Canadian Social History

Approximately 40,000 Loyalists came to British North America from the late 1770s to mid 1790s.

The Loyalists emerged as an idealized group whose constructed history made them the founders of English Canada, and the group established for English Canadians an identity separate from that of Americans.

Values were conservative, emphasizing Canadian deference to authority, devotion to law and order, and willingness to employ the state on behalf of the common good.

Connections with British imperial sentiment of the late nineteenth century.

The “Eskimo Problem” emerged in the 1950s. The Canadian government introduced a policy to remove Inuit people to unsettled Arctic islands. The idea behind the policy was to allow the Inuit to re-establish self-sufficient “traditional” societies away from the insidious influences of Euro-Canadians.

The removal of the Inuit reflected the immense faith that non-Aboriginal Canadians shared in the ability of experts to solve problems such as poverty and disease through social engineering.

The “Eskimo Problem” was defined at a conference on Eskimo Affairs held on 19-20 May, 1952. The “Eskimo Problem” was defined as having three components: an unstable economy, poor health, and a growing dependence on government benefits.

See article by Alan Rudolph Marcus, Relocating Eden: The Image and Politics of Inuit Exile in the Canadian Arctic

Imperialism was first and foremost a sentiment and an outlook, at the core of which was a sense of the superiority of British institutions and religion. Imperialists believed that the British peoples had a moral obligation to extend the existing unity of the British Empire in order that it might serve as an agency for peace, liberty, and prosperity.

Imperialism had a profound influence on the process by which full membership in Canadian social and political life was accorded.