p. 1

lakehead adult education centre 125 south lillie street thunder bay on p7e 2a3 history geography unit prior learning assessment and recognition plar gwl3o textbook lessons 16 ­ 20 student success nothing less revised january 26 2010 1

[close]

p. 2

history textbook prior learning assessment and recognition plar lesson 16 canada 1900-1939 2

[close]

p. 3

canada 1900-1939 1900-1914 the changing face of canada during this period wilfred laurier was the prime minister of canada his term as prime minister lasted from 1896-1911 laurier and his government pushed for canada s development of the western provinces building up railroads and wanted canada s control of her own defences he predicted that the 20th century would be canada s century we were a land of promise which needed to be developed and needed to have improved relations with other countries the boer war in 1899 south africa became corrupt and narrow-minded nation over the rights of some british living there a demand arose among canadians to rescue the victims of the war canada was strongly linked to britain and felt a duty to help the only province that felt opposed to this aid was quebec they didn t feel the strong responsibility and were opposed to britain s policy of ruling people laurier the prime minister tried to steer a middle course but the gap between english and french canada widened immigration in the years between 1900 and 1914 canada experienced a tremendous growth and change in terms of immigration in the 1890 s approximately 18,000 to 44,000 immigrants came to canada each year then in 1898 gold was found in the yukon mplar history geography unit page 3

[close]

p. 4

this was one of the main reasons at the time for immigrating to canada and travelling to the west coast in the years between 1900 and 1914 the average number of immigrants to canada rose to between 55,000 and 300,000 per year canada used advertisements and the government spent time and money recruiting new immigrants from the united states europe and asia many immigrants were welcomed into canada especially those from england scotland and white americans however other groups from asia and african americans were not treated so fairly many of the white farmers in the western provinces did not feel friendly toward their black american neighbours they also showed racism toward the chinese the canadian government began to charge a head tax on all chinese entering the country many could not afford the tax so they couldn t immigrate here women and immigration women however were welcomed to canada especially from the british isles most of the early immigrants were men and they needed women to provide families to help run farms and clear land women were required to take care of the entire household and many of the farm chores as well as bearing many children they had no right to property either it was felt that women should only work in specific jobs if they were in the cities women were usually employed as cooks maids nurses and teachers with no freedom and little privacy women were not allowed to enter many professions that men worked at as more factories opened though women were allowed a few more freedoms women started to prove they could do men s work they started to earn their own money typical immigrant hardships many of the immigrants came from other countries english was not their first language it was difficult to communicate at first some immigrants were of different race and religion and were discriminated against most of the settlement occurred in the west mplar history geography unit page 4

[close]

p. 5

where people were isolated and there was a lot of hard work clearing the land and farming the weather was extremely cold in the winter for most of these people and they were not used to it the farmers didn t always have the appropriate tools to perform the work many of the immigrants had little education and knew how to do very few things especially when a lot couldn t read or speak the language immigrants moving to cities often received the worst most dangerous jobs that no one else would do they were paid the least and lived in poor houses all of these reasons made immigration a tough route to take in the early 1900 s the reciprocity issue the reciprocity issue or reciprocity agreement was a free trade agreement negotiated in 1911 between prime minister laurier and president taft of the united states the two countries would be allowed to trade goods without any additional taxes some canadians felt that canada would become a supplier of raw materials for the united states trade would now shift away from an east-west to a north-south route previous prime ministers felt that trade within our own country was best the foundation for trade with the united states was laid and we rely heavily on that trade today mplar history geography unit page 5

[close]