Technological advances can lead to major changes in a society. This oil painting, entitled Lights of a City Street, was painted by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith in 1894. It depicts the busy intersection of King Street and Yonge Street in Toronto. What evidence of technology can you see in this painting?

After Confederation, Canadians experienced huge changes due to advances in technology. New technologies such as electricity and the telephone changed life at home and at work, in the countryside as well as in cities. Larger farm operations began to replace smaller family farms. Canadians and new immigrants flocked to cities to find work. The daily lives of men, women, and children changed dramatically.

Toronto and Montréal were Canada’s largest industrial cities. What was life really like in these growing cities? As you read, consider how technological advances changed people’s lives, and whether those changes were positive or negative.

The period from 1890 to 1905 was significant in the history of industrialization in Canada. Industrialization is a process in which technology and machinery replace the bulk of traditional manual labour tasks. Before industrialization, people had produced goods by hand. During the industrialization period, newly invented machines were being used in factories to produce goods more quickly and at a lower cost. For example, previously, one carpenter would have made a chair from start to finish. In the new industrialized model, several people using machines would each make a part of the chair.

Before industrialization, farm life required very hard work with basic tools. New farm machines that were available in the late 1800s were usually too expensive for people living on small, family-run farms to buy. Examine the picture, which shows a farmer using horses and technology to do work that had previously been done by hand. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using these new technologies?

Owners of large farms could afford to buy new machines that would enable them to work more land. Since owners of smaller farms could not afford the new machinery, they could not compete and struggled financially. In an attempt to improve their financial situation, many moved to cities to find work.

Montréal was the largest city in Canada in 1901, with a population of 267,730. Toronto’s population was close behind, with 208,040 people. Within 10 years, the population of Montréal increased dramatically to 490,504. Smaller Canadian cities also experienced rapid growth. Ottawa’s population grew 47 percent in the same decade, to reach 87,000. Examine the picture which shows a street scene in Ottawa. What features do you see in this photo that might have attracted people to city life?

The movement of people from farms to the cities was not the only reason the urban population was increasing. Before the 1850s, most new immigrants began their lives in Canada as farmers.

During the industrialization period, some immigrants still sought land to farm, especially in the Prairies. Many, however, moved to industrial cities to find work in manufacturing or service industries (such as working in shops or restaurants). While many of these urban workers hoped to make enough money in the cities to buy farmland, others wanted either to find ways of making a good living in the city or to return to their home country with their savings.

In this period, the majority of immigrants came to Canada from Britain, the United States, and some countries in Europe. Europe was overcrowded, and there was neither enough farmland nor industrial jobs available for everyone. In some countries, minorities were mistreated, and they hoped to move to a country where they could live in peace and security. For most of the 1800s, European immigrants hoping to improve their lives moved to the United States.

After 1890, most of the available farmland there had already been taken up by settlers. Canada advertised relatively cheap farmland. Its industrial cities offered wage-paying jobs, and its lumber and mining industries needed labourers. Close to 2 million immigrants came to Canada between 1891 and 1911.

Industrialization caused important changes in the economic status (the income or financial well-being) of different groups in society. Factories and machinery lowered the cost of manufacturing goods, so profits rose. However, building the factories and buying the machines required a lot of money before any profits could be made. This meant it was easier for wealthy people to take advantage of the advances in technology. In addition, there were no laws about a minimum amount employees had to be paid. Business owners became wealthier as a result, while the economic situation of their employees often did not improve, or got worse.

Wealthy people lived mainly in cities where their businesses were located. They had large homes and hosted elaborate parties. Many wealthy people had a second residence where they would spend their holidays. Life for the people who worked in factories, in offices, and in the homes of the wealthy was less pleasant than that of their employers. People from the working class made an average wage of $32 per month at a time when the cost of living for a typical family of five was $48 per month.

