George Etienne Cartier's Influence On Confederation

Words: 1823
Pages: 8

Confederation
Who was The Coalition was comprised of?
Since George Etienne Cartier was in the Cabinet now, he was in a stronger position to make a change in the Province of Canada. From 1854 to 1857, Cartier quietly rose up the ranks of power, gathering more influence within the province (Bonenfant). In 1855 he was made the Provincial Secretary of Canada East(The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). This job included maintaining relations to London, dealing with visits by dignitaries and various jobs for ceremonial occasions (Bonenfant). George Etienne Cartier during this time was also the leader of the Parti Bleu, after a year as Provincial Secretary, George was promoted to attorney general for Canada East(Dagenais). Around this time, I would assume Cartier became extremely influential for Canada East and got to know John A. Macdonald, who at the time was already co-premier of the Province of Canada. After about another year George was promoted and formed government with Macdonald in 1857, becoming the co-premier of the Province of Canada(Dagenais).
With Cartier and Macdonald as co-premiers, they formed an alliance of their respective parties,
…show more content…
The first few years of Confederation were relatively okay, although George Etienne Cartier served as Prime Minister during Macdonald’s absences. During this time Cartier was involved with acquiring Rupert’s Land and drafting the Manitoba and British Columbia Act’s. In 1869 Cartier and others negotiated for Rupert’s Land which belonged to the Hudson Bay’s Company and North Western Territory, which they wanted to add to Canada(Sweeny). They succeeded with their negotiations, but the Metis in these areas fought against this, due to the fact that it was their