The Early Days of Representative Government in British Columbia

THE EARLY DAYS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT I'N BRITISH COLUMBIA ARremoved from thesettled portions ofBritish North America andseparated fromthemby the RockyMountainsandthe great plains,two British colonies grew up on the North West Pacificcoastduringthe middleyearsof the nineteenthcentury-Vancouver Island and British Columbia. At first sight their story would seemto have but little connectionwith that of the rest of Canada. Their problemswere different, and their isolationwasall but complete. Evenaslate as1871,whenthe united colonyof British Columbia becamea provinceof the Dominion of Canada,therewasconsiderable heart-searching both in Ottawa and Victoria as to whether or not it was wise to try to link up with the four originalprovinces of the newly-formedDominiona territory soremote. In fact, asis clearlyevidenced by a perusal of the debate on Confederationin the Legislative Council of British Columbiain March and April, 1870, and especiallyof the speechof the Hon. Mr. Trutch, it wasonly the incorporation of the 'North West Territory with the Dominion in 1870 that made the entrance of British Columbia into the federation a possibility. • And even yet, fifty years after Confederation, British Columbia still retains its individual characteristics and its peculiarproblems. It facesthe Orient and has,geographically, turned its back on the rest of Canada. It is, as an eastern Canadian has calledit, the "West beyondthe West". But it is now intensely Canadian in feeling, and has long since ceasedits agitation for "Better Terms". Although in their early days the two colonieswhich now form the province of British Columbia were entirely shut off from the rest of British North America, their political and constitutional developmenthad many points of similarity with that of the older provinces. It is true that before 1871 responsible government, in its usual sense,had not been set up in any part Confederation Debates, p. 17. 143 144 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW of British Columbia; though representative government had been tried, and had proved to be no more successful,without responsible government,in Vancouver Island, and British Columbia than it had been in eastern Canada. It is true also that full powers of self-government were granted to British Columbia after 1871 only as a province of Canada and not as a separate colony. None the less,the story of the early attemptsat popular governmentin British Columbia is well worth chronicling,and it should not be forgotten that the Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island which met in 1856 was the first of its kind to be set up in British North America west of the Great Lakes. In the older Canadian provincesrepresentativegovernment was granted as a result of a considerablepopular demand. In VancouverIsland it wasset up on accountof the expressed wish of the Colonial Office, while the Act which in 1858 created the crown colonyof British Columbia provided for the establishment in that colonyof a legislaturecontaininga representative assembly as soon as conditions would permit. As a matter of fact, no LegislativeAssemblywas ever createdfor the crown colonyof British Columbia, but five representativememberssat in the Legislative Council. Before, however, we can discuss the constitutions of the coloniesof Vancouver Island and British Columbia, it will be necessaryto sketch briefly the events which in each caseled to the creation of these British settlements on the 'North West Pacific coast. The originsof the two colonieswere quite dissimilar . The oldercolony,VancouverIsland, was broughtinto being in 1849 by the Royal Grant made in that year by the imperial authorities to the Hudson's Bay Company. By the terms of this grant the Hudson's Bay Company wasgiven control of the island, provided that it accepted certain conditions imposed by the imperial government. These conditions included the acceptanceof a royal governorand the settlement by the Company,within a periodof five years,of residentcoloniststo whom lands were to be sold "at a reasonableprice". At the sametime the Hudson's Bay Company had possessed since1821• the exclusiveprivilege of trading with the Indians on the Mainland of British Columbia. Coupledwith the rightsof sovereignty over Rupert's Land, conferredby the originalcharterof 1670, and •Thisgrant of 1821wasreaffirmedin 1838for a periodof twenty-oneyears. EARLY DAYS IN B•sH COLUMBIA 145 reaffirmedby thegrant orlicense of 1821,2this Royal Grant of 1849 madethe Hudson'sBay Company supremein all western Canada, including Vancouver Island. From Fort William on the east to Fort...