Chapter 11 Encouraging Immigration Topic 1: The Need for Immigration Topic 2: Canada Calling Pages 242 - 250.

Chapter 11Encouraging Immigration

Topic 1: The Need for Immigration

Topic 2: Canada Calling

Pages 242 - 250

Chapter Inquiry:How did the massive immigration to Canada near the turn of the

twentieth century affect the complex identity of our country?

Immigration and Identity

• Immigration had a large role in the change in Canada’s identity. Many people from many different places came to Canada. They bring with them their own ideas, customs and religions. These become a part of life in Canada.

Coming to Western Canada

• Canada did not initially attract many immigrants. The trip from other parts of the world was very long and difficult. Most people who came to North America initially went to the United States.

• In the 1890s, things changed and newcomers flooded the West. Over the next 20 years, many different groups of immigrants came to Western Canada.

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The Need for ImmigrantsFocus: Why did Canada need immigrants?

• In 1881, over 4 million people lived in Canada. This includes 108 547 aboriginal people. (As of 2014, Canada holds 0.5% of the world’s population with 35,344,962 people. 1,400,685 of those people identify as aboriginal)

• The vast majority of these people lived in the East and identify as either French or English descent.

• In the West, the Frist Nations and Metis struggled with the expansion of British settlers from the East, Britain and United States.

The Laurier Factor

• Sir Wilfred Laurier was Canada’s first French Canadian prime minister. Laurier wanted Canada to become a great nation in the twentieth century.

• Laurier needed people to build a thriving nation. In particular, he wanted people in the west in order to develop the farmland.

• Laurier also needed more people to work in industries such as mining. Mines were producing three times more gold, copper, and coal in 1914 than they were in 1896. The West was producing more wheat.

The Laurier Factor

• Laurier was successful in bringing more people to Canada.

• He did this by doubling the amount of railway track, which made travel to the West easier. Canada advertised in other countries to travel to the west.

• Government agents went overseas to find interested groups. Canada even offered some people special treatment such as receiving large tracts of land.

Partners in the Effort

• Some private companies got involved in bringing newcomers to Canada. They bought land in the West and sold it to immigrants at a profit.

• Church groups took an interest. They wanted to build religious interest and communities in the West. They liked Canada’s policy on religious freedom.

• The railway companies were involved too. The government gave them land for building the railway. The CPR owned land along 109 Street and Jasper Avenue in Edmonton and still owns land in downtown Calgary.

Canada CallingFocus: How did the Canadian government encourage

immigrants to come to Canada from Europe?

Spreading the Word

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The person in charge of immigration in Canada was Clifford Sifton. Sifton was a Member of Parliament

from Manitoba. He was also the Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905.

Sifton started a publicity campaign in order to attract people to Canada.

Spreading the Word

• Canada was advertised as a good place to live:

• Millions of posters and pamphlets were made in many languages.

• The government brought foreign journalists to Canada. They toured the country. They wrote newspaper stories about it when they returned home.

• The government sent speakers around the world and they spread the word about the great Canadian West.

Who the Government Targeted

• The United States: American farmers knew how to farm on the prairies and they were running out of farmland.

• Great Britain: Most Canadians were of British origin. Some of them wanted more Britons to move here. They thought this would strengthen the British culture of the country.

• Eastern Europe: Sifton believed that the farmers of Eastern Europe were ideal settlers for the prairies. They were experienced at growing crops. They would put up with the hardships of prairie life and would assimilate to British culture.

Betrayal of the Promise of Confederation

• Sifton was most interested in immigrants who spoke English or were willing to learn it. The government did not try to convince Canadiens from Quebec to move west. Farmland was scarce in Quebec, yet the government did not advertise there and di not offer free rail tickets.

• The government’s vision was a nation with one language and the Francophones began to feel betrayed. They began to feel a lot of pressure to learn English in the West, especially after the use of French stopped being protected.

The Trap

• For many immigrants the move to the West was seen as a trap. Life there was much harder than the advertisements had led them to believe.

• Homesteaders needed to build a shelter before the winter arrived, but there were few trees in the prairies, so many people built sod houses. These shelters were mainly soil, grass and roots cut from the prairie. They often leaked for days after a rain.

• Most homesteaders could not build more permanent homes until they made more money. Few had enough money for the trip home.