Social Studies

Social Studies

Four years after Confederation, Canada grew almost ten times larger.

Rupert’s Land, the Northwest territories, and British Columbia joined the original four provinces of Canada.

By 1871, Canada was forty times larger than Great Britain.

Immigration was always important to Canada.

The Newcomers

In the 19th century, Irish came to both upper and lower Canada to escape famine in Ireland.

African-Americans came by the Underground Railway to escape slavery in the United States.

The Fraser Valley Gold Rush brought in Chinese and Americans to Canada.

Until 1871, Canada still did not have a large population.

The Newcomers (2)

There were fewer than four million people-less than were fewer than living in the city of London, England!

Of those, thousands of people were emigrating to the United States every month.

They were all looking for better jobs or a warmer climate.

In fact, people left Canada left in the 1880s than were born in the country.

For that reason, Canada’s Government began to promote immigration.

The Newcomers (3)

It sent agents overseas to raise interest in Canada, especially the Prairies. Canada opened immigration offices in Britain and in Europe.

Canada’s first Immigration Act passed in 1869.

It set up an open-door policy. This meant that there were very few limits on

who could immigrate to Canada

The Newcomers (3) cont.

The Homestead Act encouraged immigrants to settle in the West.

It offered them land at very low prices. Sixty hectares of land cost only $10.The first big wave of immigration to Canada

began in the 1890s.Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier created a new

cabinet position: Minister of Immigration. Clifford Sifton, a lawyer and a businessman, was Canada’s first Minister of Immigration.

The Newcomers (4)

He used several methods to boost immigration.

His department produced posters advertising Canada.

In 1902, Sifton tried a new for of promotion. He hired Canada’s first filmmaker, James Freer

of Brandon, Manitoba, to make films promoting Canada for audiences in Britain.


The Canadian Government’s efforts came at a good time.

Europe was changing, and millions of people were already thinking about immigrating to Canada.

In all, more than 3.5 million people came here between Confederation and the start of the First World War in 1914.

Most arrived after 1900.

The Newcomers (5)

While some of Canada’s immigrants left going to the United States, the people who stayed changed Canadian Life.

By 1914, nearly half of immigrants were either immigrants or children of immigrants.

If it wasn’t for the Immigration, years after Confederation, Canada’s population probably would’ve shrunk.

That was because so many Canadaians moved to the United States.

The Newcomers (6)

Most of Canada’s immigrants still came from Britain.

However, more and more were arriving from other parts of the world.

Germans, Ukrainians, Italians, Greeks, Scandinavians, Poles, Jews, and many others from across Europe immigrated to Canada.

Also the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others crossed the Pacific Ocean.

Canada was a multicultural country long before people called it one.


All new immigrants hoped they would find a better life in Canada.

Of course, that did not always happen.All though, the Canadian Government wanted

immigrants, only a few felt welcome.

The Newcomers (7)

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Immmigrants to Canada, 1896 to 1914

Series1

Immigrants came to Canada from all over the world in the years after Confederation.

In ports such as Montreal and Quebec City, people must have heard many different languages every day: English, Gaelic, Dutch, German, Italian, Greek, Russian, Polish, Yiddish, and many others.

“The Last, Best West”

Some of the newcomers settled in the Maritimes or the eastern Canada.

Others went south to the United States.Most went to the west on the C.P.R.Immigrants found all kinds of work.Some became doctors, teachers, lawyers,

police officers, or even government officials.Many worked in mines, logging camps,

factories, and on the railroads.

“The Last, Best West” (2)

Some became servants for the rich.Many became farmers on the Prairies.

The population of the prairies soared as immigrants flooded in.

The number of people in Manitoba expanded nearly 20 times between 1871 and 1911.

The number of people in Saskatchewan and Alberta grew 4 times in between 1901 and 1911.

Now the smaller towns such as Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg rapidly became big cities.

“The Last, Best West” (3)

When Manitoba became a province in 1870, Winnipeg only had 3 000 people.

By 1911, it had 150 000.Winnipeg was known as the “Gateway to the

West.”

The act of flowing in immigrants created many problems for the Métis and First Nations people had lived on for generations.

“The Last, Best West” (3) cont.

The phrase “The Last, Best West” was used to market Canada to immigrants in Europe. It refers to the fact that all the best land in the western United States was already taken, but there was still lots of good farmland in the Canadian West.

“The Last, Best West”

Why did immigrants come to Canada?Many left their homelands because of

conditions in their own countries made it hard to stay there.

Some groups of immigrants hoped to escape poverty in their own countries.

