lumbia after the first Gold Rush. Vancouver, the pre-
ferred port of entry for people coming from China
because of its location on the West Coast, housed an
immigrant population of which 57 percent spoke
Chinese in the 1990’s, compared to 28.9 percent in
Toronto and 13.8 in Montreal. South Asians and
blacks were more abundant in the eastern provinces
of Canada. Many Canadians of African descent have
been part of Canada for a very long time, and they
are proportionally more important in Quebec and
the Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Lab-
rador).
During the 1990’s, minority groups were very het-
erogeneous not only in their origins and distribu-
tion within Canada but also in their patterns of inte-
gration. There was a marked increase (25 percent
over the decade) in the number of marriages be-
tween visible minority and nonminority individuals.
Blacks were more likely than any other visible minor-
ity group to intermarry, while Chinese ranked sec-
ond, increasing the number of their mixed mar-
riages during the 1990’s by more than 50 percent.
Impact The influx of visible minorities trans-
formed Canada’s population greatly by increasing
its cultural diversity as well as it multiethnicity. The
history of these immigrant peoples has been, and
will continue to be, an experiment in the production
of a functioning multicultural society as the forces of
integration and those of cultural maintenance and/
or isolation seek to achieve a workable equilibrium
in the lives of all Canadians.
Further Reading
Beaujot, Roderic, and Don Kerr, eds.The Changing
Face of Canada: Essential Readings in Population.To-
ronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 2007. A study of
the Canadian population and the implications of
population changes in sociology, economics, and
geography.
Jones, Beryle Mae. “Multiculturalism and Citizen-
ship: The Status of ‘Visible Minorities’ in Can-
ada.”Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, March 22,
- Examines the Canadian population in the
1990’s, including location, political representa-
tion, languages, and the integration of visible mi-
norities.
Mackey, Eva.The House of Difference: Cultural Politics
and National Identity in Canada. Toronto: Univer-
sity of Toronto Press, 2002. Examines the national
identity of the multiethnically diverse Canadian
population through interviews.
Denyse Lemaire and David KassermanSee also Immigration to Canada; Race relations. Mississippi River flood of 1993
The Event Flooding along the Mississippi River
and its tributaries inundates vast regions of the
Midwest
Date April-October, 1993
Place Particularly Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
and Illinois
The flooding of the Mississippi River and its tributaries was
unprecedented in its scope and duration and ranks as one
of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. histor y.
During the spring and summer of 1993, an abnor-
mal pattern of upper-level and lower-level steering
winds prevented weather systems from following
their normal track across the central plains. Instead,
they followed a more northerly course, generating
a series of persistent storms. The recurrent storms
resulted in heavy rainfalls on soils already saturated
by the wet autumn of the previous year. Record
amounts of precipitation fell across nine states, with
some locations recording up to four feet of rain.
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois were among
the hardest hit states. North Dakota, South Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas, and Wisconsin also were affected.
The rainfall amounts ran 200 to 350 percent of nor-
mal for the impacted regions. Many locations expe-
rienced precipitation for twenty or more days in July
compared to the normal average of eight to nine
days.
The runoff sent streams and rivers spilling over
their banks, as over 1,000 of 1,300 levees failed to
hold back the overflows. However, the larger cities
like St. Louis, where the Mississippi reached a record
crest of 49.47 feet, were protected by massive
floodwalls. The Mississippi remained over flood
stage at St. Louis for nearly two months. Across the
state, the Missouri River crested at Kansas City at a re-
cord 48.9 feet. At one stage, close to 600 river fore-
cast stations, stretching along nearly 150 major
streams and tributaries, were above flood stage. Alto-
gether, over ninety locations set record crests. At one
point, the flooding disabled a major water plantThe Nineties in America Mississippi River flood of 1993 579