The Bullet of Providence: An Acadian Timeline 2.0

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Any updates?

I haven't abandoned it and have continued to charted mentally the course ahead but I must admit that what I have in terms of heavy, historiographical, true quality writing tend to go all for my masters memoir these days and I don't have have much left for the TL. I hope to be done by september and then update on a very regular basis. More immediately, I plan to do the Ontario-Quebec chapter relatively soon but I can't give a timeframe.

More seriously, I wonder what Acadian nationalism will look like in a timeline where Acadians are scattered between different provinces, forming majorities or (at worst) pluralities in all but still divided.

Expect them to go full French-Canada type of nationalism, it resolve the dillema and it has the benifice of allowing them to throw their weights around by supporting francophone minority elsewhere. Sure, the maritimes are still not gonna be immensely populated here either but having three provinces where you are a majority does give you some serious punching power.
 
A fascinating premise, but as a South Louisianian with ancestors from the Acadian diaspora, I wonder what Louisiana would be like without the Acadians...

I mean what would American culture be without Fred's Bar in Mamou, chunky-chunk Cajun music, zydeco, blackened redfish (although my father referred to Paul Prudhomme as , "dat boy what ruins dose perfectly good redfish")...:)
 
Chapter VII: A Most Complicated Union
Chapter VII: A Most Complicated Union

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Upper and Lower Canada

The British Colonial office had, at first, showed itself supremely reluctant to grant any form of parliamentary representation to the inhabitants of what had formerly been known as New France. The Franco-catholic population was simply deemed too untrustworthy to be allowed to vote and seek elected mandate while an assembly elected without their votes would simply be turned into the instrument of the demands of the, very few at the time, Anglo-protestants settlers. Needless to say, the American Revolution ended that state of affairs in the most brutal fashion. Before 1783 it was all too easy to dismiss the concerns of the few fur traders and other newcomers who made their way North but afterward it became simply impossible to ignore the complaints of the thousands of loyalists, who had lost their homes because of their continued faithfulness to London. Similarly, the loyalty of the Canadiens during the war (1) proved that the suspicion of London toward them where unfounded.


Thus, in 1791 Governor General Guy Carleton, 1st Baron of Dorchester, signed the Constitutional Act. By that act, the colony previously known as the Province of Quebec was to be divided in two: Upper and Lower Canada. Both colony where to be given consultative legislative assemblies, able to pass bills but needing the approval of the Governor-General on each of them to make them laws and, like in the Maritimes, Catholics where to be allowed to both vote and stand for elections. In a British empire where catholic disenfranchisement was the rule Canada was the exception. For the next decades the two colonies grew side by side, the real power continuing to be held by the Governors and to his designated servants but the colonial authorities always took pain to not act without the advice of the elected representative of the colonists and to name some MLA's to jobs of great power.

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Governor General Carleton

This relatively happy state of affairs was ended in 1807 by the nomination of James Craig to the post of Governor General of Canada and the creation of the Canadien Party in Lower Canada. Craig became soon notorious for his alleged dislike of the Franco-catholics habitants of Lower Canada, considering them Trojan horses of the French enemy and aiming to destroy their majority in Lower Canada with a wave of British, or even American, immigrants and for his authoritarianism and unwillingness to give key posts to any but British born men’s. Meanwhile, inspired by the ideals of enlightenment and of the revolutions the Canadiens began to organise.


During the first 40 years after the conquest the society of former Nouvelle France had been dominated by the old nobility with family ties to the French aristocracy and by the Catholic Church, both organisations having been quite content with the Status Quo. That state of affairs began to change during the first years of the 19th century as new French-Canadians bourgeoisie began to rise, taking advantage of the economic windfall created by Britain craving for Canadian timber, and allied himself with the most reformists segments of the nobility to form the Parti Canadien and partisan press to spread his ideals. Apart from the defense of Catholicism and the French language the Parti Canadien also aimed to give responsible ministry to the colony. Needless to say, a clash between the new party and Craig was inevitable. Matters came to a head in 1808 when the the Parti Canadien sought to augment his majority in the house.


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Governor General Craig

The massive franco-catholic majority should have naturally tended to produce a sizable majority for the Parti Canadien (even if the Franco-catholic majority was notably reduced by the fact that only men’s of a certain wealth could vote) but, in practice, things proved more complicated. While fairly well off the MLA's of the Parti Canadien tended to be less wealthy then the Bureaucrats, closer to Craig. As a result, many of the MLA's of the Parti Canadien where unable to remain in Quebec City all through the sessions of the Legislative Assembly and often needed to return to their homes to tend to their affairs. Every single seat was thus of paramount importance. In consequence, the Parti Canadien sought to strip Bureaucrat's MLA's De Bonne and Hart of their seats. Future generations have tended to side with the Parti Canadien as far as De Bonne was concerned as its core argument, that judges shouldn't be able to also stand for elections, was enshrined in laws accross the western world during the 19th and 20th century, far more infamous where the attempts made against Ezekiel Hart. Taking advantage of his Jewish faith the Parti Canadian argued that the obligatory, Christian, oath given to all MLA's could not be sworn by a Jew and that therefore he could not serve.


