Polish Canadians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1,010,705 (by ancestry, 2011 Census)) |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Ontario, Western Canada, Atlantic Canada, Quebec | |
| Languages | |
| Polish · Canadian English · Canadian French | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Roman Catholicism · Protestantism · Orthodox Christian) · Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Polonia · West Slavs · Polish Americans · Poles |
Polish Canadians are citizens of Canada with Polish ancestry, and Poles who immigrated to Canada from abroad. According to the 2011 Census by Statistics Canada, there were 1,010,705 Canadians who claimed full or partial Polish ancestry, an increase compared to the 984,585 recorded in 2001.
The first Polish immigrant on record, Dominik Barcz, came to Canada in 1752. He was a fur merchant from Gdańsk who settled in Montreal. He was followed in 1757 by Charles Blaskowicz, a deputy surveyor-general of lands. In 1776 arrived army surgeon, August Franz Globensky. His grandson, Charles Auguste Maximilien Globensky, was elected to the House of Commons in Ottawa in 1875.
Among the earliest Polish immigrants to Canada were members of the Watt and De Meuron military regiments from Saxony and Switzerland sent overseas to help the British Army in North America. Several were émigrés from Poland who took part in the November Uprising of 1830 and the 1863 insurrection against the Russian occupation of their own homeland.
In 1841, Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski arrived in Canada from the partitioned Poland via the US, and for 50 years worked in the engineering, military and community sectors in Toronto and Southern Ontario, for which he was knighted by Queen Victoria. His great-grandson, Peter Gzowski, became one of Canada's famous radio personalities.
Charles Horecki immigrated in 1872. He was an engineer with the cross-Canada railway construction from Edmonton to the Pacific Ocean through the Peace River Valley. Today, a mountain and a body of water in British Columbia are named after him.
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Wikipedia