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Industrialization and the h idden urbanization of Acadians Yves Bourgeois, PhD

Industrialization and the h idden urbanization of Acadians Yves Bourgeois, PhD Director , Urban and community studies institute University of New Brunswick Urbanization in Atlantic Canada colloqium Fredericton, 21 November 2013. Conclusion.

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Industrialization and the h idden urbanization of Acadians Yves Bourgeois, PhD

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  1. Industrialization and the hidden urbanization of Acadians Yves Bourgeois, PhD Director, Urban and communitystudiesinstitute University of New Brunswick Urbanization in Atlantic Canada colloqium Fredericton, 21 November 2013

  2. Conclusion • Acadians have been urbanizing for 150 years • Motivated by jobs in industrializing regions • Hidden urbanization: emigration, now low density • 3 overlapping patterns: US (1871-1941), Central Canada (1901- ), NB (1931- ) • Challenges: economic space, efficiency, equity

  3. World Acadian Congress every 5 years • Madawaska 2014 • Party, but also collective brainstorming • Youth out-migration • Language and education • Symbols and identity • Resource sector development • Economic development • Quiz: from what year was the above agenda? • 2014 • 2009 • 2004 • 1994 • 1884

  4. Le petit dérangement • Answer… e) 1884 • Convention nationaleMiscouche 1884 • Colonisation • Langue et education française • Drapeau et chant national • Agriculture • Commerce et industrie • 1884 convention best known for flag and anthem, tho (youth) out-migration and rural colonies were major concerns (news, speeches, corresp, as no surviving transcript of commerce and industry) • Consensus to stem youth exodus to US factories,but Acadians divided between retreating to traditional resource sector (agriculture) and venturing into the new economy (manufacturing)

  5. First Acadian urban policy (1884)…Rurification Villes Say no to scale Where would you like to be at 7am?

  6. Urbanization into US and rural colonization, 1871-1941 • Mgr MF Richard  did not have access to my fancy graphics tools, but his writing rich in imagery • Rapport sur la colonisation. Société de colonisationacadienne (1885) p. 4 • “Acadiens ! Vous avez une patrie; c’est la belle Acadie que vous devez avoir et chérir comme une mère, une mère de douleur, qui vous a enfantée dans les larmes et les persécutions. Votre devoir c’est de la servir, de la défendre, de travailler à sa prospérité. Or vous ne saurez lui être plus utiles qu’en préparant le sol pour qu’Elle répande ses rameaux davantage afin qu’elle puisse élever son front triomphant au soleil des nations. Colonisez, braves fils de braves ancêtres.”

  7. Urbanization into US and rural colonization, 1871-1941 • Propagandist-style fear of industrialization • Church has vested interest – internal colonialism, keep tabs on flock in smaller communities • Yet clerical nationalism  even lay leaders rallied around Church (ex. fight for Acadian bishop), as conflation between “the interest of God, Church and Nation” (Richard)  Acadian / Irish wedge • Emigrating to Charles River textile factories was ethnic suicide  lose language, customs, morals • Urbanizing in NB cities was as much a threat to assimilation (Anglo cities vsFranco villages) • “young men of Cocagne were returning with new clothes and with "the English of a negro. Soaked in United States' liberty, they forget religion and the taste for agriculture." (Moniteuracadien, 18 May 1888)” quoted from Andrew (2005)

  8. Urbanization into US and rural colonization, 1871-1941 • Socio-economic context • Parents subdividing property • indebted and indentured to merchants to whom they sold labour and purchased consumer goods. • Clearing land for agriculture was onerousred tape and usurious • surveyors/commissioners takestumpage fees • 1880s sub-prime scandal  officials grant lands and later seizing property, unable to pay • Richard lobbies GNB against usurious officials… • …while establishing sociétésde colonisation, the Equal opportunities Act of its day, agricultural banks subsidizing settlement of new rural communities via donations from parishioners in established communitiesSt-Louis  Rogersville, Bouctouche Ste-Marie

  9. Urbanization into US and rural colonization, 1871-1941 • At critical juncture of NA industrialization and urbanization, Acadians debated paths forward (ex Poirier proponent of industry) • Planned response  rural colonization • Unplanned response  sustained urbanization / emigration to US  AssomptionVie (1903) by Acadian émigrés to Waltham as testimony of Acadian US emigration • May have slowed assimilation of Acadians staying in NB (16% of NB in 1861 to 36% in 1961), but did not stem out-migration • Would NB urbanization have propelled industry and entrepreneurship ?

  10. Urbanization into Central Canada, 1901- • Relatively little urbanization in NB but explosion from industrialization in Central Canada • SJ had 45% of T.O.’s pop in 1861. 3% 100 yrs later • Between 1931 and 1971 NB lost 140k NBers net • Local institutions buttressed rural (Caisses pop, Coop)

  11. Urbanization at the fringes, 1931- Puzzles • NB’s %pop living in rural communities was 51% in 1961, 43% in 1971, 52% in 1991, 48% 2011 • Between 1961 and 1971 alone, employment fell in Ag (7 to 3%), For (9 to 5%) and Fish (2 to 1%) • 1961-2011 SJ,-Fred-Mon city growth moderate (20%), but their CDs (Westmorland +50%, York +100) and adjacent (Albert 250%, Kings 300%) Hypothesis • Urbanization of rural communities, transformation from resource to post-industrial and bedroom63% work in CAs and CMAs • Gentrification of rural communities (professions, income, specialized services, retail) • Low-density urbanization

  12. New Brunswickers you know ?

  13. Is this a village, town or city ?

  14. Summary • Today’s debates on urbanization, youth migration are anything but new • Acadians as all NBers have long been urbanizing – we do near our cities now • Many rural communities were planned as a counterweight to urbanization • Leaders have planned them for 130 years; people have been urbanizing for 150 • Industrialization, including hybrid of digital and staples economy, exerts pull on our workers and firms • We debate scale of local service delivery, but need to think scale differently when it comes to economic planning to prosper in global production networks

  15. Implications • NB north-south, urban-rural debates distract from global challenges • More useful to think of connected-remote continuum than rural-urban dichotomy • Communities within earshot of CA/CMA – connectivity, transportation, taxation • Outside earshot, sustainability “What’s new? The arena got refurbished. Now it’s back to survival” • Where do we locate schools, hospitals, arenas? • Who pays for amenities and roads to get there • We underinvest in amenity quality and overinvest on quantity and roads

  16. Gérald LeBlanc (1977) Kouchibougouac […] Y’en a qui veniontici Y nous disiont : « Restez! Restez! Vousallezmourirsivoussortez Nous aut’es on est mort d’ennui. » Y’enavaitd’aut’es qui nous disiont « On voudrait se revoir icitte Avec la vieillelampepis le poêleplein de bois On aimemieuxçaquey’ousqu’on est. »

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