The De Bonne-Hart affair rocked Lower Canada during the three years who followed Craig arrival, the assembly passing laws after laws preventing De Bonne and Hart to occupy their seats and Craig vetoing them. Soon, the colony became almost ungovernable, the Parti Canadien doing everything to make Craig job impossible and Craig purging its partisans from the administration and repeatedly dissolving the assembly. The repetitive elections who followed both re-elected De Bonne and Hart being in their ridings and strengthened the majority of the Parti Canadien. Seemingly playing a losing hand, Craig decided to force the issue and arrested the leaders of the Parti Canadien, only to free them a year later when the province seemed to tether on the verge of anarchy. Sick and tired Craig demanded his recall in 1811 and his vow was granted. Influenced by the precedent created the Party Canadien the more democratic minded politicians of Upper Canada formed the Reformist Party during the 1810's, pursuing the same political objective then the Parti Canadien apart from the defense of Catholicism and the French language (2).


The departure of Craig proved quite beneficial for the colony, as she would need unity in the next years more than ever before, relations between London and Washington where about to reach their breaking point and the War of 1812 was soon to begin. The tale of the war, in all its horrors and glories, is of no concern of ours as we strive to show how the idea of the Canadian Confederation came to birth in Lower and Upper Canada. For our purposes, it is sufficient to say that the War of 1812 marked the end of the Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh, his confederacy and the British ambitions to create an indigenous buffer state in the Great Lake area. The last best hope of the indigenous peoples of North America was now gone, and the American ambitions of annexation of Canada where damped while the two colonies coming out unscathed from the conflict. During the new decades British-American relations would enter an era of detente and rapprochement (3).


During the years following the war more cautious governor generals managed to prevent relations between the British administration and the reformists and Canadien party to reach the nadir they had experienced under Craig. Until 1830 they succeeded but the rising of revolutionary and liberal’s sentiments all over the western world events where to cause events to accelerate. In both Lower and Upper Canada sizable demonstrations occurred, demanding responsible government immediately. As the British administration refused to accede to their demands the opposition radicalised. The elections of 1832 where accompanied of violence’s of such intensity then deaths where sound to be found on both sides. The funerals of the partisans of the Parti Patriote, as the Parti Canadien had renamed himself by analogy with the Patriots of the American Revolution and under the influence of its new charismatic leader Louis Hamel, began the starting point of a campaign of civil disobedience that made the Lower Canada all put impossible to govern. In retaliation, the British administration blocked laws ensuring the access to Franco-catholic education to all in Lower Canada. Historically Britain had relied on the, very conservative, catholic clergy to control the population in Lower Canada but in this dramatic moment such measures where proven insufficient. Some clerics where now openly sided with the Patriotes and many others admitted that their usual control over their congregation was simply not what it used to be.


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A rally of the Parti Patriote in Lower Canada in 1835, Louis Hamel giving one of his most famous speech


Things finally came to an head in 1836 when the Patriotes of Lower Canada sent to London a list of 87 demands, who would have essentially accomplished the whole program of the Parti Patriote had they been granted. When the de facto ultimatum was rejected by London war had become inevitable. Both Patriotes and Bureaucrats had taken great pains to develop paramilitary forces during the previous years but the Fils de la Liberté (4) where far more numerous and better armed then the members of the Doric Club. A similar process had also taken place in Upper Canada, where the Reformists had reinforced and radicalised by the arrival in their ranks of many farmers having greatly suffered from the bad harvest of 1835 and resenting the colonial government for his inaction in the matter. The first days of the rising where exhilarating for the two (separate) group of rebels. In Upper Canada a militia several hundred strong was soon established and began attempting to install a blockade of York while in the Lower Canada the Patriots managed to secure the whole of Beauce, destroying a British detachment 800 strong at the Battle of Sainte-Catherine in the process. As rumours of a possible American intervention began to flow through Canada the rebels enjoyed a few days of euphoria. The Patriots of Lower Canada even drafted a declaration of independence.


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The British forces at the Battle of Sainte-Catherine launching an ill-fated charge

The return to reality was only more brutal: help from the south never came and many of the more moderate Patriots and Reformists simply refused to follow the movements. Meanwhile, the British had recovered from their initial surprise and mustered their forces to deal with the rebels. Soon, many of the Patriots and Reformists leaders were fleeing south, trying to save their lives, as the rebellions unravelled. The remaining men’s still holding for the rebellions in both Canadas where defeated at Saint-Ange and Halton Hills respectively. The next year would see the rebels attempt to rekindle the war from the south but their raids where defeated at Lacolle and Amherstburg respectively, marking the end of the rebellions of 1836-1837. Once the inevitable martial courts had been held and had given their verdicts, and that the inevitable gibbets had performed their gruesome task the British government sought to determine the cause of the rebellions and prevent them from reoccurring. Thus, the Earl of Rippon was sent to Canada to investigate.


