They ion responsible government
for British Columbia |

‘HIS Convention, therefore,

‘in virtue of the trust reposed
in it, and with an honest and‘
patriotic desire to promote the
public welfare, after due delib-
eration, resolves and declares as
follows: .

“That all Governments exist
by the free and just consent of
the governed, and that the Gov-
ernment that does not exist by
the free and just consent of the
governed is a despotism.

“That the Government of
British Columbia does not exist
by the free and just consent of
the governed, and is, therefore,
a Despotism. .

“That it is unsuited to the
free British subjects of this Col-
ony. :

“That it deprives the people
of their rightful share in the
Government. as no Statute or
Order in Council exists which
guarantees to the people the
right to participate in the Gov-
ernment of the Colony;: but in
the Legislative .and Executive
Departments all aré nominated
or may be rejected, suspended
or removed by the Governor of
this Colony.

“That the ordinary conse-
quences of such a form of gov-
ernment are manifest in this
Colony, in the disregard of pub-
lic opinion, in the ‘neglect’ of
public interests, in the high tax-
ation, in the annual deficits, in
the annually increased public
debt, in expending large sums
of public money in paying sal-
aries disproportionate to the ser-
vices rendered, and in maintain-
ing an unnecessarily large num-
ber of officials, and in the ten-
dency which the continuance ef
such political evils have to
weaken the attachment of the
people to the Crown and British
connection. ie

“That to such an extent have
the evils of misgovernment mul-
tiplied that profound, ‘wide-
spread, universal discontent
prevails and is expressed at the
form of Government and at the
manner in which the affairs of
the Colony have been and are
mismanaged;

“And that the people of Brit-
ish Columbia loudly demand a
REMEDY.”

N these ringing words, the

delegates of the people of the
Colony of British Columbia
meeting in convention at Yale,

The story of the Yale Convention

By KEITH RALSTON

*
ENE

in September 1868, threw down
a challenge to the colonial auto-

cracy, and announced that they.

were going to fight for their
democratic right to govern
themselves as free men should.

And in the struggle that follow-

ed their bold stand won the
right to self-government for all
British Columbians as. equal
partners in the Dominion of
Canada. ;

The delegates had gathered in
the bustling Fraser River town
at the head of river navigation
and at the beginning of the
great Cariboo Road, from settle-
ments all jover the colony —
from Victoria and New ‘West-
minster, from the goldfields at
Barkersville, from the lumber
mills of Burrard Inlet and the
farming districts in the Fraser
Valley and on Vancouver Island,
as well as from the way points
along the stage route to the
Cariboo.

. The convention at Yale had
come together at the call of the
Confederation League. The
League was organized in Vic-
toria in May, 1868, to carry out
a public campaign in favor of
Confederation and responsible
government. The founders of

the league were spurred to ac-
tion by the refusal in March of
the official-dominated ilegisla—

_tive council to endorse a reso-

lution moved by Amor De Cos-
mos and supported by the other
popular members of the council
in favor of union with the rest
of British North America.

The league soon had branches
in all parts of the colony, and
the agitation in favor of Con-
federation became stronger. The
newspapers wrote editorials out-
lining its advantages, letters to
the editor argued pro and con,
meetings were held in various
places like the one at Lytton
where resolutions were passed
supporting Confederation.

Big celebrations on July 1
marked the first anniversary of
the infant Dominion of Canada.
In Barkersville, the centre of
the goldfields, a very large out-
door meeting was held where
miners gathered from the sur-
rounding creeks and diggings to
hear speakers praise the idea of
Confederation and to elect a
committee as part of the Confed-
eration League,

Enthused by the growing
strength of the popular senti-
ment for union with Canada,
the league’s executive commit-
tee decided to sponsor a conven-

tion. They timed this conven-
tion for the fall just before new
elections for the popular mem-
bers of the legislative council
were to be held in order to en-
sure the return of the maximum
numbers of supporters of the
twin objectives of Confederation
and responsible government.

The league issued a call to
the» convention signed by its
secretary, Robert Beaven( later
premier of the province). ‘It
said in part: “The inhabitants
of the respective districts are in-
vited to elect delegates without
delay to represent their ,views
in the above convention.”

In response, public meetings —

to elect delegates were held in
every settlement in the colony,

AMOR DE COSMOS

even in the far-away mining
camp on Wild Horse Creek (in
East Kootenay) where the dele-
gate could not possibly get to
Yale in time. There were meet-
ings at Esquimalt and Metchos-
in, Salt Spring Island and Har-
rison River, at Lytton and at
Lillooet. In New ‘Westminster,
the election of delegates ‘was
held at a meeting under the aus-
pices of the municipal council.

