9 - Making Progress, 1885–1914

Summary

This chapter describes the processes by which the foundations were laid for Canada to become one of the world’s great industrial nations. In this period, Canadians build more railways, encouraged massive immigration, and experienced growing class, ethnic, gender, religious, and regional tensions. Immigrants flocked to jobs in urban centres, developed Canada’s resource frontiers, and swamped the Indigenous populations of British Columbia, the Prairies (from which the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and an enlarged Manitoba were carved), and Yukon Territory (where gold was discovered in 1896). Meanwhile, Montreal and Toronto emerged as nation-dominating metropolises, and progressive civil society organizations agitated for social reforms that would smooth the rough edges of industrial capitalism. Although national unity was a fragile flower and the national policy based on immigration, railroad building, and industrial development was called into question from a variety of critics, both the nation and the national policy survived all challenges, including demands for annexation to the United States and Imperial Federation.