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Kathy
In this link, you will find out about Canada’s history of economy. You can find out about the jobs that people had and how events affected the economy.

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Canada's economic history begins with the hunting, farming and trading societies of the First Nations. Following the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, the economy has undergone a series of seismic shifts, marked by the early Atlantic fishery, the transcontinental fur trade, then rapid urbanization, industrialization and technological change.

Canadian Overview

Although the following sections describe Canadian economic history by region, the country is historically a single economic unit. The fur trade first created a single transcontinental trading economy; since Confederation in 1867, labour and finance have moved freely among the regions. Improvements in transportation - the railways between 1867 and 1915 ( see Railway History), and the highway and pipeline systems after 1945 - have helped. The provinces have become important markets and suppliers for one another, so that an investment boom in one region such as the Prairie West could create a nationwide boom, while a slump in Ontario manufacturing becomes a nationwide slump.

By the 1980s most Canadians had become city dwellers and the majority of workers were in white-collar jobs, generally in the service-producing industries. Disparities in earnings, living standards and ways of life had been much reduced, especially after 1945. Nevertheless the various regional economies were still very different. Manufacturing remained largely a matter for Ontario and Québec, while the four western provinces still generated immense surpluses of natural products. In the Atlantic provinces, living standards after 1945 remained comparatively low and prospects less bright. Partly for this reason, interregional subsidies have become deeply entrenched in Canada's way of life.

Central Canada

Early Economy

Permanent European settlers first came to Canada to exploit the fishery and the fur trade. Until the end of the 17th century, because the climate and soil were not encouraging, agricultural progress was slow ( see History of Agriculture). Like the French, English-speaking merchants engaged in the fur trade; after the Conquest (1759-60) - when many British businessmen began to control a large portion of the fur trade from Montréal - they also quickly extended their interests throughout commerce and finance. The population grew through natural increase and through immigration from Britain.

By the 1820s the good agricultural land in the St Lawrence Valley had almost all been taken up. After the North West Company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, the transcontinental fur trade was no longer managed from Montréal. But by that time Upper and Lower Canada had developed an immense trade in timber, which went first to Britain and then, after mid-century, to the United States and to domestic buyers ( see Timber Trade History).

Until the 1780s there was no significant European population in present-day Ontario, although its waterways were used by the fur traders. Settlement began with the arrival of the United Empire Loyalists, British and American settlers, and British troops and officials. Forest land was gradually cleared, and export trades in wheat, potash and timber developed. A few roads and canals were built, of which the most important were the Welland Canal and St Lawrence River canals. By 1867 most good land in the province had been claimed, although not all of it was under cultivation.

Confederation and Industrialization

At the Conquest, present-day Québec contained three towns, Montréal, Québec and Trois-Rivières. Ontario contained none. But new towns soon appeared along with settlement and with the development of commerce and government. Yet even in 1871, much of central Canada's industry, including the two great industries, milling and lumbering, was dispersed through the countryside or in small villages. After Confederation, however, rapid industrialization and urbanization occurred in both provinces, so that by 1911 half of Ontario's population lived in cities and towns.

From 1870 to 1900 some established industries such as tailoring and shoemaking were becoming factory activities, and provincial governments began to regulate working conditions. Minimum wage legislation came much later, with Ontario adopting it partially in the 1920s. Some unions were created in the 1830s. By the 1880s, with the rise and decline of the American-based Knights of Labor, union activity increased. But relative to the non-farm workforce, union membership remained small until the 1940s, when federal and provincial protection was extended to unions.

Rise of New Industries

Central Canada's industrial advance was especially rapid between 1896 and 1914, when the whole nation experienced investment and export booms. After 1900 a few industries such as carriage-making and blacksmithing declined. But new industries appeared: electrical equipment and chemicals in the 1890s, cars and aluminum after 1900, pulp and paper between 1890-1914, radio and home appliances in the 1920s and aircraft in the 1940s. Cheap hydroelectric power during this period helped accelerate industrial change, as did both world wars and nuclear power in the 1970s (at least in Ontario). In both provinces labour was drawn from natural population increase and immigration.

There were cyclical downturns in the mid-1870s, the early 1890s, the early 1920s and especially between 1929 and 1933, with the Great Depression lasting until the start of the Second World War. Thereafter, economic expansion continued largely uninterrupted until another cyclical downturn in the early 1980s ( see Business Cycles).

Because so many of the newer industries were concentrated in Ontario, during the 1920s Québec's economic advance was less spectacular; although it shared fully in the development of pulp, paper and nonferrous metals, it took no part in the automotive industry, and little part in the electrical appliance industries. Also, because a higher proportion of Québec industries were low-productivity activities which could not pay high wages, Ontario workers earned more on average than Québec workers. After 1945, and especially after the 1960s, these gaps closed. Both federal and provincial authorities spent lavishly to attract factories into Québec; indeed, the Québec government owned plants in such industries as steel-making and auto assembly. Québec's birth rate also became the lowest in Canada, and average real wages rose.

Although the national financial centre had shifted from Montréal to Toronto by the beginning of the Second World War, Québec's financial system became more sophisticated and more francophone in its attitudes. In the 1970s and early 1980s, as anglophone business and professional people left a province in which they no longer felt at home, there was increasing scope for francophone expertise. Much more serious than the political uncertainty among investors in Québec were the troubles of its established textile and clothing industries, increasingly threatened by cheaper goods from developing nations. The federal government provided advice, new kinds of protectionism and adjustment finance. And thanks to the presence of Northern Telecom and Bombardier, for example, Québec became an important player in the high-tech and aerospace fields.

