The 1870s and 1880s are a time of trial for the young Dominion of Canada. The country's first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, faces economic depression in the fast-growing factories of the east and a new revolt in the west, led by his old nemesis, Louis Riel. The suppression of the North-West Rebellion, and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, opens the prairies to new floods of immigration; but Macdonald's single-minded insistance that the French-speaking Catholic Riel must hang for treason threatens to tear apart the fragile bond between Quebec and English Canada.

VHS format. "Episode 9: From sea to sea (1867 to 1873)"--Promotional material.