Canada In The Twentieth Century

One shot is all it takes, to be “known”. It did not take one shot for Canada to become relevant. In fact, it took many occurring events for Canada to have a place with the rest of the major countries in the world. Sir Wilfred Laurier once said, “I think we can claim that Canada will fill the twentieth century” and boy did Canada claim this past century. Not only did they defy all odds by winning the Battle of Vimy Ridge but they also gained a voice in international relations. Canada was viewed as an attractive country from a foreigner standpoint, leading to mass immigration in the early twentieth century and the saying of the “Last Best West” which lead to large development of the west coast of Canada. The True North became united under Laurier …show more content…
There was a time where the rural land locked provinces weren’t viewed as much until citizens of Canada or foreigners moved there. Sir Wilfred Laurier understood this and wanted to unite Canada from the East to West coast but two provinces in the middle hadn’t united with Canada yet. “Alberta joined Confederation along with Saskatchewan in 1905, when the two new provinces were created out of a section of the Northwest Territories” (Alberta and Confederation, n.d). Having those two new provinces join Canada really started to unite Canada as one. The majority of the population lived on the East Coast due to first settlers settling in that location. People were living throughout the country but there was more opportunity for jobs, available land and to start over in the Prairies and West Coast then there was on the East Coast. “The phrase [Last Best West] was used to advertise the Canadian west abroad, and in Eastern Canada, during the heyday of western settlement from 1896 until the start of the First World War in 1914 when few could leave Europe” (Alberta and Confederation, n.d). Essentially, The government wanted people to occupy and develop the land so the United States government wouldn’t take the land. These events were followed by many other important events such as Canada’s “open doors” immigration policy. Sir Clifford Sifton, The Minister of the Interior at the time stated, “we [as a nation] want to allow as many immigrants as wanted to come to Canada” (History Archive - Canadian Immigration in the Late, n.d). However, what he left out was that he did not believe African and Asian immigrants would be a good fit in Canada. Canada’s campaign for immigration was widely viewed as a huge success, with Canada’s population growing by 25% from 1901 to 1911 mainly due to a large influx on immigration from Europe.