Farming

Agriculture in central Canada began as a battle against forest and climate. The industry then passed through an export phase, and by 1900 it depended chiefly on the local urban markets which it was not able to supply fully.

Around 1800 the farmers of the lower St Lawrence produced an exportable grain surplus, but for most of the 19th century Québec residents depended on grain from Ontario. In turn, for most of the century Ontario regularly exported grain not only to Québec, but overseas. However, after 1880, as Ontario's population rose while its wheat acreage declined, the province gradually imported more wheat from western Canada while increasing its output of oats and other fodder crops. Both Ontario and Québec between 1871 and 1914 specialized increasingly in meat and dairy products. From the 1860s until the 20th century, much cheese, butter and Ontario bacon were sold abroad; thereafter, more of these goods were consumed within central Canada. After the First World War, with the decline of the horse and the resulting fall in oats acreage, the shift to other fodder crops became even more pronounced and some land began to fall out of cultivation. Meanwhile, city growth encroached on farmland.

From Confederation to 1929, spasmodic efforts were made to extend the frontier of agricultural settlement in Ontario and Québec. These efforts were not very successful, but by 1929 there were pockets of farmland around Lac Saint-Jean, the Ontario Clay Belt, Rainy River and Thunder Bay. More important for northern development were mining, and pulp and paper. These activities scattered small communities throughout northern Ontario and Québec between 1886 (when the Sudbury nickel deposits were first exploited) and 1929.

Growth of Cities

By 1867 the great cities of central Canada were Montréal and Toronto. The former began as a port and commercial centre. By mid-19th century, it was a place of industry, and by 1900 it was producing large amounts of clothing and textile products, electrical equipment, railway rolling stock and many light industrial products. It was also an important financial centre. Toronto, after a slow and inauspicious beginning, developed after 1867 on similar lines, much of its early prosperity being based on Great Lakes shipping. By 1900 both cities had energetic banks and insurance companies and active stock exchanges. Both cities had begun to attract immigrants from central Europe and Italy. But it was largely natural increase and migration from Britain that built the cities of central Canada between Confederation and 1939. Indeed, before 1900 many Québecois and Ontarians migrated to the US, where prospects were better; Canada was not managing to retain the natural increase of its own population. However, between 1900 and 1929, and again after 1939, economic prospects were so much better that emigration was no longer a problem. Really large-scale immigration from Italy and central Europe occurred only after the Second World War.

In Québec and Ontario, as elsewhere in Canada, urbanization and industrialization were assisted by the thrift and diligence of the population, whose members were also willing to borrow funds and skills from abroad and, at least until the 1970s, to receive immigrants during times of prosperity. Educational arrangements helped, first by providing for general literacy; next, by arranging for higher liberal and professional education; and then, starting in the 1970s, by offering various sorts of specialized secondary and tertiary technological studies in, for example, engineering and agriculture.

By 1987 both economies had become very urbanized, and "service" industries and occupations were much more important than manufacturing, which in turn was more important than agriculture, forestry or mining. The earnings from service industries helped to balance central Canada's accounts with the rest of the country, a process to which the sale of manufacturers also contributed. This pattern of regional specialization had established itself between Confederation and 1900. While some may argue that federal trade policy ( see National Policy) helped central Canada at the expense of certain regions, the industrialization of Ontario and Québec in itself was not created at the expense of others. Most of the two provinces' markets have always been in central Canada because that is where most Canadians live. Also, since the 19th century there have been export markets for many Québec and Ontario manufactures - cheese, sawn lumber, cars, agricultural implements, pulp and paper, refined nickel and aluminum.

Developments elsewhere in Canada, especially in the West, helped accelerate central Canada's industrialization, but they did not cause it. Economic evolution had been similar on the southern side of the Great Lakes, where there is a similar pool of raw materials, capital, labour and skills. Indeed, because on the Canadian side there was more hydroelectric potential, plus nickel, gold, silver, uranium and plenty of pulpwood, in some respects circumstances were more favourable. Since 1878-79 Canada's tariff has protected manufacturing industries, but locational advantages, not the tariff itself, ensured that most of that protected manufacturing would locate in central Canada.

Decline in Manufacturing

Carney and most leading economists, however, believed commodity prices were made a scapegoat for they called structural change in the Canadian economy. While a strong currency may be partially responsible for the manufacturing troubles, they said the sector's decline was part of a trend across the advanced world. As Carney noted in the same speech, Canada's manufacturing-to-GDP ratio was six percentage points below the average of members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1970. In 2012, it was three percentage points behind the OECD average.

The US also experienced an even more drastic downturn in its manufacturing sector at the same time, even though it is a net commodity importer while Canada is a net exporter. The US dollar began a steady depreciation in 2002 as the Canadian currency appreciated. In the same period, currencies of two other commodity importers, Japan and the Euro area rose along with the Canadian dollar.

Nowhere in Canada was the structural change in the economy in the 21st century more apparent than in Ontario, where factory employment in 2012 had faded to 11.8 per cent of total provincial employment from 23 per cent in 1976. In a report commissioned by the Ontario government, economist Don Drummond said Ontario residents had yet to grasp how the erosion of the manufacturing base was tearing away at the province's traditional economic advantage. He said a strong Canadian dollar and the uneven performance of the American economy were to blame.

