New Brunswick

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Confederation

By the 1860s, New Brunswick’s future appeared bleak. The United States was seeking to end the 1854 treaty, and iron was gradually replacing wood in ships. Railway construction had already connected Saint John and Shediac, but plans for an intercolonial railroad had reached an impasse. There was widespread unrest as the Fenians, a revolutionary group fighting for Ireland’s independence from Britain, gathered support in the United States. The supporters were anti-English and tried to affect Britain by invading Canada in 1866. The attempt, however, was unsuccessful.

Samuel Leonard Tilley, the premier of the New Brunswick colony, had committed New Brunswick to a union of the British North American colonies at the 1864 Charlottetown and Québec conferences, but the plan was rejected locally. Although there was still strong opposition, British and Canadian pressures, including the promise of railway construction, proved to be decisive. On July 1, 1867, New Brunswick joined the union, which was called Confederation, becoming one of the four original provinces of the Dominion of Canada along with Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec.

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After Confederation

Railway ties with Québec and Halifax were completed in 1876, and Saint John was linked with Montréal and Boston, Massachusetts, in 1890. Railroads led to the rapid development of Moncton, but they generally failed to stimulate further growth. The small secondary industries could not compete with the more efficient manufacturing establishments elsewhere in Canada. As a result, most of them disappeared. Trade revived temporarily during World War I (1914-1918) in spite of wartime hazards, but the province was not able to duplicate its former success.

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Economy and Society

Along with the rest of Canada, New Brunswick was hurt by the global economic depression of the 1930s. Still the province worked to diversify its economy by starting textile mills and pulp and paper industries. The province, however, could not compete with the industrial advances in the rest of Canada. It did not benefit from the prosperity in other Canadian provinces because these provinces did not share their tax revenues with other provinces. By the 1950s New Brunswick had a lower standard of living than the national average and higher rates of infant mortality and illiteracy.

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During the 1960s Liberal Party leader Louis J. Robichaud—the province’s first elected Acadian premier—began efforts to reduce the large disparities in access to services and quality of life between New Brunswick’s rural and urban populations. The provincial government assumed responsibility for programs that had previously been administered by the municipal governments, including education, medicine, and social services. The provincial government was then able to directly distribute services and financial assistance throughout the province.

Under Robichaud New Brunswick also attempted to further industrialize its economy. Industries such as mining, forestry, and fishing were expanded or modernized. In 1971 a cargo terminal was opened in Saint John that encouraged a major expansion of the province’s transport business. In 1982 a nuclear power plant was opened at Point Lepreau, which today generates a significant portion of New Brunswick’s electricity production.

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Recent Events

From 1970 to 1987 Richard Bennett Hatfield of the Progressive Conservative Party was premier, and he continued many of Robichaud’s programs. In 1987 the Liberals again gained control of the government, winning all the seats in the provincial legislature. The Liberals retained a majority in the 1991 and 1995 elections and worked to create jobs, bring new businesses to New Brunswick, and strengthen the economy. Although they were successful in reducing the provincial deficit, the Liberals failed to decrease New Brunswick’s consistently high unemployment rate. In 1999 the Liberals suffered a surprise defeat by the Progressive Conservative Party, which focused on cutting government spending, reducing taxes, eliminating highway tolls, and creating hundreds of new health-care jobs. The Progressive Conservatives narrowly maintained power in the 2003 provincial elections, although the party lost 19 seats.

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