Commentary
In the saga of Canadian Confederation there were winners and losers. Winners like Cartier and Macdonald are rightly seen as heroes: They put together a country, sponsored by Great Britain, with enormous potential for prosperity and liberty.
But it’s a good thought experiment to assume it was a big mistake—that there could have been another way. The men who opposed Confederation had a strong case. They were not villains—just losers. Looking back, who was right about British North American defence? Was the vast territory from coast to coast too big to be defended by a little country? Could Canada ever afford the massive army and navy its geography required? Would Confederation actually make the colonies more secure—or less?…