Tariff Policy

After 1846, Britain’s policy of free trade allowed the colonies to stop imposing duties on foreign imports. Because of the need for revenue for development, Canada decided to raise tariffs instead. British manufacturers protested, but the government continued with its plan producing three quarters of all federal government revenue.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680)

Kateri Tekakwitha became one of the most important Catholic converts among what was then the Five Nations (later called the Six Nations). Born in 1656 in the village of Ossernenon on the south bank of the Mohawk River she was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk sachem. When she was four years old, a smallpox epidemic claimed the lives of her parents and baby brother, as well as many other villagers. At this time, many native communities were being ravaged by plagues of previously unknown diseases brought over from Europe, such as small pox, influenza and TB. Tekakwitha survived the disease but her eyesight was impaired, her face was scarred and the disease left her weak the rest of her life. Around 1665, the survivors abandoned the village and moved to the north bank of the river. Tekakwitha and her relatives moved into the Mohawk Turtle clan village called Gandauoque (also known as Caughnawaga, now the town of Fonda, New York). The first time she saw a priest was in 1667 when Fathers Fremin, Bruyas and Pierron visited Gandauque. In 1670, St. Peter's Mission was established, with a chapel built inside one of the longhouses. She began to take religious instruction, and in 1676, April 5th, on Easter Sunday, she was baptized and given the name Katherine, or Kateri in its Mohawk form. In August of 1677, Kateri fled her village to live at the St. Francis Xavier Mission near Montreal. After a two-month epic journey through 360 km of woods, rivers and swamps, Kateri arrived at the mission with the help of friends. With another native convert, Mary Teresa Tegaiaguenta, Kateri asked permission to begin a new religious community of nuns. In Six Nations society, women held a high position and were used to taking the initiative. Perhaps that is why two young women such as Tekakwitha and Tegaiaguenta had the confidence to undertake such a large work. However, permission to begin the order was denied. After this, in 1678, Kateri joined an already existing society called The Holy Family. Here, she dedicated herself to teaching prayers to the children and helping the sick and the aged until she was struck with another serious illness. She died just 24 years old on April 17, 1680. She was Beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 30, 1980, and given the title Ablessed,@ the last major step before being declared a saint.

Teyoninhokerawen (1784-1825)

Known in English as Captain John Norton, Teyoninhokerawen was a Cherokee, born around 1784 and rescued as a baby from a burning village by a British soldier (although some accounts state he was of mixed Scottish and native heritage). He was raised in Britain and returned to North America, going to Fort Niagara, in search of his native roots. During the War of 1812 he helped persuade the Six Nations to join the British cause. Under his command, the Six Nations warriors played a decisive role in the battle of Queenston Heights, October 13, 1812. At the June 24, 1813 battle of Beaverdams, native forces alone under Norton defeated an American invasion. He also fought the last duel in Upper Canada at his Grand River farm in 1824 with his stepson and killed him over an affair with his wife. Norton was so distraught over this that he left for the Southwestern United States and died somewhere along the Santa Fe Trail in 1825.

Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (1844-1894)

He was Premier of Nova Scotia in 1882. Moving into federal politics in 1885 as Minister of Justice, he defended the execution of Louis Riel. In 1888 he was knighted for his role in the securing of the fisheries treaty with the United States. In 1892, he was elected Premier of Canada.

Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley (1818-1896)

In 1867, he joined the federal government under John A. Macdonald. When Macdonald fell in 1873, Tilley became Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. When Macdonald returned to power, he became his Minister of Finance.

Mary Travers (1894-1941)

Better known as the singer and song writer La Bolduc, Mary Travers was born into a large English family in Newport, Québec, a small fishing and lumbering village on the south coast of the Gaspé. Although her family had no professional musical tradition, Mary learned to play the fiddle, harmonica, accordion and the jew=s-harp. She left home at 13 to work as a maid in Montréal. When she was 20, she married a tradesman, Édouard Bolduc, and together they raised a large family. It was not until 1927 that Mary would turn to music professionally, to earn extra money for the family. Her first recordings, made a short time later, were two songs, La Cuisinière and La Servante, made on 78-rpm phonograph discs and sung in the local Québecois dialect. They were an immediate hit in Québec, selling 12,000 copies, a huge amount for the time. Soon she was known throughout the province simply as La Bolduc. During the 1930s, the Depression years, she recorded 85 of her own songs. Travers was a modern folk singer, as her compositions dealt mostly with the simple events of day-to-day life. But she did so with a sympathy that struck a cord with many of the francophone inhabitants of the province, giving them a chance to find humour in the very hardships resulting from the economic collapse of the Depression.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919- )

A lawyer and professor, he was first elected as a Liberal MP in 1965. In 1967, he was appointed Minister of Justice and was getting a reputation as an outspoken critic of Quebecois separatisme. During his terms as Prime Minister (1968-1970, 1980-1984), he brought in the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970, introduced the Official Languages Act, won the Quebec Referendum of 1980 for Canada and introduced the Constitution Act of 1982. He resigned as leader in 1984.

Charles Tupper (1821-1915)

He was Premier of Nova Scotia from 1864 to 1867 with a responsibility of persuading his province to join Confederation. He served under John A. Macdonald in 1870 and again in 1878. In 1884 he was High Commissioner in London and in 1896, Secretary of State during Mackenzie Bowell’s leadership. For ten weeks of that same year, he was Premier until the Liberals took control in the election of 1896.