Clifford Sifton s Immigration Policies

Transcription

1 Clifford Sifton s Immigration Policies

2 In 1896, Sir Clifford Sifton became Canada'a new minister responsible for immigration in Sir Wilfred Laurier's new Liberal government. With the economic depression of the 1870s and 1880s starting to lift, Sifton decided it was time to increase immigration to the Prairies from Britain, other western European countries and the United States. It was felt that people from these areas were best suited to agricultural life on the Prairies.

3 Who should apply to immigrate to Canada? Sifton wanted people like the Ukrainians, Poles and Germans. He believed they were solid farmers who could survive in the tough prairie environment. He arranged for agents of shipping companies to direct good settlers to Canada. They were paid $2 for each person and $5 for the head of each family they sent. The government set aside large areas of land so people could settle.

4 Who should not apply? Orientals, Africans, Jewish, Italians and city dwellers were not encouraged to come. Town Dwellers Not Desirable Sifton felt strongly that town dwellers, artisans, shopkeepers and labourers were not desirable immigrants as they didn t make good pioneers (or farmers) and would increase the population of the major cities, add to unemployment, create slum areas and become a festering sore which will remain as long as Canada endures. This policy was known as selective immigration.

5 Sifton increased immigration by: Embarking on an extensive promotional campaign, featuring the slogan "Canada: The Last Best West." (This was a reference to the fact that American land on the Plains was becoming less available and more expensive to settlers by this period.) Reorganizing the immigration department to give it more power in setting immigration policy; Increasing the number of immigration agents and support personnel abroad; Freeing up unused land owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR); offering "free" land to settlers.

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7 While Sifton advertised that settlers could claim up to 160 acres of free land in Canada, this claim wasn't entirely true. Settlers still had to pay a land registration fee of $10 - or roughly $150 in modern-day currency once inflation is factored in - under the Dominion Lands Act. This also didn't cover the cost of equipment and animals for the land, not to mention the cost of building shelter. Many settlers during their first year would build sod houses, as they simply couldn't afford to build their own homes out of lumber.

8 Did you know? An innovation that helped increase the number of people settling in the Canadian West was the invention of a hardier strain of wheat called Marquis Wheat in This wheat was able to extend the growing season on Canada's Prairies, and made farming there a more prosperous occupation. This wheat was commercialized and sold starting in 1911.

9 Sifton's new immigration policy eventually eliminated any threat of American annexation in Canada's West. However, it would further marginalized French-speaking people in Québec, some of whom felt this policy was excluding them from settling on the Prairies. Henri Bourassa, a Québec Member of Parliament, was particularly upset about this immigration policy and would speak out against it occasionally in the House of Commons.

10 Despite general attempts to get people to settle in rural areas in Canada's West, about 50 percent of people actually settled in Canadian cities (including Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montréal and Toronto) where they took labour industry jobs. Another 30 percent went to rural farms in the Prairies and the remaining 20 per cent or so took remote jobs in mines, lumber camps or on the railways.

11 Did you know? Between 1910 and 1914, about a million Americans arrived in Canada. Many of them came as available frontier land for settlement became overtly expensive in the United States. It was so expensive because little unused settlement land was left.