In another blow, in 2012 Ontario lost the distinction of producing more cars than the state of Michigan, the birthplace of the North American auto industry. Ontario had been the leading auto producer among all provinces and US states since 2004. Michigan produced 1.6 million vehicles in 2012, compared to 1.5 million for Ontario despite record Canadian auto sales. Both Michigan and Ontario have been facing stiff competition from Mexico, which has benefited from increased investment by the world's auto companies because of its cheaper labour costs. In fact, Mexico had been producing more vehicles than either jurisdiction for a decade.

Ring of Fire

A new appreciation of Ontario's abundant natural resources developed in the first decade of the 21st century, particularly in the province's northern regions. The provincial government and financial markets became fixated with the giant Ring of Fire mineral field, 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. Dubbed "Ontario's oil sands," the region is rich in reserves of chromite, nickel and gold worth more than $60 billion. But the region needs a massive amount of infrastructure such as roads and railway tracks to get the ore to the refinery stage. A major private-sector investor walked away from a Ring of Fire development because of government delays in approving funds to build the needed infrastructure. Meanwhile the Ontario and federal governments were locked in discussions about who should pay for what.

International Trade

Another victim of the change in centuries - at least initially - was Canada's trade balance. Canada entered the 21st century with a string of robust trade surpluses fuelled by a low-valued currency. But a suddenly muscular Canadian dollar had led to consistent trade deficits by the second decade, prompting the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to order its overseas diplomats to focus on improving Canada's economic interests around the world. By 2013, one in five Canadian jobs was linked to exports. As a result, the shift in foreign policy was hoped to create 40,000 new export-related jobs over five years. Trade Minister Ed Fast, who played a key role in negotiating a long-sought free trade deal with Europe in 2013, said another key objective over the five years was to double the 11,000 small and medium-size companies doing business in emerging markets such as China, India or Brazil.

The new focus on support for Canadian commerce overseas was a follow-up to the Harper government's announcement in 2007 of aggressive pursuit of new free trade agreements. This was a continuation of policies by the former governments of Brian Mulroney of the Progressive Conservative Party and Jean Chretien of the Liberals in the 1980s and 1990s respectively. The Mulroney government implemented the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in January 1989 and quickly began work on an expanded agreement to include Mexico in a North American trade alliance, which would eventually be implemented by the succeeding Chretien government in January 1994, The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, superseded the Canada-U.S. trade pact.

The Chretien government followed up with two new free trade agreements in 1997 - one with Israel, the other with Chile. In 2002 the same government implemented a free trade agreement with Costa Rica. After 2007, the Harper government continued the momentum with free trade agreements with Jordan, European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), Peru, all in 2009, Panama in 2010, as well as Honduras and Colombia in 2011.

The signing of the two North American agreements was expected to set the Canadian economy off to a new era. However, one constant remained - Canada's dependence on the US market, which accounted for 86 per cent of Canada's exports in the first years under NAFTA. This dependence prompted the Harper government to aim for more diversification from trade with the US, just as the government of Pierre Trudeau did under the Third Option initiative in 1972. However, the Harper government succeeded where other governments had failed. In 2013 it reached an agreement in principle with the European Union to implement the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA).

Atlantic Canada

Early Economy

Coal and Steel

During the 19th century, Newfoundland acquired a settled population largely by immigration from Britain. The rest of the region attracted few migrants, at least after 1867, and the population grew slowly: much of the natural increase flowed to the US or to other Canadian regions.

The 1920s and 1930s were unhappy decades in the Atlantic region. The iron, steel, coal and machinery industries were in chronic difficulty and, like the fishery, they suffered severely in the Great Depression. Nor did new manufacturers make much headway, in spite of continuing federal subsidies for rail transport. The few rays of hope included new pulp and paper plants and new protected markets for apples and lumber in Britain. The Second World War brought hectic prosperity to those communities which served the naval and air bases, and after 1945 the situation improved. New hydroelectric plants and new governmental initiatives attracted industry, but these programs had some successes and many failures.

New Hopes

By the mid-1980s, offshore oil and gas had been discovered in commercial quantities. As of 2014, four producing deep-sea oil projects, and their associated support industries, were bringing petro-dollars and a new prosperity to the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. Two producing natural gas projects off Nova Scotia were also boosting revenues in that province. But the coal and steel industry in Cape Breton was gone, and other heavy industries such as pulp and paper were in chronic trouble across the region (and the country); those mills that survived were kept alive by government subsidy.

Although the once-great cod and ground-fisheries of Atlantic Canada ( see Grand Banks) had collapsed in the 1990s, lobster, shrimp and other shellfish stocks sustained the industry and proved to be a lucrative overseas export product in the 21st century. By 2014 Saint John, New Brunswick was being transformed into a major North American energy port, with its Irving Oil refinery and, as of 2008, its Canaport LNG receiving terminal, the first liquefied natural gas terminal in Canada. There were also plans to build a new oil export terminal at the site. Nickel and iron ore mining and smelting in Labrador was another bright spot in a tough, regional economy - along with the promise of a second, massive hydroelectric scheme on Labrador's Churchill River, a new federal program to build Canadian warships at the Halifax Shipyard, plus a small but growing aerospace sector in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Western Canada

Early Economy

Economic development in western Canada began with the fur trade. By the end of the 18th century, the traders' activities on the prairies had produced a small population of Métis who, like the First Nations peoples, depended on the trade. Fur-trade posts were scattered throughout the region; on Vancouver Island the city of Victoria began as an HBC trading post.

