Timeline of Canadian Confederation Quiz

Answer: 1905

The province of Alberta came into existence on September 1st, 1905, along with a neighbouring province, out of the vast lands of the Northwest Territories. The region was never a colony, like the provinces that preceded Alberta's joining, but was settled as part of settler expansion to the West, largely in an effort to lay claim to the land before the United States did.

Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier, along with Territorial legislators Frederick William Haultain and James Hamilton Ross, drafted the Act that would pass in Ottawa, granting Alberta entry into Confederation as the 8th province.

Answer: 1871

British settlers first established the colony of Vancouver Island in 1849, but just a few years later a gold rush brought enough of a population influx that a second colony (British Columbia) was established on the mainland in 1858. In 1866, the two colonies combined into British Columbia, with the capital in Victoria (on Vancouver Island).

Following the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, the government of BC debated the merits of joining Confederation. In the spring of 1870, a delegation was sent to Ottawa to negotiate terms of BC's (possible) joining. To have BC join Confederation, the new province was promised a rail link to the rest of the country, as well as the federal government assuming BC's debt, amongst other concessions. Legislation was passed on 20th July 1871, bringing BC into the Canadian fold as the 6th province.

Answer: 1982

The British North America Act formed the Dominion of Canada in 1867. While Canada had self-government from then on, the constitution still left certain aspects of the government under the auspices of the UK government. The Canada Act of 1982 was the final step of a number of different acts of the Parliament of the UK (since the BNA) that devolved powers of government to Canada proper.

Before the Canada Act, it was still a requirement to appeal to the UK to make certain types of amendments to the constitution, and also ended the 'request and consent' provisions of the Statute of Westminster. With the patriation of Canada's constitution, Canada well and truly became an independent nation.

Answer: 1870

The Hudson's Bay Company controlled much of the land west of Ontario before and after Confederation, and they made efforts to limit the movement of settlers into the territory so as to maintain their fur trading monopoly. In 1812, however, the Selkirk Settlers arrived to settle land granted to them by the Crown. They formed the Red River Colony. With Confederation in 1867, the government also purchased Rupert's Land (within which the Red River Colony was situated), without any consultation of the Colony or the native and Métis peoples of the region. Resistance came from nearly everyone, but chiefly from the Red River Colony, which declared itself its own provisional government under Louis Riel in 1869, and that they would negotiate the colony's entrance into Confederation.

Friction within religious factions within the colony led to Riel court-martialing and executing Thomas Scott, a Protestant from Ontario. Eventually the Manitoba Act was ratified by the provisional government, and Manitoba became Canada's 5th province on May 12th, 1870. Riel, even though he was the leader of the new province, fled the region before Sir John A. Macdonald could send troops to take him into custody for his actions regarding Thomas Scott. Despite joining Canada in 1870, it was not until 1912 that Manitoba's borders were expanded to their present configuration.

Answer: 1867

New Brunswick was formed as a colony in 1784, and became self-governing (responsible government) in 1854. Ten years later, New Brunswick resolved to pursue the formation of a Maritime union with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and they planned a conference, to be held in Charlottetown (PEI). Hearing of this, representatives from Upper and Lower Canada (later Ontario and Québec).

The newcomers convinced the others (two of them, anyway), to forge a stronger union to include the two Canadas. Back in New Brunswick, support was not unanimous, and there was a strong resistance to the idea of Confederation. After the Fenian raids of 1866, however, sentiments swayed in the other direction. New Brunswick became one of the founding four provinces of Confederation on July 1st, 1867.

Answer: 1949

When the other maritime provinces and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada met in Charlottetown, there were no delegates from Newfoundland present. They sent a couple to the subsequent Québec Conference, but only as observers. Some debate ensued within the Newfoundland Colony government, but interest was quite low. As an independent colony, Newfoundland had some financial ups and downs, largely dependent on its strategic value as a staging ground during World Wars I and II. Inbetween the wars, the Great Depression almost drove the colony to bankruptcy, and in 1934 they suspended their responsible government in favour of an unelected Commission Government directed from England.

After World War II, interest in Confederation renewed and various referendums were held to determine the wishes of the populace. Confederation won out with a narrow 52.3% vote. Eventually, with encouragement from England and Canada, Newfoundland joined the rest of Canada as the 10th province on 31st March 1949. The province officially changed its name to Newfoundland and Labrador in the year 2001.

Answer: 1870

At the time of Confederation in 1867, everything to the west and north of the province of Ontario (except the Colony of British Columbia) was divided into two large chunks of land: Rupert's Land (Hudson's Bay Company land since 1670), and the North-Western Territory (named for its location relative to Rupert's Land, and also HBC territory from 1859). In 1870, these lands were purchased from the HBC by the Canadian government, and on the same date that Manitoba joined Confederation, the two humungous swaths of land joined to become the Northwest Territories. Administration of the NWT was centered in a number of different locations before finally being assigned to Yellowknife in 1967.

