the United States, was extensive.

01:13:03.860 Let's put it that way.

01:13:04.860 And I think we actually brought, I brought this up in the last episode that, yeah, they were massively disproportionately represented,

01:13:12.820 not just in the Union army.

01:13:14.540 I think that's interesting that, you know, they say among the Union army.

01:13:17.720 There are quite, there are quite a few of them were in the Confederate army as well.

01:13:20.980 I talked about that.

01:13:22.240 There's Irish, you know, folk songs and, you know,

01:13:27.760 history that romanticizes both sides of the American Civil War from the perspective of the Irish.

01:13:34.180 So, it's pretty funny.

01:13:38.140 Or, I guess, sad.

01:13:40.320 But, yeah.

01:13:42.060 And, obviously, this is, so part of the reason this became a problem for the British,

01:13:47.940 which we'll get into a little bit more, is that you had large portions of a population that were now incredibly hostile towards you,

01:13:56.700 not only receiving military training, but also able to organize freely in the United States in a way that they weren't able to in Ireland.

01:14:06.560 And so, a lot of people may not be familiar with this.

01:14:09.520 I'm sure a lot of you are, but part of what led to organized resistance in Ireland was the degree of organizing that was going on in the United States.

01:14:21.240 So, when you hear, like, the Easter uprising and, you know, the rise of, you know, the IRA and, you know, Sinn Féin and all this stuff,

01:14:29.760 there was a huge American component to this that was supporting it financially, militarily, politically from America.

01:14:37.000 So, you know, this continues well into, you know, you'll see this depicted a lot in, like, I think, like, a lot of TV shows, like, criminal, you know, thriller shows will do this kind of stuff.

01:14:50.740 So, like, there's a little bit of this in Peaky Blinders.

01:14:53.720 You know, Sons of Anarchy, I think, has a segment on this going into, like, you know, the 2000s and stuff like that.

01:15:01.100 You know, it's a well-known trope.

01:15:03.980 So, and you'll see that, too, it still exists today, particularly in New England, but even bands like Dropkick Murphys, they glorify, you know, the support for the IRA from America and stuff like that.

01:15:19.960 So, yeah, it was a problem for the British because now you had this, obviously, this huge segment of the population able to freely, you know, plot your downfall in a country that you had no ability to address.

01:15:34.380 So, the impact was significant, to say the least.

01:15:39.360 The other thing that I thought was interesting in that clip, too, is they said, you know, despite extensive relief efforts, hundreds of thousands of people starved.

01:15:48.080 I don't know if you'd get that opinion from the Irish that there was extensive relief efforts.

01:15:52.280 I don't think that they would be so, they would feel that that statement was accurate, but I think, you know, you get a little bit of that bias coming in there where, you know, it's a Canadian program that's, you know, more favorable towards, you know, British colonial rule, the British Empire and stuff like that.

01:16:13.640 So, you get that English spin or that, you know, United Kingdom spin, even in, you know, from the Canadian perspective.

01:16:20.860 So, but yeah, I'll get into the Fenians here. 0.87

01:16:24.820 Ruthless evictions had been justified by the oppressive landlord class as the only solution to Irish overpopulation. 0.50

01:16:32.640 The dispossessed cotters had no choice but to emigrate. 1.00

01:16:37.260 With them, they carried a deep hatred of England.

01:16:40.280 And this had found expression in the Fenian Brotherhood.

01:16:45.020 By 1863, it was powerful enough to hold a convention and declare a Republic of Ireland free from Britain.

01:16:53.900 In pursuit of this great dream, the Fenians fostered a mood of conspiracy and violence and called for the use of terror against England. 0.97

01:17:05.540 Yeah.

01:17:06.900 Funny enough, I spoke about that briefly in the last episode.

01:17:10.280 The, arguably the first terrorist attack in Canadian history was actually carried out by a Fenian in 1841.

01:17:18.560 And it was against the Sir Isaac Brock monument in Niagara that, you know, we actually went, we, well, it's not the same one because it was partially destroyed.

01:17:28.220 But the one that we went to, uh, in Niagara this summer with the boys, uh, that was bombed by an Irishman, um, who was working with, uh, uh, William Lyon McKenzie.

01:17:40.480 So interesting little tidbit there, like this is a, a real, uh, prolonged issue for sure.

01:17:48.500 Um, but yeah, they, like that kind of captures that clip, you know, demonstrates what I was just kind of talking about, that you have these mass organizations of men in the United States that would not have been permitted in British controlled Ireland.

01:18:02.800 And so this allows them to start pooling resources and collectivizing, uh, in ways that they, they weren't able to before.

01:18:10.000 So, um, but yeah, we'll come back to the Fenians obviously later in the episode.

01:18:16.020 Um, but yeah, now the shift that we go to here is, you know, this is arguably a much bigger topic than, I don't know if, you know, I care to try to break down, but you have this shift.

01:18:37.300 Uh, we spoke about it briefly in the last episode as well, this shift from British imperialism being one of hard power, which is a military and naval presence, you know, globally, um, direct rule over her colonies and territories, uh, through governor generals, um, and, uh, you know, colonial governments and stuff like that.

01:19:02.420 The British Raj or the, you know, the, you know, the East India company, uh, who held direct control over, over the territories that they occupied.

01:19:11.600 So more of like your classic imperialism, right.

01:19:15.640 Um, in this time period, you're starting to see a shift towards the more modern form of imperialism, which is, uh, imperialism through the dollar, uh, which, you know, you could see the attraction of it.

01:19:28.880 Um, in this time period, you know, the most.

01:19:32.420 Profitable thing for Britain when it came to, um, you know, her empire was not necessarily extracting resources from it. 0.59

01:19:39.680 It was, uh, accruing markets to sell the, you know, millions of manufactured goods that were being produced there every, you know, week, every month.

01:19:50.640 Uh, you know, having those markets was more valuable than the resources that you could necessarily, you know, you might be able to extract from any of these one territories.

01:19:58.820 So the idea that you would be, you know, the problem with imperialism is that it tends to garner a lot of, uh, animosity, uh, rebellions, revolutions, uprisings.

01:20:14.900 You know, there's problems and these are not good for business.

01:20:18.400 Obviously they are very disruptive towards trade, uh, and, uh, you know, your profits.

01:20:24.760 So this is where you get that push towards a softer form of imperialism that's done through, you know, favorable trade negotiations, um, you know, giving them, giving these territories, limited, uh, governance over their own, uh, people.

01:20:39.840 In their own, uh, territory so that, you know, they're, they're satisfied with the arrangement, but you have the preferable trade, uh, circumstances with them.

01:20:49.660 So this is like, you know, this is why you see Britain move towards a more laissez-faire attitude towards, uh, governance of its territories in this time period.

01:20:59.620 And yeah, this clip gets into that.

01:21:01.620 But behind the Roman facades of British finance, there was already at work a new kind of imperialism, whose origin lay in the ever-expanding productivity of British capitalism.

01:21:20.120 Skilled muscle and pounding machinery had turned all England into a workshop whose products were of a variety and volume which dwarfed anything ever known before.

01:21:31.620 A determined new breed of men, investors and financiers, rather than owners, discussed in their drawing rooms and clubs, new concepts, like the climate of investment.

01:21:45.820 Soon, politicians were feeling their influence.

01:21:49.360 Lobbying was the preferred method.

01:21:51.760 A quiet word here, a timely introduction there, and everywhere, the hint that since business was so obviously good for Britain,

01:22:00.000 British government should be concerned with making things good for business.

01:22:07.480 Yeah, a lot of what I just spoke about there, there's just a shift in, um, policy when it comes to managing the empire.

01:22:15.740 Less direct confrontation, more, uh, peaceful negotiation and trade.

01:22:22.000 So, uh, you know, you can see how this backfires on a long enough timeline, um, because it's the roots of globalism, frankly.

01:22:34.260 Um, it's the roots of modern economic, uh, uh, you know, financial, uh, leverage.

