Australian rules football in Canada (commonly known as "Aussie Rules" or simply "footy") is played in seven provinces – Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The Ontario league, centred on Toronto is a nine-team league, including sides from cities as far afield as Guelph, Hamilton and Ottawa. In western Canada, there are clubs in Edmonton, Calgary and a six-team league in the Vancouver area. There is also a number of junior and women's clubs across Canada.

The sport was first introduced in 1905 in Vancouver, and despite tours involving American and Australian sides in 1912 and 1913, the sport went into permanent recess before World War I as a result of Australia's refusal to recognise Canada as a playing nation. Three-quarters of a century later, the then VFL (now Australian Football League), having briefly gained then lost lucrative North American television broadcasts in the 1980s, attempted to rebuild its audience with a series of exhibition matches between 1987 and 1989. These matches generated significant interest and Canada retains the attendance record for the sport outside of Australia, 32,789 set in 1987 at B.C. Place, Vancouver. As a result of the interest generated the sport was established at the grassroots in 1989 with a competition in Toronto that has continued and expanded to the present. Competition spread from Ontario to other provinces culminating in the establishment of a national governing body, AFL Canada, in 2004. The world governing body, the AFL Commission has recently made great efforts to differentiate it from rugby, producing educational videos such as "What is AFL?" aimed at a North American audience ().

Canada has hosted the 49th Parallel Cup in 2000 and 2004 (in Toronto), 2007 (Vancouver), 2010 (Toronto), 2013 (Edomonton) and 2022 (Toronto) as well as the 2024 Transatlantic Cup in Toronto. It is home to the only dedicated Australian rules football ground in North America, the Humber College Oval at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Toronto.

Canadians are increasingly being sought after to play the sport professionally in Australia which has helped to increase overall interest in Canada. Mike Pyke (who successfully switched from international rugby in 2008) featured prominently in red and white during his successful 2012 AFL Grand Final appearance, performing a victory lap with the Canadian flag. Pyke has inspired others to follow and in 2016, Canadians featured prominently in AFL and AFL Women's recruitment with Andrew McGrath being taken as the top pick in the 2016 AFL draft and rugby convert Kendra Heil being picked in the 2016 AFL Women's draft.

Canada's best international results were posted in the 2014 International Cup with men's team, the Northwind, reaching 5th and the women's team, the Northern Lights, being crowned international champions.

History

First Establishment: 1904–1911 A request for copies of the Laws of Australian Football by parties from Canada was noted in the Sydney Referee newspaper in 1904. A 1906 report of Australian Football's growth internationally made mention of a Canadian Railway Commissioner early in the century who, while working in Victoria, fell in love with the sport and upon returning to Canada began agitating for it to be played there. He was said to have made several subsequent requests to parties in Australia for support introducing the game.

The game is believed to have been first introduced to British Columbia in 1905, when Canadian-born Captain Robert Nelson Davy of the 6th Regiment began training students of the 101st Canadian Cadet corps in preparation for a planned visit to Australia. The students were from the Vancouver School Board district and included the Vancouver High School Cadet Corps and King Edward High School among others.

Davy wrote to Australia for assistance. However, by 1906 the game's newly formed governing body, the Australasian Football Council (AFC) led by the VFL resolved not to support the game being played outside Australasia and declined any support. West Australian Football League secretary John J Simons however pledged his support through the Young Australia League and began assisting to plan a series of tours between the two countries.

Canada vs the United States: 1912 Canadian Schools had been practicing inter-school competition for around 6 years before the arrival of a touring party from the United States including Sydney schoolboy Eric Cullen-Ward, and San Francisco's Columban Park Boys' School in 1912 (who had successfully started Australian rules football in the United States as "field ball" in American schools in 1910). The Americans had come to Vancouver to help prepare Davy's cadets to compete against a touring Young Australia League from Perth scheduled to arrive that year and ultimately to tour Australia as Canada's first national team. They played the first international match between the two countries in 1912 though few if any details of the match survive.

Young Australia League tour: 1912 A Young Australia League touring party left for Canada from the United States in January 1912. Though the majority of the trip was funded from Western Australia, the Australasian Football Council pledged £240, with president of the time the VFL's Con Hickey making funding conditional on tour organisers promoting Universal football believing it would have a better chance of catching on in North America. However the West Australians were determined instead that Australian rules be played. The result was that the AFC, led by the VFL withdrew all support for the tour, vowing to ensure that it was not a success.

Following the Young Australian tour the Canadian Cadets team prepared a reciprocal tour of Australia to Sydney, Perth, Fremantle, Kalgoorlie, Adelaide, Ballarat, Tasmania and Melbourne. $11,000 was raised for the tour with a contingent of 60 cadets aged 18 to 20. The Canadians left from Vancouver on 10 July 1912.

