Grade by Grade
B. Canada, 1890–1914: A Changing Society · Canada, 1890–1914: A Changing Society

Canada in 1890: Setting the Scene

B1 B2 B3About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can describe what Canada looked like in 1890: its provinces, territories, people and way of life.
  • I can name the big changes that will happen in Canada between 1890 and 1914.
  • I can use the four historical thinking concepts, with a focus on continuity and change.
  • I can explain why historians need sources from many different groups.

Words to know

Dominion of Canada
The name of the country created at Confederation in 1867. In 1890 it was still part of the British Empire.
North-West Territories
In 1890, the huge area between Manitoba and British Columbia and to the north, governed from Ottawa. Alberta, Saskatchewan and much of the North were carved out of it later.
rural
Living in the countryside, on farms or in small villages.
urban
Living in towns and cities.
continuity and change
A historical thinking concept: what stayed the same over time, and what changed.
historical perspective
How people at the time saw events, based on who they were and what they experienced.
industrialization
The change from making things by hand at home or in small shops to making them by machine in factories.

Let's start with a question

Think of your own day so far. Did you use electricity? Ride in a car or bus? Look at a phone? Eat food grown far away?

Now imagine 1890. Most Canadians lived on farms. Most homes had no electricity. Cars had not arrived. Most people travelled by horse, on foot, by boat or by train.

In the 24 years from 1890 to 1914, Canada changed faster than ever before. Millions of people arrived. Two new provinces were created. Cities and factories grew. People fought for better working conditions and for women's right to vote. And some groups faced harsh discrimination. This unit asks: who gained from these changes, who paid the price, and how did people push back?

A white wooden farmhouse, a weathered grey barn, split-rail fences and an old wooden farm wagon on a dirt lane at a heritage village museum.
A farmstead like this one, preserved at a heritage village today, shows how most Canadians lived in 1890: on farms, with wagons and horses instead of cars, and no electricity. AI-generated image

Remember from Grade 7 and Strand A

In Grade 7 History you learned to think like a historian: you used primary and secondary sources, the historical inquiry process, and the four historical thinking concepts. You also studied Black community builders like those at Buxton and Wilberforce.

In Strand A of Grade 8 History (Creating Canada, 1850–1890), you study Confederation in 1867, the numbered treaties, the Indian Act of 1876, the Red River Resistance and the North-West Resistance, and the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This unit starts where Strand A ends.

Canada in 1890

In 1890, Canada was a young country, only 23 years old. It was part of the British Empire, and Britain still controlled Canada's relations with other countries.

  • Seven provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island.
  • The North-West Territories: everything else in the West and North, governed from Ottawa. There was no Alberta, Saskatchewan or Yukon yet.
  • Newfoundland was a separate British colony. It did not join Canada until 1949.
  • About 4.8 million people lived in Canada, mostly in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Most lived in the countryside.
  • The Prime Minister was Sir John A. Macdonald. He died in 1891.
  • The Canadian Pacific Railway had been finished in 1885, linking the East to British Columbia.
People living in Canada (census counts)4.8 million18915.4 million19017.2 million1911+1.8 millionin just tenyears (1901to 1911)
Canada's population grew slowly in the 1890s, then jumped by 1.8 million between 1901 and 1911 as newcomers poured in. (Bar heights to scale.)
GroupTheir situation around 1890
First NationsLiving in their homelands across the country, many on reserves. Treaties 1 to 7 covered much of the Prairies. The Indian Act controlled many parts of life.
MétisA distinct Indigenous nation. After 1885, many Métis families in the Northwest faced loss of land and hard times, and some moved to new places.
InuitLiving across the Arctic with their own languages, governance and ways of life. Contact with whalers, traders and missionaries was growing.
French CanadiansThe majority in Quebec, with communities in Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and elsewhere. Worried about protecting their language, faith and schools.
English CanadiansThe majority in most provinces. Many felt strong loyalty to Britain and the Empire.
Black CanadiansLong-standing communities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, and a small number in the West, such as rancher John Ware in what is now Alberta.
Chinese CanadiansMany had come to build the CPR. Since 1885 they had to pay a head tax to enter Canada.
Some of the groups living in Canada around 1890. Each had its own hopes, worries and perspective.
18901896 Laurier PM1899 S. African War1905 Alta. and Sask.1911 Borden PM1914 War begins
A timeline of some key events in this unit, 1890 to 1914. Each dot marks one event. (The years are spaced to scale.)

The big changes ahead

Here is a preview of what you will study:

  1. Laurier and French-English relations: schools, language and war.
  2. Settling the West: millions of newcomers and the homestead system.
  3. Black Canadians: homesteaders, ranchers, railway porters and the obstacles they faced.
  4. Who was welcome? The Chinese head tax, the Komagata Maru and other discriminatory policies.
  5. The Klondike Gold Rush and the new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905).
  6. First Nations, Métis and Inuit: new treaties, resistance and resilience.
  7. The Indian Act and residential schools.
  8. Industrialization: railways, factories and hydroelectric power.
  9. City life and working conditions: crowded cities, child labour and unions.
  10. Women and reform: the fight for the vote and better communities.
  11. Your own inquiry: comparing Canada then and now.

