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Confederation for kids
People
It took a lot of planning and negotiation to unite the different parts of Canada. There were many different opinions about Confederation, and it wasn't easy to come up with an agreement. The people who worked together to unite Canada had a hard job.
Below you will see an alphabetical list of names of people who had an important role to play in the making of Canada. If you click on a name you will be shown a picture of the person, and the story of their life.
There is also a list provinces and territories. Click on the name of the province to see the life story of a person important for Confederation from that province or territory.
| Alphabetical List | By Province/Territory |
|---|---|
| Cartier, George-Étienne | Alberta (Haultain) |
| De Cosmos, Amor | British Columbia (De Cosmos) |
| Haultain, Frederick William Alpin Gordon | Manitoba (Riel) |
| Howe, Joseph | New Brunswick (Tilley) |
| Laird, David | Newfoundland (Smallwood) |
| Macdonald, John Alexander | Northwest Territories (Laird) |
| Okalik, Paul | Nova Scotia (Howe, Tupper) |
| Pope, James Colledge | Nunavut (Okalik) |
| Riel, Louis | Ontario (Macdonald) |
| Smallwood, Joseph Roberts | Prince Edward Island (Pope) |
| Steele, Samuel Benfield | Quebec (Cartier) |
| Tilley, Samuel Leonard | Saskatchewan (Haultain) |
| Tupper, Charles | Yukon (Steele) |
The Fathers of Confederation
Since Confederation was in some ways considered the birth of a new nation, the leaders from the colonies that participated in the Confederation conferences are called "Fathers" of Confederation. Even though Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island did not join Canada in 1867, the people they sent to the conferences are also known as Fathers of Confederation. Below is a list of all these "Fathers" in order of the colony they represented.
