The Settlement of Canada

REVIEWS in such themes as these poetry can find its account as it has so fully found it in the concept of nature. Mr. Beach is doubtful and hopes for a great constructive metaphysician who shall offer a new synthesis. . THE SETTLEMENT OF CANADA* D. A. MAcGIBBoN The problem of whether or not immigration into this country, either from the British Isles .or Europe, should be encouraged is one upon which there exists great diversity of opinion. British visitors, fearful that British customs and institutions may be undermined in Canada by other racial strains, talk about our "great open spaces" and suggest that we should adopt an aggressive immigration policy designed to strengthen the British base in Canada. On purely economic grounds, many Canadians have urged that, since a larger population in Canada would be desirable from the standpoint of the nation growing up to its over-developed transportation systems, harbours, cities, and public works, the government should make strenuous efforts to put more people on the land. On the whole, economists who have examined this proposed remedy for our national difficulties, give the proposal very little sympathy. It is pointed out that large numbers of immigrants, who have been induced to come to Canada at considerable expense and effort, do not remain here, but make this country a jumping-off place for entry into the United States; that the "great open spaces" which the trans-Atlantic visitors see ·from the car window often are not suitable for intensive settlement; and,. more specifically, that with a serious · unemployment problem in hand immigration would aggravate the situation. From another angle it is urged that in so far as there are areas in ~anada that might be colonized, these should be retained for young Canadians who may desire to go on the land. The student of Canadian affairs who wishes to inform himself on this important problem, could not do better than read these three books which effectively complement each other. Professor Harvey has been well advised to put fourteen short radio-addresses into book-form. The result is a slim volume which can be read easily *The Colonization of Canada, by D. C. Harvey, Clarke Irwin, 1936. The Colonization of Western Canada, by Robert England, P. S. King) 1936. Group Sell/emen/! Ethnic Communities in Western Canada, by C. A. Dawson, The Macmillan Company of Canada, 1936. 147 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY in an evening. The early settlement of old Canada and the Maritimes , the Acadians, the United Empire LoyaE~ts, important movements , from Scotland, Ireland, and England, into the older provinces, the Selkirk settlers in the Red River Valley, the gold-seekers in British Columbia, and, more briefly, the settlement of the Prairie Provinces, are all dealt with deftly by a practised hand. Professor Harvey is perhaps least successful in his consideration of the early period, and I am inclined to think that the use of the old place-names of Isle Royal and Isle St.-Jean, without identification with Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island, may confuse some readers who are not as familiar with history as Professor Harvey. One conclusion emerges rather clearly from Professor Harvey's study. Unhappy conditions in the home-land are a more powerful force in inducing migration than the lure of economic betterment in the new. The heavy movement of population into the older provinces followed such events as the American War of Independence, the dispossession of small holders in Scotland by the landlords, the potato famine in Ireland, and the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 in England. Professor Harvey indulges in some reflections which seem to indicate that he is doubtful about the future of Canadian nationality; 1 ask you to remember that you cannot make a Frenchman of an Englishman by force, or an Englishman of an Irishman, or an Irishman of a Scot. Nor does history show that you can make a Russian of a Pole, an Austrian of a Czech, an Italian of a Jugo-Slav) or a Turk of a Greek. . .. We, therefore, cannot make Englishmen out of all the different peoples who are numbered among our immigrants : nor can we make English-Canadians or French...