THE FIRST SWEDISH immigrants to Canada arrived in the early 1870s as part of the mass migration to North America. Most of these early settlers entered Canada by way of the United States, via Minnesota and North Dakota, as land settlement policies became more restrictive in the American West. Facing mounting debts and few opportunities for expansion, thousands of Swedish immigrant farmers moved from the United States initially to Winnipeg, then fanned out across the prairies. The vigorous advertising campaign mounted by land agents of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion Government had struck a deep chord with Swedes, now wise in the ways of prairie farming and looking for a second chance. Swedish rural settlement in Manitoba first began in 1885 at a colony named Scandinavia, near the present-day town of Erickson. During the first decade of the twentieth century, other Swedish settlements, such as Smoland, would be established in the area between the towns of Teulon and Inwood in Manitoba’s Interlake district. Saskatchewan would also have along history of Swedish settlement. One of the first Swedish settlers in Saskatchewan was Emmanual Ohlann, who founded the community of Stockholm north of the Qu’Appelle River in 1905. Here, Swedish immigrants engaged in mixed farming, some lumbering, and fishing. Other Saskatchewan communities that drew Swedish settlers include Broadview, Buchanan, Canwood, Elfros, Hendon, Kipling, Percival, Prince Albert, Melfort, and Wadena. In Alberta, Swedes were highly concentrated in local farming communities such as Wetaskiwin, New Sweden, Calmar, Falun, Malmo, Thorsby, and Westerose, communities situated between the cities of Calgary and Edmonton. In turn, Swedish Canadians involved in railway building and logging would make their way to British Columbia, establishing a group presence in Revelstoke, Campbell River, Cranbrook, Greenwood, Kimberley, Malakwa, Matsqui, Nelson, Port Alberni, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Rossland, Silverhill, Smithers, and Trail. The main concentration of Swedes in Ontario at this time was in the northwestern districts of Kenora, Rainy River, Sudbury, and the Lakehead. Only a handful of these early arrivals could be found in eastern Canada, around and about the city of Montreal and in the Maritimes.

By the eve of the First World War, Winnipeg had emerged as the leading centre for Swedish culture and activities in Canada. The initial community network was developed in Winnipeg to meet the needs of Canadians of Swedish origin. The first Swedish-language newspaper and community church were founded inWinnipeg in 1886 and 1889 respectively. As well, various Swedish national and community organizations got their start in the city. The interwar period, however, marked the beginning of a gradual shift of population from the farms to this nation’s urban centres and industrial areas. Swedish workmen and industrial labourers, as well as a later phalanx of postwar arrivals including engineers, businessmen, and representatives of Swedish export industries, all gravitated to Canada’s major cities and the economic opportunities to be found there. The 1996 Canadian census reports 31,200 individuals of wholly Swedish origin and another 247,775 who describe Swedish as one of their ethnic origins, for a total of 278,975. A total of 90,490 had settled in British Columbia, 71,910 in Alberta, 54,525 in Ontario, 30,775 in Saskatchewan, and 19,885 in Manitoba, representing the major Swedish provincial centres in Canada. Swedish communities range in size from Vancouver’s 18,690 through such centres as Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, and Winnipeg, with 6,000 to 11,000, to cities like Montreal, Victoria, Saskatoon, Regina, and Thunder Bay with 2,500 to 4,800 members.

Several groups form the institutional structure of the Swedish-Canadian community. Canadian lodge members of the Vasa Order of America, such as those belonging to the Strindberg Lodge of Winnipeg, founded in 1913, dealt with the sick, the maimed, the dead, and forgotten during the early and vulnerable settler period. Only with the growth of unionism, occupational diversity, and improved safety conditions on the job did the Order grow into a social and cultural club. Members of the ethnocommunity were also strong supporters of the temperance movement in Canada. Swedish chapters of the International Order of Good Templars (IOGT), in conjunction with their temperance program efforts, soon expanded the scope of their work by sponsoring reading circles and other literary activities and putting on plays, bazaars, and picnics. More recently, modern organizations such as the Swedish Women’s Educational Association, the Svenska Klubbeni Montreal and the Svenska Herrklubban (Vancouver), continue to advance Swedish traditions and celebrate the culture of the homeland.

As well, Swedes quickly and successfully gained acceptance in Canadian society. The group contributed much to cooperatives, credit unions, and wheat pools in the West. It also played an important role in the struggle to establish a union in the lumber industry in British Columbia during the 1930s. It follows that Canadians of Swedish origin would eventually be drawn into Canadian politics, beginning as citizen electors and as brokers between their community and Canadian parties. The Swedish Liberal Club of Winnipeg, which was founded in 1908, encouraged many to become naturalized or to take full advantage of their rights as citizens, and to know and understand the workings of the Canadian political process. British Columbia provides an illustration of the political maturity reached by the Swedes during the interwar period. Liberal candidate Olof Hanson, for example, was elected to the House of Commons in 1930. Rolf Wallgren Bruhn, first elected to the provincial legislature in 1924, became minister of public works in 1931. Swedish Canadians also made political strides in Saskatchewan as supporters of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and in Alberta as supporters of Social Credit. Of note is Alberta-born Harry Strom who grasped a political brass ring when he became premier in 1968.