Canada and the British immigrantWeaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
History
Canada and the British immigrant
Weaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Economic conditions
It may be said that this blunder on the part of English people is so
rare and so limited to the wholly uneducated as to be unworthy of
serious attention. But I believe it is common. I know I have heard
Englishmen criticizing the shortcomings of “the Canadians” in Canadian
houses, where they were guests, with a freedom that accounts for a good
deal of prejudice against the new arrivals. Others perpetually grumble
during their first months in the country.
Happily this kind of thing soon wears off in all but the very worst
subjects, and those usually end by returning home, and continuing their
criticism of matters Canadian where they cannot be easily answered.
Happily, also, some English immigrants, blessed with a little
imagination and the sympathetic power of seeing how things will affect
other minds, are free from the disease. It has been suggested that a
good and practical rule for an Englishman would be to make up his mind
to refrain, for at least a year after his landing, from criticism of the
things in Canada that displease him, whether these happen to be manners
or methods, municipal regulations or country roads.
Later, when he has got his bearings, if he chooses to attempt to lead a
reformation, he will find plenty of native-born Canadians to back him;
for, however it may appear in the heat of argument, in nine cases out of
ten, they are just as convinced as the newcomer that neither the country
nor themselves are anywhere within sight of perfection. In twelve months
he may be beginning to feel that he has some part and lot in the
Dominion, and the honest criticism of one who is anxious to improve
conditions which he has tested and believes to be capable of improvement
is a very different matter from the superior and comprehensive
grumblings either of “a fish out of water,” or a mere “bird of passage.”
For convenience I have used the masculine pronoun, but the
woman-immigrant is not free from this sin of rash and ill-mannered
criticism.
Now, in all this I would by no means be understood to be reflecting on
the newcomer, who, having suffered from failure on the part of some
official or private person to carry out his engagements, or having other
real cause of complaint concerning the way in which he has been treated,
demands an investigation into his grievance. Of course, the new arrival
has his rights as much as the native-born, and if he is at any time
ill-used or treated with serious neglect, he will be doing a public
service in calling attention to the wrong-doing. This is very different
from the mere purposeless grumbling and captious criticism to which I
referred above; and while the Dominion and Provincial governments do
their utmost to protect the newcomer against misrepresentation and fraud
and extortion, there are persons in Canada, as elsewhere, on the watch
to take advantage of the inexperienced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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