The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-02
The Future OF Canada

The references made to the past
present and future of Canada by Lord
GREY and Mr.. EMHU Root at the Pill
grims' dinner were not only interesting
in themselves but fraught with con-
siderable authority as coming from
the Governor-General Of the Dominion
and u Secretary Of State.
It is probably true that from our Rev.
dictionary War until after PArINEAU's
Rebellion a large, II not the major, part
of the Canadian people desired annexa-
ton to the United States. Even al late
as fifteen or twenty years ago Canadian
Liberals were inclined to bring about
a commercial union with the United
States, which, if we may judge from
the German precedent, would have led
ultimately to political unifioation. Since
that time the Canadian Liberal party has
undergone a drastic change in respect of
aims and views. Sir WILFRID LAURIER
is as firmly opposed to annexation as
ever was Sir JOHN A. MACDONALD. Lib
erals no less than Conservatives now
look forward to an immense develop
ment of the Canadian nationality, not
outside, but inside, the British Empire,
provided Canada's legitimate desire to
manage her own affairs with as much
freedom as if she were nominally indie
pendent is recognized in practice by the
mother country.
This desire to keep apart forever from
the United States politically and to build
up a second huge English speaking COM
monwealth in North America has been
kindled mainly by the discovery of the
tremendous agricultural and commercial
possibilities of the Canadian Northwest.
1t is probably true that those provinces
of the Dominion which lie west of Lake
Superior and north Of the American bor-
der will be able in the course of two or
three decades to export as much wheat
as is shipped from the seaports of the
United States to-day. Within the same
aren almost limitless quantities of bar
ley, rye and oats may be produced. Vast
also is the mineral wealth of the same
region. Moreover, the labor needed to
turn to account these is sure
to be forthcoming. The records of the
last five years have shown that it will
com from the United States, for, just as
there has long been a current of immi-
grafton flowing southwark from Lower
Canada, there is now a c~ounterbalano-
ing current flowing from Minnesota
and North Dakota into the Canadian
Northwest.
We do not understand that any Cana
dams have boosted that just as the nine
teenth century belonged to the United
States the twentieth century will belong
to Canada. The nineteenth century
did not belong to the United States, but
the amazing growth of our country in
population and wealth was undoubt-
edly the most remarkable phenomenon
of that century. All that Canadians
assert is that the Dominion is likely to
exhibit a similar phenomenon in the
next hundred years. There is some
ground for the expectation. The Ca
nadians are more numerous and much
richer than were the Americans a hun
dred years ago. According to our sec
ond census the United States in 1900
contained 5,30S, 4s3 persons, a large frac-
ton of whom were negroes. The Do
minion Of Canada in 1901 had 5,371 ,3l5
inhabitants, almost all of whom we're
whites. In 1900, when the purchase Of
Louisiana had not yet been made, and
the acquisition of the Floridas, Of Texas,
New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada
and California vas yet far of, the only
opportunity of expansion which we
Americans possessed lay in the region
between the Alleghanies and the Missis-
sippi River. The Dominion Of Canada,
on the other hand, possesses in Mani
toba, Alberta, A%ssiniboia, Athabaska,
Saskatchewan and British Columbia
upward of a million square miles,
most of which is capable Of producing
cereals-to say nothing Of the million
and a half square miles included in Mac
kenzie, Ungava, Franklin and other
Territories, where Chronological con-
ditions are less favorable. Few people
realize that the aggregate area of the
Dominion INCLUDING the nearly land
locked Hudson Bay is 9,745, 574 square
miles, or about on~e-sixteenth of the land
surface of the globe.
So much of this immense superfcies as
is worth c%onquering it will be the bust
ness of Canadians, aided by emigrants
from our border States, to conquer in
the century now well begun. From that
point of view, there is nothing unreal
sonable in the pride and hope with which
Canadians now survey the future Of
their country.
MIR. williams on the Issues.