Underlying these attitudes was a racist predisposition, one that was widely shared in Canadian society, that Aboriginal peoples had to be controlled and have decisions made for them. They were incapable of making what non-Natives considered sound choices on their own. Edgar Dewdney, a Conservative cabinet minister and supposed expert on western Indians, despaired of the poor attendance at day schools that resulted from 'the indifference and in many instances absolute refusal on the part of parents to allow their children to attend school.' To counter such problems he counseled a number of initiatives to improve key schools, and concluded 'that where no suitable schools are in operation on a reserve as many children as possible should be taken from such Reserve, and be placed in the Industrial Schools in the success of which I have every confidence.' Missionaries usually took the same view, although most of them doubted that the day schools could be rehabilitated sufficiently to achieve the churches' and government's educational objectives.

    To prepare a plan for off-reserve residential schools, Sir John A. Macdonald's cabinet in 1879 appointed a back-bencher, Nicholas Flood Davin of Regina, to carry out an investigation of residential institutions in the United States and to recommend steps to create 'Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds.' Davin was much taken by the American schools, which he regarded as an especially successful aspect of the American policy of 'aggressive civilization' that had been implemented by the Grant administration in 1869. While he seemed somewhat perplexed about the mixture of church- and government- run schools, he was unequivocal in his view that the role of mixed blood people in these schools was an important part of their success.