01:22:45.060 Um, this is how the, like, and it, you know, this carried over to the U.S.

01:22:49.400 This is how the U.S. operates its empire today, through having, you know, favorable trade, through being the world's reserve currency,

01:22:56.220 and, you know, making bilateral agreements and, um, you know, trade agreements that bolster its economy over others.

01:23:05.540 Um, it's just, that, that's how it, you know, that, that was what, you know, empire became.

01:23:17.520 Uh, just before we move on there, uh, true core gifted five subscriptions.

01:23:21.540 Thanks so much, man.

01:23:22.200 Appreciate that.

01:23:25.140 But, uh, yeah, obviously this leads to this shift in, you know, imperialism is partially what leads to, you know,

01:23:32.580 the British wanting to not be so involved in Canada and, you know, give it its independence.

01:23:38.660 Um, they didn't want to continually have to keep a, a naval and military presence within, uh, British North America.

01:23:47.160 It was, uh, provocative towards the United States and it was incredibly expensive and they weren't necessarily getting the revenue out of those colonies that they needed to, to justify it.

01:23:59.160 This is where you see them start to shift away, um, you know, from, from that kind of approach in British North America.

01:24:08.120 So, in certain British business circles of the 60s, there arose the vision of a world-girdling system of communications.

01:24:16.660 It was a truly imperial vision, which looked to the imperial government for support and subsidy.

01:24:22.040 British North America had a vital role to play in this system, as a bridge between the Atlantic and the Pacific.

01:24:30.620 It could become part of a shorter route from London to the Orient.

01:24:35.140 The link, of course, would be a transcontinental railway, at the moment, no more than a dream.

01:24:41.840 So, obviously, this is the, at least the precursor to the vision that would be Canada, uniting a transcontinental, um, you know, dominion that was loyal to the British Empire, um, through the spine of a railroad.

01:24:59.640 And, uh, obviously, that, that is what came to pass, but, uh, you can see, you know, the, the, the, these, there's a lot of, um, especially in modern times, there's a lot of disdain for more economic-minded, uh, leaders, uh, people who focus on trade and profit.

01:25:22.260 Um, you know, because there's a desire to kind of return to a, a more, um, traditionally, you know, the traditional sense of what it is to be honorable and a leader and whatnot.

01:25:37.960 But, you know, these, these men had vision, like they, like, think of the ramifications of these, these visions, not just in Canada, but in Australia, New Zealand, you know, across the entire British Empire.

01:25:49.860 Like they united, you know, through trade and infrastructure, uh, you know, basically the entire planet.

01:25:57.540 So, um, you know, I, I get where the, the kind of, uh, distaste for, for this attitude comes from, but, you know, it, it was a pretty, a pretty grand vision.

01:26:14.580 Let's just put it that way.

01:26:15.660 But obviously the problem that they have in Canada is the geography, which we spoke about multiple times.

01:26:21.120 And again, this, this is, uh, another point to note here.

01:26:25.860 I think I've brought it up the last two episodes is that the settlement of Western Canada was not a British endeavor.

01:26:34.580 It was a Canadian endeavor.

01:26:36.840 The whole reason that, you know, the, the prairie provinces exist in their modern form is because of, uh, you know, an endeavor taken on by the Canadian government, not the British government.

01:26:51.120 And it was Canadians who initially populated it.

01:26:54.220 So, um, I think that, you know, I don't want to get into it necessarily again, but I do think it is important to establish this.

01:27:02.400 I think that Albertans and, uh, you know, a lot of people who live in the prairie say, I've kind of forgot that their roots are Canadian.

01:27:08.820 Um, that, that is their ethnogenesis.

01:27:12.020 That is their founding mythos.

01:27:13.940 And they've chosen to ignore that out of conveniency, but yeah, anyways.

01:27:19.780 North of Lake Superior, a road or telegraph line seemed ambitious enough, let alone a railroad.

01:27:32.340 Only a trickle of Canadian settlers had filtered through to the Great Plains.

01:27:36.320 And only a very few had made the long, hard journey overland to the forests and peaks of British Columbia.

01:27:45.120 For them, the lure was gold, not settlement.

01:27:53.240 On the plains, the number of independent traders steadily increased, and the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company steadily declined.

01:28:03.060 Yet the Northwest remained almost unchanged.

01:28:07.100 Its great prairies were as empty as ever in their vast sweep along the unguarded frontier,

01:28:13.360 across which lay the outposts of a troubled union.

01:28:20.540 So, yeah, obviously the undertaking of a transcontinental railway in Canada was a monumental project.

01:28:28.020 You know, just anybody who's ever driven from Ontario to British Columbia

01:28:33.120 would recognize that that is an incredible infrastructure project.

01:28:39.740 And then you have to consider, too, that this is not done with the technology of modern times.

01:28:47.900 It's done with the technology of the 1860s.

01:28:50.160 So, bridging that gap was something that would have to be figured out, I suppose.

01:29:03.560 The scattered British North American colonies had obvious potential.

01:29:17.400 If only they could be economically associated.

01:29:20.360 But could you, asked MacDonald, ever have economic cooperation without political unity?

01:29:27.200 A united British North America would be more than a bridge.

01:29:32.760 The St. Lawrence system would have a Canadian hinterland, instead of competing with New York for the trade of the American West.

01:29:41.420 And if a united British North America could be created,

01:29:47.060 a British-backed transcontinental railway, advocated by men like Edward Watkin in London,

01:29:52.900 would be a more appealing proposition.

01:29:55.660 For such a railway would be not only a link in a worldwide system,

01:30:00.500 but also the spine of a new transcontinental nation.

01:30:04.020 Yeah, so again, the importance of the transcontinental railway shouldn't really be understated,

01:30:12.560 but also the complexity and the undertaking of that project was massive.

01:30:20.800 It wouldn't have happened without British backing,

01:30:24.120 and it wouldn't have happened without political unity among Canadians.

01:30:27.840 So that's where you get a huge part of the desire to see Confederation go through and to unite Prince Edward Island,

01:30:38.320 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland.

01:30:40.520 Obviously, Newfoundland doesn't come in until much later, as do some of the other maritime provinces.

01:30:46.340 But you can understand the vision that was set out by MacDonald and the other fathers of Confederation.

01:30:57.840 Yeah, now we come to the conferences, just briefly getting these.

01:31:03.120 Encouraged, John A. MacDonald arranged a truce among Canadian politicians.

01:31:09.320 And at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in September 1864,

01:31:14.000 Canadian and maritime delegates found enough in common to continue at Quebec in October.

01:31:20.400 Here, tentative agreement on a federation was reached.

01:31:23.420 The second transcontinental nation had taken its first step.

01:31:28.080 Yeah, so this is like, I don't know, grade six or seven history in Canada.

01:31:35.220 You know, Charlottetown, Quebec conferences, as well as the London conference,

01:31:39.420 essentially in basically establishing the terms of Confederation.

01:31:44.580 And obviously, the two major players, you know, there's many,

01:31:49.140 but the two most important figures, obviously, are Sir Johnny McDonough, George Etz, and Cartier.

01:31:53.540 OK, but we'll get back, you know, to them at a later time.

01:32:00.860 Forum member says, Ferry's losing his voice.

01:32:02.540 Sounds like, yeah, I have no.

01:32:03.700 I started this.

01:32:05.960 I don't think I spoke all day, funny enough, just because, like, I haven't seen it.

01:32:11.620 I haven't talked to anyone.

01:32:13.500 I haven't.

01:32:13.860 And the moment I started speaking on the stream, I was like, oh, my God, what's happening here?

01:32:20.280 But, yeah.

01:32:22.560 We'll just continue along with the clip, sir.

01:32:24.160 Why did Britain act when she did? 0.98

01:32:28.640 During the war scare of 1861, Britain had shown that she would not abandon Canada to the United States.

01:32:35.260 But she didn't care to go on repeating the demonstration.

01:32:38.660 Moreover, it was clear that the Union was going to win.

