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1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom
Changing Conditions
When Wilfrid Laurier became Prime Minister as a result of the 1896 election, he promised that the twentieth century would belong to Canada. The years before the First World War seemed to prove him right. As the depression of the 1870s and 1880s lifted, the Canadian economy began to boom. Canadian railways doubled in miles after 1896. Mines tripled in production. Wheat and lumber production grew ten times. Manufacturing increased, seemingly confirming the wisdom of Macdonald's protective tariffs. As historian Donald Avery pointed out, this economic growth attracted and demanded a massive immigrant work force.
The pre-war period saw Canada's economic activity and numbers of immigrants simultaneously reach spectacular heights. Rising immigration in turn gave energy to a new economy where few businesses and industries would not show a significant proportion of jobs filled by newcomers.
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J.D. Edgar, Canada and Its Capital: With Sketches of Political and Social Life at Ottawa (Toronto: G.N. Morang, 1898). |
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Sir Wilfrid Laurier, ca. 1898. Laurier, Canada's first French-Canadian prime minister, presided over the country at a critical time in its development. His time in office, 1896-1911, coincided with one of the most prosperous periods in Canadian history; thousands of immigrants came to Canada during the "Laurier Boom." |
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Fitful Growth