Settled agriculture began in 1812 with Lord Selkirk's Red River Colony. However, the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s gave Manitoba a means of export and therefore a wheat economy. Winnipeg became a centre for commerce and railways, and soon acquired a few factories. In the late 1890s the prospects for development brightened as world prices rose, transport costs fell, methods of dryland farming improved, and more appropriate varieties of wheat became available. Until 1929 the Prairie provinces enjoyed an immense expansion of the wheat economy, onto which was grafted a very much larger rail system, a network of cities and towns, coal mining and ranching. By 1914 the frontier of settlement had been pushed well toward the northwest, attracting migrants from many lands. The result was a regional economy which depended almost entirely upon the world price of a single crop and on local yields, both of which fluctuated greatly. There was little diversification except in Alberta, which began to produce small quantities of oil and gas.

Rapid Growth in BC

With regular transpacific sailings to the Far East and Australasia, Vancouver became an important port, not only for the province's own goods but for prairie grain. After the Panama Canal opened in 1914, trade with Britain became faster and much cheaper. Coastal shipping also developed, partly to serve the lumber trade. Thanks to urban growth, there was rapid development of hydroelectricity. There was very large immigration, not only from elsewhere in Canada but from Britain and Asia. Oriental immigration was much feared and rigidly controlled, although a significant Oriental community did develop.

War and Economic Depression

From 1914 to the late 1940s, especially during the Great Depression, conditions were often difficult. All four provinces felt themselves to be the victims of Canada's tariff policy, which raised the price of the manufactured goods that came from elsewhere but did nothing for the price of the primary products and simple processed goods which they had to sell. Prairie drought, adverse price movements and foreign protective tendencies, as in the 1920-22 recession and the slump of 1929-33, were serious matters. Ottawa provided relief money, protected the provincial governments from bankruptcy, and tried through trade negotiations to improve the conditions for western exports ( see Ottawa Agreements). After the collapse of the co-operative wheat pools in 1929-30, Ottawa also supported the marketing of prairie wheat, although until the middle of the Second World War the farmers could market their wheat through private channels if they wished. Wartime prosperity helped western farmers pay off their debts. In BC, meanwhile, co-operative marketing increased for such goods as apples and peaches. But new manufacturing plants were slow to appear. By 1939 a Ford assembly plant near Vancouver supplied export markets in India and the Pacific, but when these markets vanished after 1939 the plant vanished too. The Second World War saw the rapid development of shipbuilding and aircraft construction on the West coast, but after the war these industries dwindled or vanished.

The Oil Boom

The years after 1945 saw new resource-based development, rapid urbanization and dramatic increases in standards of living. The most striking new projects were in oil, gas, pipeline-building and potash, which transformed the economies of Alberta and Saskatchewan. BC began to produce oil and gas; BC and Manitoba acquired immense new hydroelectric plants, and aluminum smelting began at Kitimat, BC, in 1951. There were new export markets, as oil and gas moved to Ontario and the US, and as BC coal and lumber moved to Japan. Prairie wheat, which gradually lost its old markets in Britain and Europe, eventually found new markets in the USSR, China and in developing nations. Federal policy was helpful: Ottawa began to make Equalization payments to Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and it provided a protected Ontario market for expensive Alberta oil from 1960 to 1973, although thereafter it held oil prices below world levels. It also reduced or removed many tariffs. Lumbering and pulp and paper expanded, and most of the time did well because of the North American construction and communication booms. In 1967 the exploitation of Alberta's oil sands ( see Bitumen) began.

By 1987 Alberta had developed a petrochemical industry and Manitoba was producing buses and light aircraft. Yet the western provinces remained heavily dependent on the export of a few primary products and on the investment activity which the primary industries could generate. The West remained "development-minded," as it had been between 1896 and 1914.

By the 21st century, Alberta's petroleum industry began anxiously to look to Asia for future markets. As the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an independent Ottawa think tank noted, the province's oil sector was designed to serve a monopsony (a demand-side monopoly) of one customer, the US, moving its energy product south, instead of west or east for Asian and even domestic markets. The Paris-based International Energy Authority said in 2012 that the US not only would become energy self-sufficient but would become the world's top oil producer by 2020, because of emerging shale oil technologies and renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. As a result, new markets for Canadian energy exports became a sudden priority.

A major pipeline proposal by TransCanada Pipelines, Keystone XL, to move Alberta oil south to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico shared government and public attention with two pipeline projects intended to connect Canadian oil supplies to Asian markets. Enbridge's Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain expansion were proposed to run to export terminals on the West coast. Other proposals raised the possibility of shipping Alberta oil eastward to be refined and exported from the facilities in Saint John. However, by 2014 all of these projects were still in the regulatory process and the future shape of Canada's energy sector remained unresolved.

Still, output from Alberta's oil sands was still expected to almost triple from 2012 to 2035. As a result, Alberta was expected to continue to dominate the Canadian economy. Another part of the shift in economic power to the West was the growth of Saskatchewan, because of its own shale oil reserves and its vast potash reserves used in making fertilizer. Saskatchewan's population surpassed the million mark for the first time, after declines in the 1970s and 1990s.

Study of Economic History

Economic history includes the study of the evolution of the economy and economic institutions. Dating to the 19th century, the subject uses ideas from economics, history, geography and political science. It must not be confused with the history of economic ideas or with the interpretation of general history using economic forces.

Distinctive contributions to Canada's economic history came in the 1920s and 1930s both from economists such as Harold Innis, and from historians such as Donald Creighton, who stressed the importance of what they called "staple products" whose markets were abroad. Emphasizing the importance of Canada's distinctive geography - the Canadian Shield and the Great Lakes-St Lawrence system - they traced interactions between geography, resources, foreign markets and the inflow of people and funds from abroad. They treated regional growth in relation to the staple products.

