[This is the article from volume 1 of Mennonite Encyclopedia published 1955. For the current article go to Canada.]

Mennonite Congregations in Canada, 1951. Mennonite Encyclopedia, v. 1, p. 502.

Canada covers the whole of the North American continent north of the United States, excepting Alaska. Her area of 3,847,597 square miles is greater than the whole of Europe. The physical characteristics and the extreme cold of the northern part make that section uninhabitable. More than 90 per cent of the nation's estimated more than 14,000,000 people live in the narrow belt bordering on the United States.

On the Atlantic seaboard are the four Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. The latter was Britain's first colonial possession, taken in 1583. The land is heavily forested with the exception of Prince Edward Island, and the cleared portions form excellent farming districts, except for northern Newfoundland, which is rocky, barren, and bleak. The region's 1,454,410 people gain their livelihood mainly from the products of the farm, the forest, and the sea. There are no Mennonites living in this area.

Next, the Laurentian Shield, as it is commonly known, is an area of low-lying, evergreen-clad hills, forming a huge basin centering on Hudson Bay in the north. The trapper, the miner, and the logger are its only inhabitants. There is a wealth of minerals in this remote territory. Canada leads the world in the production of nickel and asbestos. Gold, silver, copper, lead, and iron are among other minerals found here. The pulp and paper industry has gained tremendous proportions. The centers of population of this region lie just to the south of the Shield, in the valley of the St. Lawrence River and on the shores of the lower Great Lakes. The St. Lawrence Valley is the center of the French Canadian population, and contains Montreal, Canada's largest city, as well as Quebec, the oldest city. In the vicinity of the lower Great Lakes is found the center of the English-speaking community of Canada. These two areas combined contain the largest proportion of Canadian industrial establishments. Mennonites are to be found only in southern Ontario, having established the first Mennonite settlements in Canada here 1786 ff.

West of the Great Lakes lie the prairies, an ocean of wheat waving in the west winds, and stretching from the Red River to the Rockies, the "bread basket" of the world. Approximately one billion bushels of the several grains, wheat, oats, barley, are produced annually. On this land also are raised 10 million cattle, 8 million hogs, and 3.5 million sheep. Almost everywhere mixed farming is the rule. Nearly 2.5 million people live on the prairies. The three prairie provinces are Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Large numbers of Mennonites are to be found here, the first having come from Russia to Manitoba in 1874.

Between the prairies and the Pacific Ocean lie the mountains. There are several parallel ranges, of which the Rockies are the best known, and the highest and most rugged. In this whole mountainous region there are only a very few valleys that are inhabited. The coast range of mountains everywhere drops abruptly to the sea. Only the few long-lying coastal valleys are habitable. The most important of these is the valley of the lower Fraser River. At the head of this valley is Canada's great Pacific seaport, Vancouver. In the valley, dairying, poultry farming, and berry and fruit growing are the important occupations. Large and growing Mennonite settlements were established here 1928 f1.
Canada's northland is inhabited only by a few trappers, traders, and Eskimos. The airplane has made this arctic north increasingly accessible. There are many mines in the far north whose only contact with civilization is by airplane.

Almost all the people of Canada are of European origin. The two basic stocks are French and British. The British total 5,716,000 and the French Canadians, living largely in the province of Quebec, number upwards of 3,483,000. There are large numbers of Germans, Scandinavians, Ukrainians, Jews, Dutch, Poles, Italians, and others representing almost every nation on the globe. Indians and Eskimos have dwindled to 125,000. Mennonites of all descriptions number about 120,000 souls. The Roman Catholic Church claims about 42 per cent of the population, and enjoys special privileges in the province of Quebec. The Protestants constitute 55 per cent of the population. The Anglican and Presbyterian churches are prominent. The urban dwellers have outnumbered the rural in Canada since 1921. At present, 54 per cent of Canada's population lives in cities and towns. Canada is no longer merely a producer of primary raw materials. Heavy industry today accounts for 45 per cent of gross production, agriculture 20 per cent.

Newfoundland was discovered in 1497 by John Cabot, who was sponsored by a group of Bristol merchants. Jacques Cartier took possession of the land around the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the King of France in 1534. In 1583 Newfoundland was claimed by the English. Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War and, as a result, Canada came under British control in 1763. In the hundred years following 1763, the colony grew rapidly and kept up a continuous struggle for self-government, which was granted in 1867 when the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick entered into a confederation with Dominion status within the British Empire. The Canadian Pacific Railway linked British Columbia to the rest of the Dominion in 1885, and the other provinces joined soon. The Dominion of Canada is a democracy. It is ruled by a Parliament consisting of the King, represented by the Governor-General, the Senate, and the House of Commons. The Senate is appointed and the members of the Commons are elected by the people. The Prime Minister and his ministers are members of the Commons or the Senate. The Cabinet holds office only while it enjoys the confidence of the representatives of the people.

