We often talk about the Prairies as if it were a single province, but they are actually made up of three separate provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. However, they did have several things in common. For example, at the time of ConfederationThis is a group of people or nations or tribes or provinces that form an "alliance".... – when Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were joining together to become a country – they did not yet exist. The Prairies were at that time a territoryA territory is an area of land, or sometimes of sea, that we can say "belongs"... that still belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company.
The Canadian government bought this vast territoryA territory is an area of land, or sometimes of sea, that we can say "belongs"... in 1869, without consulting its inhabitants. This led to the Métis of the Red River colonyColonizationColonization occurs when one country takes control of another country, territory, or people. It happens when... (in the Winnipeg region today) gathering around Louis Riel to assert their rights with the federal government. Following an armed resistance, they obtained the creation of the province of Manitoba in 1870. It became Canada’s fifth province, functioning in the same way as the other four provinces, with a provincial parliament and members who sat in the federal parliament in Ottawa. But Manitoba was a tiny province at the time. It was only in 1912 that its territoryA territory is an area of land, or sometimes of sea, that we can say "belongs"... was enlarged to the borders it has today.
With the creation of Manitoba, only a very small portion of the Prairies had become a province; the rest of the territoryA territory is an area of land, or sometimes of sea, that we can say "belongs"... continued to be controlled solely by the federal government in Ottawa. As the populationPopulation comes from the Latin populus, meaning “the people.” We say population when we talk about a group... grew, people felt that they were not always being heard by the federal government because they had no members of parliament to represent them. Ottawa was very far away, after all. In 1905—35 years after the creation of Manitoba—the government of Wilfrid Laurier acquiesced to the wishes of the populationPopulation comes from the Latin populus, meaning “the people.” We say population when we talk about a group... and created two new provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta. They had the same boundaries then as they do today.
In 1905, the three Prairie Provinces therefore had a political process similar to that of Québec.
AuthorAuthor - A person who writes something Auteur - Une personne qui écrit quelque chose: Service national du Récit de l’univers social
