Gough Barry M. Historical Dictionary of Canada

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410 • UNION NATIONALE

university. He became curator at Laurier House in Ottawa upon his

retirement from the University of Toronto in 1955 and occasionally

taught at Carleton University.

UNION NATIONALE. The Conservative and Action Liberale Natio-

nale parties allied in 1935 as the Union Nationale to fight the Québec

election. Originally the union was reformist and rural. In 1936, under

leader Maurice Duplessis, it formed a government that was defeated

in 1939 but returned in 1944. Duplessis died in 1959. The party lost

the 1960 election. It returned to power in 1968 under Daniel Johnson

but lost the mantle to the nationalistic Parti Québecois. Union Natio-

nale lost the 1970 election to the Liberals and virtually disappeared.

See also PADLOCK LAW.

UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA. This largest of the churches of

the Protestant denomination in Canada, the United Church of Canada

was formed on 10 June 1925 by a union of the Presbyterian Church

in Canada, the Methodist Church (Canada, Newfoundland, and

Bermuda), the Congregational Churches of Canada, and the General

Council of Local Union Churches. Not all Presbyterian congrega-

tions voted for union, and the Presbyterian Church of Canada has

continued since. In 1968, the eastern Canada Conference of the

Evangelical United Brethren Church joined; the western conference

remained outside. Its current membership is about 1 million, though

since the 1960s, membership has declined proportionally in relation

to the overall population. Discussions with the Anglican Church of

Canada, for union, broke down in 1975, and with the Disciples of

Christ in 1984.

Mid-Canada’s church, the United Church of Canada has con-

fronted many leading issues and was first to recognize gay and

lesbian rights of ordination and church membership. Its powerful

United Church Women forms the largest women’s organization in

Canada. The United Church of Canada maintains connections with

various universities and colleges. The church has campaigned on

temperance, labor, prisoners’ rights, amnesty, anti-gambling, anti-

pornography, and social justice issues. It has provided a prophetic

critique of society but is less evangelistic than in the days of its

Methodist precursors.

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UNITED NATIONS • 411

UNITED FARMERS. The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), estab-

lished in 1909, was born from rural economic issues and agrarian

concepts of democracy. Pressures led to organization of the Alberta

Farmers’ Cooperative Elevator Company—eventually United Grain

Growers. United Farm Women (1915) promoted women’s suffrage

(gained in Alberta in 1916). UFA was elected to power in 1921 and

held office until 1935; it promoted education, health, and farmers’

needs but did not cope well with the Great Depression and had no

solutions that satisfied a disenchanted public majority. Charismatic

Henry Wise Wood was one notable leader. Eventually the UFA grew

into United Farmers of Alberta Cooperative Limited.

Other United Farmers parties were founded: in Manitoba (1920),

in Saskatchewan (1926) as United Farmers of Canada (Saskatch-

ewan Section), in Ontario (1914), and in Québec (1920). In Ontario

in 1919, the United Farmers of Ontario under E. C. Drury, a Barrie,

Ontario, farmer, held the reigns of office. Agnes Macphail was

prominent in this organization, which in the 1940s grew into United

Cooperatives of Ontario. The Women’s Institute, the Grange, and

4-H Clubs were features of their work. The influence of these groups

on the Liberals, Progressives, and Cooperative Commonwealth

Federation was also significant. The Cooperative movement sur-

vived as an important legacy of these reform-minded Canadians.

UNITED NATIONS (UN). In its inception, development and changes,

the UN has always bulked large in Canadian policy and foreign

policy considerations. This is a direct result of the circumstances that

led to World War II, specifically isolation and the end to it, and to

Canada’s considerable activities and sacrifices in that war. It also re-

flected an understanding of the costs of World War I. It, too, reflects

Canada’s inherent belief that sometimes a separate foreign policy

from that of its superpower neighbor can work for the betterment

of humanity and for the establishment of peace. The UN operates

through a complex network of committees, councils, and specialized

agencies. Concerted action, after considered discussion and agree-

ment, can be the consequence.