In his ensuing report Rippon advocated giving the reformists of Upper Canada what they wanted, responsible government, while taking all necessary measures to destroy the Patriotes and the cultural differences of Lower Canada in the mid to long term. For Rippon, the Franco-catholic population of former Nouvelle France where nothing but a remnant of a dead and buried Old regime France, who would never, achieve anything economically and culturally as such. Not only would they be a dead weight to the empire but the last decades had proved that, unlike the Acadians, they didn't even present the advantage of relative loyalism to Britain. According to the plan he outlined in his reports, Catholicism and the French language in the Saint-Lawrence Valley was to be slowly and surely strangled through a union of both Canadas, the prospective assembly of United Canada having been designed to have an equal numbers of MLA's from both Lower and Upper Canada an Anglo-protestant majority was guaranteed and such a majority could pass laws preventing Catholic and French education, among other things, where to ensure swift assimilation.


Luck, however, proved to be on the side of those who had already started to call themselves French-Canadians. While the British parliament accepted Rippon recommendations for a united Canadian province those conceding the responsible government for the colony to be where dropped. The decision proved to be a grievous mistake as it prevented the reconciliation between the colonial authorities and the reformists of former Upper Canada. As a result, instead of seeing the new assembly dominated by an Anglo-protestant coalition it was ruled by a Patriote-Reformist coalition where the Franco-catholics where definitely the senior partners (5). As the new assembly had taken to spend most of her time sending petition to London for Responsible Government some began to fear that a new revolt was to occur if they're wishes weren't granted at last. Thus, in 1841 Responsible Government was at last granted and, five years after the defeat of their rising the Patriotes had at last achieved the objectives of the Parti Canadien of old and then some, holding the wheel not only over Lower Canada but over Upper Canada as well. For the next few years the LaMontagne-MacPherson government, as the governing coalition of United Canada was known to the locals, named after the leaders of the Patriotes and Reformists parliamentary groups who formed it, governed well. Mens of competence where named to key position, road where build, schools established, rights officially protected and canals linking the Great Lakes and the Saint-Lawrence began to be digged. All seemed well but, as things tend to be won't to do in Canadian history, such a happy state of affairs was not to last.


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LaMontagne and McPherson


Troubles began when the British government proclaimed an amnesty for the rebels of 1836 who had went in exile. Allowed to return, Hamel sought to retake the leadership of the Parti Patriote from LaMontagne, criticising him for his alleged collusion with the Colonial administration to be able to do so. By his actions Hamel provoked a schism inside the Parti Patriote. The majority of the former Patriote MLA's continued to follow LaMontagne, forming the Parti Bleu and reconciling with the Bureaucrats MLA's of Lower Canada and adopting a pragmatic attitude in their constitutional position. A sizable minority, however, preffered to join Hamel and formed the Parti Rouge. Staunchly nationalist, the Rouges regularly campaigned on the dissolution of the union of the two Canadas, despite the opposition of the colonial administration and most of the business class.


Not even the latter deaths of LaMontagne and Hamel did anything to heal the divide. Meanwhile, in Upper Canada the Reformists seemed to grow to greater party and popularity. As more and more immigrants from the British isles began to pour in the colony Upper Canada population caught up with and passed the one of Lower Canada. As immigration and industrialisation created a continuous economic boom in Upper Canada the desire for further economic improvements and for modernising policies, like a laic school system for example, grew. Unsurprisingly, Lower Canada with an economy still far more dependent on agriculture and a catholic church more powerful than ever (6) virulently opposed the policies of the Clear Grits, has most of the reformists had renamed themselves. Meanwhile, the most moderates among the former Reformists had reconciled with the Bureaucrats MLA's of Upper Canada to form the Tory Party, McPherson himself having removed himself from political life.


The result was an utter mess (7): only the Parti Bleu and the Tories proved close enough to form coalitions with any stability but more often than not weren't able to muster a majority of MLA's. Not even the genius of the tory leader John M. MacDonald (8), whose brilliant parliamentary manoeuvers became the stuff of legends, could truly solve the problem. Despite the reservations of both the business community and the British officials the dissolution of the union of the two Canadas gained more and more favour as no solution seemed to be on the horizon. MacDonald, having spent his career defending the union, seemed to be in danger of failing in political oblivion if he couldn't find a way to drastically change the rules of the game.


