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Immigration

An immigrant is a person who comes into a country or region to live. They have left their original or native home to start a new life somewhere else. Immigration then, is the act of leaving one's home country to start a new life in another country or area. Promoting settlement in the west became an integral part of the Dominion's "National Policy".

Development of the Northwest Territories was important to the success of the "National Policy," because in this western region lay rich agricultural land and lots of natural resources. It was hoped that the natural resources of the west would fuel the development of eastern Canadian industry and, in turn, become a consumer of eastern manufactured goods.

To make this happen the government needed an aggressive immigration policy. In order to prepare the Northwest for settlement, the government sent surveying teams out west in 1871 to divide the land into townships and sections for farming.

Although there had been slow immigration into the area after 1872, the early settlers were mainly British and concerned more with ranching, not exactly the occupation the federal government had in mind. However, between 1896 and 1914 more than 1 million people came to the west - a region that promised them cheap land and a better life.

Fertile Canada

Fertile Canada

Scandinavian settlers, Dickson, Alberta.

Scandinavian settlers, Dickson, Alberta.