ties to commemorate
their losses, little thinking that the courage and traditions achieved
would be perpetuated at the second battle of Ypres, Vimy Ridge, and the
Somme.

The general election of 1900 sustained Sir Wilfrid, and from that time
until 1911 he gave to his country a vision and a courage worthy of the
great statesman who had preceded him in the premiership during many
years. Possibly the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York the
following year also opened up new vistas to him of the Empire upon
which the sun never sets. At any rate life flowed on evenly enough for
him and the Canadian people until there came one of those imperial acts
of negotiation which sorely, perhaps unwarrantably, tried the loyalty
and patience of everyone in the Dominion, irrespective of race, party,
or creed. As a result of it {461} any future Dominion Government would
be very brave indeed if it agreed to an arbitration affecting common
Canadian and American interests where the negotiators were not of
themselves. However, if the Alaska Boundary Award 1903 gave the United
States command of the ports leading to the Klondike it also gave to the
Canadians a very clear lead as to what they should do when treaties
affecting their own interests came up for consideration. Happily both
Motherland and Dominion now see eye to eye in this regard, and no
greater evidence of the solidarity resulting can be seen than in the
signing of the recent Treaty of Versailles by the Overseas delegates.

Deep as was the chagrin at the time, internal expansion and growing
wants diverted the attention of most of the settlers to the new problem
being worked out in the West. Immigrants were pouring in ceaselessly.
A charter for a Grand Trunk Pacific Railway had just been given by the
Dominion House. Everyone was ambitious. All these reasons created a
desire upon the part of the people for full provincial organisation
instead of the territorial system which could not possibly satisfy the
demands of a virile Northwest. The Autonomy Bills of Saskatchewan and
Alberta were soon presented by the Dominion Government, and on
September 1, 1905 two provinces were formally constituted from the old
territories.

There were many in the Eastern Provinces who viewed these evidences of
expansion not without certain misgivings. Most of the newly arrived
settlers were intelligent Americans of considerable {462} means. They
had brought their household furniture, agricult