The two races in Manitoba

Abstract

The Manitoba Act passed the Dominion House on March 12th, 1870. Being the child of the Insurrection it bore all the traces of the thought which had inspired and dominated that movement, and was considered a complete safe-guard to the special privileges granted the French element at Red River, but defeat was rooted in the victory, as the sympathy of the British natives had been lost, and the seeds of determined opposition firmly planted in the thought of Ontario which was soon to send its thousands of settlers to the prairie lands of the West. This new body of opinion eventually dominated in Manitoba, and in the uncompromising strife of 1890 it swept away almost every trace of special privilege and left the minority embittered, yet solidly united in the hour of defeat.