The Yukon upset the schedule of national priorities. She believed that the north could wait, at least until the prairies were settled and fully developed. Until the sudden eruption of the Klondike Gold Rush in the years 1897-98, Canada gave no thought to the organization of territories lying north of the Great Plains. The Northwest Territories long remained virtual colonies of the Government of Canada, in fact if not in name. ![]() Ottawa distrusted local elected representatives and reserved to herself supervision of regional law-making. The federal government retained tight control over every aspect of territorialĪdministration. In outward form Canadian territorial government was much influencedīy the example of territorial government in the United States, but in essential spirit Canadian policy towards the Northwest Territories remained close to the model of British colonial government. Indeed Canada only obtained ownership of those islands because she feared foreign encirclement, particularly encirclementīy the United States of America, and when threatened made belated efforts to secure them for herself.īetween the years 18 the prairie regions of the original Northwest Territories experienced rapid settlement, and evolved through a Canadian form of territorial government to become the two provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Sixty years elapsed before Canada’s title to the islands of the arctic archipelago secured international recognition from rival states. She was content to own them, and to ignore them. The Dominion took title to the northern extremities of the North American continent simply because they came to her already united with the transcontinental band of land which she did want. Canada made no provision for its immediate control or for its future development. However neither the people nor the government of Canada had any interest in or knowledge of those regions of the Dominion's territorial acquisition lying north of the Great Plains. In 1870 Canada took possession of Rupert's Land and the North-western Territory in the hope of attaining these objectives. To provide space for the expansion of their own surplus population, for an increase in agricultural production and a market for eastern manufactures. In the Province of Ontario, wanted to secure the fertile plains between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Lakes in order From the moment of her national birth Canada intended to extend herself to the Pacific Ocean and forestall the expansion of the United States of America north of the 49th parallel. Canada consciously aspired to become a transcontinental state she became the second largest arctic state on the globe unwittingly. One of the principal expectations of the Confederation of 1867 was the expansion of the new Dominion over the whole of the interior of British North America. ![]() ![]() It attempts to explain the origin of Canadian concepts and practices of territorial government and how they were applied, or not applied, to the northern extremities of the country. It enquires into the reasons for which and the manner by which the Dominion of Canada acquired such a vast extent of arctic and sub-arctic land. This thesis is an attempt to ascertain the origins of the Northwest Territories as they are presently constituted. Since 1912 the perimeters of the Territories have remained unchanged. In the year 1967 the Northwest Territories extend from the 60th parallel of north latitude to the North Pole, and from the eastern boundary of the Yukon Territory to the eastern shores of Ellesmere Island, to within sight of the Danish colony of Greenland.
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