Welland Ontario’s Springfield Plan: Post-War Canadian Citizenship Training, American Style?

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After World War II, minority activists and their Anglo-Canadian allies convinced the Ontario Ministry of Education to bring the Springfield Plan to Welland, Ontario, as a pilot project to combat racist and religious prejudice through the public school system. Pioneered in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Plan taught children the importance of tolerance by stressing that minority groups had made important contributions to the local community, the nation, and the world beyond. In Welland, however, the Plan only lasted for a few years because many influential Canadians failed to recognize the pervasiveness of discrimination, while non-British immigrants tended to see new industrial unions as better vehicles for claiming their rights. In addition, the Plan was unsuited to the understanding of Canada as a “bi-racial” country founded by the English and French.