01:32:42.120 What if she found in the British presence to the North an excuse for settling old scores?

01:32:47.480 But if Britain were to withdraw, it must be without loss of prestige in the eyes of the United States.

01:32:52.940 Canadian Federation seemed a basis for just such a withdrawal with honour.

01:32:58.640 A stronger Canada standing on its own might be acceptable to the United States.

01:33:05.660 Yeah, and this is obviously, like, this obviously did come to pass.

01:33:10.340 So, you know, the British position here was that, you know, if we are not, we don't have a military and naval presence in North America anymore.

01:33:22.940 While maintaining an economic and political union with our colonies in North America.

01:33:28.240 That would be less provocative to the United States.

01:33:33.580 And they might then be less, you know, they would be less encouraged to take a hostile position towards both us and Canada.

01:33:45.440 And obviously, that is what came to pass, although it was a risk or a gamble.

01:33:52.200 And that we'll see this in the next episode, because this is the time period where essentially permanent peace is established between Canada and America till today.

01:34:02.780 Through the Treaty of Washington in 1871, which is the Treaty of Washington in 1871, which is the topic of the next episode.

01:34:08.380 So we'll get into this more.

01:34:09.880 But this is the time period where British policy is actually quite, you know, well crafted.

01:34:15.180 It's very, it's very competent diplomacy and understanding of motivations and desires of different players involved.

01:34:29.520 So, but I love this clip.

01:34:36.360 Again, it's one of these ones where it's Canadians taking shots at Americans.

01:34:39.920 But this actually does capture the attitude and you still see this today.

01:34:44.720 You still see this kind of like this is, I think it's important to just keep pointing out that the, a lot of the attitudes that Canadians have towards Americans are deeply rooted.

01:34:54.340 And, you know, whether they're accurate or just or, you know, even productive and they're not productive, but understanding that the, the perspectives that even modern Canadians have of America, the American system, you know, American culture or the, like the American political style is deeply rooted.

01:35:19.940 And you see this in this clip summarizes it pretty well.

01:35:24.340 The uninhibited side of American politics had confirmed traditional anti-Republican prejudices among English Canadians.

01:35:33.360 They saw a caricature of Uncle Sam.

01:35:36.740 And although graft and corruption were really worldwide, they were apt to think of them as distinctively American.

01:35:43.140 That this brash customer could still be taken in hand by John Bull was reassuring.

01:35:52.620 And who else but John could talk to Sam on equal terms?

01:35:57.960 John Bull should stay in the picture, English Canadians felt, even as they welcomed Federation. 0.98

01:36:03.160 So again, you get the Canadian perspective, like this still exists today in some capacity, right?

01:36:12.840 Funny, you know, it exists more on the left than it does on the right, but this is a traditionally conservative or nationalistic or patriotic Canadian view. 0.96

01:36:23.380 More than it is like a shit lib, you know, view of America. 0.91

01:36:29.080 So that, that is, I think, interesting. 0.89

01:36:32.060 But yeah, the other part of that clip as well, that's worth noting is, this is where you get that kind of bond of like, okay.

01:36:38.580 You know, Canadians want independence, they want, you know, more control over their own affairs, but they also don't want, they don't want to cut ties with Britain.

01:36:51.380 Which is why we have the crown, which is why we have this connection that exists, which is why all of our institutions are British.

01:36:58.540 For better or worse, whether you like it or not, that is the reality of Canadian history.

01:37:03.040 That's why things are the way they are.

01:37:04.640 And, you know, people bitch and bemoan, you know, that a lot of the time in modernity, but there was good reasons for it at the time. 0.97

01:37:15.200 And, you know, even if you feel it's no longer necessary, it is our tradition, it is our history.

01:37:31.040 Where was it here?

01:37:32.900 Oh, yeah, this is okay.

01:37:33.900 Okay, this is a long clip, so I apologize, but it's just, it's really well done.

01:37:41.800 And it basically summarizes the position of Quebec from, you know, the, basically the entirety of, you know, its existence, right?

01:37:52.380 From New France up until the current point that we're in.

01:37:55.940 It goes over all of the, I'm just going to play it because it really is, but this really summarizes Quebec's position in 1865.

01:38:05.760 So give this one, you know, pay attention to this one, you know, it really summarizes it all perfectly.

01:38:12.820 For French Canadians, the issue of federation was not so simple.

01:38:18.300 For them, the British presence was not the result of choice, but the consequence of a lost imperial war.

01:38:25.840 There had been military surrender to superior British power, but no spiritual surrender.

01:38:32.820 British troops maintained British sovereignty, and men like Sir John Colburn, who crushed their revolt in 1837, symbolized the brutal fact of alien occupation.

01:38:47.440 So whenever the Yankee cousin twisted the British lion's tail, radical French opinion was apt to enjoy it. 0.98

01:39:00.220 But a Roman Catholic clergy of great ability had taken over leadership of the struggle to preserve the French Canadian nation.

01:39:07.560 Church leaders had never forgotten the devilish forms in which the American revolutionaries had depicted Catholicism, nor that extremist opinion in Protestant America was intent on making the church sever its ties with Rome.

01:39:26.340 Homage to the Pope became servility in the ugly caricatures of American alarmists who felt endangered by creeping Catholicism.

01:39:37.560 A bugaboo about a world-embracing Catholic imperialism was widespread in America.

01:39:50.340 Yet despite anti-American feelings, some church leaders were hesitant, and among many laymen there were doubts about giving up a union where they had been equals for a federation where they would be a minority.

01:40:02.980 Their leader was A. A. A. Dorian, who attacked the federation scheme as a monster, whose many English-speaking heads would swallow a helpless Quebec.

01:40:17.800 French-Canadian leaders in federal politics would soon become French-speaking Englishmen, he said, sacrificing Quebec to the majority.

01:40:26.820 But Georges-Étienne Carchet, MacDonald's French lieutenant, thought otherwise.

01:40:33.820 If the association between English and French in Canada could not be developed, annexation to the United States would follow, reducing Quebec to political impotence.

01:40:46.780 The British connection was invaluable, said Carchet.

01:40:51.920 Had not the best ally against local abuse of French rights always been the British crown?

01:41:01.100 As for Quebec, it would move ahead with the expansion of the new Canada and its railways.

01:41:07.500 Railways in which, as it happened, Carchet had investments.

01:41:10.580 The press was sharply divided.

01:41:31.000 But Dorian supporters lost out to Carchet is by a narrow margin.

01:41:34.800 With the results of the debate now clear, the Church felt it should throw the full weight of its authority behind the majority decisions.

01:41:44.980 The choice was simply the lesser of two evils, necessary for self-preservation.

01:41:50.240 So, as I said, like, that's a really good summary of just Quebec, basically, from, you know, 1763 up until the current point in time, so 1865.

01:42:07.220 So 100 years.

01:42:08.560 And, yeah, it summarizes all of it.

01:42:10.040 The influence of the influence of the Catholic Church, you know, the feelings of not wanting necessarily to be in, you know, an English union, but understanding the practical necessity of having protection of the British Empire.

01:42:22.560 Because they were always more favorable to French rights and the rights of the Catholic Church in Canada than, you know, America would have been.

01:42:31.260 The understanding that it was better to be a bigger fish in a small pond as opposed to a small fish in a big pond.

01:42:41.240 So the idea that, you know, if they had gained the union with the United States, they would have been a tiny minority among English and other European groups, obviously.

01:42:52.140 As opposed to in Canada, they were still a minority, but a much larger minority than they would have been in the context of the United States.

01:42:58.500 As well as aversion to just, you know, anti-American sentiment towards, obviously, you have a lot of, you know, wasps, right?

01:43:07.160 So, you know, there's a lot of hostility towards the Catholic Church, which was very, obviously, influential at this time period in Quebec.

01:43:15.840 And that remained true up until, you know, the post-war era.

01:43:20.360 So, it's just a really good summary of it.

01:43:24.180 One thing that I did want to point out as well, because it's not mentioned in this series, if it is in the later episode, I don't think it is.

