Dominion of Mercy - Canada Bound

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 The movement of individuals of one country into another for the purpose of resettlement is central to Canadian history. The story of Canadian immigration is not one of orderly population growth; instead, it has been — and remains one — about economic development as well as Canadian attitudes and values. It has often been unashamedly economically self-serving and ethnically or racially discriminatory despite contributing to creating a multicultural society (see Immigration Policy in Canada; Refugees to Canada). Immigration has also contributed to dispossessing Indigenous peoples of their ancestral lands.

Canadian Encyclopedia

 

So, it was, for my fictional heroine, leaving all that she knew for a better life. That one motivation is not without its self-serving aims. Conditions in Europe in 1917 were dire. A world war raged. Poverty in Scotland, as well orphaned children of the war, made the prospects of a new beginning appealing, if not essential. Of course it is self-serving. When one seeks a better life for themselves, they leave all that they know, family, friends, the very country of their birth. It is such a courageous act, to leave it all behind with nothing but your hope, and your dreams. Thus a country is shaped as immigration is played out over and over - human beings seeking a new life, a new beginning.

Mary Stewart represents my ancestors who ventured across the Atlantic Ocean bound for opportunity in the beginning of the twentieth century. I know their story well. It is what I attaches me to my past. I can see the direct line. I can write with some authority, some small measure of knowing of that particular time. It is a story of my grand imaginings. But people came by the thousands, on great steamships, many of which were destroyed by German U Boats. It has been repeated countless times. And it all unfolded within the limits of consciousness of the day. The fact that the country had a founding people, a culture, did not dissuade settlement. We are slowing waking up to the impact of such ambition. Accountability still informs us, reminds us that it does not lapse. 



 

 

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