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Developing the West: Manitoba
Archives of Manitoba, Agriculture, Harvesting, 59.
Western and Eastern Canada did not develop along similar lines. The prairie provinces of the “West” – Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta entered confederation between 1870 and 1906. The West was to be settled and developed for agricultural production, while the East would develop a manufacturing base.
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Developing the West: Saskatchewan
Archives of Manitoba, Agriculture, Harvesting, 55-58.
By 1906, the “National Policy” had already laid the groundwork for East-West relations. A transcontinental railway would tie the nation together, mass settlement would provide a population base to work the land and protect from U.S. incursion into Canadian territory.
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Developing the West: Alberta
Archives of Manitoba, Agriculture, Harvesting, 55-58.
A customs tariff on import goods was to protect manufacturers in Eastern Canada and pay for the building of the railway. The tariff was always a bone of contention to Western farmers because it increased production costs. Western farmers advocated free-trade with the United States.
Farmers in Western Canada fought against what they perceived as inequities in the "National Policy" or the terms of Confederation. Seeing themselves as the underdog in a fight against corporate power and political corruption, representatives of an unfettered, opportunistic capitalism, the farmers organized to fight the Canadian Pacific Railway monopoly, freight rates, unfair practices in grain dealing and grading, limitations in the transportation system and the tariff.
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