What was the Charlottetown Conference of 1864?

The Charlottetown Conference was held September 1 to 9, 1864 at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Delegates from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island had originally planned to discuss the proposal of a Maritime Union of the three colonies. Eight delegates from the Province of Canada (which had not been invited to a Maritime-only conference) lobbied to attend and instead persuaded the Maritime delegates to consider a broader British North American union. The Charlottetown Conference is regarded as the first of the three Confederation conferences and the moment when British North American union became a serious political project.

The Conference was prompted by political deadlock in the Province of Canada (which had had multiple minority governments and frequent elections since the early 1860s). The Great Coalition of June 1864 brought together Conservatives under John A. Macdonald, Reformers under George Brown, and Bleus under George-Étienne Cartier on a platform of seeking some form of constitutional reform, ideally involving the Maritime colonies. When the Maritime colonies announced their union conference for September, the Canadian government asked to attend.

Canadian delegates included Co-Premiers John A. Macdonald (Conservative, Canada West) and Étienne-Paschal Taché (Bleu, Canada East), George Brown (Reformer leader, Canada West), George-Étienne Cartier (Bleu, Canada East), Alexander Galt (Finance Minister), Alexander Campbell, William McDougall, and Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Maritime delegates included Charles Tupper (Premier of Nova Scotia), Samuel Leonard Tilley (Premier of New Brunswick), and John Hamilton Gray (Premier of Prince Edward Island), among others. The Conference's deliberations were closed but well documented through subsequent letters and memoirs.

The Canadians' presentation persuaded the Maritime delegates of the case for British North American union. Brown delivered the constitutional case (advocating a federal structure with provincial and federal jurisdictions), Macdonald delivered the political case (using Canadian political deadlock as evidence for change), Galt delivered the financial case (showing the larger union's fiscal advantages), and Cartier delivered the French Canadian case (arguing federalism would protect French Canadian institutions). At the end of the Charlottetown Conference, delegates agreed to reconvene at Quebec in October 1864 to draft more concrete proposals. The Province House in Charlottetown (where the Conference took place) is now a UNESCO-protected historic site, with annual reenactments of the Conference taking place there. Charlottetown is sometimes called the 'Birthplace of Confederation'.