The pictures below show a home in a working-class district of Montréal in 1903 and the home of a wealthy Montréal business owner in 1901. What can you learn about the daily living conditions of the families living in these homes?

In factory areas such as Griffintown in Montréal and the Distillery District in Toronto, workers lived in crowded housing near the factory buildings. There was not enough housing close to factories for all of the workers, so working-class districts expanded. Workers living farther away from the factories needed transportation to get to work.

Gas-powered automobiles like the LeRoy were available for purchase by the early 1900s, but very few people could afford to buy one. The price of the Canadian-made LeRoy in 1903 was $650. The average Canadian yearly income of male and female production workers in 1905 was $375. Most people had to use other means of transportation developing at that time.

ELECTRIC STREETCARS

Between 1880 and 1900, large cities in Canada adopted new transportation methods to move people around. These included replacing horse-drawn streetcars with electric streetcars. Improved transportation systems meant that people could get around more easily and live farther from where they worked. This caused the cities to spread out. Examine the photo in

The picture shows the installation of many electric streetcar tracks inToronto in 1892. How do you think the availability of new electric streetcars would change the lives of city residents?

BICYCLES

Bicycles were an important method of transportation in the 1890s, and they grew in popularity as bicycle technology improved. The new bicycles had two wheels of equal size, making them easier and safer to ride.

A bicycle craze broke out in Canadian cities, particularly among women. They were able to travel with greater ease and independence. Cycling also influenced how women dressed, with the introduction of shorter skirts and split skirts. In what other ways do you think the availability of bicycles would ease the daily lives of many women?

Between 1890 and 1905, there was great variation in the daily lives of children in Canada. Some children attended school, while others worked on their family farms or in factories, and still others did a combination of all three. A child’s life was largely determined by the economic status of his or her family. During most of the 1800s, children were considered to be young adults by the age of 13. In working-class families, they had to begin helping to support the family early in life. By the age of 10, most boys and girls in urban areas had left school to work, some of them in factories and others as servants in people’s homes. Some children worked on the city streets delivering newspapers, shining shoes, or running errands. Look again at the chapter opener image. What type of work do you see some children doing?

The pictures shows a boy selling newspapers to earn a living in Montréal in 1905. The minimum working age in Québec at this time was 13, but the law did not apply to newspaper vendors. How do you think this child’s daily life might be different from the daily life of a child who did not have to work?

LAWS FOR CHILDREN

By the end of the 1800s, common attitudes about children were changing. Many people in the middle class began to see childhood as a time for education and play, and they no longer saw children as young adults. Laws were passed that prevented children from participating in activities now considered to be part of the adult world. Child labour was discouraged. Children were banned from entering saloons, pool rooms, and dance halls. They were no longer allowed to beg or perform on the street. Parliament passed legislation in 1892 that allowed the provinces to create separate courts for children up to the age of 16 who had been accused of a crime.

PUBLIC EDUCATION

Problems associated with immigration, industrialization, and urbanization were becoming more apparent. There was a growing sense that schools were needed to educate all children to meet the challenges of adulthood. Like today, in the late 1800s provincial governments controlled education. For example, in 1871, the Ontario government made it mandatory for children to attend elementary school for a few months a year. By 1900, elementary school was mandatory in all provinces except for Québec. Despite the new laws, only the children of wealthy families were able to attend school for long periods of time. In 1911, 40 percent of Canadian children aged 5 to 9, and 50 percent of children aged 10 to 19, were attending school. Children in rural areas would attend school seasonally, outside of busy planting and harvest times.

How does this situation compare to the experience of First Nations children in residential schools?

This 1896 photo shows a school in Renfrew county, Ontario. This 1905 photo shows a school in Pembroke, Ontario. What similarities and differences can you see between these two schools?

1. Why were people moving to the cities? What impact did this have on Canada's population?

2. How is transportation in Canadian cities today similar to what it was around 1905? How is it different?

3. What were some of the similarities and differences between the lives of wealthy people and working-class people at this time?