Building the Nation of Canada – Part 1: Foundations and Infrastructure

October 10, 2025

Since Confederation, Canadian leaders have been engaged in the ongoing and unfinished work of building a nation. The work of nation-building can never be completed. A nation must always be in a state of invention and re-invention, as the actions we take, the relationships, both international and domestic, we build, the stories we tell about who we are, what our society looks like and should look like, and what makes up our national, regional and demographic character.

In 1990, following the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, Prime Minister Jean Chretien said, that “Canada is a country we are always building”. In this article, we take a quick trip through the first half of Canada’s history to look at the physical building of a nation – a literal and institutional creation of the country. Canada’s early governments aimed to connect the vast regions of the new nation, develop its economic capacity, and establish the basic frameworks of governance. From Sir John A. Macdonald to Louis St. Laurent, successive prime ministers helped shape the physical, political, and economic infrastructure on which Canada still depends.

As part of the early steps of nation-building, new provinces were created and the boundaries of federal and provincial powers were defined and tested. Our prime ministers have included a range of vastly different people, facing different circumstances with different visions, policies and degrees of success, but all have contributed in ways momentous or small to building the Canadian nation. We have to acknowledge that our progress towards a just and inclusive Canada has been rocky at times and remains a work in progress. Still, our leaders deserve recognition for working to the best of their judgment and abilities according to make Canada the prosperous and democratic country that it is.

Our first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald (1867-73; 1878-91), had many of the flaws of his time but hugely advanced every aspect of nation building. As architect-in-chief of Confederation, he gave us our first constitution and ensured that the USA did not take control of what became the Western provinces. He drove the construction of a railroad from sea to sea that was a technological marvel in its day. And his National Policy, though controversial to this day, fought against the pull of geography to forge east-west economic ties. His vision for Canada was replete with British colonialism but he was also an early champion of women’s political equality and incrementally advanced our independence in international affairs.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1896-1911), presiding over the so-called Laurier Boom, intensified Macdonald’s program of Western settlement (which had displaced many First Nation and Metis peoples), encouraging European immigration on a vast scale, and supported the creation of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. Such initiatives, while not “infrastructure” in the narrow sense, were clear examples of Canada’s physical, economic, and jurisdictional expansion. At the same time, Laurier was much occupied with the kinds of values considerations that dominated Canadian politics for many decades – provincial rights and the place of francophone Canadians in Confederation, and the ongoing assertion of Canada’s independence on the international stage, including in the First World War. He was ultimately brought down for championing “reciprocity” (free trade) with the United States, an economic and operational question that touched deeply on Canadian values and reflected Laurier’s own confidence in Canada’s potential.

Under Sir Robert Borden (1911-20), two competing visions of Canadian nationalism vied for supremacy as the country debated a core question of military infrastructure: whether to contribute financially to the united naval defence of the Empire or build a fleet of Canadian ships. Unlike Laurier, Borden favoured contributing to the Empire, but he also insisted on independent Canadian representation at the Paris peace negotiations in 1919.

We don’t tend to think of Mackenzie King (1921-26; 1926-30; 1935-48); as a visionary, unless we’re talking about visions of the dear departed. As a nation builder, the cagey old pragmatist is probably most remembered for his highly incremental building of Canadian social policy and, through his “Minister of Everything” C.D. Howe, the impressive build-up of Canadian military and industrial might during the Second World War. Still, in terms values, King was an effective proponent of Canadian independence, including through the establishment of Canadian citizenship, King himself being the first “Canadian citizen”. King also finished the job, begun by R.B. Bennett, of setting up the CBC. And, though often mocked (“Not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary”) his management of French and English Canadian divisions during the War was skillful.

It was the often-forgotten R.B. Bennett (1930-35) who established the Bank of Canada and the predecessor to Air Canada, as well as “New Deal” social legislation, which King partially implemented after returning to power in 1935, though much of it was judicially ruled to be outside federal jurisdiction in 1937.

King’s successor, the dignified and competent Louis St Laurent (1948-57), is rightly remembered as a builder of Canada’s physical and economic infrastructure, ranging from the St Lawrence Seaway to the TransCanada Highway. Indeed, it was a somewhat high-handed push for a national pipeline that eventually brought down his government in 1957.

St Laurent’s government, once again through the work of C.D. Howe, largely completed the transformation of Canada’s economy from agrarian to modern industrial. This was in addition to the final expansion of Canada’s territory through Newfoundland’s decision to join Confederation.

But the managerial St Laurent was also a quiet gift to Canadian unity who presided over the appointment of the first Canadian Governor General. And it was under his operationally focused leadership that Lester Pearson played a foundational – and for Canada, defining – role at the United Nations.

By the mid-twentieth century, Canada’s foundations were firmly laid. Its borders were secure, its economy modernized, and its institutions resilient. Yet, as the 1960s loomed, a post-war era with a new generations of voters, activists and politicians opened up new debates about language, rights, and inclusion. In Part 2 of this review of nation-building, we look at how the focus of nation building began to shift — from constructing the country’s physical form to defining its collective identity.