Canada, facing to-day both the Atlantic and the Pacific, has the
possibilities of greatness on either ocean, or indeed on both; I do not
think it a wild forecast to say that ultimately her Pacific provinces
may be greater than those bordering the Atlantic, and may draw to their
port a large share of the trade of the Middle-West. Entering Canada by
her Pacific gate, and passing through the coastal region over the
Selkirks and Rockies to the prairie, one sees all the material for the
making of a mighty nation. The coastal waters, and the rivers flowing
into them, teem with fish, and here are the possibilities of a huge
fishing population. At present those possibilities are, in the main,
neglected, or allowed to be exploited by Asiatics. But a movement is
already afoot to organise their control for the benefit of a British
population. The coastal strip and the valleys running into the ranges
are mild of climate and rich of soil. An agricultural population of
10,000,000 could here find sustenance, first levying toll on the great
forests, and later growing grain and fruit. Within the ranges are great
stores of minerals, from gold down to coal and iron. Everywhere are
rushing rivers and rapids to provide electrical power. Fishermen,
lumbermen, farmers, mountain graziers, miners, manufacturers--for all
these there is golden opportunity. The rigours of the Eastern Canadian
climate are missing: but there is no enervating heat. The somewhat
old-fashioned traditions of the Eastern provinces are also missing, and
the people facing the Pacific have the lusty confidence of youth.
At present the balance of political power in Canada is with the east.
But each year sees it move farther west. The Pacific provinces count for
more and more, partly from their increasing population, partly from
their increasing influence over the prairie farmers and ranchers. The
last General Election in Canada showed clearly this tendency. In every
part of the nation there was a revulsion from the political ideals
represented by Sir Wilfrid Laurier: and that revulsion was most complete
in the west, where as a movement it had had its birth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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