Controversial Canadian Cadets tour of Australia: 1912–1913

The Canadian Cadets tour was plagued with trouble from the start. Captain Davy had hoped that Australia would extend a similar reception to the one offered the 1909 American Schoolboys team and had intended to play numerous matches across Australia. However, the team was left in the lurch when the AFC refused to recognise the touring party which was not affiliated to it and officially declined participation from Australia's two most powerful leagues, the Victorian Football League and the South Australian Football Association. Like the American tour, it was supported only by Western Australia's Young Australia League and the New South Wales Football Association (NSWAFA).

New South Wales

A. E. Nash president of the NSWAFA saw it as an opportunity to promote the idea that the game was spreading abroad. This was something that the NSWAFA in particular believed was important to appeal to the Sydney public which had gained enormous interest in representative rugby. The NSWAFA had invested heavily in a thriving schoolboys competition and sending Sydney schoolboy Eric Cullen-Ward to North America had successfully kick-started the code beyond the league's expectations. The AFC led by the VFL however were convinced that the key to converting Sydneysiders was through its promotion of national competition and as a truly national football code featuring its VFL clubs. Much to the chagrin of the touring Canadians and the NSWAFA, the AFC and VFL scheduled a clashing fixture, featuring the Geelong Football Club against the New South Wales state team. However the AFC's exhibition match move backfired and the Queensland vs New South Wales rugby match being played that week dominated Sydney's media attention. The Canadian tour, swept up in anti-VFL sentiment, was afforded the barest of mentions by the media. Canadian tour manager E.R McTaggart made an advanced visit to promote the match only to have the matches postponed due to Australian organisers difficulties scheduling the tour.

The Cadets arrived on HMS Zealandia in Sydney on 4 August. The Canadians expressed disappointment from the notably cold reception in Sydney, described as "a freezer" and complained to the Sydney papersReception was a "Real Freezer" – Commander of the Vancouver Cadets Complains to Sydney Paper. The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) 18 Sep 1912 Page 5 claiming that they were booed by the Sydney public and had even been discriminated against and abused on public transport purely on the basis of their chosen football code. Organisers claimed that the abuse was so bad that at one point the touring party, mostly self-funded, considered returning home. Captain Davy commented that "the people of Canada won't understand this treatment. They will wonder if there is any thing wrong with the boys or with me. We treated the Australian boys who visited us in a very different fashion". Adding insult to injury the NSWAFA public statement on behalf of the Sydney public placed the blame on the Australasian Football Council and the visiting Canadians. Despite the NSWAFA's "apology" the Government of New South Wales offered a formal apology and refunded the expenses while visiting the state.Melbourne was Very Friendly. New South Wales Refunding the Money Spent in that state. The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)27 Sep 1912 Page 13 Officials from Newcastle and Goulburn made a concerted effort to atone for Sydney's hostile reception for the scheduled visits however the matches were abandoned due to state of the football grounds. The Sydney matches themselves were low key events, and were rescheduled several times during and there was much difficulty securing grounds to play from rugby authorities. Reportedly skills, particularly bouncing the ball, let the touring side down, though they were competitive against the Australians.

Tour Date Location Result 7 August 1912 Sydney Football Ground, Sydney Canada 2.9 (21) def. by New South Wales schoolboys 8.12 (60) 10 August 1912 Sydney Football Ground, Sydney Canada 4.12 (38) def. by New South Wales schoolboys 8.8 (56)Was a curtain raiser to the Geelong vs NSW match

Victoria In contrast to the New South Wales tour, the cadets received a parade in Melbourne and a full page welcoming in The Argus. However they faced a stern lack of support from Victorian football authorities, the cadets who had trained to play in the home of football, instead competed and lost in other sports including lacrosse at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. A rare exception was during the visit to Newport a local amateur team agreed to play an unsanctioned match and were completely shocked to have been soundly beaten by the visitors.

Tour Date Location Result 27 August 1912 Newport, Victoria Canada 6.0 (36) def Newport 2.0 (12)

Western Australia

The Canadians went on to Western Australia where they were greeted with much fanfare and were hosted by the WAFL (who had sponsored the Young Australia League) where they would play several matches and with the experience gathered on the tour, displayed much improved performance. In Perth, the West Australian Football League organised a match featuring the Young Australia League Matches in West Australia drew by far the largest attendances of the Australian tour.

11 September 1912 Perth Oval, Perth, Western Australia Canada 5.5 def. by Young Australia League 7.3 11 September 1912 Perth Oval, Perth, Western Australia Canada 3.7 def 88th Cadets (East Perth) 0.4 Christian Brothers College, Fremantle Canada 7.3 def Christian Brothers College 3.10 Canada 2.0 def. by Goldfields 8.0 Canada 2.8 drew Busselton 2.8 Christian Brothers College, Fremantle Canada 7.5 def Christian Brothers College 4.7 1 October 1912 Midland Junction Canada 5.8 defeated Kendall 3.3

Australia declines support and demise of the game: 1914–1919