English Canadians

Canadians of English ethnic origin and heritage

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English Canadians
Canadiens anglais
English Canadians as percent of population by census division.
Total population
6,263,880 (by ancestry)[1][a][nb 1]
17.2% of the total Canadian population (2021)

c. 31.63 million (English-speaking Canadians)[2]
87.1% of the total Canadian population (2021)
Regions with significant populations
Throughout Canada, minority in Quebec
Languages
English
Related ethnic groups
English Americans and other English diaspora, Scottish Canadians and other British Canadians, Old Stock Canadians
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English Canadians (French: Canadiens anglais or Canadiennes anglaises), or Anglo-Canadians (French: Anglo-Canadiens), refers to either Canadians of English ethnic origin and heritage or to English-speaking or Anglophone Canadians of any ethnic origin; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadians.[3][4] Canada is an officially bilingual country, with English and French official language communities. Immigrant cultural groups ostensibly integrate into one or both of these communities, but often retain elements of their original cultures. The term English-speaking Canadian is sometimes used interchangeably with English Canadian.

Although many English-speaking Canadians have strong historical roots traceable to England or other parts of the British Isles, English-speaking Canadians have a variety of ethnic backgrounds. They or their ancestors came from various Celtic, European, Asian, Caribbean, African, Latin American, and Pacific Island cultures, as well as French Canada and North American Aboriginal groups.[citation needed]

In addition to the terms "English Canadian" and "Canadian", the terms "Anglophone Canadian" and "Anglo-Canadian" are also used.[5][6][7][8] An additional 11,135,965 Canadians describe their ethnic background as "Canadian", many of whom may also be of English ancestry.[9]

Categorically as an ethnic group, English Canadians comprise a subgroup of British Canadians which is a further subgroup of European Canadians.[b]

History

Ethnic
English Canadian
Population History[nb 1]
YearPop.±%
1871706,369—    
1881881,301+24.8%
19011,260,899+43.1%
19111,871,268+48.4%
19212,545,358+36.0%
19312,741,419+7.7%
19412,968,402+8.3%
19513,630,344+22.3%
19614,195,175+15.6%
19716,247,585+48.9%
19817,060,470+13.0%
19869,311,910+31.9%
19918,624,900−7.4%
19966,982,320−19.0%
20016,129,460[d]−12.2%
20066,973,930[e]+13.8%
20117,085,530[f]+1.6%
20166,964,780[g]−1.7%
20216,263,880[a]−10.1%
Source: Statistics Canada
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 [16]: 20 [17]: 96 [18]: 45 [19]: 60 [20]
[21][12][11][10][1]
Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.
Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.[c]

Newfoundland (and Labrador)

English Canadian history starts with the attempts to establish English settlements in Newfoundland in the sixteenth century. The first English settlement in present-day Canada was at St. Johns Newfoundland, in 1583. Newfoundland's population was significantly influenced by Irish and English immigration, much of it as a result of the migratory fishery in the decades prior to the Great Famine of Ireland. Although the location of the earliest English settlement in what would eventually become Canada, Newfoundland itself (now called Newfoundland and Labrador) was the last province to enter Confederation in 1949.[citation needed]

Nova Scotia

The area that forms the present day province of Nova Scotia was contested by the British and French in the eighteenth century. French settlements at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal), Louisbourg and what is now Prince Edward Island were seized by the British. After the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ceded the French colony of Acadia (today's mainland Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) to Great Britain, efforts to colonize the province were limited to small settlements in Canso and Annapolis Royal. In 1749, Colonel Edward Cornwallis was given command of an expedition for the settlement of Chebucto by some three thousand persons, many of whom were Cockney. Cornwallis' settlement, Halifax, would become the provincial capital, the primary commercial centre for the Maritime provinces, a strategic British military and naval outpost and an important east coast cultural centre. To offset the Catholic presence of Acadians, foreign Protestants (mainly German) were given land and founded Lunenburg. Nova Scotia itself saw considerable immigration from Scotland, particularly to communities such as Pictou in the northern part of the province and to Cape Breton Island, but this began only with the arrival of the Hector in 1773.[citation needed]

Loyalists: New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario

The history of English Canadians is bound to the history of English settlement of North America, and particularly New England, because of the resettlement of many Loyalists following the American Revolution in areas that would form part of Canada. Many of the fifty thousand Loyalists who were resettled to the north of the United States after 1783 came from families that had already been settled for several generations in North America and were from prominent families in Boston, New York and other east coast towns. Although largely of British ancestry, these settlers had also intermarried with Huguenot and Dutch colonists and were accompanied by Loyalists of African descent. Dispossessed of their property at the end of the Revolutionary War, the Loyalists arrived as refugees to settle primarily along the shores of southern Nova Scotia, the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River and in Quebec to the east and southwest of Montreal.

