A POLITICAI, I{ISTORY OF THE UKRAINIAN COI'MUNITY IN YTANITOBA r899-U22 by Peter }{elnycky Den¡rfman I nf Political Studies l.fnir¡prei i-w o f }l,ani toba A Thesis Submitteci to the Departinent of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfíllment of the Requirements of the Deqree oí lnfaster of Arts Felrruary, 1979 A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY IN MANITOBA 1899-1922 BY PETER MILNYCKY A dissertation suburittecl to the Iìaculty of Gracluate studies of tìre U¡iversity of Manitoba iu partiai fLrlfillment of the reqltirerrrents of the degrec of MASTER OF ARTS o'1919 Pernrission has been grantecl to the LIIIRAIìY OIr TilE, UNIVER- slTY ol. MANITOIIA to lend or sell copics of this dissertation, of thc NA'l'loN^L LIBIìAlìY oF C^NADA to nricrofilni this rjissertatiotr artcl to lellcl or scll c:opics of thc l-illll' ancl UNIVIIRSITY MICIìOFILN,f S to ¡rublish mcl abstract of tlìis clissertation. The aLrtlior rcscfvcs othcr prrblicatioll ligllts, allcl lteitlier lhe cjisscrtation llor cxtctrsivc LìxIriìcts f-rolli it ttlay bc prirltccl or clthcr- rvise reixocl uccd rvi th oLrt tìrc a u lhor''s rvri ttcll 1lc-rtlrissiot't. ASSTI{ACT The first and largest influx of llkrainian irmígrants to ÞfaniËoba came betr,¡een l896 and I9L4. Having left oppressive conditions in Eastern Europe, they destred equallty u'ith oÈher Canadian cj-tizens, but initially their polttl-cal participation r¿as neí¡--her r+elcomed nor encoLrraged" In 1899 the ConservaLive oppositlon in }fanitoba came to por./er: by characterizlng them as @- .-^1pwrrL!Ld! J è-i ^-'l +L-^urrrcât Ëo rhe provincets Briti-sh heritage and character. For fcur years, the ner,¡ government lnvoked leg1-slatlon desígned Ëo deny Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans the vote. By 1901+, however, this attitude changeci to a manipulative paternalism as both Liberals and Conservatives sought to win votes through the work of varl-ous political agents. The Conservatlves in particular established a politícal machíne r¡hich conceded Ukrainians and others the right to benefít from the biltngual educatlonal clause of the i896 Lauríer-Greenr.^Iay â gr:eement . By 1910, the Liberal party headed a reform coalítlon 1n opposition to the Conservative government. Coming to power trr 1915, durlng a perlod of 1nËense v¡artine patriotfsm, it repealed legislation providing bilingual education. Meanr^rhile, the Ukrainian community in the provl-nce was fragmented into rival factlons, íncluding conservative Catholics, líberal nationalisÈs and radical socíalists, as well as beíng subjected to varíous "colonízLng" efforts by French Catholics and British Protestant clergy. Restrictive legislation and socÍal hostÍ1ity necessitated an inÍtial politieal particlpatíon bv UkraÍnlans ru'hl^ch i¡as turbuient and def ensive ln natr.rre. Polltfcal -]-1 - participation and representation was firsE achieved at the local municipaì- level, and laf:er in 1915, provlncÍalìy, r,ritir the first Ukrainian Canadj-an being elected to the legíslature. The effect of wart.ime nativism and Liberal íntolerance I,las to move the IlkraÍnians to',.rards greater couununity-orlented political actl-vity, fndependent of the prevlous manipulation by party interests. By 1922, the I;krainíans ha.d achieved a permanent legislative presence, a developmenL which was rvelcomecl ln the corn¡nunity as a step tor"'ards â more equitable polltical parElcipat Íon " - 11ì - ACKNOT^,II-ED GEI"IEN T S Iwouldliketoexpressmygratitudetothosepeoplewhohave assisted in the completion of tiris study. Speci-al thanks is due to my supervisor, Professor Thomas Peterson. His insightful criticism' patient counsel and guiclance kïere central to the development of the thesis ' I am also indebted to i'lartha Banias for her untirirrg and effj-cient work in editing and typing the manuscrípt in its various draft copies' The support and encouragement of family and friendslüereínvalual¡le. I of course accept full responsjbílity for arry omissions or shorl-comings' -]-1/- PREFACE I^lhile the present study deals with the ukrainían community in Manltoba, the term "Ukrainian" vras not always used r¿hen referring to these I'Jorld people. It carne into cornrnon usage only during the period of the First War. Thus r¿hile il- might appear an anachronism when applied t-o the earl-ier pre-$/ar period, for the sake of simplicit-v and clarity the single telm i.Ias been used throughout, except ín the context of cited materials" Ukrainian J-anguage sources have been transliterated according to a modified Library of Congress system. hlith re,spect to proPer names, the transliterations used by people the¡rselves ( when such information is available ) " have been retained in the text. On the otherhand footnotes and bibllographÍc notations of the same persons, have been rendered according to the accepted as SySEem of transliteration, Thus textual references to proper names such Jastremsky, Stechishín, and Hryhorczuk correspond to lastremsky, Stechyshyn' and Hrvhorchuk in the footnotes and blbliography' TABLE OF TR-ANSLITERATION (ModÍfied Library of Congress) E & a ï i 9/ L õ b ø. a rL ñt I q B v r h JI I r4 ch r öo M m ür sh m ]T d TT, n shch e U o Ð iu n Id:^ v TC fi r s Þ h zh ï (in 3 -øË --- y anãinoqvrrs^^.