July 1st 1867 is celebrated as Canada's Confederation - the date that Canada became a country. But 1867 was only the beginning. As the country grew from a small dominion to a vast federation encompassing ten provinces, three territories, and hundreds of First Nations, its leaders repeatedly debated Canada's purpose, and the benefits and drawbacks of the choice to be Canadian. Reconsidering Confederation brings together Canada's leading historians to explore how the provinces, territories, and Treaty areas became the political frameworks we know today. In partnership with The Confederation Debates, an ongoing crowdsourced, non-partisan, and non-profit initiative to digitize all of Canada's founding colonial and federal records, this book breaks new ground by integrating the treaties between Indigenous peoples and the Crown into our understanding of Confederation. Rigorously researched and eminently readable, this book traces the unique paths that each province and territory took on their journey to Confederation. It shows the roots of regional and cultural grievances, as vital and controversial in early debates as they are today. Reconsidering Confederation tells the sometimes rocky, complex, and ongoing story of how Canada has become Canada.

With tales of a gruesome murder, a typhoid epidemic, corrupt politicians, and a Japanese invasion, The Writing on the Wall was intended to shock its readers when it was published in 1921. Thinly disguised as a novel, it is a propaganda tract exhorting white British Columbians to greater vigilance to prevent greedy politicians from selling out to the Chinese and Japanese. It was also designed to convince eastern Canada of British Columbia's need for protections against an onslaught of the 'yellow peril.'

This novel is not exceptional in its extreme racism; it reiterates almost every anti-oriental cliche circulating in British Columbia at the time of its publication. While modern readers will find the story horrifying and unbelievable, it is in fact based on real incidents. Many of the views expressed were only exaggerated versions of ideas held throughout the country about non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Writing on the Wall is a vivid illustration of the fear and prejudice with which immigrants were regarded in the early twentieth century.

Plusieurs croient que le 1er juillet 1867 represente la date de la Confederation canadienne, le jour de la creation du nouveau pays. Mais le processus ne faisait que s'amorcer en 1867. Du petit dominion aux frontiAres restreintes, le pays est devenu une federation beaucoup plus grande, avec dix provinces, trois territoires, et des centaines de communautes autochtones. Les politiciens ont longtemps debattu le concept de pays; ils ont bien pese les avantages et les inconvenients d'une adhesion A la Confederation canadienne. La Confederation, 1864-1999 regroupe plusieurs historiens influents du Canada qui etudient comment les provinces, les territoires, ainsi que les regions sujettes aux Traites ont pris leurs formes actuelles. En partenariat avec Les Debats de la Confederation, un projet de production participative non-partisan et sans but lucratif visant A numeriser les documents fondateurs du Canada, ce livre innove; il integre les traites entre les peuples autochtones et la Couronne pour mettre en lumiere la creation et l'expansion de la Confederation canadienne. Ce faisant, le livre revele l'histoire tumultueuse, complexe et evolutive de chaque province et territoire.