Held from October 10-27, 1864, the Quebec Conference was the second of three conferences that preceded Canadian Confederation. It followed a successful conference held in Charlottetown the previous month at which it was decided that unification of the British North American colonies was something that should occur, and soon; the Quebec conference was necessary for determination of the details of the union.

In Charlottetown, the presentations made by the delegates from Canada had met with a warm reception; it was thought that Quebec would be equally successful. If all went well and the representatives could agree on major issues, a proposal for a Constitution for the unified country would be drafted, later on to be taken to London for ratification.

The conference took place in a building situated where the Chateau Frontenac is today. It has been immortalised in a painting by artist Robert Harris, entitled "Fathers of Confederation"; the painting itself was destroyed in a fire in the Parliament buildings in 1916, but reproductions of it are commonplace and well-known to Canadian schoolchildren everywhere.

Though it succeeds in capturing the splendour of the conference room -- atop Quebec's Cap Diamant, overlooking the St. Lawrence River and Île d'Orléans, the view is breathtaking -- Harris' painting is inaccurate in that it depicts a number of influential politicians who were not in attendance, presumably placing the spirit of the conference above the strictly factual in terms of importance.

The delegates who actually attended the Quebec Conference were as follows:

Representing Canada East: George-Étienne Cartier, Jean-Charles Chapais, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Alexander Tilloch Galt, Hector-Louis Langevin and, Étienne-Paschal Taché.

Representing Canada West: George Brown, Alexander Campbell, James Cockburn, John A. Macdonald, William McDougall, and Oliver Mowat.

Representing New Brunswick: Edward Barron Chandler, Charles Fisher, John Hamilton Gray, John Mercer Johnson, Peter Mitchell, William H. Steeves, and Samuel Leonard Tilley.

Representing Nova Scotia: Adams George Archibald, Robert Barry Dickey, William Alexander Henry, Jonathan McCully, and Charles Tupper.

Representing Prince Edward Island: George Coles, John Hamilton Gray, Thomas Heath Haviland, Andrew Archibald Macdonald, Edward Palmer, William Henry Pope, and Edward Whelan.

Representing Newfoundland, as observers only: Frederic Bowker, Terrington Carter, and Ambrose Shea.

It is important to note that Canada East's delegation did not include any representatives of the radical Parti rouge, which was the only political party at that time staunchly in opposition to unification. The diplomatic Étienne-Paschal Taché was appointed conference leader.

The delegates entered into the conference with high hopes; after all, Charlottetown had been a heartening success, and all that remained was to settle on the specifics. They hadn't counted on discord.

John A. Macdonald, one of the foremost architects of Confederation, favoured a legislative union -- that is, a powerful centralised government with a legislature responsible for making all important decisions relating to running the country. His argument for this, as for the question of unification itself, relied heavily on the American Civil War: Macdonald held up the war as an example of what happens when too much power is given to state governments, leaving the central government all but powerless. Because he was the only one of the delegates with experience in constitutional law, others were inclined to listen.

The Maritime delegates disagreed. Fearing that their specific interests -- subsidies for the floundering fishing industry, communications, and absentee landlords, among others -- would be ignored by a centralised government, they were in favour of a less-powerful federal government with a number of powers given to the provinces, to deal with as they saw fit.

Delegates from mostly French-speaking Canada East held another set of ideas. The more radical among them alleged that unification was another Anglophone Tory plot to eradicate their culture; outside the conference itself, members of the Parti rouge, influenced by Louis-Joseph Papineau, called for the confederation idea to be dropped and for the annexation of all the provinces to the United States to be considered in its stead. The members of the delegation were considerably more moderate in their views, tending to side with the Maritime provinces on the issue of provincial independence; their main concerns were with control over religion, language, and civil law.

It seemed that the conference had reached an impasse. It didn't help that outside it was pouring down rain for the duration of the talks, dampening the spirits of the delegates and ruining chances of congenial outings to the Plains of Abraham or Montmorency Falls during which personal allegiances might be forged and problems discussed off the record.

Perhaps foreshadowing the modern-day tendency of Canadians to reach for compromise before relying on cataclysmic absolutes, the stalemate ended with concessions being made on all sides.

Macdonald's vision of a strong central government was amended to include a legislative assembly in each province, with powers divided between them. On the federal level, a bicameral House system would be adopted: the House of Commons for elected representatives, based on representation by population, and the Senate, made up of appointed officials.

The compromise was not flawless, however. Representation by population, though fair democratically, meant that the House would be dominated by representatives from the Canadas. Prince Edward Island would have only six MPs; Newfoundland would have eight, out of one hundred ninety-four total.

In theory, the imbalance in the House of Commons would be compensated for by proportional representation in the Senate. The Maritime delegates agreed on twenty-four Senators each from Canada East and Canada West, and twenty-four from the three Atlantic provinces as a collective. Despite the measures taken to avoid it, central Canada still had considerably more representation in government than did the Maritimes.

From a financial standpoint, central Canada won again. The delegates agreed that the federal government should assume the debts of the provinces, within reason; a maximum was prescribed. In return, the federal government would also be given control over the provinces' major sources of revenue. To make up for this loss, the provinces would be given $0.80 for every resident. Because Newfoundland had little debt it would be provided with an additional grant, the amount of which would be determined based on the difference between its debt and the average in the other provinces.

In light of a strong feeling of independence -- after all, it was the first colony, and had proven that it could survive on its own -- the support of Newfoundland's delegates at the conference waned. Despite its relatively small debt, they feared that Newfoundland as a province would not be able to raise enough money through taxation of its residents to meet all local expenses; when the conference decided that provinces could only levy taxes directly, Newfoundland's enthusiasm for Confederation dwindled to almost nil.

In a bid to regain their support, Macdonald proposed that Newfoundland be given an annual grant of $150 000, to cover expenses, in return for control of its Crown lands and the minerals that could be found there. No other province was even offered such a provision, and they resented it.

On the whole, the Quebec Conference was considerably less successful than Charlottetown had been, if only because of the vastly different ideas held by the delegates because of their disparate political and social backgrounds. If anyone "won", it was Canada East -- Macdonald's domination of the conference saw to it that central Canada would have perhaps more control in government than it was entitled to. Implicit to the agreements reached was the subordinate standing of the Maritime provinces; the financial measures in particular ensured that they would be forced to rely on the federal government for aid.

Macdonald's rhetoric about the threat of American invasion and civil war may well have convinced unsure delegates that they had no choice but to agree to what was set out in front of them. In any case, the conference ended with the drafting of a list of seventy-two resolutions: the Quebec Resolutions, which would create the framework for the Constitution and provide the basis for the London Conference, to be held in the Westminster Palace Hotel at the end of 1866, where they would be finalised.

Sources: Belanger, Claude. The Quebec Conference. http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/federal/1864qc.htm. Marianopolis College. 13 June 2004. The Quebec Conference - Canadian Confederation. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/2/18/h18-2080-e.html. Library and Archives Canada. 13 June 2004. The Quebec Conference, October 1864. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/quebec.html. Memorial University of Newfoundland. 13 June 2004. Quebec Conference Resolutions, 1864. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/resolutions.html. Memorial University of Newfoundland. 13 June 2004. The Quebec Conference. http://www.foundershall.ca/quebec/. Founders' Hall. 13 June 2004. The Great Enterprise. http://history.cbc.ca/history/?MIval=EpContent.html&series_id=1&episode_id=8&chapter_id=4&page_id=3&lang=E. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 13 June 2004.

Harris' painting can be seen at http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/images/fathers_of_confed.jpg.