Old Stock Canadians
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Old Stock Canadians is a term referring to
European Canadians European Canadians, or Euro-Canadians, are Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the continent of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group within Canada. In the 2021 Canadian census, 19,062,115 Canadians self-i ...
whose family has lived in Canada for several generations. It is used by some to refer exclusively to
anglophone Canadians Canada comprises that part of the population within Canada, whether of British origin or otherwise, that speaks English. The term ''English Canada'' can also be used for one of the following: #Describing all the provinces of Canada that ...
with British settlers ancestors, but it usually refers to either anglophone or francophone Canadians as parallel old stock groups. Francophone Canadians descended from early French settlers in
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
(prior to the British conquest of French Canada in 1763) are sometimes referred to as Québécois
pure laine The French term ''pure laine'' (, often translated as 'old stock' or 'dyed-in-the-wool'), refers to Québécois people of French-Canadian ancestry, especially those descended from the original settlers of New France who arrived during the 17th ...
, often translated as "dyed in the wool", but with the same connotation as old stock.


Definition and use

Elaine Elke defines old stock Canadians as, "white, Christian and English speaking." Richard Bourhis, however, regards both Anglophone and Francophone Canadians as old stock, reporting that large number of both groups self-describe their ethnicity as "Canadian," although he states that many Canadians associate the term with Anglophone identity. Boyd and Norris concur in finding that Canadians primarily associate the term with Anglophone identity. While the term can refer to Canadians who are descendants of settlers or immigrants who have lived in the country for one or more generations as then PM Stephen Harper said in 2015, it is most typically applied to those whose families were originally from France or Britain. For example, Liberal MP
Stéphane Dion Stéphane Maurice Dion (born 28 September 1955) is a Canadian diplomat, academic and former politician who has been the Canadian ambassador to France and Monaco since 2022 and special envoy to the European Union since 2017. Dion was Leader of ...
used the term in 2014 in the following manner: Individuals of Francophone descent who self-describe as "old stock" include journalist
Lysiane Gagnon Lysiane Gagnon is a Canadian journalist based in Quebec. She has written for Montreal's '' La Presse'' since 1980 and Toronto's ''Globe and Mail'' since 1990. Gagnon was born in Montreal in 1941. From 1975 to 1980, she was a parliamentary corresp ...
, "I am an old-stock Canadian whose ancestor, Mathurin Gagnon, came to Canada in 1640 from a small farming community in the western part of Normandy." She describes "old stock" as "those who came from France in the early 17th century and a much smaller group who came from Great Britain in the wake of the 1759 British Conquest." She explains that, "There's never been, in my family, stories or recollections of another kind of life on another continent or memories of an exodus. My forebears never knew another country than Canada. They never had another native language than French. They never cooked meals that were different from their neighbour's. They never had a wide network of cousins in faraway places. As a child, the most 'different' persons I had in my family circle were a Scottish aunt and a few Irish cousins. Coming from an old-stock background (which is the case of 80 per cent of Quebeckers) shapes your personality and influences your views – not always for the best..." According to Gagnon, "Old-stock francophones used to call themselves "French-Canadians" (with a hyphen)," but the term has passed out of fashion. Journalist Tu Thanh Ha concurs. Now they will call themselves Quebecois, as they consider themselves as a distinguished ethnic group of Canada. According to sociolinguist Charles Boberg, while most Canadians reporting their ethnicity in the 2000 census as "Canadian" were "old stock" descendants of French or British immigrant ancestors, descendants of 20th century Welsh, American, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Irish or Scots ancestors were more likely to consider themselves as Canadian, than those of Chinese, Filipino, East Indian, Portuguese, Greek, Vietnamese, or Jamaican descent, indicating that northern Europeans assimilated with old stock Canadians more readily than other groups. Some writers describe the effort to construct a
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
identity encompassing
First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...
peoples, old stock Francophones and Anglophones, and recent immigrants and their Canada-born descendants. During discussions about Quebec's demands to be labelled a "distinct society", then Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...
said that the Province's attempt was a racist concept that would make "second- or third- class citizens of everyone but 'old stock' Quebecers."


