Shaping an identity: Cultural preservation and Canadianization in the Finnish community of Northern Ontario in the early Cold War period, 1945-1960.

摘要

In the years following World War II, Canada opened its doors to immigration and thousands of newcomers flooded into the country. During this period of immigration approximately 17, 000 Finnish immigrants entered the country and moved into many pre-existing Finnish-Canadian settlements, particularly in Northern Ontario. The Finnish community in Canada was largely polarized between right-wing conservatives and nationalists, and left-wing socialists and progressives. This polarization has affected much of the historical scholarship on the subject, as the actions of Finnish-Canadians in left-wing politics and labour militancy have been thoroughly investigated. However, analyses of the similarities and differences between these opposing factions have been largely neglected. This thesis explores the similarities among right- and left-wing Finnish Canadians in terms of their attitudes towards cultural preservation and Canadianization. It utilizes both the right- and left-wing Finnish-Canadian press to determine the types of messages that these immigrants were being presented about preserving their culture as well as retaining their identity in their adopted land. To analyze the messages being sent to right wing Finnish-Canadians, serial literature and articles in the conservative newspaper Canadan Uutiset (Canadian News) will be used. To determine what the left-wing Finnish-Canadian press 'expressed to its readers, letters from children and the editors of a youth page entitled "Perheen Nuoremmille" (For the Family's Youngest) in the socialist newspaper Vapaus (Liberty) will be analyzed. Based on this analysis, this thesis argues that right- and left-wing Finnish-Canadians were more alike than different in their efforts to preserve their culture and the levels to which they sought to Canadianize. Furthermore this thesis will examine the extent to which language, community and generation influenced cultural preservation and assimilation. iii