Middle and lesser powers can play roles disproportionate to their

size in such a network, and Canada has had some successes. Canada

had a recognized role in negotiations leading up to the establishment

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412 • UNIVERSITIES

of the State of Israel, the mediation between India and Pakistan in the

Kashmir dispute of 1949, and the formulation of a UN force to guard

against further hostilities in the Suez Crisis until a diplomatic solu-

tion could be concluded. Canada supplied military force during the

Korean Conflict. UN accords brought Canadians in as peacekeepers

in Cyprus and later in Kosovo. By contrast, Canada was not satisfied

that the UN resolutions against Iraq were sufficient for the country to

join the United States and Great Britain in a war against the regime

of Saddam Hussein. In that instance, Parliament voted not to join the

coalition. In the long history of Canada and the UN, the achievements

of Lester Pearson resound down the years. His work in solving the

Suez Crisis earned him the Nobel Peace Prize and his nation’s grati-

tude. See also AFGHANISTAN; MACKENZIE, LEWIS W.

UNIVERSITIES. The educational systems of Canada represent exten-

sions or adaptations of the civilizations from which Canada derives.

France and Great Britain, and the United States, have significantly

influenced the course of Canadian higher education. The French

brought the conviction that faith and education were closely bound

together. The British, more especially the Scots, who had a profound

impact on the founding of universities and colleges, brought a more

secular bent. The Americans, who saw as necessary a division be-

tween church and state, urged nonaligned education systems. The

great public universities of the prairie west were yet again a diffusion

of some of these older models and ideas. The British North America

Act (Constitution Act of 1867) made education a specific provincial

realm of authority. However, in training and job development, the

federal government has had influential tasks. Federal funding for pro-

vincially run universities was a prominent feature of the history of the

1950s and 1960s, during the remarkable growth of higher education

(in terms of student numbers and physical plants).

This long history has a number of highlights. In 1635, the Collège

des Jésuites was founded in Québec (it closed in 1775). This was the

root from which sprang many branches. In 1663, Bishop François-

Xavier de Montmorency Laval founded a seminary that became,

by charter (1852), Laval University and the Université de Montréal

(1878, charter 1920). In 1821, McGill College (later University),

Montréal, was founded. It became in time the wealthiest university

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UNIVERSITIES • 413

in Canada, with a large group of alumni, many of whom are Ameri-

can. McGill had predominant Anglican and then Presbyterian links;

its soul was wrestled for by both, but it is a secular institution. Engi-

neering, medicine, law, and the arts and sciences became McGill’s

predominant subjects, and its post-graduate programs were among

the first in Canada.

Outside the Province of Québec, numerous Roman Catholic uni-

versities developed, including Ottawa (1849); St. Francis Xavier,

Antigonish, Nova Scotia (1866); Assumption College, Windsor, On-

tario; Kings College, London, Ontario; Mount St. Vincent, Halifax;

and St. Thomas More College, Saskatchewan.

The Church of England (Anglican Church of Canada) took an

early lead in establishing colleges on the Oxford or Cambridge

model (colleges forming a central university) or later on the London

University model, with stronger central powers. In order of foun-

dation, these were King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia (1788);

King’s College, Fredericton, New Brunswick (1800); and King’s

College, Toronto (1827). Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Québec,

was founded in 1843, and Trinity College, Toronto, in 1852, after

the secularization of the University of Toronto. Huron College,

London, Ontario (1863), and St. John’s College, Winnipeg (1871),

were other important additions. These colleges became prime movers

or foundation stones in the larger universities that grew up around

them. Huron College, for instance, became part of the University of

Western Ontario. Carleton University (1942), in Ottawa, grew from

Carleton College.

The Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church, likewise took a

role in the early histories of Dalhousie University, Halifax; Queen’s

University, Kingston, Ontario; and Manitoba College, Winnipeg.

Other denominations made contributions. Methodists established

Mount Allison University (1858), Sackville, New Brunswick, and

Victoria University (1836) Cobourg, Ontario (later moved to To-

ronto, where it became a unit of the federal University of Toronto).

Wesley (later United) College, Winnipeg, was for a time an affiliate

of the University of Manitoba and became a separate University of

Winnipeg. The Baptist institution in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, became

Acadia University (1841), and McMaster University was founded in

Toronto in 1887, moving to Hamilton in 1930. Lutherans established

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414 • UNIVERSITIES

Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in 1911 in Waterloo, Ontario, from

whence grew Waterloo College, or after 1973, Wilfrid Laurier Uni-

versity. Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador was

founded 1925.