More recent approaches have supplemented the old with modern economics and statistics. Work has been done in areas including working class history, urban growth, business history, the industrial development of central Canada, that fitted rather poorly into the Staple Thesis. Meanwhile, historical geographers produce invaluable material on settlement patterns and on the growth of towns, while regional studies, which staple theorists treated as components of nation-building, have become routes to regional self-confidence, especially in Québec and Atlantic Canada. Marxist scholars share business and labour history and other fields with scholars whose ideologies are very different.

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Canada's economic history begins with the hunting, farming and trading societies of the First Nations. Following the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, the economy has undergone a series of seismic shifts, marked by the early Atlantic fishery, the transcontinental fur trade, then rapid urbanization, industrialization and technological change.

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Treatment and Danger for the Chinese workers

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Treatment and Danger for the Chinese workers

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In this site, it talks about how they were treated like them living in tents and boxcars. Also, it talks about how dangerous it was when they were working
http://www.library.ubc.ca/chineseinbc/railways.html

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Warren
This was a movement about people wanting shorter work days. More specifically, 9 hours. This also explains about how this movement had an impact despite not being successful.
http://www.thecanadianencycloped

ia.ca/en/article/nine-hour-movement/

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IN this site it shows how much the chinese workers make from building the railroad everyday
https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids/021013-2031.3-e.html

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It also depended  on where the person lived and that would be their job to do to make a living for of what they sell.

https://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb07/acyb07_0002-eng.htm

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Chinese Head tax to stay in Canada.    -HEAD TAX- 

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Chinese Head tax to stay in Canada.    -HEAD TAX- 

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Coen
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-head-tax-in-canada/

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Back then first nations fished with many different fishing equipment to catch a whole  bunch of fish to not only sell but also eat and survive of of it.  It was soon changed to others using hook lines to bring in fish in

http://www.fishharvesterspecheurs.ca/fishing-industry/history

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Kathy
This link explains about the farmer’s organizations and what part they’ve played in the past.

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Farmers' Movements . The organization of farmers for political and economic purposes has played an important part in recent Canadian history; and from an early date farmers have shown in Canada a tendency toward organizing themselves in groups. The first form of organization was "agricultural societies."

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Warren
Information is given about married women’s property act. In paragraph 2, it mainly talks about the wealth of women and how women were more likely to be self employed than men.

https://www.bcstudies.com/?q=book-reviews/silent-revolution-gender-and-wealth-english-canada-1860-1930-0

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Kathy
You can find out when the law’s of child labour changed and how they changed in this link. You can also find out how events such as The Great Depression impacted child labour.

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Child Labour | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Kathy
In this link, it informs us about the working conditions, how much control the employees had, child labour and what organizations did to change what was happening at the time.

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Working in Canada (1885 - 1914) - KLPS 8 History - Canada: A Changing Society

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The history of William van Horne.  -Rail Road Owner-

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The history of William van Horne.  -Rail Road Owner-

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Coen
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-william-cornelius-van-horne/

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This picture shows the Chinese workers. Their labour and treatment
http://www.mhso.ca/tiesthatbind/ChineseRailWorkers.php

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Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914

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Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914

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Kathy
This link tells us about the work immigrants had and how successful/unsuccessful they were. It also tells us about why they’ve moved to Canada.

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by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher

From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement, and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking a new life. This immigration boom created key industries still important to Canada's international role - like agriculture, mining, and oil. The Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta grew rapidly in these years as settlers began to transform the barren prairie flatland and establish unique cultural settlements. Many motivations brought immigrants to Canada: greater economic opportunity and improved quality of life, an escape from oppression and persecution, and opportunities and adventures presented to desirable immigrant groups by Canadian immigration agencies. By examining these motivations, an understanding of Prairie immigration experiences and settlement patterns evolves in interesting ways.

The immigration boom leading up to 1914 was one of the most important periods of Canadian population growth. Significant changes occurred in Canada after 1867 that made the Prairie immigration boom possible: the construction of a transcontinental railroad made transportation and travel accessible; the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 created free and fertile homesteads for settlers; the establishment of the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 guaranteed the safety of Prairie residents; and the creation of the Department of the Interior in 1873 attracted hard-working immigrants to the region.
In 1870, no urban centres existed on the Prairies. By 1911, thirteen cities with populations over 5,000 had been established.[1]
While the period after 1867 saw a rise in international immigration, the movement did not fully take off until 1896. After a tough economic recession from 1873 to 1896, Canada thirsted for settlers. With the help of Sir Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905, immigrants began to find their way to the Canadian Prairies. Sifton is known for promoting the immigration of non-traditional immigrants to Canada. Sifton strongly believed that sturdy European immigrants were the best settlers for the challenging Prairies, because of their familiarity with agriculture, rural lifestyles, and harsh climates. He is best known for his statement that "a stalwart peasant in a sheep-skin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half dozen children, is a good quality."[2] Sifton disliked the idea of urban populations settling the Prairies, for they would congregate in cities, instead of developing Prairie homesteads. Instead, he promoted the immigration of groups like the Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Mennonites over the more ethnically "desirable" British immigrants.