01:43:32.840 But one thing that's very interesting about Georges Etzien-Cartier, and I think it's important for the context of discussing why he was in favor of Confederation and why he had the views that he did,

01:43:43.560 is that he was actually part of the 1837-1838 rebellions in Lower Canada.

01:43:48.580 He was a follower of Louis-Joseph Papineau when he was a younger man.

01:43:53.460 And the reason that's important is because, you know, he was exiled to Vermont.

01:43:59.660 Like, this is somebody that had fought against, you know, British rule in Lower Canada.

01:44:04.760 And I think that experience obviously would have played a huge role in shaping his view and understanding that that kind of opposition to British rule was not going to get you what you wanted.

01:44:18.060 And that, in fact, the British were actually fairly benevolent imperial masters that had really not been hostile towards the French.

01:44:27.320 Now, they weren't necessarily giving them everything they wanted over, you know, the English in British North America, but they certainly weren't directly attacking their culture and heritage.

01:44:37.480 And so I think Georges Etzien-Cartier realized through his, you know, experiences with Republican ideals.

01:44:43.680 And like you see this a lot, you know, radicals in their youth that, you know, become much more pragmatic and understand how politics actually works.

01:44:52.640 And, you know, what's best. So I think Georges Etzien-Cartier had, you know, that kind of experience.

01:44:58.980 You know, something to just, you know, provide more context there.

01:45:03.820 And he was willing, he was the biggest French champion, obviously, of Confederation.

01:45:07.820 So an important character that doesn't, you know, isn't discussed as much as maybe he should be.

01:45:14.200 All right. Another thing here, too, it's come up a bunch of times, and I just figured I might as well clip it and just make a quick note, is the Monroe Doctrine.

01:45:36.920 Some of you are probably familiar with this. It's a quick clip. I'll just play it.

01:45:40.060 Some raucous voices suggested that the Monroe Doctrine should apply to these Europeans, too.

01:45:46.740 Might not the victorious Union commanders now look northward and find new uses for their veterans?

01:45:57.060 So the news that the great armies of the Union were to be demobilized quickly was greeted with joy.

01:46:03.980 With the utmost relief, Canadians saw the victors head for home.

01:46:10.060 So I only clipped that to discuss briefly the Monroe Doctrine and its importance, not just in this time period, but it's something that remains important up until, I don't know, the 1960s and 70s.

01:46:25.420 You'll even see some of it. You'll hear a quote, I think, like JFK invoked it at one point or not invoked it, but, you know, alluded to it.

01:46:33.300 So if you're not familiar, you know, it's from President Monroe, 1823, and the Monroe Doctrine was basically an assertion that the preeminent power in the entire Western Hemisphere should be the United States and that the United States would actively oppose any, you know, attempts to

01:46:53.180 found new colonies by European powers.

01:47:00.180 It was basically a hostile doctrine towards European imperialism.

01:47:05.180 And so there's parts of it, you know, essentially what it would lead to is like backing, you know, rebel forces in the Western Hemisphere.

01:47:15.180 And so you see this come up actually quite a bit.

01:47:18.180 It comes up with Mexico, it comes up with Canada in the 1830s, 18, the 1837, 1838 rebellions.

01:47:27.180 People allude to, you know, the Monroe Doctrine of backing rebels against European empires, etc.

01:47:33.180 One of the more impactful, you know, events that it had a role in was the Spanish-American War.

01:47:44.180 So if you're not super familiar with that, basically at this at that point, Spain was putting down rebellion in Cuba.

01:47:51.180 And this is it was invoked like the concept of the Monroe Doctrine was invoked and America was aiding Cuban rebels.

01:47:58.180 Right. So it comes up, you know, in the 19, like during the Cold War, it'll come up again with like, what is it?

01:48:11.180 I think like Panama and Nicaragua in a different way, but yeah.

01:48:19.180 So, yeah, I just thought I would address that.

01:48:30.180 And then we're back to the Fenians here. 0.94

01:48:33.180 So this is again, it's one thing that really drove through, you know, the push towards Confederation,

01:48:40.180 which was these, you know, rowdy American factions that were not really under the control of the American government.

01:48:47.180 But yeah. All right.

01:48:49.180 But one group, the fanatical Fenian Brotherhood was now ready to begin its own war.

01:49:03.180 The rapid disbanding of the Union armies made battle hardened Irish veterans suddenly available.

01:49:10.180 Many, without immediate work, were easily recruited into the anti-British Brotherhood.

01:49:16.180 Soon there were widespread rumors that the Fenian plotters were up to something big.

01:49:24.180 I obviously the the sketches and images that they use throughout this series are cutting and pretty harsh.

01:49:37.180 The one that gets me, though, is the way they draw the Fenians. 0.81

01:49:41.180 Oh, it's there. It's almost like they're leprechauns, like they're little like malformed, like with the like the stove top hats.

01:49:51.180 And I don't know, they just look like leprechauns, like malformed leprechauns.

01:49:57.180 And I don't know if that's intentional, like I don't know if that's just them trying to be cutting or if they like that the archetype of the leprechaun already existed or something.

01:50:07.180 Or if that's where the archetype of the modern, you know, depiction of leprechauns comes from this kind of like squat, you know, little hat with the long tails on the coat.

01:50:18.180 Yeah. So I don't know. That made me laugh.

01:50:26.180 Yeah, but obviously, so this was what leads to the Fenian raids.

01:50:32.180 And they were deadly. There was I don't know if you'd call them pitch battles.

01:50:36.180 I think the way that they're depicted in some of the sketches and paintings from the day are probably hyperbolic.

01:50:43.180 But yeah.

01:50:45.180 Military forces in Canada were frequently on the alert in early 1866.

01:50:51.180 For as Canadians pointed out to a seemingly apathetic Washington,

01:50:56.180 the Fenians had decided to free Ireland by attacking British power in Canada.

01:51:02.180 In June, the liberation of Ireland began.

01:51:06.180 The fire of the Fenian veterans threw the first Canadian forces which opposed them briefly off balance.

01:51:25.180 But reinforcements rushed to the main danger points soon forced Fenian withdrawal.

01:51:36.180 But there had been casualties.

01:51:38.180 And Canada seethed with anger.

01:51:41.180 Yeah, sir. I'm just trying to fix my panel here.

01:51:48.180 Yeah. So obviously, this is, again, something that kind of accelerated Confederation.

01:51:54.180 It produced a lot of people or a lot of, you know, Canadians who are supportive of Confederation as a result.

01:52:04.180 I think they mentioned earlier that this was particularly impactful in New Brunswick, which obviously shares a border with, you know, the New England area where a lot of these raids are being staged.

01:52:13.180 And I can't remember the exact border crossing points, but it was more to the east than, you know, the Niagara region, as far as I recall.

01:52:21.180 So, you know, this has an effect on New Brunswick wanting, you know, to be more politically unified with the rest of the British colonies in North America for defense purposes, obviously.

01:52:33.180 And yeah, like this is something that goes on.

01:52:35.180 You know, the results of this, you know, it may be not super impact.

01:52:38.180 Obviously, the impact of Canada is it leads, you know, to more support for Confederation, but the impacts, the greater impacts of this ripple on well into the, you know, 1960s and 70s in Ireland during the Troubles and shit like that.

01:52:53.180 So, yeah.

01:52:58.180 I'm having issues with my, my board here. I can't scroll.

01:53:08.180 That's fucking weird. 0.97

01:53:13.180 I have, I have, I think two or three more clips and I can't scroll to them. 0.99

01:53:18.180 Oh, hang on. I got an idea. I'll just start deleting stuff.

01:53:28.180 There we go. Okay.

01:53:38.180 Um, yeah, this next clip I included as well, because it's actually shows again, we've talked about it, maybe not on this stream, but I've certainly spoken about it in Twitter spaces and my, my other stream, but it's where you get this difference in attitude towards, you know, ethnic makeup between Americans and Canadians, or at least what became those ethnicities.

