CANADA ENTERING A NEW CENTURY

1900-1914

CANADA:

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

IMMIGRATION

• Coming into a country to live

• Between 1901 and 1914, Canada’s population jumped from 5,370,000 to 8,000,000

CULTURAL MOSAIC

• A society where ethnically / culturally different groups coexist but remain distinct

• Of the nearly 3 million people that came to Canada at the beginning of the century, almost half were neither from the U.S. nor Britain

IMMIGRATION POLICY of the Time

• Immigration Policy- rules and guidelines for deciding who may enter Canada

• Laurier appointed Clifford Sifton in 1896 to design the policy

“OPEN DOOR” Policy• Sifton created an “Open

Door Policy”

• Only open to certain people, however

• Asians and other visible minorities were not allowed to immigrate

• Ironic?

Sifton’s “Open Door” Policy

• Attracted farmers who could endure hardships of the praries

• Preferred immigrants from U.S., Britain and Europe.

Attracting New Immigrants

The Immigrant Experience

• Could practice religion free from persecution

• Most of free land in the US was filled

• Found work on railways, in mines, lumber camps and factories in growing cities

EMIGRATION-People who leave a country

--population boomed in Western Canada, but Central and Eastern Canada did experience emigration

-Cities in these areas continued to grow, but people in rural areas began moving to the US to find industrial opportunities

WHY Immigrate? Why Emigrate?

• PUSH FACTORS

• PULL FACTORS

PUSH FACTORS• Factors that make life

difficult / uncomfortable in a country so that people feel “pushed” to look for another country to live

• Ex. Violence / War, Few Jobs, Little Land, Limited Freedom, Crowded Cities, Poor Housing, Religious Persecution

PULL FACTORS

• Conditions that attract people to a new country

• Ex. Peace, Jobs, Available land, Freedom, Opportunities, Good Housing, Religious Freedom

QUESTIONS

• 1) Suggest, in order of importance, five push factors that might cause you to think about leaving Canada.

• 2) Suggest five pull factors you would look for in another country if you were going to leave Canada.

• Refer to p. 21

The Railway Boom

• Large-scale immigration to the west was made possible by railway development

• The Canadian Pacific Railway was an important link between Western and Eastern Canada

The Problem with the CPR

• Could not handle all of the demand

• Immigrants wanted to reach land not served by the CPR

• Had a monopoly over rail services: farmers believed competition would lower the high freight costs they were paying to ship their grain east

Laurier’s Railway Project• Laurier granted subsidies

(money given to a company / individual to assist them in a beneficial project) to 2 railway companies after 1903 to expand Canada’s rail system.

• These were: The Grand Trunk Pacific and The Canadian Northern Railway

Grand Trunk Pacific• Extension of the

Grand Trunk Railway that ran from Prince Rupert, BC to Winnipeg.

• Connected with the National Transcontinental Railway that ran to Moncton

Canadian Northern Railway

• Built from Vancouver to Montreal

• Was a western alternative to the CPR

Competition on the Railways

• The Grand Trunk and Canadian Northern Railways underwent enormous levels of competition

• Quickly built tracks, offered discount fares and built hundreds of grain elevators

• The CPR also expanded and competed

The Result of Railway Expansion

• Railway Lines in Canada:– 1867: 3,666 km– 1914: 49,588 km

Look at the map of Canada’s Railway system in 1914 on p. 26.

Work on the Railway

• In the early 1900s one in three workers in Eastern Canada worked on railways, construction of rail lines or in factories producing railway machinery.

Railway Boom to Bust

• Canadian government took over The Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian Northern by 1923

• They combined them with the other lines to form the Canadian National Railways

• Financial trouble was the result of overbuilding and decline of use during World War I.

Railways’ Impact on Settlement Patterns

• Factories and factory towns grew along rail lines

• Prairie town grew alongside railways and grain elevators

• Rail lines served mining towns of Northern Ontario and in the prairies

• The Railway served many people that decided to settle along the US border.

The Growth of Cities

• In the early 1900s, Canada’s urban population increased dramatically

• Many immigrants went to cities to find work in factories

• Large populations created demand for more jobs: sewers, streetcar tracks, paving streets, building factories and homes, etc.

Questions

• Answer questions # 2 and 3 on page 31