Emigration to the U.S. hits a 10-year high as tens of thousands of Canadians head south. It has never been more Trudeauver

To many people living in the United States, Canada barely registers on their mental radar screens. If they think about Canada at all, they most likely imagine it as a mere geographic entity—a huge chunk of frigid continent stretching from coast to coast and up to the Arctic Circle, responsible for much of our bad weather. If they think further, they might associate Canada with universal health care or with the constant bickering between French and Anglo Canadians. They might have learned that Canada provided a haven for African Americans escaping slavery and for antiwar Americans escaping service in the draft during the Vietnam era. They might even know the names of some famous Canadians: celebrities and rock stars like Avril Lavigne, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, and the late newscaster Peter Jennings.

But few would think that throughout the nineteenth century, Canada was a constant source of population and workforce for the United States. In fact, Canadian day-laborers, small farmers, and tradesmen began to cross the border in large numbers as the American economy experienced its industrial take-off in the antebellum era, participating as well in the agricultural frontier west of the Ohio Valley. With the unprecedented industrial expansion that followed the American Civil War, Canadian men and women—often along with their families—headed south over the 49th parallel in ever increasing numbers, bringing their labor power to virtually all sectors of the U.S. economy. By the end of the nineteenth century, the number of Canadian-born living in the United States was equal to 22 percent of Canada's total population and those who throughout the century had moved and settled permanently in the United States were estimated at nearly 1.8 million.

OAH Magazine of History, Volume 23, Issue 4, October 2009, Pages 31–34, https://doi.org/10.1093/maghis/23.4.31