01:54:06.180 During this time period, part, again, part of what accelerates, you know, Canadian, uh, unity is this idea that America is growing very fast and it's spreading and it's spreading into the West and there's nothing to really prevent it from being able to move northward into the open prairies, um, that were not settled in Canada.

01:54:27.180 And part of the reason that America was able to expand so quickly is because there was a huge spike in, in immigration from all over, not just the British Isles, obviously, but all over Europe.

01:54:38.180 So we, we talked earlier about how, you know, the 1840s and fifties, you see a huge spike of Irish immigration into America, the 1860s and seventies lead to a huge spike of Eastern European, you know, German, uh, there's a lot of Italians coming at this point.

01:54:54.180 And so this is where you get the difference.

01:54:56.180 Canada did not experience that, that kind of immigration to Canada until like the post-war era, like the post-World War II era.

01:55:06.180 Um, and even then it was in the sixties and seventies.

01:55:09.180 So basically after we get, you know, the, the, the multicultural doctrine, that's whatever we started seeing it.

01:55:15.900 So this is where you get this kind of idea that, um, Americans tend to, to more towards like, uh, a pan European nationalism, whereas Canadian nationalism is more rooted in the British and French identity.

01:55:29.680 And that, you know, not understanding that is a real big misstep for, um, you know, nationalists, even if they are, uh, they do tend towards a more white identitarian or pan European nationalist perspective of Canada.

01:55:45.740 If you don't understand the history of it, this is where you, you make missteps in communicating it to, uh, the Canadian audience and why it becomes harder.

01:55:54.160 So, um, yeah, I just figured we'd watch this clip and even, uh, funny enough, the, the way it's depicted here is actually kind of vulgar and cutting.

01:56:04.500 Like, I don't know what the, the root of, you know, the image that's used in this is, like if it's a British one or a Canadian one, or, uh, even it could be a, uh, like a genuine, like American one, because obviously there was some, uh, quite a few Americans who were opposed to this too.

01:56:18.780 You see this illustrated in something like gangs of New York would build a butcher, right?

01:56:23.780 This kind of like anti Irish sentiment, like anti other European, like he, he viewed the American nation as an ethnos that was rooted in, you know, it's Anglo-Saxon identity, not as something that, uh, it was open to all.

01:56:37.240 And that, that sentiment existed in, in America in this time period.

01:56:40.360 And so, you know, they, there was a lot of people who opposed mass immigration, uh, in that period as well, because they thought it was diluting what it meant to be American.

01:56:48.080 And, you know, there's maybe some validity to that.

01:56:52.740 There seemed no limit to those westward bound, but with the civil war over, the doors of the American house were open again.

01:57:01.760 Now they came crowding from every corner of Europe, the greatest mass migration in the whole of history.

01:57:10.360 Soon, the Union Pacific would close the last gap in its construction, while another transcontinental line, the Northern Pacific, with possible connections to Red River in British Columbia, was being talked of.

01:57:34.880 So there you go.

01:57:38.080 You can see, I basically already summarized that clip, but yeah, it's, it shouldn't be understated how important that was.

01:57:45.820 And this is where you get a lot of look at Americans, particularly on the East coast are probably more familiar with this or, you know, would, would know that maybe a lot of Canadians would, but there is a lot of tensions in the major, uh, metropolitan areas.

01:58:01.080 In this time period, there's a huge spike in organized crime and stuff like that.

01:58:05.180 It's where you get the precursors to things like the mafia and, uh, you know, Irish, the Irish mob and stuff like that in Boston.

01:58:12.620 So like there was a, a legitimate reason why a lot of, you know, you could call them heritage Americans in that time period were hostile towards Italians and Greeks and, um, the Irish and a lot of the people that were making their way there.

01:58:28.380 So, all right.

01:58:41.140 Sigma Alliance says Anglo-Saxons were ruled by Norman still are.

01:58:45.060 I mean, nor you could argue that Normans are an extension of Anglo-Saxons anyways, right?

01:58:52.040 The Normans came from what Denmark?

01:58:54.080 That's where the Anglo-Saxons came from, or at least some of them was it, I think it's the, is it the Jutes that came from, you know, Denmark or close to like, these people are so saying like Anglo-Saxon and Norman, like they're very similar, like would have been able to understand each other's languages.

01:59:13.900 So I don't know.

01:59:14.840 It's kind of a weird thing.

01:59:15.880 It's like, uh, what would a good modern comparison be?

01:59:21.380 I don't know.

01:59:23.340 It would be like saying like English and Welsh.

01:59:26.100 It's like, yeah, they're different, but not that much.

01:59:29.760 Very closely related.

01:59:35.580 Um, but I get what you're saying.

01:59:43.420 Yeah.

01:59:44.360 All right.

01:59:45.240 Uh, what was this next?

01:59:47.960 Yeah.

01:59:48.180 This next clip.

01:59:48.800 So these are two longer clips, but you know, they're worth getting into for sure.

01:59:52.980 So I'm just going to let them rip.

01:59:55.480 There was danger too in the East where the bizarre Fenian antics. 1.00

02:00:00.100 Oh, sorry.

02:00:00.700 This, the reason I have this long clip is because it's a very good summary of all of the things that have been discussed that lead to confederation.

02:00:08.040 So just, you know, to reiterate it one more time, we just kind of go through all the problems that are developing.

02:00:12.500 There was danger too in the East where the bizarre Fenian antics aimed at freeing Canada from Britain were instead making her cling closer to her protector. 0.95

02:00:24.440 Canada's forces remained alert.

02:00:28.460 Fenian propaganda actually strengthened Canada's will to survive, but in Washington, hostile congressmen who had brushed aside Canadian efforts to save reciprocity were confident that its loss would wreck Canada's economy and force her into the Union.

02:00:49.020 Many prosperous Canadians had rallied to the support of reciprocity in the belief that it was indispensable.

02:00:58.020 They and reciprocity's American supporters had called on Washington to renew the treaty at a great gathering in Detroit.

02:01:06.020 So when Washington said no, near panic made annexationist thoughts stir again in some Canadian minds.

02:01:15.020 Meanwhile, hawkish orators south of the border were reminding audiences of their destiny to rule the continent.

02:01:26.020 And Secretary of State Seward did seem to many Canadians to be out to put the label US on all of North America.

02:01:42.020 Was Alaska then only a first step?

02:01:45.020 This whole continent shall be, sooner or later, within the magic circle of the American Union, Seward had said.

02:01:54.020 Mightn't such a man see in the Fenian wild men convenient agents for expansion?

02:02:01.020 The fear that hatred of Britain might merge with American continental ambitions made Canadians feel they still needed a friend.

02:02:16.020 Perhaps the hovering eagle was deterred only by the lingering prestige of the British lion.

02:02:26.020 Yeah, it's just a good summary of the time period in particular when it comes to Canadian American relations and then the desire to, you know, maintain a connection with the British Empire.

02:02:38.020 And not just cut, you know, cut all ties or cut all political and economic ties like that.

02:02:45.020 So, yeah.

02:02:46.020 Okay.

02:02:47.020 The last clip here is just, again, this is important to understand that, you know, a lot of people obviously have a respect for Johnny McDonald because they consider him kind of the father of the fathers of confederation.

02:03:05.020 But what's important is that he was a skilled diplomat, he was a visionary and that it was he who both, you know, was the architect and the major builder of confederation.

02:03:18.020 And so he had a skilled approach and there's you can see the I'll play the clip.

02:03:25.020 But what's important to look at here is the reasons for how confederation and government was constructed in this time period made perfect sense.

02:03:35.020 So, as time has gone by, you can see how some of the things that were put in place in the 1860s have come back around now and have started to become a hindrance to the, you know, the betterment of, you know, Canadian life and relations between provinces and regions and stuff like that.

02:03:59.320 So, I'll just play the clip and then I'll get into it.

02:04:04.320 John A. Macdonald, the Canadian Prime Minister, had privately longed for a new dominion with one all-powerful central parliament as in Britain.