The colony of New Brunswick was created from western part of Nova Scotia at the instigation of these new English-speaking settlers. The Loyalist settlements in southwestern Quebec formed the nucleus of what would become the province of Upper Canada and, after 1867, Ontario.

Ontario

Upper Canada was a primary destination for English, Scottish and Scots-Irish settlers to Canada in the nineteenth century, and was on the front lines in the War of 1812 between the British Empire and the United States. The province also received immigrants from non English-speaking sources such as Germans, many of whom settled around Kitchener (formerly called Berlin).[22] Ontario became the most populous province in the Dominion of Canada at the time of Confederation, and, together with Montreal, formed the country's industrial heartland and emerged as an important cultural and media centre for English Canada. Toronto is today the largest city in Canada, and, largely as a result of changing immigration patterns since the 1960s, is also one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world.[citation needed]

Quebec

After the fall of New France to the British in 1759, a colonial governing class established itself in Quebec City. Larger numbers of English-speaking settlers arrived in the Eastern Townships and Montreal after the American Revolution. English, Scottish, and Irish communities established themselves in Montreal in the 1800s. Montreal became Canada's largest city and commercial hub in Canada. An Anglo-Scot business elite controlled Canadian commerce until the 1950s, founding a Protestant public school system and hospitals and universities such as McGill University. These immigrants were joined by other Europeans in the early 1900s, including Italians and Jews, who assimilated to a large degree into the anglophone community. Many English-speaking Quebeckers left Quebec following the election of the Parti Québécois in 1976 resulting[23] in a steep decline in the anglophone population; many who have remained have learned French in order to function within the dominant Francophone society.

British Columbia

As in much of western Canada, many of the earliest European communities in British Columbia began as outposts of the Hudson's Bay Company, founded in London in 1670 to carry on the fur trade via Hudson Bay. Broader settlement began in earnest with the founding of Fort Victoria in 1843 and the subsequent creation of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849. The capital, Victoria developed during the height of the British Empire and long self-identified as being "more English than the English".

The Colony of British Columbia was established on the mainland in 1858 by Governor James Douglas as a means of asserting British sovereignty in the face of a massive influx of gold miners, many of whom were American. Despite the enormous distances that separated the Pacific colony from Central Canada, British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, choosing to become Canadian partly as a means of resisting possible absorption into the United States. Chinese workers, brought in to labour on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, established sizeable populations in many B.C. communities, particularly Vancouver which quickly became the province's economic and cultural centre after the railway's completion in 1886. Like Ontario, British Columbia has received immigrants from a broad range of countries including large numbers of Germans, Scandinavians, Italians, Sikhs from India and Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan and in more recent years, the People's Republic, and the ongoing influx of Europeans from Europe continues. However, for many years British Columbia, in contrast to the Prairie Provinces, received a majority of immigrants from Great Britain: over half in 1911 and over 60 percent by 1921.[24] Over half of people with British ancestry in British Columbia have direct family ties within two generations (i.e. grandparent or parent) to the British Isles, rather than via British ethnic stock from Central Canada or the Maritimes (unlike the Prairies where Canadian-British stock is more common). Europeans of non-British stock have been more common, also, in British Columbia than in any other part of Canada, although certain ethnicities such as Ukrainians and Scandinavians are more concentrated in the Prairies. Except for the Italians and more recent European immigrants, earlier waves of Europeans of all origins are near-entirely assimilated, although any number of accents are common in families and communities nearly anywhere in the province, as has also been the case since colonial times. Interethnic and interracial marriages and were also more common in British Columbia than in other provinces since colonial times.

Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan

The French-English tensions that marked the establishment of the earliest English-speaking settlements in Nova Scotia were echoed on the Prairies in the late nineteenth century. The earliest British settlement in Assiniboia (part of present-day Manitoba) involved some 300 largely Scottish colonists under the sponsorship of Thomas Douglas, Lord Selkirk in 1811. The suppression of the rebellions allowed the government of Canada to proceed with a settlement of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta that was to create provinces that identified generally with English Canada in culture and outlook, although immigration included large numbers of people from non English-speaking European backgrounds, especially Scandinavians and Ukrainians.

Nunavut

Twentieth century

Although Canada has long prided itself on its relatively peaceful history, war has played a significant role in the formation of an English Canadian identity. As part of the British Empire, Canada found itself at war against the Central Powers in 1914. In the main, English Canadians enlisted for service with an initial enthusiastic and genuine sense of loyalty and duty.[25] The sacrifices and accomplishments of Canadians at battles such as Vimy Ridge and the Dieppe Raid in France are well known and respected among English Canadians and helped forge a more common sense of nationality.[26] In World War II, Canada made its own separate declaration of war and played a critical role in supporting the Allied war effort. Again, support for the war effort to defend the United Kingdom and liberate continental Europe from Axis domination was particularly strong among English Canadians[citation needed]. In the post war era, although Canada was committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, English Canadians took considerable pride in the Nobel Prize for Peace awarded to Lester Pearson for his role in resolving the Suez Crisis and have been determined supporters of the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations.[27][28]

In the late twentieth century, increasing American cultural influence combined with diminishing British influence, and political and constitutional crises driven by the exigencies of dealing with the Quebec sovereignty movement and Western alienation contributed to something of an identity crisis for English Canadians.[29] George Grant's Lament for a Nation is still seen as an important work relating to the stresses and vulnerabilities affecting English Canada.[30] However, the period of the 1960s through to the present have also seen tremendous accomplishments in English Canadian literature. Writers from English-speaking Canada such as Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Margaret Laurence, Robertson Davies, Timothy Findley, and Carol Shields dissected the experience of English Canadians [31][32] or of life in English Canadian society.[33] and assumed a place among the world's best-known English-language literary figures. Journalist Pierre Berton wrote a number of books popularizing Canadian history which had a particular resonance among English-speaking Canadians, while critics and philosophers such as Northrop Frye and John Ralston Saul have attempted to analyze the Canadian experience. Still, particularly at the academic level, debate continues as to the nature of English Canada and the extent to which English Canadians exist as an identifiable identity.[34]

Demography

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Canadians of English descent total population (1871−2021)[nb 1]
Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.
Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.[c]
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Canadians of English descent percentage of the total population (1871−2021)[nb 1]
Note1: 1981 Canadian census did not include multiple ethnic origin responses, thus population is an undercount.
Note2: 1996-present census populations are undercounts, due to the creation of the "Canadian" ethnic origin category.[c]

Population

Ethnic English Canadian Population History
1871−2021[nb 1]
Year Population % of total population
1871
[13]: 17 
706,369 20.264%
1881
[13]: 17 
881,301 20.378%
1901
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 
1,260,899 23.475%
1911
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 
1,871,268 25.966%
1921
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 
2,545,358 28.964%
1931
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 
2,741,419 26.419%
1941
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 
2,968,402 25.797%
1951
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 
3,630,344 25.914%
1961
[13]: 17 [14]: 3 [15]: 20 
4,195,175 23.002%
1971
[13]: 17 [15]: 20 
6,247,585 28.967%
1981
[16]: 20 
7,060,470 29.317%
1986
[17]: 96 [18]: 45 
9,311,910 37.215%
1991
[19]: 60 
8,624,900 31.951%
1996
[20]
6,982,320 24.475%
2001
[21][d]
6,129,460 20.68%
2006
[12][e]
6,973,930 22.323%
2011
[11][f]
7,085,530 21.568%
2016
[10][g]
6,964,780 20.211%
2021
[1][a]
6,263,880 17.242%

Geographical distribution

Data from this section from Statistics Canada, 2021.[35]

Provinces & territories

Province / Territory Percent English Total English
 Alberta 18.3% 766,070
 British Columbia 20.7% 1,019,250
 Manitoba 16.1% 210,285
 New Brunswick 18.1% 137,145
 Newfoundland and Labrador 34.9% 175,045
 Northwest Territories 13.6% 5,495
 Nova Scotia 22.8% 217,910
 Nunavut 3.8% 1,405
 Ontario 16.7% 2,347,685
 Prince Edward Island 24.0% 36,050
 Quebec 2.1% 177,710
 Saskatchewan 19.9% 219,665
 Yukon 23.0% 9,105
 CanadaTotal 14.7% 5,322,830

Symbols

The Canadian flag flying at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, located at Halifax, Nova Scotia
1957 version of the Canadian Red Ensign that had evolved as the de facto national flag until 1965.

