Maritime Union

Although some Maritimers shared a vision of a broad union, the Charlottetown conference in September 1864 was initially organized as a meeting of representatives from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island to discuss Maritime union.

Unlike many of his colleagues, delegate Edward Barron CHANDLER took the following position:

“Thirty-seven years’ experience in the political life of New Brunswick had taught him that Maritime politicians would not act contrary to the dictates of local pride and jealousies, which caused disagreement on such an elementary question as the location of a capital. When the possibility of a broader British North American union was raised, however, Chandler warmly supported it and fought strongly for a preliminary union of the Maritime provinces on the grounds that, as a unit, their position in the wider union would be more powerful. Chandler’s enlightened arguments were not popular, and the cause of Maritime union was forgotten, much to the disgust of the lieutenant governor, Arthur Hamilton Gordon*.”