Scottish Canadians () are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture since colonial times. According to the 2016 Census of Canada, the number of Canadians claiming full or partial Scottish descent is 4,799,010, or 13.93% of the nation's total population. Prince Edward Island has the highest population of Scottish descendants at 41%.
The Scots-Irish Canadians are a similar ethnic group. They descended from Lowland Scots and Northern English people via Ulster and so some observe many of the same traditions as Scots.
Categorically, Scottish Canadians comprise a subgroup of British Canadians which is a further subgroup of European Canadians.
History
Early Scottish settlement Scottish people have a long history in Canada, dating back several centuries. Many towns, rivers, and mountains have been named in honour of Scottish explorers and traders such as Mackenzie Bay in the Yukon (named for Sir Alexander Mackenzie) or after locations in Scotland, such as Calgary, (named after a Scottish beach) and Banff, Alberta, named after Banff, Aberdeenshire. Most notably, the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Once Scots formed the vanguard of the movement of Europeans across the continent. In more modern times, immigrants from Scotland have played a leading role in the social, political, and economic history of Canada, being prominent in banking, labour unions, and politics. Simon Fraser University
The first documented source of Scots in what would become Canada comes from the Saga of Eric the Red and the Viking expedition of 1010 AD to Vinland (literally, the land of meadows), which is believed to refer to the island of Newfoundland. The Viking prince Thorfinn Karlsefni took two Scottish slaves to Vinland. When the longships moored along the coast, they sent the slaves ashore to run along the waterfront to gauge whether it was safe for the rest of the crew to follow. After the Scots survived a day without being attacked by either human or animal, the Vikings deemed it safe to spend the night ashore. The expedition was abandoned three years later; the original sagas were passed on in an oral tradition and then written down 250 years later.
An apocryphal voyage in 1398 by a captain named Zichmni, believed to be Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, is also claimed to have reached Atlantic Canada as well as New England.
Scottish Canadians were also a part of the land theft, cultural loss and genocide of Indigenous Canadians, along with Irish Canadians and English Canadians.
Push factors
Troubles back in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries generated a steady flow of emigrants. Some sought political asylum following the failed Jacobite risings in 1688, 1715, and 1745. The Gàidhealtachd was traditionally Catholic, and many Gaels came to Canada after facing eviction for their religious beliefs.
Those immigrants who arrived after 1759 were mainly Highland farmers who had been forced off their crofts (rented land) during the Highland and Lowland Clearances to make way for sheep grazing due to the British Agricultural Revolution.
Others came as a result of famine. In 1846, potato crops were blighted by the same fungal disease responsible for the Great Irish Famine, and most Highland crofters were very dependent on potatoes as a source of food. Crofters were expected to work in appalling conditions, and although some landlords worked to lessen the effects of the famine on their tenants, many landlords simply resorted to eviction. In particular, John Gordon of Cluny became the target of criticism in newspapers when many of his crofters were reduced to living on the streets of Inverness. Gordon resorted to hiring a fleet of ships and forcibly transporting his Hebridean crofters to Canada, where they were conveniently abandoned on Canadian authorities. Some more sympathetic landlords supplied a free passage to what was hoped to be a better life. Crop failures continued into the 1850s and famine relief programmes became semi-permanent operations. During the ten years following 1847, from throughout the Highlands, over 16,000 crofters were shipped overseas to Canada and Australia.
Pull factors Canada had plenty of land and jobs and new opportunities, which created a pull factor. The government made certain potential immigrants know of the advantages, sending agents to recruit Irish and Scottish emigrants to settle in western Canada between 1867 and the 1920s. The Canadian government hoped to develop the economy in the sparsely populated western part of the country. It set up offices in towns in Ireland and Scotland, and agents went up and down the land pasting up attractive posters, giving lectures, handing out pamphlets and trying one-on-one to persuade farmers and laborers of the virtues of life in Canada. Although many people agreed to emigrate, the agents faced competition from the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, and opponents of emigration warned of hardship in Canada. The agents did not create 'emigration fever,' but they did tap into a sense of restlessness that, if nurtured, could result in a decision to emigrate.
Large-scale migration Bumsted (1981) notes that between 1760 and 1860, millions of people emigrated from Great Britain. Before 1815, emigration was discouraged, but emigration from Scotland to the Maritime Provinces constituted one of the principal components of the exodus; by 1815, Scots formed one of the three major ethnic groups there. Most of the emigrants were unskilled Gaelic-speaking farmers, who gathered in isolated communities. The Maritimes attracted them because of the opportunity there to be left alone to pursue the traditional way of life.
A large group of Ulster Scots, many of whom had first settled in New Hampshire, moved to Truro, Nova Scotia in 1761. In 1772, a wave of Gaels began to arrive in Prince Edward Island, and in 1773 the ship Hector brought 200 Gaels to Pictou, beginning a new stream of Highland emigration — the town's slogan is "The Birthplace of New Scotland". At the end of the 18th century, Cape Breton Island had become a centre of Scottish Gaelic settlement, where only Scottish Gaelic was spoken.
