"John A.: Birth of a Country John A.: Birth of a Country is a Canadian television film, which aired on CBC Television in 2011. Dramatizing the events that led up to Canadian Confederation in 1867 based on Richard Gwyn's non-fiction book ""John A.: The Man Who Made Us"", the film stars Shawn Doyle as Sir John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. The film's cast also includes Peter Outerbridge as George Brown, David La Haye as George-Étienne Cartier, Aidan Devine as John Sandfield Macdonald and Patrick McKenna as Alexander Galt, as well as Michelle Nolden, Peter MacNeill, Cedric"
"dissatisfaction of western Canadians with their relationship to and representation within the federal government"". Following Confederation in 1867, the first Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, announced a ""National Policy"" to ""broaden the base of the Canadian economy and restore the confidence of Canadians in the development of their country"". The policy aimed to build a transcontinental railway, to settle the prairies, and to develop a manufacturing base in Eastern Canada. Following a rapid increase in the price of oil between 1979 and 1980, the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the National Energy Program (NEP), which intended"
"A. Macdonald's first government. Abbott was appointed to the Senate in 1887, in order to become Leader of the Government in the Senate. He became prime minister in June 1891 following Macdonald's death in office. Abbott was 70 years old at the time, and served only until November 1892 when he retired due to ill health. He died the following year. Abbott was born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec), to Harriet (née Bradford) and the Rev. Joseph Abbott (an Anglican missionary). In 1849, Abbott married Mary Martha Bethune (1823–1898), a relative of Dr. Norman Bethune, a daughter"
"Act, 1867 was proclaimed in force. The first general election to Parliament was held in the summer of 1867 and resulted in a majority government for Macdonald and his coalition of Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives. The main opposition was from the Liberals, but there was also a substantial group of Anti-Confederation Members of Parliament from the province of Nova Scotia who were opposed to Confederation and sought to dissolve the new union. The 1872 election was closely fought. Macdonald was returned to office, albeit with a reduced majority. An election financing scandal arose shortly after the election, with allegations that Macdonald"
"in 1867. Macdonald became the leader of the Conservative Party and formed the first national government in 1867. The party brought together ultramontane Quebec Catholics, pro-tariff businessmen, United Empire Loyalist Tories and Orangemen. One major accomplishment of Macdonald's first government was the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway which also led to the Pacific Scandal that brought down the government in 1873. The Conservatives under Macdonald returned to power in 1878 by opposing the Liberal Party's policy of free trade or reciprocity with the United States and promoting, instead, the National Policy which sought to promote business and develop industry"
"prime minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. From 1934 to 1939 he was British High Commissioner for Basutoland, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Swaziland, and the Union of South Africa. He retired in 1940. He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife Lady Clark, née Anne Monsell (February 22, 1880 - November 11, 1946), former wife of W. Bennett Pike. William Henry Clark Sir William Henry Clark (4 January 1876 – 22 November 1952) was a British civil servant and diplomat. He was the first British High Commissioner to Canada 1928-1934. Clark was educated"
"Province of Canada in 1861, as a supporter of George Brown. In 1867, Mackenzie was elected to the new House of Commons of Canada for the Liberal Party. He became leader of the party (and thus Leader of the Opposition) in mid-1873, and a few months later succeeded John A. Macdonald as prime minister, following Macdonald's resignation in the aftermath of the Pacific Scandal. Mackenzie and the Liberals won a clear majority at the 1874 election. He was popular among the general public for his humble background and apparent democratic tendencies. As prime minister, Mackenzie continued the nation-building programme that"
"Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 signaled an important change in relations between Britain and its North American colonies. In this treaty, the Canadas were allowed to impose tariff duties more favourable to a foreign country (the U.S.) than to Britain, a precedent that was extended by new tariffs in 1859, 1879 and 1887, despite angry demands on the part of British industrialists that these tariffs be disallowed by London. Soon after Confederation, the first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald appointed Sir John Rose as his lobbyist in London. When Alexander Mackenzie became prime minister, he sent George Brown to represent"