English-speaking Canadians have not adopted symbols specific to themselves. Although English Canadians are attached to the Canadian Flag,[36] it is the national flag and intended to be a symbol for all Canadians, regardless of ethnicity or language. The flag debate of 1965 revealed a strong attachment to the Canadian Red Ensign,[37] previously flown as the flag of Canada prior to the adoption of the Maple Leaf in 1965. Even today, there is considerable support for use of the Red Ensign in certain specific circumstances, such as the commemoration ceremonies for the Battle of Vimy Ridge.[38]

The maple leaf itself, as a symbol, was used as early as 1834 in what is now Quebec as a symbol of the Société St. Jean Baptiste but was adopted for use shortly afterwards by the English-speaking community in Canada. The Maple Leaf Forever, penned in 1867 at the time of Confederation was at one time regarded as an informal anthem for English Canadians,[39] but reaction by English-speaking Canadians to a decision of a New Brunswick school to stop the singing of the anthem are attached to the official national anthem, O Canada, by Calixa Lavallée suggests that the official anthem enjoys considerable support.[40]

The beaver is sometimes seen as another Canadian symbol, but is not necessarily specific to English Canadians. It too was used originally in connection with the Société St. Jean Baptiste before coming into currency as a more general Canadian symbol. In the 1973 political satire by Stanley Burke, Frog Fables & Beaver Tales, a spoof on Canadian politics of the Pierre Trudeau era, English Canadians are depicted in the main as well-meaning, but not terribly clever beavers (with other animals such as frogs, sea otters and gophers assigned to represent other linguistic and provincial populations). The historical relevance of the beaver stems from the early fur trade. It has been asserted that "[t]he fur trade in general and the Hudson's Bay Company in particular exercised a profound influence on the sculpting of the Canadian soul."[41]

The Crown has historically been an intangible but significant symbol for many English Canadians. Loyalty to Great Britain created the initial fracture lines between the populations of the Thirteen Colonies and the populations of Nova Scotia and Quebec at the time of the American Revolution and forced the flight of the Loyalists after the end of the war. As such English Canada developed in the nineteenth century along lines that continued to emphasize this historical attachment, evident in the naming of cities, parks and even whole provinces after members of the royal family, the retention of flags, badges and provincial mottos expressive of loyalty, and enthusiastic responses to royal visits. While such loyalty is no longer as powerful a unifying force as it once was among English Canadians, it continues to exert a noticeable influence on English Canadian culture. According to the author and political commentator Richard Gwyn while "[t]he British connection has long vanished... it takes only a short dig down to the sedimentary layer once occupied by the Loyalists to locate the sources of a great many contemporary Canadian convictions and conventions."[42] Gwyn considers that the modern equivalent of the once talismanic loyalty is "tolerance": "a quality now accepted almost universally as the feature that makes us a distinct people."[43]

Ethnic composition

The 2001 Census of Canada provides information about the ethnic composition of English-speaking Canadians. This "refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent's ancestors belong".[44] However, interpretation of data is complicated by two factors.

See the definition Archived December 13, 2017, at the Wayback Machine of "ethnic origin" from the 2001 Census dictionary for further information.

