Swedish people in Canada Research Project sponsored by the Lakehead Social History Institute

Fascinating Facts

that the 1991 Census of Canada reported 236,660 people who claimed Swedish descent, most of them living west of Lake Superior?
that more than 175 place names in Canada are of Swedish origin?
that Lord Selkirk's 1812 settlement at Red River included three Swedes?

Research has proven that this oft-quoted statement is not quite true. One

Swede, Jacob Fahlstrom, came in 1811 as an employee of the Hudson's Bay

Company. The other two came from Norway and Ireland.
that the Augustana Synod established the first of Canada's forty-eight Swedish Lutheran congregations at New Stockholm, Saskatchewan, in 1889?

New Stockholm Church. Click HERE to learn more.

that a Swedish-language weekly newspaper was published in Winnipeg from 1892 until 1970?
that you can honour an immigrant by placing his/her name in the forthcoming history book? Visit the Donations Page.
that noted Canadians of Swedish descent include broadcaster Pamela Wallin, Judge Tom Berger who headed the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline inquiry, architect Arthur Erickson who designed Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto and the Canadian Embassy in Washington, and Ralph Gustafson who won the Governor General's Award for poetry in 1974?
that Swedish Press, North America's only Swedish monthly magazine, is edited and printed in Vancouver?
that the first-ever visit of a reigning Swedish monarch to Canada was in 1988, when King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia made an official six-day tour of five Canadian cities - Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Victoria, and Vancouver?
that the most prolific contributor to Audubon was naturalist Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, a Swedish immigrant to northern Ontario?
that a former premier of Alberta (1968-71), Harry Strom, was of Swedish origin?
that some Swedish immigrants on their way to the United States traveled on the Great Western Railway via Windsor, Ontario?
that an immigrant who returned to Sweden during the 1930s, author Sven Delblanc, wrote a frankly autobiographical novel about his family's experiences in Manitoba?
that the hymn "How Great Thou Art" comes from a Swedish folk melody, and that the Swedish words were composed in 1885?