Swiss Canadians are Canadian citizens of Swiss ancestry or people who emigrated from

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and reside in Canada. According to the 2016 Census there were 155,120 Canadians who claimed Swiss ancestry, having an increase compared to those 146,830 in the 2011 Census. One of the earliest settlers in Canada was Pierre Miville (d. 1669). Laurenz Ermatinger (1736 to 1789), a fur trader and merchant, arrived in Montreal from Switzerland and together with his son Charles Oakes (1776 to 1833), and Sebastian Freyvogel have explored the large Huron tract. Many Swiss arrived in North America as part of the Swiss mercenaries, some of which later settled in Canada. One of these soldiers was Frederick Haldimand, who served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

and the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. From 1778 to 1786, he served as Governor of the Province of Quebec.The Swiss in Ontario. Joan Magee. Windsor 1991 Another group of Swiss emigrants were

Mennonites Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

who originally settled in Pennsylvania and were descendants of Swiss Anabaptists. In 1786, a group of these Mennonites (led by John, Thielman and Steffen Kolb as well as Franklin Albrecht and Frederich Hahn) settled in the Niagara Region, close to the Twenty Mile Creek. Another colony was founded by David Hoover on the north shore of Lake Erie in 1792. Abraham Erb who founded Waterloo, was a Mennonite of Swiss ancestry from Pennsylvania. Similarly, Benjamin Eby immigrated to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

in 1806 and purchased a large tract of land in what would later become

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

. By 1871 about 3,000 Swiss had settled in Canada and in the time between 1887 and 1938, a reported additional 8,548 Swiss had moved to Canada. With the passing of the Free Grants and Homestead Act in 1868, large areas of land became available for settlement. In 1973, a group of Swiss immigrants arrived in the Nipissing region, led by Elise von Koerber. Peter Rindisbacher was a Swiss artist who specialized in painting the Western USA and Canada until his death in 1834. Until

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, most Swiss immigrants were farmers who settled in Canada. This changed after

, when several Swiss firms opened offices in Canada, leading to immigration of educated Swiss personnel including engineers, professors and merchants. When farmland became unaffordable in Switzerland in the 1970s, a number of Swiss farmers bought farmland in Canada and settled there. In the 1990s, rising unemployment in Switzerland led to another wave of emigration.

Swiss Canadians by numbers

References

{{Swiss diaspora European diaspora in Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Swiss Canadians by numbers

See also

References