Some of their countries were overpopulated.This meant there were a few jobs and not

enough land to farm.This was the case of most immigrants from

Britain.

Reasons for Migrating

It was also true for many of the Italians, Germans, Ukrainians, and Poles who came to Canada before the First World War.

Some people hoped to escape religious persecution.

These included Jews escaping the violence they faced in Russia.

Doukhobors also left Russia.They built a community of 6000 in British

Columbia.

Reasons of Migrating cont.

Pacifist Mennonites (People who are opposed to violence of any kind) came to Canada from Russia, Germany, and even the United States so they would not have to serve in their national armies.

They built homesteads in Ontario, Manitoba, and in Saskatchewan.

Reasons of Migrating (2)

Some escaped natural disasters.Immigrants from Iceland left because of a

Volcano which ruined their island.

Immigrants from China came to Canada’s West Coast for one of two reasons.

Some hoped to strike rich in the gold rush.Others wanted jobs building the Canadian

Pacific Railway.


When looking for new places to settle, these people found that Canada promised many of the things they were looking for.

For most immigrants, Canada’s promise of cheap farmland was the main reason to leave cities set up their own neighbourhoods.

They started churches and newspapers and opened stores and restaurants.


The Empress of Ireland was a ship that sailed between Canada and Liverpool, England. In all, the Empress made 96 voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. It carried more than 100 000 people to Canada. This included thousands of immigrants. On May 28, 1914, the Empress left Quebec with nearly 1 500 passengers. Among them were several hundred immigrants going home to visit relatives. At 2:00 AM, in heavy fog, the Empress hit another ship. Heavily damaged, the Empress rolled over and sank, and 1012 people were drowned. It was a major disaster-just as the sinking of the Titanic had been in 1912.

The Empress of Ireland

In 1875, the Canadian Government made one of the most unusual reserves in Canadian history. It was call the Republic of Iceland. It was created on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg for a group of about 1 500 Icelanders. They had fled volcanoes and other disasters in their homeland. Their biggest settlement was the town of Gimli, named after a place in Norse Mythology. In New Iceland, the settlers hoped to make a life like the one they had left behind. Unfortunately, disease and hunger nearly destroyed New Iceland. Many settlers moved to Winnipeg. In 1881, New Iceland became part of Manitoba. As of today more than 70 000 Canadians are descended from Icelanders.

The Republic of New Iceland

In the year 1886, 28-year-old Conrad Anderson and his wife settled near Calgary.

Conrad found a job at the lumber mill.Later his family bought a homestead for $10.As farmers, they lived though drought and

heavy snow.They even went thorough an outbreak of

smallpox in the nearby towns.They had difficult years and in those years

there was nothing to eat so they ate wild rabbits.

Challenges in a New Land

Conrad and Jacobine<--(wife of Conrad) were immigrants from Norway.

They found that life in the prairies is not the same as the life in the posters, pamphlets, and movies.

They suffered many years in their prairie homestead.

At home they spoke their language. (Norwegian)

Challenges in a New Land (2)

The Anderson children went to school with their classmates from many different cultures.

As you guys know they learned how to speak English and was also taught about Canada’s History.

But they remained happy about their Norwegian heritage.

They got used to the new country more than their parents.

In fact, Conrad and Jacobine’s youngest son became a Veterinarian at the Calgary Zoo.


The family settled in a place where the other Scandinavians settled.

Some were relatives of the Andersons.Immigrants from the same background or

region often settled near one another.When living together in communities this new

immigrants could keep some of their culture.They would worship together and shop in

places owned by people the knew.


Unfortunately, many immigrants treated unfair.

This was true for the people who lived in the cities.

They had more day-to-day contact with other Canadians.

Some employers were unfair.They made immigrants work longer than

others and was fired if they complain.Some groups were treated better than other

groups.People from the British Isles had an easier

time fitting in.


Asians and African-Americans were treated when sick mostly everywhere they went.

Before the American Civil war African-Americans came to Canada to escape Slavery. (You guys should know that)

Slavery ended in the 1865.Some of the freed slaves went north to start a

new life. However, they were kind of still treated bad in

Canada.


Many thought the African-Americans were not equal to the other Canadians. (Again with the equality thing)

The words menace and troublesome used by politicians and newspaper editors to describe them.

In 1911, an article from the Manitoba Free Press said that African-Americans could not survive long in Canada because of the cold weather, it was a weird thing to say.

Two years earlier (their time) a man named Matthew Henson, an African-American, had become famous for co-discovering the North Pole!


Asian settlers were also treated badly.Chinese faced discrimination.They had been going to Canada since the 18th

century.But, larger numbers of Chinese came to

Canada in the gold rush time.Many Chinese prospectors came from San

Francisco and eventually set up communities in B.C.


