Unify Action - The Fascinating History Behind Canada's Founding

00:00:00.000 Canada Day. It's the one day when we shoot off fireworks regardless of the environment. It's

00:00:05.040 the one day when we display our flag with no shame. It's the one day when we slather mousse

00:00:10.240 with maple flavored barbecue sauce and I love it. But in all seriousness, what is Canada Day?

00:00:15.860 What are we celebrating? Well, you're about to find out. Before we get to Canada's birthday in

00:00:23.340 1867, we're going to have to rewind 100 years. The year is 1763 now, and England and France have

00:00:31.480 just finished the Seven Years' War, also called the French-Indian War. We find them in Paris

00:00:36.880 signing the Treaty of Paris, which cedes New France, which is present-day Canada, over to

00:00:44.160 England. So New France is now renamed Upper and Lower Canada, which would be Ontario and Quebec

00:00:50.340 present day. So now Canada belongs to England and this is the start of our history as a British 0.79

00:00:56.660 colony. 20 years later we find England back in Paris signing another treaty of Paris. This

00:01:04.740 is the treaty that ends the American Revolution. With the end of the American Revolution we have 0.51

00:01:10.560 to zoom in on a certain group of people that fled the United States after that end. They were called

00:01:15.820 the united empire loyalists or just simply loyalists and they were loyal to the british

00:01:21.180 crown they either fought for britain in the american revolution or they were sympathetic

00:01:25.420 to britain during the chaos after the american revolution before the american constitution was

00:01:30.620 drafted there was a lot of chaos and loyalist property was it oftentimes confiscated so the

00:01:37.180 british empire compensated these loyalists with property up in upper canada which is as we talked

00:01:42.860 about is Ontario. So these loyalists flood up into areas like Kingston and southern Ontario.

00:01:50.860 It's around 60 to 80,000 of these loyalists. That really creates a pro-Britain environment

00:01:57.420 in southern Ontario and that pro-Britain sentiment carries on to the rest of Canadian history.

00:02:03.660 Canada's next major event falls in 1812. Britain had been fairly aggressive on the

00:02:12.380 world trade stage and had forced several American officers into the British Navy.

00:02:17.020 America took this as acts of aggression, and so on June 18, 1812, they declared war on Britain.

00:02:23.820 So on July 12, 1812, American forces marched on Windsor, Ontario in order to

00:02:29.820 liberate Canadians from oppressive British rule. But remember all those Loyalists that came up 0.78

00:02:35.740 there? By this time in 1812, about half of Canada's English-speaking population was either Loyalist

00:02:41.720 or descended from Loyalists, and they still had hard feelings about the American Revolution and

00:02:46.420 being forced out of America. So the Americans got a much different response than what they thought

00:02:51.360 they were going to get. After three long years of war, the Canadians had finally beat the Americans

00:02:56.480 off their territory, and it all culminated in burning down the American capital, but fears of

00:03:02.400 future U.S. aggression still remained in Canadian politics and would still be prevalent up into the

00:03:07.500 founding of Canada. That brings us to 1837 and 1838. Canada wasn't without its own hard feelings

00:03:17.640 about British colonial rule, and one of the key figures in the objection to colonial rule was a

00:03:23.200 certain man named William Lyon Mackenzie. Not to be confused with William Lyon Mackenzie King,

00:03:28.300 who would later be the Prime Minister of Canada. This is his namesake in 1837. William Lyon Mackenzie

00:03:34.640 wanted legislative reform, but not complete independence from Great Britain. And when his

00:03:40.540 efforts failed for reform, he resorted to violence. That brings us to early December in 1837. So he

00:03:47.320 collects a small group of rebellious settlers, and they march on Toronto. They take a short stop at

00:03:53.880 Montgomery's Tavern, and that's where the British militia meet them. There's a short skirmish,

00:03:59.280 a few die on either side, and eventually the rebels lose. William Lyon McKenzie would then

00:04:04.720 flee to the United States, where he would stay until 1849. This was not the only rebellion of

00:04:10.700 1837. There was actually one just a couple weeks earlier in November, led by a certain man named

00:04:17.120 Louis-Joseph Papinot. Now this rebellion was a little bit more violent and a little bit more

