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Date: 1864-11-09
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Letter of the Hon. A. A. Dorion”, The Montreal Herald (9 November, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

LETTER OF THE HON. A. A. DORION.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE COUNTY OF HOCHELAGA.

Gentlemen,—The .important events which have occurred since the last session of Parliament, and the grave consequences which they may have on the future, and the prosperity of the country, induce me to submit to you some observations on the political situation and the complications to which it has given birth.

You know already that a Conference has taken place at Quebec between the Canadian Ministers and the delegates from the Maritime Provinces, with the object of coming to an understanding on the Confederation of all the British Provinces of North America.

This Conference has lasted for three weeks. The greatest interests of the country were then discussed in secret session, and an agreement (as it has been publicly announced) reached of the bases of a Confederation, whose plan, after having been communicated to the Imperial authorities, will be submitted to the Legislature at the approaching session.

The absence of all official communication of the proceedings of the Conference, and the absolute silence of the Lower Canadian Ministers on the details of this projected Confederation, seems to indicate a desire to precipitate this measure without consulting the people and without giving them the time to study its dispositions or judge of their bearing and tendency.

The fact that the Ministers without any mission whatever, are preparing in the interior of the Cabinet a change in the Constitution—a complete political revolution, which must affect all the interests, the institutions, and the relations, which exist under the existing union between Upper and Lower Canada, in order to substitute another union which will embrace all the Provinces of North America, is of a nature to attract serious consideration.

In default of official documents, the journals usually in the confidence of the Ministry and the discourse pronounced by Mr. Brown at the banquet given at Toronto to the Maritime Delegates, have made us sufficiently acquainted with the plan of the Conference to enable us to judge of it as a whole, if not of all its details.

When on the 24th June last the Assembly condemned the employment which without authority the Minister of Finance had made of the sum of $100,000 to pay the debt of the Grand Trunk, no one foresaw or could foresee, that this merited censure would be the occasion of the extraordinary alliance which has since taken place between the Ministry and one party among those who had condemned them,—still less that this strange coalition would conduce to a radical change in our institutions.

It is useless to seek out the reasons which may have led the Canadian Ministry, in the absence of all public discussion and all popular manifestation, and against the opinion often expressed by many of themselves, to solicit a union with the Lower Provinces on the occasion of a defeat upon a purely financial question, which had no reference to the political affairs of the country. What we have now to examine is not the motives nor the object of the promoters of the Conference, but rather the project itself.

What is proposed is the union of Upper and Lower Canada, the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the Island of Newfoundland, with power to the inhabitants of the North Western territory, Columbia and Vancouvers Island to join if they desire it.

The authority over this vast territory, larger than all Europe, but yet containing only 3,400,000 inhabitants, will be confided to a Governor or Viceroy named by the Crown, with an Executive Council, a Legislative Council, and a Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Council will be composed of seventy-six members, nominated for life by the Crown, of whom twenty-four will be from Upper Canada, twenty-four from Lower Canada, and twenty-eight from the Maritime Provinces.

The representation in the Assembly or Lower House will be based upon the population of each Province. To begin, it will be composed of one hundred and ninety-four members, elected for five years in the following proportions, viz. :—

Upper Canada……………………82

Lower Canada……………………65

Nova Scotia…………………….19

New Brunswick…………………..15

Newfoundland…………………….8

Prince Edward Island……………..5

—

194

Lower Canada will always preserve the same number of sixty-five deputies. In the other Provinces the number will be augmented or diminished every ten years, according to the movement of the population, in such a manner that each Province shall always have the same proportion of representatives to population as Lower Canada.

The total number of representatives is also to be increased in case of the North West territory, of Columbia, or of the Island of Newfoundland, making part of the Confederation.

Under the Government thus constituted, and which will exercise authority over all the United Provinces, there will be a local government for each Province with a Lieutenant Governor, named for five years by the Governor General. The Lieutenant Governor will be advised by departmental chiefs responsible to the people. The composition of the of the local Legislatures will be determined by the existing Parliaments of each Province.

The general government will have the right to regulate all measures of general interest, those affecting the trade, the navigation, the finances, the revenue, the public debt, the coinage, the banks, postage, emigration, maritime fisheries, patents, the census, usury laws, bankruptcy, the laws regulating weights and measures, and generally all commercial legislation, criminal laws, the constitution of a Court of Appeal, the nomination and payment of judges, and all the other questions which will not be specially reserved for the local governments. The militia and all that concerns the defence of the country, will be under the exclusive control of the general government. The civil and the municipal laws, the public lands, agriculture, the public works of purely local interest, such as the construction of roads and bridges, prisons, ports, hospitals and Lunatic Asylums, will be under the control of the local governments, who will also have the right to levy by local and direct taxation the sums necessary for these objects, and to meet their other expenses.

The local government will also have the control of public instruction; but it will only be able to exercise it under restrictions which may be imposed either by the constitution or the laws which the Federal Government shall enact. Besides the acts of the local Legislatures will be submitted to the approbation of the Governor-General who may disallow them in the course of the year after they shall have been passed.