On June 4 1861, according to the legend he did. Inspired by the federal construction of the United States of America MacDonald projected to establish two level of government, one where both Canadas where represented and united and where affairs concerning all would be dealt with and a second, where they would be divided and where more locals affairs would be managed. The new project gained the favour of the bulk of the Clear Grits and the Great Coalition, as the new government they build with the Tories and the Bleus was nicknamed put an end to the crisis. One problem, however, remained: a federation composed of only two entities simply wouldn't do. The Maritime colonies and British Columbia would have to be convinced to join as well, and that, as MacDonald knew very well, was far from done!


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John M. MacDonald


(1) When they marched north in 1775 the American insurgents expected the Franco-Catholics settlers of former Nouvelle France to rise for them but they, instead, rallied to the British administration and many fought to defend the colony. A couple of times afterwards the Americans tried to turn them but without avail.

(2) All of this is roughly OTL, at this point the only thing who significantly changed was that Upper Canada grew quicker than in OTL. Incidentally, the conduct of the Parti Canadien in the Hart affair demonstrate how an organisation can pursue an overall praiseworthy goal and still act in an utterly despicable manner in the process. It must, however, be said that both OTL and here the Parti Canadien redeemed himself in the 1830's by passing a law guaranteeing the equality of all religions before the law, very much aimed to prevent injustice like those inflicted to Ezekiel Hart to happen in the future. The law proved to be later copied in many areas of the British Empire.

(3) The British did somewhat better then OTL in the War of 1812 due to a greater population in Ontario but at the end of the day I just didn't saw how the butterflies could be big enough yet to change the post-war geopolitical situation in the region significantly. Statu Quo Ante Bellum it is as far as the two Canada’s are concerned. The one butterfly that will have serious consequences latter is that the in ATL Toronto (then called York) wasn't burned by the American forces so it will develop faster than OTL.

(4) The Sons of Freedom

(5) The reformists held a sizable minority of the seats of Upper Canada, but it was still a minority. The Patriote, on the other hand, held a substantial majority of the seats in Lower Canada.

(6) Since many of the more resistant to the influence of the church among the political class of Lower Canada where among the rebels the faillure of the rebellion allowed her to regain the power she had lost during the early 1830's and then some. The 1840's also saw many of the most conservative religious congretations in France move to Canada, giving the canadian church more effectives then ever before.

(7) Sign of how bad things where both here and OTL, the MLA's weren't even able to agree on a permanent capital. Clearly annoyed by the situation the Governor General of the time decreted that the capital was to installed at Bytown, a town close to the border between the two Canadas. Thus was born Ottawa.

(7) The parents of John A. MacDonald where fairly recent immigrants OTL so having them get children around the same time ATL is far from inconceivable. Our MacDonald has allotted of common points with the OTL one but some key differences as well...

OOC: So, I finally found the time and the energy to put one big update up :) As people familiar with canadian history would know the main lines are OTL even if the details have changed a bit. The butterflies are really gonna start to show themselves in Quebec and Ontario, as they would soon be renamed, in the next years. But that isn't for now, for now we go down south to Louisiana :)
 

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Interesting POD and subject, and good stuff so far. Hope to see this continued.
A fascinating premise, but as a South Louisianian with ancestors from the Acadian diaspora, I wonder what Louisiana would be like without the Acadians...

I mean what would American culture be without Fred's Bar in Mamou, chunky-chunk Cajun music, zydeco, blackened redfish (although my father referred to Paul Prudhomme as , "dat boy what ruins dose perfectly good redfish")...:)

Thank you! *bowing* Thank you!

As for Louisiana I don't want to sell the punch too much but without the Acadians there is a deart of population there, witch the spaniards are gonna seek to fill...
 
Chapter VIII: The Dawn of the Islenos
Chapter VIII: The Dawn of the Islenos

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Former Flag of the United Kingdom of Castille-Léon, latter adopted by the Islenos community as their standard

As Spain received Louisiana for France in 1763, as a compensation for her loses in the Seven Years war, she faced a dilemma. The colony was, to be blunt, almost empty of settlers. Even the immediate surroundings of New Orleans proved hard to control because of the absence of European settlers. At first, the sight of the Spanish governors turned toward the metropolis to fill the demographic void. Between 1763 and 1769 3 500 inhabitants of the Canary Islands where brought to Louisiana, forming the settlements of St-Bernard, Barrataria, Valenueza and Galzetown. While the descendants of the men’s and women’s who came from the Canary Islands only formed a minority of the Spanish speakers of Louisiana they played so important a part in the development of their common identity that the whole Latino community of Louisiana came to be named after them: the Islenos (1).


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While the immigration from the Canaries did help alleviate the severity of the demographic problems of Spanish Louisiana it proved to be far from sufficient. Thus began the forced immigration of the Contradaros. Former habitants of Spain and her colonies the Contradaros where first imprisoned for debts in their lands of origins before being exiled to Louisiana. Once there they became endentured servants to the Islenos land owners who had bought their debts to their debtors (often by borrowing money from the Spanish government himself) until they could pay for their freedom. Once legally free, however, they were almost always devoid of the funds needed to return home and where therefore forced to settle in Louisiana (2). In 1802, When the Spanish domination over Louisiana ended and the officials sent by Napoleon reclaimed the colony for France (3) 11 000 Contradaros had already been transported to Louisiana. Thanks to her growing population Louisiana was able to play a significant role in the American Revolutionary War, during which a force made of a mix of Spanish regulars and militiamen’s raised among the Islenos managed to expulse the British forces from Florida and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, taking Pensacolla and Mobile (4).

