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Even John A. Macdonald, a reluctant convert to federalism, lauded a constitution that would “preserve for each Province its own identity—and will protect every local ambition.” The Maritimes shared this objective of preserving provincial institutions.

But the new federal government that formed in 1867 also reflected the conviction that all Canadians share many common interests. Macdonald insisted that Canadians form “one people and one government, instead of five peoples and five governments, with merely a point of authority connecting us to a limited and insufficient extent.”

Canada’s primary strength has not been its governments though. It is the union of our people that sustains the union of our provinces. Cartier’s ideal of Canadian nationality was not just a nice phrase: it had profound implications for how we live as Canadians.

Combined with the North American thirst for equality (a factor even in 1867), Canada’s diversity inaugurated a search for justice among our people, wearing down prejudice in all its forms (assuredly with causes for reproach along the way, especially in the treatment of Canada’s indigenous peoples). In the words of the poet of Confederation, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, “justice between class and class, and Province and Province, between creed and creed, between man and man, this must constitute the glory, the safety, and the strength of this new country.”

Today, Canadians have managed to bridge divides that continue to blight lives, fuel conflicts and divide humanity throughout much of the world. Our search for justice is not complete, but it’s enormously significant that Canadians are able to live peacefully as neighbours, regardless of their origins, language or religion.

150 years after Confederation, it seems two revolutions have come out of North America, Canadian andAmerican. Canada’s united people—our “peaceful revolution”—offers an ideal to strive for, and hope in a troubled world.

Alastair Gillespie is a Canadian lawyer living in London, England, a Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and author of the five-part Confederation Series available at www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/confederation-project.