Immigration to the West

From the 1890s to the early 90s the country’s economy grew with the help of industrialization. It’s believed that a million Americans and British individuals flocked to Canada in the same time period.

Sir Wilfred Laurier was the first prime minister of French-Canadian descent after the Confederation to have encouraged the journey to the west. He appears on the $5 bill and contributed to the railway that paved the way for immigrants, including scores from France, Sweden, Norway, and Germany, and around 115,000 Poles and 170,000 Ukrainians to travel via the railway. This led to a surge of manpower in the agricultural sector and allowed the industry to grow exponentially.