Anglophone Confederation In Canada

Currently Canada is known as a bilingual and multicultural country. Our society has made it illegal to discriminate any person with a certain religion, their mother language, gender, etc. But unfortunately in the previous years, starting 1913’s Anglophone and Francophone were not great neighbours as in today. There are multiple events that have changed the two relations. At the beginning of 1830’s the employment in Quebec was not fair so the confederation was formed with John A Macdonald and George-Ethienne. The confederation was a good thing because they had the right to use French or English in Parliaments. But unfortunately the bilingual was not working together in Canada since the Regulation 17 enacted. That made Quebec aware that they …show more content…
Lord Durham was a British political reformer. That quotes was his estimation of the relationship between Lower Canada 's French Canadian and British Canadian communities in the 1830s. This is because of both the languages were not well respected to one another. There relations were not working well together. As in employment, French-Canadian Quebecers were earning the lowest wage in all of the ethnic groups in Canada. Other complaints were that the top jobs in Quebec were given most to English speaking Canadians. That’s when the Francophone-Anglophone alliance was formed by John A Macdonald and George-Ethienne Cartier at the foundation of Confederation. “I disagree with the viewpoint expressed in certain quarters that we must somehow attempt to suppress one language or place it in an inferior position with regard to the other; any such attempt is doomed to failure, and even were it possible, would be foolish and petty”(u Ottawa). John A Macdonald expressed his notions of equality between the two languages joined together in the Confederation consequently. The Constitution Act, 1867 includes one section on language which is section 133. The section explains that French and English are the right to use in the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of the province in Quebec. Also the confederation established Canada as a bicultural, bilingual country under the BNA Act in 1867. But the relations started growing, …show more content…
He also argued for years that French-speaking and English speaking Canadians should build a new Canadian nationality together. “Let us be French as the Americans are English” (Bélanger). Throughout World War One Sam Hughes, Canadian Minister of Militia called for 25000 volunteers. Two years of war, more than 350 000 Canadians volunteered. Yet French Canadians, farmers, unionists, etc opposed participation. Voluntary was failing to sustain troop numbers and that’s when Prime Minister Borden and the conservatives decided there was a need of conscription. Anglophone Canadians, British Immigrant and families of soldiers generally supported it but mostly the people who opposed conscription were the Quebec population. English Canadians claimed that Quebec was not pulling their weight in the war effort. This is because Quebec was not feeling like they were a part of their country and viewed the Canadian army as an almost entirely English Canadian Institution, not also that but they were still angry that Ontario has banned French as a language in school. The government’s call for conscription quickly created a serious turning point between English and French Canada. Borden invited Wilfred Laurier and the liberals to join conservatives so that they can create a Union government, which would be committed to win the war. But Laurier and liberals opposed conscription and also refused to