Many larger universities of Canada derive from earlier colleges or

institutes; others derive from direct government planning to deal with

rising student numbers, particularly after 1945 for returning veterans

and subsequent baby booms. Noteworthy are the University of Brit-

ish Columbia (UBC, 1908); in the 1960s, the University of Victoria

and Simon Fraser University; the University of Alberta and the Uni-

versity of Calgary; the University of Saskatchewan and the Univer-

sity of Regina; and Brandon University. In Ontario, new universities

include Guelph, derived from Ontario Agricultural College and the

Home Economics Institute, Trent University, and the University of

Waterloo (a federated university); Lakehead University at Thunder

Bay and Laurentian University in Sudbury are northern examples, as

are Algoma, Hearst, Nipissing. In Québec, the secularization of the

province in the era known as the Quiet Revolution brought the estab-

lishment of a new university system with branches in various cities,

including Montréal and Québec.

By the beginning of the 21st century, there were about 66 degree-

granting universities in Canada. Many of them are small colleges,

often with religious roots and identifications. Many of these colleges

are connected to others of other denominations in federal universities.

Most scientific and research activities go on at the large universities,

Alberta, McGill, Toronto, and UBC being noteworthy. Global great-

ness has been achieved quickly by many of these institutions, the Uni-

versity of Waterloo (in mathematics, engineering, computer science,

and architecture) being the most noteworthy example. At one time,

student tuition was very low, approximating 10 percent of cost, but it

rose to nearly 40 percent. The progress of universities by the end of

the 20th century was depending increasingly on gifts or donations from

the private sector. Alumni affairs therefore became important in the

running of good institutions. Faculty associations grew into powerful

entities in Canada, giving rise to numerous unionized faculties.

About 10 percent of Canada’s population holds university de-

grees, a number that speaks to the long history of higher education

in the country, the contribution of churches, and funding from the

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URSULINES • 415

government sector. This history is remarkably different from that

of the United States, where private funding has been a fact from

the beginning; it is also different from that of Great Britain, where

privilege and controlled access were aspects of higher education.

Thus, the university system of Canada reflects the more democratic,

state-engineered nature of the Canadian populace. See also UNITED

CHURCH OF CANADA.

UPPER CANADA. By the Constitutional (or Canada) Act of 1791,

the colony or province of Upper Canada came into existence. Dif-

ferent in social composition from Lower Canada, Upper Canada

contained many Loyalists and American settlers. Under the power-

ful and guiding hand of the first lieutenant governor, Major John

Graves Simcoe, ports, roads, and civic improvements were made,

lands were surveyed and opened for settlement, and treaties were

negotiated and signed with certain tribes. Simcoe also made arrange-

ments for defense of the colony. Struggles over land and patronage

led to the Rebellions of 1837, a much smaller affair in Upper Canada

than in Lower Canada. Upper Canada became Canada West in the

united Province of Canada in 1841. In 1867, Canada West became

the Province of Ontario.

URANIUM CITY. Located in high latitudes 50 kilometers south of the

provincial boundary with the Northwest Territories and 75 kilome-

ters east of the Alberta border, Uranium City, Saskatchewan, was

initially a fur trade post (till the 1930s). Gold was discovered in the

nearby Beaverlodge Lake area and was mined there until the mid-

1940s. In 1946, a new and different sort of bonanza began in Beaver-

lodge with the mining of uranium. A tent city was erected. About 52

mines existed in the Beaverlodge area. Eldorado Mining and Refin-

ing Ltd. began production in 1953, and the town site was named that

year. Uranium City was a thriving mining community until Eldorado

closed. Since 1982, the community has been a site of economic col-

lapse and depopulation. It is one of numerous ghost towns of Canada.

The population in 2009 was 89.

