Canada’s Ethnic History

In Stages

Canadian Settlement

• SIX DISTINCT PHASES:

1. Pre European/ Contact• 2. Pre 1812• 3. 1812-1867• 4. 1885 to WW1• 5. WW1 to Post WW2• 6. 1960s• 7. 1970 and Beyond

Pre European SettlementBefore 1608

• Indians of the Great Plains

• Inuit

• Survival linked to geography/topography

• Distinctive cultural patterns

• Little hierarchy and subordination

Contact

• 1608-1763-Established New France

• 350,000 Natives vs. 5000 Europeans

• Some trade, more claiming

• Voyageurs move inland S.

• de Champlain, Brule.

• Fur Trade

Pre Conquest

• 1660-Two thousand settlers in New France

• By 1760- as many as 70,000 settlers

• Estate System=Aristocracy, Peasantry, Clergy

• Strip Farming

• Uni-geniture as opposed to primogeniture.

Pre-Confederation Pre-1812

• Plains of Abraham 1759

• Wolf defeats Montcalm

• French aristocracy deserts French peasantry

• La Survivance Begins

• Upper Canada 55% English and Lower Canada 85% French

• Two Solitudes

1763-1812

• British became the colonizers• Combined with UEL-United Empire

Loyalists• Upper Canada-economic immigrants

attracted by Lord Simcoe.• Multiple occupations-lawyers, teachers,

soldiers, clergyman and mostly farmers (grid pattern)

• Yonge Street-road to establishment

1812-1867

• UPPER CANADA-the bulwark of the British Empire in North America

• Lower Canada-French practiced la survivance-resist English, stay on the land, followed the Roman Catholic Church

• La Survivance-Fatalism, acceptance of hierarchy, resist English materialism.

1812

• Underground Railroad-Black and White slave owners

• Government initiative to attract immigrants:

• Letters from successful settlers

• Colonizing companies- Hudson’s Bay, The North West Company

Post-Confederation/Western Settlement/ Post 1867

1. Influx of Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese,

2. Workers on the CPR completed 1885

3. Anglo-centric Orange Order predominant

4. Nativism= Prejudice and discrimination

New Ethnicities

• 1881-1884-15,700 Chinese

• 1901-23,700 Chinese, 4700 Japanese, 1,700 East Indians

• 25% of Labour force in 1901-was from China.

• Russian Jews-16,000

• 50,000 Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish- Ana Baptists Hungarians, Ukrainians.

The North-West Rebellion 1885

• The North-West Rebellion was brief and unsuccessful

• Uprising by the Métis people under Louis Riel against the Dominion of Canada

• Hanging of Louis Riel,

• Increased tensions between British Canada and French Canada.

Early Uniculturalism

• Metis Rebellion 1885 an illustration of early Uni-culturalism

• Crushed largely by the Orange Order

• Pro-British

• Pro-Protestant

• Anti-Catholic

• Nativistic

1885 to WW1

• 1885 CPRs Last Spike

• New immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia

• National Policy-John A. Macdonald-initially more interest in British immigrants-less selective when CPR was complete.

• Clifford Sifton (Min of Interior under Laurier) sought universalism.

Early 20th century to World War 2

• The rapid influx of many newcomers and outsiders result in xenophobia and nativistic movements such as Orangeism.

• Canada was a colony of British Imperial power-more British than the British.

• The equivalent US movements=Know Nothings, APA..

Post World War Two

• Restrictions lifted

• More Italian, Jewish, Greek, Northern European immigration

• 1946- Italians 731,000, Germans 1.3 million, 385,000 Scand.

• Still few visible minorities.

1960’s

• Introduction of the Points System 1967

• Points for occupation, education, family in Canada.

• Immigration Policy became less Anglo-centric

• Bi & Bi Commission 1963, Multicultural Official 1972.

Refocusing the Cultural Mosaic-1970’s and Beyond

• Three levels of immigration -points, family reunification, refugee status

• Increasing numbers of visible minorities South Asia, Caribbean and Asia

• 250,000 immigrants per year

Summary

• Canadian settlement has at least five phases

• From relatively homogeneous, spare pop to diverse and tolerant society

• Patterns lead to Multiculturalism over two centuries

• Mosaic the result of accommodation and acculturation.