John A. Macdonald’s Role in Helping Canada Survive
Thesis statement: Central to this paper is a discussion of the national policies that Macdonald developed and their importance in Canada’s economic growth.
- The construction of the railway
- Promote locate trade through the easy movement of their goods and services to other countries.
- The railway increased the revenue of the country through increased tourism and the growth of the transportation industry.
- It has created employment opportunities for the Canadian people who worked as train attendants.
- Promoting local trade by imposing high tariffs on imported goods to discourage imports.
- The tariffs aimed to promote the local trade in Canada, which was exposed to cheaper goods from the US.
- In addition, tariffs on raw materials were lowered to help local manufactures.
- The education policies aimed at establishing more schools in Canada to reduce the rate at which students went to study in the United States.
- Increase in the enrollment rates of students in higher education as they did not need to go outside the country to study.
- Creation of employment as more locals were hired to teach in the schools constructed.
- The centralization of the government activities in Canada.
- The central government became more powerful and would make the decisions on the use of resources in the country.
- Immigration and settling of the west
- It encouraged the settling of foreigners to the west by giving them free land to improve agriculture production in Canada.
- The settlers would produce goods for exporting and buy Canadian goods, thus increasing the country’s revenue.
- The immigrants provided the country with the much-needed labor to grow.
References
Gwyn, R. J. (2011). Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times. 1867-1891. Volume Two (Vol. 2). Random House of Canada Limited.
Taekema, S. (2020). Sir John A. Macdonald’s influence on the development of Canadian Indigenous Policy, 1844-1876 (Doctoral dissertation).