Every week, we have been looking back at editorials from our predecessor newspaper, The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle, in 1867.
On the day the new Dominion of sa国际传媒 came into being, editors in the Colony of British Columbia mused about their chances to become part of the new nation.
听
This will be a memorable day for British North America. The Dominion of sa国际传媒, which is destined to play an important part in the world鈥檚 history, will be inaugurated by the formation of a ministry composed of some of the best and greatest minds on the continent, who have been selected to officer the bark that will be launched upon the troublous waters of political life.
The new nation will be proclaimed at Ottawa, late the Capital of the sa国际传媒s and now the permanent Capital of the Dominion.
The whole machinery of the Confederacy cannot be put in efficient running order until the meeting of Parliament, which will, we presume, take place in a few weeks, and before which body we have reason to believe the proposal to include this Colony in the Confederacy will be laid at a very early day with every prospect of success, notwithstanding the predictions of a few in our midst who maintain that the Confederacy will not take over a bankrupt Colony like ours, assume our debt and guarantee our civil list, except we consent to become part and parcel of the Confederacy on terms that will be humiliating and destructive to us.
We entertain no such fears, knowing that to deprive the Confederacy of British Columbia would be to destroy the hopes of Messrs Macdonald, Cartier, Tilley, Tupper and other prominent Confederationists. The loss of British Columbia to the Confederacy would be irreparable 鈥� the cornerstone of the great edifice would be removed, and the whole structure would tumble to the ground for want of a secure foundation.
British Columbia stands like a sentry at the western portals to look after the interests of one-half of the Dominion. Without a front on the Pacific, the Confederation scheme would never have been mooted, and were the Imperial Government to cede or sell this Colony to the Americans, the whole concern would not require much time to follow.
It is quite true that we are burdened with debt 鈥� the result of the errors of a Government that could not well be worse. Everything has been going by sixes and sevens for a long while back.
But, bad as our Government is, and blighting as the effect of its mistakes have proved, our illimitable resources have neither been removed nor destroyed. Their development has only been retarded by the sinful extravagance and the wretched imbecility of our rulers; but no evil so great that it may not be overcome by prudence, wisdom and forethought on the part of the wise and careful rulers has yet befallen us.
The country is filled with sufficient natural productions to make it great in itself by the support of a population of many millions, and when the resources and advantages we have to offer the Confederacy are so great, our debt will be regarded by the Canadians as mere bagatelle.
What we require to bring about a healthy change in our affairs are a cheap Government composed of workingmen (not popinjays and do-nothings) and a right to send representatives to Ottawa, where our interests would be guarded and our people secured a voice in the general Government of the country.
We ask nothing at the hands of the Confederacy that it has not already granted to other members of its family; and we shall accept nothing less.
In fact, we do not believe our more fortunate fellow colonists, knowing as they do the political necessity that exists for including us in their family, would haggle for a moment over the terms. They would submit an equitable arrangement, and we should be the greatest ninnies in the world if we declined to accept it.
British Columbia, we have always maintained, is necessary to the growth, the greatness, the very existence of the Dominion of sa国际传媒; and in this belief we are strengthened by the perusal of an article in a late number of the Kingston (sa国际传媒 West) Whig.
When a paper representing the interests of the Confederacy in an important city of sa国际传媒 tells its readers that 鈥渢he entire stretch of British territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific must form one chain of united Colonies鈥�; that 鈥淐onfederation has given the deathblow to Annexation鈥�; that the 鈥渄uty of the Canadians is to facilitate as rapidly as possible the admission of British Columbia into the Confederacy鈥� that 鈥渢emporary obstacles, owing to the vast distance, must be overlooked鈥�; and that 鈥渢he expanse of a railway to the Pacific, soon to be undertaken, must be looked steadily in the face鈥�; we say unhesitatingly that the moment has almost arrived when great and beneficial change will take place in our political affairs, and when, emerging from the cloud of political misery that has so long enshrouded our prospects, we shall soon be standing in the sunshine of liberty and constitutional Government.
Let us use all legitimate means to effect so desirable an end; but let us always bear in mind that when we go into the Confederacy it must be on fair and equitable terms, such as we have confidence in the Canadians to believe they will only offer.
The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle,
July 1, 1867
