British Columbia NOT joining Canada (and other provincial PODs)

So, I'll admit, I'm not nearly as well-versed in Canadian history as I should be. I am much more knowledgeable about Canada's southern neighbor. But for my timeline (see signature), I want to touch on Canadian history after my POD. Well, okay, global history but, since Canada is a part of the world, that necessarily includes Canadian history.

Anyway, I figured this would be better as a separate thread just in case there were others thinking about altering the history of Canada post-confederation. My question is this: was British Columbia joining the Canadian confederation inevitable? If not, what butterflies could have flapped to alter that?

I want to be clear: I'm not asking necessarily about British Columbia joining with the United States instead. No, rather, I'm curious if there were any circumstances which could have caused British Columbia to be its own separate entity or, more radically, join with or annex Russia's Alaska territory. This is not a deal-breaker if there is no plausible way to prevent British Columbia from joining with the rest of OTL Canada. I just figure that altering British Columbia's trajectory is the best, most plausible alteration of Canadian territorial development.

Moreover, and on a semi-related note, are there any other changes which could have been made to Canada's provincial development?
 
Hmm, not sure how feasable this would be but what if the British in the Oregon crisis win big and walk away with everything and also at a later date get Alaska. Then later on as the British are consildating their dominions Columbia would be the western colonies facing the Pacific Ocean While Canada would be the eastern colonies facing the Atlantic ocean.

would this have been plausible?
 
Seems plausible to me, but unfortunately that POD is quite a bit before mine. To my limited knowledge of Canadian history though, it could definitely work for a different timeline with that as the POD.
 
So, I'll admit, I'm not nearly as well-versed in Canadian history as I should be. I am much more knowledgeable about Canada's southern neighbor. But for my timeline (see signature), I want to touch on Canadian history after my POD. Well, okay, global history but, since Canada is a part of the world, that necessarily includes Canadian history.

Anyway, I figured this would be better as a separate thread just in case there were others thinking about altering the history of Canada post-confederation. My question is this: was British Columbia joining the Canadian confederation inevitable? If not, what butterflies could have flapped to alter that?

I want to be clear: I'm not asking necessarily about British Columbia joining with the United States instead. No, rather, I'm curious if there were any circumstances which could have caused British Columbia to be its own separate entity or, more radically, join with or annex Russia's Alaska territory. This is not a deal-breaker if there is no plausible way to prevent British Columbia from joining with the rest of OTL Canada. I just figure that altering British Columbia's trajectory is the best, most plausible alteration of Canadian territorial development.

Moreover, and on a semi-related note, are there any other changes which could have been made to Canada's provincial development?

You need to create a situation in which there is no expectation of a Trans-continental railway being completed in the immediate future (IE within a few decades... maybe even until 1900 or later. The longer the delay, or at least the perception of it being set to continue, the better) in order to prevent the economic integration of the Trans-Rockies economy with that of the rest of Canada. Once you have a steady stream of commerical contact, reinforcing cultural connections/exchange, influx of Canadian-born settlers vs. First-Nation admixture, direct migrants from Britain or her other colonies, ect., the economics of scale and reminder of their heritage/continued link to the rest of Canada make the prospect of developing a strong enough seperate regional identity to want to become a sovergein stage, much less it making economic sense to do so, rapidly starts fading into the distance. This could come across in a handful of ways... maybe successful resistance/autonomy gained by the Metis and First Nations of the Great Plains within Canada? Its possible you could bring that about, though it might be bordering on the edge of ASB, depending on how much of a shift you can work out in your timeframe. The only thing that comes to my mind is an early migration of the Plains Indians out of the United States into Canada and acting as a shot in the arm to their cultural relations in terms of population numbers, military experiance in fighting the White Man (From Indian Wars), maybe bringing in weapons/material wealth as well (Some kind of grand Buffalo Drive as unconquered tribes go into their self imposed exile as a kind of final "*Insert swear of your choice here you* to Washington?). Alternatively, for some reason the capital for the project can't be raised, either due to getting sucked into another British colony that goes through a big boom during the period to the point that its that profitable, early companies who try go bust several times for one reason or another, or an economic crisis and long term decline engulfs G.B to leads to a drought in available credit throughout the Empire)
 
So how prevalent was the idea of a trans-continental Canadian railroad? I know it was a policy position of Sir John Alexander McDonald, a conservative, but was it a position unique to him, unique to conservative Canadian politicians, or an ubiquitous idea in Canadian politics? Basically, what I'm asking is if butterflying away McDonald's premiership is enough to significantly delay the railroad? I doubt it could be stopped completely regardless, but could it be delayed by butterflying McDonald's premiership away and instead have a new premier in charge? I'm thinking liberal George Brown would probably be the best bet instead of McDonald, but I'm open to plausible suggestions if a new premier would delay the railroad.
 
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