Sir George Etienne Cartier - His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal

Synopsis

The greatest work in which Cartier participated, and in which it is freely acknowledged he played a determining part, was of course the establishment of Confederation. The idea of a union of all the provinces of British North America did not originate with Cartier, any more than it originated with Macdonald, Tupper, Tilley, Brown or the other great Fathers of Confederation.

Proposals to that effect had been made long before, and the idea was one that had arisen in many minds as a desirable consummation and as a remedy for the chaotic conditions which then prevailed. But the idea was one that was heartily supported by Cartier from a very early period, and to the Cartier-Macdonald Government of which he became the head in 1858 as Prime Minister of United Canada must be given the credit of having taken the first practical steps to bring about Confederation.

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