"newly declared Mainland. Although the first wave arrived in May from California, news of the gold rush eventually attracted many Chinese from China. When British Columbia agreed to join Confederation in 1871, one of its conditions was that the Dominion government build a railway linking B.C. with eastern Canada within 10 years. British Columbia politicians and their electorate agitated for an immigration program from the British Isles to provide this railway labour, but Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, insisted the project cut costs by employing Chinese workers to build the railway. He told Parliament in 1882: ""It"
"by John A. Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. The influence of baseball from the United States saw a decline in the popularity of cricket, despite tours from English and Australian teams. The third tour by an English team in 1872 featured none other than the famous W. G. Grace. The first Australian team to tour came in 1877, and they returned in 1893 beating Canada by an innings. Three games were played against Ireland between 1888 and 1890, Ireland winning one, with the other two drawn. A tour of North America by the Australians in 1913 saw two"
"frustrated by Great Britain's Colonial Office, began negotiations with the United States. In 1873, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, anxious to thwart American expansionism and facing the distraction of the Pacific Scandal, negotiated for Prince Edward Island to join Canada. The Federal Government of Canada assumed the colony's railway debts and agreed to finance a buy-out of the last of the colony's absentee landlords to free the island of leasehold tenure and from any new migrants entering the island. Prince Edward Island entered Confederation on July 1, 1873. The problem of absentee landowners was subsequently addressed by the passage"
"Robert Borden, the leader of the Conservative Party, stated ""The Conservative Party stands for a white Canada"". Not to lose face with voters, the Liberal government passed immigration that excluded non-whites, except when they were needed for cheap labour (James & Walker, 1984). Agnes Macdonald, the second wife of the first Prime Minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald, was born in Jamaica. Her brother, Hewitt Bernard, was the recording secretary at the Charlottetown Conference in 1864. After Confederation, Bernard served as the private secretary to the Prime Minister between 1867 and 1873. Michael Manley, the future Prime Minister of Jamaica,"
"for treason in 1885; it alienated many francophones from his Conservative Party. He died in 1891, still in office; he is respected today for his key role in the formation of Canada. Historical rankings have consistently placed Macdonald as one of the highest rated Prime Ministers in Canadian history. John Alexander Macdonald was born John Alexander Mcdonald in Ramshorn parish in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 10th (official record) or 11 January (father's journal) 1815. His father was named Hugh, an unsuccessful merchant, who had married John's mother, Helen Shaw, on 21 October 1811. John Alexander Macdonald was the third of"
"Canada was created in 1867, Hamilton was an enthusiastic partner in the bold new political enterprise and preached the joys of the British Empire. The city was represented in the House of Commons by one seat for the city proper and two for the remainder of the county (Wentworth South and Wentworth North). Growing commercial and industrial prosperity prompted large scale emigration from the British Isles. Many Irish immigrants created a Corktown in the general vicinity of John and Hunter Streets. Patriotic Britons and native born Canadians of British stock erected many public monuments downtown to honour John A. Macdonald,"
"telecommunications) or that of the provinces, such as education and healthcare. The division of powers is outlined in the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act 1867), a key document in the Constitution of Canada. The federal nature of the Canadian constitution was a response to the colonial-era diversity of the Maritimes and the Province of Canada, particularly the sharp distinction between the French-speaking inhabitants of Lower Canada and the English-speaking inhabitants of Upper Canada and the Maritimes. John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, originally favoured a unitary system; later, after witnessing the carnage of the American"
"Isabella Macdonald Isabella Macdonald née Clark (1809 – 28 December 1857) was the first wife of John A. Macdonald, one of the fathers of the Canadian federation, and ultimately the first Prime Minister of Canada. After marrying Macdonald in Kingston, Ontario in 1843, she enjoyed two years of happy marriage before falling seriously ill. Her first son died at 13 months but her second son, Hugh John Macdonald, became Premier of Manitoba. Despite some better spells, she died aged 48, never recovering from her illness. Isabelle Clark was born in Dalnavert in Inverness-shire, Scotland, to parents Alexander and Margaret Clark."