A number of Scottish loyalists to the British crown, who had fled the United States in 1783, arrived in Glengarry County (in eastern Ontario) and Nova Scotia. In 1803, Lord Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, who was sympathetic to the plight of the dispossessed crofters (tenant farmers in the Highlands), brought 800 colonists to Prince Edward Island. In 1811, he founded the Red River Colony as a Scottish colonization project on an area of 300,000 square kilometres (120,000 sq mi) in what would later be the province of Manitoba — land that was granted by the Hudson's Bay Company, in what is referred to as the Selkirk Concession.
Prince Edward Island (PEI) was also heavily influenced by Scottish Gaelic settlers. One prominent settler in PEI was John MacDonald of Glenaladale, who conceived the idea of sending Gaels to Nova Scotia on a grand scale after Culloden. The name Macdonald still dominates on the island, which received a large influx of settlers, predominantly Catholics from the Highlands, in the late 18th century. Another large group of Gaels arrived in 1803. This migration, primarily from the Isle of Skye, was organized by the Earl of Selkirk.
New Brunswick became the home for many Scots. In 1761, a Highland regiment garrisoned Fort Frederick. The surrounding lands surveyed by Captain Bruce in 1762 attracted many Scottish traders when William Davidson of Caithness arrived to settle two years later. Their numbers were swelled by the arrival of thousands of loyalists of Scottish origin both during and after the American Revolution.
One of the New Brunswick and Canada's most famous regiments was "The King's First American Regiment" founded in 1776. It was composed mostly of Highlanders, many of whom fought with their traditional kilts to the sound of bagpipes. The regiment distinguished itself when it defeated Washington's forces at the Battle of Brandywine. When it disbanded after the War, most of its members settled in New Brunswick. A continual influx of immigrants from Scotland and Ulster meant that by 1843, there were over 30,000 Scots in New Brunswick.
Canadian Gaelic was spoken as the first language in much of "Anglophone" Canada, such as Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Glengarry County in Ontario. Gaelic was the third most commonly spoken language in Canada.Jonathan Dembling. "Gaelic in Canada: new evidence from an old census." In Cànan & Cultar/Language & Culture: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 3, edited by Wilson McLeod, James Fraser and Anja Gunderloch, 203-14. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2006.
Demography
Population + Scottish Canadian Population History1871−2016YearPopulation% of total population1871549,9461881699,8631901800,15419111,027,01519211,173,62519311,346,35019411,403,97419511,547,47019611,902,30219711,720,39019811,415,20019863,918,05519914,248,36519964,260,84020014,157,210 20064,354,15520114,714,970 20164,799,00520214,392,200
Religion + Scottish Canadian demography by religionReligious group20212001 Christianity 2,268,845 3,212,175 Islam 4,220 2,345 Irreligion 2,051,670 909,770 Judaism 11,220 8,660 Buddhism 8,180 6,590 Hinduism 970 710 Indigenous spirituality 3,960 4,250 Sikhism 425 570 Other 42,720 12,145 Total Scottish Canadian population 4,392,200 4,157,215
+ Scottish Canadian demography by Christian sectsReligious group20212001 Catholic 756,715 890,835 Orthodox 9,735 7,645 Protestant 1,196,640 2,195,440 Other Christian 305,755 118,255 Total Scottish Canadian Christian population 2,268,845 3,212,175
Geographical distribution
+ Scottish Canadians by province and territory (2001−2016)Province/Territory2016201120062001 Ontario 2,107,295 2,080,545 2,101,100 1,843,110 British Columbia 860,775 833,290 828,145 748,905 Alberta 704,200 670,955 661,265 556,575 Nova Scotia 272,880 282,805 288,180 263,060 Quebec 215,025 196,670 202,515 156,140 Manitoba 208,060 210,815 209,170 195,570 Saskatchewan 193,330 190,450 182,790 172,300 New Brunswick 134,455 146,230 142,560 127,635 Prince Edward Island 50,685 53,960 54,290 50,700 Newfoundland and Labrador 34,650 32,810 34,925 30,295 Yukon 8,295 8,340 7,005 6,245 Northwest Territories 6,090 5,685 5,875 5,190 Nunavut 3,265 2,420 2,025 1,475 Canada 4,799,005 4,714,970 4,719,850 4,157,210
Nova Scotia
The Scots have influenced the cultural mix of Nova Scotia for centuries and constitute the largest ethnic group in the province, at 29.3% of its population. The name of Nova Scotia literally means "New Scotland" in Latin, and its flag was designed as a combination of the Scottish Saltire and the Royal Arms of Scotland.
Nova Scotia was briefly colonized by Scottish settlers in 1620, although by 1624 the Scottish settlers had been removed by treaty and the area was turned over to the French until the middle of the 18th century. Scottish settlement greatly accelerated during the resettlement of Loyalists in Nova Scotia following the end of the American revolutionary war, and especially following the Highland Clearances in Scotland.