1867 - Canada Becomes A Nation (February 2, 2017)

On Canada Day 2017 (July 1, 2017), our wonderful nation turns 150 years old. From 1867 until 1982, the birthday of Canada was known as Dominion Day.

Being a patriotic Canadian I decided to share my passion about my home nation with others who want to learn some new things about the beautiful land I call home.

"150 Years of Canada" will be a daily blog starting today. Why today? 150 days from today is July 1st, our nation's 150th official birthday. Each day's entry will contain a variety of interesting events, stories which all took place during a single year. Today's entry will start with 1867, the year of Confederation.

I will use a wide variety of current sources for my posts. My main source of inspiration for the early years is the excellent "Chronicle of Canada", a single volume that details events in Canada from prehistory to the 1980's. For more information about this out of print book, go to this link.

Canada in 1867. Source of map: http://www.edmaps.com/assets/images/canada_1867.gif

How did Canada come to be? Here are two interesting Heritage Minute by Historica.ca. 

A longer version of what led up to Confederation can be viewed in this I've included the full 2011 movie "John A.: Birth of A Country" (see IMDB link).

Other 1867 noteworthy events:

1. March 18: The Legislative Council of British Columbia asks Governor Frederick Seymour to discuss British Columbia joining Canada
2. March 29: Queen Victoria give the British North America Act royal assent.
3. July 1: Toronto declared the capital of Ontario.
4. September 16: The Rough Riders (named after lumberjacks who ride logs) play the Senators in the new game of football, previously known as rugby. The new game of football was first played between English officers and McGill University students in 1865. Eventually, McGill students end up playing American students the new sport. Yes, indeed...American college football first started in Canada!