Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere
And continuing on that point, Winnipeg was a truly polyglot city with many immigrants from eastern Europe, notably Ukrainians and Jews in the North End. I believe Winnipeg was about one tenth Ukrainian by the 1930s.
Even today there's a high concentration of Ukrainian origin in the northern suburbs, though Jews in Winnipeg after initially moving to northern suburbs shifted southward as they became more affluent.
In contrast, I'm not sure if the other Prairie cities ever really had urban European ethnic enclaves (or later extensions in the suburbs). While all the Prairie cities have many people of Ukrainian descent today, the vast majority of those in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina and Saskatoon probably trace their origin in the city to second and third generation internal migrants from the rural hinterlands; only Winnipeg would have a large number whose ancestors directly immigrated to the city.
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"Germantown" in Regina was an enclave for Slavic (mostly Ukrainian, but there were other groups as well) and German immigrants. It was much poorer than most other areas of the city and is also home to a number of churches/businesses. Off the top of my head: Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches, Serbian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, Ukrainian Co-op, Oskar's German Deli (closed down/taken over by the Ukrainian Co-op). "Chinatown" is now also right in that area... but it was only really ever an area that had a couple Chinese shops concentrated.
But in general, yes, as far as Saskatchewan goes it was the rural areas that had the high concentrations of non-British Isles ethnicities. That said, the highest proportion of Ukrainians were (and somewhat still are) found on a line of settlement that basically runs along the Yellowhead from Winnipeg to Edmonton. Regina and area tended to have heavier German settlement.
I don't know if it is still true, but Saskatchewan for quite a while was the only province where the largest ethnic group wasn't from the 2 "founding nations" (i.e. One of the British Isles countries or French).