Thanks to intensive advertising and international immigration agencies after 1867, foreign populations began to settle the Prairies. These immigrants fostered distinct ethno-cultural pockets and diverse industries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The population in the West exploded; Winnipeg grew from a city of 20,000 in 1886, to 150,000 in 1911.[3]
Saskatchewan's population grew by 1124.77% between 1891 and 1911.[4]
Thousands of diverse immigrants came to Canada between 1867 and 1914 for different reasons. For the thousands of immigrants who were inspired to emigrate in search of greater economic opportunities and improved quality of life, the Canadian West presented seemingly infinite possibilities. This category of immigrants encompassed populations of Hungarians, French, Icelanders, Romanians, Chinese, and Ukrainians.

Economic and social situations in Europe were increasingly challenging in the mid to late 1800s. During this time, Europe's population was growing at an unprecedented rate and death rates were decreasing, leading to a population surplus. This resulted in work shortages and competition for resources. Political tensions in Europe also ran high in the late 1800s, as empires reorganized and borders shifted.

For Hungarians, Romanians, and Ukrainians, overpopulation and unemployment definitely prompted their migration to the Canadian West. These "Sifton" immigrants were hearty European farmers, well-known for their ability to survive harsh climates. After decades of landless tenant occupation on tiny farms in Europe, free 160 acre homesteads in the Canadian West appealed to these poor eastern European agriculturalists. Hungarians left Austria-Hungary after neglect from the government, and while many came to Canada, most moved to the United States. Romanians and Ukrainians however, favoured settlement in Canada, and moved in large numbers to Western Canada.

Romanians began arriving in 1895, and like many other "Sifton" immigrants, the Prairies were their first and ultimately permanent home. Over 8,000 Romanians not only succeeded agriculturally, but also possessed trade labour skills, making them valuable Prairie immigrants.[5] Ukrainians were also an immigrant group valued for their skills. Between 1896 and 1914, an estimated 170,000 Ukrainians came to Western Canada and arranged in block settlements.[6] Block settlements were compact settlements populated by a specific ethnic group, which created a patchwork of cultural zones on the Prairies.[7] Though agricultural backwardness had hindered Ukrainian communities in Europe, it actually helped Ukrainian-Canadian populations succeed on the Prairies, where the lack of agricultural development required knowledge of pioneer farming techniques.

Canada represented a second chance for many immigrants. For the French, Icelanders, and Chinese, unfavourable environmental conditions added to their desire to relocate. The French had lived in other areas of North America before moving to the Canadian West. French migration to the Prairies came from eastern Canada, as well as New England, and the western United States. French populations favoured settlement in Manitoba, where distinct French communities had already been established by French fur traders and the Métis, well before Confederation.
Did you know? Manitoba has the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik.
While overpopulation, underemployment, and poor treatment of rural farmers were the primary motivations for immigrants coming from Iceland and China, these groups were also pushed to emigrate by unique environmental conditions. Approximately 16,800 Icelanders left for North America between 1871 and 1915, the majority of whom came to settle in block settlements in Manitoba. Most of these immigrants came from the agriculturally depressed region of northeast Iceland, which was further affected by a number of detrimental volcanic eruptions in the 1870s that caused remaining arable land to be covered in debris.

The Chinese experienced a similar fate. Over 15,000 Chinese immigrants came from China and the United States to help construct the Canadian Pacific Railway during the 1880s. The majority of these Chinese immigrants originated from Taishan, in Guangdong province, which had been repeatedly ravaged with floods, earthquakes, plagues, typhoons, droughts, and civil wars during the late 1800s. The Chinese, like the Icelanders, saw Canada as a refuge with ample opportunities for a better life.

The opportunity for a better life in Canada was also sought after by many "undesirable" immigrant groups, who took advantage of the Sifton period of liberalized immigration to escape their plight in the homeland. Survival and freedom were the motivations of oppressed and persecuted populations like the American Blacks, Doukhobors, Jews, Mennonites, and Mormons. For them, the Canadian Prairies represented a safe place to resettle.

The Blacks and Mormons, both American-based populations, came to Western Canada to escape the discrimination they faced in the United States. After restrictive acts were imposed on Blacks in Oklahoma in 1907, a group of 1500 Blacks fled to Canada, settling in Amber Valley, Alberta in 1910 and 1911. Despite this movement, the population of Blacks on the Prairies was never as large as other groups, as Black populations were sometimes barred entry, or tended to move into other urban areas in Canada.
Mormons brought irrigation techniques to Canada that enabled thousands of people to farm dry lands in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Mormonism was born in the United States in the 1830s, and faced major backlash from conservative Americans. The practice of polygamy in Mormon communities was met with serious distaste by the majority population, and the American government passed laws to prohibit polygamy. Threatened by imprisonment and persecution, thousands of Mormons moved to southern Alberta in the 1880s, creating a thriving Mormon population of 7,000 by 1910.[8] Mormons enjoyed increased freedoms in Canada; although polygamy was not officially legal, the persecution and imprisonment of Mormons because of polygamy ended when they came to Canada.

