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Conventional approaches to the study of historical geography tend to use aggregate data to create discrete patterns and to formulate generalized explanations of the tumultuous process of frontier settlement and community formation. Life history, through the study of the actions of an individual or a family unit, can provide new insights into the decision-making process and the social tensions that accompanied pioneer settlement and community development on the frontier. The life history of the Mihaychuk family, who emigrated to Canada from Bukovyna, Austria, in 1900, and who eventually settled at Arbakka in the Ukrainian bloc settlement of Stuartburn in southeastern Manitoba, is used as an illustration. The process of chain migration and the economic outlook of the peasant settler is demonstrated. The capricious role of kinship linkages in settlement decision making is clarified and the fluidity of the frontier illustrated. The emerging social and economic mobility of the Canadian-born or Canadianized generation was shown by their dissatisfaction with the opportunities that their parents had sought. Remigration to new areas of frontier settlement was common, as was entry into school teaching as a springboard into the mainstream of Canadian life beyond the Ukrainian community of Stuartburn. Les demarches conventionnelles a l'etude de la geographic historique ont tendance a utiliser les donnees collectives pour creer des modeles distincts, et a formuler des explications generalisees du processus tumultueux de l' eAablissement a la frontiere et ensuite du developpement des communautes. A travers l'etude des actions d' un individu ou d' une famille, l' histoire de la vie peut parvenir a comprendre la maniere de prendre des decisions, ainsi que les tensions sociales qui caracterisaient les etablisse-ments et les communautes des pionniers a la frontiere. l' histoire de la vie de la famille « Mihaychuk » sert d'exemple. Les membres ont emigre au Canada du Bukovyna en Autriche en 1900 et ils se sont installers a Arbakka dans le hameau ukrainien de Stuartburn dans le sud-est de Manitoba. On decrit la procede de la migration en chaine et les previsions economiques des pionniers paysans. L ‘influence capricieuse des liens de parente aux decisions de la communaute se voit clairement; la variabilite des limites de la frontiere est aussi depeinte. La mobilite sociale et economique qui se developpait chez la population natale ou « canadienisee » se manifestait par le mecontentement avec les projets que leurs parents ont poursuivis. La reinstallation des families aux nouvelles regions etait commune, de meme que l'emploi dans le domaine de l' enseignement –ce qui servait de tremplin afin d' entrer au courant principal de la vie canadienne audela de la communaute ukrainienne de Stuartburn

Mormons and Jews established agricultural settlements in western Canada around the turn of the century. Mormon colonization was generally successful, characterized by its great stability. Abandonment of the land by Mormon communities was rare. In contrast, almost all the Jewish settlements failed. Settlers abandoned their land and retreated to the urban centres of the West. A comparative analysis of the two groups suggests that this difference in agricultural stability may not have been a reflection of prior experience, nor was it necessarily attributable to vagaries of the physical environment. Social structures, religious demands, and institutional backing, along with the geographical concentration and inter connectivity of settlements were critical elements in determining success or failure in agriculture colonization. C'est au debut du siecle que les Mormons et les juifs etablirent dans l'Ouest canadien leurs colonies agricoles. La colonisation des Mormons, caracterisee par sa grande stabilite, reussit dans l'ensemble; rares furent les colonies qu'ils abandonnerent. Par contre, presque toutes les colonies juives echouerent; abandonnant leurs terres, les colons se retirerent dans les centres urbains de l'Ouest. Une analyse comparative des deux groupes permet de conchre que leur stabilite agricole relative ne fut pas necessairement fonction de leur experience prealable en agriculture; elle ne fut pas non plus attribuable aux seules contraintes geographiques et clirnatiques. Les structures sociales, les exigences religieuses, l'appui de leurs etablissements en plus de la proximite d'autres colonies et leurs interrelations, tous ces facteurs s'avererent cruciaux pour determiner la reussite ou l'echec de la colonisation agricole.

Resorts on the south basin of Lake Winnipeg serve a significant proportion of the summer cottage market of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Of the larger resorts, Winnipeg Beach and Grand Beach were developed by rival railway companies as popular resorts to exploit the mass excursion market, whereas Victoria Beach was developed by a syndicate intent on creating an exclusive, tranquil cottage retreat. These, and other smaller resorts, were and still are patronized by different market segments identifiable by class, religion, ethnic association, and place of primary residence in Winnipeg.

As a nation linguistically and regionally fragmented, Canada faces unique problems of national unity and identity. The truth of Northrop Frye's observation that ‘Canada has passed from a pre-national to a post-national phase without ever having become a nation’ is illustrated by the trauma of partially sloughing the trappings of colonial status in 1982, 115 years after attaining de facto independence in 1867. National identity in Canada rests precariously on the shoulders of its peoples, for the fabric of national consciousness spun from myths and images is still being woven by its literati, bureaucrats, and politicians. Not only does Canada have a small population and, as Mackenzie King put it, ‘too much geography,’ but the country is bordered by a culturally aggressive and dynamic English-speaking nation outnumbering it by more than ten to one. If English Canadians are to formulate a distinctive cultural identity, to create their own images and myths of place, to come imaginatively into contact with the country, and to answer the fundamental question of ‘Where is Here?,’ they must do so on their own terms, not in a cultural vacuum but in a milieu protected in some measure from the onrush of values, attitudes, and beliefs emanating from beyond the borders of Canada.

The geography and internal structure of Ukrainian block settlements in western Canada illustrate the strength of social ties transferred from the homeland. Settlements were structured according to kinship, village, district, provincial, and national loyalties. In this respect the internal geography of Ukrainian block settlements in Canada replicated that of the western Ukraine in microcosm. Although Settlement within a familiar social- cultural milieu offered many advantages for the immigrant, the ultimate result was not always beneficial, since a determination to pursue social advantage in settlement led to the occupation of much agriculturally marginal land. La geographie et la structure interne des implantations en masse des Ukrainiens dans l' ouest du Canada montrent la force des liens sociaux transmis du pays ? origine. Ces implantations furent structurees en fonction d'affinityes provenant de liens soit de parente ou de loyaute qui existaient a des niveaux diffgrents, tel que dans le village, ou dans le quartier, au meme en province ou dans des coins lointains du pays. A cet egard, la geographie interne de ce type d'implantation au Canada fut la replique en microcosme de celle de l' ouest de l' Ukraine. Bien que l' implantation au sein d'un milieu socio-culturel connu ait offert beaucoup d'avantages a l' immigrant, le resultat final n'a pas toujours etea son avantage, surtout lorsque la determination de maintenir ces liens sociaux mena a l' occupation de nombreuses terres qui etaient faibles en rendements agricoles.