Canada's Immigration From 1852-1990 In 1852 many of Canada's immigrants were from Europe countries but many of these were being lost to the United states. This meant that the province of Canada was mostly French Canadians, this began the immigration promotion program in 1850s. In the 1840s the main problem was lack of control over the immigrants now the problem was getting immigrant particularly British ones to start small farms. Over the next 30 years John A. MacDonald did little to attract new immigrants to Canada. In about 1879 a new immigration law was passed that was designed to keep out paupers and desti