In the 1880s, nearly 15 000 Chinese people immigrated to Canada.

Most were young men looking for jobs.Many found jobs building the C.P.R.(as you

guys know)For this dangerous job, Chinese immigrants

were paid half of what the other workers earned.

The Head Tax was made because the C.P.R. was finished and the government thought they didn’t need the Chinese anymore.


In the 1860s, a visitor to London, England, wrote about city’s “swarms of children” who were “dirty and barefoot.”

These children were common sights of the crowded slums of the 19th century England.

Social Reformers (people who worked to solve problems in society, such as poverty, hunger, and crime) worried about their future.

Would they turn to crime to make a living?Some thought they should send the orphaned

children to Canada, Australia, or any other part of the British Empire.

The Home Children

This is a poem about the children: (harsh poem)

Take them away! Take them away!Out of the gutter, the ooze, and slime…Here, if they linger, a curse.

The Home Children Poem

The reformers thought these children would have a better life working in Canada or Australia than living in England Slums.

Years after being sent to Canada, a woman remembered, “We were very poor. My father was slowly dying of Tuberculosis from working in the mines.”

Her parents were part of the thousands of poor who sent their children across the sea, hoping they find better life.

These children became the Home Children.

The Home Children (2)

The children sent to Canada were mostly the ages of 8-14.

Some were even four-years-old.Some of the children were orphans.The children didn’t really had any words to

say to the matter.Most never saw their parents again.


Crossing the Atlantic Ocean was scary for these children.

For most, arriving to Canada was just the start of their trip.

They were placed in special receiving homes. They stayed there until they were adopted by a family.


Some were adopted by loving parents.Other became servants or farm workers.If they were lucky, these children worked for

families who cared for them.Good families made sure the children

attended school, and even paid them wages.Many children were treated badly.


The life of the immigrants were hard, but most were happy coming to Canada.

Many people still believed that Canada was still a land of opportunity.

Poverty and prejudice (negative opinion about a group of people, based on such things as gender, race, religion, or ethnic background) had been part of Europe and Asia, too.

A Land of Plenty

It had always been much worse there.For instance:Throughout Europe and Asia, poor families

worked for generations on farms owned by rich landowners. In Canada, they could buy a homestead of their own.

Unlike in Canada, more poor people in Europe had no hope of sending their children to school.

A Land of Plenty cont.

Young men in most European countries were made to serve for a time in the military, In Canada, only volunteers served in the army.

In Europe, religious groups such as the Doukhobors, Mennonites , and Jews had always been attacked for their beliefs. Some had even been killed. In Canada, these groups found the freedom to practice their religion.

Many immigrants had few political rights in their home countries. In Canada, many of them had teh right to vote for the first time.

A Land of Plenty cont.

Those were some reasons that many immigrants took great pride in their new country.

Up until now, people have been coming to Canada from all over the world looking for freedom and a better life.

Hardly any region of Canada is untouched by immigrants.

In cities, especially, immigrants have made Canada a place of great diversity.

A Land of Plenty (3)

Every year, many events of different cultures are celebrated, such as Dragon Boat races in Vancouver, the Icelandic Festival in Gimli, Caribana in Toronto, and St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Montreal.

A Land of Plenty (4)

Michaelle Jean born in Haiti-former Governor General.

John A. Macdonald born in Scotland-Canada’s First Prime Minister

Yousuf Karsh born in Turkey-photographer.Michael Ondaatji born in Sri Lanka-Novelist and

peot.Adrienne Clarkson born in Hong Kong-the

Governor General before Michaelle Jean.Donovan Bailey born in Jamaica-Olympic Sprinter

and gold medalist.

Famous Canadian Immigrants

People new to the prairies, always had to dig up a well for water.

On their first nights, they would either sleep under their wagon or sleep in a tent.

They would build a temporary place to live in.Usually, the house were made of mud or

straw.If the settlers were lucky, they could buy the

thing they needed to break the sod and plant a small crop for the season.

Farming the Land

Many immigrants had never tried to farm.Plowing, planting, and harvesting were new to

them.Even jobs such as yoking an ox or horse to a

plow were very hard the first time they tried.

Another problem was the cost of farming.The land was cheap, but the equipment to

build a house and the farming tools were not.

Farming the Land cont.

It costs hundreds of dollars to get a farm up and running.

Money was the thing that immigrants didn’t have.Instead, families traded crops for the things they

needed.These included livestock, farm tools, cloth for

making clothes, and food. (such as sugar, coffee, and tea)

In many families, the fathers and older sons worked for part of the year in forestry, fishing, on on the railroad to earn extra money.

