Macedonian Bulgarians in Canada

Ethnical groups from other European countries came to Canada almost simultaneously with the English and French settlers. In 1870 thousands of Europeans settled in the western prairies.

Later on, some Bulgarians who had left their native country compelled by the difficult conditions and the centuries-long Turkish yoke also went there. The number of Bulgarian emigrants to Canada increased after the Ilinden Uprising, towards the end of the Balkan Wars and after the end of World War I. Those were both people who had lived within the Bulgarian borders and compact masses of population from Vardar and Aegean Macedonia.

Most of Bulgarian emigrants to Canada left their mother country because of the difficult economic situation and because they were attracted by the opportunities for a better life. Many of our compatriots arrived in Canada with the sole intention of earning quick money and then returning to their native lands. Therefore, most of them lived in Canada only temporarily.

Between the two World Wars the flow of emigrants from Bulgaria to Canada was rather variable. Larger groups were registered in the 1923-1930 period mainly because of the poor economic status of the country. A part of Bulgarian emigrants came to Canada through the United States.

After the establishing of communist dictatorship in Bulgaria in September 1944 and the communist terror that followed during the next several years, some of our compatriots left the motherland for political reasons and part of them settled in Canada. This category also included Bulgarians who had left their places of birth before or during the war to study or work in various European countries and after the end of World War II went to Canada.

Although Bulgarian governments till 1944 made attempts at regulating the flow of emigrants towards North America by enforcing laws and regulations, all their efforts were unavailing.

The communist totalitarian regime which was enforced onto the country as a matter of fact prohibited legal emigration. Nevertheless, many sons and daughters of Bulgarian were driven away by the dictatorship and were compelled to leave the country without legal permission and take on the hard lot of emigrants in Canada.

The first Bulgarian emigrants to Canada took part in the intensive railroad construction that was developing at that time. Our compatriots worked on the preparation of the railroad-beds, the blowing up of rock massifs, boring through of tunnels, bridge building, etc. Since these were not safe activities, many of the workers became disabled. Other Bulgarians earned their living as coal miners, woodcutters in forest exploitation, workers in slaughterhouses and factories, construction workers, waiters, etc. Since they were not educated they were used predominantly for unskilled and semi-skilled labour. They were the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Almost all of them suffered the hard lot of the unemployed.

Those pioneer emigrants used to work 16 hours a day, often for a crust of bread and a bowl of soup. They lived in cabins and caravans under difficult and unhealthy conditions. Sometimes lodgings for seven persons housed up to thirty people.

At the price of unconceivable efforts and tremendous privation some of the Bulgarians in Canada managed to put some money aside and start their own businesses: they became grocers, cafe-keepers, bakers, pastry shop owners, hotel-keepers, restaurant owners, merchants, etc. Having stabilized economically, they called for their relatives from the native lands and up the idea of going back home. In this way, the initial purpose of Bulgarians who went abroad to make a living gave way to their permanent settling in the new lands. This, in its turn, raised the necessity for organized cultural activities.

The organizations, unions, societies, associations, and clubs of Bulgarians living in Canada played an important part in their sociopolitical, economic and cultural life. The integration on the larger part of these people into the life of their new country was enhanced mainly by patriotic motives.

Bulgarian emigrants' organizations, friendly societies and different associations in Canada carried out various activities. Some of them assisted the adapting of Bulgarian emigrants to the local way of life and their integrating into the new society. Others tried to keep up the national traditions and customs and popularize them among our compatriots by organizing festivities, dance parties, celebrations, lectures, etc.
Bulgarians living in Canada preserved the original character of their national customs and feasts, the architecture of their houses and certain elements of the house interior. Their national folk costumes corresponded fully to the Bulgarian tradition which continued to live in such genres of applied arts as handiwork, pottery, etc. The national cuisine dishes were very popular and food preferences were among the main strongholds of cultural identity.

Bulgarian emigrants in Canada preserved and developed the national amateur arts—dramatic, musical, choir, dancing. They organized their own ensembles, choirs and orchestras and took part in musical festivals, carnivals, etc. Our compatriots made an indisputable contribution to the development of some musical, choreographic, painting and applied arts in Canada.

