Canada is often painted as a calm country of polite compromise. Confederation is presented as the bright, hopeful moment when this friendly land of peace, order, and good government was born.

The real history is very different. Confederation was a rotten deal for the majority of people, achieved through the putting down of revolutions, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and underpinned by ruthless oppression of francophones.

In this presentation from the 2026 Montreal Marxist Winter School, Marco La Grotta (member of the RCP Executive Committee) exposes the reality of confederation, which allows us to understand the crises facing Canada today.

This presentation was recorded on February 14, 2026.

Suggested readings:

• Why would Alberta separate?
• What is behind Trump’s threat to annex Canada?
• How to abolish the monarchy
• Why John A. Macdonald needed to fall

Note: This presentation has been edited to remove translation. Additionally, the sound for his presentation was corrupted, and had to be salvaged from the camera audio. Please excuse the poor audio quality.