URSULINES. The Company of Saint Ursula was founded in 1536

in Italy and made an order in 1612. A branch of the order became

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416 • UTRECHT, TREATY OF

established in Québec in 1639 by Marie Guyart de l’Incarnation,

who arrived from Tours with Madame de la Petrie, lay benefactrice,

and two other Ursulines. Together they founded the first Ursuline

monastery and girl’s school in North America. They taught European

and native women and made profound contributions to education

and social development in Canada. The Ursulines maintain a superb

museum in Québec City.

UTRECHT, TREATY OF. Signed 11 April 1713 by Great Britain

and France, the wide-ranging Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the

Spanish Succession. The treaty gave Britain the Hudson Bay drain-

age area. It assigned Nova Scotia (Acadia) to Britain, with an inland

boundary that was not properly defined until 1763 by the Treaty of

Paris. The Utrecht Treaty also assigned Newfoundland to Britain,

with reservation of French fishing rights on its western shore. France

kept Cape Breton Island, upon which the French subsequently

erected Louisbourg, as well as parts of New Brunswick and Prince

Edward Island. The boundary of the Hudson Bay country was left

to be decided by a commission, pending which the French surren-

dered to the Hudson’s Bay Company all the forts with their guns

and ammunition intact. Ultimately the parties agreed on the 49th

parallel—the present boundary of the United States—as the dividing

line between Rupert’s Land and Canada in the trading country north

and west of the Great Lakes. Britain also obtained full control of St.

Kitts in the Caribbean and retained Gibraltar and Minorca. Spain

conceded the asiento or license of exclusive trade in slaves, allowing

one English ship to trade annually to Spanish dominions. The treaty

marked the beginning of a long period of peace, and its general terms

increased Britain’s already ascendant sea power. The naval bases in

the Mediterranean gave immense diplomatic leverage in that region.

– V –

VANCOUVER. British Columbia’s largest city, Vancouver has an

excellent deep-sea port and is adjacent to the Fraser River, with ac-

cess to the interior. It is also adjacent to Washington State. Coastal

Indians are known to have lived there since 500 BCE, and the area

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VANCOUVER • 417

was explored by George Vancouver and Spain’s Dionisio Alcana

Galiano and Caetano Valdez in 1792. In the 1860s, English set-

tlers preempted land, and various sawmills were in operation in the

1870s. The incipient community was known as Granville. Not until

the Canadian Pacific Railway arrived, with an extension westward

from Port Moody, its statuary terminus, was Vancouver established

(incorporated 6 April 1886). The name was suggested by William

Cornelius Van Horne, Canadian Pacific Railway manager, in honor

of the English mariner. The company was the biggest landholder in

the city’s history and its most prominent developer.

The development of Vancouver was aided by the Klondike

gold rush, the establishment of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s

trans-Pacific services (first under sail, later all steam, including the

Empress vessels), and the coast steamship services. Vancouver also

profited from the trade of the Panama Canal and the opening of min-

ing, forestry, fishing, and canning. The Vancouver stock exchange

was founded in 1907, listing mainly mining stocks. In early days,

Vancouver exported timber, foodstuffs, and above all grain, and by

the 1920s had replaced Winnipeg as the principal western city. Later

sulfur, low-grade coal, and potash became large export commodi-

ties. Containerization allowed for the increase in volume of imports,

with rail links to Seattle and Portland making Vancouver the port of

choice. Vancouver is the largest port for volume of traffic on the west

coast of North America.

Vancouver is the air travel nexus of British Columbia. The

pioneering giant Canadian Airlines International (est. 1949) was

headquartered here; it was later purchased by Air Canada. BC For-

est Products, Cominco, Macmillan Bloedel, BC Hydro, and many

other corporations have headquarters in Vancouver. Until recently,

industries relating to forestry and wood products flourished in eastern

Vancouver and on the lower Fraser River, but these have given way

to residential development and relocations.

Vancouver’s history is reflected in its neighborhoods: Strathcona,

working class and ethnic; the West End, high-rise apartments and

the middle class; Kerrisdale, suburban middle class and Chinese;

Shaughnessy, established money; and Point Grey, university lands

(University of British Columbia, est. 1915). Also of note are East

Vancouver (east of Cambie Street), North Vancouver, and West

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418 • VANCOUVER, GEORGE

Vancouver. Outlying municipalities include Burnaby, Surrey, and

Delta. Urban redevelopment has occurred on False Creek (former

industrial lands, and later Expo 86 properties) and in Kitsilano.