"1820, became the first Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, leading the country through its period of early growth. Under his leadership, the dominion expanded to include Manitoba, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island. Alexander Mackenzie was the first Liberal Prime Minister of Canada (1873–78). Another Scot, William Lyon Mackenzie, who led the revolt in Upper Canada against the Canadian government in 1838, became a symbol of Canadian radicalism. His rebellion dramatized the need to reform the country's outmoded constitution and led to the 1841 union of Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Another Scot, William McDougall, was known as"
"There were two ship building yards. Kingston was the home of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. One of his residences in Kingston, Bellevue House, is now a popular National Historic Site of Canada open to the public and depicting the house as it would have been in the 1840s when he lived there. In the early hours of April 18, 1840, a dock fire, fanned by high winds, spread to a warehouse containing between 70 and 100 kegs of gunpowder. The resulting explosion spread the fire throughout the city's downtown area, destroying a large number of buildings,"
"the landlords who held large blocks of island land. All private holdings over 1,000 acres were sold to the province. The first Prime Minister of the new nation was John A. Macdonald, and he outlined what would be Canada's economic program for decades. This would be the National Policy a system of protective tariffs that would encourage the development of Canadian manufacturing. This would be combined with great railway building projects such as the Canadian Pacific Railway to link the east with the west and the Intercolonial Railway to link central Canada with Atlantic Canada. Other plans for the National"
"becoming integrated into the mainstream of Canadian political life, was also established by this realignment. Later groups included the Progressives, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Social Credit Party of Canada and the Reform Party of Canada. The best-known premiership has arguably been the Macdonald-Cartier ministry, which governed the Province of Canada from 1857 to 1862 (except for four days in 1858 when power was briefly ceded to the Brown-Dorion government). It was during their ministry that the first organized moves toward Canadian Confederation took place, and John A. Macdonald himself became the first Prime Minister of Canada in 1867. Macdonald-Cartier"
"addition to the separate colonies of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and British Columbia, which remained governed by the British, vast areas in the north and west belonged to the British and to the Hudson's Bay Company. American and British opinion was that the experiment of Confederation would quickly unravel, and the nascent nation absorbed by the United States. In August 1867, the new nation's first general election was held; Macdonald's party won easily, with strong support in both large provinces, and a majority from New Brunswick. Parliament convened in November, surprisingly without Brown, who was defeated in Ontario and never"
"the late Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone), which allowed Labour to contest a number of working class seats without Liberal opposition, thus giving Labour its first breakthrough into the House of Commons. He married Margaret Ethel Gladstone, who was unrelated to the Gladstones of the Liberal Party, in 1896. Although not wealthy, Margaret MacDonald was comfortably off, and this allowed them to indulge in foreign travel, visiting Canada and the United States in 1897, South Africa in 1902, Australia and New Zealand in 1906 and India several times. It was during this period that MacDonald and his wife began a"
"prime minister by the Governor General, Lord Monck, when the new Canadian nation was founded on 1 July 1867. As leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (concurrently known as the Liberal-Conservative Party until 1873), he led his party in this election and continued as Prime Minister of Canada when the Conservatives won a majority of the seats in the election, including majorities of the seats (and votes) in the new provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The Liberal Party of Canada won the second largest number of seats overall, including a majority of the seats (and votes) in the province"
"first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, MP for Ottawa West-Nepean announced the change on August 15, 2012. The renaming followed a grass roots campaign led by author and historian Bob Plamondon and Ottawa media personality Mark Sutcliffe. In 2015, the NCC and the City of Ottawa reached an agreement to run the light rail under a reconstructed and realigned Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, from what will be Dominion to Clearly stations (East to West, roughly between present-day Churchill avenue and Cleary Avenue). Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway,"
"and the Conservatives had accepted bribes in return for granting the contract for the trans-Canadian railroad to the first Canadian Pacific Railway company of Hugh Allan. As a result of the scandal, Macdonald and his government was forced to resign in late 1873. The Governor-General, Lord Dufferin, appointed Alexander Mackenzie, the leader of the Liberals, as Prime Minister. Mackenzie called an election in early 1874. Prime Minister Mackenzie formed his government in late 1873, after the fall of the Macdonald government in late 1873. Mackenzie called the general election in early 1874. He won a majority and was confirmed in"
