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Ontario-Manitoba border dispute

Creation of Manitoba
In 1868, the Imperial Parliament authorised the transfer of Rupert's Land from the control of the Hudson's Bay Company to the Dominion of Canada. This caused resistance to emerge among the Métis people of the Red River Colony, who believed that this had been agreed without their knowledge or consultation. Further concern was raised when the federal government attempted to survey the area, as they feared the loss of their land, culture and way of life, and believed this would lead to increased Canadian migration into their territory. A provisional government, led by Louis Riel, send three delegates to Ottawa in March 1870, to negotiate the creation of a new province. These talks resulted in the Manitoba Act, which established the Province of Manitoba on 12 May 1870 and enabled its entry into Canadian Confederation on 15 July 1870.

Owing to the small area it covered, Manitoba earned the nickname, "The Postage Stamp Province". The Act also stopped short of giving the province authority over its own public lands and natural resources. This was justified on the grounds that the land could be better utilised "for the purposes of the Dominion". Speaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald stated that "the land could not be handed over to [Manitoba], as ... the Pacific Railway must be built by means of the land through which it had to pass". By legislating their control over Manitoba's public lands, the federal government would go on to have a vested interest in the province's future border dispute with Ontario.

Macdonald–Mowat rivalry
John A. Macdonald and Oliver Mowat first met in 1836, when Mowat was articled to Macdonald (then a lawyer who had recently been called to the bar). Both men had grown up in Kingston, Ontario, and together they built a successful law firm in the town.

Provincialism

Expansion of Manitoba
Manitoba Boundary Extension Act of 1881

Macdonald in debate: "We cannot afford to give [the disputed territory] to Ontario, if it belongs to the Dominion, because the lands would belong to Ontario. Keeping it as a portion of Manitoba, the lands belong to the Dominion".

"The Rat Portage War"
Breakdown of political authority

REWRITE: The power struggle between federal and provincial government had worsened since Lyon's arrival in the district, as Premier Oliver Mowat faced opposition from Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and his Conservative ministry. Macdonald's government did not pass coordinating legislation to confirm Ontario's 1879 boundary with the District of Keewatin, but arranged for the passage of an Act expanding Manitoba's border eastwards, thus creating a territorial dispute with Ontario. In the interim, a temporary Act was also passed which allowed both Ontario and Manitoba to exercise their powers over the administration of justice within the territory in dispute. The subsequent provincial conflict threw the administration of the Rainy River District into disarray, with Rat Portage at the centre of a crisis in which Ontarian and Manitoban officials sought to take control whilst the Dominion continued to lay claim to its own authority. At the height of this dispute, Lyon's position had become completely undermined by there existing three separate police forces and three sets of magistrates in the town, all claiming jurisdiction.

The chaos facing Lyon was made all too clear on a day in May 1881, when federal agents stormed his courthouse and imprisoned his bailiff. After two years of political uncertainty and dispute in the town, the Manitoban Attorney-General James A. Miller (also MLA for Rat Portage in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba) agreed with Oliver Mowat that the issue should be brought before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. In 1884, the committee chose to award the disputed territory to Ontario; however, the Dominion Government delayed the implementation of their recommendations, choosing instead to appropriate the land, timber and mines from Ontario. Lyon wrote in 1886 that the people he governed "are no longer disposed to submit quietly to the wanton and wilful injustice inflicted upon them". His words reflected the existing tensions and the present threat of civil war in the region, pitting Ontario against the Dominion. A resolution to the matter was finally achieved with the passage of the Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act by the Imperial Parliament in 1889, establishing Ontario’s present western border and enabling Lyon to reassert his authority as Stipendiary Magistrate.

Award of disputed territory
Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act of 1889