Looking Past The Murky Lens Summary

Looking Past the Murky Lens

Finding the true architect of Confederation takes analysis, time, and effort; one cannot judge the book of Confederation just by glancing at its cover, instead one must delve into the topic in order to fully realize what is going on and uncover the truth. In reality, the legitimate leader and architect of Confederation is George-Étienne Cartier, while the commonly known characters of John A. MacDonald and George Brown are simply figureheads and puppets, easily manipulated into the role of architect. Cartier embraces the mold of architect in his actions of uniting Canada, while Brown and MacDonald do not do this on multiple occasions, instead opting into the role of discrimination and dependency. Furthermore, Cartier

One of Cartier’s main goals was to unite and promote harmony within all the different groups of people in Canada. In this journey of establishing Canada, he was able to do so by looking at the whole situation when making decisions. This resulted in an unbiased choice that emphasizes equality between all Canadians. In his capacity, Cartier was able to work extensively with the parliament and politicians in both Upper and Lower Canada, where he became known as MacDonald’s ‘Siamese twin’. In his role as part of the main organ of Confederation, for instance when he worked as Acting Prime Minister in MacDonald’s absence, Cartier played key roles securing Rupert’s Land and in drafting the Manitoba and British Columbia Acts. As a result of Cartier’s intensive work uniting all provinces of Canada and promoting harmony between the English and French, he is considered to be the true architect of Confederation. When making decisions that have a profound impact on the future of Canada, he always looked at the final goal of uniting all the provinces while giving each its own identity. Cartier was someone who was able to make swift and accurate decisions that had an intense impact and huge benefit for Canada in the long run. Despite his efforts of bringing Canada together, there were still physical

MacDonald. While he truly changed the course of Canada’s history, some of his interactions with Canadians has tainted his reputation putting him in unfavourable light as an architect. The history of mistreatment and strained relationships for MacDonald is not only limited to Aboriginals, but also stretches to his interactions with Asians. He goes on to limit their rights and promote alienation and exclusion making him unworthy of being an architect of Confederation. Despite being often cited as a champion of Aboriginal rights, MacDonald treated many First Nations groups poorly, stealing their land and starving them in order to achieve his goal. MacDonald’s treatment of Aboriginals hurt the growth of Canada and set a standard of maltreatment toward Aboriginals that is continued today. While he was labelled as a friend and admired by Aboriginals, MacDonald’s actions reveal his true feelings and demonstrate his lack of regard for their wellbeing and rights. One can see that his mistreatment extends not just to those in Canada, but also those who are emigrating from other countries and regions, such as Asia. MacDonald was especially racist toward Asians, creating legislation that excluded the Chinese and Mongolian, marking them to be unfit for political office and representation. He felt that this exclusion was necessary to establish European dominance across Canada and