02:04:13.320 But he knew this could not be.

02:04:20.320 Canada had to preserve a multiple identity and a unitary state was totally unacceptable to Quebec.

02:04:27.320 For an example of divided sovereignty, Macdonald had to look not to unitary Britain, but to federal America.

02:04:38.320 Macdonald knew that after 1783, chaos and violence had almost destroyed the First American Confederation, whose central government had been too weak.

02:04:49.320 So, he looked to the Federal Constitution of 1787, which had set up a stronger central government with certain specific powers.

02:05:00.320 But the various states were left with all the rest, including unspecified and potential rights.

02:05:07.320 Inevitably, the steady accumulation of rights by the states led to such a growth in their stature that the whole Federal structure tottered.

02:05:25.320 Conflicting sovereignties and states' rights running amuck, Macdonald felt, underlay the tragic sectional conflicts of recent American history.

02:05:42.320 The monarchist in Macdonald had little taste for the American presidential system.

02:05:53.320 The American chief executive, he felt, was a creature of the electorate and too open to influence.

02:06:00.320 Macdonald did adopt the American federal system, but allotted unspecified powers to the center so that any future growth in sovereignty would be safely federal.

02:06:15.320 Macdonald was pleased with his new creation, rather an odd Anglo-American beast, some thought.

02:06:21.320 But he felt that he had obtained all the advantages of British central government within America's federal system.

02:06:34.320 Yeah, so you can see in that clip, like, everything about that is perfectly sensible.

02:06:40.320 It makes sense.

02:06:41.320 At the time, having a strong central government when you have, well, one, part of the problem that, you know, the British colonies had in general was a lack of a strong central government in the region.

02:06:52.960 So having, you know, how many, how many colonies were there?

02:06:58.120 Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, you know, Newfoundland, having all these colonies with their own kind of governor general or some kind of, you know, leadership appointed by the empire.

02:07:14.220 And then, you know, minor elected assemblies and stuff like this was part of the problem.

02:07:19.920 It was too, there was no centralized authority that could, you know, have a vision and pursue it, you know, for all of the colonies, you know, mutual benefit.

02:07:33.000 So he understood that he needed a strong central government.

02:07:36.480 Now, obviously, the problem with that would have been, as they mentioned in the clip, that a lot of these colonies would not have gotten on board with that, specifically Quebec, if there was a unitary government, as it's put.

02:07:50.020 So there's, you know, typically two types of central governments.

02:07:52.680 There's a unitary government or a federal government.

02:07:55.360 Unitary means, like, it's one government.

02:07:57.600 So an example of that would be like France.

02:08:00.420 In France, it's a unitary government.

02:08:02.140 There is no regional, municipal, blah, blah, blah.

02:08:05.420 It's all one government, right?

02:08:09.700 So mixing those two systems just made sense. 0.99

02:08:13.120 Now, the problem with this is that I'm sure a lot of us can see today that this has come around and has started to bite us in the ass. 0.96

02:08:20.460 And this is where you get a lot of the rising tensions between, you know, say, the Western separatists and Ottawa or Ontario. 0.96

02:08:29.200 At the time, it was perfectly sensible that Alberta would not have the ability to, you know. 0.64

02:08:36.900 It was a project of the Canadian state.

02:08:40.240 So the idea that you would give it autonomy or even something resembling autonomy just doesn't make sense, especially whenever there's barely any settlement there.

02:08:48.020 And what you're trying to do is bring it into a unified fold so that you can build massive infrastructure projects like the Transcontinental Railway or even just roads and things like that, bridges, etc.

02:09:00.780 So this is a building period and, you know, it's not practical as we saw actually in one of the earlier episodes.

02:09:08.000 A great example of that is in the, you know, post-war of 1812 era, there's a huge infrastructure, you know, building period within Canada.

02:09:17.300 Canals, canals, bridges, you know, sluice, you know, irrigation systems, etc.

02:09:24.000 And the French weren't really on board with this because they felt it didn't benefit them.

02:09:29.280 They felt that it was beneficial to the English and English merchants in particular.

02:09:33.860 But as we, you know, that's a very limited and narrow-minded view because, you know, obviously now that those infrastructure projects benefit everybody.

02:09:42.540 So, you know, you need a strong central government if you want to, you know, get into the business of nation building.

02:09:52.280 And McDonnell knew that.

02:09:55.160 Now, in this time period, I think it's pretty obvious that it's time for a new confederation.

02:10:01.320 It's time to bring all of the provinces and territories back to the table and to renegotiate the terms of confederation.

02:10:09.360 It's not working.

02:10:10.640 It's not beneficial.

02:10:11.560 It's creating more problems than it's solving at this point.

02:10:14.960 And there's nothing wrong with that.

02:10:16.220 That's not, you know, in opposition to the vision that was laid out by the fathers of confederation.

02:10:24.660 It's in the spirit of it.

02:10:26.700 So now things have changed.

02:10:29.080 You know, we have a lot of problems.

02:10:30.460 Funny enough, we have a lot of the problems that they were experiencing in this time period, but just, you know, modern versions of it.

02:10:36.380 It's time to figure out a new version of this thing as opposed to tearing it apart or annexing parts of it off to the United States or, you know, basically allowing it to be turned into a third world homeless shelter.

02:10:53.060 So, yeah.

02:10:54.960 Raid Siren says, we clearly need a completely new constitution. 0.84

02:10:57.580 I don't disagree with that.

02:10:58.960 I think it should be done in the spirit of, you know, what was, because you can't just cut off your roots.

02:11:04.500 That's not going to help anyone.

02:11:05.680 But, as I said, I don't think a new constitution, a new confederation is in opposition to that vision.

02:11:15.040 I think it's in the spirit of it.

02:11:16.620 So, yeah, there is something that needs to be done here.

02:11:20.200 And until Canadians, you know, come to that conclusion that we need to renegotiate this thing, it's not going to happen. 0.99

02:11:25.820 The other reason it's not going to happen either is because we don't have capable fucking leaders. 0.98

02:11:29.620 There is not a single, there's not a single fucking leader in this country that would even broach the subject of maybe we should have a new confederation. 0.98

02:11:40.600 Maybe it's time for various, you know, interests across the entire country to come to the table and renegotiate, you know, the conditions of confederation. 0.95

02:11:53.800 And maybe if we engage in this process, you know, in modernity with, you know, the reference to what was done in 1867, we would be able to accomplish this.

02:12:06.800 But they're not interested in that.

02:12:08.400 And the reason they're not interested in that is because it doesn't benefit them.

02:12:14.140 And this is why, like, Daniel Smith won't suggest this.

02:12:17.860 Scott Moe isn't going to suggest this.

02:12:19.780 It's not in their benefit.

02:12:20.720 This is the kind of, the easiest way I can explain that is that we are ruled by politicians, not by statesmen.

02:12:31.240 These people don't care about actually crafting something that's beneficial to Canadians with a view towards the next 100, 200, 300 years.

02:12:41.880 That's not what interests them.

02:12:43.180 What interests them is policies that are going to be popular with the electorate that get them voted back in in the next election.

02:12:53.020 And that's why they don't have vision.

02:12:55.860 They don't look towards things like this.

02:12:58.720 And whenever they do, whenever they talk about generational, you know, infrastructure projects or, you know, generational policies that will, you know, shepherd Canadians into a more prosperous future or some bullshit, it's always, you know, to our detriment, to the benefit of someone else.

02:13:14.920 It was just gaslighting, but, yeah, it's time to address the problems of confederation in the modern context and come to a new conclusion.

02:13:27.080 If we did that, there would be less problems with Alberta separatism.

02:13:31.220 There would be less, you know, issues with what's going on in the poverty of the Maritimes.

02:13:37.480 There would be a better sense of what it means to be Canadian.

02:13:43.760 So I think it's time to engage in this project.

02:13:46.520 And, yeah, I'll just leave it at that, really.

