XXX
RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF CANADA.
In the ordinary course of events this history of the Dominion should have closed with an account of the old French Province of Quebec, its people, their characteristics and their progress. But so much has happened in the second decade of the twentieth century that the impress of France is slowly being obliterated by a Canadianism which is peculiar to itself. Of course this does not mean that the French language is disappearing or that all the customs of the old régime are giving way to new. But autres temps, autres moeurs. For this the Great War has been largely responsible. Previous to it, the average French Canadian had been too prone to dwell on the ties which bound him to La Belle France. But a part in the world-conflict convinced him that in the hundred and fifty years he had been disassociated from the country of his birthright, he had worked out his destiny along lines essentially Canadian. This view is likewise affecting and influencing the standpoint of those who have settled in the Great Northwest. The result is a stronger feeling of Canadian nationality in that association of nations which we are pleased to term the British Empire.
Silver mines at Cobalt, Ontario.
After the tragic death of Sir John Thompson in 1892 Canada struggled along politically under several Conservative Premiers which undoubtedly prepared the way for Sir Wilfrid Laurier's great victory four years afterwards. Then, surrounded by the men who had been so many years in opposition with him, he evolved those practical principles of Liberalism which kept his party firmly in power until he advocated free trade in 1911. Since that time both Liberals and Conservatives have come to the conclusion that a protective policy is the one best suited for Canada's growing needs and future prospects. It is interesting to recall, however, that in the dying days of Conservative rule, Nicholas Flood Davin, a prominent member on the Government benches, introduced a Bill for Woman's Suffrage, a reform which was not realised in the Dominion until 1917. As for Quebec it has adhered steadily to manhood franchise, although there is a decided possibility that women will receive the vote in 1922. Some three years afterwards, or, to be exact, September 29, 1898, a Prohibition plebiscite was carried in Canada, but it was fully twenty years before it was put into effect by the various provinces, always with the same exception—that of Quebec, It will therefore be seen that in some respects the old province of Lower Canada does not adopt innovations lightly, or, at least, until they have been first tried and found to be worthy of some measure of support.
When the outbreak of the Boers startled Canada and roused in her the dormant desire to respond to the call of the Motherland, it was Sir Wilfrid Laurier who took up the challenge of non-intervention or neutrality.