Editing Canada (section)

===Confederation and expansion===
[[File:Canada provinces evolution 2.gif|thumb|300px|alt=refer to caption|An animated map, exhibiting [[Territorial evolution of Canada|the growth and change of Canada's provinces and territories since Confederation]]]]

Following several constitutional conferences, the [[Constitution Act, 1867]] officially proclaimed Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, with four provinces: [[Ontario]], [[Quebec]], [[Nova Scotia]], and [[New Brunswick]].<ref>{{cite web| title = Territorial evolution| work = Atlas of Canada | publisher = Natural Resources Canada | url =http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/anniversary_maps/terr_evol | accessdate=2011-05-23}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web| title = Canada: History| work = Country Profiles | publisher = Commonwealth Secretariat | url =http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookInternal/145152/history/ | accessdate=2011-05-23}}
</ref><ref name=bothwell>
{{cite book|title = History of Canada Since 1867|first = Robert | last = Bothwell|publisher = Michigan State University Press
|year = 1996
|isbn = 0870133993
|pages=31, 207–310}}</ref>
Canada assumed control of [[Rupert's Land]] and the [[North-Western Territory]] to form the [[Northwest Territories]], where the Métis' grievances ignited the [[Red River Rebellion]] and the creation of the province of [[Manitoba]] in July 1870.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bumsted|first=JM|title=The Red River Rebellion|publisher=Watson & Dwyer|year=1996|isbn=0920486231}}</ref> British Columbia and Vancouver Island (which had [[United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia|united in 1866]]) and Prince Edward Island joined the Confederation in 1871 and 1873, respectively.<ref name=canatlas>{{cite web|url=http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/Atlas/themes.aspx?id=building&sub=building_basics_confederation&lang=En|title=Building a nation|work=Canadian Atlas|publisher=Canadian Geographic|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
Prime Minister [[John A. Macdonald]] and his [[Conservative Party of Canada (historical)|Conservative]] government established a [[National Policy]] of [[tariff]]s to protect nascent Canadian manufacturing industries.<ref name=bothwell/>

To open the West, the government sponsored construction of three transcontinental railways (including the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]), opened the prairies to settlement with the [[Dominion Lands Act]], and established the [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police|North-West Mounted Police]] to assert its authority over this territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sir-john-a-macdonald/023013-5000-e.html|title=Sir John A. Macdonald|year=2008|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|accessdate=2011-05-23}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/publications/archivist-magazine/015002-2230-e.html|title=The Canadian West: An Archival Odyssey through the Records of the Department of the Interior|last=Cook|first=Terry|year=2000|work=The Archivist|publisher=Library and Archives Canada|accessdate=2011-05-23}}</ref>
In 1898, after the [[Klondike Gold Rush]] in the Northwest Territories, the Canadian government created the Yukon Territory. Under [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] Prime Minister [[Wilfrid Laurier]], continental European immigrants settled the prairies, and [[Alberta]] and [[Saskatchewan]] became provinces in 1905.<ref name="canatlas" />