Spreading the Word About Canada Boom Years
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200-219 120820 11/1/04 2:59 PM Page 200 Chapter 14 Spreading the Word About Canada Boom Years In 1896, Wilfrid Laurier entered the House of newest members of Confederation. In 38 Commons to the sound of many cheers. He years, Confederation had grown from the made his way to the seat that Sir John A. joining of four provinces in eastern Canada to Macdonald had occupied for 19 years. Sir the union of nine provinces coast to coast. John A. had died of a stroke in 1891. The Conservative party had held power for five more years, but now Laurier was the prime minister of Canada. The Liberal party was the party in power. The next 15 years were to become known as the Golden Age of Laurier. Laurier once said that the 19th century belonged to the United States, but the 20th century would belong to Canada. As the 19th century drew to a close, it looked as if Laurier might be right. The economic depression that had plagued the world for the past five years began to clear. Prosperity started to return to Canada. Factories began to hum again. People had jobs. There were markets for Canadian goods. Over the next decade, the country also experienced the greatest wave of immigration in its history. The population grew rapidly. The make-up of the population changed as well. By 1912, almost one-fifth of the people of Canada were not of British or French origin. The West developed rapidly with the inrush of settlers. Roads and railway branch lines were built. Towns and villages sprang up. Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, and Saska- toon were once small and isolated outposts. Now they became large and thriving Reflecting trading centres. 1. Examine the poster on this page. How does it present Canada and the West? Two new provinces were 2. If you had the job of attracting vast numbers of settlers created. In 1905, Alberta and to the Canadian West in the 1890s, how would you Saskatchewan became the do it? 200 200-219 120820 11/1/04 2:59 PM Page 201 Chapter 14: Spreading the Word About Canada 201 Clifford Sifton Has a Problem Clifford Sifton is the Minister of the Interior in Laurier’s new gov- ernment. One day in 1896, he is called into the prime minister’s office. Laurier looks worried. The trouble is the West. There are millions of hectares of good farmland out there.The land is free. Why aren’t people taking advantage of the opportunities? Laurier gives Sifton a task. Find ways to fill the West with settlers. Clifford Sifton now has a problem. He needs to find a solution. Problem-solving might be defined as “What to do when you don’t know what to do?” There are a number of problem-solving models he could follow. Here is one. 1. Understand What is the problem? What is known? What is not known? 2. Plan What strategy will be used to solve the prob- lem? For example, you might brainstorm a list of as many solutions as possible. For each solution, think about the short-term consequences, the long-term consequences, the risks involved, and the possible effects on people. Then choose the solution you think is best. 3. Act Carry out the chosen plan. 4. Think Back Is the solution reasonable? Is this the only solution? Sifton and his officials set about the task immediately. First, they try to under- stand their problem.This is what they know. a) The Canadian prairies were ready to produce large amounts of wheat. All that was needed were people to grow it. b) The buffalo had disappeared from the plains. Farming and ranching could now take place. c) Treaties had been made with Aboriginal peoples. Land was available for settlement. d) The North-West Rebellion was over. The North-West Mounted Police had established law and order in the West. e) A railway had been built to bring in settlers. It could carry their harvests to the markets of the world. f) There was lots of free land.The Dominion Land Act provided free homesteads. This is what Sifton and the officials do not know. a) Where they could find large numbers of settlers who would move to the West. b) How they could spread the word that Canada was ready for settlement. c) How they could persuade people from other parts of the world that coming to Canada was in their best interests. Sifton and his officials develop a plan to sell the “Golden North-West.” It will be directed at people in Britain, the United States, and Europe. They will persuade the Canadian Pacific Railway to join the government in the plan. The Liberals will begin Canada’s biggest advertising campaign. Sifton believes the British are the most desirable settlers. He will start his campaign there. In this chapter, you will find out what he did. 200-219 120820 11/1/04 2:59 PM Page 202 202 Unit 2: The Development of Western Canada Profile Wilfrid Laurier ilfrid Laurier was lawyer. He opened a law prac- WCanada’s first French- tice at Arthabaskaville, Québec. Canadian prime minister. He He impressed the townspeople was born near the village of St. with his honesty and courage. Lin in the province of Québec In 1871, they chose him to rep- in 1841. He was a sixth-genera- resent them in the provincial tion Canadian. He could trace government at Québec City. his ancestors back to a Three years later, he was member of the Carignan- elected to the federal govern- Salières Regiment who had ment in Ottawa. In 1887, he settled in Québec in the became leader of the Liberal 17th century. party. In Parliament, Laurier When Laurier was 11, impressed everyone as an his father did a surprising excellent orator. Macdonald thing. He sent Wilfrid to admired his political opponent school in the English-speak- and recognized him as a most ing settlement at New promising politician. Glasgow. There Laurier learned Laurier’s greatest gift to English and became fluently Canada was his ability to see bilingual. He lived with a family both the English and French of Scottish Protestants. Laurier points of view. His main aim learned a great deal about the was to keep both language ways and religion of English- groups together. Laurier’s sense speaking Protestants. He also of fair play helped him to work learned to be tolerant of people out compromises that would be different from himself. In later acceptable to both French and years, as prime minister of a English Canadians. largely English-speaking Canada, this knowledge was extremely useful. Often Laurier 1. How would you describe told students that they owed it Laurier’s leadership qualities? to themselves to be able to read Why might he be the type of and speak both languages of prime minister Canada Canada. He was grateful to his needed at the turn of the own father for giving him this 20th century? opportunity. 2. Why do you think Laurier After high school, Laurier said that the 20th century went to McGill University. Like would belong to Canada? Macdonald, he became a 200-219 120820 11/1/04 2:59 PM Page 203 Chapter 14: Spreading the Word About Canada 203 Advertising in Britain ment brought English reporters on free trips to In Britain, it was impossible to miss the signs see for themselves what Canada was like. They and posters advertising the “Garden West.” were lavishly entertained. They were dazzled They were in British post offices, train stations, by Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains, growing hotel lobbies, and on street signboards. You towns and cities, and the natural resources of could not walk down the main streets of the prairies. They returned to England and Glasgow, London, Leeds, Manchester, or any wrote enthusiastic reports about Canada in other city or town in Britain without someone their newspapers. They encouraged British handing you a pamphlet about the “glorious farmers and workers, who were thinking about Canadian West.” The pamphlets were full of moving, to set their sights on Canada. pictures of wheat fields and new homesteads. They told how you could get free land and how you could make a fortune in Canada. Then there were “movies.” Not movies as we know them today, but magic lantern shows. Slide pic- tures of life in Canada were projected on a screen. Pictures of large crops, herds of cattle, and trainloads of settlers were shown in thou- sands of British villages. A talk followed the show. The speaker explained how the Canadian government offered 65 ha of free land for the homesteader. Questions people asked about Canada Another way of promoting Canada was the exhibition van. were answered. This wagon travelled the length and breadth of Britain. It British newspapers also showed samples of wheat, vegetables, soil, Canadian animals helped to spread the word about and birds, and pictures of western life. In one year, the exhibi- Canada. The Canadian govern- tion van was inspected by almost 2 000 000 visitors. Was It All True? Some people complained that all this advertising was overdone. One pamphlet said that in Saskatchewan, a farmer could grow peaches. A settler who had spent his whole life in Saskatchewan said that he never did see a peach orchard there, and never heard of one either. Gradually though, the advertising became more realistic. It did not paint the West only as glo- rious. People were told about the bad as well as the good side of life there.