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Advertising in Europe, 1900-1920s



National Archives of Canada
C-80140, C-80141 		 

These three cards advertise "160 acres of free land in Canada" in Croat, Ukrainian and Czech, respectively. Thousands of these cards in many European languages, were circulated by mail in eastern and central Europe between 1900 and 1905.

The cards were distributed by a clandestine group of shipping agents known collectively as the North Atlantic Trading Company, under contract to the Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton. The secrecy surrounding the Company's members, and the generous bonuses they received for sending "suitable" agricultural workers to Canada, were vigorously attacked in Parliament by the Conservative Opposition. Some Liberal MPs from western Canada were also strongly critical. One of those members, Edmonton MP Frank Oliver, succeeded Clifford Sifton as Minister responsible for immigration in 1905.




Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, 1905-1911. Oliver believed that ethnic and cultural origins were more important than agricultural skills, when it came to selecting immigrants. As he told the House of Commons in 1903:

The filling up of the North-west with settlers....is not merely a question of furnishing a market for the manufacturers and traders of the east .... or of filling that country with people who will produce wheat and buy manufactured goods. It is a question ... of building up a Canadian nationality so that our children may form one of the great civilized nations of the world, and be one of the greatest forces in that civilization.
After 1906, when the government cancelled its contract with the North Atlantic Trading Company, there was no further advertising in central and eastern Europe. Under Frank Oliver's direction, Canadian advertising for European immigrants focused on northwest Europe.

 

  
National Archives of Canada
C-4650

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The Early Years
1870-1897		 Advertising in Britain
1900-1916		 Advertising in Europe
1900-1920s		 Presenting newcomers to Canada
1910-1911		 Advertising in the United States
1900-1920s		 Advertising in Britain
1920s
The Early Years, 1870-1897 Advertising in Britain, 1900-1916 Advertising in Europe, 1900-1920s Presenting newcomers to Canada, 1910-1911 Advertising in the United States, 1900-1920s Advertising in Britain, 1920s