In Europe, as in the United States, governments were making restrictive laws which prohibited many groups from living free and happy lives. For the Jews, Mennonites, and Doukhobors, life in Europe became increasingly difficult towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Most Jews did not have strong agricultural skills to qualify them as desirable immigrants, but they came to the Prairies in large numbers nonetheless. After numerous failed rural settlements, the majority of Jews in Western Canada settled in cities. Winnipeg in particular, became a thriving Jewish community in the early 1900s, where many successful Jewish businesses emerged. Still today, Winnipeg continues to be a centre for Jewish-Canadian life and culture.
What is Russification? It was an attempt to assimilate all peoples of the Russian Empire by forcing non-Russians to give up their own cultures, languages, and traditions, and adopt Russian language and culture.
When the Russian government imposed intense Russification in the late 1800s, Doukhobors and Mennonites experienced major violations of their cultural and religious rights. These peoples were imprisoned and banished for resistance to Russification and refusal to participate in the military. After their immigration to Canada, Doukhobors in Saskatchewan and Mennonites in Manitoba became some of the most successful Prairie farmers. The social impacts of these groups in Canada are also substantial; both Doukhobors and Mennonites introduced communal lifestyles and the practice of shared communal goods to the Prairies. Currently, the population of Doukhobors in Canada is twice that which remains in Europe, and Mennonites continue to be a dominant ethno-cultural group in Manitoba.
In the first six months of 1900, one million pieces of immigration literature flooded the European countryside.
Even though negative motivations pushed many immigrant groups away from their homelands, some groups came to Canada for positive opportunities and adventures presented to them by Canadian immigration agencies. Advertisements for the Canadian West were distributed in different European countries, and the recruitment of ethnically desirable immigrants by Canadian immigration agents flourished. The most ethnically and culturally desirable immigrants to Canada between 1867 and 1914 - though not all the most productive Prairie farmers - were the British, Belgians, Americans, Poles, Dutch, German, Finns, and Scandinavians.

While some of these "desirables" did become successful rural farmers, like the Americans, Dutch, Germans, Poles and Scandinavians, the Belgians and British and did not experience success agriculturally. Belgians were a unique settler group; despite cultural differences and mediocre agricultural skills, they were considered desirable immigrants by Canadian immigration agents. Many Belgians spoke French, and as a result, settled in French areas of Manitoba, where they practiced a diversity of agricultural, skilled, unskilled, and resource labour.

Despite their limited contribution to a skilled agricultural or trades-related workforce, the British were the most numerous and ethnically desirable immigrants to Canada. As Canada remained heavily influence by England in the twentieth century, British immigrants (predominantly from Scotland and England after 1867) helped maintain the dominant white Anglo-Saxon presence in Canada. The failure of British settlers to prosper in rural landscapes meant that they tended to congregate in urban centres, where they added to the unskilled workforce. During the Sifton era, immigration had shifted away from the British, but as new ministers took power after 1905, the desire to preserve and protect Canada's "British-ness" re-emerged.

Though British immigrants displayed a general ineptitude on rural farming enterprises, many other desirable immigrant groups succeeded in Prairie agriculture. The Americans, Poles, Dutch, Germans, Finns, and Scandinavians all proved to be prosperous settlers. Interestingly, most of these groups get muddled in the "American" immigrant category, for these peoples often tried their luck in the American West before moving northward and settling permanently in Canada. Like the French, these groups encountered high land costs and overdevelopment in the American West, spurring their movements to Canada.

These groups were highly desirable settlers to Canadian immigration agencies: they were familiar with the Prairie climate and land conditions from experience in the American West, they were ethnically pleasing immigrants with physical similarities to the Brits, they were accustomed to democratic institutions, and while displaying high rates of cultural retention, they did not practice "questionable" customs (like communal living or polygamy) like some other immigrant groups.

Like the Dutch and the Germans, many Poles that settled in Western Canada came from agricultural backgrounds and were familiar with a harsher climate. Though Poles came in considerably larger numbers after the First World War, they still had a strong presence in the Prairies during the turn of the century. By 1911, there were over 30,000 Poles in Canada, many of whom were farmers in the West.[9]
The Dutch, Germans, and Scandinavians were some of the most ethnically desirable and agriculturally skilled immigrants to the Canadian Prairies.
The Dutch and Germans were two of the most desirable Prairie settler groups in Canadian history. They were praised for their agricultural prowess and hearty work ethics. Both the Germans and Dutch established strong ethnic block settlements in the West. The Germans flocked mainly to Saskatchewan, and established two large colonies in the early 1900s. Germans from the United States settled in St. Peter's colony, comprised of fifty townships, which had 7,000 people in 1914. European Germans favoured St. Joseph's colony, comprised of seventy-seven townships, where the 1916 population hovered around 11,000.[10]

The ability of the clean and sober Dutch to assimilate gracefully into the dominant culture made them favourable immigrants. Many Dutch immigrants already spoke English, from years in the United States, making them even more desirable in the eyes of the Canadian government. The Dutch settled predominantly in Alberta, where a large population still thrives.

Northern European groups shared similar languages, physical resemblances, and cultural identities, and were therefore typically categorized as Scandinavians.[11] Scandinavians came in their largest numbers between 1880 and 1900, mostly from the United States. In fact, only 6,000 of the 40,000 Swedes to the Prairies between 1893 and 1914 travelled directly from Sweden.[12] Scandinavians favoured block settlement, which helped preserve their culture and languages. About 20,000 Finnish immigrants came to the Prairies, and favoured settlement in Saskatchewan.[13] Danish populations favoured Alberta, where one in every two Danes settled in Dickson, Alberta.[14] Nearly 20,000 Norwegians came to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and about 40,000 Swedes created block settlements in Erickson, Manitoba and rural Saskatchewan.

Immigration to the Prairies between 1867 and 1914 diversified the land by building a solid agricultural and resource-based economy in the West, and by establishing a web of unique cultures with a lasting presence in the Prairies today. Though different motivations brought immigrants to the Prairies, they stayed because of opportunities and prosperity found through settlement. The boom period of immigration between 1867 and 1914 had a major impact on the development of the Prairies, and has permanently shaped Canada's society, economy, and culture.

