This week Anne McDonald joins the pod to talk about her book Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles. The diary is one of the very few documents written by a woman to talk about the events of Confederation - in this case the Quebec Conference of 1864 and the weeks after. It gives us John A and Leonard Tilley as widowers on the make, along with plenty more intriguing details. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, ...
Mar 20, 2023•41 min•Ep. 51
Late in the night on an Ottawa street someone snuck up behind Thomas D'Arcy McGee and shot him dead. We're back with David Wilson this week to talk about McGee and his assassination. There's really no one better to talk to than Wilson, the author of an award-winning two volume biography of McGee. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 50
This week we kick off our bonus interview episodes by welcoming University of Toronto professor David Wilson to talk about everyone's favourite Irish revolutionaries (who also happened to profoundly shape Canadian history) the Fenians. Wilson's new book Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police is a dual history of the Fenians and also very much about the rise of Canada's first secret police to infiltrate Fenian networks in the 1860s. It's a magnificent feat of academic res...
Dec 27, 2022•55 min•Season 2Ep. 49
The final episode of Season 2 answers all the big questions about Confederation: What just happened? Why? And - my favourite - so what? We rehash the the main events, talk way too much about federalism (sorry), and look ahead to the Canadian empire building that we will cover in Season Three. And yes there will be a Season 3 in case you were wondering. What's more, I even throw in a hint that you might not have to wait until next season to get more 'all that' from 1867 & All That. Yes, bonus...
Dec 09, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 48
It's time to get Confederation done - but only after completing our trilogy of constitutional conferences, this one in London just before Christmas of 1866. The Canadians make the Maritimers wait for four months before they finally arrived across the ocean - having been busy fighting about (what else?) religion and schools. But don't worry: the "Fathers of Confederation" finally complete the deal to officially create the Kingdom of Canada (well, no, the Brits turned down that name, but they did ...
Nov 16, 2022•33 min•Season 2Ep. 47
The Fenians are back at it this week - threatening to raid New Brunswick and then (for real) attacking along the Niagara frontier. Arthur Gordon of New Brunswick steps up and makes things happen, obliterating the niceties of responsible government along the way. And the two maritime colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia agree that perhaps there ought to be - wait for it! - yet another conference to talk about this whole Confederation business. If you like what you're hearing and want to supp...
Nov 01, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 46
The radical Irish republicans are coming and they're going to scare British North Americans into a confederation. This week we learn all about Irish secret societies and their plans to invade Canada. We also catch up with the crumbling government of New Brunswick that, even though it was only recently elected, is determined to fall apart and hand the colony back into the hands of those who supported Confederation. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on ov...
Oct 19, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 45
We time travel back one month earlier to February 1865 when everyone in Canada wanted to give a speech. And so they did. Canadians debated Confederation and we have the highlights. Then we turn east as the gloomy news for confederation supporters turns even gloomier. PEI doesn't like the scheme and Nova Scotia is running scared. But at least the Americans have stopped fighting each other. That was probably good news - unless, that is, it meant they were free to turn their attentions northward......
Sep 16, 2022•30 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Early 1865 is a bad time for supporters of Confederation in British North America. Joseph Howe is back - and he is penning scathing attacks on the Confederation scheme that derail the Quebec Resolutions in Nova Scotia. The situation in PEI isn't much better. And in New Brunswick, Albert James Smith takes down the Tilley government. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron o...
Aug 16, 2022•23 min•Season 2Ep. 43
This week we catch up on the activities of a posse of Confederate soldiers who decide that the best way to fight their war with the American Union is to take over a town in Vermont - just long enough to rob all the banks anyway. But when they flee to Canada, things get interesting, especially for the Canadians. We also see this week just what the public thought of the Confederation scheme. The result? Not so much glee as a mixed bag of opinions with plenty of criticism. And then things get reall...
Jul 31, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 42
We are heading to Quebec this week to drink more champagne, dance the night away, and spend hour after hour in conference meetings. There will be plenty of debate over pragmatic issues like the composition of the Senate and the House of Commons. But there will also be a lot of shared assumptions, little-debated and cherished all the more for it, about the desire to stay British even as the delegates created a new nation. Oh, and not to be American too! If you like what you're hearing and want to...
Jul 18, 2022•37 min•Season 2Ep. 41
We're off on board the Canadian steamer Queen Victoria this week as the Canadians crash the Maritime Union party at Charlottetown. We'll drink a fair bit of champagne, eat more than our share of oysters, and watch as the British North Americans decide that political matrimony might not be such a bad thing after all. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and...
Jul 04, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Southern Confederate pirates bring the American civil war into Nova Scotian waters and we meet the pugnacious Charles Tupper who isn't afraid to use British cannons to fend off the threat. We are also introduced to an overly ambitious British Governor who historians love to chuckle over, and Sandford Fleming - the famous surveyor who comes east on his snowshoes with a message of goodwill and railway hope. Then we tag along on the rum-soaked 'Big Intercolonial Drink' - the warmup party to the Cha...
Jun 21, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 39
This week we begin in utter confusion - trying to figure out just exactly when New Brunswick achieved responsible government. There is, though, more familiar territory - about imperial economic preferences - and the seemingly always present scenarios of religious violence between Protestants and Catholics. Finally we meet Leonard Tilley, the most important and interesting political figure you might not have heard about. By the end of the episode, we're about ready to join back up with the Canadi...
Jun 05, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 38
A London lottery creates more than 100 years of grumbling conflict on Prince Edward Island. We meet William Cooper who comes up with a too clever-by-half scheme to scoop the landlords from their properties. Then it's on to George Coles and responsible government. And finally we have a dash of Protestant-Catholic identity politics - because what episode would be complete without that savoury spice? If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon...
