---
title: "Last Best West Campaign | History of Canada"
description: "Last Best West Campaign was Canada's Prairie settlement drive, promoting land, farming, and immigration to build Western Canada in the early 1900s."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/history-canada-after-1867/key-terms/last-best-west-campaign"
type: "key-term"
subject: "History of Canada – 1867 to Present"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Last Best West Campaign | History of Canada

## Definition

The Last Best West Campaign was a Canadian government publicity drive to attract settlers to the Prairies. In History of Canada after 1867, it shows how Ottawa used advertising, land policy, and immigration to populate Western Canada.

## What It Is

The Last Best West Campaign was a government-backed immigration campaign meant to bring settlers to the Canadian Prairies, especially in the early 1900s. It sold western Canada as a place where farmland was affordable, land could be claimed, and a person could build a better life through hard work.

In this course, the term usually comes up when you are looking at how Canada tried to turn the West into an agricultural and demographic base. The campaign was part of a wider push during the Laurier era, when the federal government wanted more people on the Prairies and more production from the land. It was not just a slogan, it was a strategy that tied together settlement, transportation, and national development.

The campaign worked by advertising across Canada and abroad. Recruitment agents promoted the Prairies in places like Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia, where governments and families saw Canada as a place with room to grow. Posters and pamphlets emphasized fertile soil, cheap or available land, and the promise of prosperity. That message mattered because the Prairies were still lightly populated by European standards, so the government wanted to speed up settlement.

The phrase itself captured the pitch: the West was being framed as the best remaining opportunity for ordinary people. That wording made the settlement project sound almost inevitable, as if the Prairies were waiting to be claimed and improved. It also reflects how the federal government linked national progress to farming and immigration, not just to cities or industry.

At the same time, the campaign had limits and exclusions. It welcomed many European settlers, but Canada was also tightening barriers against non-European immigration during the same period. So when you see the Last Best West Campaign in a chapter, think both about expansion and about who was encouraged to come, who was discouraged, and how that shaped the population of Western Canada.

## Why It Matters

The Last Best West Campaign matters because it explains how Canada populated the Prairies and why western settlement became such a major nation-building project after Confederation. It helps you connect immigration policy to land use, railway expansion, and agricultural development instead of treating settlement as something that happened naturally.

It also shows how the federal government used persuasion, not just law, to shape migration. Posters, agents, and promises of farmland were part of policy. That makes the campaign useful for understanding how the state tried to direct people where it wanted them to go.

Just as importantly, the term reveals the uneven side of Canadian settlement. The campaign encouraged some immigrants while the broader period included discrimination against others, especially non-European groups. That contrast often shows up in essays and source questions about western expansion, because it lets you compare encouragement, restriction, and the long-term demographic effects of each.

## Connections

### [Clifford Sifton](/history-canada-after-1867/key-terms/clifford-sifton)

Sifton was the Minister of the Interior who pushed aggressive immigration and settlement policy for the West. If a question mentions the campaign, Sifton is often the person behind the strategy and the style of recruitment. He wanted hardworking farmers, especially from Europe, to settle and farm the Prairies quickly.

### Homesteading

Homesteading is the land settlement system that made the campaign persuasive. The government could advertise land because settlers were being offered a practical path to ownership. When you connect the two, you can explain how policy and promotion worked together to turn empty or underused land into farms and towns.

### Canadian Pacific Railway

The railway helped make the campaign believable because settlers needed transport, goods, and access to markets. Without rail lines, Prairie farming would have been much harder to sustain. In a history question, the railway often appears as the infrastructure side of the same western expansion story.

### Immigration Policy

The Last Best West Campaign is one example of immigration policy in action. It shows that immigration was not only about admitting people, it was also about choosing where they would settle and what kind of population Canada wanted to build. That makes it useful for comparing welcoming policy with restrictive policy.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question or short essay might ask you to explain why settlement of the Prairies accelerated in the Laurier era. That is where you bring in the Last Best West Campaign as evidence of government promotion, not just land availability. You can describe the posters, foreign recruitment, and the promise of cheap farmland, then connect those ideas to population growth in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.

In source analysis, you might be shown an immigration poster and asked what message it sends. Look for words or images that promise prosperity, farming success, or a fresh start, since those are classic signs of the campaign. In a comparison question, you can also pair it with restrictive policies from the same period to show that Canada was selective about who it wanted in the West.

## Key Takeaways

- The Last Best West Campaign was a Canadian government effort to attract settlers to the Prairies in the early 1900s.
- It promoted the West as a place of affordable land, fertile soil, and farming opportunity.
- The campaign was part of a larger nation-building push tied to immigration, settlement, and agricultural development.
- It brought more settlers to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, but it did not treat all immigrant groups equally.
- In history questions, it is easiest to use as evidence that the Canadian state actively shaped western settlement.

## FAQs

### What is the Last Best West Campaign in History of Canada?

It was a federal campaign to attract settlers to the Canadian Prairies by advertising land, farming potential, and a better life. In the History of Canada after 1867 course, it shows how the government tried to build the West through immigration and settlement policy.

### Why was the Last Best West Campaign created?

Canada wanted to populate the Prairies quickly and turn them into productive farmland. The campaign was designed to bring in settlers, especially European farmers, so the West would develop economically and support national growth.

### How did the Last Best West Campaign work?

The government sent recruitment agents abroad and used promotional materials to sell the Prairies as a place of opportunity. It highlighted cheap land, fertile soil, and the chance for prosperity, which made settlement look appealing to potential immigrants.

### Is the Last Best West Campaign the same as homesteading?

Not exactly. Homesteading was the land policy that let settlers claim land under certain conditions, while the Last Best West Campaign was the publicity effort that encouraged people to come. They worked together, but one was a policy and the other was promotion.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.2 Immigration and Settlement of the West](/history-canada-after-1867/unit-4/immigration-settlement-west/study-guide/TLRunPGXWK4knU8O)

## About This Document

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