Worksheet for the video “Canada from the 1890s to 1914: A Great Transformation

The Last Best West: The Canadian Frontier and Immigration

New arrivals to the Canadian West came from Britain and America, but not enough.
The Minister of the Interior, wanted immigrants who could endure. This means: He wanted immigrants who could
carry their weight, and handle tough conditions with a smile on their face, supporting their family, no matter their
ethnicity.

The Mines and the Minds: Industrial and Technological Development

What industry was developed at Glace Bay at the turn of the century? The coal/mining industry.
What revolutionary technological accomplishment took place on the shores of Cape Breton Island in December
1902 by Guillermo Marconi? Radio waves, that’ll connect Canada to Europe. He sends a full message to Europe.
The new age of invention and industry would mean a new era of strikes and struggle.

Urbanization: Living and Working Conditions in Cities and the Quest for Social Reform
Due to the availability of affordable electricity, an industrial boom is ignited in cities such as Toronto.
This leads to family-run shops evolving into large department stores and small plants becoming huge factories
However, all are not equally wealthy in cities. In Montreal, the small section where the extremely wealthy reside
becomes known as the old world splendor. This a world away from immigrant workers in Montreal who are
embittered by poverty and misfortune. There was perpetual class struggle between the workers and their
employers, this was especially true of the employers and cloakmakers who eventually formed a union in order to
fight for better working conditions in the factories and sweatshops.

As a new century begins to take shape, the cities of Canada are awakening. A new urban nation is being born.

The Country Expands

In 1904, Wilfred Laurier follows through on one of his election promises and creates two new provinces: Alberta
and Saskatchewan. Laurier’s chief rival, Henri Bourassa had a different view of Canada – he wanted a Canadian
West with a significant French-speaking population. However, it is too late for Bourassa’s vision. Through Laurier’s
open door have already passed more than a million immigrants by 1905; more than half are from the U.S. and by
Great Britain. The other half is from Europe and almost none speak French. In Quebec, Bourassa immerses
himself in a new role – mentor to several young articulate French Canadians called the nasionalist. who are calling
for radical changes.

Rights, Freedoms and Reforms

At the turn of the century, women were on the march in search of the women’s rights and the right to vote. One
of the chief leaders of this movement in Canada was Nellie Moonie. By getting the vote, women’s groups hope to
enact prohibition laws (banning the sale of alcohol). The Women’s Christian temperance Union (WCTU) collects
signatures to ban the bottle and get women the vote. In addition to making speeches about getting Canadian
women the vote, McClung speaks openly about and criticizes women’s fashion choice, explaining that they way
women dress has much to do with shaping women’s thought. On January 27, 1916, the women of Manitoba
become the first in the country to win the right to vote in provincial elections and to hold elective office.

Immigration, Discrimination and The Social Gospel

Due to the population explosion of foreign-born citizens in cities such as Winnipeg, Conservative Member of
Parliament Dr. Thomas Sproule voices a common concern: Canada is today the dumping ground for the refuse of
every country in the world.
List three conditions that James Shaver Woodsworth cites as being at fault for immigrants’ poor conditions:
• Ignorants of the language
• Low standards of living
 • Incompetency
As a result, he begins preaching the new Protestant in order to educate them and improve their social
conditions. He seeks to Christianize or Canadianize them, first beginning with teaching them English. He believes
that if Canada is to become a unified nation there must be one language.

Chinese Immigration and Discrimination: The Head Tax

What did many Chinese call British Columbia? Gold mountain (gim san) Why? Because the Chinese men who
crossed the Pacific Ocean into British Columbia, entered with a dream to have a successful life.
In B.C., Chinese immigrants sought employment working on construction.

Many Canadian officials had extremely negative views of the Chinese at the turn of the century. List three major
perceptions of the Chinese:
• Deter white immigration
• Depress wages
• Lower standards of living
A tax imposed on new immigrants to a country, often to stop certain groups from immigrating is called a entry
fee. The Canadian government imposed this type of tax on Chinese immigrants at the turn of the century. Citizens
in Vancouver form a society called the Asiatic exclusion League and call a protest rally in September 1907. This
results in the formation of a mob and rioting.

Do you think that the Canadian government’s turn-of-the-century treatment of the Chinese represented the
typical social values and attitudes of the time? Explain your ideas. Yes. At the time, it was commonplace to be
afraid of the unknown, and as a way to deal with their fear, the government sought to outright destroy them, to
rid of them.

Canada: Role in International Politics at Britain’s Side

In 1906, the first dreadnaught ploughs through the English Channel and others follow. Germany responds with its
own massive fleet, creating an arms race in Europe.

How did English Canadians respond to the swelling notions of patriotism? What did they believe was Canada’s
international role?

Canadian Spirit and Identity

In the summer of 1910, Laurier travels by train to the Canadian west. At every stop, he is hailed by crowds of new
Canadians and besieged by farmers with one unanimous request that Laurier negotiate freer trade with the unit
states. They want:
• Lower prices for the things they buy
• Higher prices for the things they sell

As Laurier continues to travel, he sees the Canadian West transformed. He writes: “When my eyes are closing in
death, if I can look upon a united people; upon all the races which have been gathered here by our policy, if I can
look upon them as true Canadians all having in their hearts the greater pride of a Canadian nationality, then I will
feel my life has not been lived in vain and I shall die a happy man.”

Canada’s Growing Pains

By 1911, Laurier’s navy, consisting of two ships, is in the water. Rough seas are behind him, he thinks. He initiates
a policy that will divide the nation: or with the United States. This causes people to fear that:

• Canada will become a commercial annex of the United States.

• Free trade will cut off their markets in western Canada and Great Britain.
 • Free trade would weaken the ties that bind Canada to the empire and make it more difficult to avert
political unions with the United States.

Laurier finds himself in a hopeless, no-win situation. He writes: “I am branded in Quebec as a to the French, and
in Ontario as a traitor to the English. In Quebec I am attacked as an imperialist and in Ontario as an anti-
imperialist. I am neither. I am Canadian. Canada has been the inspiration of my life. In the election of September
23 1911, Robert Borden, and the conservatives defeat Laurier’s Liberal government. This is end of the Laurier era.
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