This democratic country has become a home for many Mennonites in their search for a land of religious freedom. The first group came from eastern Pennsylvania to the Niagara peninsula in 1786 to settle in Welland and Lincoln counties of what later became the province of Ontario. In the years immediately following, others came, locating principally in three centers: Waterloo County, the Markham district, and the Niagara district. They were among the pioneers of Canada. The little Mennonite village of Ebytown in Waterloo County, named Berlin in 1827, has become the present large city of Kitchener, the center of the largest compact Mennonite settlement in Canada. Between 1786 and 1825 about 2,000 Mennonites migrated from Pennsylvania to Ontario. The first congregation of Amish Mennonites was organized in Waterloo County in 1824, coming from Bavaria and Alsace-Lorraine.

A second influx of Mennonites began in 1874, this time from the steppes of faraway southern Russia. They settled on the virgin prairie of Manitoba. The government reserved two blocks of land for them, one on each side of the Red River —the East Reserve and West Reserve. They were among the first to attempt to live on the plains away from the rivers. After overcoming severe and prolonged hardships, this group succeeded in making of the two "reserves" one of the most substantial and desirable farming areas in the West. Jacob Y. Shantz, a layman of Waterloo County, played a great role in establishing these settlements.

The third and largest wave of Mennonite immigrants to Canada from Russia began in 1922, and continued through to 1930. This movement brought well over 20,000 Mennonites into Canada, the majority of whom settled on farms in the West. This settlement differed from the previous ones in that it was, in most cases, impossible to obtain large blocks of land, and the settlers had to be interspersed with the rest of the population. Frequently the new settlers went to the cities temporarily where money could be earned more directly and more easily. Some stayed in the cities, and thus the urbanization of the Mennonite population of western Canada began. At present both Kitchener-Waterloo and Winnipeg have five or more Mennonite congregations. Saskatoon and Vancouver are other larger Canadian cities containing relatively large Mennonite populations. The emigration of several thousand Manitoba and Saskatchewan Mennonites to Mexico and Paraguay (1921-1927) during this time should not be forgotten.

The fourth wave of immigration, 1947-1952, from Russia (via Germany) brought another group of more than 7,000, largely to the west. This time over 200 German Mennonites from the former Danzig area joined the migrants.

Internal westward migration movements should be noted. The first of these (1890 ff.) took Manitoba General Conference Mennonites to Saskatchewan, particularly around Rosthern and Herbert. From 1891 to 1903 several small groups of Ontario Mennonites, representing both the Mennonite Brethren in Christ and the Mennonites (MC), settled in Central Alberta, a small group of the latter also in Saskatchewan. The greatest movement of all, however, beginning in 1925 and still continuing, was from the prairie provinces to the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. According to the 1951 census the total Mennonite population of 125,938 was distributed over the Canadian provinces as follows: Manitoba, 44,667; Saskatchewan, 26,270; Ontario, 25,796; British Columbia, 15,387; Alberta, 13,529; Quebec, 220; Nova Scotia, 23; New Brunswick, 30; Prince Edward Island, 6; Newfoundland, 3. The largest city populations (in cities over 5,000) are as follows: Winnipeg, 3,460; Saskatoon, 1,663; Kitchener, 1,646; Vancouver, 1,624; Swift Current, 621; Waterloo, 527; St. Catherines, 510.

The education of their children has been of great concern to the Mennonites of Canada, the first Mennonite school, the Mennonite Collegiate Institute at Gretna, Man., having been established as early as 1891. Here the religious aspect has come first, as the many small Bible schools dotting the Mennonite settlements testify. The Mennonite Brethren, the General Conference Mennonites, the United Missionary Church, and the Mennonites (MC) each have a Bible college. The colleges or Bible institutes of the first two conferences are located in Winnipeg, Man., and the other two in Kitchener, Ont. Every province in which Mennonites reside now has a Mennonite high school: Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia have one each, and Manitoba and Ontario have two each. In these institutions the regular courses are taught, in addition to some religious instruction, some Mennonite history, and the German language. However, the majority of the Mennonite young people attend the public schools.