The actual area of the Northwest Territories has varied incredibly over the years, first expanding as Canada laid claim to more land in the arctic archipelago, then shrinking as chunks were carved out to create provinces and other territories.

Answer: 1867

Nova Scotia was the first colony of British North America to achieve responsible government (in 1848) and many people felt that they would lose status and be neglected as part of a larger confederation, rather than flourish as an independent entity. Even when Premier Charles Tupper managed to pass legislation to bring Nova Scotia into the new Dominion of Canada, the people remained divided on the issue.

The first provincial government voted in after Confederation ran on an anti-Confederation platform and won 18 of 19 seats, but newly-minted Prime Minister John A. Macdonald made overtures to the new premier and convinced him to join the Federal cabinet. Thus, Nova Scotia was one of the four founding provinces in the newly-formed Canada on July 1st of 1867, and their newly-elected premier (Joseph Howe) became instrumental in bringing Manitoba into Confederation a few years later.

Answer: 1999

The process that created Nunavut out of the Northwest Territories was a long and drawn out process. The first real discussions on dividing the NWT into eastern and western regions occurred in the late 1950s / early 1960s, but nothing came of it. After Yellowknife was named as the capital in 1967, interest in a division resurfaced, as Inuit in the east felt that Yellowknife was too far west to effectively administer to their needs.

The Tungavik Federation of Nunavut was established in 1982 to represent the east and to negotiate land settlements with the federal government. It took until 1992 to establish the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and a year later the Nunavut Act was passed in parliament, creating the new territory. Even so, it took six more years for a federally appointed commission to establish the necessary government institutions, including a civil service, for the new territory. Elections were held, and on April 1st, 1999, Nunavut officially came into existence, the 3rd territory to be created.

Answer: 1867

The colonies of Upper Canada and Lower Canada merged in 1841 after some internal upheaval in preceding years. The newly formed 'provinces' were called Canada West and Canada East, but strife between the English west and French east made it a tricky union.

The threat of hostilities to the south (the Civil War) provided the impetus for the two provinces to seek a nonviolent solution to their problems, and when the maritime provinces organized the Charlottetown Conference in 1864, an avenue presented itself. In early 1867, the East and West Canada broke apart, only to become reunified again within the Dominion of Canada as the provinces of Ontario and Québec on July 1st of the same year.

Answer: 1873

Despite hosting the first of three conferences that eventually led to Confederation in 1867, Prince Edward Island delegates did not see any benefit for the small colony to join Confederation. They already had a vibrant economy with the United Kingdom, the other maritime provinces, as well as American states. The Island soon saw economic hardship when they constructed a railway, going deep into debt in the process. An offer from the Canadian government included taking on the railway debt, purchasing land from absentee landlords, and a promise to maintain a year-round communication link with the Island.

Prince Edward Island became Canada's 7th province on July 1st, 1873.

Answer: 1867

Québec's journey of entry into Confederation was very similar to that of Ontario's, as the two provinces had already been joined in the Act of Union of 1840. One of the prime factors for Québec, however, was the protection of the French language and culture within a British North America. Proponents of Confederation, led by George-Étienne Cartier, believed that a federal government could manage national decisions, leaving local interests to the provincial leadership.

Québec joined Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as one of the founding provinces of the Dominion of Canada on July 1st, 1867.

Answer: 1905

Along with the province of Alberta, Saskatchewan was carved out of the Northwest Territories (which was established in 1870) and established as a new province on September 1st, 1905. Following the unrest of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 (occurring largely in Saskatchewan), with order restored to the region, the government of Canada opened the West to settlement, and in the 20 years following the quelling of the rebellion, the population of the region increased tenfold.

The Alberta and Saskatchewan Acts were both passed in parliament on 20th July, to go into effect on September 1st. Technically, Alberta was 'enactment 12' to Saskatchewan's 'enactment 13', which would mean that Alberta was the 8th province, and Saskatchewan the 9th.

Answer: 1931

The Statute of Westminster was passed on December 11th, 1931, granting full legal freedom to Canada and other Commonwealth Dominions. This was a culminating document that was preceded by these Dominions becoming more and more independent and developing a sense of nationhood, largely stemming from the events of World War I.

In the 1920s, Canada began to assert its independence in foreign affairs, which led to the Imperial Conference of 1926 and the subsequent Balfour Report, declaring Britain and its Dominions to be constitutionally equal in status. Two more conferences led up to the enactment of the Statute of Westminster: the 1929 Conference on the Operation of Dominion Legislation and the Imperial Conference of 1930.

Answer: 1898

In 1895, the Yukon had been named one of the four districts of the Northwest Territories, along with Mackenzie, Franklin and Ungava, but only a year later, things changed.

The gold rush of 1896 brought a huge influx of prospectors, and the people of the Yukon wanted more control of their affairs. The Yukon Territory Act was passed on the 13th of June, 1898, officially creating Canada's 2nd territory. Dawson City was named the capital of the new territory, but after the gold rush faded out, Dawson City became little more than a ghost town. Even so, the capital would not be moved to Whitehorse until 1953.