11-22-2010
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Part of the solution
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: South Coast Ontario
Posts: 4,671
Rep Power: 5
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erps, there was a significant migration north of British loyalists after the Revolutionary war, and they brought with them their economic ties to Britain. prior to the arrival of loyalists Canada was largely a lawless wilderness, with a smattering of settlements, the only sizable population and significant infrastructure being in what is now the province of Quebec. The loyalists, for all intents and purposes colonized what is now Ontario and began building the nation. But, things remained pretty quiet until the 1860s when the concept of confederating the territories into a single country that stretched from coast to coast. A unifying railway was built and labour was imported, starting the first wave of immigration. the land in the vast middle of the country needed populating to maintain our claim to it, so that meant pushing for more immigration, with an emphasis on immigrants who could make the land work- which is when the first wave of eastern european immigrants arrived. then subsequent to WW1, as the country began to mature into an industrial nation Canada became a magnet for immigration from other British Commonwealth countries- Then after WW 2 we realized that we needed to continue to increase immigration in a controlled fashion to continue to maintain our way of life, and we also needed skilled tradesmen. Add the advent of affordable air travel we saw an influx of immigrants from former and current british commonwealth countries like india, pakistan, sri lanka, jamaica, barbados, and the usual european suspects like portugal and italy.
So when you see where we came from, it helps explain where we are. We are part of a commonwealth, and so rather than bending an immigrant to fit us, we tend to pick up a little bit from every group that has come here. Sometimes it has gone too far, but on the whole it hasn't been a bad way to build a country.
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