From Cape Breton to Vancouver Island: Studying the Scots in Canada

This historiographical essay surveys scholarship on Scottish settlement in Canada which it classifies into three broad categories: first, works that focus on the contribution of notable Scots; second, scholarship that examines the ‘Scottish’ character of Nova Scotia; and third, investigations of Highland enclave settlements – especially in eastern Canada. The study argues that the relatively neglected experience of Scots in British Columbia offers the most fruitful comparison with the circumstances of Scottish settlers in New Zealand. In both contexts, Scottish migration contributed to the dispossession of large numbers of indigenous peoples even as some Scots contributed significantly to trade unionism and international socialist movements that sought to bring social justice to all peoples regardless of ethnicity.