Who was the first French-Canadian Prime Minister after Confederation?
- Pierre Elliott Trudeau
- Sir George-Étienne Cartier
- Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Answer: Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation. He encouraged immigration to the West, and his portrait is on the $5 bill. Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec, and Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine headed the first responsible government in 1849, before Confederation.
Learn more: A railway from sea to sea and moving westward
- British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast.
- On November 7, 1885, Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), the Scottish-born director of the CPR, drove the last spike.
- The CPR was paid for by British and American investors and built by European and Chinese workers.
- After the railway, Chinese people faced discrimination, including the Head Tax, a race-based entry fee. The Government of Canada apologized for it in 2006.
- During the economic boom of the 1890s and early 1900s, one million British and one million American immigrants came to Canada, and the economy became more industrialized.
- Sir Wilfrid Laurier was the first French-Canadian prime minister since Confederation. He encouraged immigration to the West, and his portrait is on the $5 bill.
- The railway made it possible for 170,000 Ukrainians, 115,000 Poles and tens of thousands from Germany, France, Norway and Sweden to settle in the West before 1914 and develop a thriving agricultural sector.
- Thousands of miners came to the Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s, as celebrated in the poetry of Robert W. Service.