02:13:53.580 Shamrock Sheikh says liberal democracy is not the way.

02:13:55.920 Well, liberal democracy was never the intention with the confederation.

02:14:01.420 It was the opposite of liberal democracy.

02:14:03.520 Constitutional monarchy.

02:14:10.880 All right.

02:14:12.060 Okay, let's, I'll address.

02:14:17.940 Oh, one other thing.

02:14:19.120 I totally forgot to mention this as well.

02:14:22.380 Maybe I'll play the clip.

02:14:23.860 What clip was it?

02:14:26.540 Did I already take it out?

02:14:27.840 Okay.

02:14:33.520 Maybe I'll just play this one again. 1.00

02:14:45.680 No, fuck it. 0.99

02:14:46.480 I'll reload it because I think it's just a funny comparison. 0.99

02:14:52.140 I can't even reload it.

02:14:53.460 Anyways, whatever.

02:14:54.560 One thing I was going to mention is I think it's hilarious because at one point they talk about, you know, the Fenians, the Irish.

02:15:00.440 You know, and their hatred of the British and coming over to, you know, Canada and the perception that these people are just fomenting violence and rebellion and terrorism.

02:15:13.880 And that there's no connection to the Canadian people and this has nothing to do with us, blah, blah, blah.

02:15:21.140 And the first thing that jumped into my mind when I heard that was Calistan, right?

02:15:25.300 You have this diaspora population that has set itself up, that is using our territory as a base to organize with, a level of organization that they would never be afforded in India, you know, the way that the Irish would not have been able to organize the way that they did in Ireland, that they were in America.

02:15:47.000 And then use our territory as a staging ground to carry out terrorist attacks and murders, just violence in general against, you know, targets within our country.

02:15:59.220 Now, the targets in this case are typically Indian politicians or, you know, diplomats or influential figures in general, which you can make the argument of why those people here to begin with.

02:16:09.980 But I did think that that was funny is like, we, did we not, we should have known this, right?

02:16:15.960 Well, a lot of people did know this and they were just ignored, but the idea that you would bring in that kind of population into your country and expect no issues is just, it's, you know, it's not incompetence, it's intentional malice.

02:16:29.520 So.

02:16:39.980 Okay, Brian 7316 says, excellent teaching on Canadian history.

02:16:51.460 I have Irish blood so I can sympathize with the Irish.

02:16:54.140 Anyway, have a great Christmas, Alex, you're appreciate it.

02:16:56.400 Thanks again, man.

02:16:57.180 You're always supportive.

02:16:58.300 And yeah, no, like I get it.

02:17:00.100 I, I sympathize with the Irish.

02:17:02.900 Uh, Irish folk, like some of the best richest history that you'll get is in Irish folk music.

02:17:11.440 Uh, a lot of it was crafted, uh, in this time period and those songs still remain quite popular today.

02:17:18.340 So, um, like I romanticize the Irish struggle and I'm not, I'm not Irish.

02:17:24.000 I just think it's very interesting.

02:17:25.520 So yeah, you can understand why, look, you can separate, it's not that I disagree with the Fenian's cause.

02:17:33.100 I just understand how it played a role in, uh, pushing through confederation, et cetera.

02:17:41.220 Um, all right.

02:17:43.620 I think that was it.

02:17:44.440 I actually, I haven't checked the entropy this entire time.

02:17:47.100 Uh, yeah, nothing over on entropy.

02:17:51.980 Okay.

02:17:55.520 Um, okay, so yeah, I don't know if there's anything else really to get into this.

02:18:16.760 Like I said, there's, there's only two episodes, uh, left, uh, in this series.

02:18:22.860 So, uh, we're wrapping it up here.

02:18:26.480 I'm going to try to finish it before the end of the year, but I'm, I'm not sure that I'll get to it.

02:18:33.400 Um, yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed that.

02:18:36.260 And, um, you know, that was kind of like the, essentially the climax of the series, right?

02:18:42.940 From now on, it's, it's winding down and we'll get into more.

02:18:45.280 Um, uh, I think the series ends, uh, well, not ends, but like the, the 1872 is the, the final year listed in the, uh, the final episode.

02:18:59.680 So it's not like we get into, uh, a lot of the, uh, I thought we did for some reason, but I, maybe I was thinking of a different series.

02:19:06.680 Um, yeah, uh, Trollidite says, will there be a test?

02:19:15.580 No, I'm not giving you guys a test.

02:19:17.900 Uh, Leifner says, what will be the next history lessons?

02:19:23.780 Um, I'm still trying to decide what I want to do.

02:19:27.160 I think I might do some shorter stuff.

02:19:29.900 Um, maybe like some, some biographical, uh, things I think would be.

02:19:36.680 Nice to do is one thing that we don't really get to do in this series is get more in-depth on a lot of these figures.

02:19:43.480 I try to add, like, you know, as I was talking about Etienne Cartier tonight, um, try to add a little bit more there just so you get an idea of who this was, but they just kind of like brush over, like, right.

02:19:53.680 Uh, even Johnny McDonald, like that, what, what, what amount of screen time does he have, uh, in this episode on confederation five minutes?

02:20:04.480 Um, they don't, they don't even really get into his life.

02:20:07.780 So I think it might be worth doing some kind of biographical stuff on influential figures.

02:20:14.480 Um, and a lot of people find that stuff interesting too, as opposed to more like chronological history.

02:20:20.240 It's more of like an accounting of, you know, great figures.

02:20:22.880 So, um, I might look at doing that.

02:20:26.520 Um, there is some, uh, different documentaries that exist or like biographies, I supposed to be the better way of describing it that exist on YouTube for Canadian figures that are like series.

02:20:41.460 So maybe we could look at that, but part of the reason I don't like that is because a lot of them are produced more recently and the people that they choose and how they choose to portray them is not, uh, exactly.

02:20:55.960 I don't know.

02:20:56.680 It's a lot of, um, astroturfing.

02:21:01.060 Um, let me check.

02:21:17.920 Um, let me check.

02:21:31.060 Sorry, I'm just checking to see if, um, I think edgy is going live, but he hasn't posted yet.

02:21:45.200 If edgy is not going live, I might fire up a daily toll.

02:21:49.960 Um, just cause there is a lot to talk about generally and we can get into some, some different things.

02:21:55.380 People are asking me questions that are not really related to this particular stream.

02:21:58.960 So yeah, Mr.

02:22:00.900 Wordsworth says renegotiation of the confederation is a great idea.

02:22:04.140 I'm going to be, yeah.

02:22:05.100 Like, I don't know.

02:22:05.780 This doesn't even seem complicated to me.

02:22:07.520 It's like, why can't we like, I'm just, why can't we all just be like, should we just renegotiate this thing?

02:22:16.820 Like we're not beholden to what was decided in 1867.

02:22:21.620 We can address it and, you know, within the spirit of it, you know, figure something out.

02:22:28.240 Now, I don't think that's possible at the current juncture.

02:22:32.060 I don't think that you can actually have a good faith conversation about renegotiating confederation in the spirit and in the vision of the fathers of confederation.

02:22:41.380 One, with the politicians that we have right now, and two, with the demographics that we have right now.

02:22:47.040 So I think we're, we're going to need some kind of transitionary period that would even allow us to have that conversation properly and, you know, engage in that process.

02:22:57.380 So, like, I'm not, it's a pipe dream right now.

02:23:04.660 Canadians need to be way more organized at the grassroots level if you want to do that.

02:23:10.140 And there, there needs to be, Canadians need to overcome their apathy towards politics if you want that.

02:23:17.940 But, um, it sounds great, right?

02:23:20.860 A lot of people, if you came to them and you said, we need a new confederation and, like, I've done this before.

02:23:27.980 So there's a ton of things that you could do that would improve confederation even in its current state. 0.82

02:23:33.400 One, you could have elected fucking senators and you could make it so that they are provincially nominated and that every province has an equal number of senators. 0.98

02:23:43.820 Boom. 0.99

02:23:44.900 And that they, sorry, and that they actually have, you know, veto power or voting power over legislation.

