Ukrainians first came to Canada in the 19th century. The initial influx came as Canada government promoted the immigration of farmers. During the First World War, thousands of Ukrainian Canadians were imprisoned as enemy aliens due to their origins in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to 2016 Census, Ukrainian Canadians number 1,359,655 or 3.8 per cent of the country's population and are mainly Canadian-born citizens.
Ukrainian immigrants and their descendants have left a profound mark on the development of Ontario and Western Canada. They have made and continue to make remarkable contributions to Canada in the fields of culture, the economy, politics and sports. Distinguished Canadians of Ukrainian ethnic origin include Stephen Worobetz, Michael Luchkovich, Sylvia Fedoruk, Peter Liba, Ramon Hnatyshyn, Paul Yuzyk, Roy Romanow, Gary Filmon, Ernest Eves, Mary Batten, Filip Konowal, Jaroslav Rudnyckyj, William Kurulek, Luba Kowalchyk, Luba Goy, George Ryga and Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman to walk in space, as well as many players in the National Hockey League, such as Johnny Bucyk, Wayne Gretzky, Dale Hawerchuk and Mike Bossy.
Economic Life
Ukrainians homesteaded initially with limited capital, outdated technology and no experience with large-scale agriculture. High wheat prices during the First World War led to expansion based on wheat, but during the 1930s, mixed farming prevailed. Since the Second World War mechanization, scientific agriculture and out-migration (movement to a different part of a country or territory) in the Ukrainian blocks have paralleled developments elsewhere in rural western Canada. Largely unskilled, Ukrainian male wage earners found jobs as city labourers, miners, and railway and forestry workers; their female counterparts became domestic servants, waitresses and hotel help (see Domestic Service in Canada). Discrimination and exploitation radicalized many Ukrainian labourers. As a group, Ukrainians benefited from occupational diversification and specialization only after the 1920s; teaching was the first profession to attract significant numbers of both men and women.
By 1971, the proportion of Ukrainian Canadians in agriculture had decreased to 11.2 per cent, slightly above the Canadian average, and unskilled workers to 3.5 per cent of the Ukrainian male labour force. In 1991, Ukrainians remained overrepresented in agriculture compared to Canadians as a whole, but they were well distributed across the economic spectrum, including the more prestigious and semi-professional and professional categories.