Perhaps I spoke too soon, the job did not last. Tache went back to his job after years in retirement to govern his party yet again. In '64 I joined forces with the Clear Grits leader, George Brown and the leader of Parti Bleu, George-Etienne Cartier. They called our grouping the Great Coalition. Together we were determined to reform Canada's political system, but we need a consensus and the Parti Rouge out East is not cooperating.
The same year I made a trip to the Maritimes where I led the Charlottetown Conference and presented the idea the Maritime colonies joining our union. October '64 I spent in Quebec City through out the Quebec Conference. There we hosted all of the delegates for confederation, treating them to extravagant balls and trying to persuade them to join us in this task. We created a plan for confederation, the Seventy-Two Resolutions. All but Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island were in agreement, and not until this year did they agree at the final confederation conference in London. The agreement to confederate is complete, I am very happy where this is going.
I am still drinking, but the others don't seem to mind. They would rather have a drunk Conservative than a sober Liberal.
John Alexander Macdonald
