Coming to Western Canada

Immigration after Confederation

In 1870, the pos tage s tamp prov ince of Manitoba had only 12 000 citizens.

Most of them lived in small settlements and farms along the province’s river system.

There were no cities or towns yet.

Winnipeg was still a village and had only 100 residents.

This would all change over the next few decades. The Canadian government had big plans for the Prairies.

The Canadian government planned for the Prairies to become a major agricultural region (an area for farming).

For this to happen, hundreds of thousands of immigrants would have to be recruited from other countries.

In1881, only 66 000 people lived in Manitoba.

By 1901, the population of Manitoba had grown to 255 000.

Most of the people who came to Manitoba came here to be farmers.

The Canadian government hoped that the new settlers would fill the land of western Canada. This would develop the region and strengthen Canada s economy.

The government hoped that these new farmers would help Canada become a world leader in agriculture (farming).

The immigrants who moved to Canada came from all over the world.

Most of them came from Europe.

Many of the immigrants came from the Ukraine, in Eastern Europe.

In some European countries, like the Ukraine, many people were not allowed to own any land.

When these people found out that they could own large farms, called home s te ads , in Western Canada, they decided to leave their own countries.

The land only cost the immigrants a $10 fee.

For this small price, people could claim 65 hectares of land for themselves.

This was a lot of land for people from countries where they worked on farms that might have been less than 5 hectares.

The government played a large role in convincing these European people to come

to Canada.

More on this tomorrow...