00:04:22.480 well-prepared. Papinot, for the same reasons as Mackenzie, leads his own small group of rebels

00:04:28.800 to try and overthrow British rule. This is basically similar to the Mackenzie rebellion,

00:04:34.640 but with a Quebecois flavor. In the end, Papinot's forces are also defeated, but the message

00:04:41.840 finally gets to the british authority and they send lord durham to do a report which eventually

00:04:48.160 culminates into unifying upper and lower canada into a province called canada

00:04:56.800 so in 1840 upper and lower canada were unified into the province of canada by 1864 the maritime

00:05:03.920 colonies are considering their own similar union this would be between nova scotia new brunswick

00:05:08.720 and P.I. So in September 1st of 1864, 23 delegates arrive in Charlottetown, P.I. to discuss this

00:05:16.920 union. To this convention in Charlottetown arrive delegates from the province of Canada,

00:05:22.240 and these include notable names like Sir John A. Macdonald, George Brown, and Georges Etienne

00:05:27.240 Cartier. Their suggestion to this conference is to instead pursue a federal union amongst all the

00:05:33.140 colonies of British North America. Pretty soon the idea of a maritime union is set aside and all the

00:05:39.480 delegates are focused on this federal union idea. And by the time this convention ends on September

00:05:44.740 9th, the majority of the delegates had agreed that a federal union should be pursued. All except for

00:05:50.280 PEI who still questioned whether a federal union would limit their autonomy. So PEI as a result

00:05:56.740 would stay out of the confederation until seven years after it had been started.

00:06:04.100 That was the first convention. Now we get to the second convention in Quebec City just one month

00:06:09.700 later in October of 1864. And to this convention arrive 33 delegates including some from Newfoundland

00:06:16.580 just as observers. And this is where the nitty-gritty detail begins because now that they've

00:06:21.460 decided to pursue a federal union they have to decide their form of government and how everything

00:06:26.100 should be run. Over the course of the two weeks of this Quebec convention the whole plan for

00:06:30.820 british north america is hashed out including 72 resolutions over how the government is to be run

00:06:37.140 and the jurisdiction of federal versus provincial government notable figures in this conference

00:06:42.260 include of course sir john a mcdonald george brown and george etienne cartier but there were

00:06:46.900 other notable characters including samuel letter tilly from new brunswick and the premier of nova

00:06:52.260 scotia charles tupper these were major supporters of the confederation i have to put a caveat in

00:06:57.940 here sir john a mcdonald's position on this was that he was for a very strong federal government

00:07:03.780 and not giving so much power to the provinces we need to be mindful of the timing of this this was

00:07:09.380 right after the end of the american civil war and what these fathers of confederation saw there was

00:07:14.980 a lot of dissension amongst the states in the united states they saw the united states as a

00:07:19.620 failure because of the civil war and to prevent that they would rather have a strong central

00:07:24.820 government that is why the federal government in canada has so much power and there's less power

00:07:29.620 to the provinces at the close of these two weeks the 72 resolutions have been firmly drafted and

00:07:34.660 now all that's left to do is to push these through each province's parliament and to have them

00:07:39.620 ratified and here's where confederation runs up against a delay debates begin to arise especially

00:07:45.380 in the maritime provinces over certain policies in these 72 resolutions and as a result there's

00:07:51.940 a two-year delay approaching confederation another delay in this happens in march of 1865

00:07:58.500 just a few months after the quebec conference samuel leonard tilly goes through an election

00:08:04.020 and unfortunately loses his seat and he is one of the big promoters for confederation in new

00:08:09.300 brunswick he is out of office for about a year and three months during which time confederation

00:08:14.820 basically stalls as these resolutions are debated through the parliaments of each province

00:08:22.740 one significant event russia's confederation more than anything else could and here's where we come

00:08:28.660 to the fenian rebellion so the fenian brotherhood was a radical group of irish settlers who were

00:08:34.580 very against british rule and they blamed britain for the irish potato famine which occurred in 1845

00:08:41.620 and that, combining with other grievances, made this Fenian Brotherhood very anti-Britain.

