"Between 3 February and 13 March 1865, the Parliament of the Province of Canada debated the negotiated confederation of the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, aimed at creating a union from Newfoundland to Lake Superior. As a public information exercise, legislators decided to produce a nearverbatim account of their deliberations. In The Confederation Debates in the Province of Canada, Peter Waite has made a selection of the most interesting and revelatory parts of the resulting thousand-page tome, making it easier to access one of the most important sources for early Canadian history." "In this classic analysis of Confederation, John A. Macdonald presses for the advantages of a strong central power, Alexander Galt puts forward the economic arguments for union, and critics of Confederation Christopher Dunkin and A.A. Dorion express their misgivings with prophetic insight. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET