Background Information

As the Dominion of Canada was taking its first steps, its political leaders were
eyeing a vast area of land to the west of the new nation.
An enormous territory called Rupert's Land was up for sale. It encompassed
almost eight million square kilometers, including most of the prairies, and parts of
what are now northern Quebec, northern Ontario, and Nunavut.
The once powerful Hudson's Bay Company controlled the area.
But the British fur trade giant had been in decline for years and it was
now preparing to sell Rupert's Land.
The Americans, who had just paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska in
1867, were looking for other properties to expand the Republic and
eyed the territory.

But Canada saw Rupert's Land as the natural extension of its new
nation which included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and
Quebec.

George Brown, editor of The Globe and a Father of Confederation,
described it as "the vast and fertile territory which is our birthright -
and which no power on earth can prevent us occupying."

The Hudson's Bay Company was prepared to sell to the Americans who
would pay top dollar, but the British government made it clear it
wanted the territory to be sold to Canada.

On March 20, 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company reluctantly, under
pressure from Great Britain, sold Rupert's Land to the Government of
Canada for $1.5 million. The sale involved roughly a quarter of the
continent, a staggering amount of land, but it failed to take into
account the existing residents - mainly Indians and Metis.

"No explanation it appears has been made of the arrangement by
which the country is to be handed over," Macdonald told political ally
George-Etienne Cartier. "All these poor people know is that Canada
has bought the country from the Hudson's Bay Company and that they
are handed over like a flock of sheep to us."

But Macdonald would discover that expanding a nation was more
complex than just buying real estate. The people of the new territory
would show that they had no intention of being shepherded quietly
into a union with Canada.