Ottawa is to be the capital of the Confederation; Quebec that of Lower Canada, and Toronto that of Upper Canada.

As to finances the debts of all the Provinces will be consolidated and placed under the charge of the General-Government. But to equalize the charges among the Provinces, the amount of the debts, which together will form the federal debt, has been fixed, and the proportion which each of the Provinces will have to pay according to the population has been established. It was moreover agreed that, the Island of Newfoundland and the Island of Prince Edward, whose debts do not reach that proportion, shall receive on the balance an annual allowance of interest at the rate of 5 per cent., while Upper and Lower Canada whose debts exceed it are to pay to the Public Treasury the excess of interest. The total of the federal debt having been fixed upon the scale of the debt due by New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada will also remain charged with a part of the existing debt of United Canada. According to this arrangement Prince Edwards Island, and the Island of Newfoundland must receive in each year from the general government a sum of about $225,000, the interest which represents a capital of $4,500,000, and Upper and Lower Canada must pay to the public treasury annually about $300,000 each, on the excess of their debts. These figures are only approximative, but they suffice to make us comprehend the effect of the arrangement which has been concluded.

The Island of Newfoundland will besides receive for the public lands which she is to cede to the general government a sum of about $60,000 per annum, representing at 5 per cent a capital of $1,200,000.

The general government will moreover pay to the local governments to aid them in meeting their expenses a total annual sum of $2,644,000. This sum divided according to the population of each province, taking for basis the last census, will give 80 cents per head. It is definitely fixed and will not vary with the increase of population. The allowance for Upper Canada will, therefore, be $1,112,872, and that of Lower Canada $889,252 per annum.

Lastly, it is understood that the general government shall charge itself with the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, with the organization of an efficient militia; and with the provision for a complete system of defence.

Such are the principal features of the plan of confederation determined on by the delegates.

But in order that there should be a confederation there must be different states bound together for measures of general interest, yet conserving their own independence for everything which concerns their internal government. But what independence will the different Provinces of the union conserve under a general government exercising sovereign authority, not only on measures of general interest; but even on the greater part of questions of interior administration, and with a direct control over all the acts of the local legislatures. What independence with they conserve if they are deprived of the right of regulating their criminal and commercial codes, and if they cannot modify their civil or municipal laws, the laws relating to public instruction, to agriculture and similar question without the approbation of the general government—if they have not even the right to determine the constitution of their tribunals, nor to name the judges who are to watch over the execution of their laws?

This then is not a Confederation which is proposed, but a Legislative union disguised under the name of a Confederation, for the mere simulacrum of a Government is conferred upon each Province, without any other authority than that which it may exercise under the good pleasure of the Federal Government.

If a Legislative union with a strongly constituted Central Government be what is desired, why this complication of Local Governments, whose powers will be almost null, and which will only serve to burden the tax payers with useless expenses? If it is a Federal Union which is desired, why not give it all the proper characters and attributes? Why not conserve for each Province that independence, above all that sovereignty over all that concerns their interior Government which is the essential condition of every Federal Government?

Each system offers its own advantages and disadvantages; but this project of Confederation will unite the inconvenience of the two without obtaining the simplicity and efficiency which is met with in legislative unity, nor the guarantees for the institutions of each Province, which the federal system can alone secure. This project of the Conference is adapted only to renew among the mixed population of Lower Canada the divisions and animosities of former days, which have happily disappeared, and to produce between the local and general governments frequent collisions, which will create uneasiness and embarrassments of all kinds.

The union of the Provinces is not in itself desirable, it is true, say the partizans of the coalition, but yet it is necessary to ward off the difficulties presented by the question of representation, and it is for that reason we accept it. I find in this excuse a condemnation of the project. It is admitted to be bad, but it is adopted as an expedient to escape from a difficulty. Let us examine for a moment this question of representation and see how it is proposed to remedy it’s danger.

Lower Canada refused to concede to Upper Canada a few members more than the actual number because it feared their influence would be prejudicial to its particular institutions. It would at any time have been easy to satisfy Upper Canada by giving it four or five members more than Lower Canada, conserving at the same time, the equality in the Legislative Council. To avoid the danger which this augmentation of numbers might make us expect, it is now proposed to give Upper Canada sixteen more members than Lower Canada, and forty-seven members are to be added for the Maritime Provinces; making in all sixty-four members added to the British element, besides the additional twenty-eight members who are given to the Legislative Council; and it is in this way that it is pretended to protect the institutions of Lower Canada.

On the other side Upper Canada demanded an augmentation of the number of her representatives only because she complained of contributing more heavily than Lower Canada to the revenue of the province. She supported a much larger proportion of the public charges without being able to control them, and it is to remedy this evil, that it is proposed to unite with four other provinces whose resources and revenues are far inferior to those of Lower Canada, and who insist as the condition of the Union,—some on the payment of an annual subsidy, others on the construction of the intercolonial railroad, and all on the payment of a portion of their local expenses.