Justin Trudeau Controversy

In 2007,
Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
(now Prime Minister), who was then a candidate for the
Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...
, raised the ire of some commentators for using "old stock Canadian" during an interview, dismissing Quebec's claim of being a "nation". He asked: "...whether everyone in Quebec was part of that nation, or just the “old stock” pioneers." In a later speech to the University Club about the distinctiveness of Quebec, he clarified: "In the sociological sense of the term we can talk about the nation of Quebec or Quebec as a nation."


Harper controversy

In the 2015 federal election campaign in Canada, which was taking place against the backdrop of hundreds of thousands of refugees of the Syrian Civil War (2011-) fleeing to Europe, then Prime Minister
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
's use of the appellation 'Old Stock Canadians' created a media frenzy. Harper explained (in reference to a debate on health care policy): "I know that that is a position supported widely through the Canadian population, it's supported by Canadians who are themselves immigrants and also supported by the rest of us, by Canadians who have been the descendants of immigrants for one or more generations." Social researcher
Frank Graves Frank Graves may refer to: * Frank Graves (baseball) (1860–1916), baseball catcher and manager * Frank Graves (pollster), Canadian applied social researcher * Frank Pierrepont Graves (1869–1956), Commissioner of the New York State Education Dep ...
, founder and current president of EKOS Research Associates Inc. described the use of the term 'old-stock Canadians' as a deliberate strategy called
dog-whistle politics In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition. The concept is named after ultrasonic dog whistles, which are audible to dogs bu ...
, a term that originated in
Australian politics The politics of Australia take place within the framework of a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, one of the world's oldest, since F ...
in the mid-1990s, which was used by
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
in his successful political campaign under the direction of
Lynton Crosby Sir Lynton Keith Crosby (born 23 August 1956)''Who's Who in Australia 2015'', ConnectWeb. is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries. Crosby has been described as ...
. Crosby was retained by Harper in September 2015. Graves claimed that this was a "deliberate strategy "to energize the Conservative base' and to sort them from the rest of the electorate. It creates a sense of us versus others." The 'dog-whistle' message analogy refers to the way in which a political message, which may in effect be exclusionary, distasteful and even racist, reactionary or inflammatory to some, is not understood as such by those outside the target subgroup of the electorate. The message resonates and energizes this target group and is misheard or misunderstood by others, just as the high pitched sound of the dog whistle is not heard except by dogs. Tu Thanh Ha linked the phrase not only to "Québécois de souche" but also to Prime Minister Harper's recent hiring of
Lynton Crosby Sir Lynton Keith Crosby (born 23 August 1956)''Who's Who in Australia 2015'', ConnectWeb. is an Australian political strategist who has managed election campaigns for right-of-centre parties in several countries. Crosby has been described as ...
, who is known to win elections "against great odds" in Australia (where he masterminded the successful General Election victories for the former Australian prime minister
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
, in
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
and
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
) and Britain by using "emotionally-charged campaigning tactics". In Canada, divisive polarizing issues include "the ban the ''
niqāb A niqāb or niqaab (; ar, نِقاب ', "aceveil"), also called a ruband, ( fa, روبند) is a garment, usually black, that covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of an interpretation of '' hijab'' (i.e. "modest dress"). Musli ...
'' from citizenship ceremonies and "raising fears about terrorism." Tu Thanh Ha claims that Harper was trying to pitch to minority voters "by drawing a line between the law-abiding ones, whose social values also happened to be conservative, and the others, those who were portrayed as queue-jumping terrorist-sympathizing bogus asylum seekers." In an interview with the ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
''
George Elliott Clarke George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known large ...
, a Canadian
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and a 7th-generation descendant of black refugees of the War of 1812, said,


See also

*
Old Stock Americans Old Stock Americans, Pioneer Stock, or Colonial Stock are Americans who are descended from the original settlers of the Thirteen Colonies of mostly British ancestry who emigrated to British America in the 17th and the 18th centuries. These Old ...
*
Pure laine The French term ''pure laine'' (, often translated as 'old stock' or 'dyed-in-the-wool'), refers to Québécois people of French-Canadian ancestry, especially those descended from the original settlers of New France who arrived during the 17th ...


References

{{reflist, 2 Ethnic groups in Canada Canadian political phrases Racism in Canada