02:23:50.560 Um, that's more than ceremonial because for the most part, the Senate is just like a, just push it through, right?

02:23:58.000 Like they don't tend to debate things very heatedly.

02:24:00.560 It's like, there's, there's a good one right there.

02:24:02.960 Just have elected senators.

02:24:04.780 You could put term limits on politicians.

02:24:07.580 Wouldn't that be crazy?

02:24:09.140 If instead of having these backbenchers that just sit there and tow the party line for 30 fucking years, they were actually, you know, oh, you have, you know, three terms to get stuff done or whatever it is, 10 years, 12 years. 0.69

02:24:21.760 That's the maximum amount of time that you can sit in parliament as a, as a, as a member.

02:24:26.320 Okay.

02:24:27.200 That's it.

02:24:28.820 12 years.

02:24:29.580 12 years. 0.98

02:24:30.560 Well, now they're actually motivated to get shit done. 0.83

02:24:33.680 And also it's a different kind of person who's attracted to that because it's not a career. 0.89

02:24:38.900 That's a, that's part of what your life is.

02:24:41.840 You know, you start as something else.

02:24:43.540 Maybe you get into politics and then you're out.

02:24:45.500 Like you're not just sitting there forever.

02:24:47.780 Um, we could have recall laws.

02:24:50.260 Wouldn't that be crazy if you were able to actually recall a member of parliament for not doing what they're supposed to be doing?

02:24:56.960 And I'll give you an example right now. 0.96

02:24:59.020 Wouldn't it be interesting if the constituents of the riding that that fucking chink man, uh, was in that just crossed the floor? 1.00

02:25:07.480 What do you think would happen if, if somebody was able to institute recall legislation right now and challenge his, his validity of the validity of his seat? 0.98

02:25:17.280 Oh, maybe he would be a lot less hesitant to take the fucking whatever deal he was offered by the liberals, right? 0.96

02:25:24.620 There's a ton. 0.95

02:25:25.420 There's hundreds of little micro things like that, that you could do to improve confederation right now in 2025.

02:25:33.140 But the problem is there's no political willpower to actually get them done.

02:25:38.920 These are bipartisan.

02:25:40.480 These aren't even like, it's not liberal or conservative.

02:25:43.100 These are political mechanics that you're trying to address.

02:25:46.500 You're looking at the problems that exist within our current system and saying, we can fix this by doing this.

02:25:52.060 It doesn't benefit any party in particular. 0.99

02:25:54.400 It benefits fucking Canadians. 0.99

02:25:56.080 And their ability to actually influence politics in a direction that they want it to. 1.00

02:26:02.240 It's like, these are simple things.

02:26:03.960 Now, again, I don't think you're going to be able to do that because even if you had political willpower, um, like, let's say you had some kind of grassroots lobby group to do this.

02:26:15.120 I don't think that anyone would pay them any attention at all. 0.98

02:26:17.580 I think if you had a hundred thousand people behind it, I don't think that they would give a shit. 0.99

02:26:21.320 I think they would just ignore you. 0.98

02:26:22.360 Uh, and the reason we know that is because we've seen this before with a ton of different topics, uh, Canadians, you know, through petitions, through, you know, uh, surveys and polls, they'll tell you what they want and they just get ignored.

02:26:36.400 So what you need is a more militant, uh, segment of the population to actually start pushing and, and, you know, exposing, uh, you know, the powers that be for what they are, uh, in a way that goes well beyond making a YouTube video.

02:26:51.180 Um, saying, look how corrupt they are.

02:26:53.620 That doesn't work.

02:26:54.620 Uh, it needs to be much more confrontational and that's not something that Canadians are typically, you know, Canadians typically don't rock the boat with, uh, politics.

02:27:02.180 So, um, but yeah, you like, there's all of these ideas are, are, um, things that are typically popular, um, with Canadians.

02:27:16.400 If you say we should have a, the, the, the thing, if I say we should have an elected Senate, right.

02:27:22.420 And it should have equal representation among all the provinces as a balance to, you know, Quebec and Ontario.

02:27:30.340 And the, you know, the fact that, you know, what is it two third or sorry, uh, like half of the MPs in the country are from Quebec and Ontario.

02:27:40.520 I forget what the exact breakdown is, but you get what I'm saying.

02:27:43.900 Um, so they are going to tend to pass legislation that is beneficial to them in the house more than, you know, benefits other provinces.

02:27:52.680 But if you have that Senate as a balancing, uh, you know, apparatus, that, that would be much less of a problem.

02:28:03.900 Most people, when they hear that brought up, they, they will agree with that of all political stripes.

02:28:08.640 They'll be like, yes, that would actually be a good fix to the problems that exist within the mechanics of the current system.

02:28:14.640 So the problem is that a lot of the times they, the new, this is why we need a new confederation.

02:28:23.660 The objection that you'll get typically comes from some of the larger provinces like BC, Ontario, and Quebec.

02:28:29.940 And they'll say like, why should, if we get two senators, why should Saskatchewan get two senators?

02:28:36.200 Right.

02:28:36.600 So this is a complaint that you'll hear in the American system as well, because they all have an equal number of senators.

02:28:41.760 Right.

02:28:41.900 Um, yeah, anyways, I'm not going to, I could do a whole stream.

02:28:51.520 I have done whole streams that a long time ago, like back at least, I think it was honestly,

02:28:58.500 I think it was before I even started doing YouTube.

02:29:01.520 I think these were telegram streams that I did these, but, um, yeah, there's a ton of things

02:29:06.880 that you could do to start addressing problems with the mechanics of government that would

02:29:11.500 satisfy a lot of, uh, people's objections to the way, uh, you know, the house operates right

02:29:18.100 now, but there's no political will to do it.

02:29:20.500 So, um, you're just talking.

02:29:23.360 Um, okay, so let me check again.

02:29:39.260 Oh yeah.

02:29:39.880 Okay.

02:29:40.180 So I'm going to leave it there.

02:29:42.260 Edgy's going live at 11.

02:29:45.020 So you can catch that in a bit.

02:29:47.540 Uh, we'll be back with, I'm not sure whenever the next episode of the nationalist film board

02:29:51.840 is going to be, uh, I doubt I'm going to be streaming this weekend.

02:29:56.100 I just, I have a bunch of stuff to do.

02:29:59.220 So this will probably be it until next Tuesday.

02:30:04.100 Um, and yeah, hopefully, uh, we'll be able to wrap this stream up and then move on to some

02:30:08.720 different top or this series up and then move on to some different topics, uh, in the new year.

02:30:13.640 But, uh, yeah, I'll see you guys again, obviously before Christmas and stuff like that.

02:30:18.740 Yeah.

02:30:19.680 But, uh, we'll wrap it up there.

02:30:21.100 Thanks everybody for the support as always.

02:30:23.060 I appreciate it.

02:30:24.160 You guys, uh, these, the numbers for these streams are not great, but I actually enjoy

02:30:33.960 doing them more than the daily toll.

02:30:35.700 I don't, it makes no, I right now it's like, uh, probably like two and a half or three times

02:30:41.940 the audience for my daily tolls as I get for these.

02:30:45.600 So I, I, again, I think that's hilarious, but, uh, okay.

02:30:50.880 It just shows like, I, I, it's such a good example of part of the problem.

02:30:55.040 If you come and you're like, let's talk about like some real information and get into like

02:31:00.220 how we ended up where we are, the audience dwindles.

02:31:03.240 But if you just rock up to, uh, the computer, you just run your mouth for some reason, people

02:31:09.520 pay attention.

02:31:10.680 I think that's hilarious.

02:31:11.740 Um, yeah.

02:31:15.040 All right, guys.

02:31:16.120 Uh, have a good night and, uh, we'll see you soon.

02:31:18.880 Cheers.

02:31:19.040 Thank you.

The Ferryman's Toll - December 18, 2025

The Nationalist Film Board - Creation of Canada - Part 7

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