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Governor Galvez commanding Spanish forces at the Siege of Mobile

As peace returned to North America the Spanish administration of the colony had, seemingly successfully, iberianised Louisiana. In fact, the cession of the colony to France produced enough grumblings among the population, who had no wish to be caught in the crossfire of a new war with Great Britain for a nation to witch it felt little loyalty toward and the great Islenos land owners where infuriated to have been deprived of further arrivals of Contradaros (5), that some began to fear troubles in Louisiana. By contrast, the integration of the colony to the American republic, after it was sold to Washington by France, proved relatively smooth, the scions of the wealthiest Hispanic families often serving in the American administration as well as in the state legislature and congress during the first decades of the 19th century. A few senators and governors came from their ranks as well and many of their sons answered General Jackson call and fought with him at New Orleans.


Thus passed the first decades of the 19th century, Louisiana growing along the other states of the American republics and the great Islenos land owners looking more and more like their Anglo-Saxon neighbours, to the point of beginning to practice mass slavery themselves. Similarly, good relations prevailed at first among the less wealthy classes of both community, their existences resembling each other in many ways. Yet differences remained, while most of the great southern planters lived and died by cotton (or Tobaco in the Upper South) the Islenos remained committed to the great ranches and cattle raising with which they had built their economy during the 18th century (5) (6), they remained catholic and attached to their own language. For most of the first half of the 19th century the similarities proved more important than the differences but, during the late 1840's, as both nativism and southern nationalism where on the rise such a state of affairs began to change. If the Islenos where to conserve the political and social position they had carved for themselves allies from outside the state would be needed.


(1) OTL the whole Islenos immigrations to the Americas during that time period totalised about 4 000 individuals. Among those 2 100 settled in Louisiana. That does indicate some limits as to the attraction of the New World for the Islenos during this time period. Here the butterflies have kick started their immigrations a few years in advance and has managed to ensure that allot more did come to Louisiana but the weak OTL numbers for the whole of the Americas does indicate that there is limits to how many of them you can brought to Louisiana. As things stand, there is simply not enough of them to compensate for the about 7 000 Cajuns who didn't come ITTL.

(2) Basically the Spaniards took a page from the colonisation tactics of the British during the 17th century.

(3) I wrestled with this one for a bit but at the end of the day Napoleon had ambitions in the area at this point and the balance of strength in Europe allowed him to force Spain to give Louisiana back. At this point the POD is still too recent, considering its regional nature, to change any of that plausibly.

(4) The campaign happened OTL and Spain won a decisive victory. Here we can assume it was even easier but even with the butterflies I don't see Spanish Louisiana having the means to project her power beyond the area.

(5) The Spanish and Latin-American immigration continued during the following years, in far smaller quantities but it never truly stopped since then.

(5) The OTL Cajuns also took ranging during the 18th century, the butterflies allowing the Islenos to keep the tradition alive latter on.

(6) It also create an environment where economically the great Islenos ranchers need less slaves and more free employees, proportionally, then the Cotton planters. As you can imagine, that will have some interesting consequences down the line.

OOC: Next chapter we go back to the Maritimes to see how the newly autonomous british colonies there are farring, then we go back to Louisiana to see how the Islenos will fare as the slavery question became a bigger and bigger cloud. After that its finally gonna be time to see how a certain hockey loving nation was born ITTL ;) .

I do know that a Louisianan update was long awaited and at the same time confess I don't know Louisiana history nearly as well as Acadian history so eagerly await your impressions. :)
 
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The Poarter

Banned
I had to accept that I couldn't finish the update in time for Christmas so I decided to give you a little glimpse into the future as an early gift instead. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it and Peace and Goodwill toward all :)

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Coverage of the December 23, 1999 Federal Election at Télé Acadie

Guillaume Deschènes (Political Pundit) : What an historic night ladies and gentlemans!

For those who have just joined us: Télé Acadia has already projected that the next government of Canada will be constitued by the Liberal Party of Philippe Broussard! The gamble of the Tories, calling an election just before Christmas to win thanks to a low turnout has backfired as even rural area seem to turn toward the Grits.

The MP of Grand-Pré-LeLoutre will be the first Acadian Prime Minister of Canada, realising the ultimate ambition of the great political dynasty of whom he his a scion, not to mention one of its and will lead Canada through the first years of the third millenium with a set of reformist policies. For his victories he can thanks the liberal of sweeps of he achieved among the french-majority ridings of Quebec and the Maritimes and the Franco-Manitobains, Franco-Ontarians and Franco-Albertans voters who put the Grits over the finish lines in many ridings as well as the urban votes...

