From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Dutch/Herman Ganzevoort
The Dutch community in Canada, unlike many other ethnic groups, seems to lack any significant identity. A former agricultural attaché touring Canada in the 1970s lamented that he had difficulty identifying a distinct community and the only obvious ethnic institutions were the Calvinist churches and the credit unions. Although his description was perhaps somewhat exaggerated, it does point up the fact that the community has increasingly become less visible on Canada’s multicultural horizon. This characteristic can, in large measure, be explained by the fact that Dutch Canadians themselves are apparently not very interested in remaining distinct from mainstream society.
The community is a diverse and heterogeneous one. Members of the first generation attempted to preserve some aspects of their traditional lives, but their children and grandchildren have readily adopted most Canadian values. Only religious preference continues to distinguish some Dutch Canadians from mainstream society. As a result, it is difficult to find any differences between Dutch and other Canadians in terms of the community’s mental and physical health, leisure preferences, consumer behaviour, foods, or the other elements that make up distinct group behaviour. The Calvinists, while maintaining views distinct from many other Canadians, share these beliefs with evangelical Christians generally and are thus part of a larger community.
Since the Dutch, for the most part, have been committed to integration and even assimilation and have been well accepted by Canadian society, they have found little need to identify themselves as a community with unique problems or needs. Certain individuals took leading roles in the early settlements and communities, but these activities disappeared as problems were solved and the goals reached. The early settlers played an important part in all the Dutch communities across the country. Whether they came from settlements in Iowa or Minnesota or learned their skills under Canadian farmers, most were prepared to assist new arrivals. In the post–World War II era, experienced settlers were hired by some of the Protestant churches to work as “fieldmen” and aid in the placement and aftercare of the immigrants. From the 1890s to the 1960s, Dutch-speaking Protestant ministers from the United States helped to establish new churches and communities across Canada. Their ability to speak both English and Dutch made them natural leaders in the difficult process of settlement. Dutch priests played a similar role among Roman Catholic immigrants after 1947.
As the new immigrants gained experience, they became less dependent on clerical leadership. English-language fluency meant that they could speak for themselves in the larger Canadian society. As a nation, the Dutch have always tended to be independent thinkers, and differences of opinion are considered normal and even accommodated. Calvinist immigrants recognized the importance of their ministers’ pronouncements on the spiritual aspects of life, but they did not necessarily agree with them. Religious schisms within the community are a natural outgrowth not only of church tradition but also of the history of the Dutch as a people. Independent thinking, which can sometimes be seen by outsiders and insiders alike as obdurate stubbornness, is a characteristic that has survived immigration and assimilation and can be found among Dutch Canadians of all religious backgrounds.
The great majority of the community belong to the Roman Catholic, United, and Presbyterian churches. These churches have had little interest in encouraging a uniquely Dutch religious expression. The largest ethnic church, the Christian Reformed Church (an offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church), has a membership of 84,685, predominantly of Dutch origin. This and similar churches of the Neo-Calvinist tradition, despite their ethnic make-up, do not wish to be regarded as Dutch institutions and emphasize that they are English-language Canadian churches that seek to serve people of all social and cultural backgrounds. The diversity of religious expression has meant that even the Christian Reformed Church has had to speak from a minority position, and its opinions have had little impact on the larger Dutch community in Canada.
The Neo-Calvinists have developed an alternative educational and social-welfare structure that seeks to meet the needs of their community. Starting in the 1950s, Christian school societies were established across Canada, resulting in a network of parentally controlled Christian day schools, high schools, and colleges. These institutions, along with the churches, serve both the Dutch and Canadian Protestant communities. Social problems such as alcoholism, crime, and poverty have been minimal among the Neo-Calvinists, and the churches have established services in these areas based on a Christian perspective. They have long had access to such institutions in the United States and have succeeded in creating a parallel system in Canada.
Finances presented a severe problem for immigrants as they began to build new lives in the post-war years. They were concerned not only with having enough, but also with how any money was invested. Since the 1890s in the Netherlands, cooperative savings and lending institutions had been developed, often along religious lines. The small savers or borrowers, farmers or urbanites, had sought an alternative to the large banking institutions, which had virtually ignored them. In Canada the immigrants once again found themselves the victims of a disinterested banking system. Cooperative institutions such as the DUCA Community Credit Union of Toronto (founded 1954), organized on religious or non-denominational lines, were developed to meet their needs. Beginning as savings establishments, they expanded, as capital and banking laws allowed, to full-service financial institutions. The language used was Dutch, and loans were provided on the basis of reputation and ability. St Willibrod Credit Union of London, one of the largest in Ontario today, was started by Dutch and Flemish Roman Catholics in 1951. Other credit unions had their beginnings in the Neo-Calvinist community. Whatever their origin, all now serve the larger Canadian community and are monuments to the success of the cooperative movement.
A result of the traditional Dutch independence of thought and diversity of community is that no individual or group can represent the community as a whole. Dutch-Canadian clubs do exist across the country, but they represent only a small and often shrinking part of the group, and there is no national organization to tie them together. Occasionally provincial, federal, or local committees are organized to celebrate some event of significance to Dutch Canadians, but these are temporary groups that disappear after the occasion is over. In 1967 a number of committees were organized to celebrate Canada’s Centennial and the Dutch contribution to the country’s history. Carillons were donated to a number of cities to express the immigrants’ gratitude for the benefits that Canada had provided. In 1970 a committee collected money for an organ for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands. These gifts have expressed a significant and heartfelt sentiment among Dutch Canadians, but they have not led to any deeper expression of group identity.
The Dutch community in Canada is too diverse in nature and opinion and too committed to integration to feel the need for group leadership. Members see themselves as part of the larger Canadian society. They neither desire separate community representation nor do they believe that they require it. Since they hold political opinions across a broad spectrum, they feel well served by the political process and express their views in the public forums. Assimilation is well advanced and accepted, and it is doubtful that the community will ever see a need for group leaders.
