Canada To-day and To-morrow

by Arthur E. Copping

But a change has come over the transatlantic exodus. Previously there was only one destination—now there are two. Down to a few years ago the average person, when he spoke or thought of emigrating, had only the United States in his mind. It was called “going to America.” Nowadays the word emigration, when you see it in print, is apt to suggest Canada. Of course there is no abatement in the great automatic movement that is of cumulative force. The millions who were beckoned to the United States are themselves beckoning other millions. But the thousands who have gone to Canada are also beckoning—and with more reason.

Simultaneously the attractions of the Dominion are being proclaimed through the machinery of publicity. Modern means of stimulating public interest, no less than modern means of quick, safe and cheap transportation, give the present day a great advantage, so far as populating a distant country is concerned, over an era when newspapers cost fourpence and passenger ships were innocent of steam. When the United States were at an early stage of development, and urgently needing people, there was no halfpenny press through which to communicate with the democracy of Europe, for the democracy of Europe had not learnt to read.

Canada was discovered by Canada about fifteen years ago, by the United States a little later, by England—well, England is discovering Canada now. For we are a slow, if sure, people. One day England will discover the British Empire. Meanwhile we are ruled by a generation which was taught at school that Canada is one of our Colonies.

In thinking of Canada the earnest and logical man in the street has been led inevitably into a gigantic misconception. As a matter of fact, without a sense of humour it is difficult to make head or tail of the history of North America. Every schoolboy has been taught that Canada existed before the United States were created. Yet the United States have grown to be a mighty and wealthy nation of 92,000,000 people; while Canada, with a slightly larger area, still has a population of only 8,000,000. Naturally enough, the man in the street concluded there was something wrong somewhere with Canada.

One can, of course, only elucidate the position by stating facts which seem, on the face of them, quaint, not to say funny. As the upshot of a fierce war that took place a century and a quarter ago, part of North America became an independent country, while another part remained in allegiance to the English sovereign; and the curious circumstance has to be noted that, ever since then, Great Britain has been sending out millions of men, not to the country she retained, but to the country she lost. To be strictly accurate, those people were not sent—they went. They succumbed to the spell of the newly arisen United States. As though to heap coals of fire on the heads of those who had revolted from our rule and beaten us in battle, we set to work to make them mighty among the nations of the earth; British contributions to that end heavily outweighing those of other peoples. Meanwhile—there being apparently no end to our self-abnegation—we were content to leave our own part of North America practically unrecruited by emigrants from the British Isles. Nay—the daughter becoming, as would seem, infected by the mother’s magnanimity—our own part of North America made generous contributions to the neighbouring population, it being the strange fact that during the past fifty years 3,250,000 people have gone from Canada to the United States—indigence sparing of its poverty to increase the riches of affluence.

Of those developments, which wear so quixotic an aspect in the retrospect, the explanation lies, of course, in the truism that unity is strength. For nearly a century North America consisted of two sections—the United States and the Ununited Provinces. Union, consolidation, federation—those are the masterful words in the story of nations. What sort of position in the world would Essex have attained had Essex acted independently of Cumberland and the other English counties? Where would Perthshire have been without the political link with Cork? Similarly, how would Massachusetts have ever become a big power single-handed, and who would care a rap for the Stars and Stripes if they waved only over Pennsylvania? The separate States might have asked for people and respect, but their individual voices would not have carried across the Atlantic. It was only because they spoke in unison that they were audible all over the world.

And here we come to close quarters with the misconception still lingering in the popular mind. The man in the street has confused two Canadas—historic Canada, which dated back to the sixteenth century and comprised only portions of the existing Eastern provinces, and modern Canada, which extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and is less than forty years old. It is as though the name England had originally applied merely to portions of Kent and Sussex. The federation of the distinct countries of British North America began in 1867, and was not completed until 1873. Thus the reason why Canada did not, until recent years, begin to grow is because Canada, until recent years, did not exist. Previously, owing to circumstances that will be traced in a later chapter, little was known of the bulk of the country. The setting up of the Federal Government opened the way to knowledge. That knowledge is still incomplete, being representative rather than general. But already—as this book will, I hope, help to prove—there is justification for the belief that the attractions and resources of Canada are not inferior to those of the United States . . . .

And now, being through with our prologue of broad facts, let us pass to personal experiences of the voyage to Canada. That week’s imprisonment in a travelling hotel is, surely, the ideal holiday. Thrice have I crossed in the saloon and once in the steerage—and a button for the difference! In the great liners of to-day there are comfortable quarters and wholesome meals for everybody, whether he pays £18, £10s. 5s., or £5 15s. As a rule I find third-class emigrants more interesting to talk to than first-class poker-players. On the other hand, grand pianos are preferable to concertinas, and it is wondrous pleasant, when at sea, to stroll on Turkish carpets amid alcoves of growing ferns, palms and flowers; while I personally am alive to the advantages of a spacious smoking-room panelled in carved oak, a well-stocked library, and a writing lounge furnished with necessaries and taste (to glance at a few features of such floating temples of luxury as the Royal George). But air, sea and sky—the common property of all classes—are of chief account.

Let me dip among the memories of my first crossing, which happened nearly nine years ago.

For two days our ship was followed by a dozen gulls—strong birds, with yellow bodies, and having black tips to their long wings. By day they hovered in our wake, eager for whatsoever the cook might discard through a porthole; by night—I was invited to believe—they snatched a little slumber in the rigging. But those sturdy aviators did not accompany us all the way to Canada.