(Interuption)

Michelle Leblanc (Journalist): I'm sorry to interrupt you Guillaume but we have an important announcement from the central desk

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The newsroom of Télé-Acadie

Bernard Blanchette (Newsanchor): At 10:20 hour of the Maritimes Télé Acadie is ready to project that the next government of Canada will have a majority, I repeat: the Liberal Party of Canada will form a majority government!

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Anchor Bernard Blanchette

(Cut to the Liberal Election Night Party at Grand-Pré where the crowd suddenly whent wild)

Beside, we are now informed that Prime Minister Broussard will adress the his supporters

(Chants of Broussard! Broussard! Broussard!)

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Prime Minister Philippe Broussard
Prime Minister Broussard: My friends, welcome to the third millenium and Merry Christmas!

Where'd you get a picture of Broussard?
 
Chapter IX: Stormy Freedom
Chapter IX: Stormy Freedom
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The Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly, where one of the newly empowered governements sat


The first few years following the advent of Responsible Government where a time of hope for the Maritimes. The Reformists took office and proceeded to make the reforms they had sponsored during the precedent years, many of the more corrupt elements inside the Public service's and courts of the Maritimes colonies while bills establishing a centralised, public, system of education as well as financing a series of internal improvements where passed. However, as most of the goals of the Reformist movement had been accomplished its erstwhile unity began to fracture and the Maritimes where soon engulfed into a whirlwind of divisions and battles on numerous issues dividing the population of the colonies along linguistic, religious, economic and regional lines.


The problems began when, after the principle of public school systems respecting the religions and languages of all had been easily accepted, the erstwhile allies began to debate what exactly that was supposed to mean. For the Franco-catholics it meant schools of their languages and religions alongside anglo-protestant ones where numbers justified it, for anglo-protestants it merely meant laic schools where the French languages would be taught alongside other classes (1). The latter point of view triumphed in the Isle Saint-Jean and New Brunswick, with some accommodations toward Catholicism to gain the supports of the Irish population. Tensions grew silently for a few years before exploding into violent, culmination with the death of two Acadians protesters and one Anglo-Saxons protester at the Broussard riot of 1857. The three deaths had a cooling effect on all sides in New-Brunswick and long negotiations began while Acadians and Anglo-protestants even began to collaborate against the Irish from time to time, both groups thinking that the Irish had grew a bit too much into the role of kingmakers during the last years.


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Bishop Charles Broussard of Broussard. A member of the famous familly, and therefore having been practically born in the political arena, he organised the protests

The riots had, however, an opposite effect on Acadians outside of these two colonies: instead of negotiating they retaliated. Taking advantage of their demographic strength in Nova Scotia they voted a sizable augmentation of tariffs from goods coming from New Brunswick and the Isle Saint-John, with potentially dire economic consequences for both colonies as allot of their exportations transited through Halifax. Needless to say, the Anglo-protestant traders who ruled the metropolis where less than enamoured with the idea, and therefore organised regular protests in front of the Legislative Assembly and at the lodging of Acadian MLA's, prompting them to retaliate, again, by voting higher taxes on the activities of said merchants. Meanwhile, in Cape Breton, who was seeing a large population boost thanks to the discovery of several mines in the island, the Acadian-dominated assembly voted a bill preventing the anglo-protestant miners who were coming in drove to the island to vote before having residency on it for 10 years. Thus the table was set for the rest of the 1850's and the early 1860's, where the Maritime colonies where busy imposing petty vexations on each other. The situation proved to be a great boon to those who supported the recreation of Greater Nova Scotia, as many began to think that only a greater entity could resolve the regional differences dividing and undermining the Maritime colonies while successfully addressing the religious and linguistic divisions who had caused such a mess in the first place. In Nova Scotia McPherson and Castonguay came out of retirement to promote reunification while in New-Brunswick the movement was led from behind the scene by Bishop Broussard. Such was the strength of the reunification movement that it managed to have all Maritime governments, as well as Newfoundland, to agree to meet at Louisbourg in early 1868 to discuss terms. Nevertheless, reunification chances remained low until 1865, as grudges from the past remained strong.


The end of the American civil war changed that, tensions with America ran high as Washington remembered the ambiguous attitude of London during the war and was now seemingly free to use its massive, battle hardened, army to enact vengeance. While the federal forces never crossed the border Canada did suffer an invasion from veterans of the Civil war. The Fenian Brootherhood was founded by veterans of the American civil war of Irish origins. They're goal was to conquer Canada before exchanging it for Ireland (2), from 1866 to 1870 they launched a series of incursions in Canada who, while not taking location of importance, did make some serious damages and worried many. Their first expedition choose New-Brunswick for target and was stopped at Caithness, more than a hundred men’s on all sides died in the ensuing scuffle between the Fenians and a detachment from Saint-John garrison. Thanks to the fear caused by the Fenians many began to see the end of the existence of separate Atlantic colonies as a military necessity and when the Louisbourg conference convened in 1868 the project of an Atlantic Union seemed to have real chances of success.


