Recently, the two provinces with the greatest number of Ukrainian Canadians – Ontario and Alberta – marked Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Day. The date for this non-statutory, but symbolic holiday, is September 7 – the day in 1891 when the first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, Ivan Pylypiw and Wasyl Eleniak, arrived in Canada.
(There is also a Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Day in Manitoba, but that is celebrated on the last Saturday of July in order to coincide with Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival, held at Selo Ukraina near Dauphin.)
Although Pylypiw and Eleniak visited western Canada in 1891, it was not until the summer of 1892 that the first permanent settlers – a contingent of seven families from Nebyliv, Kalush county (povit) in Austrian Galicia (today Rozhniativ raion of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), led by Mykola Tychkowski and Anton Paish, settled at Edna-Star, located about 50 kilometers east of Edmonton in Lamont County.
Massive immigration really began in 1896 when Clifford Sifton, minister of the interior in the newly formed government of Wilfred Laurier, decided to target peasants from East Central Europe to settle the vast Prairies, declaring: “I think a stalwart peasant in a sheepskin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for 10 generations, with a stout wife and a half-dozen children, is good quality.”
In total, about 170,000 Ukrainians, mostly from the two Austrian provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna, settled permanently between 1891 and 1914, making this the largest of all the Ukrainian waves of immigration to Canada.
Life was not easy for the early settlers. In order to cultivate the land, they first had to clear it of rocks and trees using the most primitive tools and their bare hands. The first home, called a “burdei,” was actually a dugout covered with sod in which the whole family lived. Husbands often travelled far and wide to earn money working in the mines and on the railways of western Canada, while the women stayed home and took care of the farm.
The early pioneers also had a craving for news in a language they could read. The first Ukrainian newspaper to appear in Canada was actually this newspaper’s sister publication Svoboda, founded in New Jersey in 1893. Starting in 1896, Svoboda printed a regular column “Kanadiyska Rus” (Canadian Rus’) in which were recorded absorbing incidents from the life of Ukrainian Canadians. The first Ukrainian newspaper in Canada, Kanadiysky Farmer (Canadian Farmer) appeared on November 5, 1903.
But the fact that the vast majority of the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were homesteaders and settled in ethnically homogenous blocs, while (with the exception of a small group that settled in parts of North Dakota) the first Ukrainian immigrants to the United States were largely laborers who either worked in the mines of Pennsylvania, or in the industrial centers along the Eastern Seaboard and the Great Lakes, makes for some substantial differences between the character of the immigration itself and the subsequent development of the two communities.
For one thing, because of the nature of bloc settlement, Ukrainian remained the principal language of communication for two, often three generations, contributing greatly to the retention of both the language and the ethnocultural consciousness of the population. Some observers note that the 2000 U.S. Census figure of 893,000 Americans of Ukrainian origin is low because many Americans who actually are of Ukrainian origin do not identify themselves as such. (To a degree that can also be said about Canada where, since a new ethnic origin category of Canadian was introduced, many people of different ethnic origin groups, including Ukrainian, identify themselves simply as Canadian.)
However, the 2016 census figure lists 1,359,655 Canadians as being of Ukrainian origin, making this the largest Ukrainian diaspora outside of Russia (where ethnic Ukrainians remain an oppressed minority). It also means that people of Ukrainian origin account for a much larger proportion of the Canadian population as a whole than in the United States – almost 4 percent of the total population, as compared to .033 percent.
This proportion rises considerably in the three Prairie Provinces where Ukrainians – having settled in such numbers – can legitimately be considered a regional “founding nation.” The proportions are as follows: Manitoba, 14.5 percent; Saskatchewan, 10.7 percent; Alberta 9.27 percent. The Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) with the greatest number of Ukrainian Canadians is Edmonton with 159,990, constituting 12.3 percent of the total population. The Toronto CMA (which roughly parallels the Greater Toronto Area, or GTA) follows with 144,330 Ukrainian Canadians. In proportionate terms this constitutes 2.46 percent of the population, but the geographic concentration of the Ukrainian community in specific neighborhoods has allowed that community to exert considerable political clout and even go so far as to create the largest Ukrainian festival in North America.
But it is still on the Prairies that Ukrainian Canadians have had the greatest political success. It is also on the Prairies that Ukrainian culture has gone beyond its ethnic base and become fully integrated into mainstream Canadian culture.
As Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Jessica Littlewood stated when introducing Alberta’s Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Day bill in November 2016: “Over time, Ukrainian culture has become an integral part of Alberta culture. There are renowned Ukrainian dance companies from Alberta that delight audiences worldwide. Albertans of Ukrainian heritage have made tremendous contributions in every aspect of Alberta society. From business and industry, to academia, public service, culture and sports, Ukrainian Albertans have made Alberta a better place for all.”
One must acknowledge, however, that the successful growth and development of the Ukrainian Canadian community is due to the hard work, courage and perseverance of the original pioneers. Thus, Ukrainian Canadian Heritage Day is a day to remember and honor them.