Robert Borden Promised Provincehood for the West and Local Control of Lands and Resources and Premier Haultain Dreamed of One Large Western Province to be Called "Buffalo"

This financial need became more acute with the immigration and settlement boom of the late 1890s. Now that the United States had exhausted its homestead land, the great agricultural promise of the Canadian North-West was finally being realized—albeit, almost three decades late—and the territorial government simply did not have enough money to meet the growing service and infrastructure demands. There appeared to be only one solution. In May 1900, the territorial government submitted a petition to the Laurier government reviewing the constitutional evolution of the region and calling for the next logical step—namely, drafting the terms for provincehood. Ottawa turned down the request as premature, a position it repeated twice more in response to similar petitions.

One of the stumbling blocks to finding common ground was Premier Haultain’s dream of one large western province, to be called “Buffalo,” between Manitoba and British Columbia and the 49th and 54th parallels. Some argued that a western super province would upset the balance of Confederation, while others insisted that the territorial provisional districts (created in 1882 for administrative purposes) should be provincial material. Calgary, for example, had ambitions to be a territorial capital—as did Prince Albert. What also made Liberal negotiation with Haultain difficult was his decision to actively campaign on behalf of the federal Conservative party in the 1904 general election. It was a serious lapse in judgement and one that crippled his future political career. From his first days in territorial government, Haultain’s strategy for securing concessions from the federal government was to adopt a non-partisan approach and speak with a single, territorial voice. Unfortunately, he had become so disillusioned with the Liberal government’s intransigence that he cozied up to federal Conservative leader Robert Borden who not only promised provincehood for the West, but local control of lands and resources. These actions turned the autonomy question into a party issue—ironically, something that went against Haultain’s own philosophy of putting territorial interests before political considerations.

--Bill Waiser, "Creating New Provinces: Saskatchewan and Alberta," in Reconsidering Confederation: Canada's Founding Debates, 1864-1999, ed. Daniel Heidt (Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2018), 226, 228-229.

The Regina Government Lacked Political Independence; by the Late 1880s, a Qu'Appelle Merchant Said the Region Was "Not Prepared to Accept Dictation from Ottawa"

What the language and school controversy demonstrated to westerners was that the Regina government lacked political independence in keeping with the British parliamentary system. In fact, it had reached the point by the late 1880s, in the words of a Qu’Appelle merchant, where the region was “not prepared to accept dictation from Ottawa.” There had been several steps towards responsible government since the 1877 North-West Territories Act. But westerners objected to the glacial pace—and the fact that Ottawa had to be repeatedly prodded. What ultimately brought the campaign for constitutional reform to a successful conclusion was the election of Wilfrid Laurier Liberals in 1896. When responsible government finally took effect the following year (1 October 1897), Frederick Haultain was appointed the territory's first and only premier. He quickly found, though, that having control over government spending did not mean much if the legislature did not have much to spend, especially since any revenue from North-West lands and resources went to the federal treasury.

--Bill Waiser, "Creating New Provinces: Saskatchewan and Alberta," in Reconsidering Confederation: Canada's Founding Debates, 1864-1999, ed. Daniel Heidt (Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2018), 226.