Sir George Etienne Cartier: His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal

by John Boyd

For Canadian Nationality

The aim of Macdonald, Cartier, and the other great Fathers of Confederation, was to establish broad and deep the foundations of a Canadian nationality, based on the broadest principles of justice, tolerance, and equal rights. All their public utterances during the Confederation negotiations, testify to this fact. Macdonald's conception was that as the Dominion progressed it would become, to use his own words, year by year less a case of dependence on our part, and of overwhelming protection on the part of the Mother Country, and more a case of healthy and cordial alliance, that instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England would have in us a friendly nation—a subordinate but still a powerful people—to stand by her in North America in peace or war.

It is given to some men to have a vision that foresees the future and enables them to provide for momentous developments. Both Cartier and Macdonald were such men. It is in fact the supreme merit of Cartier that whilst always standing firmly for the rights of his French-Canadian compatriots, his vision was not confined to the Province of Quebec. If any one does, Cartier deserves the distinction of being known as a great Canadian. There was nothing narrow or provincial in his views. His idea was a united Canada, stretching from ocean to ocean, in which men of all races, languages and creeds should work together as brethren for the welfare and advancement of their common country. Cartier's desire was that his French-Canadian compatriots should not confine their attention to the Province of Quebec, but should take their full share in the life of the Dominion, that they should above all rejoice in the name "Canadian," be proud of the great Dominion and work for its welfare in co-operation with their English-speaking fellow countrymen.

"Objection is made to our project," says Cartier, in his great speech during the Confederation debates, "because of the words 'a new nationality'. But if we unite we will form a political nationality independent of the national origin and religion of individuals. Some have regretted that we have a distinction of races and have expressed the hope that in time this diversity will disappear. The idea of a fusion of all races is utopian, it is an impossibility. Distinctions of this character will always exist, diversity is the order of the physical, moral and political worlds. As to the objection that we cannot form a great nation because Lower Canada is principally French and Catholic, Upper Canada English and Protestant, and the Maritime Provinces mixed, it is futile in the extreme.

"Take for example the United Kingdom, inhabited as it is by three great races. Has the diversity of races been an obstacle to the progress and the welfare of Great Britain? Have not the three races united by their combined qualities, their energy and their courage, contributed to the glory of the Empire, to its laws of wise, to its success on land, on sea, and in commerce?

"In our Confederation there will be Catholics and Protestants, English, French, Irish and Scotch, and each by its efforts and success will add to the prosperity of the Dominion, to the glory of a new Confederation. We are of different races, not to quarrel, but to work together for our common welfare. We cannot by law make the differences of race disappear, but I am convinced that the Anglo-Canadian and the French-Canadian will appreciate the advantages of their position. Set side by side like a great family, their contact will produce a happy spirit of emulation. The diversity of race will in fact, believe me, contribute to the common prosperity."

What words of wisdom! What a spirit of true patriotism, of justice and of toleration they breathe! If Cartier in fact had never made any other utterance than this, it would be sufficient to stamp him as a true patriot and wise statesman. It will be well for Canada if such are always the guiding principles of its national life.

While the idea of Macdonald and Cartier and the other great Fathers of Confederation was, as has been said, to establish a Canadian nationality, none the less was it their intention to perpetuate British institutions on the North American continent, to establish, to use Macdonald's expression, a friendly nation, enjoying, it is true, the most complete autonomy, but at the same time in alliance with Great Britain and the other portions of the Empire. No stronger believer in British institutions as the repository of freedom; no more ardent admirer of the British flag as the symbol of justice and liberty could be found than Cartier. In all his utterances during the Confederation, debates, he took special pains to emphasize that Confederation was intended not to weaken, but to strengthen, the ties between the Dominion, Great Britain and the other portions of the Empire. "Confederation," he said, in one of his speeches on the measure, "has for its first reason our common affection for British institutions, its object is to assure by all possible guarantees, their maintenance in the future."

For the British flag Cartier on all occasions expressed a passionate devotion.

"The Canadian people," he said at a great banquet given in his honor in London in 1869, "desires to remain faithful to the old flag of Great Britain, that flag which waves over all seas, which tyranny has never been able to overcome, that flag which symbolizes true liberty".

These words expressed Cartier's deep and earnest conviction. During his several visits to Great Britain, he was deeply impressed by the greatness of British institutions. On those occasions he was the recipient of signal marks of honor; he was the personal guest of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle for some time, and he received marked attention from Gladstone, Lord Lytton, and other distinguished British statesmen. His services in connection with the establishment of Confederation, as you know, were recognized by the conferring of a baronetcy upon him by Queen Victoria.