‘From many sections of the
community came expressions of
support—the British Colonist of
Victoria and the British Colum-
bian of New Westminster wrote
their editorial approval and the
captains of the Gulf and river
steamers offered free passages
to delegates. i

So when the 26 delegates
gathered they constituted the
widest and most representative
assemblage that had ever met
to consider the problem of the
colony. And as the first of the

resolutions pointed out, the peo-
ple demanded a remedy for
these problems. What then,

was the remedy offered by this:

broad popular convention?
Their solution is contained in
the second of the resolutions
they passed: *

“That the proper remedy
for the present ‘political con-
dition of the Colony and the
one that commends itself. as
preferable to all others—be-
ing in ‘harmony with Imperial
policy and the legitimate as-
pirations and desires of the
people of this Colony—is the
immediate admission of Brit-
ish Columbia into the Domin-
ion of Canada on terms equit-
able, expedient and beneficial,
simultaneously with the est-
ablishment of Representative
Institutions and Responsible

Government; and that, wheth-
er admission into the Domin-

ion of Canada shall occur or
not, Representative Institu-

tions and Responsible Govern- -

ment should be inaugurated
forthwith in British Colum-
bia.”’ :

, The remainder of the' 37. re-
solutions passed by the dele-
gates in the three days of the
convention were an elaboration
of this program of Confederation

and responsible government.
One of the most important out-
lined a set of 15 Terms of Union

‘with Canada. ,

This resolution was . most
probably personally drafted by
Amor De Cosmos and its pro-
posals form the starting point
for all subsequent drafts of
terms. In fact the final terms
which were agreed upon with
the Dominion’ two years later
bear a strong family resem-
blance to the ones approved by
the Yale delegates. |

The convention did not be-
lieve that reform of the gov-
ernment of the colony could
await the coming of union. They
vigorously attacked its
shackle jnefficiency. and in a
series of detailed
showing how big economies
could be. effected, they demon-
strated both their own close
knowledge of its workings and
their fitness to govern their own
affairs.

In addition to their argument
for retrenchment they advanced
a program for bringing pros-
perity to the colony, including
increased immigration, free land
grants, more equitable mining
laws, and reciprocity with the

ram-'

resolutions

NEESER i}

imei!

United States in order to pro
vide a market for lumber, fish,

- coal and farm produce.

Such was the political Pro

gram. of the Yale convention, #
program that the majority of
the people of. BC. supported
whenever they were given @
chance to vote on it. But this

. policy could not succeed witb-

out a struggle — it had fierc®
opponents.

The officials and their have
ers-on feared it would mean 105"
ing their comfortable positions: —
the Colonial die-hards want
no part of wnion with Canada
—some Hudson’s Bay Company
men like Dr. J. S. Helmcken and
certain of the English element
feared a Canadian ‘‘invasion” ®
their privileges.

The annexationists opposed it.
because they wanted to join the
United States.' There were eve?
some who favored Confedera
tion but opposed self-gover?-
ment. ‘To these latter “democ —
racy” was a political syste™
which they feared as much 4° —
present-day members of the
Chamber of Commerce feat
“communism.”

‘

Immediately the convention
was over these groups combit
to attempt to destroy its work
—they denied that it represent
ed the popular feeling, they
tried to ridicule it. In Victoria
where they were strongest, thes —
had some success. But thei!
victories were only temporary
in two years even Dr, Helmcke®
had in effect to acceptethe pro-

‘gram of the Yale convention 2

order to get elected.

They did however, achiev®
one unlooked for success —
amongst the historians of B.C:
who have accepted their esti |
mate of the Yale convention at
have dismissed it as of little
importance.

' Yet the facts are that the Yale
convention is to British Colum-
bia what the Charlottetown at
Quebec conferences were to the
people of the eastern provinces
—the expression of the desil@_
of the vast majority of the com-
munity to govern their own 10¢

“al affairs and to join with thei!

neighbors in a new nation

‘The difference in B.C. is that
the struggle for responsible g0V-
ernment had not yet been w02-
All British Columbians owe %
debt to the patriotism of the
men who met at Yale. But
for their struggles B.c, might
have languished as an isolated
colony or been gobbled up PY
its powerful American neighbor.

At the very least it might
have been delivered into CoD-
federation not as an equal patt
ner, but bound hand and foot |
as a “colony” of the East, #
fate which also threatened Ma?-
itoba but was staved off DY
Riel and which later actually
happened to the area compris-
ing the present provinces of Al
berta and Saskatchewan.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 24, 1952 — PAGE s