Migration to Canada

In 1868 sweeping cuts were made to the Dockyard workforce in Portsmouth. Great suffering was seen as a result with several hundred families giving up on the town and migrating to Canada. The 1867 Reform Act had empowered Dockyardmen with the vote. The subsequent election in 1868 was used to register the strong local discontent with the ruling Liberal Government who had inflicted such pain, which remain etched on the memory of a whole generation.