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Between 3 February and 13 March 1865, the Parliament of the Province of Canada debated the negotiated confederation of British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, aimed at creating a union from Newfoundland to Lake Superior. As a public information exercise, legislators decided to produce a near-verbatim account of their deliberations. Peter Waite has made a selection of the most interesting and revelatory parts of the resulting thousand-page tome, making it easier to access one of the most important sources for early Canadian history.
In The Confederation Debates in the Province of Canada, 1865, John A. Macdonald presses for the advantages of a strong central power; Alexander Galt puts forward the economic arguments for union; and critics of confederation, Christopher Dunkin and A.A. Dorion, express their misgivings with prophetic insight.
P.B. Waite is professor emeritus, Dalhousie University, and the author of The Life and Times of Confederation, 1864-1867 and The Man from Halifax: Sir John Thompson, Prime Minister. He is an officer of the Order of Canada.
Ged Martin is professor emeri