What was the economic impact following the Famine?

The economic impact of the Famine has been studied as a “cost” to Canada. However, the costs of transportation, food and medical care in Canada were met by the British, not Canadian taxpayers. The British Government sent over thousands of pounds to pay Canadian expenses. While it has not been analyzed, the Famine brought economic benefits more than costs to Canada. Canadian sailors transported immigrants, farmers were paid to feed them, and Canadian steamboat companies were paid to carry 80,000 passengers from Grosse Isle to Montreal then to ports along the rivers and lakes of Canada.

The coming of the immigrants led to an expansion of the labour force. Jobs in transport, lumber, farming, and construction were now filled. Railways such as the Grand Trunk Railway, the longest railway in the world up to that time (1850’s), owed much to Irish navvies (play on the word “navigator, “ a canal-building labourer). Contrary to the myths, many Irishmen were skilled workers. Construction workers such as those on the Victoria Bridge at Montreal (1853-59) were, in fact, highly paid for that time. The strong Irish Catholic and Protestant presence in the Canadian countryside before the Famine led many immigrants into rural Ontario. In the United States, most Famine immigrants appeared to have stayed in the towns and cities of the East.

Some of the highly skilled workers who had an impact upon Canada were railway engineers, such as the Shanly brothers. Galt, the Irish founder of the Sun Life Insurance Company in the 1860’s, played a major role in developing Canadian finance at this time.  Lord Shaughnessy’s family had emigrated to Milwaukee in the USA. Shaughnessy moved to Canada, and as head of the Canadian Pacific Railway, became a “peer” (Lord Shaughnessy). Thanks to a famous beer advertisment, he became known as the “peer that made Milwaukee famous.”

Writing in the 1860’s,  Judge, John Francis Maguire comments :

“ The Irish of all denominations represent a vast proportion of the wealth and commercial enterprise of Montreal;…..their position on the whole is in every way excellent. They are not in the least behindhand in industry, energy and active enterprise,when compared with any other portion of the community. As merchants, traders, and manufacturers, Catholic Irishmen, who commenced without capital, other than a moderate share of education, natural intelligence and good conduct, are steadily yet rapidly rising to wealth and social position; and instances without number might be recorded of men who could scarcely write their names when they landed on the wharf of Montreal, who, thanks to their native energy and resolute good conduct, are this day rich and independent.”
(John Francis Maguire, The Irish in America Longmans, Green and Co. (London, 1868) p.9)

Perhaps the most important economic impact following the Famine was the industrialization of Canada. The first phase of Canadian industrialization lasted from about 1850 to 1900 in cities such as Montreal and Toronto. The Irish provided much of the brawn (muscle) and the brains in this major turning point of Canadian economic history.