History
Americans have moved to Canada throughout history. During the American Revolution, many Americans loyal to the British crown left the United States and settled in Canada. These early settlers are called United Empire Loyalists. Many Black Canadians are descendants of African American slaves (Black Loyalist) who fled to Canada during the American Revolution. Similar waves of American immigration occurred during the War of 1812. The Black Refugees in the War of 1812 also fled to Canada and many American slaves also came via the Underground Railroad, most settling in either Halifax, Nova Scotia or Southern Ontario.
In the early 20th century, Canada invited 500,000 to one million American settlers into the farming regions of Prairie Provinces such as Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. In the 1930s, after World War II (1950's) and again the 1970s, another wave of Americans immigrated to Canada, this time many are from the states of Texas and Oklahoma to work in the country's growing oil industry. During the Vietnam War era, many American draft dodgers fled to Canada to avoid the war. About 10,200 Americans moved to Canada in 2006, and this was the highest number since 1977.
Many Canadians living in the U.S. are temporary residents known as "snowbirds" and have residences in the Southern half of the U.S. (i.e. Florida, the Carolinas, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Southern Texas, Southern California and Arizona) during the winter months. Though comparatively much fewer, some Americans from the hotter and more humid areas of the South and Southwest will temporarily reside in Canada during the summer months.
Many Americans in Canada chose to live in major cities such as Toronto and other urban areas of southern Ontario, such as Windsor, facing Detroit, and Niagara Falls, Ontario, across from Niagara Falls, New York, in the Buffalo area. Vancouver; Osoyoos, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; and Calgary, Alberta, also have American expatriate colonies.
For a list of notable Canadians of American descent see Category:Canadian people of American descent. For notable American immigrants see Category:American emigrants to Canada.
Read more about this topic: Canadians Of American Origin
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)