öv of ner- T1 v f t i I 1t u sonal names only) -v1 - TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii ACKNOI\TLEDGEMENTS 1v PREFACE TABLE OF TRANSLTTERATION vl I INTRODUCTION 1 TI THE INITIAI UKRAI}IIAN II'1'{IGRATION TO I'IANITOBA AND T1IE SOCTA], REACTION TO IT III THE POLITICAL RNACTION TO UKRAINIAN II"ßIIGRANTS T\I!!\ }.fANITOBA: ACCUSATIONS OF R-,\CIAL INFERIORITY AND ATTEI'ÍPTS A.T EXCLUSION IV DIFFERENTIATION WITHIN THE UKRAINIAN CO}ftÍUNITY IN MANITOBA AND ITS EFFECT ON POLITICAL ALIGNMENT 67 TI INITIAI, IJXRAINIAN INVOLVEMENT IN }IANITOBA POLITICS 96 VI BLOCK MANIPULATION OF THE UKRAINIAN VOTE DURING THE HEIGHT 0F CONSERVATIVE POhrER: l-903-1913 It4 VII PREMIER ROBLIN'S DEFEAT AND THE UKRAINIAN REACTION T0 IT:1914-1915 149 VIII LIBERAL ASCENDANCY AND THE ABOLITION OF BILTNGUAL EDUCATION 169 IX THE NATIVIST REACTION ÐURII'IG I,JORLD i'lAR I 195 X POST-WAR POLITICAL SOLIDARITY /ìND SELF-ASSEIìTION OF THE UKRAINIAN COI'ßÍUNITY 2L5 XI CONCLUSIONS 256 BIBLIOGRr',PHY ¿OL¡ - vl-l - CHAPTER I INTRODUCTlON During the t978 session of the }fanitoba legislature, the Honourabl-e i(eith Cosens, the Conservatlve }llnister of Educatlon' announced Lhat legJ-s1-ation permittÍng instruction ln l-anguages other tha.n English or French r,/as currently being prenared. Instruction ín Ukraínian and other l-anguages vrould be allowed in selected elementary subjects for half of each ceaching l d"y.' Evidently Ínfluerrced by the íncreasing avareness wíthin Canadian society of its multicultural character, the I'lanÍLoba governmenË LTas movlng to restore policies for cultural mínorities simílar to those r+hich had been abolished over slxtv vears earlier. The historj-cal record of Èhat early períod sho¡¿s thaL the cultural acceptance of ethnic mínorities in Manitoba v¡as initially resisteci and occurred only gradually as Che culrninatlon of a long anci hard process. Itlhile nunerous and r¡aried minorities have contributed to Canadian a\{areness of the country's cultural clíversity, the Ukral-nian Canadian communlEy has been actíve l-n thls respect ouL of all proportl-on to lts s|ze. Thls corununity has l-n many lrays promoted policies to acknor^rledge Canadars mult.lcult.ural orisin and cha::acter. As ElizabeEh Wangenheíni states in her sCudy of Ulcralnlan 1 l{innipeg Tribune, June 24, L97B; and l,littnipeg Free Press, June 24, l97B; and Legislative Assembly of }fanitoba, Debates _and ProceedÍngs, Vo1.XXVI, I{ednesday, June 28, I978, p. 4538. -1- -2- Canadians as a rrthi.rd force": rr. iE is dangerous to clt<-rose any orìc ¿thnic grcup as represen.tative of all 'ìrrer¿ Canadianl' Howeve::.. " the Llicrainians thenselves shorv a grotring tendency to rspeak fc::r all thEse groups, tvhile pursuing the goals which they see as important for theír o\irn seParate ) conLinued e:;'i s ten:e r¡i chín Canadian so ciety . " As a background to thfs present ro1e, r"hat will be considered here are the historic antecedents of TJkrainians in }fanftoba. The purpose is to provfcie some lnsl-ght tnto the initial political experience of the Ukrainían cornmunlEy ín Manitoba. From a description of that. experience, the present relatively secure positíon of likrainian CanaCians may be placed in historical perspective. A1so, although the early politícal experiences cf Ukrainians ín lfaniÈoba cannot be regarded as typícal of all ethnie groups, Íroi: even of all LTkrainian immigrants to North America, they are also not completely unlque. idithin J-imits, they serve as a case study of the first stages of ethnic polírícs, when iumigrants are lntroduced into unfamiliar and often T:rostile errvíronments. The I-tkrainian e>:perlence in }{anltoba serves as an example of an immigrant group seeklng to adapt to nevJ cultural, economic and political realities. Accordí.ngly, the rnain political cleveloprnents affectíng Lkrainians in l{anitoba will be analyzed, vrÍth particular aLt.ent-ion to leaders and organlzations who molded the poli-tical directíon of the community. To a degree, the sÈudy r.¡Í11 trace the political aEtitudes and behaviour of Lik-rainiens in l"lanitoba r"riÈh regard to cultural matters, but wÍl1 also go beyond thís to exannine Lhe I t', I,Iangenheim, 8., "The Ukrainians: A Case Study of the Thirci Forcet i* Canadian Society: Sociological_Perspectives (Blishen, Bernard R. (ed.) ), Tororrto: IfacnÍllan of Çanada, 1968, p. 649. -3- economíc and social sLatus of llk-::ainians in Ì'lanitoba and sovernüenL decJ-sl-ons whlch affected thefr basic livlng corrditions. To this eird, the study w111 at first consider the condítions l-n Eastern Europe r^¡hich precipitaced the massive ernigration of i-Ikrainians, the main social and polftical attitudes and expectations of UlcraÍnian lmmígrants v¡ho came to Manitoba, and Ëhe nature of their reception.