With the help from John A MacDonald, George Étienne Cartier and George Brown, Canada soon would be an official country. There were many political developments such as the Great Coalition, the Charlottetown Conference on September 1-9 1864, and the Quebec Conference held on October 10-27 1864 that lead to Confederation. There were many topics of debate some of which included regional representation, financial control and Federal/ Provincial powers. Every angle of the big change was fully discussed and thought about before being proposed to the British Rule. Finally, after hard work and dedication Queen Victoria signed the British North America Act on March 29, 1867. The Act came into effect on July 1, 1867. Happy birthday Canada! The four original provinces that were included in the confederation were Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. And since then, the other nine provinces and territories have officially joined this great country. Manitoba and Northwest Territories officially joined in 1870, with British Columbia joining them the following year. After that came Prince Edward Island in 1873. In 1898 Yukon joined with Alberta and Saskatchewan joining in 1905. It wasn’t until 1949 that Newfoundland became an official province. And last but not least, Nunavut joined in 1999. I found it fascinating to learn about how Canada came to be. It is really exciting to read about all the hard work that paid off. I am definitely a proud Canadian that enjoys hearing the stories about how our systems and country came to be!