Canada had a population of 3.5 million, residing in the large expanse from Cape Breton to just beyond the Great Lakes, usually within a hundred miles or so of the Canada–United States border.

Historians later emphasized the iconic phrase "Peace, Order and Good Government" ("paix, ordre et bon gouvernement") as founding constitutional principles, but at the time it was rarely quoted.

There were also problems with raids into Canada launched by the Fenian Brotherhood, a group of Irish Americans who wanted to pressure Britain into granting independence to Ireland.

Historian Arthur Lower concludes that in the late 1880s, “never before or since has Canada reached such a low state; never has there been so little evidence among its people of national spirit.”[10] The economy grew very slowly, and large districts, especially in the Maritimes and Quebec were becoming more poor every year.

[13] In Manitoba, for example, local businessmen and speculators were outraged when the Canadian Pacific Railway suddenly shifted its operations away from the centre of the province, to the southern edge, and its lawyers and politicians blocked the opening of rival lines.

In these treaties, the First Nations gave up aboriginal title to vast amounts of land, in exchange for reserves for their exclusive use and various promises of schools, food and other entitlements.

Many natives were affected by famine and disease introduced by Europeans and sought food and medical support when signing treaties with Canada.

Aid to the natives was a political issue and federal allocations for the Department of Indian Affairs to provide medical support and food destined for famine relief were reduced by Macdonald's government.

The Rebellion led to the creation of the province of Manitoba in 1870, with laws intended to protect the rights of the natives, Métis, French-speakers and English-speakers, Catholics and Protestants.

[25] Riel was idealized as a heroic victim by Francophones; his execution had a lasting negative impact on Canada, polarizing the new nation along ethnic and religious lines.

It demonstrated its military value and earned enough Conservative political support for further funding to complete the line, thus realizing Macdonald's dream of a transcontinental railway to help unite Canada.

In 1873, Prince Edward Island finally accepted the inducements on offer to pay its railway debts and buy-out of the last of the colony's absentee landlords.

Incredible geographical obstacles – rivers, swamps, mountains, and severe weather were major impediments, but the line opened from Montreal to Vancouver in late 1885.

It created tourist hotels in the mountains, most famously at Banff, Alberta and nearby Chateau Lake Louise, as well as landmark stations in major cities.

After being restored as Prime Minister, Macdonald introduced the National Policy, a system of protective tariffs meant to strengthen the Canadian economy.

[38] While Macdonald may have hoped that the BNA Act would provide the central government in Ottawa with a strong hand, some of the provinces, particularly Ontario under the leadership of its premier Oliver Mowat, pushed for interpretations of the constitution that favoured provincial rather than Dominion interests.

Mowat, premier from 1872 until 1896, became the "implacable enemy" of Prime Minister Macdonald[39] as a result of a series of court decisions regarding provincial jurisdiction over liquor licences, use of streams, and mineral rights.

[40] The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain, serving as Canada's highest appeal court, repeatedly issued rulings taking the side of provincial rights.

Powerful, independent provinces, sovereign within their own spheres, manipulated the rights of property, levied their own taxes—even income taxes, in a few cases—exploited their natural resources, and managed schools, hospitals, and relief for the poor, while a weak and ineffectual central government presided over not much of anything in the drab little capital on the banks of the Ottawa.

[42] While the National Policy, CPR and Dominion Lands Act had been in place for several decades, mass immigration to Canada's prairie regions only got underway around 1896.

Recently, Ward had argued that technological change was the most important factor, with a number of different inventions becoming cheap and reliable enough to be widely used around this period.

The influx of people greatly stimulated mineral exploration in other parts of the Yukon and led to two subsidiary gold rushes in Atlin, British Columbia and Nome, Alaska as well as a number of mini-rushes.

The resentment contributed to the defeat of Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberal Party in the 1911 election as they proposed a reciprocal trade treaty with the U.S. that would lower tariff barriers.

A year prior in 1907, provincial disenfranchisement hit South Asians in British Columbia who were thus denied the federal vote and access to political office, jury duty, professions, public-service jobs, and labour on public works.

Further anti-Asian sentiment was witnessed in 1914 when the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver with 376 Punjabis (337 Sikhs, 27 Muslims and 12 Hindus) aboard, but only 24 were admitted and the ship was ultimately forced back to India.

[51] Furthermore, in 2016, the Canadian government issued a full apology in parliament for discriminating against would-be South Asian settlers and immigrants during the Komagata Maru Incident.

Canadians in the 19th century came to believe themselves possessed of a unique "northern character," due to the long, harsh winters that only those of hardy body and mind could survive.

[54] Laurier hoped to unite French and English Canada in a unique sense of Canadian nationalism, rather than remain unquestionably loyal to Britain.

Conservatives led by Robert Laird Borden attacked reciprocity with the United States, warning that strong economic links would weaken the Empire and allow the neighbour to increasingly take over the economy.

[55] Meanwhile, the Royal Navy adjusted its war plans to focus on Germany, economizing on defending against lesser threats in peripheral areas such as the Pacific and Indian Oceans.