Architectural highlights include the Vancouver Art Gallery (1983),

Simon Fraser University (Burnaby 1963), and Vancouver Maritime

Museum and Planetarium (1958, as BC centennial projects). A rec-

reational paradise, noted for its skiing and water sports, Vancouver is

home to the BC Lions football club and Vancouver Canucks of the Na-

tional Hockey League. At the Pacific National Exhibition grounds is the

Hastings Race Track, principal horse-racing venue of western Canada.

Vancouver is a multiracial, multicultural city, although it faced

some ethnic tensions throughout its history. Its essential roots are

English and Scottish, and it became home to many from Ontario.

It had strong identification, to 1939, with the British Empire. Anti-

Asiatic riots occurred in 1887 and 1907; in 1914, in conformity with

Canadian law, Sikhs aboard the Komagata Maru were denied entry

on the grounds that they did not have immigration papers. In 1942, in

conformity with federal regulations, all Japanese (8,600 Vancouver

residents) were evacuated and resettled and their property confis-

cated. In the 1980s, Asian immigration to Canada, particularly from

Hong Kong, escalated, so that 40 percent of students of elementary

school age did not speak English as a first tongue.

Vancouver’s park system is prominent in the city’s development,

the highlights of which are Stanley Park (with its celebrated cricket

pitch, which Rudyard Kipling said was the most beautiful in the Brit-

ish Empire), Queen Elizabeth Park, and the beach parks at English

Bay and Kitsilano. Local politics are dominated by groups such as

the Non-Partisan Association and the Electors Action Movement,

who vie for control of municipal government and city hall.

Canada’s window on the Pacific, Vancouver was once called the

Constantinople of the Pacific. It is a world-class seaport and a regular

port of call for Alaska cruise ships. Prone to shifts of world trade,

including depression of trade, Vancouver is a place of great wealth

and poverty, and a place of politically conscious citizens. See also

TRANSPORTATION.

VANCOUVER, GEORGE (1757–1798). Naval surveyor and ex-

plorer George Vancouver sailed on James Cook’s second voyage to

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VANCOUVER ISLAND • 419

the Pacific. In 1789, Captain Vancouver was ordered to sail in HMS

Discovery on a voyage to plant a small British settlement on the

northwest coast of North America to aid British maritime fur traders,

then anxious for government support in a new branch of commerce.

However, a crisis stemming from the Spanish seizure of several

British ships at Nootka Sound forced the British to employ different

measures to stop Spanish pretensions in an area they did not occupy

solely. The settlement was never effected. When the government

decided to send an officer to Nootka Sound to receive back the land

and property seized by the Spanish and to make an accurate survey

of the northwest coast north of 30 degrees north, Vancouver was

detailed for the task. Before arriving at Nootka Sound in 1792, he

charted the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and the Strait of

Georgia. He then circumnavigated the large island that bears his

name. Vancouver reported the nonexistence of a Northwest Passage

south of the Arctic Sea, confirming the discoveries of Alexander

Mackenzie. He also visited the Hawaiian Islands. In retirement, he

prepared his journals for publication but died, at Petersham, Surrey,

on 12 May 1798, a few months before his book A Voyage of Dis-

covery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World appeared

in print.

VANCOUVER ISLAND. Created by royal charter 13 January 1849,

the Vancouver Island colony was a consequence of Britain’s decision

to offset American political and settlement pressures northward from

Oregon Territory. Vancouver Island was not a crown colony but a

corporate colony (in keeping with prevailing political theory). The

Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was awarded the charter to admin-

ister the colony. The first governor, theoretically independent of the

HBC though in fact at the mercy of the firm, was the barrister Rich-

ard Blanshard. The second governor, James Douglas, was entirely a

company man. The HBC held Vancouver Island by lease, for seven

shillings rent a year, became lords and proprietors, and were obliged

to turn 90 percent of all land sales into public benefit, for developing

the colony. Corporate colonization was slow, regulated; independent

colonization was even slower and more tightly regulated. The discov-

ery of gold in Fraser River started a gold rush that brought business

to Victoria. HBC exclusive right to trade with the Indians was to

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