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Fenians facing redcoats at Caithness

It was, however, all for naught as the Louisbourg Conference quickly saw the reunification fail on the most basic of issues to be resolved: where would the capital of the new colony be situated. Both Isle Saint-Jean and Cape Breton demanded that the honor be given to Charlottetown and Louisbourg, respectively, seeing it as a compensation for the fact that they would represent only small minorities in the prospective Atlantic Union and refusing to join if their wishes weren't granted. Nova Scotia flatly turned them down, considering the very idea of a capital at Charlottetown or Louisbourg was an insult to Halifax (3). As Newfoundland refused to join a Union who would not include all four of the Maritime colonies the idea of an Atlantic Union was now as good as dead (4). The business of the conference was far from over, however, as delegation from United Canada had managed to secure an invitation to the conference beforehand and, at the last minute and thanks to MacDonald political genius, managed to put a discussion of a greater union of British North American colony to the agenda if the Atlantic Union proved impossible to achieve....


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Participants to the conference


(1) Witch is already more tollerant then the views they held for a long time in OTL.

(2) Its as unrealistic and downright silly as its sounds.

(3) A similar demand by PEI OTL sank the Maritime Union project.

(4) The idea of simply unifying New Brunswick to Nova Scotia was never seriously considered as it would essentially be an absorbtion of the former by the latter, witch would have relagated the Irish and Anglo-Protestant of New-Brunswick to minority status.
 
Chapter X: Born of Bargains
Chapter X: Born of Bargains

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A New country coming into being

By her very nature the federal project sponsored by MacDonald was well placed to manage to overcome the challenges that had sunk the idea of an Atlantic Union. While Cape Breton and Isle Saint-Jean fears of seeing themselves drowned in a sea of mainlanders weren't quite extinguished they had been alleviated by the prospect of seeing themselves becoming province of a federation instead of simply being included in a greater union. Similarly, the inclusion of Ontario and Quebec minorities inside a compromise on education systems proved quite useful as it caused the Irish population of New Brunswick to renegade on their alliance with the Anglo-protestants of the colony and support a settlement closer to the desires of the Acadians, as such a settlement would also protect the rights of the Irish population of Ontario as well.


That wasn't to say that MacDonald and the rest of the Canadian delegation didn't meet any obstacles. Many among the delegates from the Atlantic colonies where hesitant at the thought of seeing a large portion of their autonomy, particularly their ability to levy duties on good coming from Europe or the eastern coast of the United States passing through and making their way toward Central Canada. Nevertheless, MacDonald pressed on and, armed with written proof of the crucial support of both the British government and the Catholic Church he pressed on. Despite their hesitations, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia gave their ascent, after having secured federal subsidies for education, as the presence of important minorities in their mist ensured that they would pay more by student then others in the future. The same promise helped convince Cape Breton, alongside the perspective of a future ferry service financed by federal funds linking the island to the continent. Isle Saint-Jean proved a tougher nut to crack, with a solid Anglo-protestant majority and a small population the colony held a strong dislike for both the great federation projected and the linguistic compromise it would entail. Nevertheless, they agreed to join the projected federation at once when MacDonald proposed to have it buy the lands of the absentee landlord ruling the island to give the titles to the locals in addition to a ferry service similar to the ones proposed to Cape Breton (1). Newfoundland proved to be the last holdout but the fear of ending up utterly isolated from her neighbours and to have her commerce plagued by duties she would be the only one to pay managed to make her agree to join the new entity.


As the conference came to an end the future seemed rosy for MacDonald, the terms and the structures of the new union would have to be discussed and British Columbia brought on board but it dreamed federation was well on her way to become a political reality. Such an assessment flirted dangerously with hubris, however, as it discounted the possibility of a popular backlash during the series of elections held to ratify the federation in the Atlantic colonies in late 1868 and early 1869. Said backlash began only a few weeks later, as many of the former reformists began to accuse the delegates of the Louisbourg conference of having betrayed the ideals who had inspired the fight for responsible government and sold the freedom of the Atlantic colonies to central Canada (2). Such was the strength of the anti-federalist sentiment that even Castonguay and McPherson, once seen by all Nova Scotians has paragons of political integrity, where subjected to rock throwing during one of their stump speech and had to desist. For a moment, the federation of British North American colonies seemed as dead then the Atlantic union and that the defeat of the ''Federalist'' in the upcoming elections would seal her demise.