The data in the following tables pertain to the population of Canada reporting English as its sole mother tongue, a total of 17,352,315 inhabitants out of 29,639,035. A figure for single ethnic origin responses is provide, as well as a total figure for ethnic origins appearing in single or multiple responses (for groups exceeding 2% of the total English-speaking population). The sum of the percentages for single responses is less than 100%, while the corresponding total for single or multiple responses is greater than 100%. The data are taken from the 2001 Census of Canada.[45]

Ethnic group Total
responses
Percen-
tage
Single
responses
Percen-
tage
Total 17,352,315 100.0%
Canadian 6,244,055 36.0% 3,104,955 17.9%
English 5,809,805 33.5% 1,464,430 8.4%
Scottish 4,046,325 23.3% 592,825 3.4%
Irish 3,580,320 20.6% 457,985 2.6%
German 2,265,505 13.1% 385,760 2.2%
French 1,993,100 11.5% 158,400 0.9%
Ukrainian 877,690 5.1% 188,830 1.1%
Dutch 749,945 4.3% 184,415 1.1%
North American Indian 713,925 4.1% 280,795 1.6%
Italian 670,300 3.9% 234,610 1.4%
Polish 555,740 3.2% 72,110 0.4%
Norwegian 350,085 2.0% 38,980 0.2%

The remaining ethnic groups (single or multiple responses) forming at least 1% of the English-speaking population are Welsh (2.0%), Swedish (1.5%), Hungarian (1.5%), East Indian (1.4%), Métis (1.4%), Jewish (1.4%), Russian (1.4%), American (1.3%), Jamaican (1.2%) and Chinese (1.1%). The remaining ethnic groups (single response) forming at least 0.5% of the English-speaking population are East Indian (1.0%), Jamaican (0.8%) and Chinese (0.6%).

Depending on the principal period of immigration to Canada and other factors, ethnic groups (other than British Isles, French, and Aboriginal ones) vary in their percentage of native speakers of English. For example, while a roughly equal number of Canadians have at least partial Ukrainian and Chinese ancestry, 82% of Ukrainian Canadians speak English as their sole mother tongue, and only 17% of Chinese Canadians do (though this rises to 34% in the 0 to 14 age group).[46] As the number of second and third-generation Chinese Canadians increases, their weight within the English-speaking population can also be expected to increase. It should also be borne in mind that some percentage of any minority ethnic group will adopt French, particularly in Quebec.

Culture

Language

In the 2001 Canadian census, 17,572,170 Canadians indicated that they were English-speaking. As discussed in the Introduction, however, this does not mean that 17.5 million people in Canada would necessarily self-identify as being 'English Canadian'.

Except in Newfoundland and the Maritime provinces, most Canadian English is only subtly different from English spoken in much of the mid-western and western United States. Spoken English in the Maritimes has some resemblance to English of some of the New England states. While Newfoundland speaks a specific Newfoundland English dialect, and so has the most distinct accent and vocabulary, with the spoken language influenced in particular by English and Irish immigration. There are a few pronunciations that are distinctive for most English Canadians, such as 'zed' for the last letter of the alphabet.

English Canadian spelling continues to favour most spellings of British English, including 'centre', 'theatre', 'colour' and 'labour', although usage is not universal. Other spellings, such as 'gaol' and 'programme', have disappeared entirely or are in retreat. The principal differences between British and Canadian spelling are twofold: '-ise' and '-yse' words ('organise/organize' and 'analyse' in Britain, 'organize' and 'analyze/analyse' in Canada), and '-e' words ('annexe' and 'grille' in Britain, 'annex' and 'grill' in Canada, but 'axe' in both, 'ax' in the USA). But '-ize' is becoming increasingly common in Britain, bringing British spelling closer to the Canadian standard.

Vocabulary of Canadian English contains a few distinctive words and phrases. In British Columbia, for example, the Chinook word 'skookum' for, variously, 'good' or 'great' or 'reliable' or 'durable', has passed into common use, and the French word 'tuque' for a particular type of winter head covering is in quite widespread use throughout the country.

Languages besides English are spoken extensively in provinces with English-speaking majorities. Besides French (which is an official language of the province of New Brunswick and in the three territories), indigenous languages, including Inuktitut and Cree are widely spoken and are in some instances influencing the language of English speakers, just as traditional First Nations art forms are influencing public art, architecture and symbology in English Canada. Immigrants to Canada from Asia and parts of Europe in particular have brought languages other than English and French to many communities, particularly Toronto, Vancouver and other larger centres. On the west coast, for example, Chinese and Punjabi are taught in some high schools; while on the east coast efforts have been made to preserve the Scots Gaelic language brought by early settlers to Nova Scotia. In the Prairie provinces, and to a lesser degree elsewhere, there are a large number of second-generation and more Ukrainian Canadians who have retained at least partial fluency in the Ukrainian language.

Religion