May 29, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 37
We're in Newfoundland this week so we are of course talking cod - and seals. But we also have a violent election in 1861 that involved an interfering Catholic Bishop, a British Governor behaving improperly, and troops firing on riotous crowds. Then there is a fight over something called The French Shore. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 &...
May 15, 2022•25 min•Season 2Ep. 36
George Brown takes a British holiday and falls in love. He comes back a changed man - sort of. In Canada, it's another round of wack-a-mole and governments are the mole. Sandfield Macdonald loses power only to get it back, only to lose it again, only to have Macdonald and Brown come into power and lose it themselves within two months. It's at that moment that the newlywed George Brown steps forward to say: 'Hold my beer'. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please he...
May 10, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 35
A drunken John A Macdonald and his government collapse over their plan to bolster Canadian defence in the midst of the American civil war. Then another John Macdonald - John Sandfield Macdonald - creates a government built on the idea of the Double Majority. We have another religiously divisive murder - this one over runaway chickens no less - and then a fight about the creation of publicly funded Catholic schools. At the end, another government falls because... why wouldn't it?! If you like wha...
May 01, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 34
The Americans decide to fight a civil war over slavery and Britain and British North America discover that this is going to shape their future too. For instance, what happens when an American naval captain decides to board the British ship Trent and take two Confederate diplomats hostage? Did this mean war? We have all of this plus more, including Rep by Pop updates, a controversial census, and George Brown losing an election and deciding to take a vacation (which is more important than it might...
Apr 26, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Queen Victoria sends her teenage son (and aristocratic chaperone, the Duke of Newcastle) on a North American tour and the Canadians get a little over-excited. The Prince lands (and sometimes doesn't land) amidst the religious rivalries and the complications created by the exuberant supporters of the Orange Order. But first, we review where we are so far in the history of the Canadas at the end of the 1850s, as a sort of preamble to our push towards confederation. If you like what you're hearing ...
Apr 18, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 32
In one of the quirkiest episodes of Canadian political history John A Macdonald and George Etienne Cartier perform a political two-step to avoid facing an election. George Brown is more than a little disappointed. And it all started because Queen Victoria announced that Ottawa would be the Canadian capital.
Apr 03, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 31
John A Macdonald asks the Queen a favour. Thomas D'Arcy McGee arrives in the country, wonders which gang he should join, and then almost becomes a martyr at an absolutely historic St. Patrick's Day party. Oh, and Ottawa becomes the capital. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patron of the arts - and keep 1867 & All That online in perpetuity. It's kind of like making hist...
Mar 27, 2022•30 min•Season 2Ep. 30
This week it's murder, mayhem, and controversy in the fallout from the murder of Robert Corrigan, an Irish Protestant tough guy who met a dark and painful end. Everyone is convinced that there is no justice for their own side. And then, almost randomly, the government sort of falls, only to be resurrected with a new and familiar face. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-life patro...
Mar 21, 2022•25 min•Season 2Ep. 29
The ornery and handsome George Brown is joined today by his nemesis - and later frenemy - John A Macdonald. The new Tory government gets things done and then goes and upsets Upper Canada by talking about Catholic schools. There's a massive railway fountain and a setup for the murder and mayhem that's coming next week. I'm giving a lecture to the Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy on Tuesday 17 March at 7PM EDT. The talk is titled "What's So Evil About the Notwithsta...
Mar 14, 2022•29 min•Season 2Ep. 28
This week we're introduced to the handsome George Brown, the fervent and ornery Reformer who inspired both love and hate. Two former friends - Francis Hincks and Augustin-Norbert Morin - come back to take a brief stint on centre stage. The election of 1854 upends the whole system of political coalitions. Oh, yeah, and parliament burns down again. Twice.
Mar 06, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 27
This week we revisit some old friends - William Lyon Mackenzie, Robert Baldwin, and Louis Lafontaine - and meet a new one - William McDougall. We learn that taking away a Chancery from Baldwin is one court too far, and we also get the first taste of our Clear Grits. If that doesn't mean anything to you yet, don't worry. It will soon. And don't forget the ex-priest Gavazzi who is in Montreal to raise a ruckus. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to...
Feb 28, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 26
We're back with Season Two of 1867 & All That and we're starting (where else?) with yet another riot. This time it's the controversial ex-priest and anti-Catholic Alessandro Gavazzi who seems determined to stir up anger on his trip to Canada. It's a sign that even after the victory of responsible government, not all is well in the Canadas. If you like what you're hearing and want to support the podcast, please head on over to our Patreon page where, for only $5/month, you can become a real-l...
Feb 21, 2022•9 min•Season 2Ep. 25
This week we are at the end of Season One and we do our best to figure what just happened. What was responsible government? Why did it emerge when it did in the 1840s? And, most importantly, so what? What was the legacy of these events - the rebellions and responsible government - at the time and since? Hint: I think they do in fact matter.
Jun 25, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Louis Lafontaine proposes the Rebellion Losses Bill into the Canadian parliament and things get ugly. A mob burns parliament; Montreal is turned inside out; even the Governor General Lord Elgin isn’t safe. Will responsible government hold? And at what cost? And, finally, why are Montreal Tories demanding to be annexed to the United States?
Jun 12, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 23
The potato blight arrives and disaster does too. It's time for coffin ships, disease, and economic strife as a new Governor General - Lord Elgin - arrives in the Canadas. There's another election and this time the Governor General stays out of it. Lafontaine and Baldwin have another go at governing and everything goes swimmingly until... well until February of 1849.
Jun 04, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 22