00:08:46.980 Immediately following the Civil War, this Fenian Brotherhood decides to take matters into their

00:08:52.740 own hands, and what they would like to do is to seize property in British North America, 0.50

00:08:57.940 so in Southern Ontario in particular. They want to seize property and then use that to trade it

00:09:04.740 for Ireland's independence. This is the plan. On June 1st 1866 about 600 to 800 Fenian Brotherhood 0.61

00:09:13.540 members cross Niagara River and seize Fort Erie by surprise. Now their whole plan doesn't come 0.99

00:09:19.380 to fruition because they eventually have to flee Fort Erie due to the approach of the British

00:09:24.180 militia. But these Fenian rebellions sparked something in the minds of Canadian people.

00:09:30.660 they began to realize that they need to be stronger and more unified. The War of 1812 is

00:09:35.380 still fresh in their minds and they don't want to have a repeat. So this vending rebellion basically

00:09:40.340 speeds up Confederation and as a result there's an election in New Brunswick and Samuel Leonard

00:09:46.260 Tilley regains his seat. Now the stage is set for the final ratification of Canadian Confederation.

00:09:52.820 that brings us to the third conference for the foundation of canada on december 4th 1866 16

00:10:03.700 delegates arrive in london uk to begin the final touches on their confederation of canada between

00:10:11.220 december 4th 1866 and february 1867 these 16 delegates take the 72 resolutions that they

00:10:18.820 drafted in quebec and put them into legislative form and they create what's known as the british

00:10:23.540 north america act bill this bill would unite ontario quebec nova scotia and new brunswick

00:10:29.860 into one unified economy the british north america act would finally pass british parliament

00:10:35.620 on march 29 1867. it would receive royal assent from queen victoria and it would come into full

00:10:43.380 effect on July 1st 1867. Now some of you might be wondering why Britain would let these colonies go

00:10:54.240 seeing as how hard a fight they put up for the American colonies. By the time 1867 rolled around

00:10:59.720 the British government was putting too much money into British North America or present-day Canada

00:11:04.880 and they were not receiving the same return from it. It was just simply too much money for them to

00:11:09.560 invest. Another thing was that this country wasn't actually going to leave British rule.

00:11:14.220 They still were under the British crown. In fact, we still are to this day. And that coupled with

00:11:19.120 the loyalty to the British crown, this country would remain very much allied with Great Britain

00:11:24.400 for years and years to come. Now, why am I telling you this? Because in Canada, we have lost our

00:11:32.940 identity. We don't know our history. We don't know where we've come from. And with so many

00:11:37.340 cultures fluttering your country, we don't know who we are even. Multiculturalism is not really 1.00

00:11:43.340 an identity. Here we are in this country and we mismatched everything together, but we don't know

00:11:48.220 who we truly are. Canadians don't know their history. They don't know what this country was 1.00

00:11:52.500 about. We were founded with the hope of peace, order, and good government. That was our founding.

00:11:58.900 That's where Canada started. I know it's controversial, but diversity is not our strength. 1.00

00:12:03.320 multiculturalism is not our strength our strength lies in our unity you see if multiculturalism and

00:12:09.400 diversity were our strength canada would be the most unified country in the world but we're not

00:12:14.520 we have three provinces that are talking about separating we have more infighting and disunity

00:12:19.320 than ever before in our country we have no core identity and one of the sad things in canada is

00:12:24.920 that our educational system is failing to teach canadians our history many of the canadians that

00:12:30.040 i talk to don't know these things about our country they don't know where we come from

00:12:34.680 and if we don't know where we come from we have no identity we don't know who we are we're

00:12:39.400 basically lost and drifting and ready to be taken over by another country pretty much if we have no

00:12:44.360 identity who are we this canada day when you're out there having fun think about this video think

00:12:50.040 about canada think about who we are as a country and try and teach those around you to love our

00:12:56.200 country and to love our heritage we have a good heritage it's not all evil guys we have a really

00:13:03.000 good heritage in this country so don't forget to thank god for canada on this canada day thanks so

00:13:09.960 much for watching this video if you enjoyed it please hit the like button down below and feel

00:13:13.560 free to subscribe it really helps the channel out also if you have a minute put a comment down below

00:13:18.760 of other topics about Canadian history that you would like to see. Bye.

Unify Action - July 01, 2025

The Fascinating History Behind Canada's Founding

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