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The Textile Industry in Canada
Canada’s textile industry, now employing one out of every seven persons
in Canadian manufacturing, had its humble beginning about 300 years ago
when Jean Talon, the first Intendent of New France. urged the production
of essential articles within the country. Convinced that domestic industries
would benefit the colonists in times of need, he instructed the early settlers
to produce whatever was necessary to clothe themselves from head to foot.
The early Canadian settler who turned out rugged articles for family use
by hand, using primitive spinning wheels, weaving and knitting frames, and
dyeing kettles, would stand in awe of the equipment installed in many a
Canadian factory today.
With the advent of machinery about 125 years ago, Canada’s modern
textile development really began. The first woollen mill in Upper Canada
was started near Georgetown about 1820, and another mill was established
at L’Acadie, Quebec, in 1826. The first manufacture of cotton in Canada
began at Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1844, and the first known knitting factory
was set up in Belleville, Ontario in 1857. Soon other mills were established
on suitable water power sites around which towns and villages developed.
Through the application of technical skills and modern spinning, weaving,
knitting and dyeing equipment which is the equal of any in the world, fabrics
and articles of utility or beauty are made from a variety of raw materials.
Such basic raw materials include wool, clipped from the sheep’s back full of
natural grease and dirt; cotton, full of seeds, plucked from the cotton plant;
rough flax fibres; pulp wood for rayon; and coal for nylon.
The products of primary textiles touch the essential needs of Canadians
more closely than any other manufactured product. Some of these products
are clothing, bedding, carpets and rugs, window drapes, towels and table
linen. In addition to these, textiles are to be found in motor car upholstery,
automobile tires, insulation of electrical wiring, and even in pianos.
And just as Canadians depend upon textiles for personal and home require-
ments, so also does virtually every industrial plant depend upon some form
of textile for continuing operation, such as twine, cordage, rope, belting, filter
duck and dryer felts, to name only a few.
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