1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom

Changing Conditions

Strappazzon was typical of the period's newcomers in many ways. Immigrants arrived in numbers almost unimaginable given Canada's immigration history to that time. The number of immigrants now exceeded the number leaving the country. Canada had an overall positive "net immigration." These immigrants more often sought permanent residency - and they stayed in the country, established families, and began building new communities. They also changed the ethnic composition of the

growing cities and farm communities. By the beginnings of the First World War, the multi-ethnic composition of immigration, especially in the West, was producing tensions within established communities and forcing Canadians to pose new questions about their own society. Immigration, then, not only fitted Canada's new economy with labourers and farm workers but also contributed a diverse ethnic composition to the nation's population.

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