"56 days under prime minister Alexander Mackenzie after he took power from Sir John A. Macdonald following the Pacific Scandal. However, this event is generally not noted because Parliament was never in session while Mackenzie was in power. The eleventh federal minority parliament was elected in the 2008 election. In the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world, minority governments are referred to as hung parliaments. Alexander Mackenzie replaced Sir John A. Macdonald in 1873 after the latter was involved in the Pacific Scandal. Mackenzie became the prime minister of a minority government, but he immediately called an election in"
"that would become Canada, or, as termed by the critic Northrop Frye ""in many respects a war of independence for Canada."" There is an element of the heroic that attaches to Sir John A. Macdonald, the Scottish lawyer from Kingston, Ontario who became Canada's first Prime Minister. His weaknesses (such as an alleged fondness for alcohol, and the multifaceted corruption inherent in the Pacific Scandal) and the controversial events surrounding the rebellions in the west have not erased admiration for his accomplishments in nation building for English Canadians. Macdonald's pragmatism laid the foundation of the national myth of the 'two"
"was returned as a representative of 2nd Kings District in the Legislative Council and again reelected in 1867. Andrew Macdonald was a member of the Executive Council from 1867 to 1872 and again from 18 April 1872 until Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1873. He was leader of the Government Party in Legislative Council for some years. He first returned as a representative of the Liberal Party in carrying out Responsible Government and extending the Electoral Franchise. When the Conservative section of the party joined the Liberal section of the Conservative Party, he united with them to pass the"
"minority position. Not long afterwards, many English-speakers in Canada became attracted to American nationalism, in the form of annexationism, highlighted by the Montreal Annexation Manifesto of 1850. Irish nationalism in its strong form of physical force Irish republicanism was evident in Canada during the Fenian Raids of the 1860s and assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee in 1868. When the Canadian Confederation was established in 1867, British and Canadian forms of identity and political allegiance continued to coexist. In 1891 election, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, himself a Scotsman, wrapped himself in the Union Jack, swore to keep Canada British,"
"Indian wars. Finally after 1896, with the opening of the rich Western wheat plans, did the Canadian economy recover. Immigration surged, and a spirit of optimism returned to Canada. The new country was led by Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. Under Macdonald, Canada bought Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, and westward settlement was encouraged. However, the people who already lived there, natives and Métis, descendants of the children of natives and French Canadian fur traders, were opposed to waves of English-speaking settlers buying their lands. The Métis of the Red River settlement"
"Premier of the Province. Macdonald was the second-longest serving Prime Minister, with two separate terms as Prime Minister (1867–1873, 1878–1891). He was in office for a total of 18 years, 359 days. He led the combined Liberal-Conservative Party and Conservative Party in seven general elections, winning six and losing one. He is in a three-way tie with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mackenzie King for the number of general elections he contested as leader of a party. His streak of four consecutive majority governments (1878, 1882, 1887, and 1891) is tied with the identical record of Laurier as the longest streak"
"of Justice and Macdonald's former secretary, also lived in the Macdonald house in Ottawa, together with Bernard's widowed mother. In May 1870, John Macdonald fell ill with gallstones; coupled with his frequent drinking, he may have developed a severe case of acute pancreatitis. In July, he moved to Prince Edward Island to convalesce, most likely conducting discussions aimed at drawing the island into Confederation at a time when some there supported joining the United States. The island joined Confederation in 1873. Macdonald had once been tepid on the question of westward expansion of the Canadian provinces; as Prime Minister he"
"itself, as well as entertaining delegations from the United States, who were interested in Prince Edward Island joining the United States. In 1871, the colony began construction of a railway and, frustrated by Great Britain's Colonial Office, began negotiations with the United States. In 1873, Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, anxious to thwart American expansionism and facing the distraction of the Pacific Scandal, negotiated for Prince Edward Island to join Canada. The Dominion Government of Canada assumed the colony's extensive railway debts and agreed to finance a buy-out of the last of the colony's absentee landlords to free"