Canadian Immigration and the North Atlantic Trading Company 1899-1906: A Controversy Revisited

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Author: Petryshyn, Jaroslav
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1997
• Subjects: History; Cultural Studies; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jcs.32.3.55; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jcs.32.3.55

Although Canadian immigration history (1896-1914) has been intensively studied and well documented, at least one aspect remains to be clarified - the role and significance of the North Atlantic Trading Company (NATC). In 1899, Clifford Sifton sanctioned a controversial contract with the NATC whereby the Company acquired a monopoly on all Canadian immigration promotional work throughout continental Europe and Scandinavia. While the Laurier administration maintained that the NATC was a legitimate organization which gave good value for the money spent, critics of the government charged that the NATC was a fraud, taking large sums of public funds for services not rendered. The purpose of this paper is to examine the origins and activities of the NATC and to ascertain whether it was an effective agency for procuring immigrants or an elaborate fraud perpetrated by corrupt officials.