Thinking like a historian: continuity and change

This unit asks you to compare Canada in 1890–1914 with Canada today. That uses the concept of continuity and change:

  • Change: something that is different now. Example: in 1890 most Canadians lived in the countryside; today most live in cities.
  • Continuity: something that has stayed the same, or similar. Example: French and English were both spoken in Canada then, and they still are.

A good comparison also asks why things changed and who was affected. Change can be progress for some and decline for others. The arrival of farm settlers on the Prairies meant opportunity for many newcomers, but loss of land and freedom for many First Nations and Métis people.

Worked example

Modelled example: Continuity or change?

Decide whether each is mostly continuity or change from 1890 to today: (a) how people travel between cities; (b) Canada having both French and English speakers; (c) who can vote in federal elections; (d) farming on the Prairies.

  1. Ask: is it basically the same now, or clearly different? Then ask why.
  2. (a) In 1890 people used trains, boats and horses. Today we use cars, planes and trains. Change (new technology), though trains are a small continuity.
  3. (b) Both languages were spoken in 1890 and are today, and both are official languages now. Mostly continuity, with the change that French language rights are now protected by law.
  4. (c) In 1890 only some men could vote. Women and many racialized and Indigenous people could not. Today almost every citizen 18 and older can vote. A big change.
  5. (d) Farming is still central to the Prairies (continuity), but farms are much bigger and use machines (change).

(a) change, (b) mostly continuity, (c) change, (d) both. Many topics show both continuity and change. Saying so, with reasons, is strong historical thinking.

Whose sources survive?

Newspapers, government reports and politicians' letters from 1890–1914 are easy to find. Sources made by First Nations, Métis and Inuit, by women, by Black, Chinese and South Asian Canadians and by factory workers are harder to find, because those groups had less power and their records were less often kept. Historians look for oral histories, community records, photographs, letters and petitions to hear these voices.

Just for fun

One thing that has stayed the same since 1890: Canadians complaining about winter. A historian would call that continuity. Your grandparents would call it "January".

Hands-on activity

Then-and-now kitchen survey

You need: paper, a pencil, and a grown-up to walk around your home with you.

  1. Make two columns: In my home today and In an 1890s farm home.
  2. Walk through your kitchen. List six things you use (for example: fridge, stove, tap, light switch, packaged cereal, phone).
  3. For each one, write what an 1890s family might have used instead (for example: icebox or root cellar, wood stove, well or pump, oil lamp, porridge from their own oats, a letter).
  4. Put a star next to anything that is the same in both columns (perhaps a wooden spoon, a cast-iron pan or bread).
  5. Talk with your grown-up: Which change made the biggest difference? Who did most of the kitchen work in 1890? Is that the same or different today?

Look for: both changes and continuities, with a reason for at least one.

Your turn

1

How many provinces did Canada have in 1890? Name them.

2

Were Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces in 1890?

3

When did Newfoundland join Canada?

4

About how many people lived in Canada in 1890: 480,000, 4.8 million or 48 million?

5

What is the difference between continuity and change?

6

Who became Prime Minister in 1896?

7

Why are sources from factory workers or First Nations families from 1900 harder to find than government reports?

More practice: warm-up

1

Did most Canadians in 1890 live in the countryside or in cities?

2

When was the Canadian Pacific Railway finished?

3

What empire was Canada part of in 1890?

4

Name two of the four historical thinking concepts.

5

In what year does this unit end?

More practice: on your own

1

Give one example of continuity between Canada in 1890 and today, and explain it.

2

Explain why one change can be progress for some people and decline for others. Use an example from this unit's preview.

3

Why might a French Canadian and an English Canadian in 1890 have felt differently about Britain?

4

Name one source you could use to learn about a working-class family in Toronto in 1905, and say one thing it might NOT show.

5

What does "Strand A" of Grade 8 History cover, and how does it connect to this unit?

Challenge

1

A historian writes: "From 1890 to 1914, Canada became a modern country." Give one piece of evidence that supports this and one that complicates it.

2

Why is comparing the past to the present useful, and what is one danger of it?

3

Choose one group from the table. Write an inquiry question about how the years 1890–1914 changed life for that group.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which of these was a province of Canada in 1890?

2.

Who was Prime Minister of Canada in 1890?

3.

Which is an example of change from 1890 to today?

4.

Where did most Canadians live in 1890?

5.

Which historical thinking concept asks "What stayed the same and what is different?"

6.

Why are some groups' voices harder to find in sources from 1890–1914?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson sets the scene for Canada, 1890–1914: A Changing Society. The curriculum asks Grade 8 students to compare Canada in 1890–1914 with Canada today (B1), investigate different groups' perspectives through the inquiry process (B2), and describe significant events, people and issues and their impact (B3).

A note on the curriculum: Ontario's Grade 7 and 8 History was revised for 2026–27. The Ministry has said the revision adds learning about the significant contributions of Black individuals and communities to Canada's foundation, and the obstacles they faced. This unit covers the traditional 1890–1914 topics and gives real weight to Black history of the period. Expectations are tagged with the overall codes B1, B2 and B3 because the 2026 specific codes could not be confirmed.

How to help: Share family stories. When did your family, or the people who lived on your land before you, arrive in or live in this area? Old photos, recipes and objects make good conversation starters.

Heads-up: Later lessons discuss discrimination, residential schools and hard working conditions, including child labour. Each has a note for you.

Common difficulties: Thinking of change as always meaning progress, and forgetting that Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yukon did not yet exist in 1890.