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Federalist political cartoon, published as several electoral campaigns raged through Atlantic Canada, attacking the anti-confederates as american stooges

MacDonald political career was saved by the Catholic Church. Not only was the French speaking leadership of the church strongly in favour of the linguistic settlement implied by the project but they also saw the advent of federation bound to stretch from Atlantic to Pacific as favoring their own ambitions of converting a large part of her future territory. Thus, she threw all her weights in favour of the confederates, Acadian priest in their pulpits thundered against the impious anti-federalists and promised mass excommunications for their supporters if they were victorious (3). The momentum turned quickly, the anti-federalists where put on the defensive and, by more or tight margins, massive Acadians majority helped the confederates triumph in all territories once included in the great Nova Scotia of the 18th century. The fight was even harder for the confederates in Newfoundland, where they didn't have dispose of such large advantages and where negative sentiments against Central Canada where so strong that the anti-confederates attacked the confederates as ''bringing the Canadian wolf into the flock'' (4). Nevertheless, the Confederates managed to overcome those difficulties. While the Irish portion of the catholic church in British North America was less virulent in her support then its Acadian counterpart it remained quite willing to wield its influence in more discrete manner for the benefits of the confederates and the public support of the local British officials MacDonald's project convinced many descendants of loyalists to vote for it (5). It was only more than three days after the closing of the pools that it was proclaimed that the Confederates had obtained 16 seats against 14 for their opponents, a small but sufficient margin.


Victorious and relieved the partisans of the Federation moved forward, convening a new conference in Montreal to create the structure of the future state. As the delegates reacquainted themselves with each other’s, as most of them had been present to Louisbourg a year before, and welcomed the delegates from British Columbia, whom the promise of a transcontinental railway had proven more than enough to convince (6), they began to build the new country. Health, local matters, education and civil laws where made the purview of the future, while the future central government was assigned predominance or control on all other matters (7). Inside the federal government, a upper and a lower chambers where to be created. The composition of those chambers was the matter of much debates as the Ontarian delegation pushed for an upper chamber based on the British House of the Lords, whose members would be named by her majesty governor general and would hold less sway then the commons, while the Maritimes demanded a senate based on the American model, based on equal representation between the provinces, with members elected by the provincial legislatures and with powers only marginally less important than the chamber of commons. The Atlantic colonies managed to prevail, thanks to the support of Quebec who saw such a senate as a way of furthering Franco-catholic influence throughout the country, the Ontarians only managing to obtain equality of seats between regions, with Ontario and Quebec having 30 senate seats each while each Atlantic colonies where to be given only five. British Columbia was given 9 seats on the understanding that she and the future provinces west of Ontario would eventually obtain a total of 30 seats as well (8). Only the name of the new country remained to be chosen, many where proposed: Albionoria, Borealia, Vesperia (9) and Victorialand but at the end simplicity prevailed: the new country was to simply be called Canada.


Three months after the end of the Montreal Conference, on October 27 1869, Westminster passed the British North America Act, giving complete legal autonomy to the new country on matters not pertaining to defense, foreign affairs and constitutional matters. On January 1st, 1870, the Canadian federation was programmed and MacDonald sworn in as the first Prime minister of the new state. Modern Canada was born.


(1) Both OTL and ITTL that particular offer proved impossible to refuse for Isle Saint-Jean/Prince Edward Island.

(2) Something similar happened after the Charlottetown conference OTL. Beside, Canada has something of a tradition of a popular backlash against results of constitutional conference (see Accords, Meech Lake, for a recent example).

(3) Something similar happened in OTL during the 1866 electoral campaign in New Brunswick, fought between Confederates and Anti-Confederates.

(4) OTL.

(5) The butterflies are at work here, they’re far more descendants of loyalists in Newfoundland then OTL and they give the Confederates far better odds then the OTL equivalent of this election.

(6) In OTL they stayed away for a little longer as the new union had far less momentum then here.

(7) Both OTL and here the memory of the American civil war, seen as the consequences of a lack of strength giving to the central government allowed MacDonald to get what he wanted there.

(8) And that's the point when the butterflies fly freely throughout the rest of Canada, at last!

(9) Meaning land of the evening star, my personal favorite among the proposed ones OTL.
 
Bad taste on the author's part, clearly for symmetry it should have been Borealia!

Great update as usual though from a lurker!

Thank you :) and I was tempted by one of the alternate names but at the end of the day the merits of simplicity in namemaking are as evident ITTL as OTL, + I would have probably called it Canada all the time by mistake if it was named otherwise :p
 
The division of Canada into a largely Francophone east and a largely Anglophone west is interesting.

Thank you :)

Tough, as usual one must paint nuances on the overall picture: with PEI, Newfoundland and large minorities elsewhere the Anglo-protestants still have a pretty solid beachead in the east and, without selling the punch too much, the butterflies are bound to affect the west one way or another ;)
 
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Gian

Banned
Also, the presence of the Black Nova Scotians IOTL makes me wonder where the Black Loyalists manage to settle instead of Nova Scotia
 
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