Promotional Immigration Literature and Ephemera

New immigrants to Canada, including the Shepherds, were lured to this foreign land by pamphlets advertising Canada as a welcoming, hospitable place of opportunity and prosperity:
 

Sir Clifford Sifton, while Minister of the Interior in Laurier’s Cabinet, from 1896 to 1905, had established immigration offices in many European capitals and information agencies in other centres. Promotional literature, in the language of the prospective immigrant, extolled the marvels of the West. Subsidized fares and well-established transport routines made emigration feasible, even for those – a of little means. Canadian officials at home and abroad expedited the gathering, transporting, and settling of thousands who sought homesteads on the prairies. (Archer, 7)
 

William and his son George “came to Canada on colonist fares as part of [the] mainstream immigration” (7). For some, the narratives pushed by the promotional literature proved to be, at best, a disappointment or, at its worst, a dangerous and fatal illusion. Stoney soil, harsh winters, and isolation, among other trials, challenged immigrants eager to build a new life in this promised land.

Source:
John H. Archer in George Shepherd's West of Yesterday (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966)