Several francophone communities were created in southern
Alberta and some of these, especially those established at the
beginning of the 20th century, still exist.
Campaigns promoting settlement by French Canadians in Alberta
were staged by the federal government and led by clergymen such
as Jean-Baptiste Morin, the first official land agent for the
federal government. Alice Trottier explains to us that when
Morin would visit Alberta, he would personally take the time to
call upon the settlers he had recruited who had taken lands from
Pincher Creek to Athabasca Landing1
Albéric Ouellette, also a priest, actively promoted the lands of
the Palliser Triangle for the Canadian Pacific Railway and
established the village of Ouelletteville, abandoned during the
1930s. The great number of Franco-Americans recruited by Morin
settled all over the place, including the Brant region near
Voisey, where a small group from Western Massachusetts took
farms; historian Paul Voisey informs us that within a generation
they were assimilated into the predominantly Anglo-Saxon
population.2
The problem with the Palisser Triangle was its extreme aridity,
which for some years before settlement had received an
extraordinary amount of precipitation, and reverted back to
dryness afterwards. Settlers in the region actually had to
purchase water, and as there were no locally available
combustibles, they had to make do with cow dung, which they
dried and stacked to use for fuel. They called it "bois de vache",
literally "cow wood." Many of these settlers left during the
1930s, when the provincial government offered to relocate them
to other regions of the province where there was more rain.
Though some regions in southern Alberta were not a success
for French Canadian settlers, many francophones did settle in
Calgary. Such is the case of Judge Charles Rouleau and his
brother Edouard (a doctor) who founded the little village of
Rouleauville where the Catholic mission stood. A small group of
French aristocrats also set themselves up ranching and raising
cattle for a short while, south of Calgary at Millarville.3
The border between Alberta and Saskatchewan did not restrict
movement between the two provinces, and there were a good number
of French communities in southern Saskatchewan. There seems to
have been a certain migratory flow, probably to access the work
in the many coal mines of Alberta, in Lethbridge and the Crow’s
Nest Pass. French prospectors and investors set up several coal
mining companies such as the West Canadian Collieries in 1901,
which created the town of Lille. Although the village existed
for only 15 years, during its heyday, 400 Frenchmen and Belgians
lived and worked there. Bellevue was another West Canadian
Collieries town. At the time, about seven percent of the Crow’s
Nest Pass population was French-speaking. |