-
“The Spirit of Confederation”: Ralph Heintzman, Professor Creighton, and the bicultural compact theory
- Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'études canadiennes
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 9, Number 4, November 1974
- pp. 24-43
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
In the face of Western anti-Catholic feeling the Progressives were not likely to espouse that agreement. This whole episode demonstrated Bourassa's lack of political realism and the continued unacceptability of French and Catholic schools to the West. These two facts suggest much about the reasons for the erosion of Bourassa's nationalist support in Quebec and its turn to Abbe Groulx. NOTES 1. Le Devoir, October 14, 1925, p. 5. All quotations in the text are those of Bourassa. 2. Canada, House of Commons Debates, January 29, 1926, p. 546, col 2, hereafter called Hansard. 3. Hansard, June 15, 1926, p. 4512, col. 2. 4. Le Devoir, November 30, 1925, p. 1, col. 7. 5. Le Devoir, December 3, 192i. 6. R. Rumilly, Henri Bourassa: la vie publique d'un grand Canadien, Montreal, 1953, p. 633. 7. Le Devoir, November 30, 1925. "The Spirit of Confederation": Ralph Heintzman, Professor Creighton, and the bicultural compact theory D. J. HALL In an article of September, 1971, Mr. Ralph Heintzman took issue with the recent writings of Professor D. G. Creighton. 1 He challenged that eminent historian's selection and use of historical "facts", and argued that there was a "spirit of Confederation" which is ignored or denied by Professor Creighton's writings. The proponents of the bicultural compact theory of Confederation have claimed that Confederation was the compromise result of the hard lessons of duality learned in the years of Un ion, that underlying the agreements of 1864-67 was a tacit or moral commitment to grant equality to 24 8. H. Bourassa, La presse catholique et nationale, Montreal, 1921, p. 35. 9. Hansard, May 18, 1926, p. 3522, col. 2. 10. Le Devoir, November 7, 1925. 11. Ibid., November 26, 1923, p. 1, col. 6. 12. Ibid., October 5, 1925, p. 2, col. 1. 13. Ibid., December 16, 1925. 14. Hansard, January 29, 1926, p. 555, col. 2. 15. Ibid., January 29, 1926, p. 555, col. 2. 16. Ibid., p. 553, col. 1. 17. Ibid., p. 558, col. 2. 18. Ibid., p. 561, col. 1. 19. Hansard, February 2, 1926, p. 647, col. 2. LO. Hansard, February 2, 1926, p. 646, col. 1. 21. William Calderwood, "Pulpit, Press and Politics, Reaction to the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan," in S. M. Trofimenkoff, ed.: The Twenties in Western Canada, Ottawa, National Museum of Man, 1972, p. 214. 22. Hansard, June 25, 1926, p. 5037, col. 1. 23. Ibid., p. 5046, col. 1. 24. Le Devoir, October 5, 1925, p. 2, col. 2. 25. Le Devoir, August 9, 1926, p. 4, col. 7. 26. Le Devoir, September 10, 1926, p. 7, col. 7. 27. Ibid., p. 7, col. 6. 28. Le Devoir, August 9, 1926, p. 4, col. 7. 29. Le Devoir, September 10, 1926, p. 7, col. 6. 30. See for example, Le Devoir, July 1, 1927. the French fact in British North America. This implicit commitment was made explicit in the opening of the North-West, when both Conservative and Liberal governments provided bicultural institutions for Manitoba and the Territories. "It was a basic national policy, deliberately adopted, carefully carried out, concurred in by both parties." This is what Professor Creighton set out to refute. 2 Hastening to the defense of biculturalism, Mr. Heintzman doubted whether the "plain facts" used by Professor Creighton "will support the construction which he wishes to place upon them." The "spirit of Confederation " was, said Mr. Heintzman, "an assumed commitment, which the union experience had necessitated, to eliminate cultural conflict through an acceptance of the French fact and through a resolve to accord dignity to the French Canadians and respect to their aspirations, and to avoid at all costs acts or policies which would leave them 'with a sullen feeling of injustice.'" UnRevue d'etudes canadiennes happily, by 1890 the lessons of the past had been largely forgotten, and the forces of bigotry once more denied justice to the minority. If only Canada now could recapture the bloom and spirit of those first golden years and fulfil! her bicultural destiny as set out over a century ago! A reply to Mr. Heintzman is surely overdue . First, upon examination it appears that he is much...