Is understanding their priorities and trade-offs critical to comprehending what pre-1900 archives reveal? Again, yes! When a document is used without factoring in its author and his reasons for creating it, readers, particularly negotiators, are working with partial truths. As one example, let’s consider Joseph Trutch. Why was he appointed B.C.’s first lieutenant-governor? Trutch was the Colony’s Lands & Works minister, a talented engineer, known to be adept at filling his own pockets, dismissive of Indian land rights and a social climber. He became the lead negotiator for confederation, counselled by Britain’s official representative, B.C.’s Colonial Governor Frederick Musgrave, who was also Trutch’s new brother-in-law. Trutch pushed for union with Canada as directed. As a civil engineer, his support gave credibility to Prime Minister Macdonald’s dream of a massive country tied by a sea-to-sea railway. Enough voters agreed, B.C. became Canadian, and Trutch became B.C.’s first lieutenant-governor. westcoastnativenews/canada-must-apologize-and-compensate-b-c-first-nation-people-for-decades-of-legislative-mismanagement/
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 21:31:16 +0000
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