The author discusses the activities of Bulgarian emigrants' political parties and organization in this remote country. He also considers me emigrants' organizations of anti-Bulgarian character.

The majority of organizations developed by the Bulgarian community in Canada published their own printed materials which broadened the notion of their social and cultural life. The printrun of these publications was not high and they were not issued regularly. They were supported financially mainly by the members of the respective organizations through voluntary donations and offerings, the exception being only a few communist editions whose editors-in-chief received financial support through secret channels with the assistance of the local Bulgarian agencies, in cases of high unemployment rate among the wide masses of Bulgarian emigrants their papers ceased to be published.

Along with some general problems, these editions treated for the most part the life and activities of the members of the organization which published them, or of the related ethnical group or community. Bulgarian congregations in Canada supported churches, priests, organized Bulgarian language schools and paid for the teachers. The main reasons for the establishing of Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox churches in Canada were the preserving on the part of Bulgarian emigrants the Orthodox faith, their national affiliation, the centuries-old traditions and customs, as well as their desire to keep and study their native Bulgarian language. The broad activities of public utility prevented the assimilation process to which our compatriots were subjected and played the role of integrating and ethnic-differentiating factors.

With the purpose of keeping and asserting the national Bulgarian spirit, language and faith of both the older Bulgarians and their generations, a Bulgarian school was opened in Canada as early as 1914. It is considered to be the first Bulgarian language school in the New World ever opened by Bulgarian emigrants. Young Bulgarians studied there Bulgarian language, Bulgarian history and geography and were educated in the lines of Bulgarian national awareness and patriotism. Later on, in the early 1930's, the school subjects were enriched by religion and singing classes. The school year usually began in the autumn months and ended by May 24th or July 1st with a kind of examination in the presence of the parents and all interested. Very often teachers in Bulgarian schools did not have the necessary qualifications. They made their living in other ways. Most often they served as priests in the local Bulgarian churches.

Broadcasting in Bulgarian language from Toronto was performed to maintain the national consciousness and to spread information about the mother country, about the life of Bulgarian emigrants in Canada. At first it was broadcast every Saturday and provided our compatriots with information about trade, social and other events. The beginning of these feature programmes was laid as early as the 1950's. They were of historic, musical and literary character.

Since November 15th 1978, a children's hour began to be broadcast every Wednesday in the Bulgarian radio programme in Toronto. Nowhere else around the world where Bulgarian emigrants lived was there such a children's hour at that time. This programme was welcomed by both the young listeners and their parents. In broadcast dramatized Bulgarian fairy tales and children's songs.

In the evening of September 8th 1979 the first Bulgarian TV programme in Toronto was shown. It provoked great interest among Bulgarian emigrants in Canada.

A typical feature of the Bulgarian community in Canada was the difference in the economic welfare between the older emigrants and those who settled in Canada after the end of World War II. Most of the old Bulgarian emigrants who came to Canada to earn their living were usually people without education who made their living through hard and unskilled labour.

The new Bulgarian emigrants were better educated and managed to adapt more easily to the Canadian reality. Thus they had the chance to achieve a better economic and social status among the medium and higher stratus of Canadian society.

The contemporary generation of Bulgarian descendants in Canada had, to a great extent, lost their knowledge of the language of their predecessors, as well as some of their Bulgarian ethnicity. A reaction on the part of those young people to that phenomenon, however, was the interest that aroused of late in Bulgarian musical folklore and folk dances containing Bulgarian original national elements.

When the first Bulgarian emigrants to Canada decided to settle there for permanent, they did their best to build themselves nice houses, to make their life as comfortable as possible, to provide certain goods for their children whom they wanted to live a better life and feel like free people. Their story is an epic of many sufferings and hopes, but at the same time it is an epic of a heroic labour and unconceivable efforts, as well as of certain undisputable achievements.

Although Bulgarian emigrants to Canada constituted one of the smallest ethnic groups, and despite the hardships and privations they had to suffer in order to survive in new country, they managed to assert themselves among the foreign and much more numerous ethnic groups and to give their contribution, which was not insignificant, to the socio-political, economic and cultural development of Canada.