•FOREST AND LABOUR
•COLONIZATION AND  AGRICULTURE
•POPULATION
•RELIGION

POPULATION

	For all these families of Quebecers who came to build a French-Canadian community in the four corners of Ontario, life would change in many ways, especially with respect to its population to begin with. illustrator05@hotmail.com

At a time when Quebecers crossed the American frontier in great numbers, a smaller group migrates elsewhere in Canada, especially to Ontario. As it is usually the case in any developing society, immigration rapidly became the main factor in population increase. But, with time, natural movement became the determining factor in the process of growth.

From these various elements, we will see how – at the same time – the Francophones of Ontario distinguished themselves from their fellow countrymen from Quebec, while remaining subject to their past.

1) The role of migrations

In 1961, the population of Ontario residents with French origins reached 647,941, as compared to 75,383 in the federal census of 1871(1). The population growth is such that its number doubles approximately every thirty years. For the period from 1920 to 1950, when complete data is available with respect to the various elements of population growth (births and deaths; immigration and emigration), the annual rate of growth is 22%, which represents a doubling time of approximately thirty-two years. An overview of our first table confirms, moreover, not only the extreme vitality of the francophone population, but indicates that the francophone population, at all times, evolves more rapidly than its Ontarian counterpart. A closer study, decade by decade, also reveals the strong growth of the francophone population, particularly from 1901 onwards.

Expressed as a reflection of population growth, the francophone population of Ontario – for the periods 1871 to 1961 and 1931 to 1961 – multiplied by respective factors of 4.0 and 2.16, for an average annual rate of 2.40% each. On the other hand, the population of Ontario multiplied itself by respective factors of 3.85 and 1.81 with an average annual rate of growth, respectively, of 1.4% and 1.9%. Translated on a decadal basis, the data for francophone Ontario are positive, as much at the beginning as at the end of the periods. The following table outlines this state of things.

The rapid rhythm of population growth that occurred during these ninety years is the result of the joint action of immigration and natural growth. The rate of natural growth, which varies around 1.5% in a population with a high birth rate, does not explain by itself the strong growth figures. Growth due to migration accounts for the excess. Upon reading this second table, the rapid population growth shows up clearly in two stages: first, in the 19th century during the era of colonization, then at the end of the period when the strong current of urbanization following the war brought on a correspondingly substantial increase of the francophone population. An analysis of the net migration allows us to gain a clearer idea of the weight of immigration in the growth of the francophone population. For the period from 1921 to 1950, the migration data are positive, increasing constantly, but, in the overall picture, contributing nonetheless a bit less than natural movement to total growth. In these thirty years, migration accounts – on average – for 43.3% of population growth. However, these figures are slightly superior to those of the province where the contribution of migration to the population base, for the same period, hovered around 39.8%. Note that, in the 1930’s, the net francophone immigration represented 50.3% of migration growth in Ontario. All these figures reflect the major role of economic difficulties in the push to migration. It must be noted that francophone Quebec experienced, on its part, an upward trend. In fact, the decade of the thirties is the first since 1841 to record positive migration data, which is attributed to the “return” of Franco-Americans. However, this trend will be short-lived, as the migration data will become negative again in the following decade. Table 3 allows us to compare the role of migration in the growth of francophone communities in Ontario and in Quebec as well as growth in Ontario as a whole.

2) Natural growth
If, as we have stated, migration played a determining role in the demographic development of francophone Ontario, it does not mean that the population did not increase also in great part due to a significant excess of births over deaths, since natural growth equalled or exceeded growth due to net migration (see Table 3). To have a better idea of the evolution of births and deaths, we have reproduced a table that highlights this element of growth.A quick glance at Tables 3 and 4 indicate that, in the decade of the twenties, population increased mainly due to the excess of births over deaths, which accounted for 70.9% of total population growth.

However, at the time of the Great Depression, the situation is reversed, since the contribution of natural growth to the increase in population underwent a considerable decline. Naturally, it is immigration that then prevents a slowing of population growth. Further, the strong increase – in absolute numbers – of the excess of births over deaths in the following decade, which accented the baby boom effect, highlights the extraordinary character of growth during this period. This evolution, when translated into growth rates, expresses itself as follows.

It is obvious that a transformation of the demographic composition is underway and that this process would be more advanced in Ontario than in Quebec. In fact, the decrease in rates of natality and mortality progresses more rapidly in Ontario and in francophone Ontario where nuptiality increases in greater fashion than in Quebec. It is true that, from 1941 to 1950, rates of natality increase in Ontario and in francophone Quebec but, in francophone Ontario, there is no change in the decrease, irrespective of the baby boom.

Nevertheless, in Quebec and in Ontario, in a general sense, the decrease in fertility continues in spite of the increase in natality during the decade 1941 to 1950.

