The Problem of Out-Migration from Atlantic Canada, 1871-1921: A New Look

Abstract

T H E PERIOD FROM THE 1860S TO THE 1920s was a crucial one for Atlantic Canada. During this period both the Maritimes and Newfoundland failed to develop successfully. The Maritimes, despite optimistic beginnings, were ultimately unable to complete their industrial transformation. Newfoundland was unable to diversify out of its single-resource base, which in turn never modernized sufficiently to compete with newer fishing nations. Meanwhile a net figure of close to half a million people left the Maritimes and an unknown but considerable number left Newfoundland. Pondering such data in 1927, R.H. Coats of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics stated that generally speaking the trend in population, especially in a 'new' country, is regarded as an index of its prosperity....The study of population tendencies in the Maritimes...may therefore be regarded as illustrating and reflecting the course of their economic development. In this respect Coats was simply expressing the conventional wisdom of economists concerning migration theory and projecting it, as others have done before and since, onto the region to explain demographic trends over the preceding half-century. Just what role did out-migration play in the relative economic fortunes of the region? Economic historians offer diverse and somewhat conflicting interpretations. In the Maritimes, the most commonly held view is that out-migration was (and indeed still is) a consequence of the failure of the region to industrialize successfully, whereas in Newfoundland overpopulation (and hence a lack of sufficient out-migration) is seen as a cause of worsening economic conditions.