The public debt of Canada is at least $75,000,000. Our debentures bearing 5 per cent interest are quoted at from 23 to 24 per cent below par, and it is when our finances are in this state that it is proposed to add to the $75,000,000 which we already owe, the $15,000,000 due by New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, $16,000,000 for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, and about $5,500,000 representing the annual subsidy which will be paid to Prince Edwards Island and the Island of Newfoundland, in all $36,500,000, which will raise the debt to $111,500,000, with the prospect of adding several millions to it immediately, in order to put the country in a state of defence.

Taking for basis the population of the different Provinces according to the last census, Upper Canada will have to pay five twelfths, Lower Canada four twelfths, and the other Provinces together less than three twelfths of all these additional expenses, and the disproportion will increase by the more rapid increase of the population in Upper and Lower Canada than in the other Provinces.

In the period which elapsed between the last census and the one which immediately preceded it, the population of the different Provinces increased in the following ratios:—

Newfoundland……………………1.50

Nova Scotia…………………….1.82

Prince Edward Island…………….2.07

Lower Canada……………………2.50

New Brunswick…………………..2.60

Upper Canada……………………4.34

This table of the progress of the population will give only a feeble idea of the proportion of the new charges which Upper and Lower Canada will have to support in ten or twenty years.

What are the advantages of the union to counterbalance the sacrifices which it will impose?

Will the commerce of the Maritime Provinces offer a compensation? That commerce is comparatively null. The productions of those Provinces are nearly the same as those of Canada, and there can be few exchanges and little commerce between countries thus situated.

The total value of our imports for the year 1863 was…………$45,964,493

Those of the products of the Maritime Provinces imported thither or 1.1 10th per cent of total imports…………………… 570,713

The annual exportations during the same year were…………..$41,831,532

The produce of Canada exported to the Maritime Provinces……. 935,196 or 214 per cent

It would be easy to show that during ten years there has been no increase in this trade, though the means of communication are now more easy and expeditious than formerly.

From the point of view of the defence of the country of which so much is said in relation to the confederacy, I cannot conceive what we shall gain. New Brunswick with five hundred miles of frontier, along the United States and with its sparse population will be a cause of weakness rather than a means of augmenting our strength.

I will not stop to discuss the details of the project of the Conference. It is not difficult to forsee the effect which may arise from the working of the Legislative Council composed of a fixed number of members named for life by the Crown. We know by experience the power which such a body may exercise to hinder the wishes of the public opinion and paralyse progressive legislation.

The strifes of former times between the Council named by the Crown and the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada are forgotten. The efforts made by the liberal party of Upper and Lower Canada to reconstitute the Council on a basis more in harmony with the popular sentiment is likewise forgotten, and it is when experience has shown the wisdom of those who have obtained the great reform which gave the people the right to choose for themselvs the second house of the Legislature, that a return is desired to a system already tried and condemned by the immense majority of Upper and Lower Canada.

Evidently the people is set at naught and its influence is apprehended. Not only are the concessions already made to it withdrawn; but it is not to be consulted on the proposed changes, and from the apprehension that it will express its opinion, it is even proposed to make the existing legislatures vote the local constitutions of Upper and Lower Canada. That is to say the Legislature of Canada will establish a constitution for Lower Canada, and another for Upper Canada, thus giving to the majority of the representatives from Upper Canada the right to impose in the local constitution dispositions repugnant to the popular sentiment of Lower Canada, and the majority of Lower Canada the right to impose on Upper Canada the institutions to which Upper Canada may not choose to submit.

In order to avoid consulting the people, the absurdity is fallen into of making those who are not to be affected by them vote on the local constitutions.

Every time that I have had the opportunity I have pronounced against every union with the Maritime Provinces, whether Legislative or Federal. It has always seemed to me that nothing in the existing circumstances of the various Provinces rendered that union desirable, and that we might, by a treaty of commerce and reciprocity secure to each Province all the advantages which the union can produce.

I see nothing in the project of the Conference to make me change my opinion in this respect.

The projected union appears to me to be premature, if it be not, indeed, altogether incompatible with the Colonial condition, it is, at least, altogether novel in the history of Colonies. I see only complications and embarrassments in the working of the Government; only an augmentation of debts for the Confederation; and a surcharge of burdens for the tax-payers.

This union can but retard the progress and prosperity of ths country, and I reject it because I believe it to be contrary to the interests of the entire Province; but especially disastrous for Lower Canada.

In whatever manner we weigh the proposed changes, there is a point on which there can be no difference of opinion—it is that when a question arises of no less importance than the reconstruction of the constitution, and the laying down of new foundations for the political edifice, the people, whose interests and prosperity are affected by these changes, ought to be consulted; and as the two sections of the Province have equally the right to pronounce on the character of the institutions which for the future are to govern them, these changes cannot be adopted without the concurrence of the majority of the members of each section.

It is for you to make known your views on the serious subject in question, and to cause your right to be consulted to be respected, by pronouncing energetically against any attempt to pass a measure of this importance without an appeal to the People.

I have the honour to be,

With the highest consideration,

Your obedient servant,

A. A. DORION,