Confederation Day in Toronto

Toronto Globe, July 1, 1867
Newspaper reprint
Toronto Public Library, TRL

"To-day, our loyal city will bear her part in celebrating an occasion destined in the future annals of these provinces to be marked as a red letter day for all time." So proclaimed the Globe on July 1, 1867, when the union of the provinces of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia came into effect. The newspaper went on to report on the festivities at Toronto: the bells of St. James rebuilt church ran out the birth of the Dominion, the Union Jack was hoisted to the sounds of 21 guns, bands played, and ox was roasted for the poor, and there was a military parade, dancing, and fireworks.

It is not surprising that the Globe newspaper gave particular prominence to the first Confederation day celebrations in Toronto. George Brown (1818 - 1880), the owner of the paper, played a major role in achieving the confederation of Canada. Brown, an emigrant from Scotland, arrived in Toronto in 1843 and founded the Globe the following year. Brown was a reformer and reorganized the Clear Grit Party in 1857. This party supported representation by population, the separation of church and state and the annexation of the North-Western Territory. It was during these years that Brown developed the idea of a legislative union; with the political instability of the 1860s, he began to promote the concept more and more. In 1864, he proposed the Great Coalition to John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, and went on be a major player at the Charlottetown and Québec Conferences.