Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles

I'm thrilled to announce that Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles will be published with Dundurn Press this summer 2017 in time for Canada's 150th anniversary!

Mercy Coles was the unmarried twenty-six year old daughter of George Coles, a Father of Confederation from Prince Edward Island. She went with her father to Quebec City for the talks to debate and layout the resolutions of the British North America Act which make up the constitution which still governs Canada today. While in Quebec and during the following tour of the Canadas, and northern US Mercy Coles kept a diary of the men and whirlwind of social events as they affected her and her desires.

Transcribed from the original document, the diary has never been published before. It offers a unique view of the men and events that made Canada. The fact that the diary has been known about for years, and yet it has never been published, speaks volumes about what, and who, we view as important in history.

 Miss Confederation at Dundurn Press 
(You can pre-order on Amazon at

Amidst the grand and heady spectacle of the balls, banquets, and events of the Confederation Conferences of October 1864, Mercy Coles is seeking adventure and love. She isn’t concerned with writing for posterity, or with propriety. Miss Confederation gives us history as it’s being made, without the veneer and gloss time creates.

I'll post updates on Launches and Tours as they're settled. If you'd like me to present a talk and slideshow on Mercy Coles and Confederation, please contact me. 

"And my blood runs cold." February 1869

Patrick Whelan was hung Feb 11, for the assassination of D'Arcy McGee - but it was pretty questionable whether he was guilty or not. He always maintained his innocence -- when the jury delivered his guilty verdict, he said:
“Now I am held to be a black assassin. And my blood runs cold. But I am innocent. I never took that man’s blood.”

The coverage in the papers was sensational -
"Everything about “the tailor with the red whiskers” was noted by the newspapers. He first appeared in court wearing a small green rosette, a white vest, and garnet cuff links. On the final day, however, he came dressed in black ..."

Apparently 1869 was the snowiest winter on record in Ottawa and on the date of his hanging, a blizzard began that lasted 2 weeks. 5000 people came to watch. It was the last public hanging in Canada.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography online has more

       Here we are in the 150^th anniversary year of the Confederation talks and the winter weather seems to be lining up anniversary fashion too.

Canada's Confederation Caricature

For a light-hearted look at Canada's political past check out the cartoon below - I've put the dialogue below. For a real test, do you know who they all are? (A brief answer at the bottom.)

 



"Confederation! The much-fathered youngster"

 

Caricature:

 (left to right: George Brown, Sir Francis Hincks, William McDougall, Sir John A. Macdonald).
© Public Domain
Source: Library and Archives Canada/C-005812

 

George Brown: "Come to your genewine Poppy!"

 

Francis Hincks: "I'm the Father of Confederation."

 

William McDougall:  "Gracious! Me own child don't know me!!"

 

John A. Macdonald:  "Don't it recognize it's real Daddy?"

 

 

Answers of a sort --- from The Moment of Our Conceptions: Canada and Me by Anne McDonald

 

George Brown (November 29. 1818 Scotland – May 9, 1880 Toronto, Canada)

A man of principles – bigot, racist, political idealist. Founder of the Globe, Canada’s national paper now, married at 44 breathing new life into him, making him less crotchety – died of a wound in his leg he didn’t get looked after gotten in a duel. How crotchety is that?

 

John A Macdonald (January 10, 1815 Scotland – June 6, 1891, Ottawa, Canada)

A man who referred to himself as John A, “the public prefers John A drunk to George Brown sober.”

 

William McDougall (January 25, 1822 York Toronto -- May 29, 1905 Ottawa, Canada) 

Failed lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories, starting off the Red River Rebellion and Resistance with his bounded Boundary Commission, Donald Cameron his right hand man in the deal - married to Emma Tupper the only daughter of Charles Tupper, another Father, but that's a different story.

 

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