Organizationally the various Mennonite district or provincial conferences in Canada belong to the general conferences of their bodies, which represent both the United States and Canada, although the relation of the Canadian Conference of the G.C. Mennonite Church is somewhat different from the relationship in the case of the M.B. and the Mennonite (MC) conferences. The first conference organized in Canada was the Ontario Mennonite (MC), organized about 1825. The Canadian Mennonite Conference (GCM) was organized in 1903. The Canadian Mennonites generally support the church-wide boards and institutions of their denominational connections instead of organizing separately for the Canadian constituents. However, several intergroup Canadian Mennonite organizations have developed to serve exclusively Canadian Mennonite interests and needs, such as the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization, the Non-Resistant Relief Organization (Ontario), the Conference of Historic Peace Churches (Ontario), the Western Canada Mennonite Central Relief Committee. And in Ontario the Brethren in Christ cooperate closely with the Mennonites in relief and peace work. All Canadian Mennonites cooperate with the Mennonite Central Committee, which has a Canadian headquarters in Waterloo, Ont. In a real sense the Canadian Mennonites and the Mennonites of the United States constitute a unified North American group, in which the political boundary between the two nations has little significance. The complete absence of any significant hindrance to a free crossing of the border, as well as the common Anglo-Saxon culture and English language, together with great similarity in political, social, and religious institutions, has made this genuine Mennonite unity possible. There is actually no distinctive Canadian Mennonitism, as contrasted to that of the United States, except that most of the Canadian Mennonites of Russian background still use the German language in their worship services, and have not come as much under the influence of North American Protestantism as their counterpart bodies in the United States.

The relation of the Canadian Mennonites to the state with reference to military service is discussed in detail elsewhere (see Military Participation). Suffice it to say here that the Canadian government has always been generous in dealing with conscientious objectors. There has never been compulsory military training or service in Canada except during wartime. In the war of 1812-1815 between England and the United States, some of the Mennonite settlers of the Waterloo County area were impressed with their horses and wagons to aid in military transport. Mennonites (and Quakers and Tunkers) were always excused from militia duty on payment of a nominal exemption fee. The immigrants from Russia 1874-1880 received special written assurances that they would be free from military service. In World War I Mennonites were exempt from all service although occasional difficulties arose. In World War II alternative civilian service was required (see Alternative Service Camps), and a generally satisfactory solution of the problems related to this question was found.

The Mennonites of Manitoba of the 1874-1880 immigration remained culturally and linguistically (as well as religiously) distinct from their Canadian Anglo-Saxon neighbors, maintaining the German language and even German schools. This cultural autonomy, expressly tolerated by the government at the beginning (the cultural autonomy of the French Canadians made this easy and natural), caused no difficulties until rising Canadian nationalism with its insistence on cultural uniformity brought pressure on the Mennonites for cultural assimilation. This came to a climax in World War I when the situation was complicated by the bitter Canadian anti-German feeling. When the Manitoba government prohibited German schools in 1914, the more conservative Mennonite groups felt their security threatened, and most of them sought and found homes elsewhere (1922-1927) in Mexico and Paraguay (see Old Colony Mennonites).

The conservative Manitoba Mennonites, often called Old Colony, but actually properly called Chortitza or Sommerfeld groups, present a strikingly different phenomenon in North American Mennonite history, similar in some ways, however, to the Old Order Amish and the Hutterian Brethren. Their attempt to maintain complete cultural autonomy on religious grounds failed, in contrast to the successful maintenance of such autonomy by the Mennonites in Russia from whence they came. Not only did they fail in their attempt—they suffered a tragic degree of cultural and religious deterioration, partly because they were too small a group, but partly also because they were completely cut off from all outside sources of cultural renewal. The removal to Mexico and Paraguay has only intensified their isolation and cultural introversion.

The older Mennonite group in Ontario, of Pennsylvania origin, early made a successful transition to Canadianization as an English-speaking, culturally progressive, but sturdily Mennonite body, although a fraction, the Old Order Mennonites, has continued a certain degree of cultural retardation. The large newer immigrant group from Russia (1922-1930), coming with a higher cultural and religious level to begin with, has not followed the pattern of the Old Colony Manitoba group but rather that of the Ontario group, although the first generation has strongly maintained the German language.

The Canadian government for its part has consistently evidenced a high regard for the Mennonites, no doubt largely because of their solid contribution to the national welfare through their community building and their agricultural achievements in both Ontario and the prairie provinces. The late and long-time Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King was a native of Waterloo County, Ont., and knew the Mennonites well. His influence was frequently brought to bear on their behalf in times of difficulty with the state and in connection with immigration policies.

Mennonite membership in Canada by Conference groups in 1951 was (baptized) :

See also Canada

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