by Angela Fiebelkorn, MGS #5795
VP Communications
MGS Writing Club SIG
Imagine what it was like to be part of the formation of Canada ---a new country in a world of old countries! What an exciting time in Canadian history it must have been.
Canada was formed in 1867 when the Province of Canada joined with two other British colonies---New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The rest of what is now Canada stretched to the British colony of British Columbia and was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company until 1869 when Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory were transferred to the newly created Dominion of Canada. Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald was anxious to establish sovereignty over the newly acquired territories and the plan was to build a railway to carry British and European settlers west. In the United States, there was talk of expanding their border northward into Canadian territory so the need to establish a firm hold of the west was upper most in the minds of the politicians in Ottawa.