Farming the Land (2)

In the 1920s, a woman named R.C. Philips wrote about what life was like for women who lived on Prairie farms:We find farm women getting up early in the morning, preparing breakfast for six, seven, and sometimes more people. Washing dishes, the cream separator and milk utensils, packing school lunches and speeding the children on their way; feeding and caring for the chickens ... hurrying back to the house to make beds, sweep and dust ... Ironing, washing, baking, scrubbing, to say nothing to the family sewing ... Somehow time must be found for planting and caring for the garden as well as the canning and preserving of the fruit and vegetables for winter.

A woman describes life on a prairie farm

Mrs. Philips also had to prepare a hearty lunch and dinner for hard-working family.

She had been working like that after marrying a farmer 15 years earlier.

A woman describes life on a prairie farm cont.

In 1903, a boy about 12 years old kept a diary.In the diary he wrote about his life on a

Manitoba farm.Here is what he wrote from March 16 to March

22.

Monday, March 16Father took Bert to town. Washed. Ground

[sharpened] axe.Went over to Bing Johnston’s at night.

A boy’s life on the Prairies

TuesdayBagged up potatoes. Cut down wood. Mrs. Jeffrey

here in afternoon. Snowed.WednesdayFather, mother, Bruce and Earl took a load of

potatoes to town and got 1.25 per bag. School supposed to start but teacher did not get in.

Bought a rocking chair.ThursdaySchool started. Cut down wood. Cold. 10 degrees

below zero.

A boy’s life on the Prairies cont.

FridayCut down wood. Bert came home. Uncle Mack’s

baby diedSaturdayFather and Bert sawed wood down. Snowed. Uncle

Mack’s baby buried.SundayBert and Mother and I went to church. Snowed.

A boy’s life on the Prairies cont.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new technology and scientific discoveries began to change farm life.

Two new machines changed farming the most.One was the mechanical thresher.Separating kernels of grain from wheat chaff

took a lot of timeThen, in the mid-1800s, hand-cranked

mechanical threshers started to appear.

Farming Technology

They were hard to run but they increased by 10 times the number of bushels a farmer could produce.

By the end of the century the latest mechanical threshers increased another 10 times.

The second important invention was the Steam-Powered Traction Engine. (Tractor)

For hundreds of years, farmers used horses to plow fields and haul carts.

Farming Technology (2)

Farmers spent a lot of time feeding, grooming, and stabling their horses.

Horses couldn’t always be depended on because every year the get sick and cold which made them die.

Tractors also needed to be cared for, a good tractor could last for years.

It could also do more work than horses.By the start of the 20th century, gasoline-

powered tractors began to replace the original steam-powered models.


Tractor and Mechanical Threshers cost a lot of money.

A tractor costs as much as 10 pairs of horses.For a long time, mechanical threshers and

tractors were only big on profitable farms.Horses were used on small farms until the late

1940s.


Farming would never be easy.However, technology helped farmers add to

their crop yields.This made the Prairies the “the Breadbasket

to the Empire.”By the end of the century, people were buying

Canadian crops, especially Canadian Grains.


Settlers on the prairies had many problems.Science and Technology made some things

easier, but machines didn’t solve everything.Another thing that made farming easier was

old-fashioned neighbourliness.Pioneers would help each other by planting

and harvesting.Often they worked together to build barns and

houses.

Farming Cooperatives

In time, they started groups such as farmer’s union and cooperatives.

As members of cooperatives, farmers shared costs of supplies and services.

Cooperatives also helped farmers market their crops.

Cooperative groups eventually ran their own grain elevators and stores.

Farming Cooperatives (2)

The Saskatchewan Grain Growers Association was founded in 1906.

The United Farmers of Alberta was founded in 1909.

Both were run democratically.Every farmer who was a member had a vote

in the way that the cooperative was run.


Canadian farming cooperatives also spoke out for Canadian farmers.

They asked governments for such things as fair crop prices and fair transportation costs.

They pushed for modern services, such as water and electricity, for rural communities.


In the late 19th and 20th centuries, immigrants from Europe settled in vast regions of Western Canada. Most came for the promise of farmland. They joined the Métis, First Nations, French, and Scottish farmers already in the West. By the early 20th century, there were more than 3000 rural communities. Farmers grew more and better crops through technology and science. Soon, Canadian crops were feeding people all over the world. The young country of Canada was taking its place among the nations of the world.

Conclusion

We hope you learned a lot about the Newcomers in Canada.

This is the End of our presentation

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Social Studies