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Ukrainians Crossing The Great Divide

by G.S. MacLeod

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about

Ukrainians first came to Canada in the 19th century. The first major immigration (170,000 rural poor, primarily from Galicia and Bukovina) occurred between 1891 and 1914. Ivan Pylypow and Wasyl Eleniak, who arrived in 1891, are generally considered the first two Ukrainian immigrants to Canada. Immigration grew substantially after 1896 as Canada promoted the immigration of farmers from Eastern Europe. The initial influx came as the Canadian government promoted the immigration of farmers (see Agriculture in Canada). During the First World War, thousands of Ukrainian Canadians were imprisoned as enemy aliens due to their origins in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to 2016 census, Ukrainian Canadians number 1,359,655 or 3.8 per cent of the country's population and are mainly Canadian-born citizens. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire ruled 80 per cent of Ukraine; the rest lay in the Austro-Hungarian provinces of Galicia, Bukovina and Transcarpathia. As serfs in Austria-Hungary until 1848 and in the Russian Empire until 1861, Ukrainians suffered from economic and national oppression. When attempts to establish an independent Ukrainian state from 1917 to 1921 collapsed, the greater portion of Ukraine became a republic in the USSR, while Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia divided the remainder. Following the Second World War the western Ukrainian territories were annexed by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent state. Canada was the first western country to recognize Ukraine and has maintained strong ?bilateral ties with it ever since. During Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004, Canada sent a group of election observers into the field. On several occasions since the Russian incursion in 2014, Canada has demanded that Russia withdraw its soldiers from Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainians constitute, after the Russians, the largest Slavic nation in Europe.

www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ukrainian-canadians

lyrics

Ukrainians Crossing The Great Divide
Words and Music by G.S. MacLeod

You left Ukraine because of a promise in an add
Offering you free Prairie land
Two free tickets, to the Dominion of Canada

CHORUS
Pack what you need,
Because tomorrow
You and I
Will cross the Great Divide

Our ship pushed off, when the sun fell across your face
I hope to build you a house where once again, you’ll make place
Our children will run the farm and we will grow old with song

CHORUS

BRIDGE
It’s never what it should be
We’ll stay to break the land
Stand by each other and do the best we can

CHORUS

solo

You and I…. 4X

credits

released April 16, 2023
OFFICIAL VIDEO youtu.be/YbLQIo99So0

Lyrics and music by G. Scott MacLeod
Recording engineer William Le Gallee
Vocals and acoustic guitar G. Scott MacLeod
Back up vocals by Hannah Lewis
Violin and guitar Jonathan Moorman
Bass Ben Harnden Appel

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G.S. MacLeod Montreal, Québec

G. S. MacLeod is a descendent of Hiberno-Norse immigrants, he grew up in Montreal's multicultural community where he was exposed to blues, rock, jazz, folk, Celtic, punk and world music. MacLeod has written skillfully woven a lyrical tapestry in French and English to create an original Canadian storytelling voice from the pedigrees of ‘Rambling’ Jack Elliot, Gordon Downie and Daniel Lanois. ... more

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