Notable Immigrant Settlements in the Prairies
Belgians

St. Alphonse, MB (1882, first Belgian settlement)

St. Boniface, MB (pre-Confederation, one of the first Belgian settlements on the Prairies)

Blacks

Amber Valley, AB (1910-11, largest black community in Alberta)

Eldon, SK (early 1900s, largest black community in Saskatchewan)

British

Lloydminster, AB (1903, formerly Britannia Colony/Barr Colony)

Cannington Manor, SK (1882)

(Scottish)

Selkirk Settlement, MB (pre-Confederation, also known as Red River colony)
(Irish) Chinese Doukhobors

Verigin, SK (1899, Verigin district includes Runnymede, Coté, Kamsack, Mikado, Canora)

Kamsack-Canora colonies, SK

Dutch

Granum, AB (1903, formerly Leavings, AB)

Nobleford, AB

Neerlandia, AB

Finnish French

St. Albert colony , AB (1874, includes Legal, Morinville, Ray, Hazelwood, Picardville)

Ste. Rose colony, MB (includes Sainte-Rose du Lac, MB)

St. Boniface, MB (pre-Confederation French settlement)

Germans

St. Peter's Colony, SK (1902, 50 townships, including Humboldt, Annaheim, Muenster, Lake Lenore, Englefeld, St. Gregor, Carmel, Bruno, Daylesford)

St. Joseph's Colony, SK (1907, 77 townships, including Kerrobert, Wilkie, Scott, Unity, Biggar, Macklin, Trampling Lake)

Edenwold, SK (second oldest German settlement in Saskatchwan)

Leduc, AB (largest area of German settlement in AB)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Hungarians

Esterhazy, SK (1885, Esterhaz-Kaposvar colony)

Minnedosa, MB (1885)

Hutterites

James Valley colony, MB (1918)

Waterton, AB

Icelanders

Gimli, MB (1875, formerly the Republic of New Iceland)

Markerville, AB (1888-89, first Icelandic settlement in Alberta)

Thingvalla, SK

Jews

Winnipeg, MB (1880s)

Bender Hamlet, MB (1880s)

New Jerusalem, SK (1884)

Mennonites

Gretna, MB (1881, first grain elevator on the Prairies))

East Reserve, MB (1874-75, 8 townships)

West Reserve, MB (1874-75, 17 townships, including Reinland, Chortitz, Bergthal, Halbstadt, Blumenort, Neuhoffung, Hoffnungsfeld)

Rosthern, SK (1902)

Mormon

Cardston, AB (1887, first Mormon settlement on the Prairies)

Raymond, AB (1903, first sugar beet factory on the Prairies)

Polish

Rabbit Hill, AB (1897)

Skaro, AB (1897)

Round Hill, AB (1899)

Springfield, MB

Lac du Bonnet, MB

St. Michael, AB (1905)

Romanian Scandinavian

Minnedosa, MB (1886)

Canwood-Polworth district, SK

(Danes)

Nokomis, SK

Dickson, AB (1903, oldest and most populous Danish settlement on the Prairies)

(Norwegian)

Calgary, AB (Bow River area)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Macoun, SK

(Swedes)

Erickson, MB (1885, establishment of New Sweden, also called Scandinavia, MB)

New Stockholm, SK (1886)

Wadena district, SK (1904)

Norquay, SK (1905)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Ukrainians

Edna-Star colony, AB (1892)

Interlake, MB (1898, first Ukrainian school district on the Prairies)

Gilbert Plains, MB (1902)

Wakaw, SK

Image Gallery:

Bibliography and Consulted Works
Primary Sources
Macleans' Magazine, Sir Clifford Sifton, "The Immigrants Canada Wants,"
April 1, 1922, 16.
Secondary Sources
Bicha, Karel Denis. "The Plains Farmer and the Prairie Province Frontier,1897-1914,"
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
Vol. 109, No. 6 (Dec. 10, 1965), pp. 398-440.

Francis, Douglas and Howard Palmer, editors. The Prairie West,
Historical Readings . (Edmonton: Pica Pica Press), 1992.

Friesen, Gerald. The Canadian Prairies: A History. (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press), 1987.

Knowles, Valerie. Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and
Immigration Policy, 1540-2006 . (Toronto: Dundurn Press), 2007.

Magocsi, Paul Robert. of Toronto) Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. (Toronto: University
Immigration Policy, 1540-2006.
(Toronto: Dundurn Press), 1999.

Palmer, Howard. The Settlement of the West. (Calgary: Comprint
Publishing Company), 1977.

Patterson, G. James. "Romanians," in Magocsi, Paul Robert. Encyclopedia of
Canada's Peoples . (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1999,
pp. 1092-1100.

Swyripa, Frances. Storied Landscapes, Ethno-Religious Identity and the
Canadian Prairies.(Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press), 2010.

Widdis, Randy William. "Saskatchewan Bound: Immigration to a New CanadianFrontier,"
Great Plains Quarterly, (Fall, 1992), pp. 254-268.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/649

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Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914

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by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement, and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking a new life. This immigration boom created key industries still important to Canada's international role - like agriculture, mining, and oil.

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Parts of Canada that were promised the rail road and parts of Canada who joined confederation  to use the railroad  -Parts of Canada-

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Parts of Canada that were promised the rail road and parts of Canada who joined confederation  to use the railroad  -Parts of Canada-

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http://www.cpr.ca/en/about-cp/our-history