As these numbers relating to marital status and rates of fertility are not split up according to various ethnic groups, we will have recourse to another type of source in relation to fertility in order to verify certain hypotheses with respect to the modalities of demographic transition(2) at these three levels.

	Elzéar Marin and Marie-Louise Soucy, with their progeny. The Marin-Soucy couple produced eleven children between 1916 and 1935. Their daughter Irene, who married Jean-Baptiste D'Amours in 1939, would have only four children between 1939 and 1954. We realize that the era of «la revanche des berceaux» (*) is over and that there will no longer be high rates of natality. A railroad worker by trade, Elzéar Marin leaves Saint-Damasse (Bas-du Fleuve), in 1918 for employment as a foreman on the railway in Kapuskasing. Son of a farmer at Trois-Pistoles (Bas-du-Fleuve), the young Jean-Baptiste D'Amours leaves his natural environment to set himself up on a farm in Moonbeam in 1924.

Quebec women of French-Canadian origin already born and married near the end of the 1880’s (65 years of age or older in 1961) and living in rural areas had, on average, 7.6 children. On the other hand, those who lived on farms had, on average, 8.31 children, a rate that was akin to those of the 18th century in Canada. As for women born around 1910 (60 to 64 years old in 1961) and living in rural areas, they had, on average, 7.22 children. Quebec women of the same age group, who lived on farms, and always in 1961, had nearly as many children as their elders: 8.20 on average. Let us note however that French-Canadian women having reached the very end of their fertile period in 1961 (45 to 49 years of age) still had, on average, 4.31 children. This was, according to demographers Henripin and Peron, a very high rate for an urbanized society(3). If the fertility of women living in urban areas diminished more rapidly than those of their counterparts in rural Quebec, the difference was even more pronounced in this respect when comparing their fertility rates to those of Ontarian women whose rates were both much lower and declining more rapidly. Even if Ontarian women of French origin persisted in maintaining the demographic pattern of the environment of their origin, it is clear that the change of environment contributed to changing the behaviour of these women. The lower fertility rates of these women were, without doubt, a result of adaptation to the social climate of the host province that was more industrialized and urbanized than Quebec. This being given, there is no doubt that the process of demographic transition was more advanced in francophone Ontario than in the native land of Francophones. The following table seems to confirm this reality.

(*) «La revanche des berceaux» is a French term with no English equivalent, which roughly translates as «revenge through the cradle», and means that the francophone population gains its revenge for the loss of its land through a greater number of births.

CONCLUSION

The francophone population of Ontario has experienced significant growth since the second half of the 19th century. The increase in this population that was, to begin with, the result of immigration, became more and more the product of natural movement. Thus, little by little, thanks to the combined effects of migrations and natural movement, a new community took shape and acquired greater proportions. These Francophones of Ontario, without saying that they finished by forming a distinct ethnic group – if, of course, we accept the notion that language does not constitute, by itself, an element of differentiation – demonstrate certain distinctions in relation to the Francophones of Quebec, as much by their migratory behaviour as their demographic behaviour. We believe that we have demonstrated clearly that there are similarities and differences between the Francophones of Ontario and the Francophones of Quebec. Therefore, if it is obvious that the Francophones of Ontario were no longer Quebecers, in many ways, who were they? It seems that their relations with their adopted land gave them an Ontarian affinity without causing them to erase all traces of their origins. It is this affirmation, as a distinct community, that makes them neither Quebecers nor Ontarians but Franco-Ontarians.

	Irene D'Amours with her progeny, summer 1942.

1. I wish to thank professor Fernand Ouellet for his advice and for having accepted to reread my work. I wish to thank also Pierre Beaulne, André Cellard and Gérald Pelletier for their availability. Clarification: the numerical data are culled from two main sources: (i) the census of Canada, 1851-1961, where the statistical data taken directly from the federal censuses are based according to ethnic origin, except those used for Ontario as a whole, in which case the population of Ontario as a whole has been surveyed; (ii) the vital statistics from Statistics Canada: compilation of births was based upon data taken from annual reports on vital statistics according to racial origin of fathers and mothers; deaths were similarly classified according to racial origin of the deceased; but data referring to the province of Ontario include Ontarians of all racial origins.

With respect to the methodology used to determine the average annual rate of growth, refer to Accroissement et structure de la population à Québec au début du XIXe siècle by Michel Paillé, Histoire sociale / Social History, vol. 9, number 17 (May 1976), pp. 188-190.

2. According to the theory of demographic transition, economic development would be the cause for a decrease of fertility, natality and mortality.

3. Jacques Henripin and Yves Peron, La transition démographique de la province de Québec, in La population du Québec: études rétrospectives, by Hubert Charbonneau, Montreal, Boréal Express, 1973, p. 41.