LaFontaine made no effort to intervene inthis sharp exchange.
“Gentlemen,” Robert said quietly, “I realizethat these are critical questions, but please bear with us. Francisand I have developed a plan to achieve our goals that is predicatedon moving one important step at a time. The first step, upon whichagreement must be reached or the entire project abandoned, is this: do we have in common a set of policies and priorities stable enoughto build a functioning political party upon? And I’m referring tofiscal, economic, legal and social policies. Further, do we share avision of the future for two provinces, two cultures and twolanguages? If we don’t, then I suggest we have a good supper, shakehands and go our separate ways.”
“You’re asking us to postpone the otherquestions while we talk over the nitty-gritty items — like tradeand the money supply?” Bérubé said.
“And education and land grants and publicworks,” Hincks said.
“Exactly,” Robert said. “It seems to me thatthese are issues that have turned all of us in this room intoreformers of one kind or another.”
Tremblay, Bérubé and Bergeron (who had saidnothing but had taken everything in) now looked at their leader.LaFontaine nodded. Marc could hear the sigh of relief uttered byHincks sitting next to him.
“Right, then,” Robert said. “Let us proceedto tackle these issues one by one. Who would like to begin?”
At this point Graves Chilton slipped into theroom so quietly that only Garnet Macaulay noticed him poised abovea tea-trolley just inside the doorway. Macaulay dipped his chin,and Chilton sidled around the delegates and deposited a steamingcup of coffee before each one without ruffling a cuff or stintingthe flow of conversation. He even managed to slip a dish ofmacaroons silently alongside Robert Baldwin’s coffee cup. Chiltonalone was to be allowed into the room at predetermined intervals toserve refreshment and clear away unwanted dishes, after which hewas to slip across the hall to his office, where he kept watch withthe door open. Again, Marc was impressed with the securityprecautions Macaulay had taken. No employee was to leave thegrounds of Elmgrove between now and Friday evening: sufficientsupplies of food and drink had been laid in for the duration. Theywere snowbound, and safe. The rest was up to the men in thisroom.
Looking steadily at Bérubé while he spoke and Marctranslated, Francis Hincks said, “The economic development of eachof our provinces has been stunted and strangled for almost tenyears because successive governors and their reactionaryadministrations have been terrified of the emergence of anentrepreneurial middle class, one whose success would threatentheir chokehold on the banking system and challenge their right toappoint their friends and relations to government posts, wheretheir incompetence compounds the injury. Both provinces need publicimprovements to foster trade and industry. Our roads are adisgrace, our canal system is in need of renewal and expansion, ourcity streets need paving, and our postal service must bemodernized.”
Bérubé nodded enthusiastically long beforeMarc had finished translating.
“But these improvements will be financedprincipally by one province, will they not?”
It was LaFontaine, who had spoken for thefirst time on an issue, and all eyes turned to him. But he did notelaborate. Finally, Hincks said, “You are referring, of course, tothe fact that the Upper Canadian debt of eighty thousand poundswill be taken over by the new dominion?”
Tremblay did not wait for the translation.“In being compelled to merge with you, we are to start out as aninsolvent state!” he said angrily. “At the present we in Quebechave no public debt, not a penny! How can we begin to collaboratewith you English when such an inequity stares us in the face?”
“I agree, sir, that the inequity exists,”Hincks said, “and we did all we could last fall in our Assembly toget better terms for the union. But the union itself is as good asmade. We can’t be expected to review or regret the terms that willbe law in a month or two.”
“Yes, but it is also expected that we beginby being able to trust one another and to feel comfortable witheach other’s motives,” Tremblay said, not quite as angrily butforcefully nonetheless. “When we see the terms of union soblatantly stacked against us — we’ve got half the seats butthree-fifths of the population and only your language is tobe spoken in the Legislature — how are we to put any faith in yourclaims and promises?”
“Mr. LaFontaine here has spoken eloquentlyfrom a dozen platforms about the injustices of the Union Act,”Bergeron said evenly. “We have come here with our distinguishedleader as a courtesy to him — to listen and judge for ourselveswhether there are English voices worth our attention. It isyou, sirs, who must convince us that our dangerousjourney and audacious gamble have been worthwhile.”
LaFontaine made no sign that he acknowledgedthe reference to him or approved of the remark itself. Marc wasbeginning to wonder what sort of game he was playing.
It was Robert who calmed the waters. “Isuggest, Mr. Tremblay, that we all remember how we reached thecurrent financial state. Upper Canada’s debt is almost entirely dueto the costs incurred by our failed revolt and its deadeningaftermath. They are not representative of our economic potential.And in Quebec you are debtless because the governing establishment,abetted by the seigneurs and churchmen, have set out to stifleenterprise except where it enriches them and furthers their owninterests. In that respect, both provinces desperately need areform-minded government. Our joint prosperity, once achieved, willmake both the debt and the injustice a distant memory. Moreover, ifwe don’t mutually believe that a united Canada can evolve into aprogressive and more democratic and economically viable state, thenI agree we are wasting our time.”
Marc was certain he saw a smile hovering atthe corners of LaFontaine’s mouth.
“Socially progressive, democratic, andeconomically stable,” Hincks said slowly, pausing between eachdescriptor to let Marc translate. “These are words that strike achord in you, do they not, gentlemen?” he added, gazing at theFrench delegates opposite him.
Bérubé nodded and smiled. Bergeron nodded.Tremblay looked stricken, and glanced across at his leader.LaFontaine responded in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone: “Then letus get down to the nitty-gritty, as my colleague has termedit.”
The economy was the obvious place to start, andBérubé warmed to the topic quickly, often outracing the translationand straining to interpret Hincks’s comments and replies on hisown. Specific improvements to the Lachine Canal and the St.Lawrence waterway around Montreal Island, and enhanced harbourfacilities there and at Kingston, Toronto and Burlington weresuggested and seconded. Hincks went on to dazzle the guests withhis grasp of taxation issues and a revised scheme of tariffs — alldesigned to take advantage of the natural highway provided by theSt. Lawrence and the Great Lakes into the very heart of NorthAmerica. Montreal was perfectly situated to be the nexus of theimport-export business, while Toronto would increasingly be theentry point for a vast hinterland just now being fully opened tosettlement and commerce.
“For too long,” Bérubé stated so passionatelythat his pink face flushed scarlet, “those Frenchmen with anentrepreneurial urge have had to sit and twiddle their thumbs whilethe English monopolies and English governors and English bankersreaped huge profits. My sons have had to consider the law or thepriesthood because they have had no other choice. It was nosurprise to me when they joined Papineau and Nelson in theuprising. I cheered them on.” He looked now at Robert and added,“What Mr. Hincks has outlined here is a vision of the kind I havedreamed about all my life. I don’t know whether or not thepolitical arrangements you intend to propose later in thesemeetings will be able to bring it about, but something mustdo so or we are doomed as a race.”